IS

As they turned onto the long stretch of entrance road lined with rows of palm trees on either side, Alley began to get a sick feeling deep down in the pit of her stomach. Anxiety was taking her over as she leaned forward and tried to get a glimpse of the institute that now waited for her, a mere four hundred yards ahead in the distance.

They passed by a pond on the right that was inhabited by dozens of beautiful and prestigious pink flamingos; all surrounding a huge green marble mermaid statue that claimed its center. Her mother and grandmother marveled at its beauty. They quickly left it behind and approached the ginormous white adobe looking structure, graced beneath a covering of gorgeous red Spanish terracotta roof tiles. It was awesome and certainly intimidating to anyone, let alone the gentle disposition of a nine year old girl.

“Mom, I don’t want to do this” Alley said, as they rounded the large circle drive at the front of the building, and she squeezed pain into her brother’s hand.

Shane threw his arm around her and pulled her close, while her grandmother turned sideways again, doing her best to comfort her as well.

Corey came to a stop, put the van in park, and turned off the ignition. Everyone was silent for the moment. She looked up into the rear view mirror and addressed her daughter with a final compromise.

“I’ll tell you what,” she said. “We’ll go in, meet the nice woman I talked to on the phone, and if you still feel uncomfortable about all of this, we’ll go–-fair?” she asked.

Alley looked at her grandmother, and then to her brother, who raised his eyebrows as if to say ‘sounds fair to me’.

She gave it a few seconds. “Well?” her mother asked.

If you listened hard enough, you could have heard all four heart beats thumping at once. Alley took in a deep breath and exhaled. “Fair,” she finally answered.

Once inside, the four of them traveled close together, resembling Dorothy and her three mystical friends (minus the dog) anticipating the great and powerful Oz, as their whispers and footsteps echoed throughout the huge and beautifully tiled space that seemed to have no end.

It was considerably cooler inside, with a smell that reminded Alley of bubblegum and roses. She thought it odd that a building so large would be occupied by so very few people. In fact, for an establishment that probably covered twenty acres of property, they had only noticed ten or fifteen cars in the parking lot; and until now, not one breathing soul.

They heard someone address them from the mezzanine overhead. They all looked up to see a thin, white haired man leaning over the railing, whose voice could have easily been mistaken for a woman.

“Stone family?” he inquired for a second time, his voice echoing loudly. He motioned them to join him on the next level, with a terribly uninviting, eerie smile.

“Mom?” Alley nervously spoke, requesting her opinion of their strange host.

“Its fine honey. Come on,” Corey said. She took her daughter’s hand and they all ascended the flight of stairs not far off and to their right. Just as they reached the landing above, Corey fell behind her daughter and placed a hand on each shoulder, while the strange man approached them and dropped to one knee before the timid young girl.

“And you must be Alley?” he said, as he pulled away the white stringy strands that had fallen over half his face, exposing both eyes.

Alley was caught off guard and flinched with surprise to find the hidden eye was green, where the other was brown. Not only was he short and thin in stature, but his face was thin as well, with cheek bones that protruded within his overly fair skin. He stared into her eyes until the moment became uncomfortable and Corey stepped in to address him.

“Doctor Wesley… Doctor Chris Wesley?” Corey implied.

It took a few seconds for him to tear himself away and stand to greet the rest of Alley’s family. He shook all of their hands and thanked them for coming to his institute.

“Wait, your institute?” Alley’s grandmother asked.

“Oh, I guess I gave it away, didn’t I?” he claimed, as he pushed his hair aside again and went on to explain himself. “My full name is Doctor Christopher Wesley Shekell, and I am very pleased that you are all here. I tend to leave out my last name when meeting prospective patients and their families; it feels a bit narcissistic to me. I come from a long bloodline of exceptional and very well respected doctors… surgeons, actually. I alone broke away into another field that I found to be so much more fascinating,” he smiled. “And besides, I am actually deathly afraid of blood,” he admitted. He began to laugh a creepy and distorted woman’s laugh, snorting to catch his breath.

