New Chapter Outline

This outline represents a number of revisions arising from having created character sketches of the main characters and developing the story-line a little further. It is not necessarily the final outline, but is a lot further developed than the previous one. I could sit down and start writing this story today. Can't wait for November 1.

Chapter 1: Aaron is my protagonist. He is a genealogical researcher collecting stories for an oral history at the Memorial Home in Warren, IN. Here he comes across Mad Aunt Hattie who tells him the story of her disappearing boyfriend. He investigates and finds the location where the disappearance is supposed to have occurred. It is behind a church on a hill near Ossian, IN in a grove of trees. Eventually, he will count and find that at one time there were 12 oaks in a circle there, but that five have been cut down or blown down. We’ll call the church St. Michael’s, even though it is not Catholic (Maybe Lutheran? He’s not sure.) Just as he approaches on a snowy, icy night, there is a blinding flash of lightning and an almost instantaneous deafening clap of thunder. He is blinded; the car fishtails and slides off the road into a deep ditch.

Chapter 2: After a brief disorientation/blackout, Aaron gets out of his wrecked car. He hears voices nearby but can’t understand what is being said. When he approaches he finds a “mystically illuminated” scene that reminds him vaguely of some Biblical story. He recognizes one of the people, a woman, as a prominent citizen from Ft. Wayne with an eye to a political campaign for governor. Just at the point that he is about to interrupt and make his presence known, another voice joins the others that is disembodied. He hears the voice, but can’t understand it, even though it seems to be speaking English. Understanding what is said is just beyond his reach. Then all but the known party begin to disappear. Just at the point that they are about gone, one turns and points at Aaron. There is a bright flash of lightning accompanied by booming thunder that knocks him off his feet and he passes out.

Chapter 3: Aaron wakes up in his car. The politician is rapping on the window to see if he is all right. He opens the door and stumbles out. The politician calls 911, but is sufficiently worried to bundle him into her own car and take him to the hospital in Ft. Wayne. When Aaron is released, he finds the Pol Stamos (the female politician) waiting for him. Says his car was towed to a local service station but it looks pretty bad. Offers to take Aaron home. Aaron starts to mention last night, but Pol hushes him saying that anyone would have done the same (good Samaritan routine) so that he never gets to ask about what he saw. Instead we spend the chapter with the two getting to know each other and what they do and it ends with Pol offering Aaron a job on her staff for the coming election. Asks him to come by the office Monday.

Chapter 4: Aaron considers whether or not to join Pol’s staff, a lot of it while playing poker with his friend, Jack, and a couple others. As he relates the story, he discovers some of what happened the night of the accident disappearing from his memory or becoming confused. Jack assumes he has suffered some concussion and recommends he get back to the hospital, but Aaron decides instead to go back and investigate the site. Being a writer and historian, he begins recording all the details of that night as he remembers them, and begins documenting the rest of the story. Even though there has been no further snow since his accident, Aaron cannot find the place where his car went off the road. It is not all that unusual for a place that high in Indiana to have a lot of wind that could have drifted snow over the accident site, but it makes Aaron uncomfortable. When he goes to check on his car, he discovers that the insurance company marked it as totaled and he’s told they cleared out his personal effects and had the car towed to the junk yard. When he gets home, the insurance agent is waiting for him with his personal items and a check for what he thinks is more than the value of his car. He decides that something is going on here and decides to check in with Pol on Monday. At the same time as his suspicions are aroused, he realizes that Pol has also charmed him with her cause in the election and her personality.

Chapter 5: On Monday at Pol’s office, we find Pol with a visitor with whom she discussing the events of the previous Friday night. Her visitor suggests that it might pose some risk of exposure. They discuss the situation with the visitor bemoaning the loss of the old days when they’d just have got rid of the interloper. Pol says they haven’t done that in years and the architects’ directive that they influence only and not interfere had to be followed. Pol suggests that the visitor’s next contact will be before his, so please keep the architects informed. As the visitor gets up to leave, they hear footsteps in the outer office. When they open the door, Aaron is there, to discuss Pol’s offer on the position. He looks long and hard at the visitor thinking that he looks familiar, like he might have been at the crash site, too. Aaron is on his cell phone in the office, so it is unclear whether he has heard anything of their conversation. As Pol tells the visitor goodbye, her aide, Nina, arrives and begins to question Aaron regarding his business. Pol intervenes and invites Aaron into the inner office.

