No one else was there, so we had more time to discuss what I had seen. I told her more of the details, like the picture of the earth on its last leg, and the chart about foiling all human attempts to find energy sources other than oil or natural gas. I filled her in on my trip to Homer and the reality of the Greek gods. We knew we had to stop Byron, somehow. And we knew this mission was bigger than just two of us. Someone this evil, even if he was ‘just’ an evil human being, needed to be hit with everything heaven could throw at him.
We finally just sat there in silence, full of dread and despair. We couldn’t come up with any viable plan to thwart his power.
Eventually Al and George returned. “We’re still just wandering around looking for a way to get through to Rick,” Al said. “I’ve checked out most of his close friends, and even some of his relatives. He’s such an independent thinker that none of them has ever had much luck convincing him of anything he didn’t come up with himself. They all gave up trying to expand Rick’s mind long ago. And those were attempts to engage him in NORMAL, earthly discussions and debates.” He didn’t sound hopeful at all.
George was a bit less pessimistic. “I tried to think in slomo in very short phrases while floating over his shoulder while he was relaxing in front of the TV. I really think I may have made a bit of a dent. He jotted down some thoughts similar to the ones I tried to send him, anyway. George sighed, and added, “But what I really need him to hear is so off base from everything he’s learned, getting him to hear enough of my tidbits to change the course of physics will take forever.”
Larry and Tom arrived shortly, and relayed what they had learned about more of the oil men. The most surprising revelation was about poor Ralph. He was worse than henpecked. He was physically abused by his wife, Heloise. Luckily they had no kids.
I was relieved when Mary, Shirley and Bill arrived before too many details about Ralph and Heloise were divulged. It sounded worse than pitiful.
We greeted the three expectantly. They were beaming, obviously full of good news. Sheila and I were especially anxious to hear some upbeat results before we had to reveal our discovery.
Shirley was the most buoyant. She had quite a bit of luck getting through to Joan. She was able to think in much longer phrases in not so slo-mo with a good amount of information transferring successfully.
Bill was most grateful for Shirley’s successes, as Joan was able to do more to alter Jacob’s mindset than he had been. But even so, some of Bill’s slo-mo was getting through. Jacob was beginning to question more of the various translations of the Bible.
Mary had been monitoring Jacob’s congregation for signs of any pliable members. Her plan was to influence some of them to contact the Sheppards to set up a special ‘open minded’ study group. She had quite a few prospects.
When they were through with filling us in on their progress, Tom and Larry gave a very brief re-synopsis of their unhappy findings, George and Al passed on repeating their lack of progress and everyone’s attention turned to Sheila and me.
We looked at each other, not knowing where to start. Sheila sighed, and began by explaining Byron’s position over the group of scientists working on alternative forms of energy. She then gave an emotional description of his personality topped with a lighthearted explanation of how I came up with his nickname. I was glad to sense some of the developing tension evaporating. I gave Sheila a grateful nod with a half smile.
“But, in all seriousness, Ian has some very depressing observations to relay. We are hoping beyond hope that our conclusion about the situation is not correct.” She indicated that I was to fill them in on what I had seen and what I had NOT felt.
I paused after I finished telling them about Icky and Proteus and the computer screen. I sighed, and paused again. It was much more difficult than I had anticipated admitting to all of these good souls that I did not feel any repulsive forces from such a hateful person. I had been so sure that Sheila and I were correct in our conclusion that I had forgotten there may be another theory, such as me being much more evil than any of them had previously thought.
Sheila interrupted. “Ian, you know you’re not evil!” then blurted out, “Ian didn’t feel ANY repulsive forces from either of them!”
I cringed and closed my eyes so I didn’t have to see the expressions on their faces. But I was better at mind reading than I really wanted to be, and I could hear Larry think, ‘No, Ian’s not THAT evil,’ and Tom thought, ‘Well, that doesn’t make a bit of sense.’ I luckily didn’t know the others well enough to be able to make out their thoughts, too.
I opened one eye. No one was glaring suspiciously at me, so I opened the other eye. I felt rather sheepish. I grinned with a ‘please don’t think badly of me’ expression, eyebrows up to my hairline.
