The Leaching of Ian Burns (Abridged) by Audrey K. Agnothedy - HTML preview

The Watering Hole wasn’t very full, either, and the souls who were there weren’t very energetic. I didn’t recognize anybody. As I started to worry, Julia appeared at my side.

“You wished for something to happen, so in effect, you chose to be part of some very important events as they are seen from heaven’s perspective,” she explained. She took my hand, and we appeared in a sea of souls watching far-away mountains. The storm around the mountains was enormous. The flow of gold to the ocean seemed to flood the mountainsides.

“What’s happening?” I asked Julia.
“A large earthquake caused a huge tsunami that devastated the shorelines of Indonesia, Southwest Asia, India, and all the way to the horn of Africa. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.” She was very sad. All the souls watching were very solemn.
“Is there anything we can do?” I asked.
Julia just shook her head. “Natural disasters occur according to nature’s timetable, sometimes with the help of counter-spin. All we can do is make the best of the results. All the suffering those souls endured has created a large amount of gold, and it is flowing to the ocean to join forces with the souls from prior disasters in hopes of slowing the spread of counter-spin throughout the Middle and Far East.”
“Did you say ‘slowing’ and not ‘stopping’ the counterspin? That’s a bit defeatist, isn’t it?” I asked.
“I wish we could stop the forces of the manipulators everywhere. There is more hope in some instances than others, but certain areas are overwhelmed.” She sighed. “We just have to do the best we can with what we have.”
But we’re in heaven, I thought. ‘Isn’t God all-powerful? Can’t he do better than that?’
Julia looked at me, deep into my eyes for the few seconds that I could bear the intensity. But that was all it took to remind me that that was not the way of the clockwise force. Using power to MAKE things happen would not allow people the freedom of choice.
I looked back at the mountains. The storm was over so many of them. And the gold was glowing; shimmering its way to the ocean; on its way to fight the proverbial evil: the counter-spin forces of ‘the manipulators’.
“How long does it take an infiltration of gold into a silver spun being to work its magic and deliver a reformed silver soul to heaven?” I asked, obviously thinking of my son.
Julia sighed. “Remember, time here is fluid. What feels like years here can be only a second on earth, and vice versa. Time in hell is also fluid, but for most souls there it seems to be an eternity. Getting an earthly assignment is a coveted perk for most who reside there, and it is the souls likely to be sent to earth who are infiltrated by our most potent gold. Once on earth, time, by comparison, flies by.”
She seemed to have danced around my question. “So, are you saying that compared to eternity, a decade or so is not a long time to suffer in an evil being’s being?” I asked with more than a touch of annoyed incredulity.
“Yes. That is what I am saying,” she responded sadly. “But remember, the gold has access to support from high, clockwise spin. Even though it sounds like a horrendous undertaking, the strength of their character combined with refreshing contacts with the clockwise forces of the fuzz keeps their ‘chins-up’, so to speak. It hurts us more to think of what they are going through than it burdens them.”
“Do you know anyone who was able to bring their silver soul here?” I asked.
“Yes, I do.” She stopped for a few minutes, deep in thought.
She sighed again, then added, “My father was killed in World War II before I was born. When I arrived in heaven many years later, I learned that he was on such a mission, and was near completion of his task. He was able to find me when his silver charge was convinced by a particularly skilled gold retriever to give up his ghostly life, and come to heaven.” She paused, then continued with a wistful smile. “His form was just like the pictures my mother had shown me. He was all that I had ever imagined, and then some.” A tear ran down her cheek. “He gave me a hug that literally replaced all the hugs he never had a chance to give me in life.” More tears flowed, some with traces of silvery glitter. “He was wonderful…. He was incredibly loving and caring….... He was perfect.”
Neither of us said anything for some time. I glanced at her several times, trying to give her some privacy to remember her father, but I was unable to avoid noticing her become younger and younger before my very eyes. My heart ached for what I imagined she had been through; a life’s worth of feelings about a father she never had a chance to know all bundled up into a moment in heaven. Literally. It was too much. I was soon crying as much as she was.
Of course, my tears had much more of a silvery shimmer. I looked at my hands and noticed the wrinkles filling in, resulting in a much more youthful appearance. But somehow age didn’t seem to matter much anymore. There were so many more important things……