Chapter 6: Aaron meets with Pol and Nina and a couple other staff and begins the work of writing campaign materials for her. It is clear from the outset that Nina thinks Aaron is a poor choice. She has been interviewing candidates for the position for a week and is upset that Pol has simply hired for a position that she considered hers to fill. She immediately sets out to torpedo Aaron’s credibility with Pol. Pol takes Aaron on a drive out to Burn’s Ditch Harbor. She explains how long the harbor has been in operation and what damage has been done by it. They take a winter hike up onto Indiana Dune where she explains what is happening ecologically to the site, its importance and what has to be done to heal the wound. She talks about different kinds of wounds on the earth and how some can’t be healed but have to be adapted into the life of the planet. She speaks eloquently on the living nature of the earth that Aaron is totally enraptured with her position and dedication to the environment. Based on information that Nina gives him, Aaron writes a speech for Pol. When Pol gets it from Aaron she sends it back because it doesn't contain info on her pet project. There is conflict between what Aaron believes he was supposed to write and what Pol sees as her objective. Winning the election isn't as important as enlightening people on the issue. He realizes that he has to take things that Nina tells him with a grain of salt.

Chapter 7: Aaron is sent ahead of Pol to a location to arrange press coverage for an event before Pol gets there. But in reality, Nina has sent him to the wrong place, still trying to convince Pol of Aaron’s incompetence. As Aaron begins to sort out the “miscommunication,” he spots Pol’s Uncle Alex, the familiar visitor in Pol’s office the day he was hired. He is sure Alex sees him, but doesn’t give him any recognition, but hurriedly leaves the site. Aaron follows him, curious about the strange man. Believing that he has lost Aaron, Alex proceeds to his rendezvous contact point with the architect. In this chapter, Aaron is going to hear, but not see Alex make contact. From what he hears, he will deduce that Pol is in reality taking money from some big business concern whose intentions may not be as noble as Pol has made hers out to be. Aaron is at first crushed by this realization, and then finds irrational rising anger in himself. He leaves ahead of Alex and drives back to Ft. Wayne where he once again goes over his conflicted feelings with his friend Jack. Jack counsels conservative action, saying Aaron has a good relationship with Pol and should discuss the issue with her directly before he makes any rash decisions about exposing her to the public.

Chapter 8: Nina is with her friends and a couple staff members having a drink after setting up the press conference that Aaron failed to arrange. She is convinced that she will be rid of him soon. The staff discusses the set-up of a particular event that will be key in the gubernatorial election. The purpose of this brief chapter as an interlude is to set up the location and event where Nina will ultimately cause Pol’s death (even though she doesn’t know that yet). Haven’t gotten far enough to know what that event is yet. Anyway, after setting this stage, Nina says she has to get back to the office to set things up and to get rid of Aaron.

Chapter 9: This sets up a big confrontation between Aaron and Pol. Aaron starts challenging her on little things in her platform that he thinks have a larger hidden agenda. He suggests alternates that Pol consistently rejects. The discussions become more and more passionate and heated. At some point, they turn physical and Aaron and Pol end up in each others arms. They are both so shocked by the sudden turn that they separate self-consciously. Ultimately, though, they confess that there is more than a superficial attraction between them and there always has been. This is where Pol makes her cryptic children of god falling in love with the children of men statement. Aaron thinks she is just being poetic, but somewhere along the line, Pol decides that she will have to tell Aaron the truth about her and Uncle Alex. She finds she can’t explain the things she wants to tell Aaron, and suggests that he will need to be with her the next time they talk to the architects. They embrace again and that is when Nina returns to the office, seeing them together she lets out an expletive and leaves.

Chapter 10: Pol meets with Uncle Alex. They have a heated discussion. Alex condemns Pol’s relationship with Aaron calling him a plant. Says Aaron tried to follow him. Pol says he succeeded. As the conversation progresses, we cannot be sure if Pol is actually using Aaron or is truly in love with him. Pol is suggesting that he be taken to meet the architects. Alex is assuming that means he won’t be coming back. This is the chapter where Pol talks about living as a human being making them subject to human emotions and faults. It sounds like a very philosophical statement about the human condition. Alex finally agrees to set up the meeting. He warns Pol that the architects will not be pleased and she’ll have to go with their word.