“Anyways, if you’ll all follow me, I’ll give you a special guided tour,” he finally said. He started to move and they all filed in closely behind.

Shane immediately caught his mother’s attention, rolling his eyes in disgust as Doctor Crypt Keeper’s voice continued to reverberate throughout the massive territory of glass and tile.

Once they had progressed to what appeared to be another wing, they were approached by a beautiful blonde woman wearing a white lab coat and carrying a shiny metal folder tucked under one arm.

Before she had the chance to get within fifty feet, the doctor addressed her with a request. “Miss Larson,” he called out, “how are we looking?”

“The Vermilion Room is ready, Doctor,” she called back, smiling, giving the appearance of a Miss America finalist.

He gave her a nod, and then turned around to face his guests.

“I have always been intrigued with the pigmentation of exotic colors, Vermilion being my favorite.” He looked at Alley. “A special room for a special girl!” he said, putting forth his awkward and not so special smile.

She again looked to her mother, as if to say, all bets are off, this is one crazy son-of-a-bitch! Her mother could only respond with a nervous smile.

“I know what you’re thinking, Alley,” he said, dropping to one knee again so that he would be at her eye level. He brought the level of his voice down a bit, as well.

“You’re thinking-–should I trust this strange guy, even if he does know magic?” With that, he reached behind her right ear and pulled back a chocolate coin wrapped in gold foil.

Her eyes opened wide with excitement, and a smile came to her face.

He then spun around and withdrew a bouquet of flowers from the left sleeve of his jacket, presenting them to her grandmother, and then turning to give Alley a wink with his green eye. Everyone clapped, and at least for the moment all awkwardness had gone away. He bowed and thanked them for their kind response.

“Well then Alley, are you ready to see my special room? Who knows what other magic we may find?” he added, this time winking at Corey.

“Your mother can come along, while your grandmother and brother can finish the tour with Miss Larson as their guide. When they’re finished, they will be allowed to join us… sound good?” he finished.

Alley gave a nod of approval, while Alley’s grandmother felt patronized. “Uh, is there a reason we’re not allowed to come along with you now?” she asked.

“Mother!” Corey barked.

“No, that’s a perfectly normal question,” the doctor claimed. “My answer to that is that I don’t like a small crowd while trying to learn my patient’s special traits. Joining us just a little later on is better for everyone. Understand?” he asked, smiling, and pushing aside his hair once again.

“I guess so,” Alley’s grandmother answered, while Shane just stood there, quiet and compliant.

He looked at Miss Larson who still remained in the very same spot, like a beautiful trained pet. His young male hormones were raging. His eyes slowly traveled past her lab coat to the short skirt that tightly wrapped her hips, giving way to the long and beautifully shaped legs adorned in a modest tone of stockings and black pump shoes. He was hoping for a good long tour, as he and his grandmother moved to join their gorgeous guide.

Alley passed through the door and into a dimly lit room enriched in a deep reddish orange hue. It was a large room with an enormous fish aquarium built into the wall at the far end.

Doctor Shekell invited Alley and her mother to have a seat in the brown leather chairs that sat stationary and waiting.

“Alley, I want you to be as comfortable as possible. Why don’t you sit in the recliner and tilt yourself back a little?”

He noticed her glaring at the movement in his aquarium as he helped her. “You like my fish?” he asked.

She only nodded, as she couldn’t peel her eyes away. Curiosity forced her to finally speak. “What are they?” she asked. Before he had the chance to answer her, she shouted out a fish she recognized. “Nemo!”

“Yes, that’s a clown fish,” he replied. “Actually, I call him Boris.”

Alley smiled.

“And there, under the large pink coral, is Grumpy. He’s a moray eel; a dwarf golden, to be exact.”

