Chapter 3: I Will Play a Rhapsody

When I 'woke up' from my Energists induced slumber, I felt completely refreshed and energized (pardon the pun). Based on my last memory, I wasn't dressed for much of anything, so I 'looked' at myself and thankfully discovered I was dressed in my comfortable teaching attire.

"We hope you are feeling well and ready for another round of teaching," I heard the Energists say as I became fully aware of my surroundings. When I accessed those surroundings, it reminded me that I really needed to focus or redirect my instructions on how the Energists will act and live in their new world. I did a quick search of my newly enhanced memories and recalled all the relevant information regarding their future living environment.

By my teaching/explaining the acquisition of physical movements and sound decision-making within the context of a physical world, the Energists would be able to develop the foundational tasks required for their evolutionary journey. They already knew and shared that information with me on how their physical being would develop. I learned the Energists were about to become similar to my own physical self. Their QNAme, similar to our DNA, structure and makeup was going to be approximately 86.6% analogous to my body's makeup.

The only major difference between our body's overall structural arrangements was in the reproductive system. The Energists were going to reproduce via a 'cloning' type process, whereas we use a sexual reproduction method which combines the genetic material of the male and female persons. Even though the Energists were going to use this replicating process, I found that their 'offspring' were going to have a completely malleable central nervous system. This would allow each Energist to develop in their own unique fashion based on their training and experiences. They physically would appear exactly like their 'parent' as they grew to adulthood, but their knowledge and personality would be distinctive.

I was surprised to learn that the Energists' lifespan on their home world was going to be tightly controlled. The closest thing I could compare this life limitation aspect to was found in the 1976 movie Logan's Run where humans were ritualistically 'sanctioned' or killed when they reached the age of 21 to avoid overpopulating the world and stressing it's resources to support all those people. When I recalled that movie Jenny Agutter, the stunning actress who played Jessica6, popped into my mind and I remembered I had a major childhood crush on her after I saw that 'R-rated' movie as a 14 or 15 year-old.

The Energists, as always, were monitoring my thought processes and I then felt their confusion. "Why were you having 'sexually-oriented' thoughts about this Jenny or Jessica6 person? You never met this person, this 'actress', in your previous life. Additionally, we thought you were totally in love with Kaleigh. Why are you mentally processing images of this lady in sexually charged situations?"

'Dang, busted!' I thought which caused about 25% of the Energists to laugh and the rest acted confused at my embarrassment and comment. That was the first time I was able to discern that the Energists were learning to separate from their 'collective' and practicing the process of becoming individuals. When I noted that, the entire Energist collective responded with awe as some of their kind took that leap of faith and risked moving out of their comfort zone. I made sure to reinforce that behavior by giving those risk-takers a 'mental Atta boy' and pat-on-the-back.

Soon afterwards, the Energists brought me back on topic, to address their questions. I mentally blushed as I said, "Humans, even in committed relationships, are not able to turn off their sensory organs or memory systems when it comes to interacting with other sexually attractive people. While Kaleigh and I were very much in love, both of us responded at times to other attractive people. We just were able to control our actions and not physically carry out those mental images or thought processes. Most committed couples have mastered this control and remain monogamous or sexually active with just their partner."

"That is your marriage or 'going-steady' term."

"Yes, for the most part," I replied. "You know from my memories that some couples do not remain faithful to their partners and this often leads to physical and emotional separation of those unions. Both of my ex-wives were unfaithful to me, which led to our separation or divorces. There are some unions where the couples mutually agree that multiple or non-exclusive sexual partners are permitted. This arrangement can work but it too has its drawbacks or negative aspects."

The Energists' thought processes let me know they had comprehended this area of discussion and were ready to move on. I mentally breathed a sigh of relief as this wasn't a topic I wished to continue on with as it raised some good and some painful memories, and I didn't wish to pull the scab off that old wound.

"Thankfully, we will not have that issue to deal with in our new world," the Energists said as a concluding remark. I thought, 'that could be a blessing or a curse though' and then refocused on their new home's environmental aspects and how it would impact my instruction.

I could see that their home world was currently developing in a rapid but uniquely safe manner. It was akin to the 'terra-forming' scene from the Star Trek movie, Wrath of Khan. Their world wasn't forming as quickly as that but I could visualize the changes to the planet's surface, and its water and land formations. I learned from the Energists that the relative water to land ratio would be in the 45:55 range. This provided them with a good bit more surface area to explore and live in than we have on Earth.

