“I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong home Ethan. I’ve been told, I am not a very interesting person”.

“Trust me. We share a connection,” Ethan said, getting up and looking out the window again. “I’m exactly where I should be”.

The quiet street outside still held back any clues as to why Ethan should touch down here. He noticed the dining room table where Erwin had been working on his project.

“What’s this ?” Ethan asked, walking towards it.

“That?” Eriwin said, looking over from the couch. “That’s my hobby. Please don’t touch anything. Everything is categorized”.

Ethan took a closer look. The table was covered with index cards and a number of newspaper clippings under each. One of the cards said Civil Rights. Below it were a number of other cards side by side with the headings, Origins; Martin Luther King Jr; Malcolm X; The Black Panthers, Reception and Other. Another section began with Youth Culture and another, The Vietnam War. They too had sub-categories and newspaper clippings under all of them.

“What is this?” Ethan asked again.

“Well, now, I don’t know exactly,” Erwin replied. “Something is underfoot, and it has me concerned. That’s what”.

“What”?

“A movement of sorts. Dissension. An underswell of dissension I’d call it”.

Ethan took a closer look at the set-up. “Oh. You mean the Counter Culture.

“The what”?

“The Counter Culture of the 1960’s”.

“Counter Culture?” Erwin repeated. “That’s exactly what it is. What a wonderful name. It’s a counter culture”.

“What year is this?” Ethan asked.

“December 31, 1966,” Erwin replied.

“Yeah, you’re documenting the Counter Culture,” Ethan confirmed. “My World recognizes the 1960’s Counter Culture was the first wave of Collective Consciousness. We drew extensively from this time period when civilization transcended into the Collective Consciousness”.

Erwin looked at Ethan blankly.

Ethan, noticing the confusion, smiled. “I’ll tell you all about it later. Right now, I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing here”.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“I’d like to know that myself,” Erwin replied.

After a few more minutes of studying Erwin’s display, Ethan commented. “I think you’re a little weak on the non-violent aspect of this movement. It permeated through all the subcultures. In my World, we came to use Direct Action which we adapted from this era. Direct Action was what propelled us into the New World”.

In spite of the fact Ethan was an uninvited guest and more than just a little mysterious, Erwin felt him to be honest and forthright. He created a reassuring aura around himself with his matter of fact way. Perhaps this was why Erwin wasn’t bouncing off a few more walls because of the unexplainable intrusion. In ways, Ethan’s presence was comforting more than anything. He was engaging, and he had hit upon the very topic that was emerging in Erwin’s own research; Non Violence. Erwin found himself falling in step with Ethan.

“I have a special file on Passive Resistance. I work on it during the weekend,” he told him.

“From your clippings, I assume you have Martin Luther King Jr., but do you have Gandhi and Tolstoy too”? Ethan asked.

“Tolstoy”?

“Tolstoy influenced both of them. Henry David Thoreau did too”.

Was it possible Ethan’s knowledge on the subject surpassed his own?

“I haven’t found any references or connection to Tolstoy,” Erwin admitted.

Ethan didn’t offer further discussion on the subject. He was thinking about the Counter Culture. Obviously it had something to do with him being there.

“You know what we should do?” he said. “We should put all this up on cork boards. If we had cork boards we’d have access to all your research at one time. It’d make it easier to identify associations and correlations between categories and subcategories too”.

“Cork boards,” Erwin repeated. “Of course. Why didn’t I think of that? We can go get some tomorrow”.

“Tomorrow’s New Year's Day, Erwin. I doubt we’ll have much luck finding cork boards tomorrow.”

“New Year’s? Oh, of course. Well, maybe we can work on my Passive Resistance file tomorrow? Add in some of the details you’ve given me”?

“Sure,” Ethan replied. “I’ve studied this time period extensively. Do you have a bed for me? We’ll start tomorrow”.

“A bed?” Erwin repeated. He did have a bed. It was a three bedroom house. “I do have a bed!” he announced with certainty. “Let me show you to your bedroom”.

Erwin led Ethan down a hallway past the kitchen. The house was a bungalow.

“There’s only the one bathroom,” Erwin said, stopping to point it out. “And right across here is your bedroom”.

He opened the door to the bedroom. Ethan looked in. It was filled with furniture at least fifty years older than even Erwin’s dated living room furniture. It looked to be as untouched as the rest of the home. Ethan was relieved to see the bed wasn’t plastic wrapped.

“I clean the sheets every month, just in case I have visitors,” Erwin said.

Ethan suppressed a laugh, “It’s perfect Erwin. Thank-you,”

Ethan closed the door behind him, and looked the room over more closely. It had a feel of strict religion about it. The furniture was simple, functional and sparse. As well as an overhead light, there was a small table beside the bed with just enough room for a lamp and bible. A single bed left plenty of room for an equally unimposing wooden dresser, housing a small oval mirror on top of it. There was a built-in closet, with a flimsy wooden door that stuck when you tried to open it. Besides that, there was a wooden cross hanging on the wall above the bed. Opposite the cross was a crudely painted picture of a deer in a meadow someone, probably Erwin’s mother, mistook for art.

“Boy, is Erwin’s life about to change,” Ethan laughed to himself as he took in his surroundings.