Dennis Etchison - The Dark Country

There was a new Dolbyized tape deck, an expensive one, microphones, patch cords and all the accessories. It was a better system than Martin had back at the apartment; in fact, he realized with a sinking feeling, he didn't even have his audio equipment anymore, not since Kathy had cleaned out the place. He hadn't even contested the settlement.

"Looks like a pretty sweet set-up, Dad."

"These," his father said with quiet intensity, "are the tools of my research. At least that's what I call them," he added self-deprecatingly. He leaned back, waiting.

Martin handled the tapes uncertainly. The labels were dated, going back about six months — about the time his father had come home from the hospital — and all were marked Raudive-Shear gold meth., mic, followed by anywhere between one and a dozen check marks.

"You know anything about Voices, Jack?"

He looked up. His father indicated a collection of books, magazines, and newspaper clippings on the coffee table. One of the books was titled Voices from the Tapes, another Unpopular Science. He also recognized a copy of FATE and an old National Enquirer.

He suppressed a grin. So this was the sort of thing the old man was getting into now. He couldn't believe it. He vaguely recalled going into Los Angeles to hear Gabriel Greene lecture about his meetings with the "space people" many, many years ago, about the time he had been going through his science fiction paperback phase, but seemed also to remember that he had had almost literally to drag his father along. In fact, the man had always been methodical, even hidebound in his thinking; the lifelong interest in electronics, the sparetime correspondence courses — that had been quite the right kind of hobby for such a careful, logical mind. But now this.

"I'd like to hear about it, Dad."

The old man propped his hands behind his head and began speaking, staring into the TV and past it. He warmed to the subject slowly, point by point, but soon his voice was coming fast and hoarse, his words clipped, his white hands describing in the air. The gist of it went something like this:

In '64, a certain naturalist had been trying out a new tape machine to record bird songs in the field; during playback, his Great Dane pricked up his ears at portions of the tape where nothing was audible, at least to the human ear (his master's voice?). A boost in amplification revealed a faint, barely intelligible voice abpve the background noise, one with a peculiar, rhythmic, otherworldly cant to it that was soon to become familiar. There then followed other scientists, laboratories, experiments, miles of magnetic tape, and before long "Spirit Voice Phenomena" had been verified; a new movement was born. And so on. With a straight face, Martin's father explained how he believed "the Voices" to be evidence of intelligent beings beyond the physical plane.

"… And there's Dr. Raudive in Germany, who has recordings of 72,000 different voices."

Martin's attention was wandering, but he tried at least to follow the drift. A fleck of spittle flew from his father's mouth; it reminded him of a moth. He didn't quite know how to take all this, though he presumed he was supposed to take it quite seriously.

"You record with the gain full up. That's Sheargold's method. I can only do it when she's not around. You can imagine what doors slamming, dishes sound like…"

"So. Let me see if I follow. You rewind the tapes then, and —»

"Right. I monitor each reel, at different levels, through the Koss headset. And chromium dioxide tape, which is what this machine is biased for. Condenser mikes, of course."

Of course. And does he actually hear things? wondered Martin. Well, maybe so. Maybe he does.

"What's turned up so far?"

His father plugged the phones into the machine, inserted a cassette from the top of the stack and started the PLAY button.

"You tell me," he said. "You might be able to help, Jack. If you're inclined to. I haven't gone over this one yet."

Martin shrugged and slipped the phones over his ears. It began with the sound of his father's voice: his name, the date — yesterday, "one forty-six p.m., Santa Mara, California" — and then a regular, unending hiss as the recorded volume went all the way up..Even in the Dolby playback mode, the surface noise was harshly audible. Like sticking your head in a giant conch shell, he thought.

He closed his eyes, straining to hear a pattern in the wash of white sound, but it only wound on, steady and unchanging, like a perpetual ebbing of water. He began to think of the microscopic particles of oxide passing under the sounding head of the deck as grains of sand on a wide, endless stretch of beach. No voices, horns, telephones, alarms; only peace. He felt the cushion beneath him rise and fall, like the earth itself and its tides rocking his weight through a merciful, dreamless sleep.

He thought he detected a low drone under the susurrus. Then a flash of light danced on his eyelids as the TV screen shifted images across the dark room. He opened his eyes.

He tried to focus. His father's lips were moving. In the half-light, the lips had a bluish, ghostly tinge. He uncupped the phones from his head; the ear cushions broke their seal with a pop.

"… Every night, about this time. Every night. As close to me as that door.'' The old man raised a pale finger and pointed toward the hall.

Martin couldn't know how much he had missed. He waited, but the old man did not go on.

He cleared his throat. "So," he tried, feeling disoriented. "What — how was it that you got started in all this?"

Eyes fixed ahead, his father said, "Kathy left some books for me at the hospital, that time she drove out from the city. One of the times you couldn't make it. Business meeting or something," he said distantly, without recrimination, as if talking about a different life. "Yes sir, I knew I had to try to make contact as soon as I got out. After what happened."

Martin's heart sank as, unexpectedly, he found himself overwhelmed with guilt. I never made it out to visit, not once while he was in there. But Kathy did. Of course. She would. That was like her. Buttering people up, maintaining every appearance. and then, one day, poof. Gone. Just like that. That was her way. She wasn't really cold — merely cowardly. She left some books. Which ones? Unpopular Science? Had she meant it as a dig at the old man's love of real scientific research? No, she wasn't that subtle. In her way, maybe she had actually believed he would want to read about some of her off-the-wall fads. Shiatzu, lecithin, pyramid power, plants that talk. The irony was that this time the someone who had given her the benefit of the doubt was his own father. He wondered if she knew that. Was she gloating over it now in some ashram or teepee or wherever the hell she and her latest curly-headed guru were getting it on?

"You don't suppose she wants them back, do you?"

What? The books? He did know that the two of them had shot their wad, didn't he? Is he that far out of it, then?

He was beginning to get a feeling he didn't know how to name. But he had to pursue it. "Dad, what was it you were getting at before, when you asked me about drugs? LSD, that sort of thing. Remember?"

"Mm. I sure thought I was high, let me tell you. The whole time I was in there. I thought I was on some kind of trip."

"What kind of medication were you getting? You know, they must have kept you pumped full of something after the surgery."

"Oh, I asked the doctor. Painkillers, he said. That's all, just painkillers."

Martin considered. "I've heard experiences like that aren't all that rare. I mean, you were probably running a fever, hallucinating —»

"I might have thought the same as you at first. But then they started coming for me. Every night, right at midnight, whether I was asleep or not. Of course, after the first few times, I made a point of staying awake."