”I don’t feel like it.”
”But you are not at the toilet. Are you lying to me?”
”And what is this, now? So you are in the kitchen? What’s that? Bicarbonate? Stomach ache?”
”Yes.”
”You know what. I have got some stomachache, too.”
”You... Don’t drink that...”
”No? You don’t decide over me, brat. You can make a second glass for yourself. I also feel a little bloated...”
”Ahh... Fine... It helped. Here you go.”
”I've lost the urge.”
”Are you too proud to drink from the same glass as me?”
”It’s not like that... but...”
”Come on, let's go and enjoy ourselves a little.”
”Don’t pull me.”
”Why must it always be so difficult? You just make me angry, you know. Do I deserve that?”
“Well…”
”That’s more like it.”
“Are you okay?”
”I feel bad. That glass didn’t fucking help. I have to lay down for a while.”
“Please do.”
”Phew, I am getting so tired. It twirls in my head. Have you started taking drugs, Dorrit?”
”It was just some sedatives. I needed to calm down. Very much so. To get away from all this.”
”Tell me, you haven’t…? What have you done?”
”Now we’ll have peace both of us.”
”What do you mean? No, I don’t want to... will not...”
Anders stared at the monitor. Then he turned to Dorrit. She was slowly dissolving. Then she disappeared.
”What happened?”
”You got your sister back.”
”What about Otto?”
”He dies a little earlier. It doesn’t have any serious consequences.”
”He must have had another life, although he left our mother soon after.”
”Yes, now Dorrit wasn’t there anymore so he could abuse her.”
”What about Mom? Did she know anything about that?”
”She did. In one way or another, she allowed his abuse of you to take place so she could keep Otto. Somehow it didn’t surprise her that he disappeared after Dorrit’s suicide.”
”She must have felt miserable. Accepting a behavior like that just to hold on to a man. How pitiful.”
”Indeed, but that’s how it is with abuse. Your mother sank deeper into alcoholism after your big sister's suicide. Some say that alcoholism is a slow way to commit suicide. Torn between her wish to die and her desire to be with you and look after you two younger siblings. She drank just so much that she could forget reality for a short time, but not so much that she died from it. Over time, she knew that the authorities would declare her unfit for parenthood. She could see that you came to meet the grown up role that she should have had, and the fact that you didn’t get any real childhood caused her even more discomfort.”
”What about the traces of Otto, that was changed.”
”Those I have of course had to check if they were dispensable. Here is one of them. He’s in a café.”
”You tell this to all women?
”But now I say it to you.”
”And I should believe you?”
”Yes, because you like that. All women like to believe the sort. Am I not right?”
”Now you’re too fresh, Otto.”
”Oh, you know very well how the mill is churning.”
”You tell me! God knows, I have experienced a lot.”
”Then you know that men promise love in return for sex. Women offer sex and think they get love. Everyone gets screwed.”
”It's not something you should say on a date.”
”No, but I am tired of all this make believe. It doesn’t lead anywhere. You had better call a spade a spade.”
”But women wish for romance.”
”Damn it, the devil has invented romance to fool people, especially women.”
“You’re hard.”
”Women get turned on being seduced. That’s what it’s all about. Well, I have go to the toilet. Now don’t run from the bill.”
”No, there's always a bill to be paid.”
.../…
”Do you know what happened to Otto?”
”What Otto?”
”He was sitting right here with me before I went to the toilet? Has he gone?”
”I didn’t see him. But I also sat with my back turned.”
”I saw him. He sat there and waited, and suddenly he was gone. It was like he disappeared into thin air.”
”You've got one too many.”
”No, I assure you. It was as if he dissolved and then he was gone.”
”There is more of the same kind. I have studied it. He didn’t start other lives in the process, which could have caused a problem. He was stabbed and died during a bar fight a year later. Then he avoided that.”
”And Dorrit was not charged with anything?”
”No, the police considered it a suicide with all the pills he took, and Dorrit didn’t do anything to tell it in time, so he could get his stomach pumped. It was her small contribution to the course of that line of fate.”
Now Anders intervened.
”But what about the day I died. Then it was perhaps not me who had to look after Maja?”
”Yes, it was too hard to change that. Dorrit had left for continuation school, but there came to be something else happening. Here is the situation. Maja is talking to Sille, her light blue unicorn pony.”
”Now, Sille, we just have to wait for Anders.”
”No, Sille, we must not drink Mom's medicine. I know it causes her to forget, but we cannot behave like that. Then it would really get worse. Anders knows it too. He is the one we will have to rely on.”
