Shambhala Page 11

  “I’m here,” I said when I got to his side.

  “You look beautiful,” he said, and I smiled at him fondly.

  “Shall we go?”

  “I don’t know if I should go,” he said thoughtfully.

  My heart skipped a beat. “And now what’s wrong,” I thought. That was like a jug of cold water dropped on me.

  “Have I done something wrong?” I finally asked.

  “No,” he said seriously. His face conveyed sadness.

  “Have you met someone?”

  He raised his head, surprised.

  “Meet someone? When?”

  We were both silent. I watched him.

  “No, it isn’t that.”

  “Well, then?”

  He smiled shyly, looking at the ground. I understood that he was embarrassed to tell me.

  I took another step in his direction. His body and mine were very close, only a few inches. I leaned toward him, searching for his face, his gaze, and I met it. He straightened his head and our eyes met nakedly. This time I didn’t want to lose him and that emotion propelled me to kiss him. I did it slowly, afraid it would make him move away from my lips. But he didn’t move away. Our pupils were still linked. I watched his reaction. What started as a shy kiss turned into desire. He grabbed me by the waist, bringing me in close, and his tongue penetrated softly into my mouth, playing with mine in a delicate dance of mischief.

  It felt like time stood still.

  In contrast, I felt my heart beating fast, paced to this rhythm of his. He stroked my face with his hand in a slow and smooth movement that took him to the nape of my neck. Nothing mattered now. I just wished it would never end.

  For a few minutes, we let ourselves be carried away by frenzy and passion, until reluctantly I was forced to end that longed-for moment.

  I couldn’t help but smile when our lips separated. Almost like a fifteen year old girl after her first kiss, I looked at him shyly, an infantile embarrassment that soon matured into a look charged with sensuality and desire. He smiled, complicit in that reciprocal passion that had only just begun.

  I looked at the time on his wristwatch.

  “Yes, we should go,” he said, kissing me again, guessing my thoughts: “We have to go if we don’t want to be late.”

  I bit my lips and breathed deeply. I didn’t want him to let go of me. I’d resisted my feelings for him for so long, I didn’t want to leave that spot. I fleetingly wondered if I’d be able to concentrate on anything else during the afternoon that was not about him, his lips, how he made me feel and what had just happened.

  Chapter 14

  Discretion

  The route was very short. Ian drove my car adeptly. He was very quiet. Even so, the expression of satisfaction on his face reminded me of the day that he finally came to eat with me and my father after he’d returned.

  Meanwhile, my brain was wondering what could have been his last-minute hesitation before heading to the conference.

  “Why did you say it would be better if I came without you?” I asked when we arrived at the restaurant.

  The look on his face hardened, extinguishing his sweet smile. He remained silent, and I waited patiently. I assumed he was looking for the best answer.

  “I recognize that I was afraid for a moment.”

  “Afraid? Of what?” I asked, bewildered.

  “Of what could happen between us, taking the next step...”

  “Why the sudden fear?” I couldn’t understand it. He’s spent weeks chasing me and now he was afraid? “I thought you’d wanted to take that next step for awhile,” I said.

  “Yes, it’s true, but I had a strange panic. During these past weeks, you’ve been elusive, suspicious and then suddenly something changed. As if you had changed.” He spoke these last words carefully. “When I felt that you might also want to move forward, I felt vulnerable.”

  For a few seconds I blushed, feeling immensely embarrassed. Was it that noticeable? What awkwardness on my part. I had always had a hard time dissimulating, but I didn’t expect that.

  “But don’t worry,” he said, bringing me out of my tormented thoughts, “all my doubts were put to rest the moment you came towards me.”

  “Ah, great,” I thought to myself, “now I’ve acted like an out of control animal in heat.”

  The truth is I didn’t know if I should laugh or hide in the back seat of the car until the blushing of my cheeks had subsided. Fortunately, we were arriving at the restaurant and that ended the conversation.

  “How lucky, there’s a parking space right in front!” he exclaimed, noting a parking space right in front of the entrance.

  While Ian parked, I breathed deeply in a failed attempt to calm myself. If with a minimal gesture, he could tell that I wanted to take the next step in our relationship, maybe my father would also be able to tell that something had happened between us just by the way I acted or looked at him. I had to act normally, trying to pretend would just make him notice sooner. And yes, I knew I couldn’t hide it for long, but this wasn’t the day to talk about it. Although we had only kissed, that step was enough for my father to imagine us marrying, with children and everything.

  Before getting out of the car, for a moment I thought about asking Ian to be discreet, but then I thought better of it and didn’t say anything to him. If I did that, it would make him behave differently or strangely. Since he hid the truth about as well as I did, it would be clear...

  Once in the restaurant, we looked for Joaquín. Once again, he was waiting for us at the most hidden table in the place. It was his favorite spot, and I didn’t know how, but he always managed to get it.

  “Hello, you two, you look good today,” my father greeted us with a big smile as he shook Ian’s hand and then gave me a couple of kisses.