MY HAIRLINE!!! I immediately felt my head for any growth. It was fuller than ever of thick, curly hair!!!
The wide mouthed look of shock that took over my features must have been REALLY hysterical. ALL of the others started laughing so hard they had to hold their sides, tears running off their cheeks.
I joined in, not so much because of my expression, but out of relief. I couldn’t be as bad as Icky and still have grown so much hair.
Tom was the first to regain seriousness. He sat deep in thought, mulling over the possible explanations for the lack of repulsion I felt from Icky or Proteus. I tried to tune in to his thoughts, but the laughter from the others distracted me.
Eventually the others calmed down, too. They all noticed Tom’s pensiveness, and waited expectantly for his conclusion. Mary’s mind was churning around a bit, too, but Al was as clueless as the others. I guessed it was because he had specialized in scientific fields. Mary and Tom were ‘people’ and ‘evil’ specialists.
I waited as long as I could possibly wait for an alternate explanation, then I semi-whispered to Tom, “Is he human?”
Tom moved his eyes and then his head slowly in my direction. “What makes you ask that, Ian?”
‘D---, I asked him a question first! I hate when people answered a question with a question!’ Aloud, I replied sarcastically, “Why do you ask me why I asked you if they were human?” The puff from my ear was light gray.
Tom smiled. “Pardon me for raising your dander. It was quite accidental.” He sighed, then added, “I was just wondering if you had seen or heard anything that lead you to believe they were both supernatural. Your answer could make a huge difference.”
I thought about his question. “Can you give me a hint as to what the possibilities may be? All I know is that I felt NOTHING. No repulsion, no conflict, no hate, no attraction. Nothing.” Having said this, I began to recall what I felt in Danny’s presence besides the repulsion. “Humm. When I was in Danny’s presence, I not only felt the repulsion but also disgust and hate, mixed in with the tug of my son’s gold when Leo appeared. It was a most uncomfortable mix. With Icky and Proteus, I felt like I was an uninvolved observer. While I was in the room with them, anyway. Afterwards, when I described what I had seen to Sheila, THEN the meaning of what I had seen sank in. Like a ton of bricks…”
Tom nodded his head slowly with his jaw set. “Yes, your silver is indeed very unique.” He looked me in the eyes. “Your silver is so ambivalent that it shielded you from them. It’s strong enough to completely hide your gold, yet weak enough to not want to deliver you to its power source.”
I had to look away as he said ‘power source.’ Quickly. A sharp stabbing pain shot through my body like a reverse lightening bolt as soon as he began to say the phrase. I tried to get to a chair. My knees were weak and shaking. I could barely see. I was scared s-------.
All the others could see happening was the sudden onset of my weakness and the streak of white that shot out of my ear with such force that it splattered when it hit the wall.
“What happened?” I could hear Larry’s voice the best.
“Tom, what happened?!” and “Is he alright?” were comments from two of the others, one male and the other female.
“Who should we call for help?” one of the women asked.
At that moment, despite all the chaos, I knew Julia had arrived. I also knew I was going to be all right, so I couldn’t resist mumbling weakly, “Call 911.”
My vision returned first. Given the circumstances, I knew why everyone had looks of panic all over their faces despite my joshing. I couldn’t help but smile. That is until I noticed that Tom’s panic seemed to be worse than anyone else’s.
His fear wiped the smile right off of my face. We made eye contact for a split second. Nothing bad happened. Now puzzled, scared, weak and relieved all at the same time, I had to ask, “What the h--- happened, Tom?”
A rather large crowd had gathered. In their panic, the others had either inadvertently or purposefully called for their deAgers. A few infants were there also, apparently for Al, Mary and Tom. Tom’s infant was so close to him their mists seemed to blend.
Julia’s expression was wide-eyed. I looked around in awe and said “This must be pretty bad for even the guides to need support.”
Tom’s infant answered some of my questions when he was able to catch my attention by sending out some peripheral signals. But first he had to convince me it would be safe to look him in the eyes. The signals seemed benign enough, so I risked a glance.
