A Journey of Souls Read online

  A Journey of Souls

  by

  Michael Mckinney

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One: The Astronomer

  Chapter Two: The Uncaring Father

  Chapter Three: The Sex Addict

  Chapter Four: A Violent Encounter

  Chapter Five: The Politician

  Chapter Six: The Child

  Chapter Seven: The Serial Killer

  Chapter Eight: The Volunteer

  Chapter Nine: A Family Crisis

  Chapter Ten: Angela's New Friend

  Chapter Eleven: The Racist

  Chapter Twelve: The Lynching

  Chapter Thirteen: The Warrior

  Chapter Fourteen: A Faithful Wife

  Chapter One: The Astronomer

  On a cool April morning in Lancaster Pennsylvania, a funeral home is hosting a number of people who have come to show their respect to the deceased. His name was Calvin Milner, and he had more friends and admirers than he knew. Calvin was a very unusual man. An early and nearly fatal brush with death when he was seventeen profoundly influenced him. He was the sole survivor of a terrible car accident that killed three others. The experience left him physically, psychologically, and spiritually shaken. After months of deep reflection, he resolved to live a life of service and altruism whatever that might come be. Calvin Milner saw in his escape from death a providential sign calling him to a life of helping others. At seventeen he was mature enough to know such a commitment would play out over a life time and could only start by recovering his strength, both physically and mentally. It was as if Calvin Milner in his teens suddenly had the maturity and discipline of a forty-year old.

  After recovering from his accident, he studied assiduously, finished high school and worked his way through college. He eventually became a high school teacher, and developed a reputation for caring as much about his students well-being as their academic performance. His quiet, unassuming demeanor made those around him feel completely at ease, and he made friends easily. Calvin Milner maintained an active interest in science, and taught that subject competently in his many years as a public school teacher. Most of his career was spent teaching in his home town, and in the very same high school he attended years earlier as a student. A counselor as much as a teacher, his association with high school students made him acutely sensitive to the shifting emotional and psychological challenges of adolescence. Though he couldn't possibly solve all the personal problems of those he counseled, his unflagging readiness to listen to all who came to him for advice was gratefully remembered by those who crossed paths with him.

  Calvin Milner was also an avid amateur astronomer. As president of the local astronomy club, he would organize, and host monthly star gazing outings at his home in the country. These trips, affectionately called “Cal's Astro Excursions” were particularly memorable for those who attended. As a boy, Calvin spent many nights in the dark Pennsylvania countryside with his small telescope viewing the sky. As an adult he became committed to sharing his love of astronomy with others, and so one night a month he would set up his twenty-four inch reflecting telescope, hosting friends, students, and all others for a night of serious star gazing. Many came away from these special evenings with a positive, and lasting impression of their experience. For this, and other reasons Calvin Milner is fondly remembered. Now he's gone.

  The unexpected outpouring of affection at his funeral today is a little surprising for his wife, and now widow Clara who sits in mournful silence after receiving a long line of those offering their respects. After accepting condolences from so many, most of them strangers, Clara Milner finds herself a little unprepared for the wave of genuine sympathy from dozens of well-wishers and is truly touched by the their sincerity. After the last few guests begin leaving, a woman in her mid-forties walks over to Mrs Milner and presents herself.

  “Mrs Milner,”

  “Yes,”

  “My name is Barbara Turner. I was a student in Mr Milner's class.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yes, in my junior year, I'm sorry he's gone.”

  “Oh, thank you,”

  “Your husband was loved by so many.”

  “Please sit down Barbara. It's nice of you to come today.”

  “Thank you, I'm so happy to talk with you today Mrs Milner. I wanted to tell you something.”

  “What's that?”

  “Your husband profoundly influenced my life. He's the reason I became a teacher.”

  “Is that right? Where do you teach Barbara?”

  “In Atlanta,”

  “You came all the way from Atlanta?” Mrs Milner asks.

  “Yes,”

  “How did you know my husband passed?”

  “My parents still live here in Lancaster, and they told me.”

  “I see. So you're a teacher. Do you like it?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Calvin loved teaching.”

  “He told me something I never forgot.”

  “What's that?”

  “When I told him I wanted to be a teacher, he said; ‘it's not about teaching. It's about learning and curiosity.'”

  “Yeah, that was Calvin. He didn't like to be called a teacher. He preferred the term 'learning assistant.'”

  “Well, he was my inspiration to become a teacher, and I know he had a positive influence on a lot of other students.”

  “Thank you, that's kind of you to say that. I know that many people were fond of him, but I must say I'm a little surprised to see so many people here today.”

  “I hope you don't mind me asking you Mrs Milner, but, was he in the hospital long before he passed? I would've come to see him if I knew he was ill.”

  “No, he wasn't. He was doing fine. Monday night he went to bed and had a heart attack in his sleep. So he went peacefully.”

  “I'm so glad.”

  “Thank you, thank you”

  “If there's anything I can do for you Mrs Milner.”

  “I'll be all right. Thank you for coming today.”

  “It's the least I could do. Thank you again Mrs Milner.”

