Despite the Angels (51 page)

“They are on their way. They are looking for you. Remember what we discussed,” said Trynor and he was gone again.
ShengYue looked at the doorway, at the other side of the room, with two cots between her and it.
She looked at Mohmi, uncertain
. There were footsteps on the stairs and then they could hear a woman’s voice, speaking a language that was unfamiliar.

“Oh, David, I’m nervous. Or excited.”  There was an answering mutter in a deeper voice. Then a group of people came into the room. The director of the orphanage, carrying a big file, an unfamiliar woman who was talking to the director and then the two strangers. Strangers with light hair and big noses. ShengYue looked at them and began to smile tentatively. Lucy and David stood just inside the door, looking around at all the little cots, only half listening as the director explained the wonders of the orphanage and was translated. They were holding hands, squeezing each other as they prepared to make a momentous decision.

“All these babies suitable for you,” said the translator, “we can give you detail of each one. Which one you like to start with?”

“We want a very young baby, don’t we, David?” asked Lucy, “so that he or she is really ours.” David nodded and the translator talked to the director for a moment. Then she pointed to the cot near the window.

“This little girl just three weeks old,” she said. “You want to hold her?”  Lucy moved to the cot and looked in. The baby looked around with uncoordinated eyes. Lucy put down a finger and touched the little head. The fine downy hair was soft.

“She’s lovely.”

“Or this one is five weeks. Bigger. Stronger girl when older.” This baby’s eyes were beginning to focus and she seemed to look at Lucy with a solemn stare.

“Hello, beautiful” said Lucy. David, beside her, said nothing, but reached out to the baby’s hand. The little fingers grasped David’s and he was plunged back through the years, remembering his twins and all the difficulties of those times. He shook himself, trying to return to the present.

“Here another little baby. Not sure but think one month old. Good health.”

“Are they not all in good health?” Lucy was alarmed.

“Oh yes. Very good. Good food, clean, all injections. Is all on papers.” She indicated the file in the director’s arms.

“Oh, David, how do we choose? How can we say come with us to one and leave all the others? What will happen to them?”

“I don’t know, love. But I’m sure it’s not like the Cat and Dog’s home. They aren’t going to put them down.” He was trying to stay light, but privately he agreed with Lucy. How could they choose?

“Come on David,” said Jotin.  “We’ve got you this far, don’t go forgetting on us now. You’re here for a special baby, not just any baby. Look around.”

“Maybe if we spend some time and just talk to each one, something will come clear,” said David, beginning to walk between the lines of cots. Lucy followed, looking at each child, thinking how beautiful they were, with their dark almond eyes and black hair. How could their mothers bear to part with them? She turned to the translator to ask this, but the translator either did not understand her, or chose not to.

“No mothers. No fathers. Orphans. Most left at doorway. Some with some clothes. Some wrapped in paper.”

Lucy felt worse than ever. Her Aisling and Robbie had been so lucky, she thought. And David’s girls.

“And one of these. Come on, girl. She’s here. Look for her.” Trynor was nearly dancing with frustration. He turned to Jotin. “They are still so deaf! They want her, they’ve come all this way for her and now they decide they want an infant and get all worked up about the others, who are nothing to do with us at all!”

“No, but they don’t know that. And they are good people, full of compassion. That is how it should be. There is no learning if they know too clearly. Now, come on, what can we do?” Jotin, Trynor and Mohmi came together for a moment, and then, smiling at each other, each went back to his own person. Trynor nudged Lucy.
Lucy turned and walked away from the cribs with the tiny babies. She thought she would clear her head by looking at some of the older ones, seeing what condition they were in. She looked around and noticed a baby sitting up, looking solemnly towards her. Lucy moved towards her, noticing a slight wave in her fine baby hair and eyes that were more brown than black.
Mohmi stepped between ShengYue and Lucy.

