The Manuscripts - Drop in the Ocean – Circumstance

The Manuscripts

Russ Parker is driving, on his way to a conference approximately 225 miles from his home. Russ is a businessman, and kind of an odd businessman at that, If you talk to some of the people who live in and around Fillmore Ohio. Russ owns two businesses there inside one building, with separate fronts and entrances on opposite sides. It’s one of the tallest buildings in Fillmore, right near the center of town.

On one side of the building, one will enter Parker Publications, and on the other side, Parker Investigations. Parker Publications specializes in old, rare and valuable works, but also has ties to the world of strange works and the occult. Parker Investigations is where Russ works as a private investigator, investigating high-paying cases which bring in enough to keep both businesses afloat.

Russ is also clairvoyant; a discovery which came to him at the age of ten, when he found that he sometimes knew what someone was going to say, before they said it. Sometimes he would speak the words before the other person would, and they’d say things like, “You took the words right out of my mouth,” as they were stunned by it. It’s come in handy in helping to solve some investigations.

Russ is a rather large man at 6’ 5”, with the beginnings of a beer-gut forming. Twelve years earlier, he’d almost made it into professional football, but suffered a career-ending injury in the next to last game of his senior year in college. He’d recall, every now and then, the weeks leading up to the injury. He’d gotten calls, letters, and visits from team scouts and GMs who really wanted to draft him on draft day. The fact that his pro career was then snatched from him in an instant still bothers him.

The conference which Russ will attend has to do with a major blip in the accepted history of the written word. Specifically, in this case, many of the words found in a trove of ancient manuscripts are inexplicably written in modern English. Mocked by social media types on the internet and TV news reporters as sure phonies when first announced, the manuscripts have since been confirmed to be from a period between 2,000 and 3,000 B.C.E. The words in these manuscripts are being kept top secret, however.

World governments, trying as hard as they can to “protect us,” have decided that the information discovered must be “studied” before it can be released to the public. “Without proper context, the release of the words written in the manuscripts could cause confusion and misunderstanding,” the lead archaeologist for the project, Sergei Andrichuck, warned. The problem is, he’d said that nearly two years earlier.

Those who put the conference together, claim that they’ll have a female archaeologist speaking, who spent a short time working with the team of archaeologists who are now “studying” the English words in the manuscripts. Russ kind of doubts the veracity of the claim, and thinks the lady may just be out to make a quick buck before being declared a fraud. The slim chance that she could be real however, compels him to attend.

How could modern English possibly end up in an ancient relic?

Most people think the manuscripts are proof of future time travelers visiting the ancients. In public polls, this theory is always found to be more popular than every other suggestion by far. The fact that it’s the only logical explanation, sadly doesn’t convince everyone.

For example, one group that calls itself “It’s US,” claims that we and the universe are in a recycling pattern that repeats itself over and over. Russ interviewed an It’s US member once and later described the conversation. He deemed it as being similar to how he imagines a conversation with a follower of the infamous leader of The People’s Temple, Jim Jones might have been, prior to Jones’ order for the mass suicide of those very followers.

Most people also theorize the information is being censored because the words represent a warning to the people of Earth, and that the governments fear losing power if the words are released. Some science professionals, used to receiving big payouts for conducting government-guided research projects, have turned activist, and organize marches with protesters carrying “Reveal The WORDS” signs and banners in many major cities worldwide, each weekend.

Surprisingly, the groups that claim to be pro-human rights, seem to have also taken the “we must be careful” narrative of the world governments to heart, offering the explanation that human rights could be at risk if the words are released, suggesting the words could be negatively critical of certain native peoples, while glorifying others.

Inevitably, it also seems every religious group has an answer for the words. Some attempt to “foresee” what the words mean, regardless of what they might really say when revealed. Others say it’s a sign, while still others speak their theories that the words will “justify” them in some way or other. Shrewd, religious-type salesmen on TV tell their viewers it’s a sign for them to send in a most generous “gift.”

Suddenly, Russ hears a bang as a tire blows. He pulls off, onto the side of the road near a large estate. He still has about 60 miles to go to arrive at the Hotel where he booked a room, and where the conference will be held the next evening. It’s quite warm and sunny, but soon, the tire is replaced by the spare, and a sweaty Russ hopes the little doughnut can make it the remainder of the way. It does.

After arriving at the hotel, checking into his room and taking a quick shower, Russ decides to go for a walk to stretch his legs. Checking out the grounds of the hotel, it appears to him that the property is well-maintained. He finds the early evening air to be invigorating, and when he spots the hotel lounge, he decides it’s time for a drink. He chooses a seat at the bar a couple of stools away from an attractive brunette, who seems like she might be alone.