Alley’s senses were heightened with excitement. She leaned forward and marveled at all the other brightly colored reef fish as they darted through the water. Her attention was soon interrupted by the dark swooping pass of something much larger, a fish about two and a half feet in length. Her smile slowly faltered, and she settled back into her seat again.

“And that’s Draq,” the doctor added. “He’s the newest addition to the neighborhood. He’s a shark, but I’m not really sure what kind. He was given to me by a former patient. I was told that as long as I keep feeding him non-living things, he won’t bother the other fish. I guess it’s true, because I’ve had him for a couple weeks now and he hasn’t eaten any of these other guys. Not yet, anyway. Okay. Comfortable?” he concluded, as he brought his hands together in front of him. Then he looked to her mother. “Mrs. Stone?”

Corey smiled and nodded.

“Okay, then,” he said. He turned and touched a button on the wall that gradually dimmed the lights to an almost dark atmosphere, making the lighted aquarium seem even more present. “Alley, I want you to start by closing your eyes and thinking of something that makes you happy. Something, or some place, that makes you feel at ease, like you don’t have a care in the world. Can you do that? Can you get that image in your mind?” he asked, while he rolled a cart next to her chair and started applying tiny sensors to specific areas of her body, emphasizing her pulse and brain activity.

“These sensors won’t bother you honey. But they will give me very specific information about what you’re feeling or experiencing, should something occur during our session, okay?”

She gave him a modest smile and nodded, while her mother became infatuated with what looked to be a very advanced system of blinking lights and digital displays, giving her the notion that Doctor Shekell’s studies went far beyond the traditional exploits she had, or anyone would have, anticipated.

“Okay, that’s all of them. How are you feeling, Alley?” he asked, as he stepped back and began to monitor the display. Even in movies, Corey had never seen anything so technologically advanced before.

“I feel good” Alley responded, keeping her eyes closed. She had done just as she was asked to do. She had put herself into a beach setting; diving into the calm and serene blue water. Once below the surface, she began to encounter reef fish of all sizes and colors. In her mind, she was at one with her aquatic surroundings, and she was able to breathe just as freely as she would on land.

Doctor Shekell quietly gave Corey some basic insight to what he was obtaining from the display.

“You see the blue lights fluttering, and sometimes blinking together?” he asked with a calm whisper.

“Yes,” she responded.

“This shows me that she is in a very calm state,” he said.

“What?” Alley asked, still with closed eyes.

“Nothing honey, I was talking to your mother. Just keep on thinking of good things.”

“Here. If you’ll roll the cart back a bit, I’ll move your chair as well. I don’t want to disturb her any further,” he whispered. Corey rolled his cart back, careful not to unintentionally tug on any of the wires attached to the sensors, while he slid back her chair until they achieved a distance of about fifteen feet.

“Perfect,” he said. “Beautiful thoughts, Alley,” he instructed again.

“Why did you move so far away?” Alley asked.

“Just wanted to give you some room, honey,” Corey answered.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

Amid the flutter of blue lights, a blue was now replaced by a pink one.

“See that? It shows me she’s feeling a bit uneasy, or nervous.”

“What do the red lights mean? What happens when the lights go red?” she asked a second time.

He pretended not to hear her. “We need to rewind, get her back to where she was.” He looked at Alley with a fictitious smile.

“Alley, what were you thinking about?” he asked.

“I was in the ocean, looking at all the colorful fish–-just like in your aquarium,” she answered back.

“That’s perfect Alley, think about that some more. Can you do that?” he asked her

Corey just sat there and watched the blinking lights.

“Your mother and I will be quiet now and leave you to your ocean adventure, okay?”

