“Caeles as you are aware, we can't predict the future. Even if we believe we can change one’s destiny, we're forbidden to try. Maybe it was your subject’s destiny to be famous had you not been near him, so I cannot fault you for your methods. You have done well in getting close to him, but that has not stopped him from ruining everything he achieved. It's time for you to remove his soul. Go to him immediately, and do what is expected. He has forfeited the right to own a soul. The High Council demands it of you. Do your duty and report back.”
“Yes Elder Orcus. I am on my way.”
The next afternoon the band looked for Clive. He was never late for a sound check. No one had seen him since he went for a walk the previous evening.
“Johnny, you need to call the local police about Clive," one band member said. "They might act quicker coming from you than from one of us, if you know what I mean.”
Johnny knew exactly where Clive was, but he didn’t want to act like he knew. “Sure, Leon. I'll call the police and see if they can help find Clive. It’s not like him to wander off this long.”
“After you do that Johnny, Mr. Amison wants to see you at the ticket window out front of the building.”
Johnny didn’t bother to call the police before seeing Amison. He took his time to make sure he had his wits and composure before heading out front of the building.
“Johnny, I need to see you for a moment please," the sharply dressed Mr. Amison said. "I have decided it is time for the band to release a full record album with all the singles we have done so far, plus we will add a few new songs. Doesn’t that sound like a simply wonderful idea to you?”
Johnny couldn't believe that this was what Amison wanted to see him about. A huge sigh of relief came rushing out of his body. He relaxed his shoulders and cracked his neck.
“Sounds like good news, Mr. Amison. Does that mean we all get more money now?”
“Oh, you are about to get it, Johnny. I need you to come over here in the light, so I might take your photograph. We'll need a good photo for the artist, who is designing the cover. He asked me to provide him with your photograph. I would like to take an image of you, possibly with that lake off in the distance as the backdrop. Please move over to the other side of the building.”
Once I had Johnny exactly where I wanted him, and in perfect focus, I stole my first human soul. No more rats, no more practicing. I had done it. The only problem was I didn’t expect it to be that powerful as the energy coursed throughout my body.
“Mr. Amison, are you ok? Maybe you should sit down for a moment. You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine, Johnny. How do you feel?”
“Don’t feel much different I suppose. Leon wants me to call the police cause we can’t find Clive. What you think we should do? It’s been less than a day since he was round here. What’s you think Mr. Amison?”
“I think if you look inside yourself, you will know the truth. Now, I have to get back to Chicago and deliver this photograph. My time here is done. Good luck, John. I hope one day you will find what you are missing.”
“I ain’t missing a what Mr. Amison, I’m missing a Clive.”
“You keep telling yourself that, John. Now I must go. Good luck with your future.”
I stumbled down to the same park, where Johnny attacked Clive. His body then thrown into the lake to drown. A local passerby had seen the body floating on the surface and called the police. They were removing the body as I found my way to a bench to sit and regain my composure. I sat for about five minutes when approached by an old man wearing tattered clothes with long white hair, in need of a haircut and bath.
“Real shame what happened to that man eh, mister? I mean, I wonder if anyone even knows the poor man’s name, or how he ended up in the water? Did you ever wonder what happens to someone’s soul when they die? I know I wonder? Can you lose a soul before you are even dead?”
I was still shaking from stealing Johnny’s soul and having a hard time focusing on the man’s words. It did not occur to me he was searching for a deeper conversation, until he seemed to repeat exactly what he just said to me and attempted to hold my hand. I immediately jerked my hand back wondering why this stranger would attempt such an action or talk to me about souls. The stranger spoke again. “I can offer you comfort if you allow it Caeles. Take my hand and you will be restored.”
“I don’t need to be restored. I am as alive as I have ever been, but thank you, and how do you my name?”
“I know deep inside your soul you do believe what you speak, but I have seen the truth and what you believe, is not the truth. One day I will show you the truth.”
The man got up from the bench and vanished.