Without words, he let me know Tom was unaware of the strength of that phrase. He knew my silver was unique, but had not yet learned all the details of its characteristics. Exposed to that phrase, my silver’s energy had to rapidly escape the gaze of the phrase’s source, which just happened to be Tom. The analogy that came to mind was that of a petrified pet cat clawing up its owner’s chest to jump over the owner’s shoulder in order to escape a vicious dog that suddenly appeared just feet away. We were now at the stage where the sounds of the barking dog were well in the distance, and the cat was peering out from behind a couch. My silver was scared more s------- than I had been!
I laughed heartily when I realized what had happened. My pink ear puff helped the others relax a bit. I reassured everyone, “That was just my chicken-poop silver escaping detection. Tell’em, Tom. If I need to leave the room so my protective coating doesn’t hear the dreaded phrase, I’ll be happy to go. Especially if it keeps everyone else from accidentally saying it. I’m too old to go through an event like this very often.”
Tom nodded in agreement that I should leave momentarily. “I’ll send Julia or Larry to get you when it’s safe for you to come back in.”
I tried to float to the door, but my strength was still not up to the task. I was able to walk slowly, sorta like Tim Conway with tiny baby steps. Larry came to help me, warning me to be careful and behave while I was in the hallway by myself. “DON’T try to be cute and run off on another adventure.” He shook his finger at me like a father disciplining a wayward toddler. “What happened in there was VERY serious.”
I slid to the floor as soon as we were out of the room. “I have no energy to do anything but sit right now, so I think I’ll manage. To behave, that is.” I gave him a weak smile. He didn’t look totally convinced, but he went back in to the others, closing the door behind him.
My being was weak, but my mind was racing. ‘ So my silver is unique, huh. It could be a shield when necessary and an agitator when it was safe to do so. It’s evil enough to keep me off balance and in conflict, but not so evil as to give me away when in the presence of REAL evil. Yep, even evil can be scared by more powerful evil. I wonder what would have made it so wimpy. In my lifetime I had never seen much REAL evil. Somewhere, my silver must have been faced with what would be in store for it if it ended up in hell, and it was scared semi-clockwise.’
‘So, is my silver unique because it’s scaredy-cat silver, then? Proteus sorta gave in to the intimidating glare of Icky, so silver must have some sort of hierarchy. The strongest silver will naturally overwhelm the weaker varieties. But why would its running off in response to that phrase have left me so weak? Is my gold alone too weak to keep me ‘alive’? Did I almost ‘die’? Can a soul actually die?’
I thought about taking a rest on my mossy bank to regain some strength, but I didn’t have enough oomph to get there. I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes. I pictured myself in my hammock in the backyard……..I felt the warm fuzzy feeling totally engulf me……I didn’t need to be on my bank to get a ‘fuzzy’. I was now advanced enough to be open to one anywhere I happened to be when I needed one.
Since I was in a ‘deep fuzzy’ when Julia and Larry opened the door to let me know it was safe for me to come back in, I had no idea how long they had been in there discussing me and my wimpy silver. But I felt too good to feel paranoid. I just hoped they came up with some answers, and that I’d never have to suffer through another reverse lightening bolt.
The other deAgers were gone, as were the infants. My peers and the guides looked as though they had regained their composure. But I definitely felt the strength of their resolve. “So, what’s the scoop, then?” I asked as light heartedly as I could. But they looked more than a bit depressed. “Why doesn’t everyone take a break for a nice warm fuzzy? I did, and I feel great!”
“We’ll take a break in a little while, Ian,” Tom said. “But first we need to fill you in. And I want you to know how very sorry I am that I didn’t know all that I should have known.”
“Don’t worry about it, Tom. It was just a bolt of lightening. Nothing a strong being with a head full of hair can’t handle.” I struck a proud pose, making light of the whole thing. “By the way, can a being in heaven actually redie?”
