The Sins of Elina
By Gary Brandt
Copyright 2008
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this story may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Over The Edge Press, 809 W Riordan Rd Ste 100 #405, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
e-mail otep@overtheedgepress.com
www.overtheedgepress.com
Alannah stands quietly at the bus stop. It has only been a few days since Alannah stood here, stuck in her temporal dead zone, without a past, and a future that will be only a re-run of yesterday. Now the dull doe eyed non-seeing eyes of yesterday are bright with excitement, delightfully scanning a landscape that is full of potential adventure. Today Alannah will return to the little clinic past the edge of the city for a follow up review regarding her reconstitution therapy. That was such a fearful day, but now, Alannah is excited to return.
The bus ascended to its cruising altitude, about 100 feet above the pedestrian pathway, and began to accelerate to cruising velocity. As the cityscape scrolls by outside the window Alannah can’t help but ponder the changes. When she first arrived in Crystal City it was just a short street of wooden buildings on one side of a dirt road. Now it is a major metropolis bustling with residents and visitors busily moving from place to place doing whatever it is that they do. There are still many, who like her, are stuck in their forgetfulness, zombie like, re-living the same day over and over again. Alannah muses that she may start a crusade to find and release these dead souls from their temporal prison. Today though, her thoughts are on Elina, her sister, whom she misses desperately. At last the bus stops at the end of the line and Alannah departs, skipping down the cobblestone path to the small gated cottage.
Alannah checks her appointment slip to make sure this is the right place and the right time. It is. “Welcome, my sister.” Maureen says as she gives her standard greeting to her patient. “I’m glad to see that your therapy has progressed so remarkably well. You don’t need to say a thing, I can see the sparkle in your eyes. How can I help you today? Do you want to find more people from your past? Do you want more sketches of their faces so you can remember them?”
“No thank you, Maureen.” Alannah replies. “I have more than enough sketches. I need more than just a picture. I need to actually touch them, feel them, hug them, kiss them, cuddle them, caress them, and know them. During my therapy session you said that you may possibly get an address for my sister Elina. Of all those from my past I miss her the most. You said that she was like me, alone, without any other family. That is what I want to work on today, finding Elina”
“My my my, Alannah. I think you are my most advanced patient. It usually takes months or years to reach the point of looking for lost loved ones. I must caution you. You may not find what you think you will find. So you must be prepared for disappointment and failure. Are you ready for that? It could be very sad.”
A little fear crept into Alannah’s soul as she asked “What kind of failure. You mean that I may not be able to find her?”
“It’s a little more complicated that that.” Maureen replied. “Yes, it could be that we may not be able to find her, or maybe we locate the domain but it is closed and we cannot enter it, or we do get in but then still cannot find her within it. Finding someone, though, may be the easy part. After you find them, they may not know you, or maybe they do know you but don’t want to have anything to do with you. In some of the worst cases that I have seen, we find them and they do want to know you and they come home with you and then thoroughly mess up and complicate your life in ways you could never have predicted. So there is risk, great risk, of big disappointment. Do you still want to proceed?”
“Yes, most definitely.” Alannah said with an excited smile. “My life has been so boring for so long that any complications will be a welcome change. Elina was always very complicated and hard to understand, so I’m used to that anyway. Lets just do it!”
“Very well then. We will do it!” Maureen said, adopting Alannah’s excitement. “First I will make a small sketch to focus my mind and direct our intention to locate Elina.” Maureen grabs a small pad of paper and sketches the image of a face and passes it to Alannah for approval.
“Yes. That is the Elina that I remember.” Alannah says, acknowledging that accuracy of the sketch.
Maureen begins a second sketch and also hands it to Alannah. “I’m confused.” Alannah responds. “This is a sketch of an elderly woman. Who is this?”
“Ah.” Maureen responds. “I told you that you may not find what you are looking for. You left Earth when you were 27 years old, and now you appear to be no older than maybe 30 or so. Elina left Earth when she was 75, and I feel that she has retained that form. So your idea of gallivanting around Capitol City having fun and exciting adventures with your little sister, has now been dashed. Your little sister is an elderly woman so you may have little in common. Do you want to proceed?”
“Ugh! I didn’t think about that. But you don’t know Elina. Cruising the bars and buying clothes will probably be just as fun with her at 75 as it is with someone else who is 25. So lets continue.”
