Ray Burn: Portal to the Parallel World (Chapter 1)

 

It was the beautiful chamber of the parapsychology specialist, Sophie June. A soothingly calm and quiet atmosphere all around with an aura of peace and tranquility in the downtown of the small and thinly populated county at the foothills of a densely forested mountain. An indoor plant with beautiful and colorful leaves was placed at the top of a shelf of a corner window. Ray hadn’t seen the kind of plant before. But, the wall painting hanging in the wall facing him was something really special. Purely magical note in a very common imagery. A green seashore and a calm blue ocean with gentle waves painted beautifully with an irresistible invitation of the nature. A gentle warm light was peeping in inside the rectangular shaped chamber through a light colored curtain. A bookshelf full of books featuring mainly the travelogues, thrillers, romances and poetry collections- all together can easily trigger the wings of imagination letting your soul fly along the waves of the winds into an another world.

‘So, Mr. Ray Burn, you always see the vision of an island with your twin babies playing around you, and you are sure that those visual effects settling in deep down your heart are not just the other dreams?’

‘No. Not always. Twice in the last two weeks. And I feel them as real as I am sitting inside this room; as real as I am taking breathes while giving a look at the collections of your books one with an adventurous mind would love to be locked in with. As real as the logical conclusion that I have construed from the photo frames over the desk, from the coffee machine, from the KFC packet in the bin and from the air in the room that you are single, living alone in the back room with a door carefully concealed behind the book shelf. And you are a little worried right now and I have nothing to do with it.’

Sophie got startled with a quick look at the wall-height bookshelf. She was a little baffled figuring out the problem of her new client who seems to be an absolutely okay person with a sound mental health in a visibly muscular and well-shaped physique. With the height of a couple of inches above six, blue eyes with a calm and killer look, chiseled noose with a high cheekbone, he could be easily taken as a handsome young man in his early thirties, if you can just keep aside the noticeable scar in the neck, sign of a deep cut above the wrist of the left hand and the bruises a little above the right eye. A little longer than the crew-cut hair style and a face remained unshaved for one long day made him look a little weird in his personality.

‘So, you were in the army and probably in the military intelligence’, she asked to his strange client while giving an anxious look through the front window unconsciously. 

The strange client by far has talked about his name and the problem without any details about his identity. A man in action always prefer to get things straight and simple without wasting any time to talk about things seem unnecessary.

Ray could smell the freshly brewed coffee from the percolator machine, a good-looking old one, visibly well maintained by its user. It appears to him that the parapsychologist was a coffee person too like him. He never talks too much and never tries to resist himself from giving a careful look over the things happening around him. An age old habit.  

‘Yes, I was in the military police. Two years seem to be a long time ago for me. After two terms in Afghanistan, one in Iraq, investigating lots of allegations, crimes, murders in the army bases, I stepped out as a voluntary retirement. Last rank was Major. Nothing much to tell about,’ Ray said.

‘Okay, nice to meet you Mr. Ray Burn. But to deal with the kind of problems like that of yours, I really need to dig it down. Could you please tell me about the details of the cat part from your vision? Why do you possibly think that the cat has got something to do with your vision?’ Sophie asked him while placing a mug of coffee before him.

Ray felt good with the look and the smell of the coffee. He always like to have it raw; thick and strong, without milk, sugar or cream.

‘You didn’t follow me well, I think. It was never a vision. Well, I have never been a pet loving guy. Never had one in my entire life. It is a big cat. Seems to be a well-bred one. Mainly black and brown and a little yellowish. It never jumps onto my lap or in my bed and always stays careful to maintain a respectable distance. I share my meals with it and it seems to be okay with it as long as it stays.’

‘So, it doesn’t always stay with you. Where do you think it stays?’

‘No idea. It suddenly disappears, mainly at night. I don’t see any trace of it in the morning other than the bones left in its plate in the kitchen. But I was wondering why you are looking scared of the guys on the street? You anxious look keeps following them through the window blinder. It’s the fifth time your attention derailed since I entered this chamber.’

‘Oh, sorry. I am a little worried actually to deal with something personal. It’s just nothing. I think you are here to discuss about your problem; not mine.’

‘I have never been fond of mysteries. And I love to know whatever stories happening around me. I will talk to you some other time. Thanks for the coffee. It was good,’ Ray said in a friendly tone. 

Ray stood up to a surprised and a little puzzled Sophie and went straight out of the door. It took him long thirty seconds to decide his next course of action. He looked onto the one-way street from the main town to the forest line: a dead end with a few sawmills and a couple of residential zones both for people on a low budget and the people seeking tranquility along the greenish forests. And he gave a short but carelessly careful look at two bikers opposite to the street window of Sophie’s chamber. He didn’t like the look of them and remembered the anxious look of a beautiful pair of blue eyes. Decision taken. He has got some business to do. Once he settled his mind to trigger an action, his instinct doesn’t allow him to waste a single second. His strenuous training on and off the job and the lot of moments he stared into the eyes of death gets it embedded to his blood that how terribly a fraction of a second can matter. 

