by Shea Meadows
“We’d like to experience what the newest members of our group contribute to this project. Would all of you be comfortable in demonstrating your skills? I purpose that you all use your talents to work together to clear one area of ghosts. Someone takes the responsibility as leader of the group and finds a location somewhere in the state of Georgia that is connected in some way with the Soul Stealer’s goals,” Ricky said.
The new group had traveled together and had gotten to know each other, so they huddled together for about fifteen minutes and then Avery became their spokesman. “Mel and I would like our students to be the primary practitioners of this demonstration. We will observe along with you and give any feedback we may have after the work is complete. Is that alright with you, Ricky?”
Ricky nodded. “These are your students; they will reflect their teacher’s skills as well as their own. Who will take the lead?”
Trix raised her hand. “Part of our group technique is based on finding a ghost who’s unhappy with their situation. We’ve already made the intention to locate one in Georgia that will advance the goals of the project,” Trix stated.
“We’ve been working on this idea, talking about it on the way here on the plane. We had the foreknowledge that you’d request a demonstration,” Job added. “We already scouted the state as we were flying from Chicago. Either you read our intention or we read yours, because we are all on the same page.”
Everyone in the category of new arrivals, including Katera and the Radiant Sisters, took their etheric-emerald charged stones in their hands and made the intention to hover over their target. All of the original group, as well as Mel and Avery, made the intention to observe.
Below them was the small town of Brookfield, Georgia where Juniper Hodgins lives with her husband and three children. She grew up in the town which now has a population of six hundred and twelve, a decrease from its former size of one thousand souls.
Juniper had attended the University of Georgia in Athens and upon graduation returned to Brookfield to marry Hank, her high school sweetheart. They settled in on a medium-sized farm which Hank’s father had established and it did well by them until nineteen ninety-nine when cotton bores took over the field. This unfortunate infestation created a fifty percent drop in income and forced Juniper to look for a job. There was nothing available in the area so the family took extreme measures. Juniper traveled to Athens to confer with her college roommate Grace Cantor, who had a knack for networking.
Juniper stayed at Grace’s house and they talked all night about their lives. Juniper said her ideal job would be as the principal of Brookfield Elementary which was two miles from her home, but Mrs. Marge Fields who was sixty-five had been principal forever. Besides that, Juniper had only worked as a substitute for a while years back, and the principal’s position was bound to go to an established teacher.
Grace smiled and said cryptically, “I know how we can take care of that. I’ve worked with an amazing man. We’ll go see him.”
The following day Juniper met with Sam Reading, who, in the midst of the conversation, linked a ghost to her, just like the one he’d previously linked to her friend Grace. He only charged her $200 for the session, which was the money Juniper was saving for a new television. But if you’d asked Juniper, at the time, she would have said it was money well spent. He advised her to go and have a talk with Mrs. Fields and be prepared for things to happen.
The ghost attached to Juniper was a gentleman named Horace Greenly. He too had lived in Brookfield all his life, which had ended in eighteen-fifty-three. He had been the town mayor and was known as a wheeler-dealer. He was a trader and builder and was responsible for the construction of not one but two churches, two blocks away from each other.
On the front side, that looked like an accomplishment, on the back side, Horace accomplished this by deceit and trickery, pocketing about a quarter of the sums that were raised for the two projects. One church built in forty-nine, the other in fifty-three, the year he died with a bullet through the heart when the minister of the first church got to talking to the elders of the second church about the mysterious shrinking of funds.
Now Horace found himself attached to Juniper Hodgins and whispered in her ear about what to say to Mrs. Fields at an interview Juniper had requested. Mrs. Fields found it strange and terrifying that Juniper, the formerly mild-mannered mom of three rather unremarkable students, sounded like a gangster. Juniper led off the meeting with a rehash of all Mrs. Field’s improprieties from the time she was a teenager, finishing off with an affair with the pastor of one of the two churches in town. Juniper threatened to make all the offences public and to inform the school board if Mrs. Fields didn’t agree to retire at once and recommend Juniper as her replacement.
Mrs. Field ranted in response to the bullying, not admitting a thing, but her defenses crumbled when Juniper pulled out a folder full of evidence that she dropped on the desk that would soon be hers.
Horace had connection: ghost of a reporter at the newspaper that gave him the dates of the various offences of Marge Fields before she gave up her life of crime and earned her way through college. Along with the ghost of the guy who ran the hotel where Marge Fields held her trysts with the holier-than-thou pastor. Horace dictated dates and times of their meetings, and since it had been recent, Marge couldn’t claim immaturity as her excuse.
Juniper was now the principal of Brookfield Elementary and had been in that position for over two years. On the surface, everything ran well. Juniper was an organized person and Horace was her unseen consultant.
About a year before, many of the parents were upset when Juniper invited Sam Reading to do a demonstration of spirit communication at the grade school assembly. No one asked family permission for attendance at the presentation, and the parents didn’t learn about the unusual guest until after the fact. The School Board came down on Juniper, who apologized for her lack of judgement and promised to clear all speakers through the board and the Brookfield Parents and Teachers Association. Juniper was a bit confused as to why she’d thought it was a good idea anyway.
