by John Nelson
The next day they drove home, and Maggie picked up her mail from the post office hold. There was an envelope from the San Luis Coastal Unified School District. She quickly opened it. Inside was a letter from Mrs. Linden, whom she had met with for her homeschooling certification, which had now “come under question,” and that she needed to call and set an appointment to discuss “serious complaints about the nature of her home school and her daughter’s… psychological status.”
She immediately drove to the local FedEx store and faxed a copy of the letter to the ashram, for them to forward to James Edwards. They stopped by the Whole Foods store to replenish their food supply. At home there was several phone messages from Mrs. Linden, each one more strident than the next. Maggie called the woman, apologized for her late response, told her they had been out of the country and had just returned, and set up a meeting with her in three weeks. Linden wanted it sooner, but Maggie said she had to consult with the lawyer who had set up her homeschooling program.
“A lawyer?” she asked.
“Yes, James Edwards from San Francisco. I had mentioned his name on my last visit, and that he looks after the legal concerns of Sri Ma hi’ Ma’s Hindu devotees.”
“Oh, I see. But this may… complicate matters.”
Maggie tried to contain her anger. “Well, you are the one who questioned my child’s ‘psychological status.’”
Linden quickly ended the conversation and had her secretary set up the meeting. Later, Edwards called from San Francisco and asked that Maggie and her daughter drive up for a meeting with him in two days. She was told to bring contact information on all her students, past and present, and for the ashram in India where they had stayed on their recent visit. Shortly afterward, Ma called and said she had talked with James, and that the matter required urgent attention and that after meeting with him, she needed to drive up to the ashram for the weekend to “complete the process.” Her guru wouldn’t fill her in any further.
Maggie fixed a late lunch for the two of them and put out Bodhi’s food, and they all took a walk to the park afterward. There were a few children playing, and Anna said hello to her friends and explained her long absence and they played together for a while. Maggie sat on the bench lost in thought. She understood why James Edwards would want contact information on his students and the Indian ashram. He would no doubt overnight the parents affidavits to fill out attesting to the quality of the education their children were receiving, but she assumed the “process” that Ma needed “to complete,” had something to do with Swami Vinanda. Since it was time for her daughter’s nap, she collected Anna and Bodhi and walked back to their house.
Anna could sense her mother’s distress. “They want to make me Swami Anna.”
Maggie nodded her head. “Of course. To deflect any inquiry about your healing ability and… more.” She remembered having this conversation with Joseph and Ma, and him explaining why he wanted Anna to be free of any official status, but things had changed. At home after Anna’s nap, Maggie told her daughter, “I think we need to talk with Joseph.”
“Goody. I miss him.” Without further ado, she twirled her raised hand, and they found themselves in his celestial park where it was always sunny and clear, and Joseph was always sitting on the bench dressed the same.
“To answer your first question, Maggie. I don’t live here. This is a projection from my real… abode.”
Anna looked at her mother. “I tell Ma hi’ Ma, but she say wait to tell you.”
Maggie laughed. “Yes, I seem to be low woman on the totem pole.”
Anna didn’t get the reference but let it go.
“Anna is correct. Ma and the lawyer feel the best way to protect Anna’s… spiritual manifestations is to initiate her as a Hindu swamini.”
“Which you earlier opposed.”
“Yes, but things change and a new perspective may be needed.” Joseph paused to allow Maggie time to adjust. “Again, we of this realm are sometimes amazed by human behavior, or I should say the general lack of acceptance of Spirit and its manifestations.”
“Well, I can understand Mr. Kumar’s reaction to his son being whisked away to this realm.”
Joseph nodded his head. “Yes, an oversight on my part as well, but we need to seriously consider Mr. Edwards’s point of view and how to… work the system, as I believe you say.”
“So, you think we should go along with him and Ma, and let them initiate Anna?”
Joseph smiled and turned to Anna. “What say you, Anna?”