 

There was a little coffee shop just about hundred yards away off Sophie’s office building, and probably her current residential address too. A man in his late fifties was the only one inside the shop. The owner-run street shop. Ray went straight to him in his habitual mood of an investigator. With his long practiced authoritative tone he asked the guy, “Tell me about the long-haired junkies on the bikes over there.”

With the attitude that of a federal agent and the well-built physic with full of brawny muscles visible through the half sleeve shirt and the eyes cooler than death enforced an immediate response. And a long one in just one long breathe.

‘They are from the main town of the county. As far as I know they are the members of a bikers club in the mainstream business area of the county. The club allegedly runs an illegal casino business and probably involved with drug dealings too.  And all these are under the nose of the authority. And as things are turning around some five or six members from the club want to set up one such club here in the downtown. And they want this single-storey building to run their illegal drug business and gambling as a new cult staying out of the eyes from the sheriff and the city council. The owner of the building lives alone in half of the building and gave the other half to the psychiatrist girl on a lease. Apparently she doesn’t have enough money to rent a chamber in the mainstream zone of the county and invested enough to not give the place away to the pressure of the bikers.’

‘Okay. Now I would like to place an order for an early lunch. A cheese burger and jug full of coffee. No creamer, no sugar. Please, make my lunch ready and in the meantime I need to have a talk with those two guys,' Ray said.

Ray walked up to the back of the building, a place he found good enough to avoid the attention of people from the street which was near to a secluded one with not too many cars passing by. With his back against a long tree, he made a quick but confident gesture with his fingers to beckon the bikers to come close to him. He knew that such a challenge in their age and mood and the possibility to prove their ability could be hardly ignored.

One among the bikers was the one to take seriously with his 6.5 inches height weighing over 280 pounds with lots of flesh and fat and energy. The other one was little shorter and slimmer with long curl hairs and lots of tattoos inked probably all over his body. Worn out jeans and long black tea-shirts, chains in the neck and bracelets in wrists were the visible characteristics of their rowdy appearance and Ray liked none of them. 

They, as expected, approached Ray with a damn care attitude, in raised and annoyed eyebrows, and in slow but determined steps carelessly sizing up the guy they are planning to make a prey to scare off the inhabitants of the house. Job done.

Two on one has never been a problem for Ray. Just a fraction of a second can make all the difference. And there will be just one left. With an expressionless look eying on the guys, Ray take no moment at all hitting the first guy. No need of heroism; no warning, or preaching. No time to waste in getting a job done; not as per the plan; as per the desired consequences. He kicked at the knee with his heavy boot he always feels comfortable with. His mouth slung open with the force of yelling and the blurring pain with the cracking sound of the displaced bones. The second hit came from the elbow of Ray in another fraction of the first second in the right ear of the first guy. And then it was all about felling a large tree down in jaw drop silence; no more screaming; no more gulping back the tears.  Game over. He will be out for two weeks with the well calculated hits.

‘I am not going to warn you. Sparing you to take this body out anywhere you like, but out of my sight, and I don’t like to see you or anyone accompanying you ever in my life. I just don’t like the face of you and I don’t care about whatever business you are up to within law or against the law. But, I don’t like you here pissing off someone else’s business here. If, I ever see you guys again or if I ever hear about you sneaking around, I will find you all and crash your bones one after another in my bare hands,’ Ray said to the open mouthed guy still standing and trembling in utter shock, fear, and surprise with an exhibition of brutal power. 

Adrenaline-release before or after the execution of actions demands calories; a lot of calories and which was what Ray was consuming at the coffee shop just in three and a half minutes after he left the shop for the first time. And his order was served as he was speculating. A real big double petty cheese burger with free potato wedges. And a full jug of coffee; no sugar, no creamer, no milk. Raw, freshly brewed streaming French roast coffee; thick and strong. At twelve at noon, with the Sun rising high.

Ray could have taken down the second guy too, making him out of any sort of business for the next couple of weeks. But, that wouldn’t help. He knew that there are four more members including the leader were moving free. They would eventually come to hunt him down and create more troubles to the old owner and Sophie June. He was going slow both with the burger and the coffee. Fifteen minutes to the main town they were based on, five minutes to man someone take their wounded fellow down to the hospital and fifteen more minutes to come back, regrouped and probably armed with the handy weapons like baseball bat, knife and chains and with a war plan. Fire arms might not be a possibility at a very short notice to take down a person with five to one ratio. So, thirty five minutes at hand excluding the five already gone with the burger.

Dealing with the art of waiting while staying calm and keeping patience has never been a problem for Ray. And he kept waiting.