  “Yes, it’s a great day, isn’t it?” Ian said, looking at me with great satisfaction, with the same smile he’d had in the car a few minutes ago in the car.

  “I should have told him to be discreet,” I thought regretfully. But it was too late. My father had already noted that little detail and looked at me inquiringly in search of something I was not willing to disclose.

  Despite feeling a strange heat running through my body, my usual sign of distress, I managed to stay firm and serene, almost indifferent, as if Ian’s untimely gesture didn’t matter at all.

  On the other hand, I found it difficult to keep that up throughout the evening, apparently my companion couldn’t keep from showing off his charming smile and that didn’t help my attempt to remain prudent. That being the case, I tried to focus my thoughts on something less happy and decided to think about any sad event: if I thought about being fired, maybe I’d be calmer. But that didn’t work. The dismissal neither worried nor bothered me, in fact it was the opposite. A big smile came alive without my permission as a result of the opportunities I felt opening up before me, an expression that my father could misinterpret. So I discarded that. However, and following the previous thread, there was something that was disconcerting: Victor’s words before leaving the office dramatically and mysteriously. It really intrigued me. Submerged in that circumstance, that I focused on during the time we were eating, I surprised myself a couple of times with a frown, trying to analyze what he meant.

  *･｡.·.｡･*

  “What time is it?” I asked my father, indicating my wrist.

  “Just after four-thirty. We should think about leaving,” answered Ian.

  “Yes, we should go.”

  I gave a panoramic glance around for the waiter among the people standing in the dining area and gestured him to bring the bill.

  I knew my father was going to pay, so I took the opportunity to go to the restroom. When I returned, I saw them getting ready to go.

  “Which car should we take?” I asked.

  “Should we go in ours? Or, I mean, yours?” Ian asked impetuously. Apparently, Ian took it for granted that we were already sharing belongings.

  “Yes, in mine,�
�� I answered, smiling at him. “It’s at the entrance, Dad,” I said, looking at him serenely.

  It amazed me that I didn’t get nervous over Ian’s slip up, and that, I suppose, had made my father even worse. Knowing him, he very likely was already imagining what was happening. But I continued as if nothing was going on. Despite laughing loudly on the inside, on the outside I maintained the calm and carefree look I’d kept up throughout lunch. At last, I seemed to be learning to pretend.

  Chapter 15

  Oxital

  The conference started at 6 p.m. Contrary to predictions, we didn’t run into any traffic that afternoon and got to Madrid in record time. Then we found parking, again, as soon as we got there, within a couple of minutes’ walk. Even though the talk wasn’t going to start for thirty minutes, we decided to go in and get a seat. Not surprisingly, there weren’t many people there, so we would be able to find good seats.

  We headed for the building and the security guard pointed out which room to go to.

  “Upstairs, at the end,” the gentleman told us.

  And we, like good children, walked towards the room the man had told us about.

  The Round Space was a grand center where conferences, courses, workshops and art exhibitions were held. It used to hold numerous meetings and activities that took place regularly throughout the year, attracting hundreds of people from many parts of Spain, especially from Madrid and its surroundings.

  I knew it from years ago, but this time it felt different—fresher and more embellished while still offering the comfort and welcoming feeling of years past. Now the corridors were adorned with very bright abstract paintings and a more hypnotizing feeling of light.

  Upon entering the indicated room, we were able to see fifteen or twenty people were already waiting for the start of the conference. Of course, as expected, they were all sitting in the front rows.

  *･｡.·.｡･*

  “Welcome, friends,” Enrique Paz greeted those present. “I’m very happy to be here again with you all. Thank you for welcoming me, as always, with so much affection,” he said with sincere appreciation in his particular Peruvian accent. He was silent for a few moments while he got the projector set up on the table that had been set up. Then he continued.

  “Let me begin, since I have a lot of information I’d like to share and I have only a couple of hours. A short amount of time for everything I want to tell you." He paused again and once again checked something on his computer screen.

  “Many of you know who I am. My name is Enrique Paz and I assure you that I have had and continue to maintain contact with beings from other worlds and other realities. My experience, for those who don’t know me, started when I was barely an adolescent, at fourteen years old. It hasn’t stopped since then. It was as a result of that moment that I decided to go deeper into the topic of the UFO phenomenon. I wanted to know as much as possible about those creatures who, overnight, had become part of my life. And, well, what started as personal research work, ended up becoming a commitment to share the knowledge or teachings that they have been transmitting to me throughout many encounters with anyone who wants it.

  “I’d like to clarify that, even though I’m the one who is here today in this room talking about my experiences, I am not the only one who claims to have a direct relationship with these beings. My testimony is one of many who can access this, investigate, and corroborate. And, given that I’ve met many kinds of people over the years, I also want to clarify that with these talks or conferences, I’m not trying to convince anyone about what I’ve seen and experienced. Each person has to walk their own path and above all, feel what he resonates with. I believe that, besides my personal experience, above all what’s important is the message of hope, unity, and peace that they have for us. In short, my intention is to spend this afternoon with you to bring you the message that these friends bring us.”