Horace knew better; the assembly was Sam’s chance to link ghosts to many of the students. Sam had not linked everyone; only those with potential to be useful to the Soul Stealer, his Master Teacher. He chose the malleable, the combative, the children raised in environments that had stripped away their self-esteem. By the time Sam left the school that day, forty-five out of three hundred children were part of his organization.
Within a year the behavior problems with those students had quadrupled. Parents were at a loss and were looking for ways to oust their once popular new principal, having connected Sam Reading’s trip to Brookfield to the changes. The school was unresponsive to their concerns. Sam had also taken the time to sit in a quiet motel room while he was there and link ghosts to about half the teachers and key members of the Brookfield PTA.
This was the point at which Trix and Job arrived with their audience and the other players waiting in the wings. They found Juniper alone in her office, reviewing teachers’ class plans for summer school. Horace was sitting next to her, perched on the edge of her desk, not saying a word, looking nostalgically out at the first of the two churches he built.
Job popped in wearing a dark suit complete with bow-string tie, clerical collar, long overcoat and flat black hat. He was a perfect replica of Reverend Doctor Silas Andrews, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Brookfield. Trix, with a long grey day dress, covered by a patched apron, black hair in a bun, played the part of the pastor’s wife, Zinnia Andrews.
Horace looked up with a startled grin at the sight of an old friend, but then recalled the way in which they parted. A member of the congregation had shot Horace through the heart and the Andrews couple had stood to the side making only a token effort to prevent the murder. “So have you come to murder me again?” he asked, building himself up for a round of righteous indignation.
Job cleared his throat and proclaimed, as they had s
een Silas do in the Record. “We are here to save your Eternal Soul from the Forces of Evil! You are doing the Devil’s work and enslaving these innocent children. Would you drag them down with you to the Fire?”
Job-as-Silas turned to Trix. “Read what it says in the Good Book about this sin, Dear Wife.”
Trix-as-Zinnia opened the book and read: “Suffer the little children to come onto me. Anyone that leads one of these children astray is guiltier than all the rest.”
For an instant, a look of concern came across Horace’s face, which was then replaced by a sneer. “I’ve been hanging out here two years and I’ve yet to see and Angel or a Devil the whole time. Obviously, no one has noticed me missing from either heaven or hell.”
Just then, Katera made her entrance, exploding into the room as a demonic looking figure with fire blazing from her eyes, growling and hissing.
Horace jumped from his perch on the desk, flying up to the ceiling and hiding in the corner of the room, screaming silently at the apparition. Juniper looked up, sensing that something was going on but clueless as to what. She shivered in the warm office and felt compelled to go to the lunch room for a cup of coffee. Horace tried to follow, but the hissing figure was in the way.
“All is not lost for you,” Job-as-Silas decreed. “Accept the help of this Angel sent to undo your injustice.” He raised an arm, and Martha Free, with large flowing wings and golden hair appeared in the air next to Horace. She put one hand on his shoulder and looked into his bewildered eyes. “All that is needed from you is your help in freeing the children and all will be forgiven.”
Horace glowed with her attention and nodded his agreement and Katera-as-demon disappeared. Horace panted unevenly and sweated from his non-existent forehead. “How can I help? I’ll do anything to help.”
“Summon the ghosts attached to the children and tell them to bring their incarnates here, now.” Martha answered, her words caressing Horace, as if he was the most attractive man in the world.
Horace nodded and disappeared and returning a moment later. “All done, they are on their way.” He glowed when Martha kissed him tenderly on the forehead.
Soon there was the sound of opening and shutting of doors and the whispered conversations of children in the hall as forty-five children came in from where they had been before. Some were encrusted in sand from the beach and dirt from the yard, some still in pajamas, others with food in their hands and the rest blurry-eyed from watching television. All of them confused as to why they felt the need to be at school when it wasn’t a school day.
“Come with us, Horace,” Trix-as-Zinnia commanded, “they are gathering in the gym.”
Horace followed, looking up at Martha who floated gently above him. When they arrived in the gym, Horace encountered yet another angel, which bore a striking resemblance to the stained glass window in the second church he’d built, Brookfield Episcopal. It was Michael the Archangel, with a sword and beside him, a young man with glowing gold skin who stood beside the angel.
In reality, it was Gretchen McMillian-as-Michael, and Bonta, acting as the angel’s assistant. Michael went to each child and severed the link between the ghost and the person, and Bonta whispered a word or two to each ghost when they were freed, causing the ghost to smile and walk out through the door to the higher frequency as soon as they were no longer attached. The whole process was amazingly quick, but left a whole room full of disturbed children who had no memory of the reason they had come and why many other memories from the last year were confusing.
Another figure popped in at that point, the other Radiant Sister, dressed in a flowing gown with flowers woven into her plated hair. She stood behind each of the children in turn. All could tell when Gimma had brought each child back into the present moment and cleared their anxiety; they laughed and joked with others similarly changed and went off to enjoy the day.