Comparing their new world to Earth, I found out there would be about a 2 to 10% variation in several key physical aspects such as their: gravitational field, atmosphere and weather patterns. Their home planet was going to be in a perfectly comfortable or 'Goldilocks' zone distance from their star. I chuckled and said, "You guys or 'its' better dress warmly in your winter time because from the looks of your planet and the weather forecasts you have provided me with, you just might freeze your butts off for a good period of time during your Energists' year!"

"Haha Dr. Nevins!" they replied to my statement. "However, the joke is not really appropriate because our thermo regulators will do a much better job of keeping us at our optimal 35 Celsius or 95 degree Fahrenheit temperature. The cold weather on our new home world will not be as unbearable as say your Canadian or Serbian winter weather was to your people. We are a little concerned about the high temperatures in our summer season. We know our bodies could overheat in our plus 40C, or 105F degree days."

I analyzed their future body's metabolism and thermoregulation mechanisms and found that their 'hypothalamus' like structure, which helps regulate our human body's temperature, was not as developed or efficient in the Energists. It was going to work very well in cold weather but wasn't going to be able to redirect their body flow patterns to their exo-skeletal radiating centers to dissipate their body heat.

When the Energists examined what I was focusing on, they said, "We are fortunate to have come across your species in our journeys around the universes. You humans are one of two species that have created several different cooling systems to aid in that type of body regulation. We plan on using these in our home world during our extended hot seasons."

I was about to ask about the other species and their cooling mechanism when the Energists said, "The Terzi, an eight legged, vicious predator, employ a system which makes use of one of their prey animals' entrails as their cooling fluid. That was both not practical for us on our home world and the entrails of the Eutimous would be highly toxic to our kind."

I mentally viewed the Energists' created scene of a gigantic, hideous Terzi bug capturing and devouring an absolutely beautiful winged antelope type creature. I thought the Eutimous came closest to my imagined view of what our mythical Pegasus horse might be like as several of them were able to evade the Terzi's venomous spray and flee from their attack.

When I revealed that I was glad we didn't have creatures like the Terzi on Earth, the Energists replied, "Be very glad indeed. They are burrowing, ambush type predators and would easily adapt to your world's soil conditions and terrain. Their venom would not kill you but would cause severe damage to your exo-wrapping and impair your sensory input organs. You would then experience great pain and sensory deprivation, which would make you easy prey for the kill."

I shuttered at the thoughts of those creatures invading my home. I wondered if man would be able to fight something like these Terzi, and the Energists answered my query, "It would require the deployment of some of your people's strongest weapons to terminate their life. Unfortunately, your leaders would have to be willing to sacrifice a good number of your people as it would take, at minimum, your world's most powerful non-nuclear weapons to both reach them in their lair and to destroy their outer shell. We do believe your scientists would be able to develop a chemical agent to keep them under some type of control but prior to that time, the Terzi would cause massive hardship and devastation to your world and all large type animals which they would prey on."

I was shocked at the Energists description of the impact of that revolting giant bug. I then asked, "There is no way that the Terzi or some similar type creature could reach Earth and do that to my world is there?"

"Fortunately for your people and the countless other intelligent, peaceful species, the answer is no. The Terzi and other devastating creatures like them that we have encountered and studied in our journeys do not and will not acquire the cognitive ability to formulate space and/or time travel devices. As the alpha predator on their world, and with there being no realistic challenger to their dominance, the Terzi don't have any need to advance their current cognition level."

My stress levels were returning to a normal level when the Energists finished their discourse on these creatures. "Their home star will die or burn off its fuel sources long before the Terzi or any other monstrous species we have encountered develop enough cognitive substance to create either space travel or as in our case, universal travel portals."

"That is good to know. Thank you for sharing that my world is safe from creatures like that."

The Energists once again refocused the discussion back to what they needed to address. "We are most impressed by your people's ability to adapt and create new technological systems to address various environmental challenges. We will make use of several of these devices when we are functioning on our home world. Per our earlier discussion, we will use both domicile cooling devices and also the individual cooling vests which some of your sports engineers have developed for medical health issues and for various sport performers."

I recognized those devices as air conditioning units and personal sized StaCool vests. A humorous thought crossed my mind and I addressed this issue with the Energists. "Are you going to pay trade mark royalties or patent infringement rights to the companies who developed those devices?" This time about 40% of the Energist beings responded to this comment with an appropriate humor reaction. The Energist collective noted this slight increase in individualism in their membership and gave a species wide reinforcement to encourage their assemblage to risk analyzing new thoughts or situations with their own idiosyncratic processes. This to me was a great sign that the Energists were evolving and preparing themselves for an individually oriented lifestyle.