She was eventually able to continue to tell me about her father’s experience in hell and living in a silver spun soul. “He was truly amazed to find out how many earthly years he had spent in such a state. He thought it was more like one or two years, not decades. He was kept too busy focusing on the tasks at hand to notice the passage of time. And he never felt alone. He described the brief time in the fuzz on his first arrival in heaven as so intensely powerful that he was filled with enough love and warmth to last him an eternity, even if it would have been an eternity in hell.” She laughed as she recalled him quickly adding, “But, boy, am I glad I’m here instead!”

She went silent again, and a new, more glittery stream of tears ran down her cheeks. I knew she was remembering him say how thinking of eventually being able to see her here in heaven was his greatest motivator for completing his mission. They spent the next few heavenly days with each other before they moved on. They still keep in touch, but they’d shared so much in that time together, they really feel as if they are still together.

I sighed. I still felt conflicted. I still couldn’t believe so much suffering was really necessary. There must be a better way…. Thinking of the amount of work ahead was just too overwhelming for me to handle.

I thought about the tiny piece of the puzzle my team and I were putting together. How can one group of scientists and one even somewhat properly motivated oil company make any difference in the long run? A sense of hopelessness overcame me.

Julia was able to notice the gloom that emanated from me even as she was reminiscing about her miraculous meeting with her father. She took my hand, and we were on my mossy bank.

I felt a bit better as I settled onto the moss. My curiosity was back, too. “Why is it, little one, that whenever I need to ‘refresh’, this particular spot is always vacant?”

“It is your ‘little bit of heaven’ in heaven,” she explained. “And you don’t even need to file a deed in the clerk of court’s office.” She had her twinkle back in her eyes, too. “Enjoy!” she added as she faded out slowly, blowing me a kiss as she went.

After a sufficient amount of time in the fuzz, I was ready to find out how my team was doing. I consciously chose a time to return to the Lounge to maximize the amount of information I would glean from their conversations. I was too impatient to trudge through all those tedious earthly interactions. I wanted to skip to the last chapter of the book, so to speak.

The looks on everyone’s faces told the story. They were elated. They were relieved. They were proud of a job well done.

It didn’t take long for Larry to notice my arrival. “Ian! Where have you been! You missed the best part of the mission!” He slapped me through the back, and pulled me over to the group. I was beginning to regret my choice to skip to the end of the mission. I felt just a tad of guilt.

“No need to feel guilty, Ian. If it weren’t for your sacrifice, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we needed to do. The information gained by your interactions with Danny and Byron was critical, and your ability to keep Byron out of the meeting made important connections possible. We were home free after that!” Tom fairly gushed.

It was embarrassing. I hung my head and pretended to kick at a pebble in front of me and said, “Aw, shucks. It was nuthin’.”

They encouraged me to take a seat, and proceeded to fill me in on what had happened since they made their plans to have a meeting of the scientists, some of the oil people and the Open Prayer crew.