“Okay,” she answered. Within seconds, the pink light disappeared, giving way to nothing but blue; much like the ocean that Alley had become a part of again. A smile came to her face once more as her young and vivid imagination took her through a huge underwater garden of colorful corals, sea urchins, and anemones; inhabited by a vibrant festival of banded and four-eyed butterflies, blue tangs, clowns, spotted drums, scrawled cows and more, all residing within the fantastic dreamlike vision that had, at least in her mind, come to life all around her. How could anything be more beautiful? And it was just as Doctor Shekell had hoped for her, like she hadn’t a care in the world…

…and then everything began to change. Something passed overhead, blocking out the sunlight for a second, making all the reef fish scatter to leave or take cover. She looked to the surface, but saw nothing.

“I got a pink one,” Corey reported. “Two! I got two pink lights!” she whispered a second time.

Doctor Shekell, who had been jotting down some notes, lifted his head to see. He then looked to Alley who remained still, but had lost her smile. “What’s going on in there, girl?” he whispered to himself, anticipating some real excitement.

“Three!” Corey whispered. “Three pink lights are flashing with the blue. Should we say something? Is this something we should worry about?” Corey asked, feverishly concerned.

“No. Let’s see where this takes us,” he replied.

Alley was beginning to worry. She was contemplating leaving, when she saw a small clown fish in the distance swimming towards her, and then a couple more reefers off to her right.

“Hey, Nemo!” she said. “Come here, little guy.”

Her Mother and the doctor both listened.

“She sounds happy, doesn’t she?” Corey asked.

The doctor wouldn’t respond. He just stared, patient and unassuming, awaiting something more.

“Aren’t you cute?” Alley said. And then, just as the tiny and adorable fish came within ten feet of her, Alley flinched unexpectedly at the silvery, streaking pass of something much larger than she was, taking the tiny clown away.

It was a small snack for the likes of what now presented itself to her, turning twenty yards out to make another pass. It was a shark—an eight foot Mako, and possibly the fastest predator in the ocean.

She became frozen with the fear of this vision. From where the Doctor and Corey sat, she was shaking uncontrollably and trying to speak-–or maybe just scream.

Her mother stood up, ready to go to her side, but Doctor Shekell stopped her.

“No! Give her a minute, please!” he begged, as the lights blinked pink, and the readings made the good doctor salivate with excitement. Amazed, he took a step past Corey, shaking but caught up in the revelation of a session he had anticipated for years.

In her mind, the large fish was taking its time; almost smiling at her fear. And then it came, fast with a purpose.

“No!” she screamed, placing both hands out in front of her and closing her eyes. Across the room, there was a faint sound of cracking glass. In her vision, she opened her eyes seconds later, and the shark had gone.

But her underwater habitat was somehow darker, and lifeless, as if clouds were passing over above the water’s surface. No fish or marine life whatsoever was moving. Her heart rate and breathing began to slow.

“Alley! Can you hear me?” the doctor asked. “What do you see now? Can you describe what you are seeing to me?”

“I–-I’m okay now. There was a shark, but it’s gone. I think I made it go away.”

“Fascinating!” he whispered. “She’s found a way to challenge the fear in her visions.”

Corey looked to the monitor which flashed pink mixed with blue once again, and felt a slight calming, herself. “Honey, you all right?” she asked her daughter.

“It’s quiet, but dark,” she replied. “I don’t know where all the pretty fish went to.”

“Can she come back now? Do you have any idea what’s going on with her?” she whispered to the doctor.

“Let’s have her transition back to us, so that I may ask her some questions about her experience,” he answered. “Then, maybe I can begin to understand what is happening to your daughter.”

“Alley, let the vision fall away now. Can you do that sweetie? Can you slowly push it away and open your eyes?” he asked.

“I’m trying. Something’s not right!” she said.

It was at that very moment that Doctor Shekell looked up from his devices and noticed her eyes were open; open, but still within the vision. “That’s incredible,” he mumbled under his breath, so as not to alarm her mother. He was in awe with what he was witnessing.

“Maybe I just need to–-” Her sentence was cut short when she turned and her vision brought her face to face with the statuesque white nightmare that somehow came to her, even now in her watery wonderland.