"Your humorous comments or questions are most welcome as it allows us valuable opportunities to practice these alien, haha, type activities."

"Well played use of a pun there," I complimented them on their crafty phrasing. "However, it would have been better if you didn't include the 'haha' comment in your statement. The ability to 'play on words' works best when it is subtle and when your audience or communication partner catches the double meaning of that key word. That is what makes that type of wording humorous. Still, you are progressing fast with your acquisition of this difficult cognitive task."

"We-I-I-we-I-we (numerous 'I' and 'we' were heard) appreciate both the compliment and the constructive criticism." The percentage of individual responses was gradually increasing as I worked with the Energists.

I returned my focus back to the Energists future home world. I learned it would have a 22.62 hour day due to its faster planetary rotation, and a 341.8 day year. The Energists informed me that they had a different numbering system, which I didn't have to understand, that would 'smooth out' those times into readily workable numbers. While their timeframe would be slightly different, my major concern was how to apply my vast array of physical knowledge to their extraordinary developing world.

After an incomprehensible amount of instruction, but without my experiencing the fatiguing effects of long term strenuous activity in their strange universe, the Energists were able to apply their new 'motor-learning' principles and motor development knowledge to their future environment. They made extraordinary use of their unique ability to transform energy into physical matter to replicate their future physical world, and practiced most of the key aspects I related to them.

I sensed that the Energists were beginning to feel like they were now adequately equipped to take the next step in their evolutionary process. I did my best to instill in them that if they logically applied these physical learning concepts with their vast factual knowledge base, they should be able to adapt and overcome any new obstacle that arises to challenge them in their physical realm.

I forced them to rehearse the key aspects of Newell's Model of Constraints, which incorporated their knowledge of their future self, their future environment, and the new physical task demands in their world. I stressed that if they used this 'triangle' type model as their framework for learning all behaviors, they should not be completely surprised or overwhelmed by novel activities or situations in their new world.

The addition of 'human-like' emotional responses within the Energists new individual bodies in real-world contexts, created both troubling and exhilarating physical responses. The Energists' emotional development was the most difficult transition for them as they only possessed a 'textbook or brain knowledge' view of how emotions influenced things in a physical realm. The process of incorporating human-like emotions into their new life was a major challenge for the Energists, and successfully integrating them was huge milestone event. They never realized or imagined how much of an impact these emotions would have on learning new skills and contextual strategies or procedures for living in a physical realm.

My first attempt to explain the interaction of emotions with our everyday events or actions added to the Energists' confusion and frustration. I struggled while trying to use a counselor's approach to teach the intricacies of emotional development. After seeing the continued frustration and lack of comprehension within the Energists' collective and in several individual beings, I returned to a tried and true example from my sports instructional experiences.

I thought, "Use the inverted 'U' example" of how our arousal level (cool/composed vs. jacked-up aggression - not sexual arousal) influenced our ability to perform complex motor skills and game strategies. I described that performance could be equally poor if the performer was either emotionally 'as low as a snake's belly' or being 'as high as a kite', which is reflects both ends of the upside down or inverted 'U'. Performance is maximized when the performer has an optimal amount of emotional involvement or the 'top curved portion' of that 'U'.

The Energists appeared to somewhat comprehend my explanation of this concept but a few of them asked me, "Can you go over an example or two to aid my individual understanding of this idea?"

As I started to expound on this concept, I felt many individual Energists were accessing my mental pictures or demonstrations on how various movements, and strategies or decisions work best with varying amounts of emotional involvement. I told them I was going to use several football examples to clarify my instruction.

I elucidated that some football skills or strategies require the player to be totally 'jacked' up emotionally to increase their performance. This elevated emotional level typically works best when the activity has a high strength and a low decision-making requirement. On the other hand, certain football skills or cognitive decision-making requires the player to be 'calm, cool and collected' to perform better and make optimal contextual decisions. Usually these activities have a lower strength or power component.

When I compared football quarterbacking skills and decisions (read the action, pick best option for the situation, then perform a highly technical action) to those of a defensive lineman (locate the ball carrier or QB, then quickly destroy whoever has the pigskin), the entire Energist collective picked up on the varying emotional involvement and performance differences right away.

To show me that they understood my example, the Energists related an example of the human rescue-responder being 'adrenalin rushed' in order to rip a door open or move heavy objects in an emergency situation versus the surgeon being super-composed when performing micro-surgery on the patient which the rescue-responder brought into their emergency room. All at once the Energists recognized that their newly developing emotions could help and/or hinder their learning or performance of physical skills or impact their decision-making abilities.