“The meeting went better than we imagined in our wildest dreams!” Mary began.
“It was like a snowball rolling downhill in 3 feet of wet snow! Angie and Joan kept minds open so George was able to get almost all of the heavenly physics facts planted into both Ralph’s and Rodney’s minds. Rick was a bit challenging, but Verna helped keep him from getting too put off by any religious or philosophical overtones. Ralph managed to keep Bob focused on the physics, and Bob’s gut level PGS was very helpful. But Brad was the most helpful of all. He was pivotal in keeping the oil folks open to the possibility that these ‘crazy’ new theories were really possible. It was awesome!” Al beamed.
“Oh, and get this!” Larry interrupted. “You’ll never guess what happened to dastardly Danny! He was arrested for murder! He tried to say it was in self-defense, that his wife was trying to kill him, and the gun accidentally pointed towards her chest during a struggle, and fired! How lame!”
“So, anyway,” Sheila interrupted Larry, “the World Physics Conference went off without a hitch. Not only did OUR scientists have time to work out solid theories supported mathematically but other teams from around the world were able to get heavenly physics facts through to enough of THEIR scientists so that the theories were taken seriously right from the get-go! With everyone on the same page, something useful may be right around the corner!”
“I overheard Rick talking with Rodney, Ralph and several other physicists about capturing energy from the sun before it enters our atmosphere and converting it into tiny but potent anti-matter ‘batteries’ that could supply enough energy to keep an average household running for months, or years!” George was beaming. “They even had ideas about how to make these tiny packets perfectly safe, and how to keep the technology from being misused for weapons.”
“And Brad AND Andy were open to the possibilities. They were willing to work for funding to help with the expensive hurdles, like building the space ladder, and the space foil.” Tom joined the excitement. “With Danny focused on his murder defense, Arthur was more approachable and Henry’s arm was twisted to give up some of the profits for the project. It may not be enough, but it’s a start. If they have enough success to convince the government that it is a necessary investment, we may be in time to save the earth!”
This last statement landed like a lead balloon. The gaiety was transformed to the somber realization that the war was still not won. There were still many ways for counter spin to manipulate matters to slow or snuff out any hopeful developments.
“Sorry, folks. I didn’t mean to sound so pessimistic,” Tom apologized.
“We needed to be brought back to reality, eventually, Tom,” Mary said. “We still have much work to do.” She looked to Bill and Shirley. “This is where Jacob and his church come in. We must help him use the structure of the church to spread the ‘Open Mind Message’. If we can get more and more people to learn how to be open to heavenly influence, we may be able to free more people duped by the counter spin forces. If they are able to feel the difference between the coercive teachings of the manipulators trying to control them and the tender thoughts of the clockwise forces trying to guide, we will greatly reduce the unfair advantage silver spin has on the good people of the earth.”
“If we were able to free the immense amount of gold present in people all over the earth, silver spin would be so outnumbered, even the greatest of the manipulators should be overwhelmed!” Bill was honestly optimistic. “I’ve seen so much true, loving goodness in people over the years as a pastor, that I KNOW if it were set free of the obtuseness of so many of the useless religious and societal mores, there would be NO hope for the strongest of the silver spin agents to have enough input to stop the ‘March of Gold to Glory’! We could make life on earth so heavenly, the SS agents would prefer staying in hell!”
HIS last statement brought smiles back to everyone’s faces, even mine.
Until I remembered: My son is in one of those silver spin agents!

I floated away from the group towards a different window than the one overlooking the park. Through it I could see the huge lake bordering one side of the park and lots of souls enjoying their boats, water skis and jet skis. Some of the scenes were almost as comical as the ones on the park rides, but I couldn’t focus on them.

I was worried about Lenny. Larry said Danny was arrested. ‘Does that mean Leo is in trouble with the counter forces for failing to keep Danny out of trouble? If so, what does that mean for Lenny? If Leo fails, he could be suspected of treason, and be ‘cast out of hell’ to life as an unhappy spirit on earth. That would mean that Johnny and the gold retrievers could convince Leo to come to heaven, and he would bring Lenny’s gold with him.’

Larry followed me to the window and stood next to me, listening to my musings. “We can go and have a look. Or you can go by yourself. Danny’s not in jail. He was able to post bail without a problem and he’s home in his mansion working on his defense with a horde of lawyers.”

“But I don’t have enough silver to let me to get close enough. I had to hide in a vent the first time, and I have much less silver in me now.” I wasn’t very optimistic.

“Maybe the type of silver you lost was just the ‘chicken’ variety. Maybe you still have your useless silver that made you feel conflicted for no good reason. That may be enough for you to get close enough to a mere human.” Larry was actually doing a decent job encouraging me, even though we both knew my silver shield was gone.

I sighed. “I guess there’s no harm in trying.”
We popped into the hallway outside a study in Danny’s mansion where a meeting was taking place. Danny was not happy, by the sounds of it. Larry and I decided to ooze through the door and watch. The room was huge, so we were far enough away from Danny to be able to stay in his presence.

