The Dark Space Between - Guest Post by Author Sara Brooke

The Dark Space Between

Have you ever wondered what happens to the things you lose?

It seems like a silly question, right? Most of us are taught from a young age that when something is missing, we simply must have misplaced it.  Certainly, my mother used to tell me that all the time.  Her voice is etched into my memory.

“Mom, I can’t find my brush.  Do you know where it is?”

“Well, you must have put it somewhere. Just go find it.”

I’d search and search and never find it.  It’s like the brush simply disappeared into thin air.  And then, several hours later, it would appear in a place that seemed obvious, but yet…I could’ve sworn had been already searched.

This scenario has perplexed me for years.  Why do we always assume that we misplace things?  With the concept of time sometimes transcending the common concepts of science, we are very complacent to just agree that it moves in a linear fashion of minutes and seconds; with no variations or deviations.
But, everything deviates now and then…doesn’t it?

Let me share a scenario that changed my mind forever about the things we lose.  And the dark space in between:

It was sometime in the mid 80’s and I was at a friend’s house working on some intense math homework.  We were situated near each other.  She was on the bed…I was on the floor working with my book on my lap and pencil grasped within my pale fingers as the math problems flitted through my brain, desperate to be solved.

At one point, I put my pencil down on the floor to take a break and ponder the latest set of problems appearing on the page.

It was at that moment that I felt a strange sensation come over me. It was an eerie, unpleasant feeling that something was wrong with the world.  It actually felt like something was missing or misplaced.  The sensation was so strong that it caused me to look over at where the pencil had been sitting.
It was missing.

Standing up, I brushed myself off to see if perhaps I’d misplaced the pencil in my lap or between the folds of the book.  But nothing fell out.

Interrupting my friend, who was deeply concentrating, we both spent the next 20 minutes searching for that damned pencil.  We looked everywhere...under the bed, tossed my book back and forth, in my clothes…we even looked in her bed to see if perhaps she’d borrowed it.

Still, nothing.

Finally, we sat back down and she loaned me another pencil to use so that I could finish my math homework.  About ten minutes later, I got another sensation.

This one was more pleasant and light.  It felt like something had just slipped into place.

Looking down on the ground to my right, I saw it.

The pencil was lying on the ground right next to me.

Right now, you might be thinking, oh, big deal.  So, she lost her pencil and then found it again.  Must have been there all along.

But that’s just it.  It wasn’t there all along.  We had searched the entire room from top to bottom and hadn’t found that pencil.  When I showed it to my friend, she remained silent for the next few moments and we stared at each other with a bit of fear and quite a bit of awe.

So, what really happens when things get lost?

Movies have indicated breaks in the time continuum and alternate spaces where sometimes items as simple as a pencil can descend into, and then have to be replaced once it is clear that something has fallen out of sync.  A popular 2011 film with actor Matt Damon, entitled, “The Adjustment Bureau” touched upon the fact that everything has its place and has been pre-determined to turn out a specific way.  It highlights that there are “beings” that look like people who ensure that all the pieces remain in place and if there is any sort of diversion taken, they quickly work to correct it.

Is that what happened in the case of my pencil?

Throughout my life, I’ve become more aware of similar things happening.  Things disappear and reappear.  Sometimes they disappear forever.

Which begs the question: What happens to the items that don’t reappear?  Do they remain forever suspended in another universe?  Does someone else go, “Hey, look what I found?” having no idea where it came from?

Sometimes you find things that you automatically assume have been misplaced by someone else.  But what if it is not from this time or even, from this universe?

There could just be, a dark space between…

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Sara Brooke is a horror and suspense novelist living in South Florida. A lifelong avid reader of all things scary, Sara's childhood dream was to write horror books that force readers to sleep with their lights on.

Her first novel, Still Lake, was released Spring 2012.

Sara's influences and favorite authors include Bentley Little, John Saul, William Blackstone, and Joe McKinney.

She is presently working on her next novel.

www.sarabrooke.com

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