A friend, who knows I enjoy pulp literature and history, sent me this short story, “Where is Tanis?” by Jack Parsons. She also knows that my Uncle Orville Harrison worked on the Saturn V rocket project and knew Parsons.
Uncle Orville worked in the Spanish Springs area of Nevada during the rocket testing phase. I live only a few miles from where they conducted those tests.
I believe there is no such thing as “coincidence.”
A quick check of the fabulously unreliable Wikipedia shows that Tanis, a Greek name, is a real place. In ancient Egypt, Tanis was ḏꜥn.t, and in the bible, called Zoan. Having read and reread the story, which seems to be a mish-mash of Star Wars anthology, The Maze Runner, and a touch of Siddhartha, I cannot help but wonder: what is Tanis?
Do I chase it down the rabbit hole that I suspect Tanis to be or be satisfied to call it that place between reality and fantasy?
Nowhere Nevada 