You are in the back east parking lot of the large Outlet Mall on I-71, half way between Cincinnati and Columbus waiting for Carol who is shopping. You had a very good day. Carol and Mary Lou left flowers on Mom and Dad’s graves at Otterbein, you stopped to visit with Aunt Patsy and Uncle Ernie. Patsy had broken her shoulder bone in a fall and is upset because she cannot write for another four to five weeks. Also, you promised Uncle Ernie you would bring the characters from Pouch Text in book three together by the conclusion of book six. You then met Kim, Paul and Owen at Smokey Bones at Polaris and while the others had their favorites you tried a selection on the new Brazilian menu – Feijoada, and it was excellent. The waiter did not know how to pronounce it correctly so you gave him instruction. Why don’t we go to the scene and see what we can come up with. By the way, if you live long enough, we will complete that promise to Uncle Ernie. Readers will have the surprised satisfaction to see how this all comes together without some sort of time loop similar to what you are seeing in “Lost”. – Amorella.
Home before twenty-two hundred hours. Pleasant day, pleasant drive both ways. You worked a bit more on scene twelve and we may finish it tonight before bed. Later, dude. – Amorella.
Richard C., one of your former IH students suggested forty-five new ‘friendings’ and you are overwhelmed with seeing all these former students’ names and photos. You are enjoying Facebook. Responding to the ‘friendings’ is good for your heart and soul. For now, let’s finish up this scene, then tomorrow you can dig into saying ‘hello’ to all these former students. – Amorella.
You have finished the scene. Not what you expected is it?
Why did Takis suggest to Mother that he was that he was not telling her the truth in such a way?
He is making the suggestion to the reader as well, orndorff. There is more to these books than meets the eye and this is an example of it. The next scene brings Merlyn in, having a dream talk with Takis.
We need to get back to the story, Amorella. What about the other characters?
Merlyn cleaves the story, orndorff.
Cleave is one of those rare words with two opposite meanings, to adhere firmly and to divide.
Indeed. Now, post the scene and relax before bed.
Scene 12
Mother listened to Mario and Aeneas’s observations and kept her comments to herself. The surprise was that she had never attended such a sacred ceremony. My own grandfather, why did Takis keep this from me, she thought, and when she thought it she felt a sudden sharp pain from near her right heel up through the back of her leg into the intervertebral fifth disk of her lower spine.
I am alive, shot through a sudden almost numbing separation in our Mother’s mind. I have not felt such an intensely physical pain since life. Between another shot of pain Takis’s words, “We are from there, to here.” An epiphany arose between the third and final shot of pain from leg to lower back. She immediately shut her eyes and closed her mind to it.
In a blink she found herself lying on her bed. She heard Aeneas’s voice, “Are you all right, Mother?”
“I have not seen anything like this since life,” commented Mario. “You fell in what appeared to be excruciating pain.”
“My back,” she mumbled. “It is my back.” Then embarrassed, she smiled slightly as most any mother would seeing her children in anguish. “I have no spine. I feel better. An old memory of life. I am sorry you witnessed it. I will be all right. Thank you for comforting me. You are both good boys.” She could see the relief in their faces. “I think I just need to rest.”
“Yes, Mother,” responded Mario.
Quietly she requested, “Don’t leave the house. I will see you shortly. Let me relax for a few moments.”
“Yes, Mother,” said Aeneas, and he was surprised how much it meant to him to say those words.
***
That evening Mother quietly sat with Grandfather Takis along the River Styx. She asked, “How did you know I would come here?”
Takis smiled with an unusual twinkle in the upper corner of his left eye and responded, “Because you knew I would not come to you.”
She slowly adjusted her body to the ground, “I had a talk with Mario and Aeneas.”
He said, “It is your spine.”
“It is. I have not felt such a pain since being in life.”
“What caused this, child?”
“I do not know. Mario and Aeneas were telling me of their experience with the shaman circle dance, and . . . .”
“You did not realize we could return.”
Surprised she replied, “That’s right. I did not know.”
“You were never told.”
“That is no reason for such pain to return.”
“It never left.”
“It is only a piece of papyrus that separates the Dead from the Living.”
“We want to return. You know this Grandfather. Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“One cannot go back.”
“You went returned?”
“No. We entered old consciousness. It was as a dream, a memory returned.”
She asked solemnly, “Do you ever enter the real Earth?”
He paused and his eyes rolled up into his mind. “I do not know. There is no way to know. Our minds are moved. That is all we are sure of.”
“What about our project? Our bridge building?”
Sadness enveloped his face. “Child,” he said quietly, “The river is no more real than we are.”
“How can you say this? We are conscious. We have our memories of life and this life after death.”
“Presently, you are having painfully searing physical memories.”
I am not, she thought. Grandfather is wrong about my pain. She looked into his eyes dumbfounded that he could be wrong, but she said nothing.***
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