Mulder's Apartment – Night
Scully is asleep on Mulder's couch. The room is dark, the only light is coming from the glow of the fish tank. Scully wakes slightly, the Mexican print blanket Mulder pulled over her earlier that night falls away. She wakes further, disorientated until she gets her bearings. Mulder has clearly gone to bed. She gets up and walks quietly to his doorway. She watches him for a few moments and then glances over her shoulder at the door, then back to his sleeping form. She should really leave. She walks slowly across the room.
"Mulder?" She calls to him in a low voice. She repeats his name a second time. He stirs, blinking, confused. "Move over," Scully whispers. He obliges wordlessly and she climbs in next to him but as he rearranges the blankets over her she settles in close and he naturally holds her in his arms. They lie for a few moments, facing each other. Scully is watching his features in the darkness, making out the profile from the streetlamp light coming in through the blinds. She shifts forwards and kisses him lightly. Mulder leans towards her, drawing her in closer but she suddenly pulls away. He can't see her anymore.
"One, one, one," she whispers at him and then she is completely gone.
Mulder wakes with a start. He is lying on his stomach. The room is still dark but he is clearly alone. He glances up at the clock beside the bed, its red numbers glow 1:11.
J Edgar Hoover FBI Building
Washington DC
9:14am
Scully walks from the elevator down the corridor at a quick pace. She passes stacks of boxes containing case files and evidence packs, to Mulder's office in the basement. Outside it she pauses, steels herself and then walks through, tilting her chin up slightly as she passes under the door frame.
"Good morning," Mulder greets enthusiastically. He is clearly pleased to see her but falters slightly when he sees Scully's cool expression in response, her eyebrows raised in question. "Uh, take a look at this," Mulder turns towards the projection screen, a permanent fixture in the office. Scully gets the lights as she comes further into the room and turns expectantly towards the screen. Mulder displays the first slide. It shows a picture of an average looking man.
"This is Brandon Harlow, thirty nine year old Colorado native, married, two children. He is currently self-employed, having left a fifteen year career as an accountant to channel what he calls a 'higher power'." Mulder glances at Scully to check her reaction; she looks characteristically bored.
The next slide ticks around showing the same man in a mental institution. He is in a group photo of fifteen others, all in the trademark hospital pyjamas. "This is Mr Harlow just a few months ago. He suffered a mid life crisis in the most classic sense of the word. He lost his job, his home and subsequently his wife, who took the children with her." Mulder turns to look at Scully again. She's still waiting for him to get to the point. "He was diagnosed with severe clinical depression and had attempted suicide three times with no luck."
Scully scoffs. "Some would say that was unlucky."
Mulder hides an amused smile. "During a series of, shall we say, fortuitous circumstances, Mr Harlow was left at a diner, unsupervised and un-medicated for an hour and eleven minutes. During that hour he claims to have met what he calls a 'true master' who revealed to him the secrets of the universe." Here Scully frowns, ready to object but Mulder keeps going. "Once he gets back to the institution, of his own accord, he requests another evaluation, which he passes and is released."
Mulder lets the next slide click into the place. "The next day, Scully, he gets a new home." A new slide, "sets up a new business. And then his former wife mysteriously passes away leaving custody of their children with him."
"You think he murdered his wife to get the kids back?"
"The waitress in the diner who served the two men said the 'master' paid the bill by signing 'one, one, one' at the bottom of the cheque and that at the time she wasn't in the least concerned about getting the two dollars worth of coffee they drank, even though normally it would have come out of her wages. The next day their supplier accidentally delivered one extra bag of coffee powder but when they were queried about it said the diner was a preferred customer and they could keep it as a goodwill gesture."
Scully gives Mulder a bemused expression, back to wondering where he was going with all of this. This next slide graced the screen. It showed an average white male standing in front of a black taxi cab.
"The men left in a cab," Mulder continues. "The driver claims he was paid with a gum wrapper. That afternoon someone left a twenty dollar note in the back of his cab that he found at the end of his shift when he cleaned out the seat. He, in an effort of good citizenship, claims he tried to track down whoever left it there, but no one came forward."
"So he pocketed it?"
Mulder shrugs in answer. He would too. "What do you think?"
"I think it would be extremely difficult to track the owner of a twenty dollar note from a cab. The sheer number of people who pass through the vehicle would make it difficult but the fact that they are usually anonymous and most destinations requested are public, means that chances are…"
"I mean, what do you think about Brandon Harlow?"