Julia took the question seriously. “Mr. Burns, what ‘dying’ means here in heaven is simply a transformation from one state to the next. From one form of existence to another. So, yes. Beings can and do ‘die’ in heaven. Most of the time it is a good thing. After all silver is shed and the gold is free to join the fuzz forever. However, sometimes, as in the poor souls in the bubbles that burst, most of their being is destroyed in the process, and their small amount of gold goes nebulously into the fuzz.” She stopped for a few seconds as if she were unsure of how to explain the other scenarios. “But a truly horrible death IS possible. If a soul has a very potent form of silver, it can manipulate its surroundings unbeknownst to the soul. If and when it sees an opportunity to defect, it can overpower the beings’ gold, and join whatever evil group it chooses. Generally it is to a group haunting the earth, so we still have access to its gold, and there is still hope for the experts in gold retrieval to salvage the gold.”
“How is that any worse than the grumps popping in zits?” I asked, still not serious.“The hijacked gold suffers greatly while it is subjected to watching its silver do horrible deeds. It is basically the only way the retrieval team has any chance of getting to it. Watching helplessly instills more and more strength in the gold, until it finally can escape.” Julia looked truly distressed.
Now I was beginning to worry. “What about the gold that was sent to hell to literally infiltrate the enemy? The silver it’s up against is super strong. Has my son been sent on an impossible mission?” I was having a difficult time comprehending how silver that is weak enough to be in heaven could overcome gold, but gold could overcome silver strong enough to be in hell. It made no sense.
“The gold sent to hell was strengthened to the strongest possible degree before it began its mission. Average, everyday gold doesn’t have a chance against even mediocre silver.” Julia began to wish she would have not attempted to answer my question. “Why don’t we save the rest of this for a later time, when an educator who specializes in these issues is available?”
“Don’t I need to know it now? How do I know my silver isn’t going to run off with me to some haunted house somewhere?”
“Your silver is at the weaker end of the spectrum. Yours is so interested in avoiding hell that it protects itself by protecting you. It has no choice. If it wants to avoid being detected, it has to hide your gold. It is so completely on the submissive end of the continuum that it runs, petrified, at even the thought of being found out by its.…….uh, owner.” Tom was making a little sense. Very little.
“So why didn’t I feel the reverse lightening bolt while I was actually in the presence of Icky? And what set it off when you were looking me in the eyes?” This puzzle was a bit too challenging for me.
“It’s challenging for me, too,” Tom admitted. “So I’m probably not the best person to explain it to you. But I do know that it is a VERY valuable asset. It may be the only way to keep an eye on Byron Crane.”
“So, did you all decide if he’s human or not?” I asked. I sensed a definite decline in the mood of the group, and
“We double and triple checked with all levels of heaven.” Tom almost shuddered. “Your experience with him confirmed what was already feared.” He paused, sighed, and added, “Byron is Hermes’ right hand god. He is pure, solid, sturdy, sinister silver.”
49“D---,” I uttered under my breath. “Now what,” I mumbled, not expecting an answer. The tiny tack that floated from my mouth was a medium blue.
“Well, you, Larry and I now know to focus our energy on the scientific crowd instead of the oil company, at least for now,” Tom replied. “And Mary, Bill and Shirley need to continue to do their best to motivate the open minds of the church. Also, we all need to remember that there are many other teams like ours doing their best. We must not lose hope.”
We sat quietly for a while coming to terms with the gravity of the situation.
‘How are the Sheppards and their congregation going to stop Byron from sabotaging the scientists’ efforts?’ Shirley thought. ‘I don’t see the connection.’
‘If we can somehow get Rick to listen to George, we may be home free.’ Al was trying to come up with a plan.
Larry’s train of thought was more along the lines of keeping me alive, or at least in heaven.
“Why don’t we get some direction from Mission Control?” Mary suggested to Al and Tom. “Let me go discuss the options with Ariel. I‘ll be right back.”
She disappeared before any of us could disagree with her.
“Who’s Ariel, and what is Mission Control?” I asked. “Ariel Rabeers is one of the Coordinators of Major Missions. Mission Control is the atrium that houses all the coordinators,” Al replied. “Ariel runs the Forces of Energy, and Anne Tennet runs the Open Mind Division. And they both are guided by Rod Lightning. Whenever more information is needed, they can get it. It’s almost as if their brains are huge satellite dishes.” He paused for a moment, full of awe at the thought of their abilities.
