The Knowing:

Carver stood then and said, “Today, I will speak to you about the power of the knowing. I do not mean knowing as a single word, but as a phrase, 'the knowing.”

The room grew still.

“This,” he continued, “is the power to expose what is not real, and what is being projected toward you so that you believe you are elsewhere thinking, feeling, or seeing what is not truly your own.”

And these are the tools used to protect you from these attempts. See them, test them, know them, and, most importantly, remember them, because someday one of these simple techniques might very well save your life when you do not even know you are in danger.

Power Of Perception:

The next person stood and walked a bit forward. This man looked like a schoolteacher by his dress; however, he had a commanding voice that made you listen when he spoke. He started by holding his hands out, as if to say everywhere, and said in almost a whisper that made us lean forward to hear, “My name is Joseph, and I will be sharing with you both the power of perception.”

He brought his arms together, closed his eyes, and stood there as he said, “Listen closely. Can you hear it? It is there, always just a pin’s thickness away, you see. But can you find it? It is always just out of reach.” With that, he looked at us and stood normally again, his face kind now, and began talking like a teacher for sure.

Julie leaned toward me and whispered, “I think we are going back to school again,” then straightened up quickly as if she did not want to get caught by the teacher.

He spoke again. “Life is full of surprises. Did you not see what was coming at you? Did you not hear the engine revving louder than it should? Did you not feel the air temperature change in the area? Did you not just feel like there was something?” He paused. “Today, we will be talking and examining change, not change in ourselves, but change in what is around us, so we can prepare for what is next. Not what is today, but always in life, children.

“Right now, let us say we just walked into this room, and we are standing here wondering, ' Why am I here? Let us add up what we see. There is a set of chairs in the middle, so a crowd is coming. There are two sets apart from the others, so there are two special people. There is a feeling of warmth in the room, so there were more people here before we arrived who are now gone. There was a meeting of many. Do you see how everything that we feel, hear, see, and presume can be used for a simple, quick conclusion so we can prepare for the next event?”

He continued, “If you walk into an empty house and hear footsteps, your body changes immediately, and you prepare for a guest, good or bad, according to the house you are in. Your dad’s house means he must be home. When you live alone, your house feels like an invader in your space. If you learn to always watch, listen, and record a constant tape of all things around you, you will know when you are not alone and when you need to prepare.”

He stopped and looked directly at us. “So, you two, as you were listening to my spiel, did you notice anything around you? Yes, Julie and Karl, that is a question.”

We looked at each other and shrugged. I said, “Not really.”

He suddenly screamed at us, making us jump and feel almost violated by only his voice. “THEN YOU ARE BOTH DEAD, and never knew it to say goodbye to each other first.”

He walked around us as if we were inside a cage, speaking now in a low tone that made us strain to hear. “You need to listen to what is around you. Even when you are talking or listening to another, as he kept walking around us, your mind must observe. Learn to hear even when there is nothing. Learn to feel even when you are touching nothing. Learn to smell when the air is dead and still. These are the basic senses we all have, what many call a feeling.”

The strange man started moving around us faster and faster, now saying, “When you hear of a miracle where someone steps out at the right moment to save a child, you will often hear one phrase: I had a feeling.” At this time, it was hard for both of us to follow, but we did until.

He stopped circling us, and the sudden stillness felt strange. Then he began moving in the opposite direction, with a constant increase in speed again word by word. “You see, Julie and Karl, you are special, but not just to the people in this room. You are special to the man on the corner who has nothing, to the woman with four kids whose husband just walked out, to the father who has just lost his wife. So, now you think these poor people like you and want to be with you somehow?”

He stopped abruptly in front of us and shouted, “Then you would be wrong, because that is your opinion and not theirs.”

He stepped back slowly as if we were dangerous. and then seemed to almost fall over, standing on a 45-degree angle to the floor. “You have placed your own thoughts into their minds, and that is death, because you do not want to hurt yourselves. You are not protected from them. What do their minds think of you? That is always the question of safety." Then he seemed to straighten, then to just bring himself close to us, only by bending forward, looking as if something impossible was happening, then he continued, "The man on the corner may hate you because you have clothes he wants. The woman may want your home because she thinks you can always get another. The father may want you both dead because you show him hope he no longer has.”

He stopped leaning entirely and stood off to the side. “Now let us use what we have been given to protect each other. Julie, when you feel something is not right, you do not wait. You act as if it is true. You speak as if it matters. You search for the next clue. There is no longer a notice that goes unexamined. Karl, you want to love and be married, but you do not have what many call a woman’s intuition, so you must rely on your senses, what others call the hairs on the back of your neck.”

He centered himself again. “Do you feel, hear, taste, or smell anything right now that tells you something changed while I was talking?”

Julie closed her eyes and stood up. Then she said, “There is a new smell here. Before it was pipe smoke. Now I smell grass.”

I heard something beneath me, looked down, and said, “A bunny,” as I pulled out the cage. Julie sat back down.

A woman I had never seen walked past us and stood in the corner. Julie said, “I smelled that perfume while you were circling us.”

Joseph spoke calmly now. “Almost twenty minutes ago, one second before I said you were both dead, Nancy placed the rabbit under your chair. If that had been a bomb, you would be dead. Do you understand now? Your senses must guide your path now, not later. When you turn a corner, you look, watch, listen, smell, and feel before you move five feet beyond it.”

“I survived the Second World War,” he continued. “I lived inside the walls of German headquarters in Hamburg for almost a year. No one ever knew I was there because I used all my senses. I moved like the wind, with no special training. That is the answer to the question you asked yourselves forty minutes ago. I am not crazy. I am slick as oil, nowhere and everywhere at once, because I use what I was given.”

He paused. “Now we will test this. This is the last exercise. Stand. Turn away from each other. Now face each other. Take two steps apart. Close your eyes.”

There was silence. I heard nothing, but I felt something to my left. I swung my hand and caught an arm. A finger touched my lips for silence. I was turned gently and guided to move my hand around Julie without touching her. Then she grabbed my hand and said, “Karl, what are you doing?”

We stood there holding each other. Joseph stepped forward, shook my hand, and said, “Congratulations. You have begun to live within your surroundings.” He took Julie’s hand, kissed it in the old style of the 1940s, and said, "Thank you, my angel, for giving my life this brief time to teach someone as lovely as yourself, Julie.” And with that, he backed up and stood in front of his chair and said, “I am Joseph Smithfield, and this is the strength I place before the couple today.”

Then, as he sat down, he and his chair were no longer there.

I turned and said, “That was strangely enjoyable. I am kinda unhappy it is completed.” And as my love nodded at me, a man appeared before my very eyes from a space behind everyone's chairs as if it were more magic, but he was like nothing I had ever seen in my life.

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