  “You're welcome Barbara. Take care of your self.”

  “Thank you, goodbye.”

  “Goodbye dear,”

  As the funeral of Calvin Milner comes to a close, Clara Milner sits quietly with her thoughts. She tries to grapple with the realization that all she shared, and experienced with her husband in the nearly fifty years of their marriage has now passed into the catalog of memory. A mood of somber reflection comes over her. She knows her time of mourning is just beginning.

  Activity diminishes as the doors finally close at the funeral home. Cars are filing out of the parking lot, and people are on their way back home. Activity is stirring in another place as well, but this place is very different than most places we know about. This place can't be found on any map. This place exists in a realm beyond the linear time bound reality of human experience. It lies beyond the veil of temporal life and it waits for all.

  As if waking from a dream, Calvin Milner's conscious mind once again feels the pulse of life's coursing energy through his being. He opens his eyes to find himself in his boyhood home. He's flooded with a deep sense of contentment and belonging. As he walks into the kitchen he hears a conversation between two women. One voice is familiar, and one is not. A moment later he's greeted by his mother as he had been so many times before when he was a boy.

  “Hi Cal, are you hungry?”

  “Hi Mom, I'm okay.” he automatically replies.

  “This is Brianna. She's her
e to show you all those places you once told me about.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Calvin's mother moves toward her son to bestow a kiss, and tells him,

  “We'll all be here any time you want to come see us Cal.”

  At that moment Calvin sees his father outside brushing the dog he grew up with when he was a boy. ‘Max', a beautiful golden retriever was only five months old when he came into the Milner household. He quickly became Calvin's closest companion, forming a bond that remained for fourteen years. Max died of natural causes two weeks after Calvin went off to college, as if the animal sensed his master would be not be returning, and so lost the will to live. As Calvin looks out the window of his boyhood home, he wonders how all of this is happening. He hears his mother’s voice again.

  “Why don't you go see Max? He's there with your father.”

  Without making the effort or choice to walk out of the house, Calvin instantly finds himself outside. As he sees his father's reassuring smile, and is quickly greeted by his dog Max, a powerful sense of benevolent and protective love comes over him. Reaching down to eagerly pet his beloved animal companion, he feels the dogs warm coat of inviting fur through his fingers and the tactile reassurance of his living presence. Then Calvin looks at his father and sees the same expression of ingratiating love he warmly remembers as a boy. An overwhelming sense of belonging comes over him, as he stands to greet him with the strange woman named Brianna looking on from no more than ten feet away.

  As a growing child, Calvin was amply cared for, basking in the secure, loving fold of a harmonious family. His father was protective, and reassuring, and raised his son with an imperturbable gentleness that never wavered in its constancy. His memories of that happy childhood now flood his mind with a serene and reassuring contentment and he feels utterly immersed in an all-enveloping embrace of absolute love and acceptance. A mother's nurturing support, a father's protective care, and the devoted loyalty of his dog, make for a potent symbolic trio, as if some ineffable source of transcendent universal love was being expressed through them. Calvin senses something powerful, and unseen is at work. All the familial support, protection and love that he knew as a growing child are now all around him. What could it mean? Everything here is comforting, reassuring, and familiar. Only one thing is out of place. Who is the woman standing beside him called Brianna? A woman who speaks with Calvin's parents as if they were old friends. Though unfamiliar, her presence feels natural, and in a strange way somehow necessary. Calvin hears his father's voice.

  “It's good to see you Cal,”

  “I'm glad to be here with you Dad.”

  As if in a dream, Calvin speaks to his father with the same casual ease of his childhood. It's almost as if he never left this place. Everything here is so natural, familiar and completely understood that familiar words seem almost unnecessary He hears his father's voice again.

  “I have to wash up for dinner Calvin. Why don't you show Brianna your telescope? Don't be too late. We'll be eating later.”

  Calvin instantly finds himself in the back yard of his boyhood home standing in front of the reflector telescope he built in his early teens. Brianna is beside him.

  “Was this your first telescope Calvin?” she asks.

  “Yes, it is. I remember I worked all summer to pay for it.”

  Moving over to the telescope he carefully built and so often used, Calvin is flooded with rich memories of the many hours he spent observing the night sky. Alone with his dog Max for companionship, he would sometimes stay out under the stars all night taking in the wonders of the universe. Now he has somehow returned to the place where those experiences were formed. How is this possible? As he touches the telescope he lovingly crafted as a boy he hears Brianna's voice again.

  “What did you see with your telescope Calvin?”

  “A lot. I could see mountains on the moon with this telescope, Jupiter's moons, the rings of Saturn, star clusters, galaxies.”

  “Wow, that's pretty amazing.”

  “It certainly was for a fourteen-year old boy.”

  “Astronomy is a journey of imagination, isn't it Calvin?”

  “That's right. It is. ... Why do you seem so familiar to me?” Calvin asks.

  “I attended one of your star parties about two years ago.”

  “Oh, really? Well I hope you enjoyed it, but how do you know me, and how is all of this happening?”