“So I see, as you have just revealed, that you intend to bring her here and engage in activities that require a lot of money. Do you have the financial ability to do that?” Maureen asked with a look of concern.
“Ha! I just recently discovered this myself, but I’m actually quite wealthy. For more years than I can begin to remember all I have done is work and sleep. I paid my bills and the few credits I had left were put in the bank. With interest I now have a large number of credits, more than enough to support Elina and the rest of my family if I can find them.”
“Very good.” Maureen says with a big smile. “Maybe when you get back we can talk about a construction loan to expand my clinic.” They both laughed.
After a short meditation Maureen scribbles some notes in her notebook. “This is what I can see, Alannah. As I said last time, Elina is still Elina, she has retained her form as she was when she left Earth. Here is where it gets a little strange. You Elina is a very special soul. As you know, we are all creatures of consciousness who have assumed physical form, become form, on Earth, most recently in the form of Humanity. As consciousness we are infinite in extent, an aspect of the All that Is. We are not, however, aware of that infinity, and our awareness is actually a self contained little perceptual bubble within consciousness, and that is what we call the ‘I’, the individual that you perceive yourself to be.
“When we are at the level 3 experience of being human on Earth we are inside a much larger bubble which contains that entire universe, and many others that are dimensionally out of phase with the Earth that we know. Here, though, where the dimensional densities are much lighter, our bubbles of awareness are much smaller, there being many of them instead of one, and within which we can manifest all sorts of different realities, as opposed to the single reality that we are stuck with on Earth. All this has become common knowledge since the great awakening.
“What we still have little understanding of, however, is the role of the domain managers, those within whos perceptual bubble, their domain of awareness, many other souls manifest their human form, and other life forms as well. That is for the most part still a mystery. We do know that those who are host for a domain, such as this one that we know as Crystal City, are typically highly evolved beings with a long history of past lives on Earth and many other realities as well.”
“Ok. I’m still new at this stuff, but I think I have a basic understanding of all that. My boss at the diner explained most of that. So what does that have to do with Elina? What sort of domain did she manifest into?” Alannah wanted to know.
“Well, that is the weird part. As I said before, Elina is alone, but not the same way as you. You are alone, without any family, in a domain of millions of souls. Elina is alone in a domain of one. That means that she is also the domain manager, the host, for that domain. That would indicate that she is a highly evolved being. These beings normally attract many like minded individuals to share their domain with them. She is alone. That is strange.”
“Believe me. Elina has always been a bit strange.” Alannah said with a laugh. “So I’m not surprised that she is still a misfit, even in this existence. “Go on. I feel you have more to say about Elina’s strange behavior.”
“Yes, I do. I sense that this domain is a dark one, Hades class, her own personal hell. Elina seems to have all the characteristics of an enlightened being. Such beings don’t create their own personal hell. They know better. This is indeed very strange. Because this situation is so strange I’m not sure you will be safe visiting her. If, for example, she has gone mad, and she is the host of her own domain, then there is some danger that if you enter that domain you may have a difficult time getting home again. Are you sure you want to risk that?”
“Hmmmm. This is a bit scary. It is also something that I must do. If Elina is in trouble then I need to go see what is going on. She may need help. Maybe I should take along a more experienced traveler. You busy?” Alannah asked with a smile.
Maureen grinned broadly and answered. “I was just thinking to myself how I could invite myself along. This looks like an interesting project. Let me prepare my things and we will start our adventure.”
Alannah and Maureen headed back into town to catch a transport to Elina’s domain. Maureen is not too sure of the coordinates and they will have to install a trans-dimensional conduit to gain entry, unless the domain is blocked. If it is blocked they may not be able to enter.
“So, Maureen. When we go to Elina’s domain we are basically going inside her head. Is that correct?” Alannah asked.
“I suppose you can look at it that way. A domain is actually part of an infinite expanse that has coalesced into a region of awareness where a local space-time continuum can manifest, and then we can manifest within that. We don’t really know how it works. It is something that happens from the infinite field automatically. It is like digesting food. It just happens because that is the way it works and we don’t have to think about it. So to say that it is here or there, in her head or not, is not really relevant. It just is.”
“Do you think she knows we are coming?”
“She may but I doubt it. She will certainly know when we arrive.”
The girls left the bus station and headed over to the transport station. Maureen has reserved a transport and Alannah paid the fare. “Oh wow. I just realized that this is the very first time I have ever left Crystal City. I’m a little bit scared.” Alannah confessed.