Chapter 11: Pol takes Aaron back to the accident site and conceals him in the church. She tells him that he has to stay hidden and that she will let him know if and when it is safe to come out. Then she waits for Uncle Alex. When Alex arrives, he inquires about Aaron’s whereabouts and Pol says she changed her mind. They go into the grove behind the church and the other presence joins Pol and Alex. Aaron listens from the window, not understanding half of what is being said. He pulls out his cell phone to take a picture of the third presence with it, still not sure what he is seeing. The light from the screen on the phone illuminates Aaron’s face and Alex sees him and points him out. The presence is angry and demands that Aaron be captured. There is a repeat of the lightning flash and thunder clap that has affected Aaron before. As Aaron falls forward in a faint, he drops his phone into an empty and disused baptismal font. Aaron blacks out.

Chapter 12: Aaron awakens hearing voices discussing what to do with him. The voices suggest that a lot of people disappear and he will just be one of them. Pol argues that it’s not necessary. No one would believe him no matter what he saw or said. Aaron manages an escape which leads him into different chambers in the where he sees miniature worlds in various stages of development in individual hothouses. In one of these rooms Pol catches up with him. He still believes he is in Indiana at a secret facility that is doing some kind of miniaturized ecological modeling. Poll suggests that there is more here than he can understand and introduces him to the greenhouse concept. She explains that these are not miniatures at all, but are actual living worlds that she and the architects, like gardeners, tend until the little balls of energy develop their personalities and can stand on their own. Pol says they have to get out of here before they are discovered. Aaron, thinking they are still in Indiana in a manufacturing facility looks for a door, but Pol shoves him toward one of the “planters,” keys in her code and shoves him through. Aaron wakes up in the car driving back into town next to Pol. He moves to the middle seatbelt.

Chapter 13: Aaron is hosting the weekly poker party at his home when his land-line rings. It is the preacher at St. Michael’s who would like speak with him about his missing cell phone. Aaron agrees to meet the preacher at the church on the hill. There the preacher hands Aaron the phone and takes him on a tour of the church and the grounds. Aaron thinks it is strange that he never asks him how his cell phone came to be in the baptismal font. Gradually the preacher explains that the church has no congregation and that he is part of a select group that guard and maintain its secrets. He couches his terms in rather old-style mythical terms as he tells Aaron that this circle of trees is where the gods dance. Aaron thinks he is being told something in an allegory, but the preacher makes it perfectly clear to Aaron that this is a holy place of the order of Mount Sinai. He declares that he is fully human, but that he is dedicated to doing anything that is necessary to protect the secrets of this holy place. Aaron thinks he may be attacked for a moment, but the preacher tells him that now Aaron is one of them and he must do his part to protect these secrets. The preacher looks pointedly at Aaron’s phone, then wishes him a good day.

Chapter 14: This is the climax. Nina has plotted her revenge for being all but replaced in her role, and certainly in her relationship with Pol, by Aaron. She arranges an accident that she will put Aaron out of commission for the duration of the election, she thinks, so that Pol will return her loyalty to Nina. The accident goes horribly wrong, and as Pol is preparing to present her acceptance speech for the nomination, she is caught in the midst of the disaster and is mortally injured. Seeing how her plan has gone awry and that she has killed Pol, Nina is devastated and runs away. Aaron holds Pol in his arms telling her she can’t die because she is a god. Pol tells him it’s just a human body. He asks her to come back to him, she says she can’t, but one day he will come to her. Until then, he needs to carry on the work and heal the dunes.

Chapter 15: Former Governor Aaron Case sits in the nursing home reading the report that the old St. Michael’s Church had been demolished to make room for 12 luxury homes on the old property. The development would be called Twelve Oaks, though there had been no trees on the site for nearly ten years. He then greets a young historian who interviews him as part of collecting an oral history of the pre-solar days of energy. Aaron surprises the young man by telling the story of aliens that are growing the earth as if it were in a greenhouse. The interviewer chuckles about the story to himself. He suggests that no one would believe him if he claimed that almost Governor Pol Stamos was an alien. There was no proof and he’d be put in an asylum. But Aaron reaches into a box and pulls out what looks like an ancient communications device. People have cellular implants now so that they can communicate effortlessly whenever they want. Aaron has kept his cell phone from his time with Pol and shows the interviewer the photos he took both of Pol and the alien encounters. He hands the interviewer the phone and with the words of the preacher at St. Michaels, tells him that the responsibility is now his.

Well, this is actually beginning to sound like a story-line that could fly. I’m sure I’ll be making many more changes before I start writing on the first. We’ll see how close I come. I still need some depth on a couple of the chapters, especially eight. There just isn’t enough going on in this chapter to justify it yet. I’m sure I’ll come up with something other than exposition for it. I’ll have to.