by S E Brower
Rolling down the window, Harrison yelled, “Get in, both of you. I’ll drive you to your car.” Faith’s heart skipped a beat, and without waiting for James to reply, she opened the door climbing in, James in tow.
There was a problem with Harrison's car. It was a two-seater, and Faith and James made three. Faith found herself seated on the console, in a dress, with the stick shift between her legs and laughing about it. It was a miracle, and it was a miracle James didn’t punch Harrison in the nose. But Faith decided she was through with dull, prim and proper. She wanted to have fun.
When they reached James Smith’s car, Faith took a deep breath, slowly turning towards her soon-to-be ex-fiancé, sliding the engagement ring from her finger. Without looking up, she pressed it into his hand. “I’m so sorry, James,” she whispered, “but, I think I’ll be going home with him.”
James was stunned and outraged, as he exited the vehicle. Faith pulled the door shut and Harrison hit the gas, tires spinning, flinging mud into the air, covering poor James. It wasn’t Harrison’s intention. He and Faith looked at each other in stunned silence. Then, burst into raucous tear-filled laughter, rivaling the thunder from the heavens above. Like Harrison, the scene was rowdy, crazy and brash, and Faith had found true love. It was as if the dark clouds had lifted, and as before, in a realm unseen, steely blue eyes watched with contentment.
Faith and Harrison said their wedding vows to one another, a year later. In the following year and a half, they discovered they were expecting their first child. A son, whom they called, Travis. Faith was over the moon. She had a perfect baby boy. But the doctors found pre-cancerous growths on her ovaries and their joy was short lived.
She received high doses of steroids to stop the progression. The treatment worked, she would live. However, her doctors informed her, she had one quarter of an ovary left, and the steroids would leave her sterile. There was no chance of her getting pregnant, again. It devastated both Faith and Harrison.
Three years later however, Faith received a second miracle. She felt sick in the morning and knew she was pregnant. At the Doctor’s office, they did a test, telling her not to get her hopes up. When results came back, the Doctors were shocked. “Well, Mrs. Barrett, you are without a doubt having a baby. It is a miracle.” Faith just smiled, she couldn’t wait to tell her husband.
The nine months passed without incident. It was a wonderful, easy pregnancy. The birth however, not so much, ending in a C-section. While they were delivering her baby girl, Faith lost too much blood. Her blood pressure bottomed out. In those harrowing moments between life and death, Faith’s grandmother, long dead, appeared to her as in a dream telling her not to worry. She said, Jessica would be just fine, and that she was being born for a higher purpose.
Faith woke up with her husband standing next to her, holding their infant daughter. She liked to call him her prince, who rescued her from the rain, a loveless marriage, and a life of the doldrums.
He kissed her sweetly. “She’s beautiful,” he whispered. They were ready with names for a boy or a girl. Back then, it was always a surprise. The name they had chosen for a girl was Christine. He smiled at her, “So, what are we going to call her?” He knew she had changed her mind about the name, before she even opened her mouth.
“I think we should call her, Jessica Elaine.”
“Jessica Elaine, it is. I love it. I love you,” he said, with a silly grin.
“I love you more, my prince,” and she meant it.
***
The traffic on I-95 lessened, the farther north Jessie drove. Then, down came the rain to match her mood. Thoughts swirled in her mind about her mother’s past, and the unlikely circumstances which brought her parents together, resulting in her birth.
Her mother told her about the celestial visitation from her great-grandmother, just before she was born. She hadn’t thought of that story in ages, and it sent a chill up her spine. She hoped it didn’t mean what she thought it did.
Chapter 5
The Brothers Driscoll
Five hundred miles away, in the village of Draethen, Northeast of Cardiff, Wales, a series of events happened, setting into motion, circumstances Jessie had no way of knowing would influence her very existence. If the world had not been strange enough, it conspired to get a lot more dangerous.