”Look, there's the bottle with Mom's medication. There’s a little left. You know, we’ll pour it out. Perhaps Mom will realize that she can do without it. Maybe we help her.”
”That’s it, now we put bottle under the sink in the kitchen with the other ones.”
”What do you say, Sille? Do you want a story? Yes, we’ll do that. It must be Pinocchio? It’s also a good story. Now let's see, where is it?”
”You're right. There is the book. How you are good at finding things. I’ll tell you now.”
”Look, here Pinocchio has come to Pleasure Island. They can get all the candy they want, and destroy things and not get scolded. They think you can just do as you please without anything bad happening.”
”But things don’t work like that. If you don’t hold back and behave properly, then you’ll end up being punished. Unfortunately, I think that’s how it has happened with Mom. She hasn’t been careful enough but wanting to have some things in an easy way and therefore she’s punished by failing in many things. Is that a pity for her?”
”Look, here are the naughty children turned into donkeys, driven away and toiling in the mines. It’s just about happening to Pinocchio as well, but his conscience saves him. Look, it's the cricket there. It is not very big, but it doesn’t mean so much, as long as it's there. One has to think and take care and not be complacent, because then it ends up wrong.”
”Have you understood, Sille? That’s fine, I knew you would. You are a wise little donkey. What do you say? Are you not a donkey? No, of course you’re not. You are my nice sweet little blue pony, you! I don’t know what I would do without you. And then of course, Anders and my older sister Dorrit.”
”And here is the blue fairy. She ensures that Pinocchio comes to life because he has deserved it. He has proven that he is thinking of others and does something to help them, thus being rewarded. Do you understand?”
”So, now I think Anders comes. I hear he’s at the door. Come, we’ll go out and give him a hug, then he’ll be so happy.”
”Well, there you are, little Maja. So I need a hug?”
”I am not little. Sille is little.”
”Yes, that is true. Sille
is smaller than you and you are big, I can see that. Even too big to for a swing.”
”Nooo!”
”You are not? Then we must try, if it works out once again.”
”Ouihh!”
”That’s it.”
”One more time!”
”No, we do a somersault.”
”How?”
”You remember.”
”No.”
”Yes, you put yourself in front of me and look at me. Then you bend down, like this, and stick both arms between your legs. Yes, like that. And then I take hold of your hands... and pull...”
”Hahaha! One more time.”
”Well, then, it’ll be the last turn, then.”
Anders stood beside Paragon and Pollux and looked at the monitor, but then also Anders' soul dissolved and disappeared.
”Now he's completely gone, so there.”
”Yes, he’s back where he wanted to be.”
Pollux and Paragon stood a little and looked at the blank screen. Then Paragon turned the screen off.
”What we do now, master?”
”You know what? We celebrate it with a nail over at Gourmet Gerda.”
”I know what a nail is over at Gerda’s place.”
”Yes, you do pick up something once in a blue while.”
”And Bamrok teach me something too. Fine booze.”
”Booze?”
”Yes, you not know what booze is?”
”Of course, I do. It’s long since I've heard it, but it reminds me of my favorite old time period.”
”Before things went to the dogs?”
”Yes, before everything went haywire.”
”Haywire?”
”Yes, went bananas.”
”Bananas? Where do bananas get into things, master?”
”It's just another word for things people need many words for. Like Hell.”
”Well, then I know. We’ve been visiting that place.”
”Yes, we have. But now let's get over to Gourmet Gerda and get that nail.”
Blurb:
Anders killed in an accident ends up with the unrestful souls in Limbo. Here he discovers the soul from his former deceased sister disappears along with other souls. Paragon from Soul Service helps him to find out what is about to happen with the increasing number of lost souls, and this mission leads them far off into the universe before they recognize the looming conflict behind the disappearance of the souls.
Ghost Hunters
Interview with Freddy Milton
by Ingo Milton
You have written a number of books by now...
When I started writing books, I didn’t know it would come to that, but when I from book number two invented the frame title 'Between Life and Death', I got hold of something inspiring. From then it became a series, but only thematically, for most books have different cast.
However, there is a fantasy dragon figure, Paragon, in several of them, including this title.
That’s true. I have held on to him. He is inspiring, or rather the Seventh Sky with the Soul Service and Limbo.
What have you going this time?
It’s a Major structure, where I try to make a thriller with a cosmic perspective.
As in 'Amelia and the Guardian Spirit'?
In a way, but here it develops into an action thriller or pure adventure. I have not previously been endeavoring that to the same extent.
Why not?
Because I might not have needed it or because detached from a meaningful setting, it may appear superficial and hollow when you put the book down after reading. However, this story leads to recognizable moral vision with the climax having a worthy purpose, and one should not forget that the audience wants to read an exciting story that is still entertaining.
