Paragon- Ghost Hunters

by Freddy Milton

  ”What do you mean?”

  ”You’re worried about Maja, and probably with good reason. You’ll want to take every opportunity to sneak over to the other side and look in on her to find out how things are going. Yes, you might want to spend so much time over there that you can help her with her problems, or if she falls into new dangers. I’ve heard of your type. You’re probably one of those super responsible people who can’t put things aside, but continue to cling to matters long after they should have said goodbye to them. Although the transition to visit Earth as a ghost requires a lot of mental energy, I think you are one of those who have that potential for it, good or bad. I don’t have that, I distanced myself from that existence. It also requires a certain ability of survivors to receive signals from the other side. I don’t think they have that in our family. They are too damned callous.”

  Dorrit was right. It was not long before Anders had to cross to the other side and see how things were going with his family. He was capable of doing it discreetly. He didn’t need to move things around like those ghosts who wanted to draw attention to themselves. He was just curious. He had to know how things would work out, now that he, himself, would not be there anymore.

  Therefore, he was also present when the undertaker took care of his dead body, so that it could look acceptable. Marlene and Maja were in the funeral parlor.

  ”What do you want?”

  ”We’re here to say goodbye to... Anders.”

  ”With the child? She should stay out here while you do that.”

  The funeral clerk had to ask. It wasn’t common, at all, for such small children to come in and see an opened coffin. But, on the other hand, there was a wider scope for these things nowadays. People could get things almost as they wished, there were very few restrictions on what could be allowed.

  ”Maja would like to attend. Maybe then, she can also get a better understanding that it's over.”

  ”As you wish. In a way, it is also quite natural. We all shall pass the same way, sooner or later.”

  ”She'll behave.”

  ”I have no doubts. She looks very... well behaved.”

  He stepped aside from the counter and went ahead.

  ”If you will accompany me this way, please.”

  Marlene and Maja followed the tall serious black-clad man through a corridor and into a room where the open coffin stood. It was an ordinary white version without much embellishment. They had chosen the lowest cost solution. To save the cost of the care of a burial plot, the corpse was cremated, and the urn buried without the cost of a tombstone and plants.

  ”Come, Maja, I’ll lift you up.”

  Marlene lifted Maja up so she could see Anders in a white suit under the white sheet. His hands were above each other on his chest, and Maja carefully placed her small bouquet of wild flowers near his hands.

  ”Have a nice trip, Anders. Maybe I’ll see you again. I hope so, because I’ll miss you so much.”

  Marlene put Maja down again. She touched Anders' cold hands briefly, but she didn’t say much.

  ”Goodbye, Anders. You were a good son and a beloved brother. May you’ll be well received where you go.”

  Anders was well aware of everything not said, and the reason for which he had come had to wait a while. Right now, he was obviously in a holding pattern, as he could feel, instinctively.

  Marlene and Maja left the funeral parlor. The body was driven over to the chapel, and was allowed to stay there until the funeral service the following week.

  ”How was it, Maja?”

  ”It was fine. I mean, I’m glad I came along.”

  ”Yes, I thought it would be the best thing to do in this situation.”

  ”I think Anders knew we were there and heard what we said.”

  ”Do you really think so?”

  ”Yes. I’m sure I felt him being there. He's in a place where he can keep an eye on us.”

  ”That sounds a little scary.”

  ”No, it’s okay, Mom. He’d like to know if things are going okay for us. He’d probably get upset if they don’t, since he can’t really do anything to help us, anymore.”

  ”Now, Honey, I wouldn’t count too much on that.”

  ”No, I'm sure he's looking over our shoulders.”

  ”You've always had a vivid imagination, Maja.”

  ”Yes, I do.”

  There was an another person who showed up at the funeral service. Anders had only seen her once before. It was not a person with whom Marlene used to socialize. but strange as that was, it was Marlene's mother. She had felt the need to make a change in their relationship. And that she did.

  ”That was terrible thing, that happened to Anders.”

  ”Yes, it was.”

  Maja’s grandmother continued regretfully.