“Sometimes they know it’s better for us to know less, so it doesn’t clutter our minds and tie up our novice communication frequencies. Sometimes they feel we need to know more to be more productive. Mary has gone to see if this is one of the times that we all need to know more. If it is, she’ll then have a task finding out if we can gather all the coordinators together at one time, or if we’ll have to visit one at a time. She may be a while.” Al sighed. “Sometimes I wish heaven were more like the place I learned about in Sunday school.”
‘If it were, I probably wouldn’t be here. I’d be in hell,’ I thought sadly.
Al gave me a half smile acknowledging my thought. Then he nodded in agreement. I feigned being insulted, and a nice mini mental jousting session started. But it fizzled because I really didn’t have much ammo to shoot back to argue why what he thought was wrong. I couldn’t remember many good points that I had in life, actually.
The others were somewhat entertained by our silent banter, and a few even threw in a point or two. But our hearts weren’t into ribbing each other. We were worried.
Mary popped back in and said, “Come on, let’s go.” We all joined hands. In a split second, we were in the biggest, busiest atrium of them all. We were at the far end, about mid level. We barely had time to gawk at the surroundings before we were summoned into a large conference room. At the head of the table were three infants, the youngest in the middle.
“Gather round, please,” he said. “My name is Rod. Rod Lightning. And, yes, my parents DID have a unique sense of humor. My childhood and adolescence were not the high points in my life.” He smiled, sighed, and continued. “We have a short time to make some connections for your mission to flow more smoothly. Ariel will go first.”
“Thank you, Rod,” Ariel began. “A key connection within the energy realm is Verna Lumberton and Rick Riddick. Verna is the woman at the conference with Byron that Ian thought had a strong backbone, which she most certainly does. Rick is the physicist George is trying to relay heavenly knowledge to so he and others can develop a safe, efficient and inexpensive form of energy, among other things. Rick does not work in the same group as Verna, but they are friends, and she keeps him up to date about the goings on with her project, both scientifically and in terms of interpersonal interactions. Rick is an ex-classmate of Rodney’s and had tried to warn him against taking a job under Byron based both on his own dealings with Byron, and from conversations with Verna, who had worked with Mr. Crane for quite a long time. Ralph is also an ex-classmate of Rick and Rodney.” Ariel nodded to Anne.
“The connection to the Sheppards is through Verna, also. She is an intermittent church-goer who was attracted to Jacob’s church by his non-authoritarian approach to his congregation. His sermons were sometimes more like open discussions. She had a strong aversion to preachers who claimed to know what ‘God wants’ or what ‘God thinks’ and had stopped attending church because of it.” Anne smiled, and reminded us, “She is the woman with a backbone, after all. No one can tell HER what God thinks!”
Rod synthesized this new information: “So Verna will hopefully be the one to teach Rick to be open to George. Rick can work with Rodney to develop the Grand Unified Theory that eluded Einstein, and Ralph’s connection with the oil company can help fund the whole thing. If all goes well.” He didn’t sound as sure of himself as I would have hoped.
“I know you are all wondering why I added that last phrase. Remember, we do not MAKE people do anything. We can guide, and suggest, and even put stumbling blocks in their way if they are headed in a non-productive direction, but we cannot MAKE them do anything. Coercion is a counterclockwise force of the worst kind. It is extremely counterproductive, in both senses of the word.” Rod paused to let us take in this commonly used pun. Satisfied we all got the joke when we groaned, he continued, “Think of it as making our tasks more challenging. We have to stay on our toes at all times. We have to come up with alternate plans at the spur of the moment when our charges make a decision we did not anticipate. If the stakes weren’t so high, it could almost be considered fun.”
“Any questions so far?” he asked.
“Where do the rest of the oilmen come into the picture?” Larry asked. “We didn’t waste time and energy following them around, did we?” He sounded uncharacteristically peeved.
Ariel answered with a smile, “Your knowledge of the situation at the oil company will come in very handy as Rick, Rodney and Verna search for ways to develop their system. Remember the company meeting about ways to use the company profits to either explore for more oil fields, or develop green energy? Your hard work will help us guide the ‘green’ folks of the company to get those in control of the purse strings to realize the importance of funding the green efforts.” Ariel then nodded, and added, “And I do realize now how difficult watching some of the relationships were, for all of you.” She looked at me and Tom as well as Larry. “The information we obtained through your efforts is invaluable.”
