HIDEOUS

In 1913 my great-great-great grandmother Estele bought the most hideous lamp at a secondhand store. It was ridiculously tall, made of multi-colored glass, a pointed silver sphere on top and a large copper base. She didn't know then, but this lamp would change the course of all our lives, forever.

I’m also Estele, my mom said she named me after my great-great-gr, well you get it… she said it was because my Grandmother Estele was a card. When I asked what that meant, she said “you know, a hoot.” I didn’t know, I shrugged… she continued, “She was great fun. Like You.” I still wasn’t sure what she meant, I wouldn’t call myself Great fun, but it sounded good.

The story I recite to you now was passed down through generations of my family. It goes something like this.

One night, not long after buying the lamp, an exceedingly high-pitched humming woke Grandma Estele from a sound sleep. She had been having some ringing in her ears that her doctor had prescribed drops for, he called it tinnitus. The drops were little if any help, when she heard the humming that nigh she assumed this was part of that affliction.

Later, that same night, she went to the kitchen for a drink. As she passed through the living-room she noticed the lamp was glowing and emitting the exact high-pitched sound she had been hearing. She hadn't noticed a lava substance inside the class globe before this, but now it was a florescent goo, bubbling and churning counterclockwise inside the glass globe. Rooted to the spot she was unable to tear eyes away from the lamp. The silver top was shining like a bright star, and the copper base was levitating the lamp two or three inches above the table upon which it normally sat.

After a time, the humming stopped, as well as the lamp stopped moving. Estele continued to the kitchen, drank a glass of water, and went back to bed as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. When she woke up the next morning, she remembered bits but thought it to be some weird dream.

This became a regular occurrence for most of her years. Awakened in the early hours, drawn to the lamp, she would stand motionless watching its show then return to bed unaware. The rest of the time the lamp would sit on a table alone, in a place of prominence to all the world like an unsightly, old lamp.

On grandma Estele’ death bed, she told the story to her daughter Caroline, making her swear to keep the lamp in the family’s control, passing it down from one generation to the next, so long as our familial line survived. If for some reason our line died out, the last survivor must pass the lamp on to someone they felt could, “be trusted” with the obligation.

This is the part, my great-great grandmother had a tough time believing; Grandma Estele had told her; "there will come a time when the people of our planet have destroyed everything, and the planet will no longer be sustainable. When this happens, whoever is in possession of the lamp at that time will receive instructions, through the lamp, telling how to save many survivors.

My great, great, grandma, Caroline couldn’t believe the story and took it as the ponderings of a senile old woman. She stored the lamp in the attic, she wanted nothing more to do with it. She feared there might be some strange and unbelievable truth to the story therefor hesitated to discard it...

One-night, many years later, she heard a pounding in the attic—a sound that echoed only in her ears. Grandma Caroline afflicted with tinnitus like her mother, began to think there might be something to the tale her mother had spun on her death bed.

As she ascended the stairs to the attic her trembling was so intense, lifting her feet from step to step felt impossible. The pounding was so severe Caroline feared the attic floor would collapse as she stepped through the doorway.

Multiple colors of light shot from the churning and bubbling in the glass globe, the silver sphere on the top of the lamp was spinning so quickly it almost appeared motionless. The copper base slammed down onto the table after hovering above it momentarily. Caroline watched in fear for what seemed like hours. The lamp stopped spinning and churning, stood motionless once again on the table.

Caroline moved sure-footed down the stairs on previously treacherous legs, not remembering the details of what had happened for many more years. Upon her death bed it all came flooding back as if it were yesterday.

Caroline lay in the hospital bed whispering into her daughter Shasta’ ear. She shared the story her mother had imparted to her on her deathbed, intertwining it with her own unbelievable tale. Caroline told of the message given to her that momentous night in the attic. Revealed to her that night was another piece of the mystery.

"Those who are selected will know when the time comes, they will also experience a humming, ringing, or buzzing in their ears. Through this connection, they will know when to prepare for the great departure."

Great Grandma Shasta promptly removed the lamp from her mothers’ house, carefully transporting it to its new home, once again giving it the place of prominence it expected. Shasta carefully watched over the lamp, polishing it daily and feeling an unfamiliar warmth when she was near it. As instructed by her mother she never shared the secrets of the lamp with others. Through the years she spoke to the lamp, telling it of the changes to life on the planet and how fearful she was becoming.

One night, as she relaxed at home alone, a loud buzzing penetrated her subconscious. The lamp began to shake and rotate above the table, lights shot out from the glass globe, penetrating her body to its deepest core. Afterwards Shasta lay in her bed a strange warmth spreading throughout her body, it gave her a feeling of intense wellbeing.

On Shasta’s 95th birthday, she pulled her daughter, Aurora, aside to share the tale passed down for three generations. As she recounted her own encounter with the lamp, she seemed to glow from within. She finished her tale by imparting the subliminal message, a warning the lamp gave her on that extraordinary night.