Beginning over 18 years ago, a husband and wife by the names of Serein and Evan Driscoll, discovered their first child would come soon. The two made their living in the logging industry. Evan harvested trees for the local sawmill, where his wife Serein worked in the office. Not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, Serein and Evan remained rich in love.
With only eight weeks to wait before their baby arrived, Evan was killed while at work. The accident was horrific and with the love of her life gone, Serein spiraled out of control. She took to her bed, crying for hours at a time, inconsolable. She didn’t eat, growing weaker and more depressed by the day. Eventually, she stopped going to work and her employment at the sawmill was terminated.
The money she made was barely enough to keep a roof over her head as it was, and now she had no means at all to care for herself, and the baby soon to arrive. She sought the help of her aging mother, Meleri, who cooked and cleaned for a wealthy logging export family, on the east coast as a live-in housekeeper. However, they forbade Meleri to bring her pregnant daughter there, to live.
Money was tight. Serein had used most of their savings, and she could not afford proper medical care. The stress of losing her husband caused an early labor, making an already heartbreaking situation even more complicated. In the end, it was her mother who assisted with the birth.
Serein bore a beautiful, healthy, baby boy. Her mother, Meleri wrapped the newborn in a blanket and laid him in his mother’s arms. “I will call you Evan, after your father,” Serein smiled down at the pink and wrinkly infant. “You are so like your father, with the same dark hair and blue eyes. You will have his impish grin. I see it already,” she smiled. Serein was overjoyed, finding a renewed reason to live. But she could not know the fate awaiting them.
In the celestial realm, invisible to mortals, an Angel was dispatched, by the name of Chatumdar. He blessed the baby as a Prophet. It was an honor given only to a select few. The Angel kept watch over the infant, for he was to be Evan’s Guardian. Serein and Meleri, were not aware of the Angel’s presence.
However, shortly after baby Evan received the blessing, his mother cried out in pain, once more. Meleri took the newborn from his mother and laid him in the bassinet, beside her bed. Serein clenched her fists, giving voice to her pain, while her mother panicked, realizing there was another baby on the way.
An identical twin, undetected with little prenatal care, and a heartbeat in exact accordance with that of his brother, arrived minutes later. Meleri knew her daughter was in trouble, as Serein was losing blood at an alarming rate. Thankfully, the baby was born healthy. Serein saw him just long enough to know fate had blessed her with yet another likeness of her husband. “I’ll call you, Garret. For your father’s middle name,” she whispered, just before she died.
Meleri wrapped Garret in a blanket, placing him in the bassinet, next to his brother. Then, she held her daughter in her arms, sobbing, while the infants wailed in an echo of her sorrow.
Meleri, feeling hopeless, didn't know where to turn. There were no family members to help raise the twins. Meleri loved them but could not care for them. She felt lost, and all alone. However, not as alone as one of her newborn baby grandsons. No Guardian came for Garret, for Garret was a Rogue Soul.
Meleri contacted the local minister in her daughter’s village, Reverend Vaughn Alsop, explaining her situation. They decided to meet. “Meleri?” he asked, upon opening the door. “Come in, join us,” he said, stepping aside to allow her to enter, the screaming twins in both arms. He and his wife, Dorothy, could not have children of their own, and the boys drew Dorothy to them.
“Might I hold them?” she asked. Meleri nodded, an
d with careful hands, she laid her grandsons in the waiting arms of the Reverend's wife. When Dorothy held them, they stopped crying, instantly stealing her heart. Meleri knew she made the right choice.
The Reverend and his wife consented to raise the boys. As a stipulation, Meleri insisted the twins know of the adoption, and Reverend Alsop and his wife agreed.
Meleri sent what little money she could spare to help with expenses for her grandsons, coming to visit whenever she had the chance. Meleri knew her daughter, Serein, would want her sons to know who their real parents were, so she told the boys as much as she could about their biological family.
The boys grew up living in the back of the church where Reverend Alsop preached. The Reverend and his wife were the only mother and father the twins ever knew, and they loved them. But they also loved their maternal grandmother, Meleri. In private, they often referred to themselves as ‘The Brothers Driscoll’, in honor of their birth parents.
