EPISODE 58 – POINT MYSTIC TRANSCRIPT

Point Mystic Interviews #68, #71

[Sound of tape recorder starting. Ambient sound of a coffee shop in the background]

CHRISTOPHER: Testing 1-2-3. This is – hold on – interview #68 in my investigation into how and why people are finding their way to the place known as Point Mystic. 

MONICA: Is this going to be on your radio show? Point Mystic?

CHRISTOPHER: You’ve heard of the show?

MONICA: No. (pause) I mean I’ve heard of the place.  

CHRISTOPHER: I’m not necessarily going to use this interview for the show – I’ve been investigating this question for a long time. What Point Mystic is. Why it calls people. You could say searching for Point Mystic started all of this – inspired the show.

[Break (Music begins) ]

Sixty Eight interviews of how people found their way to Point Mystic. So far the common thread is this: Most people who find this place feel they have been called here. For what reason, we do not know. It is a mystery that binds us together. 

To many who come to Point Mystic, it is more than a town. It’s a refuge. A place of escape. Wherever they’re coming from – other towns, other countries . . . other worlds – they’re often trying to get somewhere safe. Whatever has happened to them, it’s enough to push them away from somewhere they used to call home, but is no longer. Sometimes they have heard of the legend of Point Mystic and are seeking this place, and sometimes they are simply running away from someplace else and find themselves here. It doesn’t matter. This place doesn’t judge. It opens its doors and lets them in.

These interviews that my partner Marguerite and I have recorded investigating how people find their way to Point Mystic span back years, a map of our own journey to find the way back to Point Mystic. But we aren’t the only ones to have felt the call and found the doorway open. Whatever force is calling people to Point Mystic. It’s accelerating.  

[Break]

CHRISTOPHER: Can I have you state your name?

MONICA: Monica Chase.

CHRISTOPHER: How did you find Point Mystic, Monica?

MONICA: I wasn’t looking for Point Mystic. If anything, it found me. I’ve been traveling for a long time now. Going through lots of doors to different worlds. But never staying for long.

CHRISTOPHER: Is Point Mystic different from other places you’ve visited?

MONICA: I’m not sure yet, I’ve only just arrived. But I think so. There’s something about this place I haven’t felt with the other places I’ve seen. I don’t want to be disparaging to those worlds, some of them were pretty fucking bleak. 

CHRISTOPHER: People who find their way here have usually been through a lot. Speak however you like. I just want the truth.

MONICA: Good. I can do the truth. I have been through a lot – seen a lot. This place here just feels . . . purer. More real? That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense. Different from all the other worlds I’ve seen. I’ve also had this . . . ability, for lack of a better word, which tells me how long I have left in each world and when I need to leave.

CHRISTOPHER: Like … a countdown?

MONICA: Yeah. As if I’m on borrowed time when I’m there and when that time is all used up I need to get the fuck out of there.

CHRISTOPHER: What do you think would’ve happened if you had stayed in one of those worlds beyond the deadline?

MONICA: Huh. Good question. Hadn’t really thought about it. I’ve just been running nonstop and I’ve never taken the time to even consider it. But I’d have to say . . . maybe I’d be stuck there. Whatever was letting me go through doors on to other worlds would stop. Be severed. And that would be it. I’d have to stay there for the rest of my life. Or maybe it’s worlds themselves that are ending. And if I think back to that last world where most of the planet was dead . . . Yeah, it’s a chilling thought. 

CHRISTOPHER: You aren’t the first person to tell me something like this. And you don’t sense this feeling with Point Mystic? No countdown?

MONICA: No. It’s really weird. It wasn’t exactly a ticking clock in my head, but the mental equivalent. It was always there. Letting me know. And now it’s just not. It’s just gone. Maybe it’s a safe place. For now.

CHRISTOPHER: Are you going to remain in Point Mystic, for as long as it feels safe?

MONICA: I don’t know yet. I guess we’ll see. It’s nice to have the fucking choice for once. Does everyone stay?

CHRISTOPHER: Some people move on, some choose to stay – if they feel called to. Do you feel called?

MONICA: I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter if I did. Point Mystic is not what I came searching for through all these worlds. 

CHRISTOPHER: Why were you going through the doors?

MONICA: [Laugh] Good question. I’m looking for someone. The love of my life, Jake. He got lost through a doorway in a place called Ostium. 

CHRISTOPHER: You’ve seen Ostium?

MONICA: You’ve heard of it?

CHRISTOPHER: The empty town of doorways in Northern California? Yea. I’ve been there. Investigating the supernatural is what our radio show is about. 