Scully takes a second to recover from being cut off so abruptly. "I think that it's an amazing story of overcoming the odds Mulder."
"And his mystery diner companion, the 'master' with the secrets of the universe?"
"A figment of his imagination. The guy is unwell."
Mulder gives her an 'ah ha' expression. "But the waitress and cab driver both witnessed seeing someone with Mr Harlow and he passed his evaluation. He's cured now."
"Then he was probably some friendly local who gave him a wake up call about getting his life back on track."
"Neither the waitress at the diner nor the cab driver, who are both natives to the area, recognised the 'master' and Mr Harlow was diagnosed with severe clinical depression. Now Scully, I'm no doctor, nor am I a psychologist, but I'm guessing it would take more than an hour talking with a stranger to get over something like that, would it not?"
Scully considers this. "What's your take on it then?"
"I'm thinking we may have another Jeremiah Smith on our hands."
"Jeremiah Smith, Mulder?" Scully asks dubiously, leaning forward in the way she does when she thinks his ideas are ludicrous and amusing at the same time. "All the Jeremiah's were executed by the bounty hunter years ago. And just for arguments sake, say there was one out there who survived, he healed people with his hands, Mulder, he didn't give out free advice."
"And what about signing his name with a series of numbers and paying for the cab with a gum wrapper?"
Scully thinks for a moment and then raises her shoulders in a shrug that she doesn't drop until she has finished speaking. "They must be mistaken. It may have been too dark in the cab to see what the man handed over and the signature might be so illegible on the cheque that it just looks like numbers but is really a name."
Mulder keeps his back towards the screen but ticks over the next slide anyway. It is perfectly timed of course to show the diner receipt with the numbers neatly printed on the bottom, 111. The next slide is the gum wrapper.
"That could be anyone's gum wrapper," Scully counters.
Mulder lets the next image fall into place. It is the underside of the gum wrapper; the same neat series of one's printed in the centre.
"Did you have the handwriting matched?" Scully walks past him to inspect the image closer.
Mulder turns to follow her. "I did. It's not much to go on," he hit the slide button again and the analysis came up. "But there's an eighty nine percent match that the down strokes were the same on both samples." He demonstrates what is marked on the screen in someone's tidy neat handwriting anyway. "Eighty nine percent is pretty good odds Scully."
"Ok so what do you want to do? Go to Colorado and find your Jeremiah? Are we going to run around after more aliens?"
Mulder ignores the cynicism in her tone and goes to his desk. "We are going to go because this is what we do Scully. We investigate the weird and wonderful. And because the Assistant Director asked me to look into it."
"Skinner asked you to look into this?" Scully looks up at the screen dubiously.
"It came down to him as a request and he thought we would be better suited to investigate." He picks up the envelope with their plane tickets in it and hands hers over. Scully opens it to check the flight time and finds a single sheet of paper with 111 written on it, clearly in Mulder's handwriting. She gives him an unimpressed look. He takes her ticket out of his jacket pocket. "I think there are a lot of questions here that need answering," he tells her handing it over. As it passes out of his hand he sees that the flight number is 111.
Harlow Residence
Trinidad
Colorado
The agents pull up in front of a large two storied brick home. There are two cars in the driveway. One is a red Porsche, the other a silver BMW. The house is clearly in a nice neighbourhood and has neat gardens and manicured lawns. There is a small sign hanging from a wooden pole that states the name of the business and its nature – 'Harlow Helps, ask the universe for the answers and change your life.'
"What do you think Scully?" Mulder gestures at the sign. "Maybe I should ask if there is life on other planets?"
"I, for one, would welcome it being cleared up once and for all," she quips in response. She walks off in front of him and he gives a chuckle before following, admiring the cars as he goes by them. When he gets to the door Scully has already knocked. The door is answered by a fairly attractive woman in her late thirties who gives them a welcoming smile. They produce badges.
"I'm agent Scully and this is my partner Mulder. We're with the FBI."
"Come on in," she welcomes without hesitation, clearly not bothered by their presence or curious by it. Scully glances at Mulder quickly before warily stepping over the threshold. They are now standing in a reception area. It is decorated in a new age theme, crystals are on the shelves, a table in the centre of the room holds a pyramid and more crystals and there are posters on the walls promoting positive thinking. The room is bathed in sunlight and peacefully quiet, as though all street noise was blocked out on purpose.