My next stop was back to Chicago. I was about to sell the record company to Laurent Scheffler. He had recently moved to America from The Netherlands looking to get into the music industry. Our group had made a tidy profit, but my time as a record executive was complete. I had achieved my goal without having to fight the teenaged girls in the crowd to get an excellent image of Johnny Joe Jackson.
“Alexis, I have given you twenty percent of the stock of the record company. Sheffler will be purchasing the other eighty percent. We could not have been as successful as we have become without your songs. I appreciate all you have done, but now it is time for me to move on to my next project. There is one stipulation to you receiving the stock however. Should you ever marry or have a child with Johnny Jackson, the stock becomes the property of Mr. Sheffler or his assigns. You may not understand why I stipulated this as part of the arrangement, but I must. I hope you will understand.”
“I think I understand Mr. Amison. I can't explain my feelings, but I've always felt like you were my guardian angel and this is again your way of protecting me. I've chosen not to be involved with John since my mother’s death. I don’t know why, but I feel like John knows more than he's telling me about that day. Now with Clive’s death, he seems to have a dark cloud around him. Thank you for all you have done for me, Mr. Amison. I hope one day I can repay you.”
With that last bit of business taken care of, I was off to stand before the High Council.
“Caeles the Council wants to salute you for your outstanding work with your first subject. Not only were you able to steal his soul, your record company idea paid for all the costs associated with it, plus a small profit. We were all able to gain power from your theft and you left with little trace. It was outstanding work on your part. I know you have already started on your next assignment, but you've earned a few weeks respite. Go home and spend some time with your family. After you rest, go back to Chicago and continue watching your next target. I believe she is a very dangerous woman, Caeles. I don't know why her soul is so dark. No one on the Council understands it. Even with the information you have brought back to us, it seems a mystery. It's why you need to continue to follow her to make certain we're not making an error when giving the command to remove her soul.”
As anxious as I was to return to Chicago, I took a few days to visit with my parents. They were now living in West Palm Beach, Florida. My father worked as a contractor building expensive homes in Palm Beach. My mother worked in a clothing shop along Clematis Street. It was good to be home though, because I wanted to talk with my father about the man who sat next to me on the bench.
“Father, Elder Orcus tells me that after we steal a soul all our surroundings are not as they seem. I told him a tattered man came and sat next to me moments after I took Johnny’s soul. He seemed to know my name and possibly my mission. I was told that we have illusions immediately following the removal of a soul, which can last for several hours. With me, I felt back to normal within the hour.”
“My son, I have no experience as you know in removing another’s soul. It's hard for me to be certain of our leader’s words. I will say on his behalf however, that others have shared with me the same experience. They've had illusions, some even speaking of others telling them they will be healed if they take their hand. So your case
is not uncommon.”
I listened as my father told me of recounts of stories told to him over the years, but my experience seemed so real. The man did sit next to me. I could feel his hand touch mine. It was not an illusion as some are trying to explain away to me. However, one thing father said did stick with me.
“What is real to you may not be to others. What is real to them may not be to you. We only have our past to guide us in our future. Always seek what you believe to be true, Caeles, for if you follow the truth, no one can tell you it's an illusion.”
I spent a few days watching the waves crash on the beach and getting filled up on my mother’s cooking, but I knew my mission was to head back to Chicago. I had already started following my second subject, while I owned the record company. It was one reason I started the company where I did. Soon after assigning Johnny to me, Elder Orcus told me he was possibly getting false readings on a woman who lived in Chicago, and he asked me to keep an eye out for her. It made my job easier to set up base in the “Windy City.” It didn’t hurt that I was becoming a fan of baseball. My visits to Wrigley Field were a real treat.
Barbara Gifford was my second assignment. It took some extensive research to find out about her background and why the Council had her on their radar. Nothing seemed out of place, yet the Council and in particular, Elder Orcus saw darkness in her.
