- Measure the airwaves for high-intensity electric fields. Often high-traffic areas, such as tourist destinations, department stores and amusement parks, achieve the necessary frequencies, although they make the assemblage of the portal rather difficult. High-intensity veins snake beneath the earth’s surface between the poles, forming a web, and if one is lucky a hole dug from the surface can tap into this network.
He sold amethysts and other gems from a cart in the middle of the food court. I stopped at Auntie Anne’s for a pretzel and he tapped me on the shoulder with his wand, smiling wide in the mandatory wizard costume. His thick fingers grazed my hipbone as he slipped a gem in my pocket. He was kind and I let him drive me home in his old taxicab. The peeled leather seats were charming and I told him so, lingering in the passenger seat while he idled outside of my apartment.
- Locate a high-intensity vein by measuring surface temperature. They are often found in heavily wooded areas because the excess heat creates a thriving environment for plant life. However, amateurs often mistake veins for hot springs or volcanic activity.
He snuck me into a free show and I watched his face turn colors in the glow of the movie screen. He told me I looked like a goddess. We had sex in the woods behind the movie theatre until our bodies were imprinted in the flattened grass.
- Once you have located a vein, monitor the area for surveillance cameras or other electronic appliances that may disrupt the integrity of the electric field when you try to access the portal. Secure a shovel of medium weight, a number of steel beams depending on the size of the hole, and anything that can carry electric current.
We lay there afterward and he told me what he had found. He cradled my head in the crook of his arm and I didn’t tell him about the twig that was pressing into my lower back above the cusp of my jeans. He pushed a dripping curl off of his forehead.
- Survey topographic maps, land surveys and local geological data to familiarize yourself with the natural obstacles. Start digging.
I started wearing his t-shirts to bed so he could see my nipples through the thin cotton but he fell asleep on the couch amid his maps and frenetic scribblings. He asked me for money, his voice desperate and deep, and I forgot about returning to community college in the fall. He would rub my neck and ask me to stand watch and I would lean against a tree, watching the fuzzy computer screens for bodies other than his.
- At regular intervals, test the strength of the vein with your car battery or other electronic device. The current should arc, disabling all cell phones, television sets, handheld radio devices, etc. The high-intensity veins flow beneath the earth’s surface at varying depths and so some holes may tap into the vein at a depth of six feet, while others may prove impossible without sufficient machinery.
I scavenged flea markets and garage sales for old magnets and steel wool. I started knitting it together into a sort of chainmail with extra wire, industrial knitting needles and a screwdriver. They stood independently in the corner of the bedroom as if they had bodies to fill them. He spoke of bodies embedded in walls, warped consciousness, the Philadelphia Experiment, a martyr’s transcendent ecstasy.
- Reinforce the hole’s walls with the steel beams. Some holes may become tunnels and so proper reinforcement is needed to support the integrity of the roof. For the portal to become active, it needs to be eased into wakefulness. Employ as many conduits of electricity as possible to divert the energy of the vein into your chosen portal space. Many travelers do this by embedding magnetic devices, discarded electronics, batteries and bits of scrap metal into the walls of a concentrated region of their hole or tunnel. Begin constructing the coverings to transform your mortal body into a part of the mosaic itself. Medieval armor and chain mail, constructed with overlaps and interlinking metal pieces to ensure full coverage of the warrior’s skin, provide a very sound model for this construction, although past travelers have tested other methods, from weaving electrical wiring to welding car parts (the success of these methods remains unknown).
He slipped his steel sweater over his clothes, dousing himself in water to find leaks and openings where it seeped through to his skin. I rubbed Neosporin into the bloodied epaulets the steel wool etched into his shoulders as he stood in front of the mirror, locking his eyes on my moving hands.
- Do not be discouraged. Portal access is quite difficult, especially in areas with a high concentration of housing developments and power lines. Rainfall has an unexplained cleansing effect on power sources and often provides the best opportunity for transcendence. As studied travelers must know, a past period cannot be specified; the convergence of time and space differs at each vein. The essence of travel itself is embodied submission to the unknown and the inevitable.
He was fidgety and distracted with the summer storms. I came home after work and folded my jacket carefully on the back of the couch; the iron coat hanger had vanished. I placed my keys on a clean kitchen table, the scattered papers gone and dirty coffee cups and plates on the drying rack. Even my desk chair was gone. I wandered from room to room, drinking in his absence.
© 0 S. Peterson