  “My work allows me to get to know a lot of people, and what you're now experiencing is created and sustained by the radiantly energetic power of absolute love, and its unfathomable mystery. A mystery you are now part of, Calvin. You belong here.”

  “I feel like I'm home.”

  “You are Calvin, and we're happy you're here. We have work for you.”

  “What kind of work?”

  “You've been chosen to be a guide Calvin, to do what I'm now doing, helping people along in their journey and directing them on to their next destination. That's the work we have for you, but that's something you've been doing all your life, isn't it?”

  “It's the only thing that ever made me feel truly alive.”

  “You didn't realize it at the time, but you made the choice to be here a long time ago.”

  “How will I know what I'm supposed to do?”

  “You'll know. I'll help you learn.”

  “That makes me your apprentice.”

  “We're both apprentices here, but that work is for later. First, we want to celebrate your arrival. It's time to visit those places you dreamed about as a boy.” Brianna says as she points to the sky.

  “... Is that possible?”

  “Of course, conventional notions of what is possible don't apply here Calvin. Look” ... Brianna points to the sky.

  As Calvin looks upward, it quickly becomes darker, and stars become visible. The moon in its first quarter shines as it did so many nights before when he was a boy observing it with his telescope. He hears Brianna's voice again.

  “Do you remember the first time you saw the moon in your telescope?”

  “How could I forget? I was twelve years old. It was amazing seeing craters and mountains.”

  “Let's go there Calvin. That's what you wished for many years ago. Now it's granted. Are you ready?”

  “But, what about Max?”

  “We couldn't leave him behind. He comes with us, of course.”

  Calvin suddenly sees a section of the ground he is standing on, pull away rapidly from the surrounding landscape. He finds himself standing on a portion of ground about a hundred feet wide, and circular in shape. Calvin, with his dog, and his mysterious companion Brianna, find themselves riding together as if on a magic carpet, up through the atmosphere, and beyond, as if mother earth herself, was furnishing a private speck of her own substance to serve as a customized travel platform in their journey. He looks at the white roses a few yards away, and sees their healthy blooms unaffected by what's happening. Then he sees the sky get much brighter, and suddenly, the moon, and it’s incredibly detailed landscape fill the entire sky. He hears Brianna's voice again.

  “What do think Calvin?”

  Astounded by the remarkable view he's taking in, Calvin is completely awestruck.

  “Wow!, with a capital W. I'd say we arrived.”

  Curiosity turns to wonder as the lunar landscape Calvin once viewed through his telescope as a boy appears in spectacular abundance before him. Mountains, plains, and craters, close enough to reveal individual rocks and boulders, pass before his eager gaze as he silently takes in the strange incredible scenery.

  “I doubt if you've ever seen the moon like this through your telescope,” says Brianna.

  “Unbelievable, ... I don't believe I'm actually seeing this.”

  “This place will someday see sustained human activity, but for now it's a silent, uninviting world. L
et's go to another place you once observed as a boy. Do you remember seeing Jupiter's moons through your telescope Calvin?”

  “Yes, yes I do.”

  “That's our next destination, the outer planets, then the Orion nebula.”

  “The Orion nebula, are you kidding? How close can we get?”

  “We'll pass right through it.”

  “Wow, The Orion nebula is hundreds of light years away. How far can we go?”

  “As far as curiosity and imagination takes us.”

  Calvin Milner thinks to himself: How can this be happening? Seeing my parents again, being here with Max, and all of this. Is this a dream? It has to be. He looks at his mysterious companion Brianna, and though her lips are mute and motionless he hears her voice saying,

  “No Calvin, it's not a dream. The dream is what you've just awakened from.”

  Calvin looks once more at the view passing before him. The other-worldly appearance of chalky gray lunar mountains etched in absolute stillness against a black lunar sky is visually arresting. In marveled astonishment he gropes for words.

  “This is amazing. It's, ... it's incredible. How am I here? No dream could be this vivid. That must mean that I'm, ... I'm dead, ... but I don't remember dying.”

  Looking at Brianna, Calvin asks,“... Am I dead?”

  “Do you feel dead Calvin?”

  “No I, ... I feel intensely alive actually.”

  “And so you are.”

  “I'm trying to make sense of all this,” Calvin says.

  “Just enjoy the ride Calvin. It's more fun to marvel at the wonder, than to wonder at the marvel. Don't you think?”

  “Uh, yes, yes I do.”

  “Do you remember seeing Jupiter's moons for the first time through your telescope Calvin?”

  “I do. I remember it very well. It was a cold night in December.”

  A moment later their magic flying platform is moving through space again, and just as quickly, Calvin sees the planet Jupiter looming closer, and closer until the enormous gas giant dominates the entire field of view. The colored bands of turbulent gas streaking across the planet are mesmerizing in their appearance as the entire surface of this world seems to be in constant movement. The ‘Great Red Spot’ seen only as a small featureless oval through his boyhood telescope now reveals itself to be the raging monster it is and the churning fury of it's irresistible vortex seems almost threatening in its relentless intensity. In speechless amazement, Calvin hears Brianna's voice.