“Well, then how am I going to use it if it’s your energy?” asked Trina, simultaneously shaking her feet as they were getting very uncomfortable.
Stu noticed. “I’ll explain after. We need to get you in
immediately
”
“What do I do?” asked Trina, totally flummoxed.
“Think of it as trying on a new suit. I’m sorry its male but it’s the only thing I had handy.” Then Stu laid it all out there. “Trina, you’re gonna start disappearing soon. You need to be in Ed before that begins. Do you understand?”
She understood enough.
Trina went to the bench and lay on top of the Ed body.
“Think of yourself sinking down into it,” advised Stu. “I do it differently, but in this situation, I think that will work best.”
He continued to talk her through it. “You are putting on a new suit. You’re sinking down. You—your core—your consciousness is still there. You’re just changing clothes. You don’t need your old clothes anymore. You are sinking into your new suit.”
Trina tried to concentrate both on becoming the thing beneath her, and the words Stu was saying which seemed to help. She concentrated on sinking into the form. She focused on keeping her mind clear, all her memories, all of her core, but letting go of her outer form. She could feel herself, or something that was part of herself, start to sink. It seemed like sinking into a soft bed at first. Then the constriction got to her. She moved around a little.
Stu said, “Just go with it Trina. You’ve just experienced the freedom of no body for a second so it feels closed in and tight when you put another one on.”
This made sense to Trina. For she had experienced a free-ness, for one second, but her mind had started going hazy at that moment too, so she concentrated more on sinking in. Then came the constriction. She reminded herself never to make fun of Stu again.
Soon it seemed to Trina that she was ‘in.’ Stu had watched in amazement as what had been Trina started to disappear into Ed. “Don’t move yet,” he said. “Give yourself a few minutes to settle in.”
Trina didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure she could actually move Ed’s er…her mouth yet.
Stu understood. He stood over her, his eyes smiling. “Just relax a little bit,” he said staring into her…er Ed’s…no her eyes. He could see the intelligence behind the eyes. Ed was no longer a lifeless form.
He sat on the ground next to the bench and waited. Dizziness overcame him. After all, Ed was made from his energy. Even with Trina inside, it was like Mrs. Ross had said—it would be a bit of an energetic drain on him at all times. He decided not to tell anyone. Maybe later he would tell Jonathan. Jonathan and Michael would be happy things worked out with Trina. He wondered how they were doing with Mira.
Then Stu saw something akin to a miracle. Ed’s chest began to rise and breathe in and out. It had worked!
Trina tried to move her lips. They worked! “Stu!” she said somewhat slurry.
“Trina!” exclaimed Stu back and hugged her. “Try to move your arms.” With that, Trina and Stu went over every body part, and Trina moved them all. After a few more minutes, she finally sat up. Stu sat next to her.
“It worked,” he said, thankful.
“Thank you so much Stu,” said Ed/Trina. Ed started to cry. Stu put an arm around him, err her.
“Um Trina…” Stu said, his voice tentative.
But Trina was ahead of him. “I know,” she said, kicking the dirt underneath the bench with her tennis shoe. “I gotta be Ed from now on. Name, actions, and everything. Well, it’s not like I couldn’t get into it. But let me tell you Stu,” she whispered “this feels weird!”
“You’ll get used to them,” he said, grinning.
Just then, the rest of the gang appeared from over the hill. They had been keeping an eye out and had seen Trina sit up as Ed. They ran up to the bench. Ed said, “Wow, I am sooo thirsty.”
Five bottles of water were instantly thrust to Ed. He took a glass from Lu. “So,” he said, taking a swig. “I’m Ed …” He didn’t know what to say. The whole thing was…weird.
Lu was the first one to speak. “We love you no matter who you are. Just tell us what to call you.”
Stu and Trina looked at one another.
“Ed,” they both said together. Ed took another swig. “Thanks for the water.”
***
Mrs. Ross let Madison know it was time for her nap and handed Brandon back. “Remember,” she cautioned Brandon, “cookies!”
“Cookies!” laughed Brandon, tight in Madison’s arms. They walked down the hallway to the stairs.
Mrs. Ross locked the door and lay back down on the bed.