“You useless b-------s!” Danny was berating his team of lawyers. “I could come up with a better defense by myself!”
“I wish you luck, then, Mr. Jack---, um, I mean Jackaston,” one of the men said as he stood up to leave.
“Good riddance! You’re the most useless idiot of the bunch!” Danny hollered after him.
“Mr. Jackaston, may I suggest you learn to better control your temper. If you allow a jury to see how angry you can become, you’ll be toast in the first few minutes of deliberations.” The woman lawyer had sternness in her voice. “Any woman on the jury would recognize the abusive tendency in a heartbeat.”
“Isn’t that rather sexist of you, Ms. Bondaire? The men on the jury would see right through your attempts to stigmatize me,” Danny said with an air of victory.
“May I remind you that I’m on YOUR side, Mr. Jackaston. If you are able to conceal your ill, spoiled brat nature from the jury, you MAY have a chance. Otherwise, I highly recommend plea bargaining.” Ms. Bondaire was being very straightforward with the raging lunatic.
“OUT!!!” he bellowed; face as dark red as a beet. “I said I’ll have nothing to do with any plea bargaining, and that’s what I meant!”
Ms. Bondaire stood, nodded her head in his direction and said, “Very well, Mr. Jackaston. May I suggest you start gathering addresses of some of your friends, if you have any, so that you’ll have someone to write to from inside your prison cell.” She didn’t turn to leave until she had a chance to enjoy the look of pure contempt on his beefy round face. She seemed to savor it. When she did turn to leave, we got a better look at her expression; it was a mixture of disgust and disbelief.
She closed the door quietly behind her, leaving only three others in the room with Danny. None of them seemed anxious to speak next. They wisely waited while Danny was obviously using every last ounce of self-control he had, which was basically none, to refrain from throwing a chair at the door through which Ms. Bondaire had just passed. The only thing that stopped him was the weight of the chair he attempted to pitch her direction, but the effort seemed to have a bit of a calming effect on him. Just a bit.
“So, what do you three have to say for yourselves? Are you going to be as full of helpful suggestions as your G—D-
- colleagues?” he growled through clenched jaws.
“I’d like to hold my comments for now,” one of the meeker appearing men said. “I’ll wait until you feel a bit more receptive to suggestions.”
“May I suggest the name of a good anger management counselor?” said another.
“OUT! OUT with both of you!!!” Danny’s eyes were now as red as his face. Made him look rather demonic, actually.
When the two rose to leave, so did the third.
“And where the h--- do you think you’re going?!!” he glared at the third man.
“I value my life over any amount of money you could offer me to take your case. Good day, sir,” he saluted sarcastically, and marched out behind the others.
As soon as the door was closed, objects smaller and lighter than the chair began to fly. A paperweight was the first to go – right through a window. Books ‘frisbeed’ across the room hitting pictures, knocking them askew and breaking their glass. Larry and I reflexively ducked when anything flew close to our heads, even though we knew whatever the object was would go right through us.
We decided to hide out under a sofa table until his tirade was over. “Wow,” Larry said. “He IS evil. Or at least very hateful. Is this how he was when you saw him in his office?”
“I heard the crashing and saw the damage, but I didn’t get to see the action. He definitely does have a temper problem, though, doesn’t he? Puts mine to shame, doesn’t it?” I asked rather sheepishly.
Larry just smiled. “But did you notice we’re both in the same room with him, and I don’t feel any repulsion. Do you?”
“No, I don’t, but we’re not that close to him right now.” I listened for the next crash. I waited. Larry and I looked at each other.
“Do you think he’s done?” Larry asked.
CRASH!!! Something landed on the table we were under and knocked over the lamp. It shattered all over the floor next to us.
“Guess not,” I answered.
We decided to settle in for a while, and develop a game plan.
“When he’s not so obviously evil, see how close you can get to him before you sense repulsion,” Larry suggested. “I’ll stay here until I hear from you.”
“Oh, send ME out to the wolf, huh?” I teased. “So you can hide here safe and sound?” Then I remembered the last message I had received from Lenny’s gold. When I wasn’t feeling angry toward Danny, Lenny had to send me messages by whooshing by my ear to warn me that Leo may be able to pick up on my thoughts. He basically warned me to stay out of his way.
I reminded Larry of this warning. “Do you think Leo would be able to pick up on my thoughts then, too?” Larry wondered.
“If it was the gold part of my thinking that he could sense, then I would expect that your gold thoughts would be just as easy for Leo to pick up on,” I reasoned. “And it may not be worth the risk to Lenny to see if my silver is still strong enough to hide me from Leo.”
“Did Danny and Leo talk at all? Can we just sit here and listen?” Larry asked.
“I don’t remember, to tell you the truth,” I had to admit. “But what else can we do?”
We sat in silence for quite a while. Danny had settled down, or at least he wasn’t throwing things anymore. We could hear him muttering, but we couldn’t understand what he was saying.
I glanced at Larry. He looked like death warmed over! He looked almost as bad as Sheila had looked when she was in the presence of Byron. “I have to get outa here,” he said weakly just before he seeped through the floor and disappeared.
D---. Now what. I wondered if I should go, too. But I felt no repulsion. I basically felt nothing. No fear, no hate, no attachment, no sentiment. I felt like I did when I was in the presence of Byron when my shield was fully functional.
I slowly and carefully raised my head above the table to have a look. Danny was sitting at a desk with his back to me. Leo was beside him, whispering in his ear. Funny, I thought. He’s not a ‘slurry’ like he was before. He looks more like Proteus did. Pure evil.
I began to panic. Where was Lenny?! His gold spin was the reason for the push and pull I had felt before! If Leo was now pure silver, what happened to Lenny’s gold spin?!
My knees went weak and wobbly. I sank to the floor. I slowly seeped through the floor, just like Larry did.

