FORWARD:
The following is a sequel to my story
The White Room.
It would be helpful if you've read that first.
ALL CHARACTERS ARE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER.
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"Strangers passing in the street,
By chance two separate glances meet,
And I am you and what I see is me.
And do I take you by the hand?
And lead you through the land?
And help me understand the best I can...?"
Pink Floyd, "Echoes"
PROLOGUE:
"Daddy?"
"Yes, sweetheart? What's wrong?"
"I had a dream."
"You had a bad dream, sweetie?"
"Not a BAD dream, Mommy. Just... a dream."
"Here, sit down. Tell us about it."
"I dreamed I was in a weird place. Everything was all white."
"All... WHITE, you said?"
"Yes. And I was naked. And there was a voice, talking to me, but nobody was there."
"What did the voice say to you, baby? Try to remember everything."
"It told me not to be a-scared. That they weren't going to hurt me. That they were just giving me an... imhaminasayshin?"
"Imham... you mean examination?"
"Yes! An eshaminayshin."
"What else, sweetie? What else do you remember?"
"They shined a light on me. A blue light. It made me feel happy. And sleepy."
"And then?"
"And then they said I was doing good, but I wasn't ready yet."
"Wasn't... ready..."
"Yes. Then they told me to go to sleep, so I did. And then I woke up in my bed again."
"Think, hunny. Think really hard. Did they say anything else? Anything at all?"
"They said... they asked if you and mommy were taking good care of me. I said yes. Then they said to tell you 'hello.' And..."
"And... what?"
"And that they would see us again soon."
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"Happy birthday, Adora!"
As she blew out the candles on her cake, Adora took a moment to reflect back on her life, and how grateful she was for it.
She didn't make a wish. At twenty-one, she felt a little old for that kind of thing. And besides, what would she wish for? She already had everything she wanted right here.
Adora hadn't seen her parents since Christmas, having spent Spring Break traveling abroad with friends.
Now she was back in her childhood home to spend the summer with them. Unlike many of her friends, who hated having to go home for the summer, Adora cherished it. She loved her parents, and had missed them deeply.
"So, how's your classes going?" her father asked. "Find the cure for cancer yet?
"No," Adora laughed. "But I'm working on it."
Adora was what many would consider a prodigy. At age three, she was already reading; by age four, she was writing her own stories.
She was always a curious child, constantly asking questions, wanting to know how everything worked. Her parents would often find her in her room, taking apart her toys and, later, things like her computer, to study how they functioned. She never failed to put them back together properly after.
By the time she'd graduated, Adora had her choice of colleges to attend. She chose John Hopkins for its biomedical engineering courses. Because by then, her biggest curiosity had become how the human body worked. More specifically, why it aged, broke down, got sick.
Not that Adora had ever dealt with that. She couldn't recall one day where she'd ever had so much as the sniffles. Even during flu season the previous winter, when all three of her roommates were bogged down with it, she had felt perfectly fine.
Adora had never thought much about it during her youth. She'd always just assumed she'd inherited her strong immune system from her parents, who never seemed to get sick, either.
They also never seemed to age. At sixty-four, her father didn't look a day over thirty. No gray tinged his hair, nor any bald spots. No middle aged paunch around his waist, no arthritis, no back or vision issues.
Her mother, now forty-three, still had the fresh faced beauty of a woman in her twenties. And the body to match.
They'd always been physically active, of course, and had introduced Adora to regular exercise as soon she was old enough to walk.
Adora was no slouch physically herself, having inherited her mother's slender yet curvy frame, along with her father's blonde locks and hazel eyes.
She'd chalked up her natural beauty and great build to the healthy lifestyle her parents had taught her, along with good genetics.
Sitting across from them now as they sipped their coffee to wash down the exquisite cream cheese frosted red velvet cake they'd gotten her, she wondered, not for the first time, how they had managed to stay so young looking while everyone else's parents she knew had aged considerably over time.