***
When morning came, Ada Jo and Mira woke up around the same time. Mira, to the rubbing of Whiskers on her arm; the purr of a cat wanting attention. She and Ada Jo had simple boiled eggs and toast with jam for breakfast, while Whiskers had a can of cat food. Only it was astral cat food. Mira wondered what was really in it.
“Energy,” said Ada Jo, as if reading Mira’s mind. “In the astral, energy keeps you going. Food of a different sort. Have another piece of toast,” she urged. “You are going to need your kind of energy today.”
Ada Jo didn’t have to ask twice as Mira was famished and the jam was yummy.
“On the agenda today,” said Ada Jo slowly, “is the Thomas Family Farm.”
Mira paused, her mouth full of toast.
“That’s my family farm,” she recalled. “Only I’m not here…I’m so confused!” She gave up.
“It’s okay Mira,” said Ada Jo. “Everything in due time. Don’t try to think too much, just let it come naturally. You just had a big memory for example. Don’t push it.
“Now, before we go anywhere,” continued Ada Jo, “I have one thing important for you to remember, okay? It’s in a rhyme so that makes it easy.”
“Sure” said Mira. It was a bright new day, and she was up for anything.
Ada Jo said, “The rhyme to remember is this:
Never, never cross the Bridge of Forever
. Now repeat it after me.”
“Never, never cross the Bridge of Forever,” said Mira.
“Good. As long as you remember that, no matter what happens, okay, we’ll be fine. But remember it!” Ada Jo sounded cross.
“Okay!” said Mira.
It’s not like it’s that hard to remember!
.
“All right,” said Ada Jo. “Get ready to hike some more. It’s a little ways to the farm from here.” Mira worried.
What is going to happen to me there?
Chapter Seventeen
Michael’s Test
Michael knew he’d made a mistake as soon as he heard Jonathan yell for him, but Jonathan’s yell became muffled and distant. Clutching at nothing, Michael was dragged to the center of some kind of vortex.
It would have been nice
, thought Michael,
if Jonathan had explained these circles before they went traipsing around.
As it was, he had no clue what to do. When the vortex finally sat him down, he seemed to be in the middle of... nothing. Literally, nothing except fog, all around. No people, no property, no things, just a void.
How the hell was he supposed to get out of this one?
And there was no time! He needed to get to Mira.
His anxiety built.
The Nothing Circle sensed his anxiety surrounded Michael with hazy fog. Then next to him an upright coffin appeared. The door opened, and there was Mira. Michael screamed. The coffin door closed when he screamed. Next, the coffin door opened again, and his oldest daughter was standing inside. She wasn’t quite dead because her body pointed a finger at him, and she said, “It’s your fault Mom died!” and started crying. Michael started crying as well. He knew he needed to get a grip but somehow with all the apparitions coming at him, he couldn’t quiet his thoughts. Then he touched the locket of Mira’s he had on. He fingered it and grabbed it tight.
This was real.
“This is real,” he repeated to himself. Not these other vapors of pictures.
Next his mom appeared. “You were never as good as your brother!” she accused him. “Mom!” he said, “Help me!” She wasn’t in a coffin, she was sitting across from him crocheting in the rocking chair they had at home. However, she ignored him and took Brandon, who had just also shown up, into her lap. “Someone has to take care of the baby!” she accused again. “Lord knows you don’t.” Michael couldn’t get a handle on his emotions. It was just too much.
He shivered. The fog was cold and dense. He began to blow breath on his hands.
Mira appeared again, this time as her normal self. “Why aren’t you looking for me?” she cried. “I’m going to die in two days! Why are you wasting time?!” Tears came to Michael’s eyes. He missed his wife so much. He fingered the locket. It was a way of keeping his sanity.
It seemed like far, far away, Michael could hear, or maybe it was feel, a calming presence from Jonathan. His heart area grew warm. He wondered why, when Jonathan wasn’t in the circle. It seemed so very distant. Then an apparition of Jonathan appeared. “I’m not going to wait forever for you!” he said with distaste. Michael ignored it, with some difficulty. “Someone has to rescue Mira—” the apparition of Jonathan continued, “—Stu should have rescued her! Now she’s in danger, and it’s your fault!”
Again, a calming presence seemed to exude from somewhere far away, outside the circle.