The transport accelerated with a whoosh towards the edge of Crystal City and then came to a stop. The pilot and copilot were busy adjusting some equipment and the copilot said “We are calibrating the TDC ma’am. This will just take a minute. The domain coordinates that you provided are difficult to get a lock on so bear with us.”
“What do you think we are going to find in there?” Alannah asked.
“There is no telling Alannah. These domains can be whatever they want to be. The Hades class are usually not very nice. They are created as a place of torment, so that souls who thing they must be punished and suffer can live out that chosen destiny. This could turn out to not be fun at all.” Maureen explained.
“Ma’am. We were having a problem finding a place to enter the domain because it was too hot. A cool spot has formed, though, but we are not going to be able to enter the domain. What we can do, though, is activate the TDC and then dock along side. You will have to walk. Are you sure you want to enter there? We may not be able to get you out again.” The pilot said with a look of great concern.
“We will be just fine.” Alannah responded. “I don’t know how I know that, but I just do. And she knows we are here too. That is why that cool spot appeared just now when it did. We will be fine.”
The hover craft approached a swirling vortex at the boundary of the Crystal City domain and opened the side door. On the other side was a rock pathway flowing with cool water. Beyond that a deep red glow illuminated the entire domain.
“Are you ready?” Alannah asked Maureen, looking for a little emotional support.
“I’m as ready as I’m going to get. Lets do it!”
The girls carefully stepped out of the craft and onto the rock pathway. As the began to walk down the path the TDC vortex, and the craft on the other side, vanished. They were alone on a barren landscape, somewhat reminiscent of a fresh lava flow. Fire and hot rocks were in every direction, except for the one cool spot where they stood. As they moved down the pathway, cool water would emerge from the ground cooling the pathway so they could continue.
“See. I told you she was here. How else could this be happening. We would have burned up by now.” Alannah said.
“It could be all automatic, but I sort of agree with you. I think she has welcomed us into her domain. Let’s see where the path leads.” Maureen said as she motioned for Alannah to follow her down the path.
For more than an hour the girls followed the path as it wound through barren burning desert and into a dense forest of irregular shaped boulders. Finally a clearing appeared. In the middle of the clearing was a table and a chair and a small elderly woman surrounded by a mountain of books and papers and magazines. She was hunched over reading a newspaper. As she would finish a page she would toss it into a nearby pool of lava where it would instantly burn up. The girls carefully approached her until they were standing right in front of her. Elina did not look up. She just said “OK Alannah. You’re here. What do you want?”
“I want to tell you how much I love you, how much I miss you, and I want to catch up on all our missing years. Put that paper down and look at me. I want to see your face.” Alannah said.
“Still bossy after all these years, huh?” Elina said looking up at Alannah. “Have a seat girls.” Two chairs had materialized and Alannah and Maureen sat down. “So who is your friend Alannah? Is she one of your lovers in that lesbo domain you live in?”
“Her name is Maureen, and she is not my lover. In fact I have no lovers and our domain is not ‘lesbo’. It is just all women but that doesn’t mean we are sexual with women just because we live there.” Alannah explained.
“Yeah? Whatever suits you then. I love you too. I miss you too. Our history is simple. We are both dead. Now why don’t you girls go back home to your girly world and have a nice life.”
“I’m not dead, and neither are you. We have a lot of catching up to do Elina, and just because you are manifested here as a wrinkled up old lady, I’m still your big sister, and I’m going to stay here until I get some answers.” Alannah said, looking at her sister with an intensity that was not going to take no for answer.
“So the only way to get rid of you is answer your stupid questions? Go ahead then, ask. You may not like the answers though, so be careful what you ask.”
“OK. To start off, how did you know where I live, how did you know we were coming, and why the hell are you in hell?” Alannah asked.
“I felt you coming. When your bus thingy got here they announced where they were from. I’ve read about your domain in the paper. And, I’m in hell because that is where everyone thinks I belong.”
“Who thinks that? Not me. I’ve always known you as the most sensitive and caring person I know. Why do you think you belong in hell?”
“Then everyone minus one. Big whoop-ti do. You try being caring and sensitive in a world of fearful hateful people and see how far that gets you. You get used and stomped on and damned to hell. I promise. I know.”
“Elina, there is no body here except you. You are creating this hell. According to Maureen you are a highly evolved being. You can manifest a paradise. Why manifest hell?”