“Do not fear or worry, all will be revealed when the time approaches.” After the telling, Shasta lay her head against the back of her favorite rocker she had long ago placed beside the treasured lamp, then closed her eyes for the last time.

Aurora, my mother, spent hours looking at the lamp that day with mixed emotions. If the lamp was the cause of her mother’s longevity, was she the only one, if so, why was she blessed with this. Or is it possible that the lamp was the cause of her demise that day?

When she transported the lamp to its new home with her family, she felt an eerie warmth emanating from it. As she placed it on the mantle over the fireplace, she could feel the essence of all the women who beheld the lamp before her.

Over the years Aurora felt a deep connection with the lamp, watching it stir and listening intently to the sounds emanating from the globe. She wanted to share this experience with her family, but remembered, Grandma Shasta's warning to never to tell anyone. Unsure of what might happen if she did, afraid to surrender her secret and find out, she struggled with the fear to share it and the desire and hope that doing so would free her mind.

Aurora lacked the strength of the families past generations of women, after too many years of internal struggle, the strain unexpectantly claimed her life before she could pass on the instructional tale to me, her daughter, Estele LaChance Prosper.

My twenty first birthday was only a month prior to my mother’s death at the early age of forty-one. While sorting through my mother, Auroras private things, I found her diaries, read the stories passed on from my great grandmothers and my grandmother Shasta. As I read of the relationship my mother had with the lamp, the turmoil it caused her, I surmised the reason behind her rapid decline. I hated the lamp, wanted to destroy it. I tried burning it in the huge basement furnace, leaving it for a week before checking on the progress of its destruction.

As I opened the door to the furnace room, the lamp was waiting, it was turning slowly inside the huge furnaces belly. The lights in the glass globe were flashing brightly and the silver sphere on top was burning bright red. As soon as the furnace door was opened, the lamp shot out of the furnace grazing my arm on the way by. It flew around the room, darting from side to side, stopped and floated expectantly in front of me. When the silver tip ceased to pulse, a red-hot throbbing filled my head accompanied by a loud pounding in my ears.

I threw my hands over my ears as a barrier to block out the noise, but the sound was inside of my head. I realized I was unable to stop it. I fell onto the hard concrete floor landing on my knees. The lamp touched down a slight foot away, but I hadn’t the strength to reach out to it. Cowered on the floor, the pain in my head explosive, blood trickled from my ears and spread across my hands. I lifted my gaze to the glass dome of the lamp and screamed, "STOP!"

My eyes pop open, followed by my body; popping up like a jack-in-the-box, with no music accompaniment and no longer the the hot throbbing pain. I quickly twirled around in search of the lamp, finding it hovering at the top of the basement stairs. I struggled up the stairs muttering under my breath, I must be crazy, or this must be a nightmare. Surly, I thought, I must be in my room, lying on my bed sound asleep.

I followed the lamp as it floated through the hallway, past my bedroom. So much for my being in bed asleep, I thought. Moving with ease and finally without pain, I followed the lamp through the doorway at the end of the hall. I watched as the lamp set itself down gently on the table beside the rocking chair that Grandma Shasta had left to my mother when she passed. I sat in the chair, eyeing the lamp inquisitively. “OK, what now?”

A warming high-pitched humming vibrated through me, gently moving past the outer layer of skin and flesh, past bone, and into my organs. The sound filled my head, invading my sensory nerves. I watched the colors change and twirl in the glass globe, the copper base shown brighter, pulsing in-sync with the humming in my head. I relaxed and closed my eyes, focused intently on the message sent to my subliminal cortex.

“I won’t forget.” I say aloud.

Now, I at the desk in my space cabin, going over my ledger, ensuring a proper and complete transcript is available for the generations to come. I am writing everything recalled in the diaries all my grandmothers had passed on, one to the other, and eventually to me.

This is my first entry into my survivors' log...

Departure from earth, now on our way to new home planet, led by the guiding light of the lamp my grandmother purchased four generations before me. A universal mapped -out route of travel is input here.

Here, I write the words to live by in peace, love and understanding transmitted to me by the survivor lamps guiding light.

#1. Do not be afraid, the lamp is here to guide you.

#2. When you arrive at your destination, form groups according to ability and profession.

#3. Practice love of one another and of your new home planet.

#4. You must always be ready, for when the need should arise to leave here and find another compatible planet.

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#5 When the time comes to lead those deemed worthy of the movement, those who crave freedom from tyranny, and oppression from regimes who seek control of all things and people, caring only for their own monetary and self-fulfilling gains, with no regard for the needs and desires of others.

#6. You will know those earnest devotees, by the pledge implanted in their memory, which they will communicate to you, using the language we have taught you. Be prepared to acknowledge and accept them as brothers and sisters.

After writing these directives down for future generations along with the tales from my grandmothers, mother, and myself. I relayed that in my mother’s diary, my name, LaChance, is short for “Last Chance”.

I closed my ledger; I leave it on my desk for future readers. I feel a tiredness of the ages, worn and frazzled nerves.

I am eager now for a nice long nap. I lay on my cot, hearing nothing but quiet. Finally. At long last...