She was born Barbara Ann Daniels and raised in upstate New York. Her father immigrated from Ireland and her mother, a French Canadian. Her dad did very well in the textile business and they lived in an upscale home. Barbara was the youngest of three children, the other two being her brothers, Charles and Darby. Barbara was intelligent, and growing up was usually placed in classes with older students. She did so well, she graduated a year early from Cornell University in 1945.
Richard Anthony Gifford was studying business at Cornell when he met Barbara. He came from a poor upbringing and had to work during college to pay his debts for school. He was also very bright and earned a small amount in scholarship money during his time at Cornell. His father passed away when he was quite young and was raised mostly by his grandmother, while his mother worked. He was not a handsome man, and never stood out in a crowd. He was more than competent with his studies and wanted to own his own accounting firm in the future.
Neither Barbara nor Richard showed much emotion to others, but they did enjoy each other’s company. They dated for two years in college and for one year after graduating from Cornell. Richard didn't want to stay in the New York area, so he looked for employment elsewhere. Offered a position with an accounting firm in Chicago, he accepted. Barbara stayed behind in New York until Richard could settle into a small apartment. He missed having her at his side and soon proposed marriage. They were married two months later. Barbara took a position as a secretary in a prestigious Chicago law firm. She felt it was way beneath her abilities and she was right, but it was all she could find at the time.
“Richard, when are you going to start your own business?" she would ask. "We make a good team together. I can run the office and you can concentrate on your clients. I can handle all the marketing and paying the bills.”
It was an almost nightly conversation around the dinner table. Barbara was never satisfied, but Richard was in no hurry to leave his secure paycheck. He never cared about wealth. He mostly wanted to do a good job and rest easy on weekends.
“Barbara my sweet, I have no doubt you would make a wonderful office manager, but I have a fantastic job. If I were to leave my position there would be no guarantees I could make it on my own. It could take years for me to build up a clientele to make the same income we have currently. As much as I would love to work for myself, it does not make economic sense at this time. Besides, if you were to leave your job, it would mean we lose your income as well. I don’t see any benefit in making that move.”
Barbara was the stronger willed of the two. Eventually she wore Richard down and talked him into starting his own tax and bookkeeping service. She agreed to stay at her job for one year or until it made financial sense for her to work with him full time. Richard didn't realize how much business his wife could send his way from her law firm clients. She had a way about her that could persuade people to do things without them even realizing it. Within a year, he was making the same income as he had working for his previous employer. It didn't take too much longer till Barbara talked her husband into leaving her job and joining him.
She excelled at marketing. Barbara increased her husband’s business by more than enough to cover the loss of her salary and to hire a part time worker in the office for smaller accounts. She attracted business from over a ninety-mile radius through targeted advertising. With their growing business, they bought a nice home outside the city limits and lived a comfortable lifestyle. For Barbara, it was never enough.
Richard and Barbara were now both in their late twenties with Barbara only having their expanding business on her mind. She had developed into an attractive woman, but not one who would show off her looks. At just under six feet, she reminded some of a model with long auburn hair and a slender hourglass figure. She would occasionally spend some savings on fancy clothes, but it was never a priority. She knew how to find clients for the family business, which was her strength.
Eventually, Barbara found a niche market in small companies that needed someone to process their bills. She successfully directed much of her marketing efforts towards that type of client. They would send their bills to the office in the mail twice a month and the company now had another employee, who would handle those types of accounts. Barbara never met anyone in person. All transactions were done via mail. If someone had to deal with the clients in the office or on the telephone, it was Tim Walsh, who would take care of it. Tim was a young man fresh out of Loyola University with a background in accounting.
Despite her comfortable lifestyle with Richard, Barbara still sought more. After she gained the trust of clients, she created a few small companies of her own. Invoices would be sent to their client’s offices for inventory or small services that would be easily overlooked by her clients. They would be packaged along with the other legitimate bills and would be paid by Tim. They each had their own mailing address, usually a post office box, which was not highly unusual, and didn't offer suspicion. The plan worked well until one day one of their clients called to ask about a charge to clean the company uniforms.