Upon hearing my approval of their real world example, I felt several more Energists experience the human 'ah-hah' type response. They were now able to combine their vast knowledge base with their novice-like education of how emotions can influence a person's responses and decisions. I was glad I had a good working knowledge of cognitive psychology and knew how to integrate it with my basic pedagogical skills because without it, I thought our current relationship would have turned into a 'blind leading the blind' type situation. While I could sense their frustration at coming to grips with incorporating emotions into a real world environment, the Energists never once took their frustrations out on me or their struggling cohorts. While they recognized that they were superior cognitive or intellectual beings, the Energists accepted my superior ability at teaching and applying this wild new concept to a physical environment.

Teaching the Energists caused me to reflect back on my teaching experiences, both young children and college students. If I had students like these alien energy beings that were totally focused on learning the task at hand, teaching would have been a thousand times more enjoyable. The Energists' ability to focus and deliberately practice any task I had them perform energized me beyond any prior teaching moment. A couple of times, I'd almost forget that I was completely separated from my former life, especially from my beautiful pregnant Kaleigh.

When the Energists sensed my near complete devotion to helping them, they were able to draw on that emotion and their learning process accelerated exponentially. I'm sure they could have temporarily, or permanently, wiped my mind clean of my past life with Kaleigh, but they thankfully allowed me to access those memories when the desire within me required that prior connection. I believe the Energists genuinely knew I needed those personal memories to maintain my humanity in my isolated position.

I wondered if their initial comprehension and application of true emotions was influencing their social interactions with me now. I wasn't sure if their initial belief that 'claiming' humans was just a 100% logical action had changed any after working with me in their quest for a more complete understanding of the physical world. I think they were starting to see how we, and maybe other species with emotions, viewed and responded to the actions of others around us.

As I was contemplating this line of thinking, the Energists interrupted me. "Our responses were not just based on pure logic." I somehow recalled one of my favorite Star Trek lines here when Spock said, "The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one." The Energists seriously studied my thought processes now as I related how humans logically understood Spock's heroic action but still responded emotionally with grief at the death of their friend or colleague.

While it was logical to me that the death of a few humans was necessary or required by the Energists, I didn't have to accept it with my arms wide open. I now thought the Energists understood why both Kaleigh and I responded like we did when we knew that our destiny was not going to be what we had hoped for when I proposed to her the day before I was claimed.

As I was mulled over my fate here with the Energists after being claimed, they used their cognitive abilities to set my mind at ease and allowed me to relax and relish my memories of my prior life. However, when I started to sink into a depression like state after focusing back on my current state, several Energist individuals suggested I revisit my memories of the time right after I was claimed by them.

Three Energists articulated together that they were 'moved' by the display of gratitude and love which they witnessed as Kaleigh and her family, my family, various friends, students and colleagues expressed themselves during the days after my earthly death. They said, "Witnessing all that was our first real taste of emotions as Energist individuals and I-I-I all believe you might benefit from reactivating those memories. While that time was replete with negative emotions, I-I-I was amazed at the uplifting forces behind your peoples' words and actions."

I acknowledged these three Energists' thoughts with a gracious thank you and tried to do as they suggested. In my current depressed state, I had trouble searching and retrieving the memories the Energists were referring to, so those three beings gathered the whole Energist collective and transported my cognitive essence to the exact human time of those previously hidden memories.

10:15am, Wednesday, February 19, 2003

In my Energist energy bubble, I looked as Kaleigh, Steven, Tammy, Steven Jr., and Kaleigh's older sister Allison were sitting in Steven and Tammy's living room talking about my upcoming funeral. The Plyer ladies were all beautifully dressed in black dresses when Kaleigh suddenly said, "To borrow one of Mike's favorite but seldom used sayings, 'I sure as H-E-double hockey sticks' don't feel like he would appreciate me being dressed all in black for his funeral. Knowing him, he would want this to be a celebration of his life, not a pity party for his passing on." As she said that she got up and started to walk through the kitchen. "I'm going to change into something more appropriate for that type of occasion. Feel free momma, Allison to ditch those black outfits too if you like."

"Kaleigh honey," her dad softly said to his departing daughter. "Are you sure about changing clothes? You know the Nevins are using your place and they'll be about ready to head on over to the church."

Kaleigh turned back to her dad, smiled and said, "I'm sure about this and if Mike's family says anything, I'll do my best to explain it to them. Getting to know his sister these past few days, Mary just might join me in dressing for a celebration of Mike's life."

