A Journey of Souls

by Michael McKinney

  The landscape Spencer Phillips sees is rustic and except for the dirt road he's walking on, devoid of any trace of human activity. As he progresses on, vague memories of a painful death seep into his thoughts, but they seem more like a distant unpleasant memory. Continuing onward, he feels more relaxed and confident. After passing a row of hedges he sees a young woman with her back turned to him some sixty feet away picking apples. With her attention focused on what she's doing, a deadly impulse echoes through his mind , and a latent instinct to kill rises to the surface.

  He's irresistibly drawn closer and thinks to himself, ‘I have unfinished business to take care of.’

  As he lunges forward to surprise her from behind, she screams and tries to run. After quickly overtaking the woman, he gets on top of her and starts choking his victim. Suddenly, from out of nowhere four men appear and violently pull him off his quarry. Spencer Phillips is manhandled by several men who appear in every detail to be ancient Roman soldiers. Surrounded, he looks up to see another woman looking back at him. Her voice is clear and direct.

  “We've been expecting you Mr Phillips.”

  “Who are you?”

  “My name is Brianna,” she says and then turns to one of the soldiers.

  “As I said it would be Commander, you saw it with your own eyes.”

  “We all saw what happened. This case is capitol. Caesar must hear it.”

  Turning to Brianna, he continues.

  “My lady, you're a witness to this and must give your statement.”

  “All in accordance with Roman law,” Brianna agrees.

  “Must I go as well?” asks the assailed woman..

  “No, his guilt is plain. You can go.”

  “I want to go home,” she says.

  “Lucius,” says the commander.

  “Yes sir,”

  “You and Trebonius escort this woman home, with all courtesies.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  “The rest of you follow me.”

  “Wait a minute. Who are you people? If you think I'll just march off with you, you’re mistaken. I'm not going anywhere,” declares Spencer Phillips.

  With no signal of his intention, the Roman officer walks over to Spencer Phillips and with a full, swinging blow, slaps his face. The stinging surprise of the unexpected assault, is immediate and very painful.

  “Oh you'll go, either on your legs or I'll have my horse drag you. Wretch, I saw you try to kill a woman. You're under arrest.”

  This sharply unpleasant experience and being physically manhandled earlier, convince Mr Phillips this place is not imaginary, and that it's just turned very unfriendly toward him. As all parties walk away, two soldiers escort the woman home with her apples, while Spencer Phillips is led away. Accompanying them is Brianna and her still unseen apprentice Calvin Milner who as before, is anonymously observing everything in silence. Passing along the same road that Spencer Phillips traveled earlier, they come to a turn and as they make their way around it, something amazing comes into view. Stretching out across a huge field, he sees an entire Roman legion of over five thousand men bivouacked on the open ground. Hundreds and hundreds of men, many dressed exactly like those escorting him, along with many horses seeming to cover the ground in every direction. Spencer Phillips has never been a student of history, but everything he sees suggests they have arrived at an ancient Roman military camp. As the party of five enter the encampment, they pass dozens of men, some peering out through their tents as they pass, and even though a woman in this place is very unusual, no un-tempered remark is heard. The disciplined restraint characteristic of a Roman soldier is expected from every man and without exception is shown.

  Curious glances are directed not at Brianna, but at the strangely dressed man being led under guard. They soon come to a large tent and are directed by the commander to wait as he approaches the soldier posted outside its entrance. Spencer Phillips looks around him and feels very apprehensive about what will happen. He sees men staring back at him, men who appear tough, masculine and above all disciplined. He rightly senses he's about to encounter the person whose authority rules here.

  As they wait, Brianna hears a question whispered in her ear. Her unseen apprentice Calvin asks, “Are we really here?”

  “We're only visiting Calvin,” she says quietly.

  “But how?”

  Brianna stops, as all direct their attention toward a man emerging from the tent. The demeanor of those accompanying him immediately conveys without words that he and he alone is in command. He radiates confidence. A certain air surrounds him that seems to exude total authority and for good reason. Spencer Phillips has no idea that the man standing before him is none other than the emperor Marcus Aurelius, absolute ruler of the Roman Empire in the year 168 A.D.. One of Rome's greatest emperors, Marcus Aurelius exemplifies the wisdom, virtue and restraint of Roman law and civility. In hearing the many cases brought before him his judgments are uniformly condign and if possible always reflect a penchant for mercy. Seeing the strangely dressed man before him he begins his inquiry.

  “What man is this Commander?”

  “Caesar, we caught this man strangling a woman, and in my judgment trying to kill her.”

  “I am loathe to condemn any man, but if you prove to be so heinous as charged, the scales of justice must weigh against you.”

  Turning to the Roman officer Caesar asks, “are there witnesses to this?”

  “Four other soldiers, myself, and this woman Caesar, we all saw it happen.”

  “What is your name woman?”

  “My name is Brianna.”

  “Are you here to give honest testimony?”

  “I am Caesar.”

