by Beca Lewis
When they were older, Karla and Eddie had visited Theo, but their father’s mind had been lost years before he died and he didn’t know either of them.
Eddie had comforted her and said it was better that way, and she believed him. He was always so much wiser than her.
Sometimes she would catch Eddie daydreaming, and he would tell her that it was nothing, but she knew it wasn’t. It felt to her that in those moments he had been somewhere else.
Eddie’s mother Edith had passed away a few years before, and Connie had faded after that. She had caught Eddie and her mother quietly talking together more than once, as if they had a secret they shared.
When she had mentioned to her mother that she felt as if Edith was still around watching over her, Connie had smiled and answered, “I’m sure she is.”
Karla wasn’t sure if she was humoring her or if she was serious.
“Do you need help with anything?”
Coming back to the present, she went to hug the two people who had just arrived, Bryan and Rachel. Mom’s friends from forever, although she had never heard the story of how they met.
Bryan and Rachel had known each other from childhood. But it had taken them a while to get together.
“Better late than never,” Rachel had told her one day.
“Grandma says she wants to talk to you,” Edward said as he entered the kitchen.
“Who, honey?”
“She says Uncle Eddie will know.”
Karla looked at Eddie and realized that he did know. It was why Bryan and Rachel were here. They were part of that secret, too. None of them would tell her what it was, so she had given up asking.
Taking Edward’s hand, she said, “Come help me pick some flowers from the garden for your grandmother’s room.”
*******
The three of them found Connie, awake and smiling.
“I just wanted to thank the three of you for helping me to redeem myself. There is no way I could ever repay you myself, but I think that life has done that for each of you. I know that it has for me.
“Eddie, me being able to be your mother too, along with Edith, well, that is a gift that is so priceless I have no words. And then to have a grandson. It’s more than I ever dreamed would happen.
“And Rachel and Bryan. You two were, and are, angels. Thank you.”
When the three of them looked worried, she added,“No, I am not leaving just yet. I asked to see all these people so I could say a proper goodbye to them.
“After that, though, you know I have some other friends waiting for me. I know you see your mother all the time, Eddie, but I am afraid that she is waiting for me. We have places to go together.”
Eddie leaned down and hugged Connie. “You two have fun! And thank you for being brave and making all of our lives better. It’s because of you that I had an entire lifetime with mom.”
As the three of them turned to leave the room, Connie called after them.
“Eddie, if you have a direct line to whoever made sure we remembered it all, will you tell them ‘Thank you?’”
Eddie smiled as he said, “Connie, you can thank her yourself. And tell my mom thank you from me, too.
“Although there are times I thought it would be easier not to know, I also wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
Rachel and Bryan nodded in agreement, closed the door softly behind them, and smiled at each other.
Thanks to Connie, Eddie, Edith, and Jillyan, they had a wedding to plan.
What’s Next?
All books in the Karass Series don’t have to be read in order, but if you want to know what comes next read (or listen to) Missing: Never Lost.
And as you read the book, perhaps you were intrigued by some of the other stories and characters mentioned in this book, and would like to know more about them.
Satisfy your curiosity, and read Karass, Pragma, Jatismar,
Exousia, Stemma and Paragnosis.
Plus the free short story The Experiment will guide you into the spin off series, The Return to Erda and The Chronicles of Thamon.
Find all these books at my website becalewis.com or at your favorite bookstore or library.
Author’s Note
This book was inspired by something I read when I was eighteen. It only took me over fifty years to write about it.
In my first year of college at Penn State, I had a French class that I adored. Very unusual for me since French in high school inspired fear in my heart.
Why did I love that class? Two reasons: an exceptional teacher and because we read a book that made a deep impression on me. Throughout the years, I would often think of the essence of that story.
I remembered that two people met in the afterlife, who should have met when they were alive. So they were given a chance to return to life and see if they could fix that mistake.
Life continuing, connections, redemption—who doesn’t want all that?
When I started writing this book, I went looking for the original book. I had looked before but had had no luck finding it.
Then one day, in the middle of writing this book, I saw the phrase, “the die is cast” in an article about political incompetence, and tried once more. This time, I was successful.
Although I remember our French teacher translating the title as The Die Is Cast, I now see it translated as The Chips Are Down.
If you can read French (I can’t anymore), you can read Jean-Paul Satre’s book, Les Jeux Sont Fait. It’s also a movie made in 1947.
If not, I hope you like my humble rendition of the theme that life continues, connections both here and There, and perhaps it is possible to return to life and redeem ourselves.
Yours, Beca
PS
Once again, thank you for reading my books. Otherwise, it would just be me and the words, and although words are lovely, it’s the sharing of them that makes it all worthwhile.
******
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LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/becalewis
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I could never write a book without the help of my friends and my book community. Thank you, Jet Tucker, Jamie Lewis, Diana Cormier, and Barbara Budan, for taking the time to do the final reader proof. You can’t imagine how much I appreciate it.
A huge thank you to Laura Moliter for her fantastic book editing.
Thank you to the fabulous Molly Phipps at wegotyoucoveredbookdesign.com for the beautiful book covers for the Karass series.
