Every Boy Should Face His Demons, Charlie Boone! - 5. Chapter 5

They were sitting on the veranda with Moped when the woodie came up the drive. Ricky had opened the front door immediately upon arriving, and the dog had been waiting, her tail going, obviously delighted to have company again. She looked in no way frightened or upset, and that put Ricky at ease. They looked inside the house, and listened carefully, but everything seemed normal. So the four of them took an Adirondack chair each and sat, while Moped moved back and forth among them, visiting, seeking rubs and touches and offering licks in return, her tail something of a blur in the glow from the porch light above the door.

The headlights came slowly up the drive, casting what seemed like unusually weak cones of light in the darkness. Older cars didn't have the headlights that modern ones did, Charlie knew. And, he had kind of expected the car to be louder than it was, maybe not like a tank or something, but certainly louder than the soft purr it emitted. Horace pulled the car up behind the SUV and cut off the engine, and then the lights winked out, too. The dome light lit as the man climbed out of the car, and then again as he pulled his carpetbag out of the back seat.

Moped went to stand at the head of the steps, watching, her tail moving, but slowly, not ready to commit to liking anyone she couldn't even see clearly yet. Horace hefted the bag and came around the car, and looked up at them from the bottom of the staircase. His gaze fixed on Moped, and he smiled. "Hello, sweetheart!"

"Aw, and we just met, too!" Ricky called back, kidding.

Horace barked out another laugh, set down his bag, and extended a hand towards the dog. "Please come and say hello."

Moped's tail shifted into high gear, and she bounced down the steps, and submitted to a head rub and a back scratch while Horace cooed at her. Charlie smiled, finalizing his liking for the little man. Any guy that liked dogs - and that dogs liked back - had to be pretty good people.

"Come on up and sit," Charlie called.

Horace nodded, picked up his bag again, and was escorted up the stairs by a happy Moped. The man set down his bag and popped off his hat, revealing a crown of sparse hair that waved about in the bare breeze as if filled with a static charge. Charlie smiled at the eccentric professor look it gave the man as Horace took a seat beside him.

"It's a lovely house," he said, looking around the porch. "Yes, it is. Well-designed, I think. I managed to obtain the plans from the county archive."

Charlie's eyebrows went up. "Really? How long ago did Mrs. Viggerol write to you?"

The man sat back, and tilted his face upwards. "Oh, my - was it a month? That long?" He looked back at Charlie. "Perhaps not. Certainly several weeks. Enough time for me to do some research on the property and its history, certainly."

Charlie and Kippy looked at each other.

"Did you find anything of interest?" Kippy asked.

"Oh, yes, I did." Horace turned to look at the house behind him. "I was hoping to get close enough to take some measurements, and only had they been of interest would I have then contacted the new owner. No use getting people alarmed for no reason."

Charlie sat forward and smiled.. "What sort of measurements?"

Horace looked pleased at the show of interest. "Well, electromagnetic, of course. Those are often a sign of unusual activity in a place." Horace bent down and opened his carpet bag, rummaged around inside, and produced the EMF detector. He held it up and smiled. "An EMF detector measures the local electromagnetic field, and shows any unusual fluctuations or spikes in that field that may indicate unusual activity. Normally I must first get a base reading for an area with no activity, so that unusual changes can be noted after--"

He turned on the device, which immediately squealed alarmingly, and a row of multicolored LEDs on the front panel lit and flickered back and forth across their range. Horace simply gaped at the instrument a moment, before quickly turning down the volume. "My! That's a most unusual reaction!"

Charlie leaned across the gap between chairs to look at the face of the device. "What is it measuring now?"

"This unit detects both ELF and VLF frequencies of EM radiation. That's the 'extremely low frequency' and 'very low frequency' bands. Some radiation in each band is normal around a home...but this is rather extreme." He peered at the device, and nodded. "Note the very regular pulsations, as evidenced by the LED range meter." Horace turned and looked at the house again. "Most extraordinary."

"It's not normal?" Kippy asked.

"It is, and it isn't. Household current and the sort of appliances it runs all broadcast in the 60 hertz range, and occasionally in other ranges, but the field effect falls off very quickly. That means that, just a few feet away from these appliances, the effect diminishes and then vanishes. What we seem to be seeing here is a very strong radiator, very close by."

Ricky looked around the porch, and shook his head. "Only thing electric out here are the porch lights."