  Ian was sitting to my right, my father to my left, leaving me between them. I was amused by the fleeting feeling that they were acting like two bodyguards. While Enrique Paz talked, I leaned over to my father’s ear.

  “Thank you, Dad, I’m glad I came,” I murmured.

  He didn’t say anything, but smiled in response. Before focusing my attention on Enrique, I glanced at Ian. It looked he was so engrossed in what that man was saying, he didn’t notice my glance.

  “It’s been over twenty years since I’ve been immersed in the phenomenon of contact, and the study of UFO sightings, investigations, specific works, field trips...and despite that length of time, I confess that during much of that time, I felt lost. I asked myself many times if anything I was doing made any sense at all. Until at the beginning of the year, these beings gave me a message that gave logic to all of the above, the agglutinate that I had been waiting to find from the beginning.

  “I got that message through an experience...an intense experience,” he emphasized. “I was in bed in my apartment. My wife was at my side. We were sleeping but...I had a dream...yes, a dream. In it, I was in front of Eset, the Nordic-looking extraterrestrial that I’ve seen in person before...and well, beside this eight foot giant was a woman who also looked human, with a shorter stature, about five foot eight...”

  My heart skipped a beat listening to Enrique’s story. My eyes widened. Something inside made me remember the dream I had weeks ago. “The dream about the mountains,” I said to myself.

  Given that reaction, I tried to focus my attention on the man, on his words. I wanted to see how my body reacted to the data he was sharing with us.

  “...that state allowed me to have a very intense experience, transporting me to another reality and time. After being with them in that altered state for almost a whole day, I was able to understand the true purpose of their approach to our race. Their mission is to alert humanity to upcoming events that we should try to avoid for the good of all...”

  We were so engrossed in the story of this lucky adventurer, that the minutes flew by. For me in particular, everything he said was fascinating.

  In spite of believing in life on other planets since I was a child, it never occurred to me that there were other beings trying to help our civilization. Hollywood pictures had influenced my perspective, always imagining that extraterrestrials were threats, as ugly, short, green men with big heads, with the sole intention of destruction, studying our anatomies, or taking over our planet. However, according to what Enrique Paz was telling us, these beings, at least the ones who contacted him, were very similar to us, even physically. Taller, perhaps, but with the same bodily proportions, with two arms, two legs, a normal sized head, with skin, eyes and hair like ours, and dressed—yes, with a peculiar costume, but ultimately, covered by clothing. As far as their intelligence and capabilities, it was clear that they were far more advanced than us. They had found the balance between their science and technology and their psychic and cognitive abilities. Certainly spiritually as well—apparently they were ahead of us in this sense, perhaps the equivalent of several centuries of evolution. An evolution undoubtedly more balanced and in harmony with themselves and with their environment than we found ourselves right now.

  Even so, although each word that man spoke felt true, a fleeting thought led me to think of people who did not believe in the existence of other organisms outside our planet. The skeptics would think that all of us here were on the edge of insanity, certifiable. However, for me the madness would be to think that, in such a large Universe, only the planet Earth housed what is known here as intelligent life.

  “...if they’re coming here to contact us, it’s because they have developed the ability to travel through time and space. They are aware of events that are yet to happen, events that can be reversed.

  “They say that all timelines are already in place. It depends on us and our actions whether we have a pleasant future or not. And, apparently, none of us here today would like the result of our current trend. The prophecies, sometimes facilitated by them, are subtle warnings inviting us to ma
ke changes. They have been assisting us for decades, knowing that catastrophic events can be avoided. But not only that—together with that purpose are countless souls working from Earth, helping to sow awareness of the evolutionary process facing our humanity.

  “These beings have walked with us for a long time, an almost incalculable time that goes back to our origins and beyond. At first they helped us directly, but now their interventions require discretion.

  “Many will know or can imagine that, in the past, when diverse extraterrestrial races mixed with the primitive earth population, confusion followed given the limited and disoriented perspective that we had at the time. We couldn’t understand what they were doing here. We ended up confusing them with magic beings, angels, or gods...when in reality they were only, and continue to be, like big brothers, who have passed through adolescence and have matured, gained experience, learned from themselves and developed skills that we also have but don’t know we have.

  “Without meaning to, their interaction became a harmful relationship for our evolution. We were not at a high enough level of consciousness to receive their help without thinking that we couldn’t do anything without them. We admired them without objectivity. Their presence was a living example of what human beings could turn into over time. But they didn’t do it. Excessive admiration led us to subordination, to forgetting our own capacities to learn and create, to forget our own power. We created a strange dependence on them.

  “When they cut direct ties, the knowledge and technologies that had been shown to us were eventually irretrievably lost. We didn’t know how to keep them. We weren’t prepared. As a result, we had to start over almost from the beginning, but at our own pace.

  “As a result, the Confederation of Worlds, that is, the heterogenous group of civilizations that guard our planet, saw the need to make the most positive decision for us: keep away and not interfere in our progress. Now they limit themselves to observing how we evolve from a distance without making direct interventions. They decided to respect our free will.