MONICA: Maybe you can help me then. (Breathes)

We were in this dark place fighting for our lives, and Jake had rescued what we thought was a monster, but was in fact a helpless thing that didn’t know what was happening to it. And… It’s so fucking stupid… Jake opens up a doorway to bring us back to Ostium. It took everything he had left in him to do it. He sent me and that poor fucking thing back through the doorway. And he didn’t leave any strength left for himself. Jake tried to bring himself through the door. He tried. He screwed it up. The door closed on him and now he’s lost out there somewhere. In time.  He’s dissapeared on me a few times in the past and I wasn’t fucking having it this time. So I went after him. I went through another doorway — I didn’t care to where, or how dangerous — and I went after him. And I’ve been trying to find him ever since.

CHRISTOPHER: I’m sorry. I almost lost my son, Fox, through a doorway. I would have done the same as you, jumped down the rabbit hole after him,  if he hadn’t come out of it. (Pause) Have you considered if Jake might have ended up here in Point Mystic?

MONICA: Not till you just said that. Huh. I guess it’s possible. CHRISTOPHER: I’d look for him here.

MONICA: Do people drawn to Point Mystic magically find what they are looking for?

CHRISTOPHER: No… No they don’t. But they usually find what they need.

MONICA: So how should I look? Start walking around town? Put up WANTED fliers? Yell his name from the fucking mountain tops?

CHRISTOPHER: There’s a lighthouse at the end of the point. A lot of people who try to find Point Mystic end up at the guesthouse. I’ll take you there. There’s someone else I’m supposed to interview there today. You are the third person to find your way here this week that I know of.

MONICA: Is his name Jake?

CHRISTROPHER: Who?

MONICA: The person you are interviewing.

CHRISTOPHER: Sorry, no. It’s someone named Logan. Found his way to Point Mystic through a crossroads in the middle of Georgia, of all places. I haven’t met a Jake. He could be here. I mean people come and go from Point Mystic all the time. There are many doors. Come with me. 

MONICA: You know what? I’m good. I think I’m going to just sit here and finish my coffee. Maybe he’s here in Point Mystic. Maybe he’s not. But you’re right about one thing. There are many doors.  

CHRISTOPHER: I really, do hope you find him, Monica. If not here, then somewhere. Calliope rents rooms upstairs if you’d rather stay in town. 

MONICA: If you see a guy walking around looking for someone named Monica, you’ll let me know, right?

CHRISTOPHER: I will .Thank you for speaking with me. And really – Monica, if you need help, call me. 

MONICA: Thank you… really. It’s all fucked up. But you and everyone I’ve met here have been kind. And it’s been a real long time since I could just sit with a cup of coffee and look at the ocean, and not wonder when my time was up.

[Sound of tape recorder stopping]

—-

(Break)

[Sound of tape recorder starting. Ambient sound of room interior or exterior, ocean waves in the distance]

CHRISTOPHER: Testing, Testing. This is interview #70? –  71. Subject appeared out of thin air right outside the lighthouse. 

JAKE: Could we speed this up? I’ve got a lot of questions for you, too. Like where the hell I am. 

CHRISTOPHER: Look you’re safe. You’re in Point Mystic, at a lighthouse called The Light at the End of the World… that draws people to it. I know this is all probably pretty confusing. Do you know how you got here?

JAKE: I went through a door and ended up here, outside this lighthouse.

CHRISTOPHER: What kind of door?

JAKE: Standard bathroom door in an abandoned McDonalds.

CHRISTOPHER: Does that usually happen when you go through doors?

JAKE: Normal people, not so much. Me: par for the course. It’s kind of my thing. I’m a time traveler of sorts, and traveler of many worlds at this point, I guess. In the past twenty-four hours – though time is kind of blurring for me right now – I’ve gone through so many doors and visited so many places I can’t keep count. This place is definitely nicer than most I’ve seen. 

CHRISTOPHER: So you weren’t looking for it?

JAKE: No, not exactly but it does feel like something was leading me here, if that makes any sense. 

CHRISTOPHER: Do you know what that is?

JAKE: A sensation that’s been pulling me forward?  I knew it was real as soon as I arrived because it stops here. This place is not like the others. It’s . . . freeing. Unencumbered. It’s hard to put into words exactly, and not all those places I went through were necessarily bad, though some of them definitely had their downsides. Like the guy who went kind of crazy at the end and wanted to kill me. But this place, even though I haven’t been here very long, I can tell things are different. I feel . . . I know it’s a weird way to put it, but I feel at home here. There’s also one other big change.

CHRISTOPHER: What’s that?

JAKE: I don’t have to leave. The thing that’s been calling me — it’s here. Is it this place? 

CHRISTOPHER:  It might be. Is your name Jake? 

JAKE [Shock]: Yes! How did you know?

CHRISTOPHER: I think you should come with me. There’s someone here in town, who’s looking for you. 

[Sound of tape stopping]