Like a lot of identical twins, they had a bond other people didn’t understand. They often finished each other’s sentences and Garret could sense if his brother was in danger. Garret also had a wild temper, was fearless and pugnacious, embroiling him in many disputes. Evan wasn’t always certain Garret was correct in his arguments, but sided with him anyway, even when no one else did.
The twins were now 18, and Evan had become more interested in the church over the years, wishing to follow in the footsteps of their adoptive father. Garret wanted little involvement with the church. He loved all things IT and dreamed of one day becoming a software engineer. But he knew the Alsop family couldn’t afford to send him to University.
Although Garret loved the Reverend and his wife, he didn’t share Evan’s affinity for religion, making him feel somewhat of an outsider or worse, a disappointment, in a household full of such devotion. When their grandmother, Meleri passed away, his feelings of alienation intensified.
Now, the Reverend and his wife truly were their only family. Garret tried fitting in, but he just didn’t, and searched for a way to make up for his own perceived shortcomings.
Evan’s dream was to attend Seminary school. There was no money for that either. Garret loved his brother and would’ve done anything for him. So, he took a job at the same sawmill where their birth mother had worked in the office, long ago. Taking extra shifts, he hoped the money would help to ease the burden to pay for his brother’s schooling.
Their senior year of high school was difficult for Garret. Episodes of the same recurring nightmare, compounded with keeping up the schedule of work and school, robbed him of precious sleep.
In the dream, a dark mist surrounds his brother Evan, smothering him. Garret always awoke shaken and drenched with sweat after watching Evan die. He told Evan of the dreams, because they left him so distraught. Evan listened, but shrugged it off, telling Garret he was more than likely just over tired. But Garret wasn’t so sure. The disturbing images haunted him. The lack of sleep and anxiety left him even more argumentative, and irritable.
One day, while the two boys were in history class, Garret got into a heated argument with their Professor. Certain the Professor was incorrect, Garret challenged him, becoming so belligerent, and disruptive, he nearly got himself expelled.
Evan stepped in to talk his brother down, to keep him from losing his diploma. But it was too late, the outraged Professor wanted Garret gone, and sent a message to the Reverend stating as much. Early the next morning, the Reverend spoke with the Professor, explaining Garret had been working nights and was under an enormous amount of stress. The two agreed the Reverend would speak with Garret. His outbursts would stop.
That evening, when Garret returned home after work, Evan was there cross-legged on his bed, head down, reading his Bible, as usual. Garret sat down saying nothing, staring at his twin. His eyes practically bored a hole in the top of his brother’s head. It was obvious he wanted to discuss what happened at school the day before. Evan did not look up, until Garret couldn’t take it anymore, blurting out, “You know I was right. The Professor was wrong,” he nearly shouted. Still, Evan didn't speak or look up. Garret sighed, glaring at his brother.
Evan turned, facing him, “Dude, what do you want me to say?” he asked. Garret frowned back at him. Sensing his brother’s frustration, Evan tried coaxing him out of an awful mood. “Okay, yes, I know you were right,” Evan told him, then he grinned, “well, I believed you anyway.”
No success. Garret was too tired for cajoling. Evan gave half a smile before his tone turned serious. “Look, I know how hard you work to help me with school, and I appreciate it more than you know. I can never repay you.”
Garret shook his head, frustrated. “I’m not asking you to repay me. You are my brother. I would walk through Hell and back for you.”
Evan smiled, “Same here, The Brothers Driscoll must stick together. I know you are telling the truth when you say the things you say.”
“Don't treat me like a five-year-old,” Garret snapped.
“Come on Garret, I believe you. I do,” Evan reiterated, “you need to learn some finesse. Try not to fight so much, Dude.”
“I don’t understand,” Garret was on his feet now, pacing, “why am I like this? Help me Evan,” he pleaded with his brother.