Job-as-Silas turned to Horace with a smile. “See how much joy you allowed by freeing both the ghosts and the children? Would you like to be of service? Do one more task for the adults effected by the visit of the evil one you drew to this community. For the last time, influence Mrs. Juniper to bring a list of the names and lodgings of all those who teach here, and those who govern the school for the community.”
Horace nodded as he held the image of the very angry demon fresh in his memory. He popped out and returned about ten minutes later as the last of the children straggled out of the gymnasium. Juniper was following him, like she was sleepwalking, with two pieces of paper in her hand. She looked around the room, barely responding to her son who was leaving with his friend from two houses down. She sat two lists down on the table at the end of gym and wandered back to her office, scanning the room with a confused expression on her face.
Job-as-Silas levitated the papers so they hung in the air between him and Horace. “Now point out which of these people are linked to ghosts.” Horace moved his finger over the pages, and a red line became evident over four teacher’s names and three from the PTA.
Job-as-Silas then called another two “angels” into the gym to replace those that had left with the children. This time they were two muscular men in tunics who were really Ben Daniels and Truman Schmidt. They floated in the air as Ben produced an array of gem stones and threw them in front of them and watched the stones form into a floating tetrahedral shape with four Herkimer diamonds on the top and bottom and points and a complex pattern of gem stones that formed the lines. Truman levitated the list of teachers under the structure and stones migrated to each of the four marked names.
Truman popped out and in an instant popped back again and replaced the first list with the second and repeated the exercise with the second group. Horace watched with fascination, a sly look playing over his features.
“I would venture a guess that you are not who or what you seem. You have more in common with the being that scoped me up from the scene of my death than someone from the afterlife that has come to redeem me. Perhaps I should stay and work with you. You have undone a year’s work of strategy in minutes. I think rewards could come from such an association,” Horace contemplated.
He had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when Julia Quintus popped into view, not bothering with the angel disguise. She smiled at him, stared into his eyes and sang a harmonic collection of sounds that caused everything in the gym to vibrate. Horace’s surprise turned to bliss and in seconds he walked to the door that had appeared in front of him and was gone.
That left Juniper sitting in her office. She looked around the room, confused as to her reason for being there. Unseen to her was the arrival of Sarah Steinman who popped in behind her, put both hands on Juniper’s shoulders, and balanced her energy.
Then lastly Penny Porter took Sarah’s place. Penny reached into Juniper’s Akashic Record and found a life in which she was strong and resilient and then brought those characteristics forward as tools to be used as she readjusted to life without her parasite ghost.
At first Juniper went into a trance, head nodding, back slumping as she sat in the principal’s chair. In about ten minutes she woke up, looking refreshed and happy. Pleased that she’d accomplished so much and ready to face new challenges.
With that, observers and participants popped back into the reality of the meeting room at Serene Nest Farm. A round of applause came from those who had monitored the exercise and much dialogue took place. The most perplexing questions being about the gemstone tetrahedron and where did Truman pop off to when he disappeared.
The first question involved a discussion between Ben and the other gemstone Masters in the group, and the second was easy: he suspended time, popped to wherever the teachers or school board members who had been linked resided and used the etheric emerald energy to unlink them.
Mel and Avery gave their perspectives on what had been done and all agreed that the only stone left unturned was help for readjustment for the teachers and board members after the ghosts were removed. Gimma laughed when she heard th
is and said: “I can take care of that.” She left her body and came back in under a minute, having reconnected all those left in confusion, reuniting them with their life-paths. When time and space weren’t an issue lose ends were easily remedied.
Chapter 25
By the time the discussion was completed it was time for dinner. The beef stew, salad and bread worked well for everyone, except the two vegetarians who got eggs instead.
David noticed that Ricky seemed tense and nudged her playfully and grinned. “Okay, what’s going on? With all this new talent you should be feeling secure and confident.”
“I guess a little post-traumatic stress. We gathered last night at the pavilion then afterwards the Stealer breeched my defenses. I know you, Shri and Katera all put blocks in place so it can’t happen through me again, but it was no picnic. I’ve been afraid many times, but never to that degree,” Ricky confessed.
David gave her a hug. “I know what you mean. I keep reminding myself that the guides are watching over the whole operation, but we’re obviously not used to threats at the level of the soul and personality. We can’t really turn back now.”
Ricky relaxed in his embrace, wishing they could escape to the bedroom, but knowing time was short and they needed to prepare. They were making Roy, Julie and Sam nervous and the hope was that their adversaries would slip up so the guides could get past the Stealer’s defenses.
After dinner and cleanup, the group gathered around the fire pit in the pavilion. They drummed together, and then Ricky took them through the love beam exercise, with particular pairings between the original group and the new recruits. She and Shri had decided that the best use of their time was further work with shapeshifting.
“I was impressed that those who just arrived were shapeshifting so easily. I know this is Katera’s specialty, so I have asked her to take over as teacher for tonight,” Ricky told them.
A round of applause followed and a joyful Katera responded to their appreciation with bows in all directions. “I will be privileged to serve in that way, Dear Heart.” She looked around the room. “I will tell you a little about the principles of shapeshifting. Dear Heart tells me you were all able to do this with ease last night, so much of this will be easy for you, but some, I imagine, will be surprised by other revelations.”