"We're looking for Brandon Harlow," Scully turns on their guide, wanting answers and showing signs that she is uncomfortable in the setting. Mulder looks around the room, letting her get the standard questions out of the way.
"He's with a client at the moment but you can wait for him if you'd like. He has a fortuitous opening in ten minutes."
"He is here?" Scully double checks.
The woman gestures at the door framed on one side by a hanging plant, its tendrils almost reaching to the floor. "He is in the middle of a reading."
"A reading?"
"Yes. Is that what you're here for?"
Sully narrows her eyes. "We're here to talk to him about a man he met three months ago."
"The 'master'?" The woman guesses intuitively.
Mulder's attention is refocused. "Do you know the master?"
"No I never met him, but he was a blessing in my life all the same."
"You're Mrs Harlow?" Mulder guesses.
"Yes," She gives him a smile.
Mulder looks her up and down impressed. Even Scully does a double take. "We didn't know he remarried."
"I've known Brandon for fifteen years."
"You were also an accountant," Mulder knew.
She nods. "Please, have a seat. He'll be out shortly."
"Wait," Scully calls her back. "Why did you leave the firm?"
Mrs Harlow gives Scully a slow, deep, peaceful smile. "Happiness."
Scully gives an immediate disbelieving expression.
"It means more to me than my work ever did." She makes a quick exit before she can be questioned further.
Scully turns to Mulder clearly unimpressed, her eyebrows raised in a silent request for his opinion on Mrs Harlow's statement. He gives her a bemused shrug but before he even gave thought to her words, let alone being able to articulate them, the door opens and another woman passes through followed by Harlow. She is short with greying hair and gives Harlow a hug. Then she walks from the room, giving the agents a smile on her way out.
Scully digs out her badge again and flashes it in front of Mr Harlow. "I'm agent Scully with the FBI. Can we ask you a few questions?"
"What can I do for you agents?" Harlow asks gesturing them into seats. He seems very clam and collected. If anything he looks younger than the pictures that Mulder screened in his office a few days ago.
"We understand you've gone through some dramatic life changes recently," Mulder begins, taking over from his partner.
"I have recently come into some knowledge that has helped me create a life that I love and deserve," Brandon answers with an open expression.
Mulder pauses, the urge to ask a million questions has abated, as though he is at peace with the world. Scully remains quiet. "But uh, you were recently institutionalised?"
"That's correct."
"And you were cured in an hour conversation with a man you describe as being a 'master'?"
"Cured is not a word I would use to describe what happened to me."
"What did happen to you?"
"I spoke with a man who has learnt how to make this existence work for him, instead of working against it, and he enlightened me with the same knowledge. I applied it and now my life works for me, not against me, and I am happy. I have everything I need or want."
Mulder knew there was more to ask but he couldn't shake the feeling that everything was as it should be. He nods in response to Harlow's statement. "And what is it you do here?"
"I try to give people the same opportunity I had."
"You have the 'master' tucked away back there?" Mulder jokes lightly.
Harlow smiles. "No."
"Are you a 'master'?"
"I'm on the path but I have a ways to go yet. I try to give people the first opportunity I received myself, by allowing myself to channel the universe."
"The entire universe? That's a lot of power."
Harlow smiles his peaceful smile again, like nothing Mulder could quip would ever have an impact on him. "Would you like to make an appointment?"
"I would."
Harlow retrieves his appointment book and they select an appropriate time for the next day. Then he walks Scully and Mulder to the door. They walk to the car wordlessly but once they are settled in their seats they seem to snap out of a daze.
"You didn't ask him about his dead wife," Scully accuses straight away.
"You didn't ask him anything at all. Where were you?"
"I," Scully starts to say but frowns and finds she can't explain what kept her tongue tied. "What does he mean by channelling the power of the universe?"
"Perhaps he's not quite as cured as the doctors make out."
Scully gives Mulder an impressed expression, like she doesn't believe what he has just said. She doesn't question him in case he reneges.
"I guess I'll find out tomorrow," Mulder puts the car in drive and pulls away while Scully continues to hold her expression.
Harlow Residence
Exterior
10:00am
"Mulder, he's not going to be able to give you any answers about your sister that you don't already know. He probably spent this morning finding out all about you in the internet." Scully is pleading softly, hoping he will change his mind.