I looked at Larry, and Larry looked at me. “What?” we both said at the same time. Larry continued, “How do you know what we saw? If you can see it at the same time we do, then why did we have to even be there?” I was confused. Larry sounded angry. ‘Boy, he must have seen something awful to be that peeved. I saw someone being murdered, and I’m not that angry.’
“We cannot pick up the signals unless there is some heavenly gold as a conduit. If you hadn’t been there, we couldn’t have seen it either,” Ariel explained. But of course. How simple.
“So, do I have enough gold for you to get the signals about Ol’ Icky, then?” I asked.
Rod smiled sadly and answered, “Yes. We got the signals loud and clear. And we are very impressed that you and Sheila figured it out so fast. It has reassured us that we have chosen the correct souls for this team.” He looked around the room at all of us, giving silent congratulations to each for a specific job well done. I couldn’t make out the details of his thoughts to the others, but it made them glow for a few seconds. Literally.
“Any other questions?” Rod asked.
“Am I to continue to try to find a ‘gathering of the minds’ type of conference for the scientists to attend?” asked Sheila. “Or should I focus my energies in another direction?”
“You are most certainly on the correct track in finding such a meeting. Many other teams are working all over the world to do just what your team is doing. If any or all of you are able to achieve just part of the goal, a meeting of all the world’s physicist’s is the best way to get the entire world cooperating to solve the problems of humanity and the earth. By all means, continue to encourage your charges to go to such meetings,” Rod answered.
“What about the risk that some of the open minded members of Jacob’s congregation could be hijacked by impersonators?” asked Bill. “How can we protect them?”
Anne sighed, and answered, “That, unfortunately, is a major problem. An open mind is very vulnerable. We have many infants on standby for ‘open moments’ just for that reason. Most of the time, they reach the person before the counterspin representative does. Those people at highest risk are the ones in conflict; those who are looking to religion for salvation, not guidance. If you sense that one of the congregation, usually a newcomer drug in by his or her friend, feels too desperate, send a signal for a younger soul trained in that particularly grave situation to come and take over.”
“How do I do that?” Bill asked.
“Just a thought will do. Even a simple ‘uh-oh’ will be picked up. Souls with the level of training to protect these people are finely tuned to receive even the most subtle worry from a heavenly onlooker.” Anne didn’t look as hopeful as her words sounded. She added, “I just wish the people in conflict were as easy to tune.”
Al, Tom and Mary nodded their thanks to the coordinators. Rod told us to open our minds when we have questions while on the job and the proper soul in Mission Control may be able to answer if we’re too stressed to tune in to the Fuzz. He nodded as he indicated that we were all to hold hands.
We were back in the meeting room in an instant. All of us older souls looked dazed.
“What just happened?” George asked. “Why do I feel as though I’ve been in the presence of royalty?”
“Because of the aura of their abilities and the depth of their understanding,” Mary explained. “There is a great temptation to worship them because of the sense of awe they induce. But they do NOT want to be idolized. They do NOT want to be considered any better than anyone else. They are who they are, and we are who we are. We all have our place in heaven and our own set of skills. If we worshipped them, we would be denigrating ourselves and everyone else in heaven.”
“But they ARE better than us,” I said, a bit annoyed. She sounded like one of those ‘feel good’ teachers who didn’t want any of her kids to feel badly about themselves.
“Yes, they are better than we are. Their gold is much stronger, and the amount of silver with any semblance of power in them is miniscule. They are VERY MUCH better than we are. And so are millions of infant souls. They worked hard and suffered greatly to get to the point they are now. But they can be incredibly good and incredibly strong, and still have respect for those of us who are immersed in the struggle along the path to purity. And they have abundant empathy for us as well. They LOVE us. They care about us and want to help where and when they can, if we’ll allow. If we were to fall down on our knees and praise them, they would be devastated. That is NOT the purpose for their existence. It would NOT