She thought for a moment. “I want to heal people, and if this opens the way, okay. But I not be like Swami V or Ma and sit on throne like queen.”
Joseph turned to Maggie. “So, it seems like you need to have some… straight talk with Ma hi’ Ma.”
She adamantly added, “Yes, and the first of many, including our Mrs. Linden and the school authorities, or so I assume.”
Joseph smiled. “God help them.”
Chapter 28
The next day Maggie called her publisher Jean Millburn and said she was coming to San Francisco and needed to stop by and talk with her about matters that may affect the publicity on her new children’s book. Jean was intrigued and asked for more information, but Maggie said it would be best to discuss this in person. She asked if Maggie would be bringing her co-author, Bodhi, and if so, she would have some treats ready for him. This lightened the mood, and she thanked Jean for this consideration, and said she would bring him. Maggie also kept a keen eye on her daughter to see if this dispute affected her in any way. But, as always, Anna easily maintained her remarkable spiritual equilibrium that was unruffled by the human conflicts around her. Maggie decided that meditating with her daughter might help her smooth out her own concerns and their rather ragged expression. She did that the next day, but realized that while it may have “polished” her aura a bit, it didn’t seep down into the core of her being so readily. She would have to do the spiritual heavy-lifting herself. It did, however, give her further insight into Anna’s healing of others, or how it was a two-way street. Maybe she wasn’t as receptive as she could be.
So they headed out on Thursday, just another grand adventure for Anna and Bodhi, but one in which Maggie couldn’t help but feel apprehensive about its effects on their lives. In Mountain View they parked on the street in front Millburn Press and stepped inside with Bodhi trailing after them. As a bestselling author, Maggie and her entourage were enthusiastically greeted by the staff. As they walked down the hall to Jean’s second-floor office, she noticed the covers of her last two books prominently displayed on the wall with glowing New York Times reviews framed under them.
Jean stepped out into the hall to greet them and show them inside. They were escorted to their chairs and Bodhi to his rug and bowl of treats. Jean noticed that Bodhi looked to Anna before devouring them; this young girl seemed to be in communication with her dog. How remarkable, she thought. Jean knew that Anna had inherited her mother’s artistic talents and could only hope that extended to literary skills as well. But first things first, as she showed Maggie, and as it turned out, both Anna and Bodhi, the suggested covers for The Dog Who was God. There was a back-and-forth discussion on the merits of the cover mockups, but in the end Maggie consulted with Anna, who seemed to conduct her own exchange with Bodhi, and they all came to a decision: they liked the more graphic design over the strictly pictorial cover with its dog image.
“Use Bodhi’s picture, and we like it better,” Anna volunteered.
Jean could only shake her head over this most unusual collaboration. “Well, I could have Barry substitute his dog picture in that design.”
Maggie shook her head. “No. That won’t be necessary. It’s an abstract concept, and more the pictorial you make it, the more people will take it literally and judge it as such.”
“My feelings exactly,” Jean added.
Anna paused for a moment. “People here take things wrong. I like India better; people there more… spiritual.”<
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“Yes. You’ve just come back from there. Tell me about it?” Jean asked.
Maggie paused.
“Or, we could just go onto the… publicity issue you mentioned.”
“Well Jean, they’re both tied together,” Maggie said. She paused again. “But, let me add that I haven’t been completely forthright about my daughter’s… development, and it seems that it has come back to bite us on the ass.”
Anna laughed, turned to Bodhi, and he barked. “Good one, Mom.”
“You ready for this?” Maggie said, shaking her head.
Jean sat back in her chair intrigued but cautious. “Go ahead, Maggie. I’ve been anticipating such a talk for a while.”
Maggie looked at her questioningly, but didn’t wait for a further explanation. “Anna was born totally awakened, which means she knows her past lives, is not only in communication with spiritual beings of the highest order but travels with them in spirit to other realms.”
This was more than Jean had anticipated. She nodded her head tentatively. “Go on.”