“Pops!” It was Larry coming towards me with arms wide open in preparation for a humongous hug, but it was LENNY’s voice. “Pops! It’s me!” Larry’s mist engulfed me with warmth and love. “I’ve asked Larry to let me use his form for a while so I can let you know in person what is going on. Oh, pops, I love you so much!” Larry’s face was beaming. And his eyes were literally shining gold.

It really threw me for a loop, listening to Larry sound like Lenny saying things the earthly Lenny wouldn’t be caught dead thinking, let alone actually saying.

“I’m so sorry for the way I acted, Dad. It was stupid and childish of me. I knew you didn’t really mean what you said. You just didn’t know any better.”

I bristled a bit at being reminded that I was stupid. “You were being human. I can see that now. I was being human, too. But I could have managed my genetic balance in better ways, more productive ways.” Lenny’s voice cracked a bit. “We missed so much by not handling things differently. But I’ve learned. I know now. And I won’t play mind games with you or anyone else anymore. I want you to know that I’m truly okay on my mission, and I’m confident that I’ll be in heaven soon.” His voice broke and tears streamed down his cheeks. “I’ll be able to see Mom, and make things right with her. I was a horrible son.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked incredulously. “She knew you loved her. She knew it was me who kept you from coming home. There was never any doubt in her mind that you were a perfect son.”
“If I had been a perfect son, I would have overlooked my differences with you and wouldn’t have isolated myself and my family from her just to avoid you. I would have talked to you about what had happened instead of leaving in a huff. But, never mind all that right now. Let me fill you in on what I’m doing with Leo and Danny.”
His tears dried quickly. I noticed some sparkling silver on his cheeks. ‘I thought he lost all of his silver before he left on his mission.’
“It is some of Larry’s silver. Since he’s being so helpful by letting me borrow his substance, the least I could do is shed some silver for him,” Lenny explained. “I did lose all of my silver, most of it in the fuzz, and the rest as I progressed down the hill to the big bubble. But not the memories, so I still have the capacity to regret what I’ve done and what I’ve missed. We victims of tragedies do get off easy in some ways by having our silver removed for us on arrival, but we still need to deal with past issues to truly be at peace. Without the silver gene of impatience, though, we’re able to wait until that time when we are back in heaven.”
“Now, let me fill you in on what’s happening with Leo and Danny.” Larry/Lenny’s expression changed to one of amusement. “Right now I have very little to do. Danny’s self-destructing all by himself. Leo is actually trying to get him to behave like the grown man that he supposedly is. Leo had advised him to do as his lawyers suggested, but obviously Danny didn’t listen. Now he has to figure out what to do without a lawyer. Leo is trying to tell him that his only hope is to flee the country and hope he doesn’t run into Schmitty on his way to get some money out of his bank in Switzerland. Do you want to go watch?”
At that instant, Larry/Lenny’s expression changed to pure fear. I sensed a ‘we can leave you here, Larry’ as I noticed a slurry in the air around Larry.
“Sheez, that was too close for my liking, Lenny. Don’t scare me like that,” Larry said in his own voice, wiping his forehead with his forearm. “I just can’t handle being in the presence of that,” he paused and shuddered, “that embodiment of evil. How can you bear to actually exist INSIDE that awful creature?”
The slurry of air zoomed in one of Larry’s ears and out the other, and Larry’s face quickly changed to a look full of mischief.
“What did he say?” I demanded to know.