“I’m by myself now, yes I am. But that was not always the case. There were more here, many many more. They are gone now, graduated you know.”
“Graduated? How do you graduate from hell?”
“Just like you graduate from anything else. You learn all your lessons, you take a test, and if you pass, you move on, graduate. You know? It’s not that complicated.”
“So you turned your hell into a school?”
“Isn’t that what hell is supposed to be? Damn, did I screw this up too? Are you here to judge me and tell me how I screwed everything up?”
“No. No. I think that hell being a place you can graduate from is a wonderful thing. It’s just exactly what my caring and loving sister would do. So why are you still here? Why don’t you graduate too?”
“I can’t graduate because I can’t pass the first test.”
“And what test is that?”
“Uh … the one where you accept the guilt, take responsibility for your sins. I’ve never accepted that I am guilty of anything. I have not sinned, not in anyway that I would define sin. So since I have no sins to be guilty of, I can’t accept the guilt, and I can’t pass the test.”
“Bull shit, Elina! You’re making all this up! Make up something nicer for yourself.”
“Oh, I’ve gotten used to this. I like it this way. I’ve got my books and magazines and stuff so I can keep up with the goings on around the domains. All pretty stupid stuff if you ask me, but it keeps me entertained.”
“Tell me how you got here, Elina. Why did you decide to create hell?”
“Wasn’t really my choice. Most of my life I was told that I would burn in hell. Usually that was right after some bitch noticed her husband was ten times better in bed after he came to see me. Several times I was told I was Satin himself in the form of a woman. My own kids told me how evil I was and how I ruined their lives. When I passed from the Earth I thought all that was forgotten. Everyone was crying and telling me how much the loved me, so when I got to this side I high tailed it to the pearly gates expecting to walk right in. That is when I had this life review thing and all them bitches and their bastard husbands were going on and on about how I ruined their marriages and tore apart their families and how I should not be allowed in their precious heaven. So I made this place instead.”
“Pearly gates? I’ve heard about that but I’ve never been to a domain like that. So it really exists?” Alannah asks.
“She was a traditionalist.” Maureen interjected. “You got religious, didn’t you Elina, in your later years?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. I started going to church, mainly for the kids and the grand kids. I heard all about the after life and heaven and the pearly gates and that whole shebang. I’m glad they wouldn’t let me in there though. No way I would be happy there. I’m happy here. I have found my peace.”
“Where do you get all these books and stuff?” Alannah asked.
“As soon as they are printed in your domains, they manifest here. That is how I keep up on stuff. I’ve thought about adding video too, but I have plenty of time here, so I just read.”
“Where do you live, sleep, eat. All I see is this chair and this table out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“I don’t eat or sleep or anything else. I just sit here and read. That is all I need. So I don’t need anything else. I already have all I need.”
“Yeah? Elina! I’m your sister. Remember? I know you. This is bull shit. You deserve better. I’m getting you out of here. Somehow, we’re going to get you out of here and you are going to come live with me.”
“There is a lot you don’t know Alannah. I don’t think you would want me in your domain. I might mess it all up for you, just like I did my Earth life. So you are best off just leaving me where I am. I’m happy. Go home and be happy too. Anyway, I can’t leave. I can’t pass the test.”
“Then confess a stupid sin, take responsibility for it, and lets get the hell out of hell. OK?”
“I haven’t sinned.”
“Yes you have. You stole my makeup, and then you broke it. Remember?”
“That wasn’t a sin. You guys deserved it.”
“What? How did we deserve it.”
“We were only fourteen months apart, and I was more social than you already. There was no reason that we could not get makeup at the same time. Mom deliberately favored you over me and then rubbed it in my face, telling me that I could have gotten makeup too if I wasn’t so bad all the time. I wasn’t bad at all. I bent over backwards trying to please that woman, but there was just no way to win with her. I was always the scapegoat for whatever she was feeling bad about. She punished me just for existing. Anything that went wrong in the family or if she was just having a bad day she would find a way to make it all my fault. When I got fed up with her bull shit and wouldn’t take it any more then she would get even madder at me and even make up stuff to tell dad that I didn’t even do. She even told lies about me to you so you would hate me too. So yeah, I broke your stupid makeup. But it wasn’t about you, and it was a lot better than the alternatives that were going through my head. That wasn’t a sin Alannah. That was justice, the only justice I could find.”
“I didn’t realize that you hated her so much.” Alannah said.
