She climbed up the tiny hill and sat cross-legged. Her mouth closed, body still, hands in her lap, under the shade of a live oak tree.
"Is she in a mood?" Steve asked Mike.
"Yeah."
El stared at the clouds, slowly breathing. A small crystal in her left hand.
Mike watched her and noted her solemnity. She didn't smile, she did not frown. She gazed at nothing.
Below her and across the parking lot the laboratory skulked. The cool evening air barely moved, and Mike brought El a groovy orange, red, green, and black blanket. He sat next to her and put it on their shoulders, but she remained unnaturally still. In the parking lot below, a small school bus, a few jeeps, and Jim's police car sat unoccupied. In the lab below a meeting was happening.
El closed her eyes and meditated in her deeply relaxed state, while Mike sat next to her. She imagined her inner child self, the one in the lab being tested. Then she fell peacefully through a pool of warm water, emerging from a waterfall completely dry. Startled.
Little El was ten years old with a buzzed haircut, sitting on her bed clasping her knees to her chest, silent and alone. So real… I could be time-traveling. I see her gown and the print on it, blue snowflakes and dots on white cloth in a grid pattern…Eleven?
Abruptly jerking to attention, the girl jumped to her feet and scanned her gloomy, dimly lit room. She picked up her teddy bear and clutched it to her chest.
…
"Eleven?" I ask.
She jerked like she was shocked by electricity.
"Who are you?" she quickly said. "Go away…you…imaginary voice."
"I am you," I say. "In about six or seven years…"
Dizzy, I emerge before Little Eleven from a curtain of warm phantasmal water, dry.
Little Eleven slowly sat back down on the bed, still clutching her bear. Her brown eyes laser-focused on Older Eleven, unblinking and fierce.
"If you are me, what's the name of my teddy bear?" She wiped a clammy hand on her gown, perspiration appearing on her forehead.
"Theo," I reply, "for Theodore."
"Okay. I can tell you are me," she said, then after a moment, asked, "I must be dreaming. How…I mean why are you talking to me?"
Calmly I speak to her, trying to help her feel better. I remember being so miserable.
"To tell you that you are a wonderful and kind person," I say.
I kneel down to her level.
"What's happening to you is not your fault. I came to tell you that. Be strong. Things will happen, bad things. But you will eventually be happy."
"Yes, big Eleven" she said, "I want to be happy." She took a deep breath. "Will you stay here with me?"
"I don't think so, I'm imagining you," I say. "You are me in my mind. I can come back and see you."
"But I'm real," Little El said. "So you are in *my* mind. Aren't you?"
I look at her. The damn white gown with snowflakes and dots. The odor of bleach. Cold white tile. It seems so real. I sit down on the floor cross-legged. She sits on the bed the same way.
"You will one day get out of here," I say to my younger me.
"Good. Please…when?"
"I can't tell you, it could ruin things. But you need to remember one thing for me…"
"What is it?"
"Your life has a purpose and you will have good friends who care about you. There is a reason why you were born. I'm sorry, I'm losing my focus…I'm not good at this. I must go."
"It was a pleasure to meet you. Me. Please come back…"
A noise—Steve talking—pulls me back to reality…and Little El smiles.
…
"…that's why I taught Dustin…I wonder what Robin's doing… Steve said more to himself than them.
Mike sat not listening to Steve. El opened her eyes and turned to lock into his.
"Mike," she whispered, "thank you for helping me to feel understood and be safe. Without you, I know now—for a fact—wouldn't have survived."
"Back at you, El."
They kissed. The air smelled like dandelions, and a soft breeze ruffled their hair, but they were suddenly warm.
"We need to wrap this meeting up and get out of here…" Steve said, setting his bat on the grass.
He moseyed around them, sporting his modern Swayze-like feathered short mullet. He wore a 'Canadian Tuxedo'. He completed the look with white high-top Converse shoes. He fidgeted with his collar.
"Why are we here?" El asked Mike. He turned his darker eyes back toward her and grinned.
"To be together."
"That's sweet, but seriously," El said. "But is there a bigger reason?"
"We can…choose a purpose…", Mike said while blinking and staring off into space. "A quest."
"A purpose distracts us…right? From the fact that we are going to be gone one day?" El said.
"Well…It helps keep our minds from worrying about it."
"Why do we distract ourselves?" El asked.
"Because, we worry too much about it, like we can stop it. It makes us sad. So we distract ourselves."
Steve sat down next to them.
"Good policy," Harrington said. "It's also good to find out what's essential in life. I think life is all about enjoying it. There is very little else to life than this, what I had with Nancy and you two have."
He paused, "So why am I in Hawkins again?"
Mike and El laughed.
El raised her hands before her, leaning forward. One by one, the vehicles lifted off the pavement a few inches. All of them. But his time was different somehow.
"I will stay busy," she said. "I have a purpose."