"I'm changing into something colorful too now, K-bear," Allison said as she got up and headed to her old bedroom. "Just don't make it too wild and wonderful though," she chuckled out at Kaleigh as she ran down the hallway to her room.

"You're the one I'm worried about being too wild!" Kaleigh shouted at her retreating sister as she headed out into the garage to drive her rented Toyota Solara over to her house.

When she walked into her house, she saw all my family and a few of my relatives and friends that made the trip down to this funeral, sitting around the dining room table. Most were laughing about some stupid thing or event that I said or did when I was younger. My best friend Paul McGregory and his wife June had everyone's attention as he regaled them with his story about my crazy driving days as a teenager.

He related how we were coming back from my Uncle Eddie's farm in his dad's Chevy Nova to attend an 11th grade preseason football camp at the high school. We didn't want to be late for our first practice with the varsity or senior team. Paul said, "We were rushing, Mike was driving too fast because we were going to be late to our first day of football camp. When we took a slight curve on Clarke Side Road, the car's tires hit some loose gravel and we lost it. Your car George did three complete 360 degree spins before the car came to a stop." Everyone in the room, including Kaleigh, just laughed and shook their heads. Paul continued, "We got out of the stopped car to look at the road and we saw the three circling marks in the exact center of the gravel road. What was surprising and had us both shaking in our tennis shoes was that the car had spun like that and stayed in the center as we came out of the "S" curve in the road. We couldn't believe the car had stayed on the road around that bend."

Kaleigh chimed in at that point and said, "God was looking after you two dumbos then I think."

"Oh hi Kaleigh, we didn't see you come in. Anything wrong?" My sister Mary asked Kaleigh.

"No, uh yes," she stuttered in reply. "I've decided Mike wouldn't want me or anyone really to be all blah or down in the dumps today, so I'm going to put on something nice but cheery. I hope y'all don't mind or get upset but that is just how I feel he would want it."

"You go right ahead girl," Paul said to Kaleigh. "You are spot on with how that dumbo of yours would want things."

"I'll join you, if you don't mind," June McGregory said right after her husband's comment.

My sister Mary jumped up and said, "I hate these dark, black clothes too. Come on June, let's go change with Kaleigh." My mom and dad, and my Uncle Eddie just smiled at Kaleigh and the ladies as they walked down the hallway to their rooms.

Kaleigh came out of her bedroom with one of my bright red 'Crimson Tide' golf polo shirts on, with a pair of tanned slacks. She carried a hounds-tooth dress jacket in her arm as she walked into the living room. "I hope you don't mind me wearing this today, but it was the shirt Mike wore when he proposed to me last Thursday. With this jacket, the shirt will have a classy look I think."

"You look lovely dear," my mother said to her. When Mary and June walked into the living room, my mother added, "You all look great. My boy would like these outfits more than those dark dreary dresses." Mary had on a blue and white striped dress and June wore a mid-thigh light blue dress with a light weight, white cardigan pullover.

Just then the doorbell rang and Kaleigh's mother poked her head in and said, "Hey y'all, we best head on out to the church."

"Yes momma," Kaleigh replied. "We just finished changing clothes and were rounding up the masses."

"Are you going to ride with us?" Tammy asked her daughter.

Kaleigh looked at June McGregory and received a slight nod in silent response to her unspoken question. She then said to her mother, "I'm going to ride over there with Paul and June if you don't mind."

"K, see y'all over there. Drive carefully."

The eight car convoy took about 7 minutes to get to Hepzibah. I paid attention to Paul's blue Lexus ES300 vehicle as they drove down and around the bend leading to the church's parking lot. The line of cars parked along the side of the road was already over a quarter mile, 25 minutes before the scheduled start of the services. I heard Kaleigh say to Paul, "Don't park here, they told me they have spaces reserved for Mike's family and friends from Canada up by the church. I'll kill Andy Bush if he didn't arrange that like they said they would."

"If not, we'll manage I'm sure," Paul said. "Besides, if Andy is the guy I'm thinking of, you'll need some major league firepower to kill that beast of a man." That line caused June and Kaleigh to chuckle out loud.

Kaleigh lightly giggled then said with false snarliness, "Trust me, I can put Andy Bush six feet under with a simple look of my eyes if I wanted to. He may appear to be 'Superman' but I'm his kryptonite, and he knows it too!"

June burst out laughing at that and said, "Ha, I noticed you guys had a special bond when we were with you last night at the funeral home."

"Ya we do," Kaleigh softly replied to June. "Speak of the devil. Andy's up there waving Mike's dad's car up to the front of the church. Just follow along and we can park close by the doors."