I’m fucking dancing with these guys to Roseblood and So Low, seeing what music they like, showing them all respect and no harm. Loren I wish u were here for this.

                 At first I thought my roommate Benjamin had guests. He said he was gone for the weekend, and when coming back from Utah entering my room I encountered a couple in his bed. I was like, ok… weird but whatever. no words exchanged. I was trying to watch the jet movie and figured screw it, I’d give them space, so I went to the hall. They seemed like they were trying to hook up. I soon returned to the room because it’s my room and they didn’t even ask to be there tf. When I walked back in, I was shocked to find the room absent, and my just-previously messy bed extremely well made in a manner I never have. Ben’s bed was made as well, empty as could be, but two blankets lie where the couple had been. The Persian and the school-issued blankets; sitting there in such distinct shape, almost sculpted. Those people had just been there sleeping and kissing, and now they were nowhere to be seen.

                That’s when the strangest things started. The blankets and curtains moved ever so slightly. I couldn’t ignore it for long. The curtains were shifting even though the window was closed. I start to see faces, bodies, whole entities among the folds. I thought I saw friends outside the window, which made no sense. I’m on the seventh floor. I checked behind the curtains and through the room — nothing. But something in the room felt alive. I started to ask outloud who was there. The curtains revealed themselves first, bending down to greet me.

                This communication was absurdity, but comprehensive, totally surreal. I established the curtains bent forward to say yes and stayed still for no. Somehow I could tell that multiple “persons” were in the curtains and blankets, some human, some not. I swear I made eye contact with them — real expressive faces forming in the folds, distinct personalities. They felt gendered in some ways and not in others, and they communicated through these subtle movements and bows. More people seemed to enter the room as the night went on — clear, distinct figures in my peripheral vision, disappearing the moment I looked straight at them. I tried to be a good host, letting whoever or whatever do their thing. I watched objects placed near the blankets move a few inches over time. The forms in my periphery were so human it scared me. The dragon/blonde girl knew more than the rest. She winked. She whispered. She protected me. When I couldn’t see the ghosts directly, I relied on the yes/no movement in the curtains. I even felt warm weight on my palm when I asked for a sign — like a handshake. The persian blanket, the dragon girl, was different. She was much more communicative, different from the rest, she genuinely felt helpful. It felt as if I’ve known her before. In my peripheral vision she shifted into a blonde girl who’m I recognized but couldn’t remember, uncanny. She sat near my bed, melancholically wise, and was protective over me. There was a couple too, and the two young men who were quieter, almost just observing, smiling, reacting. By the end of the night, random persons came in and out like guests at a party. A couple of times they whispered, painfully quiet, but just loud enough for me to catch a few tiny messages. Ben’s blue blanket was quiet but still present. Clearly female, shy, she’d occasionally speak and ask for help, so I placed two energy drinks and a protein bar beside her, and she literally absorbed them into the blanket during the two or three hours we were all in communication. I didn’t touch her at all except to gently place tarot cards on her. I asked the others for permission of my every move, to make sure everything I did was respectful.

            There was humor with them. They were self-aware. Some of the curtain entities were immature and I tried to guide them, but with yes/no communication it was like I was begging for scraps of knowledge. I read tarot for so many of them — the blue blanket, the blonde girl, the couple, the two young men. When I read for this baseball-looking kid, I stepped out to pee and said, “Guys, please don’t leave, but if you do thank you so much and come back anytime.” They stayed. When I came back someone had taken my chair. Through the headrest, the fabric formed shifting expressions like a face showing itself. The guy in the chair got a spread that ended with Strength — the whole reading felt real and grounded. He was happy with it. The blonde girl got The Moon, which distressed me a bit, but then The Fool as her final card, which honestly was perfect for her. It mirrored my own arc — I’ve pulled The Fool many times. In my last reading, The Moon resolved into The Star, and I kept that parallel in mind for her. The blue blanket girl got the I Ching card of community and brotherhood/sisterhood after previously getting the one of the man stepping off the cliff, the end of a journey. The others had their own energies — some playful, some skeptical, some not into me, others defending me. I asked many questions to the curtains, the counsel. Their yes/no method became clear — the curtain leaning forward meant yes, stillness meant no, and sometimes I got a head-like shake. They emphasized the perfection of nature. They implied they’d been watching for a long time, and that humans don’t understand how guardian angels ghosts and such really work. They explained the major arcana of tarot. Some of them said they were human once, some said they weren’t. They said I was lucky. They said I was ready. They told me to pray to Yahweh, (for lack of a better word), instead of the Unknowable. They didn’t say whether they would leave me forever or one day return. Mostly they emphasized the necessity for me to keep going, to keep pushing, following the light.

              I am fully aware this could have been a hallucination but it didn’t feel like one. I was awake, clear, present. I’ve had inner visions before but nothing like this. It was joyous and good spirited, safe. Like a party with respectful goodnights. They gave me honor, luck, motivation to keep chasing a dream. I wonder what they are, who else they visit, why they came. They said maybe I’ll see them again, maybe I won’t. But whatever this was — I’ll never forget it.