Chapter 27

“Holdin’ on to sixteen as long as you can

Changes come around real soon

Make us women and men”

-John Mellencamp

I held up the black Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers official 2017 tour shirt. My Siblings had it specially ordered for me in a tall size. Tom had died just last month, October 2^nd. My father had been a huge fan, and so I became too. He had taken me to see Tom Petty when I was ten years old at the amphitheater in Maryland Heights, Missouri.

“We got you four of them, Brother.” Maggie said.

“Why four of them?” I asked. Maggie gave me the smile that said, “Gee, that is a silly question.” Yes, I expected my Siblings would snatch them out of the clothes hamper to wear just like my dress shirts.

The next present I unwrapped was a framed tour art poster from the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Mojo tour. From the very tour I attended with my dad. Signed by Tom and all the Heartbreakers. And in the top right-hand corner, they had mounted a small photo my dad had taken of us at the concert.

Yes, I broke down and cried. Missing my dad ... but even more so ... the love of three women.

Monday night at 12:01, my Siblings started celebrating my birthday. Two minutes before, I was a sixteen-year-old kid. Now I am, through the efforts of the Brotherhood, an eighteen-year-old adult. Yeah, yeah, biologically I may have just turned seventeen. But legally, I’m now eighteen.

Earlier in the day, when we returned from school, Doris Alex was already home from her half-day job. She loved the intellectual stimulation. While she didn’t go into details, she smiled more than ever. Mark had not ridden with us today, and neither had Hanna. In less than two weeks, she would turn eighteen and be living with us.

After dinner, it was the perfect time to test the 29 Palms protocol with just the four of us in the house. Last weekend, it had been the four of us, plus Larry, when we discovered the protocol locked within the twin’s minds.

We gathered in the family room, all of us dressed in jeans, shirts, boots for them, my basketball shoes for me ... just in case we somehow teleported to 29 Palms, California. I was sitting in a plush chair. Maggie, Molly and Doris Alex on the couch. I linked my iPhone so we could watch the video on the new OLED TV we had just set up.

The twins had not seen the video; Doris Alex and I had not even talked about it with them. As the video began playing, well into the twins’ erotic dance, their jaws dropped. “Crap, this really happened?” asked Molly.

Maggie added, “I thought I’d dreamed this?” I remember being on the couch naked with Larry and Molly, and what we did afterwards ... but not this!

“Look at your feet!” Doris Alex pointed out. “They are a foot off the ground. And there is no pole!”

Molly said, “Shit, some paranormal stuff.”

We stayed quiet, watching the rest of the video. When it ended, I asked if the twins remembered the 29 Palms protocols portion before the video started. They did not.

“Okay, let’s try this again. Maggie, Molly, come sit on the arm of my chair. Doris Alex, come sit between my legs and let’s link hands.”

“Wait. Let me record this,” Doris Alex said, setting her phone up to capture video of us.

When we all got into position, I said, “Unlock 29 Palms protocol.” I looked at Molly and then at Maggie. They just shrugged. Hmm, not off to a good start. I hit play on my Apple Music. 29 Palms played.

We sat quietly as the song played. Twice.

Nothing happened.

Doris Alex stood and said, “Not what we had hoped for.”

“What had you wanted us to get up and dance?” Molly asked.

I shook my head. “We had hoped that we might be teleported to 29 Palms, California.”

Molly chuckled, “That explains why we are fully dressed.”

Maggie stood and looked at me curiously. “Why do you think that would happen?”

Doris explained what had happened at Larry’s. Their trance-like behavior, their dance they had witnessed on the video. Her theory that without Larry, with the focus being on me, the 29 Palms protocol might unlock teleportation powers in the twins.

Maggie suggested, “Maybe a copy of the song with less static?” Molly nodded.

“I heard no static,” Doris Alex said.

“Nor did I,” I said. “So what differed from Iowa?” We all brainstormed:

“No Larry.”

“No lap dance talk.”

“No alcohol.”

“Well, we are not in Iowa anymore.”

“We are all clothed.”

“The five of us were alone at the farmhouse; no one else was within miles.”

Doris Alex raised both arms. “Maybe that is it. There are hundreds of people within a couple of miles of our house. We should go somewhere isolated and try again.”

“Hmm, except ... when we performed our telekinesis experiments, the twins’ powers worked right here.” I said.

“But,” Maggie contributed, “our powers were much stronger late at night, when the neighborhood slept.”

Doris Alex smiled broadly, “Good point. We should try again late at night, when everyone is asleep.”

“And maybe now that Maggie and I know what you want us to do, we can concentrate and try. Do you have any photos of where we should ‘land’ in 29 Palms?”

Molly wondered, “What if we were never supposed to teleport? Maybe it was just a message that we should get in a car and drive there?”

“That has to be over a thousand mile drive.” I stated.

“Oh, what was that old movie where people started obsessing over that volcano? They painted it, drew it, built clay models of it, and all started driving there?” Doris Alex asked while pacing back and forth.

I looked at Doris Alex and grinned. “For being the smartest person in perhaps all the world, you sure don’t know your science fiction movies or geography. The movie was Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and it wasn’t a volcano; it was the Devils Tower in Wyoming.

“It is an old cinder cone of a volcano, right?” pressed Doris Alex.

“Look it up later, but no. It is different. But back to your point?”

Doris Alex turned and punched my arm lightly. “Okay, I was not paying close attention. I thought the movie kinda sucked. But maybe, like the movie, we are being directed to go to 29 Palms?”

Molly laughed this time, “So space aliens are directing us to California?”

“Hey, it is possible, but much more likely that it is Bloodline genetics related. Hmm, unless you two have been getting messages beamed into your brains.” I said.

“Like tons of characters appearing with my eyes closed while trying to sleep?” asked Maggie.