Mulder gives her an amused expression, as though this is something he has considered, but doesn't answer her. He gets out of the car and then leans through the open window. "Find out what you can about his ex wife." He walks off leaving Scully exasperated.
Mulder goes to the door and as he approaches Mrs Harlow is opening it. She welcomes him inside and shows him to the waiting area. "Can I get you anything while you wait?"
Mulder gives her a polite smile. "No thank you."
"Ok," she gives a nod and another smile and wanders from the room. Mulder leans forward where he stands to see her leave down the short hallway. Once she is gone he goes to the book shelf and reads over the titles. He takes down a copy of "Message of a Master." He turns it over to read the back and quickly returns it to the shelf as Mr Harlow enters the room.
"Mr Mulder," he walks across to shake hands. "Come on through."
They go into the room in the back, which is dimly lit by shaded lamps and a few candles. The room smells of raspberry. There is a black lazy boy to one side facing another comfortable chair with an up right back and a portable table to the side of it.
"Take a seat," Harlow offers directing Mulder to sit. He eases himself into the lazy boy but does not lean back in it yet. "Now what will happen is I will take myself into a deep meditative state, which will take a few minutes. When I give you a signal you are welcome to then ask any questions you would like to know of the universe."
"I just blurt them out?"
"Yes."
"Can I record this?"
Harlow smiles unperturbed. "That would be fine."
Mulder produces a small tape recorder from his jacket pocket and sets it down on the table top. Harlow then pulls the lever on his chair and leans back in it so he is almost horizontal. Mulder then quietly pulls a sheet of paper from out of his jacket pocket and unfolds it, all the while checking to see if Harlow is watching, like he has just produced contraband.
David's Motel
Room 111
10.09am
Scully is sitting at a desk with her laptop computer in front of her. On the screen is a website for the local registry of births, deaths and marriages. In the query box she types the name 'Martha Harlow'. The page turns white for a second and then information starts pouring in. There is along list of Martha Harlow's, the end of the list shows Martin Harlow and other variations that are similar. Scully consults a chart on the table next to her and selects the Martha Harlow with the correct birth date and street address. The screen changes again and comes up with more details, including children's names, date of death and street address.
Harlow Residence
Interior
10.10am
Mulder is waiting patiently in his chair. It seems Harlow has gone to sleep stretched out in the lazy boy. Mulder checks his watch, angling the face of it to catch the light from a lamp. It shows eleven minutes past ten. Mulder frowns at it for a second. Then movement out of the corner of his eye causes him to look up. Harlow has raised his hand. "You may ask your questions," he speaks in a voice that is not quite his own. His hand drops again and his eyelids start to move rapidly.
Mulder considers the sheet of paper in front of him. "Who am I talking to?"
Harlow pauses. "I have many names of which you are familiar but for the purposes of clarity and understanding you may call me Abraham."
"Abraham, where are you?"
"I am here and everywhere. I am a part of you and Brandon, of Dana, of your mother and father, Skinner, of the man who delivers your paper in the morning, of the plant hanging outside this office door, the chair you are sitting on, the walls that surround you, the earth that you walk upon, the air you breath. I am one with everything just as you are one with me.
Mulder frowns slightly and looks around the room. "Do you know of a man known as the 'master'?"
"There are many masters."
"I'm thinking of one in particular."
"I know of the man you are talking about."
"Is he human?"
"Yes."
Mulder was not expecting that answer. "Do you know where I can find him?"
"He will only be found if he wants to be."
"Is he still in Colorado?"
"Yes for now."
"Do you know where my sister, Samantha is?"
"Yes."
"Where is she?" Mulder leans forward intensely interested.
"She is in a place of peace."
"She's in heaven?"
"There is no such place in the biblical sense of the word."
"Is she dead?"
"She's very much alive."
"Can I see her?"
"No. She no longer inhabits a physical vehicle that you will be able to look upon."
"Is Brandon Harlow a master?"
"Brandon is on the path to becoming one. He understands the laws of the universe and uses them to his benefit. You, sub-consciously, are also on the same path but you are unaware of your power."
Mulder looks slightly impressed but mostly bemused. "What power is this?"
"To create your life in a way that makes you happy and fulfilled."
"I create my own life?"
"We each create our own lives and realities."
"So if I wanted to I could find the 'master'?"
"If you focus then, yes, it technically is possible."
"Technically?"
"For a beginner it would be easier for you to start with something smaller."