"It's not that." Horace handed the EMF detector to Charlie, and went back into his carpetbag. He emerged with a device shaped somewhat like a water pistol, which he turned and aimed at the house. "This is an infrared thermal gauge. It takes the temperature of whatever you aim it at, and can be used to detect sudden changes in ambient temperature." He pressed the trigger, and then squinted at the illuminated readout on the back. "Quite normal."

Charlie was looking at the regular pulsations of the detector in his hand, and wondering. The regularity of the signals suggested machinery, not ghosts. He said as much.

"Quite right, sir." Horace smiled. "You'd probably be good at this. I do believe you may have the right answer here."

"What machine?" Ricky wondered. "I mean, the boiler pumps might be running, and maybe a few clocks, and what not. The house has a security system, but Annie didn't tell us to use it, and didn't give me the code, so that's not even active. I don't know what else there could be."

Charlie looked at the detector again, inched the volume knob up, and listened to the tone it produced. "This sounds like a very large machine, whatever it is."

Horace patted his chin a moment, watching Charlie, and then nodded. "It may be the entire house we are detecting."

"What!" Ricky exclaimed, looking back at the house. "What's that mean?"

Horace frowned, and then sat back in his chair. "I had time enough to make a thorough investigation of this house and its history, as well as the family that built it and occupied it for so long." He smiled, a touch of pride now evident. "I have, over the years, developed quite a number of research resources. Some of the information I found was extremely suggestive...or perhaps 'revealing' would be a better word."

Charlie turned off the EMF detector and handed it back to the little man. "We're listening."

Horace stood and tucked the detector into his jacket pocket, and looked at the house again. Then he clasped his hands behind himself and started a slow pace, back and forth in front of the boys. "I do believe that there is some lost history associated with this most unusual house," he began. "The original Mr. Ravishaw, who designed and built it, was quite an accomplished man." Horace paused and leaned towards them. "He was something of an electrical engineer, at a time when that profession was just getting its feet under itself. He worked for Thomas Edison, in his research laboratory in West Orange, you know."

Charlie gave a little gasp of surprise at the mention of this legend of the electrical world. "No kidding?"

"Oh, I wouldn't," Horace said, waving a hand. "You've been kind enough to ask me to visit. I would never repay that with falsehoods."

Charlie smiled. "Of course not. Go on."

Horace looked pleased. "While in the employ of Mr. Edison, Ravishaw met another man working there, of whom you may also have heard. Nikola Tesla."

"Wow," Ricky said. "Like the electric car that Musk sells?"

Horace blinked at that, but nodded. "It's where the name derives from, yes. Mr. Ravishaw and Mr. Tesla became friendly, and exchanged ideas on many things, even long after Mr. Tesla left Edison's employ. This was what spurred me to come and take a look at the house personally." Horace leaned forward. "Mr. Tesla was known to have had visions of the spirit world, and was interested in its properties."

Charlie sat back in his chair. He had read about the great inventor, but had not come across anything that suggested an interest in the spirit world. "Get outta town!"

Horace looked startled. "You want me to go?"

Kippy giggled, and Adrian gave a soft sigh.

"It's a figure of speech," Ricky said patiently. "Like saying, 'you're kidding!'"

"Oh." Horace barked out another laugh. "I'm afraid I'm not up on all the slang terms of youth these days."

Charlie laughed. "Actually, my dad likes to say that one. Anyway, I'm fascinated by your story. I've read of Tesla, but I had no idea he was interested in spiritualism."

Horace nodded. "Perhaps not in the way you imagine. While still a child, Tesla claimed to see visions after the death of his brother, Daniel. His interest in the afterlife was documented in several places. There is enough information available now to suggest that Tesla may have suffered from several mental disorders, perhaps including OCD, and even a spectrum disorder. Yet his genius seems obvious. So I cannot discount the idea that he also believed that the human spirit was electrical in nature, and that there must be a scientific way to communicate with others after they have passed away."

Charlie was immediately reminded of the unfathomable technology of the dark world of Engris, where the spirit domes allowed for seeing and speaking with those that had passed away. Could hints of such a technology been visible to the great inventor here on earth?

Kippy was obviously thinking the same thing. He looked at Charlie, wide-eyed, and then nodded at Horace. "I don't think that idea is too outlandish."

Horace squinted at him. "Really? I thought the idea of scientific communication with the dead rather unlikely myself, when I first heard it. But my researches have since changed my mind. I now believe that Mr. Tesla shared his ideas with Mr. Ravishaw, and that the two quietly corresponded over several years of time, trying to work this out."

Charlie digested that in silence. What could that have to do with the octagon house?

Kippy must have wondered the same thing. "Why do you feel this house is involved?"

