A Package Arrives
For two days, it seemed as if the brief aberration in my routine during the weekend was behind me. No more strange dreams, no more bouts of paranoia, and no more thoughts of Theresa. The ordinary, mundane stresses of my life took center stage once again; The deadline for a video project at work (a tribute program for a retiring college president) is beginning to loom ever closer, and I still have volumes of archival footage to scour through. And so that is how I spent my day.
However, the normalcy of my day ended once I returned home. Leaning against my front door was a medium-sized postal box. There was no return address, but the section addressed to me was clearly in Theresa's handwriting. For reasons I still do not understand, I had a sudden, irrational urge to quickly toss the package away unopened. I never behaved so childishly or cowardly before when I used to associate with Theresa years ago, so I have no explanation as to why these unsettling impulses have gripped me so much since her call last Saturday night.
Once inside, I opened the package, and an old book fell out, the corner landed directly on my left big toe. Cursing to myself, I picked up the book and put it on the table in front of me. I looked through the rest of the packing materials to see if there was a letter included but nothing - only the old, musty book.
I skimmed the first few pages of the book. I could not make sense of the writing at all. It was a script that I have never seen before. I will be the first to admit that I am no linguistic expert, but I am familiar with various alphabets and character sets from both foreign and ancient languages - I have been exposed to several cultures from all the stock and archival footage I've had to search through over the past few years working at a video production house.
But one thing I knew for sure - This book was either a religious or an occult tome of some sort. Theresa (full name Theresa Kirchner) is (or at least, was) a researcher and lecturer on rare and unusual religions, strange occult practices, and paranormal research. Interestingly enough, she was completely skeptical on the subjects that she lectured. Although more of an agnostic than an atheist, she never performed or believed in any of the topics she researched. She was more of a historian or a documenter on these esoteric subjects - At one point, we even discussed creating a documentary on some of what she discovered.
But as for now, it is me, all alone, flipping through a cryptic book with rather artful illustrations throughout: Lots of strange, intricate geometric shapes, depictions of overlapping galaxies, and mirrored images of humanoid portraits.
As I turned a page, I saw scribbled in Theresa's handwriting, "EXPONENTIAL DIVISION - AWARENESS FOLLOWS," in large letters.
Suddenly, the phone rang. It was another hangup call - The first one since Monday. I could now sense my paranoia returning, so I put the book back in its packaging and placed it in an old storage chest in the spare bedroom.
I don't have time for this silliness now. It's nearly 7:30pm, and I still need to do laundry before going to bed.
However, the normalcy of my day ended once I returned home. Leaning against my front door was a medium-sized postal box. There was no return address, but the section addressed to me was clearly in Theresa's handwriting. For reasons I still do not understand, I had a sudden, irrational urge to quickly toss the package away unopened. I never behaved so childishly or cowardly before when I used to associate with Theresa years ago, so I have no explanation as to why these unsettling impulses have gripped me so much since her call last Saturday night.
Once inside, I opened the package, and an old book fell out, the corner landed directly on my left big toe. Cursing to myself, I picked up the book and put it on the table in front of me. I looked through the rest of the packing materials to see if there was a letter included but nothing - only the old, musty book.
I skimmed the first few pages of the book. I could not make sense of the writing at all. It was a script that I have never seen before. I will be the first to admit that I am no linguistic expert, but I am familiar with various alphabets and character sets from both foreign and ancient languages - I have been exposed to several cultures from all the stock and archival footage I've had to search through over the past few years working at a video production house.
But one thing I knew for sure - This book was either a religious or an occult tome of some sort. Theresa (full name Theresa Kirchner) is (or at least, was) a researcher and lecturer on rare and unusual religions, strange occult practices, and paranormal research. Interestingly enough, she was completely skeptical on the subjects that she lectured. Although more of an agnostic than an atheist, she never performed or believed in any of the topics she researched. She was more of a historian or a documenter on these esoteric subjects - At one point, we even discussed creating a documentary on some of what she discovered.
But as for now, it is me, all alone, flipping through a cryptic book with rather artful illustrations throughout: Lots of strange, intricate geometric shapes, depictions of overlapping galaxies, and mirrored images of humanoid portraits.
As I turned a page, I saw scribbled in Theresa's handwriting, "EXPONENTIAL DIVISION - AWARENESS FOLLOWS," in large letters.
Suddenly, the phone rang. It was another hangup call - The first one since Monday. I could now sense my paranoia returning, so I put the book back in its packaging and placed it in an old storage chest in the spare bedroom.
I don't have time for this silliness now. It's nearly 7:30pm, and I still need to do laundry before going to bed.
posted by Drake at 6:25 PM
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