“I didn’t hate her. I loved her to death and tried my best so show it every way I could. I cried myself to sleep trying to figure out ways to get into her heart. But there was something wrong with her, some fear deep inside that she pushed out on to me, and I could never figure out what that was.”
“Forget Mom then. What about Louis, that boy that I liked. I confided in you my deepest most precious secret, and you used it against me. You picked him out of the crowd of boys, any one of which you could have had, and I found you guys in the woods doing … doing … doing whatever the hell it was that you were doing out there. That was a sin. Take responsibility for that one.”
“I can’t. It wasn’t a sin. I was trying to do you a favor. I talked to Louis in town and I told him that you were sweet on him so that you guys could hook up. He said that there were some things that we should talk about so he suggested we go into the woods so nobody would hear. Then he tells me about all the girls he has been with and how he thinks I’m so beautiful and he would rather have me than you. He starts grabbing me and kissing me and I figure since I’m out there in the woods I better go along or he might beat me or kill me or something. Louis was a bad bad seed Alannah and I saved you from him. I couldn’t tell you what really happened because I knew you would have told Dad, and then Dad would have killed him. I had to just keep it inside and be quiet so everyone would be safe. So I can’t confess that as a sin because it wasn’t.”
“I didn’t know. I’m so sorry Elina. Why didn’t you tell me when we got older?”
“Because you didn’t get older, remember? You died. You got married in 1875 and moved to San Francisco in1877. I moved to Denver in 1878 with my husband. Those were busy times and we all planned to visit from time to time after we all got settled and made a few babies. Then Mom and Dad disappeared. The letters stopped coming and ours were returned as undeliverable. We wrote to neighbors who told us that Mom had died suddenly and that Dad had pulled up stakes and moved north without leaving any forwarding address. Brionna was the rich one, her husband went into banking and they were well off. So in 1881 she went back home to look for Dad but there was no trace of him. In 1882 you died. So I never got the chance to sit down and talk with you as an adult. So a lot of things never got said.”
“Until now. Wow. That really explains a lot. I had forgotten almost everything about those times. Now I know why I have a problem with Dad. I remember now. We were not even sure if Mom died of natural causes or if he killed her and then left town. Brionna said that Dad had put her body on a funeral pyre along with all her belongings. He even burned all our letters and everything. Anything that reminded him of her he burned with her. Then he just took off. He disappeared without a trace. He never met his grand kids or anything. After we leave here I think we should go talk to Dad and find out what really happened back then. If I have learned anything today it’s that there is usually a different side to the story.”
“That would be nice, except I can’t leave.”
“Oh yeah. You still need to take responsibility for your sins. What about those men you were with, who were married. You were married too were you not? Are you going to say that was not a sin?”
“I did what I had to do. We moved to Denver a couple of years after it became the State capitol, and that city was growing fast. My husband, who only knew logging and milling, tried to make it in the mines but never made enough to support us. So he got a job in the warehouse, and then in some of the stores. Then he got involved in a movement to unionize the workers and that caused a lot of problems. Then he got sick and couldn’t work much at all. We were barely making it and then suddenly we were not making it at all, so I had to get a job working tables in a saloon. I had two babies by that time and they had to be fed, so I did what I had to do. I was lucky, in a way, that the babies took no toll on my body. After I had the kids my body snapped back to what it was when I was sixteen. I was proud of my beauty, but it was also my curse. In order to keep my job I had to do things with the bosses, and then their friends. I got passed around like their little toy. Soon I was being sold to their best customers for money and all I got for it was my wages and maybe a little tip. After a while I couldn’t take it any more and I quit and went looking for some other kind of work, but there was none to be found that I could do. The men still came looking for me, offering me money, lots of money. So like it or not, that was the business I was in. I had two babies and a sick husband to feed, so I did what I had to do. I was good at it too. I could show those men what it was like to be a real man by showing them what it was like to be with a real woman. Pretty soon I had more business than I could service so I started hiring other girls to work with me. Before too long I was contracting with the bars and saloons to provide girls for their clients. I trained those girls good. They could make a man think he was a god. I showed them how to do that. It wasn’t long though, before the city started turning against me, mainly the women. The men talked a good story about how evil we were, but they couldn’t say too much because most of them had already used our services, or were hoping to very soon. Those women owed us a debt of gratitude. They had taken perfectly good men and ruined them with their childish ways and we took those same men and showed them how to do a woman proper. Those bitches were swooning with the quivers like they had never felt before after we got their men trained in the ways of pleasing a woman. I did what I had to do, and I did it well. I kept my family fed and my husband alive the best and the only way I knew how. That ain’t no sin Alannah. That is just doing the best you can do with the talents God gives you. So I can’t confess that as a sin, because it isn’t.”