  Turning to Spencer Phillips, the emperor asks him,

  “I'm curious. What drives a man to commit such an outrage?”

  After a lengthy and what all see as a disrespectful pause, Caesar demands an answer.

  “Speak!”

  “I don't have to answer anyone's questions here. I don't know who you people are. I want a lawyer.”

  “It's very telling you offer no defense, and also very damning. Look around you. Some of the men you see will have to swallow their own blood in the next battle and every one has risked his life many times. Do you know why? To defend civilization and the rule of law, law that protects the weak and the innocent, protecting them from criminals like you. You're not worth the slightest of their wounds. Vile, wicked man to come here with a fast intent to harm one of our own, a harmless woman picking apples.”

  “Worse than that Caesar, and much worse. I know this man's work.”

  “Speak then Brianna. I know your oath is holy.”

  “Caesar, this man has killed to satisfy his lust for murder. Twent-six times he has taken an innocent life. Eight of those twenty-six were children, and one was a pregnant woman. Their promise cut short by the malignant hand of this murderer.”

  “... Oh human viper! Methinks I see some fiend from the underworld before me in human form. What monster from Hades are you, to do these unspeakable things?”

  Spencer Phillips hangs his head and comes the closest to uttering an honest statement about the life he's lived.

  “I am what I am.”

  “And what is that but a thing loathsome and contemptible? Every breath you take is an affront to the potency of Roman law. Therefore, by that law, we purge ourselves of you, and your wicked offense. We find your crimes so heinous as to warrant immediate execution.”

  With a dismissive wave of the emperor's hand, the judgment and sentence is final. Spencer Phillips begins his protest.

  “You can't do this to —”

  In mid-sentence he feels a hand seize his left shoulder and the sudden thrust of a Roman sword entering cleanly through the soft space between his ribs and in one push Spencer Phillips sees the tip of the bla
de exit his chest cavity, with the skill of the swordsman insuring that the blade passes through his heart. Though he clearly sees the sword point protruding from his chest, for some reason the wound is not as physically painful as it should be. It's a symbolic wound, a wound that condemns, not a wound that kills. However when the swordsman suddenly pulls the blade out, it's still painful enough to bring Spencer Phillips falling to his hands and knees. He feels a force pulling him downward as if gravity is somehow magnified beneath him.

  Moments later he hears a voice in his ear. He remembers it as being the voice of the woman called Brianna.

  “Thus you die a second time, once to the flesh and now to the spirit. Your posture is fitting. Never will you stand again with the erect dignity of the human form. Never again will your tongue sound with the liberating voice of language. Therefore descend. Live henceforth in the blind prison of brute instinct, a slave to the basest drives of fear and aggression. You wanted a world where you can kill. That world is now waiting for you.”

  Spencer Phillips feels a darkness enshrouding him as if he were underground or in the deep recesses of a cave with no way out. He struggles to crawl on his hands and knees and somehow keeps moving forward. He feels a numbing heaviness to his labored effort as if he's dragging something behind him. A strange overpowering urge to get to water pushes him onward. After crawling on all fours for what seems like hours, he finally sees a river in the distance ahead. The sight of water has a powerful effect on him drawing him onward like a magnet. A primitive drive to get as close as he can is irresistible. Finally, crawling to its edge he looks on its surface and sees the reflected image of a face looking back at him, a non-human face, a face covered with scales instead of skin. He sees an appendage with claws rather than fingers. He sees a long row of teeth and each one is an incisor for ripping flesh. He looks closer at the eye staring back at him with its vertical pupil characteristic of reptiles. In his mind, part of him still seems human, but like a glimmering memory of some distant past event, it gently slips away. Thought, recollection and memory of all things human disappear, and then the final descent.

  Somewhere in the deep interior of Africa, on the banks of a tributary of the Nile river, a male crocodile silently slips into the water and submerges. Keeping below the water line he turns back toward the bank and waits, waits for his next victim, waits to kill again.

  Seeing the animal glide into its ambush position, two disembodied souls watch from the river bank. It's Brianna, and her apprentice Calvin. Nonplussed for an explanation, Calvin tries to understand what he's witnessed.

  “He's actually descended into a sub-human form. That's incredible.”

  “And rare, only a few of many thousands who arrive are destined for such an end.”

  “Will this animal ever remember it's former life?”

  “No, That life, the life of Spencer Phillips is gone forever.”

  “What happens now?”

  “This creature will live out it's life. Decades from now he'll still be here stalking and killing his victims, even eating it's own offspring when it has the chance. This is the world Spencer Phillips lived for, and so now it's his.”

  “It's a tragedy.”

  “Yes it is Calvin, but our next arrival is something very different, a gentle soul, a lady of genuine qualities.”

  “Are good things waiting for her?”

  “Yes, of course. Come, let's go and see her arrival.”

  Calvin looks one last time at the submerged silhouette of the waiting reptile in the water, and pauses. Brianna looks at her apprentice and tells him, “Come Calvin. It's time to go. This place is fit for mayhem.”