"We got you a present," her mother smiled, pulling a large box from beneath the table." Opening it, she found the complete set of medical textbooks she needed for next semester, and a summer season pass to the art museum.
"Thanks, Mom, Dad," she said, hugging each of them in turn.
They spent the rest of the evening together catching up, before finally deciding to retire for the night.
They made plans to spend the next day at the beach. Adora was glad for it. While she'd visited some lovely beaches overseas, she missed the California sunshine.
She'd also missed her bedroom. It felt smaller than she remembered, but there were many comforting memories here.
Stripping off her clothes, Adora climbed into bed.
Just as she began to doze, a strange humming noise reverberated throughout the room.
Adora sat up just in time to catch a bright flash of light right outside her window.
Then the world went black.
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Nick sat up from the platform with a start, every nerve alive, his senses on full alert.
It only took a second for his eyes to adjust to the brightness. And only a moment longer for him to register where he was.
"Holy shit. I'm back."
He quickly spotted his wife, Chloe, on a platform across from him. She was already sitting up, her eyes wide with surprise.
Turning as one, they found their daughter, on her own platform, still sleeping. She was, as they were, completely naked.
"Nick?" Chloe's voice trembled with tension. But she showed no panic, only questioning and concern.
They stood as one and made their way over to their daughter, now just beginning to stir.
"Mom? Dad?" Adora asked in a still sleepy haze, "Am... am I dreaming again?"
"No dear," Chloe answered softly, taking her hand, "this is no dream."
"Where... where are we? And... why are we naked?" Adora wasn't upset or embarrassed at the sight of her parents' nudity, or in finding herself nude as well. They had raised her to be comfortable in her own skin, and not to see nudity as shameful or sinful.
But she certainly hadn't expected to wake up to find them naked here with her in a place she'd only seen before in her dreams.
"I suppose we have a lot to talk about," sighed Nick.
Adora sat in rapt attention as her parents told the story of the alien abduction that had brought them together, and the experiments that had led to her conception right here in this very place. It sounded like some fantasy, like the sci-fi stories she used to read as a kid. But as they concluded their tale, she instinctively knew every word of it was true.
"Well," said Adora after a long, thoughtful pause, "that certainly explains a lot."
"What do you mean?" Chloe asked.
"Well, for starters, it would explain why you two never seem to age, or get sick. Why I don't get sick either. And," she finished with a wry grin, "why you like to visit nudist resorts so much."
"You seem to be handling this pretty well," Nick noted. "Much better than your mother and I when we were first brought here."
"I... I know this place," said Adora. "I've dreamed of it. Several times. When I was little."
"We remember," Nick nodded, "and we don't think those were dreams. We think they were just... checking up on you."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"We didn't want to worry you," said Chloe. "You were a child. You thought they were dreams. We didn't see any reason to convince you otherwise."
"Plus, it hasn't happened in years, at least that you've told us about," said Nick. "We thought maybe they'd just, I dunno, gone away, forgot about us."
Adora stood, tentatively taking her first steps in this strange yet familiar environment. "So why are we here? Now? Why did they bring us back?"
Before either of her parents could postulate an answer, all three were enveloped in soft, blue lights.
"Relax," Chloe instructed her daughter as the beams slowly separated them across the White Room. "Don't fight it. They won't hurt us."
"I know, Mom. I've done this before, remember?"
The beams scanned them for several minutes, flickering through various colors. Their ears hummed and tickled with each vibration shift.
From nowhere, a voice all three were familiar with spoke.
"Scan complete. Lifeforms still operating within acceptable parameters, but suffer from minor environmental contamination. Decontamination process commencing."
Nick felt the familiar tingling sensation begin deep inside his body. "Hold on, Adora," he called out, "this may feel... strange."
The three of them floated on invisible strings as the cleansing process ran through them, small clouds of dark particles emanating from their pores to transform into glowing gold specks as they floated upwards into nothingness.
Then the lights went red.
"No!" Nick cried, "Stop! NOW!"
"Why?"
The Voice asked.