Jonathan was doing his best while waiting for Michael, sending him calming, good thoughts. He had no idea if they would reach him, and it was too complicated to tell Michael what to do through their minds, so he did all he could think of. Then he started to think of good things, happy things, and hoped some of it would make it through to Michael. It was an easy circle to get out of once you knew the trick. He hoped Michael would remember the woods. Then again, he had heard from Stu that this circle was brutal on a person.
***
As everyone gathered around the new Ed, no one had the guts to ask how he was going to live like this: like a man, in the astral. Lu just said to comfort him, “Whatever happens, I’ll be here for you.”
“Thanks Lu,” said Ed and gave her a masculine hug. Things were already starting to change.
Stu said, “I think we should stay here for a while. Ed doesn’t have a place yet, and we don’t know what Michael and Jonathan are up to. Or if they’ve even found Mira. This world is full of hazards.” He looked worried.
“So,” said Ed. “I’m basically a denizen of the astral world from now on? Is that right?”
“Pretty much,” said Stu. “I’ll be able to feel you some in the real world, because we have some energetic attachment, but you will have to stay here and build a life. A lot of people do. Just don’t go into the circles,” he warned. “They are worlds of their own, and none of ‘em good.”
“I don’t see why you couldn’t move into the McArthur place up the road,” said Lu. “I mean no one lives there in this world, and we all meet there, if you wouldn’t mind that Ed.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” said Stu. “That place could use a little tender, loving care anyway.”
Ed thought about it. He was still missing his former life as Trina, and although he was grateful to have survived, depression about the new situation attacked him. The group sensed his mood.
“Ed,” said Lu again. “We’ll always be here for you.”
“Yeah,” said Zac. Onie nodded. “Now we have a reason to keep up on our studies again and learn more about this place.”
Stu agreed. “I think this place is about to get a lot more crowded than it used to be.” Then he added, “But seriously, Ed, there are some bad zones here that you need to know about. Actually, all of you. When this situation with Mira is over, I need to take you all on a tour. Only Jonathan knows the ins and outs of this place. It’s crucial that Ed learns them too and all of you if you’re gonna be here much.”
The group agreed that a more mature version of the High Five Gang would have to go back in business. This time with Stu as a member, as of today.
“Yeah,” said Zac. “We’ll have you sign the book and everything.”
“What about Michael?” asked Stu. “Will he care?”
“Not after today,” said Onie. “Not after today.”
“Well the good thing,” said Stu, “is at least I have the solution to all the danger zones. I only know a few other people who have those. So when I take you on the tour, in case you are ever in trouble, you can remember the remedies. They all take a lot of concentration.”
“Cool,” said Ed.
“So what now?” said Lu
“I think we wait,” answered Stu.
“Wait for what?” asked Ed.
“I’m not sure,” said Stu, “but this is the place it’s going to go down.”
So different members of the gang went to eat, to take naps near the pond, and just to talk to Ed about his miraculous transformation. They were all waiting for the next big thing.
***
Michael was remembering the woods but the Nothing Circle seemed to act on his feelings before he even formed a thought. If he worried, it created something worse. If he became anxious, it created something worse. If fear overcame him, well, he didn’t want to go there. No matter what he tried, even happy thoughts and thoughts of Mira, the core fears, the innate worries in all mankind were always there. It was impossible to escape. He sat down and thought. While he deliberated, all manner of phantasmagoria assailed him from relatives to old teachers to a manifestation of God himself, relating that he was a speck of dust and his life meant nothing.
Jonathan sat on the outside of the circle. “Think!” He pushed the words toward Michael with all the love he could muster. “Think about the paradox of your situation.”
The word ‘paradox’ came through to Michael. Although he was getting better at ignoring the attacks that seemed to rise from his own psyche in this place, t he still had no idea how to escape. He could not, no matter how hard he tried, get rid of the fear that he was wasting time here. He needed to rescue Mira. That apparition attacked him the most. He was in a catch-22 position. Thus the word paradox. But Jonathan must have sent it to him for a reason. He thought about paradoxes. He had always liked them himself. Holding two equal but opposite ideas in hand and understanding both.
He couldn’t get rid of the fears because they appeared even without his conscious mind producing the thought. That meant it came from his unconscious. How could he win over a part of himself that he had no control over? He speculated some more.