1989 -- Activation.
It is lunch time at Valley Christian High. At a table in a far corner of the cafeteria, five students sat eating lunch together. They were good friends and the hot topic of their discussion was the upcoming Junior-Senior Formal Dinner.
"So Ryan, who are you taking?" Tim O'Reily, one of "The Gang," drilled Ryan.
"I said I'm not going to go."
"What will it take to get you to go?"
"Nothin'." Ryan mumbled between bites.
Steven Evans, another one of the group, jumped into the conversation, "Good! So that means you are going!"
"I'm not going!"
Tim leaned over to Steven and whispered, "I'll bet if we got him a date he'd go."
"Yeah! . . . Who?"
Tim turned to Ryan. "If you had a date for the dinner would you go?"
"What is it with you guys? I don't want to go," the thought about a date made him want to maybe reconsider his decision. One reason he did not want to go was that he did not want to go alone. He silently added, "sorta."
"Would you go?"
"If I had a date, yes, I would have to go." Ryan tried to hide the smile from that thought.
"So who should you take?" Tim wondered.
"I don't know anyone. Oh well, guess I don't have to go." Ryan smiled.
"Yes you do. I've seen the pictures in your wallet," Tim thought for a minute. "Let's see the pictures," he said suddenly.
"No. Why would I want to do that?"
"So we can decide who you can take."
"Nah, that's okay. Don't want to trouble you," Ryan said while Tim gave Steven a look, who in turn reached and grabbed Ryan's wallet and handed it to Tim. "Hey. . . "
"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Tim said and began to look through the pictures.
"So? What's he got Tim?" John Crush, another of the group, said finally speaking up.
"Hold on," Tim started to think and then said to Ryan, "How about if you take . . . wait, you have a few pictures of Dani Thompson. How about her?" Ryan became white, but also smiled a little and started to hope that maybe his friends would somehow arrange it. "You know," Tim continued, "I could go ask her now."
Could you? Ryan thought but instead said, "You wouldn't!"
"I'll be right back." Tim got up with a smile on his face and headed toward where Dani was sitting.
"He's not going where I think he's going, is he?"
"Yep," Steven snickered.
"I gotta get outta here." Ryan got up and headed toward the lockers on the other side of the room.
"Wait! Where are you going?" Jared Martin, another one of the group, said, but it was too late. Ryan had moved out of there fast.
As Ryan moved toward the lockers, he had to pass where Tim and Dani were talking. Dani saw him and smiled. Ryan moved faster. What was Tim saying? What is Dani going to think or say? He hoped she would say yes, but then what was he going to do? He had never been on a date. Maybe she'll say no and he won't have to worry about it.
Ryan arrived at his locker and opened it. He examined his locker for something that would get his mind off his present situation. Nothing. He just stared into it. As he looked someone came up behind him. He turned thinking it was Tim. As he turned and faced the person, his heart jumped. It wasn't Tim; it was Dani.
Dani stood in front of Ryan. She seemed to beam like an angel. Her beautiful, long blond hair hung down on her shoulders. Her crystal, sapphire blue eyes gazed softly at Ryan. She was smiling her small quiet smile.
"Hi Ryan," she said.
Ryan's heart was beating fast and all he could manage to get out was, "Hi."
"I hear that someone wants to take me to the Junior-Senior Formal Dinner."
Ryan wondered why she was telling him this. "Are you going to go with him?" he asked, thinking that she meant someone else had already asked her, and not even thinking about what Tim did.
"I don't know. He hasn't asked me yet."
"What?" he said still confused. " How do you even know that he wants to take you?"
"One of his friends just asked me for him, but I'll answer him if only he asks me." Then she gave him a look that made the light go on in Ryan's head that said it was him she meant. Her expression also encouraged Ryan to ask her now. He should have known.
Ryan looked over her shoulder at his friends. They were laughing at his predicament, but he also saw that they were sincere in helping him find a date. He looked at her again. She seemed eager to go with him if he'd only ask. So he decided to try. Ryan had never asked any girl on a date before so he did not know what to say. "Ah . . . would you like to go with me to the dinner?" He hoped he hadn't sounded foolish, but that was all he could think of.
As Dani was about to answer Ryan, the school's bell sounded and Dani's friends urged her to their next class. She smiled at Ryan as she left the cafeteria.
At the end of the day, Ryan grabbed his books and jacket and hurried to the bus anxious to go home. As he sat in the left front seat, Loren Moser got on the bus. She was her cheerful self and she sat behind Ryan as she usually did. Because there were only a few students on the bus, Ryan would be the first one to get off. However before the bus reached his stop, Loren spoke with him, "I hear you asked Dani to the dinner. What did she say?"
"Yeah, I asked her," Ryan smiled. "But she didn't get a chance to answer me."
"From what I heard, she'll go with you."
"You think so?"
"Hey, for the last two weeks she had been hoping that you would ask her. Yeah, I think so."
The bus came to Ryan's stop. "Maybe she'll tell me something tomorrow. I don't know." Ryan stood up. "Well, see ya tomorrow, Loren." He got off the bus.
When Ryan reached home, he did his homework and then went outside to take a walk. He walked for a while and then came home and sat on the porch until dark. As it got dark, Ryan stared at the stars as they slowly appeared and admired their beauty. He really appreciated the beauty of the stars that God created.
Later he went inside and decided to watch some television. Turning on the set, he watched a news brief about a young actor, Thomas Moyer, who was missing from his home in Beverly Hills, and a couple of other shows before he went to bed.
* * *
Later that night in an abandoned building, four men, dressed in expensive suits were talking. They stood around a table with a map of the United States
"How is everything going?" Said the man with a cane.
Another man wearing the same exact suit as the one with the cane responded, "All is going according to plan. When the election is completed, we will have control of most of the East Coast. Our men are winning the debates all the time. We will begin removing all opposition."
"Good. Soon we will be the only ones to whom people will come for this." He picked up one of the bags and threw it to his side man.
* * *
Early the next morning around Ryan awoke with a strange feeling in his head. He did not know what it was, but he felt as if he were being drawn into the cellar. He tried to fight it off and go back to sleep, but the harder he tried, the stronger the feeling became.
He tossed and turned for about ten minutes. As he sat up, the feeling became stronger, and he went downstairs. He walked over to the cellar door, opened it, and stopped. He looked down and saw a dim light pulsing steadily. His curiosity overcame any fears he might have had; he went down.
The source of the light was in a small room situated in one of the corners of the cellar. He went inside. In front of Ryan stood a table and on the table was the source of the light, a cube measuring about one foot on each side. Ryan reached out and touched it. For a second it glowed steadily then began pulsing dimly again. He reached out with both hands on either side to pick it up. The cube began to glow steadily and brightly. Ryan took a step back. The cube gave a bright flash that almost blinded Ryan.
When Ryan's vision cleared, he was no longer in his cellar. He was in a very large room. The cube, which was still in front of him, was projecting a three dimensional image of someone. He looked closer. He thought he recognized the person. He looked and tried to think of whom. It was a girl, fifteen or sixteen, with wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. "Dani!" He jumped back.
* * *
About five miles north of Ryan's house, in an upstairs bedroom, Dani was sleeping. She awoke suddenly thinking that someone called her name. She sat up and looked around her room, but nothing was out of the ordinary. She tried to go back to sleep. She tossed and turned for a half hour and finally she went to sleep.