Thank you to every other member of my Book Community who help me make so many decisions that help the book be the best book possible.
Thank you to all the people who tell me that they love to read these stories. Those random comments from friends and strangers are more valuable than gold.
And as always, thank you to my beloved husband, Del, for being my daily sounding board, for putting up with all my questions, my constant need to want to make things better, and for being the love of my life, in more than just this one lifetime.
OTHER BECA BOOKS
The Karass Series: Magical Realism
Karass, Pragma, Jatismar, Exousia, Stemma, Paragnosis, In-Between, Missing
The Return To Erda Series: Fantasy
Shatterskin, Deadsweep, Abbadon, The Experiment
The Chronicles of Thamon: Fantasy
Banished, Betrayed, Discovered, Wren’s Story
The Shift Series: Spiritual Self-Help
> Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception
The Daily Shift: Daily Lessons From Love To Money
The 4 Essential Questions: Choosing Spiritually Healthy
Habits
The 28 Day Shift To Wealth: A Daily Prosperity Plan
The Intent Course: Say Yes To What Moves You
Imagination Mastery: A Workbook For Shifting Your Reality
Right Thinking: A Thoughtful System for Healing
Perception Parables: Short stories
Love’s Silent Sweet Secret: A Fable About Love
Golden Chains And Silver Cords: A Fable About Letting Go
Advice:
A Woman’s ABC’s of Life: Lessons in Love, Life and Career from Those Who Learned The Hard Way
ABOUT BECA LEWIS
Beca writes books that she hopes will change people’s perceptions of themselves and the world, and open possibilities to things and ideas that are waiting to be seen and experienced.
At sixteen, Beca founded her own dance studio. Later, she received a Master’s Degree in Dance in Choreography from UCLA and founded the Harbinger Dance Theatre, a multimedia dance company, while continuing to run her dance school.
After graduating—to better support her three children—Beca switched to the sales field, where she worked as an employee and independent contractor to many industries, excelling in each while perfecting and teaching her Shift® system, and writing books.
She joined the financial industry in 1983 and became an Associate Vice President of Investments at a major stock brokerage firm, and was a licensed Certified Financial Planner for more than twenty years.
This diversity, along with a variety of life challenges, helped fuel the desire to share what she’s learned by writing and speaking with the hope that it will make a difference in other people’s lives.
Beca grew up in State College, PA, with the dream of becoming a dancer and then a writer. She carried that dream forward as she fulfilled a childhood wish by moving to Southern California in 1968. Beca told her family she would never move back to the cold.
After living there for thirty years, she met her husband Delbert Lee Piper, Sr., at a retreat in Virginia, and everything changed. They decided to find a place they could call their own which sent them off traveling around the United States. For a year or so they lived and worked in a few different places before returning to live in the cold once again near Del’s family in a small town in Northeast Ohio, not too far from State College.
When not working and teaching together, they love to visit and play with their combined family of eight children and five grandchildren, read, study, do yoga or taiji, feed birds, work in their garden, and design things. Actually, designing things is what Beca loves to do. Del enjoys the end result.
In-Between
A Story of Redemption
Beca Lewis
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
Forty-One
Forty-Two
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five
Forty-Six
Forty-Seven
Forty-Eight
Forty-Nine
Fifty
Fifty-One
Fifty-Two
Fifty-Three
Fifty-Four
Fifty-Five
Fifty-Six
Epilogue
Author’s Note
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Also by Beca Lewis
Perception Parables
Love's Silent Sweet Secret
Golden Chains And Silver Cords
The Chronicles of Thamon
Banished: A Visionary Fantasy Adventure
Betrayed
Discovered
Wren's Story
The Karass Chronicles
Karass: A Gathering Of Souls
Pragma: Stand In Love
Jatismar: A Past Life Forgiven
Exousia: What Truth Reveals
Stemma: False Inheritance
Paragnosis: Seeing The Unseen
The Karass Chronicles Box Set 1
The Karass Chronicles Box Set 2
In Between: A Redemption Story (Coming Soon)
The Return To Erda
The Experiment
Shatterskin
Deadsweep
Abbadon
The Return To Erda Box Set
The Shift Series
Seven Steps To Right Thinking
Imagination Mastery
Watch for more at Beca Lewis’s site.
About the Author
BECA LEWIS always wanted to be a writer, but there were a few pit stops along the way. She has been a dancer, teacher, stockbroker, financial planner, club dancer (read this any way you wish), waitress, web designer, headhunter (the civilized kind), and a diamond broker to just name a few. All this while trying to be a decent mother to three kids, a step-mother to five more, and a grandmother to the five, almost grown, best-looking grandchildren in the world. All these experiences are the perfect fodder for book writing!
Beca’s non-fiction Shift Series covers the system she developed and has coached for over twenty-five years. At this point, she is going to claim there is no time, so she doesn’t have to think about age. She’ll show you why you don’t have to either in this practical and inspirational series.
Beca’s fiction explores stories around the concepts of other dimensions, love that transcends time and space, and where good always triumphs over evil.
The best part of writing? Being an introvert on purpose, living in imagination, and then sharing it all with readers and friends.
Read more at Beca Lewis’s site.