“This has not been… let’s say, exposed, until recently. But unfortunately Anna took my students and me on a ‘field trip’ to visit her guide in what some would call an astral park.”
Jean nodded her head, but unconsciously grabbed the arm of her chair as if to forestall any quick exit to this “park.” “And of course, this got back to their parents and then to the school board.”
“Exactly, and why I have a meeting later today with my guru’s attorney.”
The publisher sighed in relief. “I hope he can exert some influence and keep this quiet.”
“Well, there’s more. While in India visiting her father, she healed a yogi of pancreatic cancer, and many others in the ashram lined up and were healed.”
Jean put her hand to her mouth. “Oh my. And I assume the press got wind of it?”
Maggie took the Los Angeles Times article out of her purse and passed it to Jean. She quickly read it. “And of course, this just ups the stakes for the school board and what they are exposing the fine children of San Luis Obispo to.”
Maggie nodded her head. “One would assume that they don’t want a media circus as well, but we’re not sure how this will play out.”
Jean looked at her watch. “Let’s take an early lunch. I need a drink.”
Maggie laughed. “That’s two of us.”
“What about Bodhi?” Anna asked. He barked and she looked at him, then back to Jean. “He stay here if it all right.”
Jean just shook her head at this implied communication. “Of course. I’ll have a bowl of water brought in and Barry can walk him if need be.”
Anna nodded her head. “Bodhi ‘tell me,’ if need pee-pee walk and you call blond man from eating place.”
Jean just shook her head, stood up, and turned to Maggie. “We may need a pitcher of margaritas.”
“Only one drink for me. I still need to drive into San Francisco after lunch.”
“Yes, and be alert for your meeting with said attorney.”
Maggie nodded and the three of them stepped out for lunch.
At lunch and after a few margaritas, Jean explained the old publishing precept: there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Only time would tell the nature of the school system’s pushback and what, if anything, needed to be done in regard to her author’s new notoriety. But all things being considered, she still thought they should delay the release of the book until after the New Year.
“Hopefully by then things will have cooled down, but I don’t think you should take Anna on the publicity jaunt,” Jean said.
Anna made a face and then broke out into a smile. “We stay with Grandma, take walks on the beach.” She closed her eyes. “Bodhi say he like that.”
Jean looked at Maggie and again shook her head at the girl’s apparent telepathic communication with her dog, then poured herself another margarita.
In San Francisco James Edwards had been alerted that there was a third member of Ms. Langford’s entourage, and a dog walker met them in the lobby of the office building, and after making her acquaintance with Bodhi, took him to the a nearby park for some exercise. Maggie wasn’t sure about Mr. Edwards’s law practice; she wondered if a lawyer with spiritual leanings would have a small private practice, but discovered on their arrival that this was far from the case. James was a partner in one of San Francisco’s most prestigious law firms, if it was peopled by a few reformed hippies from the 1960s flower movement here, Edwards being the most prominent. They took an elevator to the fifteenth floor and were ushered into the man’s well-appointed corner office.
Edwards was in his late sixties, a tall slender man with thinning gray hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and a muscular built, no doubt from years of yoga exercise. He came around the table to greet them, shaking Maggie’s hand, and squatted to look Anna in the eyes to greet her. She jumped into his arms as if he were a long-lost uncle. This brought tears to his eyes. He stood and moved them over to a sofa setting. He had tea and juice brought in, and they sat across from each other for a long moment.
“I’m awfully sorry, Maggie, that the expression of Anna’s advanced spirituality has brought you to my doorstep, but be assured that this firm takes the protection of her… religious rights very seriously, and will not stand for any infringement of them.”
“Thank you, James, if I may call you that.” Edwards nodded his head. “I’ve always known that at some point in Anna’s development this would be an issue if we stayed in America. I just wasn’t prepared for it to happen this soon.”
Anna spoke up. “It’s God’s plan, not anybody else’s.”
“Okay, and so I’ll lay out my plan, and both of you tell me how it sits with you and God.”