“He just teased that being in MY head wasn’t all that easy, either!” Larry grinned and added, “But he did confer that it’s not as bad being inside a demon’s mind as one would think. Actually being able to influence things to the clockwise direction makes it all worthwhile. And he also said that your silver shield is still effective against Danny and Leo. When you were in the presence of both Byron and Proteus, you were basically facing twice the amount of evil, since Byron isn’t really human. And Danny is too stupid and childish to be able to cause anything more than a relatively minor repulsion.”
“Did he tell you why you and Sheila respond so severely when in the presence of the demons and the others didn’t?” I knew I had been okay because of my ‘chicken’ silver shield, but what about the others?
“We weren’t exposed to Byron as long as Sheila apparently had been. Once exposed, a soul is sensitized to the demon. I was okay with the glimpse of Byron, but the prolonged presence of Leo, even though I couldn’t see him, drained me of all of my strength.” Larry paused, trying not to be overcome by the mere memory of the feeling. “Anybody with a good percentage of gold, and not enough silver of sufficient strength would eventually feel the same.”
About that time, I noticed the slurry of air around my head and sensed, “Come on, stubborn old slow poke!”
We oozed through the floor and floated behind the couch. Lenny’s slurry stayed at my head. He had to stay behind my shield. If he wasn’t actually in Leo, he had to be careful to not be sensed.
Danny was in a worse frame of mind than when he was cursing at the lawyers, which I didn’t think was possible. He looked almost as evil as Crane, but being only human, he was not at all threatening to Leo, who was chewing Danny out worse than Danny ever chewed anyone else out.
I could see why Lenny wouldn’t have much to do at this point in time.
While we were watched, Lenny’s slurry answered some more of my questions. He paused inside my head, unlike the quick ‘fly-through’ he did with Larry. I knew it was because my reception was not as good. It was because most of what was left of my silver was busy shielding me from Leo that he was able to enter at all.
What I could make out was that Leo would eventually be kicked out of hell for not keeping Danny out of prison. If Danny flees to Switzerland, it may take longer for authorities to get him than if he stays here, but eventually he has to slip up. And if Danny doesn’t end up in jail, Leo will get another assignment when Danny dies and goes to hell.
In response to my ‘What! That could take forever!’ thought he sent a feeling of calm, indicating that time is not an issue. It will pass quickly if that is what Lenny wants. He doesn’t need to actually be present for all the time that Leo is in Danny’s pocket if nothing of importance is happening. He can ‘fast forward’ to the next time Danny summons Leo for support. Since Danny is so overly self-confident and thick, those times are few and far between. Danny is packed with silver and so feels the need for assistance to be a sign of weakness. Plus he never quite figured out how to open his mind to call for help. Usually, he does so accidentally, generally during one of his hissy fits, which he is somehow able to contain until he is alone. Then Lenny can ‘rewind’ if something happened in the interim that turned out to be important in retrospect.
He also helped me to understand what had actually happened that first meeting with me in Danny’s office. My silver hadn’t figured out at that point in time how to shield me from Leo, so I had to physically hide behind a solid structure, such as the wall, or the ceiling in the vent. He was pleasantly surprised that I was able to pick up any message at all when he whooshed by my head. He wasn’t sure it was worth the risk of Leo sensing him, but he had to try. ‘Glad you did, son’ I thou