“What’ll it be?” the bartender asks.

I’ll have your best craft pilsner.

“Sure thing, my man” and like a flash the beer is in front of Russ. He takes a swig while checking out the lady, and then starts a conversation, asking her if; by any chance, she’s there for the conference tomorrow evening.

“I’m actually the guest speaker for the conference tomorrow evening,” she said with a sneering kind of smile.

Wait – you’re the lady archaeologist?

“Yes.”

I swear I’m not a reporter or anything like that, so can you tell me anything on what you know about the words?

“I’m not a reporter either, but if I told you, I’d have to kill you,” she said, with a much warmer smile.

Her name is Angela, but as the two sit there together, talking, laughing; each enjoying the rapport, she simply won’t give Russ any insider information on what she knows.

“I told you, you’ll have to wait for the conference!”

Russ then tried a pressuring tactic. “Ah you don’t really know anything; that’s why you won’t tell me,” he teased.

She didn’t care for Russ’ lame approach, and got up to leave. “If you want to find out if I know anything, be at the conference,” she said, walking off.

The bartender came over to the slightly intoxicated Russ and said, “Man you sure screwed that up didn’t ya?” What’d you say to her anyway?

She got a little peeved because I was testing her.

“You were testing her? Testing her for what?”

She knows about the words. She’s an archaeologist that may have actually seen them.

“Who - Angie? I think you had too much pal. Angie’s no whatever you said she was. She’s a hooker. She’s in here every night just trying to pick up some business. She looked like she just didn’t like you for some reason, man”

Russ is surprised and sort of feels like a victim of circumstance, but he’s not disappointed. He might find something out about the words tomorrow, after all, from the real lady archaeologist.

While Russ sleeps that night, he has a dream. In the dream, he’s changing the tire on the car, as he had actually done earlier in the day. In the dream, however, he looks up and sees a man walking through a field of wheat toward him. He is well-dressed and walks with a strange gait, and Russ can see him increasingly clearer as each step brings him closer.

His expression is grim and dogged. He walks right through Russ, and when Russ turns around to see where the man goes, he realizes that he has become the walking man, walking back to the past. Upon waking, Russ remembers the dream vividly. He recalls reading an old book on dream interpretations, and specifically, what dreams related to movement through time, represent.

One can find many theories about the causes and meanings of dreams related to time-travel on the internet, but Russ knows the old book’s answer is the right one, and that is, dreams of time-travel actually are time-travel, but on another level of reality. He interprets his dream to mean that he, personally, is directly involved with the manuscripts and their creation in some way, even though their origins are deep in the past.

That evening, as Russ enters the conference room, he is very surprised to see the same lady, Angela, who he’d met the night before in the lounge. He has no idea why a hooker would be at this conference, unless she is attempting to actually go through with faking her identity as the archaeologist. He notices that her hair looks a little different, but he’s convinced it’s definitely the same lady.

He walks over to where she’s standing as she speaks to someone, and moves in behind her. When she turns around, Russ is in her face, smiling at her.

Remember me?

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid not.” As she turns to go around him, Russ steps in the same direction to continue blocking her.

Come on Angie. Why don’t you just tell everyone what you really do?

“I beg your pardon sir, but I have never met you at any point in my life, and if you don’t get out of my way I’m going to call for security.” Russ then realizes, it isn’t Angie. He can see it in her eyes now. This lady is someone he has never seen before. He then attempts to apologize but she wants none of it, and warns him once again to move aside.

With still about twenty minutes to go before the conference begins, Russ decides to walk over to the lounge to speak to the bartender about the previous evening. As he walks toward the area he recalls as the lounge’s location, he finds he’s either lost or has gone the wrong way, because he now cannot find the lounge. Confused, he walks to and enters the hotel’s main entrance and asks for directions to the lounge at the front desk.

“Sir, the hotel lounge has been closed for more than five years, when it was replaced by our spa facility. Perhaps you’re confusing us with one of our other hotel locations that you’ve recently stayed in at some point in your travels.”

Russ is now convinced that someone has set up an elaborate charade to throw him off; but why? And how did anyone know that he was attending the conference when he had told no one of his plans prior to leaving Fillmore? He is adamant that he will dig until he breaks the mystery wide open.

When he returns to the conference, the lady he mistook for Angie from the lounge, has just been introduced, and is coming onto the stage to speak. Ironically, her name is also Angela.

_{The Manuscripts © free-reign 2019}

Night Drive: Image by Santiago Estela from Pixabay
Scroll: Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Large Estate: Image by Falkenpost from Pixabay
Lady At Bar: Image by Concord90 from Pixabay
Front Desk: Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay

Source of photos unless otherwise identified