“Now my little one,” she said, holding out her arms to ShengYue, “now is the time you raise your arms to me and smile. Everything is wonderful!” and she smiled and laughed at the baby, making faces at her.
In response
ShengYue giggled and raised her arms. Lucy stepped right up to the cot and lifted the baby up, kissing her nose. ShengYue giggled again and waved her little arms. In her baby mind she felt this woman was just right. Lucy turned to the translator.

“Can you ask what was left with this baby?”  The director consulted her file.

“Two little blankets, a few clothes, a quilt. And a piece of paper saying ‘my name is ShengYue’,” said the translator.

“Does ShengYue mean anything?”

“Yes. It mean Song of the Moon.”

“Song of the Moon. Moonsong.” Lucy felt a prickle down her spine. “How beautiful. I wonder why she got that name? It must have been important, or the note wouldn’t have been left with her. Moonsong. I wonder is there an English name for that? David, what will we call her in English?” Lucy turned to him, holding their new daughter and he came over and put a hand on each of them.

“So we have chosen you, have we?”  The baby smiled at him and waved her arms again.

Mohmi, Trynor and Jotin stood together, watching. Their energies were soft and relaxed, exuding happiness and relief. The other guides in the room smiled too.

“So we start from seven months now. They can bring her home and bring her up. She will be well,” said Mohmi, happy to be released from the need to constantly guard her child, now that she had found her parents.

“Mm. It will be good to have a simple existence again,” said Jotin, as they watched the family getting to know each other again. “There is nothing else to learn for the moment. Just to enjoy the world and each other. Nothing to go wrong this time.”

“No” said Trynor “what could possibly go wrong?” 

There was a long silence. They smiled a little sheepishly at each other. Then for a moment, Mohmi was gone. She came back, looking satisfied.

“I visited TieJuan, the baby’s mother and had a word with her guide. She is well and expecting her son. She was napping, so we sent her a dream of this scene. When she wakes she will know her daughter is safe.” Mohmi indicated the new family and went over and whispered to ShengYue.

