Raising the Dead …Part 1 …Summoning a Shade

Just when the idea crossed his mind he coudn’t be sure but Alex was certain that he had always known it in an intuitive way.

It vwas morbid to be sure and definitely macabre like his work collecting specimens of human brains preserved in jars and arranged on sheves and countertops.

Hideous work really, hardly befitting a medical pathologist of his stature but nevertheless a necessary, albeit somewhat ghoulish occupation.

This secondary part of his research was more an avocation.

He had always been fascinated by the neurobiology of thought and memory but lately he had been passionately obsessed with his idea.

The idea came to him one day when he was thinly slicing a specimen of cerebral cortex in order to mount itv on a slide.

Why not pass a low amperage electrical current through the tissue and record the output?

The sample would have to be chemically treated of course to render it susceptible to transmission but the results might prove interesting.

He proceeded with his experiment but was not prepared for what happened.

He had been recording the date and time while under headphones listening to the sound of electrical pulses when suddenly he was seized by a blinding headache.

At that same instant an image of a face imprinted itself forcefully on his mind.

Alex tore off the headphones and staggered to the window for air.

He inhaled deep gulps of frigid March air and stood trembling in the wintry draft as his senses gradually returned.

What happened to me? he mused, as he tried to make sense of the experience.

One thing was clear—he had seen a face, an image of a beautiful young woman. The vision was of photographic quality in its clarity and detail.

If he were an artist, he’d be able to paint it.

The vision, as he termed it, was not a fantasy or a halluciantion—he was certain of that.

It was definitely the face of a real person, of that he was certain, but who it was he had absolutely no idea.

He knew he had never seen the woman before but somehow she wasn’t the product of his imagination…

And the damndable thing is she seemed strangely familiar. How could that possibly be?

Perhaps he was losing his mind or opening himself to another dimension of reality.

He couldn’t be sure, but knew this anomalous event was unique and something he simply was compelled to explore.