Horace steepled his hands before him and lightly tapped his fingertips together. It appeared to be a habit of the man when he was thinking. "In looking at the plans for this house, I noticed several interesting things. The framework - the substructure - is all of steel, in a time when steel was not generally used for homes. The exterior walls are completely framed with steel, which was apparently covered in a fine steel mesh." Horace took a deep breath, and looked at them excitedly. "The frame of this house may be what we are now detecting. I believe the entire house was constructed to be one of two things. It may be a sort of...a sort of Faraday cage, designed to contain the spirits of the dead!"

Charlie understood what a Faraday cage was: a complete covering of steel mesh, grounded, used to keep out electromagnetic fields. The government put them around their defensive and computer facilities to ward off the effects of an electromagnetic pulse should someone detonate an atomic device in the atmosphere above. A Faraday cage would protect sensitive electronics from the ravages of rampant electromagnetic fields.

But a Faraday cage could also keep electromagnetic fields from leaving the interior. He sat forward and smiled at Horace. "If ghosts are electrical in nature, a Faraday cage would keep them inside, yes; but it would also keep them out, too, wouldn't it?"

Horace looked surprised, and then pleased. "They still teach science in schools today? I'm impressed!" He nodded. "Normally, you would be correct, young man. If the house were truly a Faraday cage, it would prevent electromagnetic fields of all kinds from penetrating or leaving."

Adrian nodded. "So if ghosts are electromagnetic in nature, they wouldn't be able to get inside."

"Yes, yes. That would be true - if the ghosts attempted to enter from the outside."

Kippy pouted thoughtfully. "I see what you're saying. But if ghosts materialize inside the house from some other place, they would also be stuck inside, wouldn't they?"

Charlie grinned at his boyfriend. Kippy was remembering what they had learned of Engris. Spirits of the dead materialized within the strange fields present in the hollow core of the world, and traveled up specially shielded tunnels to the spirit domes, which themselves were shielded to keep the spirits from leaving any other way than they had come.

Horace's eyebrows bounced up and down comically a moment, and the boys all smiled. "Extraordinary! For laypeople you are certainly easy to talk with!" Horace smiled himself, and barked out another laugh. "I was thinking on my drive up here how I was going to explain all of this to the homeowner if I had determined the need to do so. But this has been just wonderfully easy!"

Charlie nodded. "We like to read."

Ricky waved a hand. "You said one of two things." He reached behind his chair and patted the exterior of the house. "If the house isn't a cage, what else could it be?"

Horace bit his lip a moment, and gave the house an appraising look. "Tesla had a project at Wardenclyffe, on Long Island, where he was building the most advanced broadcast system of the time. Tesla developed some very interesting designs for antennas and the amplification of signals. I think the possibility exists that this house is also an antenna, designed to broadcast a certain set of frequencies, that may or may not bring it to the attention of things not of this world." He patted his pocket. "The regular pulsations detected by my EMF device may be a clue that this is actually the correct answer."

The boys sat quietly, thinking. Charlie looked over at Kip, whose eyes were full of questions. Adrian looked similarly occupied, and Ricky's frown indicated he was considering the possibilities.

"Rick?" Charlie asked. "What do you think?"

The other boy's eyes came up, and Charlie could see the worry there. That this worry was for Annie and Moped, he was certain. "I don't know."

Charlie turned back to Horace. "If you had time to look the place over, would you have a better idea what's going on here?"

The man nodded quickly. "If nothing else, I may be able to rule out certain ideas as incorrect. I think we can experiment a bit, and perhaps learn more. But I cannot guarantee anything. You must understand that the shadow world we will be investigating is mostly a mystery."

Charlie certainly knew that to be true!

Ricky cleared his throat. "We have an extra room. Would you like to stay a day or two and help us figure out what's going on here?"

Horace gasped, and clutched his hands together in delight. "Oh, I would love an opportunity to further investigate this very unusual place!" He pulled at his jacket and smiled. "And it is getting a bit nippy out here."

Ricky got to his feet, and Moped stood with him. "Then let's go on inside and get you settled."

Adrian got up,too, and he and Ricky collected the carpetbag and ushered Horace inside, with a small assist from Moped. Charlie got to his feet and extended a hand towards Kippy, who now seemed lost in thought. "Coming?"

His boyfriend looked up, and smiled. "I knew this was going to be interesting. My skwish still isn't saying much about anything."

He took Charlie's hand, and Charlie pulled him to his feet, and pulled him closer. "There's still time."

Kippy nodded, his eyes bright in the glow from the porch light. "I know. I'm counting on it."

And then they followed the others inside.