Chapter 9

Cindy leaned against the northern sound-barrier and sighed, enjoying the warmth of the small window of sunlight. She finished her picnic lunch and drank the last of her last bottle of water, and reflected again on how amazing her life was turning out to be.

She had been together now with Jim for almost two weeks. They had been making progress in several ways, and were utterly stymied in others. They still saw no way out of their Freeway prison. They paced the perimeter and grounds for exercise now. Neither was hoping to find anything useful. Each day the due-south shadow of the sun crept closer to the northern wall by more than three feet. The sun was at an azimuth of 180-degrees now, due south, and there was only ten and a half feet of sunlight left along the northern wall.

"I calculate the sun's maximum altitude at fifty-four degrees today," said Jim.

"In three more days, we'll lose it all, won't we?"

"At noon time, yeah. We'll have brief pockets in the northern corners, in mid morning and afternoon, for another few days, but then say goodbye to the sun until spring."

"Oh, hell. We'll be long dead by then."

"Well..." Jim couldn't think of a good response. He leaned over and hugged her. "Want to go back home now?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. This place is starting to depress me. I'll meet you in the upper-level living room..."

Cindy and Jim returned to Cindy's car, got comfortable in the plush seats and closed their eyes. One of their major feats had been to cut down the time it took the reach their island home. They could now reach it within two minutes of closing their eyes.

Another achievement had been on where to spend their sleep time. Amazingly, they discovered that their apparent waking moments on the Arctic island did not count as sleep time, and far as their bodies were concerned. They tried for a while sacking out separately in the luxurious beds of home, only to awake every time on Antelope Freeway. It was just yesterday when they both finally managed the skill of waking up from sleep within a dream, being able to wake up in the soft and comfortable beds of home.

Cindy stretched her arms and opened her eyes, smiling at Jim a short distance away. He was sitting in one of the lounge chairs. Jim smiled back and said, "Well, one thing is nice for sure. Wishes do wash dishes in this place. Every time we pop back in here, we imagine all the dirty dishes are clean."

"Yeah. Maybe sometime we should try to imagine a mess before coming here, just to see if we can do it..."

Jim nodded. "Want to go for a swim?" Three days ago they were both stunned to find an exit door on the other side of the elevator on the lowest-level bedroom floor. The door led through a short tunnel to a huge underground cavern heading towards the center of the island, a circular area of 132-meter diameter with a 44-meter high ceiling. There was a jogging track around the perimeter and a huge pool a hundred meters in length and at least ten meters deep. Jim had it on his agenda to plumb the depth. Jim found swimming in the deep water very enjoyable, and yesterday Cindy had delighted him by showing up in a bikini.

Cindy leaned over and kissed him. "Let's go swimming later. How about we try to brainstorm for a while?"

"Okay." The two sat and chatted for a while, but neither felt any bursts of insight that would tell them more about their predicament.

Finally Jim said, "Hey, I've got an idea. Let's head off to the library." A minute later they were standing among the many shelves of books. Jim turned towards the nature section. Cindy sat down at one of the reading tables to wait for him.

A short time later, he sat down by her side, opening an illustrated book on wild birds. "Here, take a look at this. Pick an animal you'd like to be."

"Huh? Why? Oh! Oh my gosh..."

"Yeah. Why not? We already have the skill to wake up outside the house, if we think about it before falling asleep at the prison. Why not try to imagine we're eagles? We could fly away from here, check out the world."

"Gee Jim, don't birds have to learn how to fly?"

"Well, I suppose. But this is a dream, right? Maybe we'll just know, and if not maybe we could just practice till we get the hang of it."

Cindy looked skeptical. "Oh, I don't know... We have no more real food or water... We don't have as much time as you might think..." Cindy stared at the picture. "Can I imagine myself as an eagle? They don't look very human..."

"Well, there are other books. Want to try being a monkey first?"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"

Jim looked suddenly worried. "Oh! Sorry!"

Cindy laughed and kissed him. "I was just teasing! I suppose I could try to be a bird... An eagle though, I don't know. That face! It just doesn't look human!"

"Well..." Jim nodded as he turned the pages. "Yeah... How about an owl? Their faces are more human-like..."

Cindy stared at the pictures. "I've always loved owls..." She flipped through the pictures, intently studying the pictures of the Barn Owls, the Northern Barred Owls, the Horned Owls, the Western Burrowing Owl... "They look so beautiful, so wise... Yeah, an owl..." Cindy continued to flip through the pages. "There! If you'll try it with me, I'll try to imagine myself as this!" Jim looked down at the page and read slowly, "Aegolius acadicus, huh? What a beautiful bird! Hmmm. The body length is only about eight inches, not very pretentious... Okay, it's a deal." Cindy and Jim stared intently at the large picture for over an hour. It was a picture of a Northern Saw-whet owl. They tried for four days, each time coming to the island as humans and shrugging their shoulders. They would then head to the library to study the picture again. It was during the afternoon of the fourth day that Cindy was thunderstruck with two inspirations, and she decided to try an experiment without filling in Jim with the details...