Hum [Dec 2013]

Gerald McFarland stood staring at the side of a bald mountain. The source of his pain, his suffering, his anguish! For years he had been plagued by a sound few other people could hear. Some called it a hum, the Taos hum to be exact. Gerald knew this wasn't a sound you heard with your ears but rather a sound you felt in bones. It came up threw his feet, ran up his spine and rang it's deep throb in his skull.

It was not idle curiosity that Brought Gerald to this mountain, it was an act of desperation. This hum had destroyed his life, his career his marriage. Thrice he moved across the country to get away from the hum, but it always found him, keeping him up nights, muddling his thoughts at work. Why he couldn’t even make love to his wife without that hum eating away at his brain.

Oh sure he'd been to the doctors, lots of doctors and lots of tests. They checked his ears, did a brain scan, blood work and toxicology. Finding nothing they said he needed a different kind of doctor, a physiologist who said the hum was all in his head. She was right. It was in his head, hiding behind his eyes, between his ears, always there and lately it was growing louder.

Gerald McFarland looked liked crap and smelled even worse! Road weary in his travel stained clothes he was just plain old tired and ready for it all to be over. Years ago he had abandoned everything, house, wife, work and those stupid doctors. He strapped on a pack and just walked away not really sure where he was going? But his feet knew and they carried him West, towards the source of that hum.

Now standing before that strange bald mountain he was sure hadn’t been there a moment ago, Gerald noticed another man, dressed and stinking just as badly as himself. As the old man he passed he whispered,
“Come on... It's this way...”

Gerald skipped a step then hurried to catch up.
“Is it close?”

The man nodded and motioned with his mangled right hand.
“Not far now, just over that way by the twin rocks next to those bushes.”

For a time they walked, neither man speaking, eyes locked on the dark shadows between the rocks at the base of the mountain. Halfway there two young children raced passed them, laughing. A boy and girl no more than then ten, called out as they passed,
“Hurry or you'll miss it!”
“Yeah, don't want to be late, do you sleepy head?”

The old man next to Gerald simply waved the kids to go on ahead, they did, happily skipping form one rock to the next reveling in their youthful joy of wonder and exploration.

“Are their many of us?”
Gerald asked? The old man nodded,
“Thousands, tens of thousands maybe more? Hard to say really?”

Gerald and the man pause, both stood looking up at the odd bald mountain that should not be? He turns to his new companion and asked,
“Do they all come here?”
The old man shook his head,
“No...... Come on, the kids are right... They'll leave without us if we don't hurry...”

They set off again, together this time, the hum now so loud in Gerald's head he thought his brains might pour out of his ears! Furiously rubbing at his temples and blinking back tears of pain Gerald mutters,
“God, I just wish it would stop!”
The old man nods in understanding.
“It'll stop... once we get there...”
“How do you know?”
The old man shrugs saying,
“I just do...”

Struggling to keep up Gerald turns to his new companion,
“So aha, do you know where it is were going?”
“I told you son, over there by the twin rocks!”
“Yeah, I gathered as much... but I meant, where do we go after we get there?”
The old man just smiles, shakes his head and this time he waves his hand behind them and chides,
“Why we go to the same place everyone else is going...”

Gerald stops dead in his tracks just feet away from the twin rocks and watches as the old man simply vanishes in the deep shadows that hide what lies beyond. Now feeling the hairs on the back of his neck he turns to look back at the way he had come. Hundreds of people are following the trail, men women children, all talking pointing, urging each other on as if late for a party, all coming right at him, or rather these twin rocks that now seem to be a gateway to somewhere else, something else.

A man far down the hill raises his arm, Gerald does the same, waving his arm in a 'Come On' Gesture. Then he calls out as loud as he can,
“Hurry up or they'll leave without us!”

Then wonders why he felt the truth behind his words?

The new man guiding his wife and kids, waves back and quickens their pace. He obviously knew time was short too. Gerald sighs closing his eyes and takes a big calming breath. Turning his attention back to the twin rocks, he reaches out to touch one of the many petrographic symbols carved in the old stone. It glows under his touch with a soft blue heatless light, yet gives off a warmth he feels in his soul. Taking another deep breath, he tightens the straps on his pack then closes his eyes and walks boldly passed the pillars of creation and into the shadows where he revels in the blissful silence of the beyond. Quietly he whispers into the darkness, “Okay... Show me...” Slowly the once man known as Gerald opens his eyes...

________________________________________________________________________________________

It's called the Taos hum simply because that is where the phenomenon was first reported. Enough creditable persons heard and complained about the hum that researchers from the University of New Mexico, the Air Force and the Federal Government have all come out to investigate.

Not everyone can hear/feel the hum but it is there and that sound had been captured, recorded and studied. The hum is a real thing but to date no one knows the where's or why's of it's source though there are a good many more mundane theory's.

The one thing all agree on about the Taos hum is it growing. People have reported the hum in many different parts of the world and far removed from the original. Maybe the hum is expanding, or maybe it was always there but no one bothered to mention it? Who knows, who cares?

My little short story doesn't bother trying to explain or define.

What I think is really cool is in this world of science and technology there are still somethings out there that qualify as a verifiable unknown true blue mystery. And if there is one, there's sure to be others... And that my friends is HardCorps... OooRaw...

“Wait up Gerald... I'm coming too!”

I really liked your story, way to go! The Humm has always been one of my favorite mysteries.

reply to post by Quauhtli


Why thank you...
I do like write though I figure as a writer my skill is best described as adequate at best...
still nice to hear at least one person liked my story