“Will you check to see why my company is being billed for this since my cousin does all the cleaning and never sends me an invoice? If he is charging me now, I'd like to know since we do all of his landscaping in return for the free cleaning.”
Barbara told Tim to assure the client that she would handle it personally.
Carl Palaski owned a successful landscaping business that handled upscale homes not far from Richard and Barbara’s suburban home. Richard insisted on doing his own yard work, so they never employed Carl’s company. He would come to the office once a year to have his tax work finalized and that was the extent of his visits to Richard’s office. He had never met Barbara before the call came in about the uniforms.
Barbara met Carl for lunch one day to make amends and make sure her small mistake didn’t get noticed with other accounts. “I am so sorry for this, Carl. Somehow, those items were put in your account in error. Here's the cash for the invoice. It won’t happen again.”
“It was nice of you to come all this way to pay me back, Barbara, but you could have sent me a check.”
“That’s ok, Carl. It never should have happened and I wanted to apologize in person for our error. It's the first time anything like this has happened. By the way, have you ever considered growing your business? I don’t know if you're aware, but I do all the marketing for my husband’s company. I think I can help you grow your business as well. We can work on a commission where I get paid a small fee for each new client I bring to your company. That way it doesn't cost you anything out of pocket until your business grows. Will you think about
it?”
“Sure, I'll think on it, but I'm pleased with the size of it now, Barbara. If I were to increase my sales, I'd have to add another truck and employees. It's not a matter of just paying you, there would be a lot of added costs even for a small jump in revenues.”
“You sound just like my Richard, always worried about every last penny. I did very well growing his business and I have no doubt I can grow yours as well.” With that she reached over, touched Carl’s hand and looked deeply into his eyes. “I made it worthwhile it to him, I can make it worthwhile to you too, Carl. Think about it.”
A few days later Carl made a trip into town and invited Barbara for lunch to discuss a mutual arrangement. Carl made it obvious that he wanted Barbara to do more than add revenue to his company. At first, she was a bit taken back, but inside Barbara’s mind she started to imagine how she could get Carl to trust her and weave her way into his bank accounts. Carl didn't have a wife or close family. He had worked for many years developing his business and Barbara knew no one was really watching over Carl’s money, but Carl. What Barbara didn't realize was that Carl had not built his success by being foolish with his money.
The two came to an agreement over how Barbara would be paid to bring in new business. Barbara pretended not to see or hear Carl’s advances as much as Carl had wanted. However, they did agree to have lunch once a week for the next month to see how the business relationship was progressing.
After several lunches, Carl started to open up to Barbara about his past. His father once owned a successful company that manufactured tires for the auto industry. Before Carl was old enough to participate in working in his father’s company, his parents were killed in an auto accident. The company was sold, with Carl as the sole beneficiary. He was moved to three different adoption homes, until he could live on his own at eighteen years of age. None of his grandparents were alive at the time of his parent’s death, expect for his grandmother on his mother’s side, but she lived in Hungary and Carl was not about to move there. When he turned eighteen, he was allowed to use some of his trust fund money to start his business. He had more than enough to pay his expenses. By the time he was twenty-five and allowed access to the remainder of his money, he let it sit in the bank. His own company was providing sufficient revenue to pay all his living expenses and for him to live a comfortable life. Since he had no family, he worked six days a week from before dawn till after dark. In the winters, he would do handy man work and remove snow from neighbor’s sidewalks. He stayed busy year round. He never told Barbara exactly how much money he had in the bank, but the way he talked, he didn’t have to work as hard as he did.
Barbara doubled Carl’s accounts over the course of a few months. She talked him into buying another truck and employed more workers. His business was now spread over forty miles, whereas before it was confined within a ten-mile radius. Barbara and Carl began to have dinner together, and a love affair ensued.
CHAPTER Eight
Soul Intentions Page 8