A wonderful chuckle of baby laughter echoed through the room.

~~~~  ~~~~

“Despite the Angels” is entirely a work of fiction. It is not necessary to believe in reincarnation, guardian angels, or spirit guides to enjoy it. None of the characters are based on, or intended to represent, real people living or dead, and similarities are purely coincidental, with one small exception, see ‘Dundee’ below. However, I have used some historical places and events on which to hang my story.

Crete
. Tylissos was an actual Minoan village, and there is a modern town of the same name. The sanctuaries were actually on the top of the high mountains which surround the town, but I have invented one on a lower hill, maybe the site of the modern church, as Alessia could not run up such high mountains in the time available.

Bull dancing did happen in Minoan Crete, there are frescoes showing it (and showing the breast-baring bodices) but the religion in the story is my invention.
Diktynna was a name used for the mother-goddess around this period. Double headed axes were a commonly used symbol.

I have re-named the palace of Malia as Malatos to distance the reader from the modern pie-and-chips resort. A sword with a crystal pommel may be seen in the museum in Heraklion. A pendant in the shape of two bees was found between the Malia palace and the sea, dating from earlier than this story. It is my fancy that it was made by an ancestor of Mikolos, and the symbol remained in the family.
I made the name Armishamai from the words for song and moon in the old    language.

The Diktean cave on the Lassithi plain can still be visited, and was used by the Minoans as a sanctuary. Various offerings were found at the base of the stalactites.

Recent evidence suggests that there may have been some human sacrifice in Minoan Crete. My own instinct about this is that it is more likely to have occurred in the post-tsunami era, when the society was crumbling, and fear and insecurity would have been more prevalent. It is unlikely to have been found necessary in the peaceful matriarchal pre-tsunami society, so that is why Jotin reassures Trynor that he is safe.

In the Médoc
, I have invented the Château of Merillac, and have placed it on a piece of land I have risen from the salt marsh somewhere north of Jau-et-Dignac, near the modern village of Talais.  The church of Notre Dame du Fin du Terre at Soulac-sur-Mer is still there, now dug out of the sand. (Soulac was rebuilt as a seaside resort in the early 1900s.) Salt gathered from the marshes was a major source of income. Many châteaux and large farms were burnt out in the summer of 1789, by peasants who were panicky about the slow progress of the revolution. The name deVrac is an invention (by Daniel’s great grandfather, who had a sense of irony) – ‘vin en vrac’ means wholesale wine.

Dundee
did suffer from the dreadful Tay Bridge Disaster, much as described. None of the people mentioned is based on any actual person involved, with the unavoidable, and I hope harmless, exception of the kindly station-master, who did send the relatives home when he heard the bad news, hoping to save them a sleepless night. I hope his relatives will forgive me for putting words into his mouth. The exact number of casualties cannot be told, though there are estimates of around ninety. Babies would not have been recorded, as they did not need tickets. ‘High Girders’ by John Prebble gives most of the known facts.

A whale was towed ashore as described; and chips were introduced to Dundee in the 1870s by Edward de Gernier from Belgium.

China
has a one-child policy, but in fact a real TieJuan would be allowed a second baby as she is from a farming family, and her first child is a girl. But her mother-in-law is an unpleasant woman, who does not want to waste money rearing a girl, who will belong to her husband’s family when she marries, and be of no further financial value to her birth family. My thanks to Dr XeiMei (Anna) Lee for help in naming TieJuan and ShengYue. Tie-Juan means iron-flower, so this name suits a strong country girl. Chinese parents often choose names which represent their hopes for their children. TieJuan’s parents certainly got a strong daughter.

The spirit world.
This information comes from my own personal and professional experience, but mostly from my imagination. I have also borrowed loosely and inaccurately from the works of Dr Brian Wiess and Dr Michael Newton.

For those who have not noticed: Hetrion in Crete re-incarnates as Etienne in the Médoc, and possibly as Edward McIntyre in Cupar. Rasifi in Crete becomes Rosemarie in France, and then Dorothy’s mother Rose in Cupar. It is possible that the itinerant priest in the Médoc is the re-incarnation of Planidi. None of these characters has taken a life in the Dublin story. It is also completely unnecessary for souls to take names (or bodies) that resemble those they have had in other lives. I did it this way to make it easier for the reader to see who was who.

A note for my readers in America.

My spellings are all UK/Irish, and are correct (unless they get tangled during the publishing process!). As the story is set in Ireland it is appropriate that the language should be Irish, and I hope you will get used to it, as I have got
(gotten!) used to American usage when reading books set in America. In case the meanings of all the words have not been clear, here are some ‘translations’: All through the story ‘eejit’ appears, this is the Irish form of ‘idiot’. In Chapter 1 a ‘choc-ice’ is a bar of ice cream on a stick, covered with a thin layer of chocolate. Chapter 11 has ‘willie’, a colloquial term for penis. In Chapter 12 hair is like a ‘conker’ which is a horse-chestnut, which are a beautiful shade of rust brown. Chapter 15 mentions David’s ‘C.V.’, this is a ‘resumé’ or ‘curriculum vitae’. The ‘fish fingers’ in Chapter 38 are called ‘fish sticks’ in America, I think.  In Ireland and the UK we ‘hoover’ our carpets with a vacuum cleaner, (Chapter 41). In Chapter 45 ‘Clare was too cute’ means she was canny, not adorable! Chapter 49 has Lucy struggling with the ‘boot’ of her car. This is called the ‘trunk’ in America. And finally, ‘having a jar’ (Chapter 51) means having a drink, usually a pint of beer.

My grateful thanks
are also due to:

My father, Dick Stringer, who told me during his final illness that his big regret in leaving this world was that he had not ‘written a novel or designed a cathedral’. Well, Dad, I couldn’t manage the cathedral, but this book is for you.