It smiled and reached for her as she scrambled backwards off the chair and to the wall behind, tangled in wires and scared for her life.

“Alley!” the doctor screamed. “What is it?”

Her mother couldn’t speak. She placed a hand over her mouth, and shook, with tears in her eyes.

Alley was convulsing, red faced and holding her breath; a sight her mother knew all too well.

Corey pulled her hand away just enough to shout something to the doctor. “Red!” she screamed, “The lights are all red!”

The doctor moved back behind a network of flashing crimson, finding it hard to believe what he was seeing.

“It’s happening again!” Corey screamed.

“What-–what’s happening?” Doctor Shekell shouted.

Within the darkened underwater surroundings, Alley’s white monster was slowly coming at her, smiling as if it had won its prize.

Just when it all seemed close to surrender, Alley sucked in a breath of air and arose strong in her stance. A will had taken her over, and she placed a hand out in front of her as if to stop what was forthcoming. She soon joined her one hand with the other, and her face gave the appearance of excruciating pain as both nostrils emitted drops of blood, rolling onto and between her lips. She blew the excess pools away.

Corey and the doctor couldn’t find their words. They both just stood there frozen and witness to the nightmare that was happening before them.

The fish in the aquarium were swimming erratically; at times bumping into the glass, as the small shark voraciously attacked them, tearing the once whole and beautiful specimens to shreds. The tiny pieces slowly, within all the commotion, sank effortlessly to the stony bottom below.

Alley’s arms grew heavy and tired. She dropped them for the moment, crying and mumbling a young girls ranting’s, giving it reason to come at her again. And it did. She sensed this and threw up her arms, counting on every last bit of energy she had to finish this.

“Go–away–now!” she screamed, loud and strong, with every space of breath that filled her lungs, until there was no more. She had escaped the evil again. The vision washed away and she collapsed to her knees.

Outside the observation window, the beautiful Miss Larson’s mouth was wide with shock, as her steel folder slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor.

Shane and Alley’s grandmother stood astonished as well, when there was a loud crack, followed by an explosion of glass and eighty gallons of marine life rushing across the floor.

Doctor Shekell yelled and rushed to save his fish, cutting his hand on a sharp piece of glass in the process. Seeing the blood that followed, he soon passed out.

Miss Larson frantically excused herself and ran for help.

Shane and his grandmother looked at each other for a moment and then the door opened, and Corey greeted them with the good doctor unconscious in her arms.

“Well, this didn’t quite turn out the way I thought it would,” she said.

“Mom, what about the fish?” Alley cried, as she stood behind her mother, watching them flop on the wet floor.

Just then, three large men came running towards them.

“These nice men will take care of it, honey,” Corey said, as she shuffled the doctor into the arms of one of the men.

“What happened? Is he all right?” the man asked.

“His aquarium exploded, and he cut his hand and passed out,” she explained. “When he comes to–-tell him I said it was real, and to bill me!” She then knelt down and wiped her daughter’s face clean with the front of her wet skirt. Corey was scared and agitated, all at once. “We’re leaving now,” she commanded, as they trotted off together, blood stained and wet.

A little further down the way, they passed Miss Larson as she was heading back. “You guys are just leaving?” she asked with a look of confusion on her face.

“We’ve had all the excitement we can handle,” Corey blurted out as they continued on.

Miss Larson just stared at them. Shane looked back and gave her a wink and a smile. She returned his smile with one of her own, and then left to check on her boss.

“Woo hoo!” he screamed, excited as his voice echoed loudly throughout the place.

“Shane!” his grandmother snapped.

Just before they turned the next corner, he glanced back one last time to get a final glimpse of the women that had stolen his heart. She was gone, but the memory of her smile felt as though it would last a lifetime. He couldn’t wait to tell his buddy Tyler all about her. But for now, he pressed on with his family, brokenhearted and clinging to the remnants of his first real crush.