“I’m so sorry Elina.” Alannah said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I had no idea that you had to endure those horrible things in your life. I knew you and Mom never got along, but I didn’t know it was that bad. And this other stuff, the things you had to do to survive, I can’t even imagine. I’m proud of you though, that you got through it, and as you always seem to be able to do, take a horrible situation and make it into something special. But … that was on a planet that died long long ago. There hasn’t been a single human incarnation there in over twelve thousand years. Don’t you think it’s time to stop being a victim of a dead civilization? We may be able to re-populate soon, on Earth, or maybe some other place. I’m sure you have read about that in you newspapers. Don’t you think your time would be better spent preparing for that new life instead of re-living your sins of a past life? This whole buy your way out of hell by taking responsibility for some stupid made up sin is crazy, it’s fucking stupid. You made up these rules. It isn’t Gods law. So change the rules. Just forgive youself, since you are the only one condemning yourself. Come home with me. Let’s create a future instead of wasting our existence stuck in a past that can never again exist.”
“Elina, if I may, I think I can help you and Alannah to a solution.” Maureen interjected.
“Go for it, therapist lady. Lets see what you can do.” Elina responded.
“Thank you. I have listened very carefully to your dialog and it takes me back to many past experiences where I too was very religious and very concerned about sin. I tried my best to avoid it, and always failed. I finally made peace with sin in my life by discovering what it is, by defining it in terms that made sense but were still consistent within the religious framework in which I was operating. Although I no longer see God or sin in this way, I can still remember how I used to conceptualize it and use that knowledge here today. So, if I may, let me try a few of my definitions and see how they will fit in this situation. I define sin as the deliberate violation of Gods law. I define repentance as the turning away from the deliberate violation and then making the deliberate choice to obey Gods law. Are those definitions acceptable to you?”
“That sounds about right.” Elina replied.
“Then lets move it a step further. Let us sum up Gods law in two words, Love and Truth. Gods law is the law of Love. Gods law is the law of Truth. How does that sound?”
“Agreed. I can go with that.”
“Given these definitions then, we can say that sin is the deliberate choosing of hatred instead of Love. Sin is the deliberate choosing of falsehood instead of Truth. Lets simplify it even further and say that Love and Truth represent Light, and their alternatives represent darkness. Sin therefore is choosing darkness over the Light. Can you go with that?”
“Yes ma’am. So where are you going with this? Make your point.”
“This is my point, Elina. In the history you have revealed today you claim that you have not sinned. Given our definitions, I would agree, because in every case you chose the Light over the darkness, even when it was hard to tell the difference. There is, however, one sin that you can confess, and you are committing this sin right now as we speak. By creating this place, and being here, in this place of punishment, when you know better than anyone that you have done nothing deserving of punishment, is choosing the darkness over the Light. That is your sin. To repent of this sin you must choose the Light over the darkness, and that will necessarily require you to leave this place. You may return with us and allow this domain to dissipate, or you may change your domain to something other than this pathetic little hell.”
Elina smiled broadly and held up her hands. “Help me up girls, I haven’t been out of this chair for many a year.”
Alannah jumped up clapping her hands together in joy. “Elina! You passed your test?”
Elina smiled even broader and said “No, Sweetie. You passed your test. Now lets get the hell out of hell. I think we have some serious shopping to do. But first I need you help with something. Keep holding my hands, please, and both of you concentrate on the image of me that you remember, the one that you sketched. I have forgotten the physical form of my youth, but you remember it. Close you eyes and concentrate. Keep them closed and I will tell you when to open them.”
The girls stood with their eyes closed for several minutes. Alannah felt a sudden breeze, a cool breeze, and then the sounds of people, and hover cars whooshing overhead. She couldn’t resist the urge to open her eyes, and there she is, standing before her, an amazingly beautiful young woman apparently in her mid twenties. They were standing in a park, in a city, across the street from an all night diner that Alannah knows all to well.
“Welcome home, Sister.” Alannah said, tears of joy flowing freely. “There’s a shop right across the street. Let’s get you out of that grandma dress. Then … its Party Time!!”
The End (for now),