Pressure Chamber, page 34
She stands up to leave, stopping at the door to turn to him.
“I wonder if it would have worked.”
“What?”
“Connecting the circulatory systems of the three babies. It’s possible, of course – in theory. It’s just that no one’s ever tried it before. It probably wouldn’t have created a higher being or something to that effect, but I wonder what it would mean from a cardiovascular perspective.”
Grandpa looks at her and sips from his tea again before responding. “You scare me sometimes, Rotem. When was your last psych evaluation?”
“I don’t remember. Yours?”
Now it’s his turn to raise his eyebrows.
Rotem smiles. “I don’t think I’ve ever been put through the tests I’ve compiled. Could be interesting.”
94.
The shelf is located in a bell-shaped ice cave in the middle of a large glacier in Iceland. We walk through a tunnel of ice, hunched over, to reach it, our bare feet wading through a stream which grows warmer the closer we get to the center of the cave. This is one of our favorite places.
We sit on the ice shelf, eating potato chips and swinging our feet in the air. My friend and me.
The light from the sun shines a deep blue through the glacier walls and creates the sense that we’re in another world, outside of the Earth. Every now and then, a chunk of ice breaks off the ceiling, falls into the pool with a loud splash and sprays water over us. Every time it happens, or whenever the geyser of hot steam in the cave erupts, we cry out in unison: “Woo hoo!”
When we finish the potato chips, I fold the empty packet and put it the pocket of my freezing cold jeans. We make a point of keeping our bell cave clean.
“Want to go on a journey?”
“No. It’s late already. I need to get up.”
I’m no longer on the shelf of ice but lying on something soft. My friend is no longer with me. I feel a hand stroking my hair even though there’s no one here. “Shhhh,” someone whispers in my ear, their breath warm. A current courses through my body. The dream starts to fade. And before I can turn around or yell “Focus!” I wake up.
LET ME FINISH WITH A FEW THANKS:
To Etty, Noam and Yuval, thank you for the patience needed in coping with a strange person who disappears in the middle of family activities in order to type an idea for a new chapter before he forgets it. You are my muses.
To Einat Niv for the trust and the warm home at the Tchelet Publishing House.
To Tirza Flor for the great editing. It was really fun working together!
To Talia Marcos for the email you sent me with the article about lucid dreaming. “That’s for you, I know you,” you said, and you were absolutely right.
To David Belder for the expert advice in the area of forensic medicine.
To Dr. Dganit Zicin-Gensher for the early reading and constructive comments.
To The Deborah Harris Agency and Rena Rossner, who in addition to being a particularly energetic literary agent is also a great writer.
To Stephen LaBerge for your research and books on lucid dreaming and the invention of the MILD technique that definitely did the work for me. You have opened a door to a new world for me. To whoever wants to experiment with lucid dreaming, I recommend Stephen’s book, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.
Rotem’s explanation of emotions (in Chapter 51) is based on the book How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett, which I warmly recommend. Thank you, Lisa!
The opening poem is ‘free style’ based on a Brazilian folk song.
Allow me to apologize for a few inaccuracies and small lies I’ve put into the story:
First of all, please excuse me for stretching the borders of lucid dreaming. There is no fear of being ‘locked in dream time’. That’s my invention. Also, there is no figure like Makoto that leads you into a lucid dream. Sleep paralysis, however, is very real and a pretty scary experience.
In Chapter 60, Daphne and Nathan examine a package that arrived directly from a crime scene, a thing that wouldn’t have happened in reality. In Israel, body parts collected from crime scenes are sent directly to the Institute of Forensic Medicine and not to the police Forensics labs. I apologize for this trick I used in order to speed up the plot.
In Chapter 37, I mention ‘Angle Fire’, a secret system I ‘stole’ from the Americans who developed and used it while fighting in Iraq. There’s no such beast in Israel, and no, I’m not giving away any homeland secrets.
The location detection based on concrete samples held in the Israeli Standards Institute. Well… there are no such samples.
In Chapter 81, I mention the Freemasons building at 2 Berkowitz Street. The Grand Lodge of the State of Israel Freemasonry is actually located in the adjacent building, Berkowitz 4, on the fourth floor of the Museum Tower building, but the smaller building suited me better for the story and it does not have (of course) any underground floors, labs or Alpha rooms.
Any connection between the organization which I call ‘the Organization’ and actual Israeli intelligence agencies is nothing but pure coincidence.
I hope you liked this book. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the story and lucid dreaming in general. My email is nirhezroni@gmail.com and you can also find me on all kinds of social networks.
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Nir Hezroni, Pressure Chamber