  Chapter Eight: The Volunteer

  In a quiet suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana, a woman is getting ready to leave her home and drive across town as she has three times a week for the last four years. Her name is Louise Robinson, and she's a volunteer. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, she works in a soup kitchen for four hours, and even though she's expecting a visit from her sister today who's flying in from New York for the weekend, because it's Friday, she's going to her volunteer job, as usual.

  Louise's husband Joseph, is growing more ambivalent about his wife giving her time as she does. When Louise started volunteering several years ago, he was still working full time, but Joseph retired six months ago and would now prefer to have his wife home with him. Joseph Robinson does not like being alone. He worked in the post office for twenty-five years and is psychologically unprepared for the leisure time that now fills his life. He knows he has to find a way to occupy his time each day, but nothing seems to spark his interest. Some days a pervading sense of ennui comes over him, and he becomes anxious and fidgety. Mr Robinson never trained himself to a practiced habit of self-reliance, and so often calls on his wife for things he should do himself. Having Joseph home every day has been an adjustment for Louise, and not an easy one. This is part of the reason she values her time spent volunteering. Besides helping to forge a connection to the larger community, it provides her with a needed respite from domestic obligations.

  Today Louise is looking forward to seeing her sister later on this afternoon. As she finishes washing the breakfast dishes her husband asks her, “what time's your sister coming in?”

  “She should be here about four or five o'clock.”

  “Why don't you stay home today?”

  “That won't get her here any faster. Her flight doesn't land until 3:30.”

  “We could meet her at the airport.”

  “She prefers to rent a car. Her employer pays for it.”

  “I guess being a corporate attorney has its perks,” says Joseph.

  “I suppose.”

  “You and your sister are very different.”

  “I don't think we are.”

  “You don't think so?”

  “We're actually more alike than different.”

  “One person is a corporate attorney and the other volunteers in a soup kitchen. They sound like very different people to me.”

  “Maybe you should listen for other sounds Joe.”

  Pausing for a moment Louise tells her husband,

  “I have to go.”

  “How long do you intend to volunteer at this food pantry, or whatever it is?”

  “I don't know. Why do you ask?”

  “I'm just curious. You've been giving your time to this place for four years now. What do you get out of it?”

  “I guess it's the satisfaction of helping others.”

  “I hope you don't bring one of these unfortunate souls home with you.”

  “You never know Joseph. You never know. I have to go.”

  Getting up and moving toward the door, Louise glances back at her husband. “you oughta come down some time and volunteer Joe. You might like it.”

  As she closes the door behind her he takes another sip of coffee and says, “I don't think so.”

  As Louise Robinson makes her way across town to start her day, she's thinking about seeing her sister in a few hours. Her mood is upbeat and positive, but for a woman living seven miles to the south in Beech Grove, Indiana, this day is anything but pleasant, and just like the one before, is fraught with worry.

  Regina Cooper and her family are facing a serious dilemma. The house she's lived in for the past ten years with her husband and nine-year-old daughter is being repossessed. Thomas Cooper is a loving husband and father, but after losing his job as an assembly line worker when his employer relocated overseas, his best efforts were not enough to make up for the loss of income. It was an unexpected setback for Mr Cooper, who was told along with his co-workers that the company they worked for had no plans to move off-shore. When that decision was reversed, employees were given thirty days prior notice before their employment was terminated.

  The bad news was made worse when only days before, an unforeseen emergency forced
his wife to undergo medical treatment with an extended hospital stay. Though insurance paid for most of the cost of his wife's care, a high deductible, and frequent doctor's appointments, combined with his loss of income forced him to default on his mortgage payments. Despite his best efforts to work with the bank to try to keep his home, time has run out, and nothing more can be done. Things beyond their control have brought Thomas and Regina Cooper to a realization that they must accept something that now appears inevitable. Though they are mature enough to know they will eventually recover from this experience, their biggest concern is for their nine-year-old daughter Angela, who is still confused about what's happening. Her mother has told her very little, only hinting at the possibility of moving somewhere else, and remaining silent about why they have to leave their home. Regina is trying to make the change as easy as possible for her daughter, but it's clear that Angela is unhappy with any talk about leaving the only home she's ever known. Sensing her parent's stress and the looming prospect of leaving her school and neighborhood friends is negatively affecting the sensitive nine-year-old. Regina Cooper knows Angela will be unhappy about leaving, but can only hope that her daughter will adjust to the change as quickly as possible. The entire family is going through a crisis whose outcome is still uncertain. It's been less than three weeks since they've learned of the banks intention to foreclose on their home. Regina's mother has offered to take them in until they can find a place of their own, but she lives in an apartment with limited space. A second option would be to refinance and borrow enough from the equity to pay off the existing mortgage. The problem is finding a bank willing to loan the seventy-two thousand dollars needed to achieve that. Although Thomas Cooper is working again, his diminished income and his wife's inability to resume work until she fully recovers has made the likelihood of getting a loan very improbable.