Can the ultimate climax carry the expectation you want?
I hope indeed. I must also be surprising as to the consequences, but I don’t think the readers will guess where we land, so to speak.
No, you have never had so many means of transport in one story.
That’s a fact! The setting is highly budgeted. I don’t have to hold myself back because I exceed a budget ceiling, but it was exciting to try settling an action plot that stretches across most of the book and grow in size and perspective as the storyline develops.
Information gets delivered in small portions.
It is standard principles in this genre. We should always carry wood to the fire, fan the flames and then let the intrigue simmer a bit and finally burst into heavy cooking. I hope it is successful. We get far around. Longer than in any other of the titles in the series.
Why have you kept back from releasing a thriller fantasy story like this earlier?
Because things are so easily derailed. If you introduce a gallery of characters and involve many changing locations, in most cases you lose closeness to the individuals and their emotions, easily risking being swept along by the broad storytelling mechanisms and thus become passive pawns in an extravaganza where exotic action determines terms and development. The ultimate peak must match the climax in the story concerning people's involvement.
Is it difficult to get to fit?
No, fortunately not in this case. The things I gradually bring into the story seems logical and necessary and we must accept it as steps on the road towards the desirable conclusion. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive towards the end, because I have a group of thirteen people, not all allowed to express their opinion on what is happening. Fortunately, they are included in subgroups of four people each, so in reality I only have three groups, acting as a whole, and then a few main characters. Therefore, it could work.
You have no first-person narrator this time?
That’s right, and no ongoing parallel action either. Only right at the beginning the story shifts between two threads, but quickly joined I stick to a unified storyline. It’s also necessary since this story requires so much attention to the action-packed development. There’s no need for scene changes for variation. The variation is going on in the main story, where there are many shifts in location.
You do have a start on a realistic level, being quite serious.
I usually have. We need to let attention be grounded in something real on which the fantasy part can manage and provide a broader perspective later. Here it’s a question of consumption of stimulants and its consequences.
Why alcohol?
Because it’s a reasonably manageable form of abuse, where for a long time the user can still function normally in society. Had I chosen drugs, the consequences would be more severe and it would be difficult to postulate the mother could continue to hide her addiction and pretend parenting with the required responsibility.
The son's role made it more probable?
Precisely, and in families with alcohol abuse one of the children often assume the adult role that parents cannot cope. These children deprived of their natural childhood will too early have to act as adults. It’s a problem I often have thought about, and now there was a natural opportunity to bring it into a story of sibling relationships.
Is the adventure not being an escapist diversion of attention that should have maintained focus at the serious reality part?
No, it would be too unbearable. I would not offer my readers that. I have the responsibility, after all, to be entertaining in my presentation, but the symbolism established it doesn’t take much imagination to see the relationship with my frame story. That's what I do when I tell my stories which can be seen as adventures, too.
Yes, you even have a reference to Pinocchio also including symbolism.
It is obviously no coincidence. Pinocchio is about maturing through developing accountability and the consequences if you don’t.
It sounds very moral.
All good fairytales are like that. The question is just whether you can avoid being moralistic, since that can be boring, but Pinocchio's not boring, and I hope that goes for my story as well.
The o
riginal book, Pinocchio, is indeed a heavy brick of a book with many side actions. Were you not tempted to create a broader intrigue now you were at it?
I was not. I had to make an effort to reach this level of scope in the description. In fact, I am in favor of simple stories, and to paint a large and detailed image for effect's sake, I was not tempted to do. The basic flow of the story must still appear logical and inevitable.
You did take the opportunity to return to places you have been before. The space station and the people there and Limbo with the Heavenly Express and the dimension elevator...
It was tempting. I didn’t only have to introduce new things, I could give old items a new feature, but it’s quite normal when you write a new book with an established gallery of characters. Then the readers will like to meet them again.
What were you first inspired to do this time? The reality part or the fantasy part of the book?
I think it came almost simultaneously. In any case, I only went on elaborating the details when I had a connection between the themes of the two parts so they could work together and strengthen each other. I have that feeling by intuition. The first loose idea for the book came already at the writing of 'Amelia and Guardian Spirit' where I thought 'Now, there is a trade of souls transferred between the galaxies, but perhaps we could also imagine that souls could be abducted?'
So the fantasy part did come first?
You cannot say, because things only develop, when you find a good motivation for what is happening or will happen. If the motivation or justification is not high ranking, the rest is love's labor lost. That’s the difference between run of the mill products in the fantasy genre and good science fiction.
Paragon- Ghost Hunters Page 27