Neither of them replied, so James went forward to outline it. First, they were gathering the paperwork to turn Maggie’s home school into a certified Hindu religious school, which would protect its religious instruction and any advanced spiritual practices. Part of this process would be securing affidavits from the parents of the current students to attest to their satisfaction with their children’s education, even from Mr. Kumar who had raised the objections about his son’s unauthorized “little visit” to see Anna’s spirit guide. Edwards asked, “I take it that he was otherwise pleased with his son’s education?”
“Yes, I believe so. Be sure to put the names of both parents on the request since his mother opposed Amir being taken out of my home school.”
Edwards made a notation on his iPad. “Second, and of course subject to both of your approvals, Ma would initiate Anna as a full-fledged Hindu swamini, backed up by Swami Vinanda’s own affidavit as to her suitability, even at this young age, to be so initiated.”
“Don’t want to shave head,” Anna said.
“No, my dear. As you can see, Ma and her monks and nuns are very Western in their deportment.”
“I assume this is to cover any demonstrations of her healing and siddhis, or powers?” Maggie asked. Edward nodded his head. “But,” Maggie continued, “we’re not going to move to the ashram.”
Edwards shook his head. “However, Anna will need to spend time there every summer for the next few years to continue her formal Hindu education, as well as you as a teacher of Hinduism, even if Anna is more advanced than the other devotees there.”
“We understand.” Maggie looked at Anna who just smiled back at them. “And as to the concern about Anna’s… psychological status?”
“Yes. I’ve been talking with Dr. Marsha Singh, a psychiatrist who specializes in the care and, I might say, protection of the ‘spiritually elevated.’ She has a practice in Berkeley and has agreed to examine Anna tomorrow, will put her through a series of standard tests, and when she is satisfied, which I’m sure will be the case, she’ll certify and testify if needed as to your daughter’s… ‘psychological fitness.’”
Maggie reached over and took a sip of tea. “James, I’m most impressed, not only with your plan but the speed
at which you’ve put this all together.”
“While Anna is a fairly advanced spiritual adept, we have had other cases to prepare us for such invasive inquiries from the spiritually less attuned.”
Anna smiled and clapped her hands. “You very smart man. You guru in past life in India.” Anna gazed at him more closely as if reading the man’s spiritual CV in his aura. “Many times, I see.” She sat back. “And good health. Keep up daily yoga practice.”
James Edwards bowed his head. “I will, Swamini Annananda.”
They all laughed, and then James collected Maggie’s contact information for her students and the ashram in India, and set up the interview with Dr. Singh in the morning.
Chapter 29
After leaving Bodhi with the firm’s unofficial dog sitter for the weekend, Maggie and Anna checked into a nearby hotel for the night. The next morning they drove across the Oakland Bay Bridge from San Francisco to Dr. Singh’s office in Berkeley for their 10:00 a.m. appointment. Maggie was a bit alarmed to discover that the good doctor had offices in the mammoth Behavior Health Center, south of the UC Berkeley campus. While attending school there, she had visited stressed-out friends who had been admitted to the Center’s psyche ward for drug abuse or bi-polar disorders. But, she trusted James Edwards’s handling of their somewhat unusual crisis, and would give Dr. Singh the benefit of the doubt.
They parked their car and entered the concrete-faced multistory building on Dwight Way and took the elevator to Singh’s office. Upon stepping into the waiting room, some of her anxiety was dispelled by the Indian music, the sweet smell of incense, and the offer of yogi tea by the receptionist. She was handed a registration sheet and a pre-patient psychological review form to fill out on her daughter. They took a seat in the waiting room, and Maggie started answering the questionnaire. She noticed that the insurance and payment block was marked N/A. Anna just sat there sipping her tea and being quiet. There was one other patient waiting in the room, a hyperactive teenager with his stressed-out mother, or so she assumed. Thirty minutes after Maggie had filled out both forms and handed them back to Vivian, the blond-haired receptionist ushered them into Dr. Singh’s office.