“We’ll figure it out,” Evan told him, his voice calm, “try to sleep. Okay? I want to read a while longer.”
Garret huffed, “Easy for you to say.” Dreading the ensuing nightmare, exhausted, he pulled his shirt off draping it over his shoulder and shuffled into the bathroom to brush his teeth. Evan smiled shaking his head when Garret left the room. Looking back at his Bible to resume reading, he found an interesting bookmark lying across the pages where he’d stopped.
He picked up the bookmark. “Huh,” he thought, “that’s odd, I don’t remember seeing this before.” He scrutinized it, “It is unusual,” he thought, turning it over surprised to find a feather, blazoned across the back. “I wonder how it got here. It looks old and expensive, too,” Evan thought out loud.
Gold filigree adorned the bookmark at either end, with a shimmering gold cord dangling from it. Even though it was antique in appearance, the center was holographic, but he saw no discernible image. “That’s weird,” he thought, as he tipped the bookmark back and forth, squinting, trying to see a picture of any kind when a soft light emanated from it. Though it startled him, intrigued, he held onto the bookmark, sitting still.
To his utter amazement, the holographic image of a beautiful angelic face appeared. He stared at the face in disbelief. Then, it spoke, “Evan, be not afraid. My name is Aalonray.”
Although it was the softest, most melodic voice he ever heard, upon hearing it, Evan dropped the bookmark onto his Bible, flinging back both of his hands as if touching something hot. He could not process what he was seeing. The image spoke again, and Evan gasped, his hands still in the air. “Evan, I need you to pay close attention, can you do that?”
Reaching down, he picked up the bookmark answering slowly, “Yes… I can do that.”
“Good, I know you are young Evan, but I am counting on you. Please, listen,” the holographic image continued, but Evan interrupted.
“Where are you? How are you even talking?” It was so unreal.
Her answer was short, and to the point, “I am in the Guardian Library,” she told him.
“Guardian Library, what is that? Where is that? How did you even find me? Why me?” the questions spilled from him.
“I will explain everything, but you must concentrate,” she said with authority. “What I am about to tell you, will put you in peril, and for that, I apologize. I do not wish for you to be in harm’s way,” she stopped, “if there were another way…” Shaking her head, she stole a glance around her, “Evan, if this communication is broken, I shall contact you again, as soon as I am able.”
Evan sat still, listening to every word.
“The Guardian Library amasses the life stories of humanity for all time. I have your
‘Book of Life’ before me now.”
“How did you find me?” Even interrupted, again.
“I knew you would see it, as you read your Bible each night.” Without thinking, Evan looked at his watch. She was right, he was usually reading now.
“The bookmark is a tool, given to me by The Father,” she went on, “it allows me to contact those, whose help I require.”
Evan panicked, “What do you want with me?”
“Evan, I chose you because you live in a church, where evil cannot penetrate, to uncover this communication. There will be no record of our conversation. Do you understand?”
“Yes, no… uh, yes,” he answered slowly.
“Look to your senses Evan, they will be your guide. You are a prophet and blessed by The Father. Now, I must activate you into service to assist me. I am watched and running out of options. I am a subordinate of The Author, in charge of The Guardian Library.”
Speaking fast, glancing to either side she continued. “The history of all the world from the start of mankind dwells here, protected from evil. When a human is born, a Guardian blesses their soul, giving them a destiny, by The Father in Heaven. The Author sends an assigned Guardian to them for guidance, and protection of their soul. The Author records their life as it unfolds. When they progress…”
“What do you mean, progress?” Evan interrupted.
“Progression means that a person’s soul will move on or progresses to another plane of existence, be it Heaven or Hell. But no more questions, as time is of the essence. Now, as I was saying when they progress, I store their Life Book in the Guardian Library. I am the Librarian.
You must know Evan, long ago, The Father granted Lucifer access to the Library, and his presence there is not unusual. However, the frequency of his visits had been increasing, and I needed to find out why. What I discovered is almost too horrific for words.”