  ”I wasn’t aware that I would take it this hard, but I did. Maybe it means that I should try to change some things. I am prepared to do that. Let’s leave the past behind us and try to start something new, or resume, what was interrupted. What do you think, Marlene?”

  ”Yes, we probably should... Mother.”

  ”We should try to move on.”

  ”Yes, we should...”

  They went over to the hearse and Marlene’s mother offered Marlene and Maja a ride with her. And so they did. They could always go for a coffee somewhere, which people did on such occasions.

  Over at the crematorium, Anders’ body waited for a few days. The ovens were not lit daily, as not that many boys were to be cremated, and there were three ovens side by side, which could be used at the same time. When doing that, they usually accomplished several rounds of cremation in a row.

  Sometimes they took the bodies out of the coffin before they were pushed into the crematory. Then cremation went faster, but here, the thin white painted plywood coffin went into the oven, too.

  After a surprisingly short time, the burning was over. The large gas burner at the back of the stove was still flaming, while the bone fragments were pulled out by a broad iron tool that looked like a large hoe. Before being pulled out, some larger bone remnants got hit a few times with the heavy iron tool, so the residue was left in small pieces. The skull was usually hit a few times before it split into small enough pieces to fit into the ashtray box. When done, the three furnaces were ready for a new round.

  A lid sat atop the metal box. On its front was a sign where one could write the name of the ashes’ owner. Strictly speaking, it did not matter, because no one would be able to control it. But things must be in order. On the same day Anders was burned, some other corpses were cremated, for whom no relatives could be found. That happened rarely, but it did occasionally.

  In such cases, the metal ash box was then placed in a warehouse on a shelf for a few years, while waiting for someone to come and claim the ashes. Authorities look for relatives for a while, but cremation cannot wait for that. If they don’t succeed in finding someone who will take the urn, at one point one gathers all the left over boxes and drive them to the place where a hole in a lawn has been placed. Dressed in dust resistant suits, the few municipal employees open the drawers and shake the contents into the hole. An official then speaks some kind words about life and death, which have no particular religious connotation.

  When they have finished the job, the hole is covered with grass turf and a sign put down with the year written on it. That metal sign is hammered down to ground level leaving the lawn mower enough room to easily run over the place.

  There were a number of the signs on that lawn. The freight wagon drove the empty ashtrays back to the store room, ready to be reused to hold next year's unclaimed human ashes.

  As for Anders, the agreement was for his ashes to be handed out, so it was transferred from the box into a cylindrical metal urn with a screw cap lid. Before that, they had put the remnants from cremation through a blender and all bones were ground into fine dust. There should not be anything left reminding of remains of corpses that could give the bereaved a bad expe
rience.

  ”What do you think about coming over and visit me one of these days?”

  The three survivors from the funeral stopped at a pastry shop for coffee. Maja had a cup of cocoa, and there were cakes Marlene's mother had paid for.

  ”I think it’ll be best if you come over and visit us.”

  ”Well, that’s fine. How about Wednesday evening next week?”

  ”Thursday is better.”

  ”It's my Bridge night. What about Tuesday?”

  ”Tuesday's fine.”

  ”Is that all right with you, Maja?

  ”I guess so.”

  The grandmother took a bite of her cake.

  ”I am well aware we haven’t been getting along so well lately... Yes, for a very long time, actually. Still, that may well change. I feel compelled to do what I can. So let’s take it from there.”

  ”We’d better do that.”

  ”Also for Maja's sake.”

  ”Yes, that's true.”

  None of them would mention it directly, but it was obvious that Marlene needed some help now that Anders was not there anymore. Marlene knew, and her mother knew. Whatever had happened before, and it was no small matter, the grandmother, however reluctantly, did not wish for the family to dissolve completely. Although the authorities would probably turn to her if it all went to pieces, she would prefer to avoid having Maja around full-time.

  However, the grandmother could tolerate relieving Marlene of taking care of Maja, occasionally. She knew that Marlene would only exercise the option if necessary. It was also evident, that the increased responsibility for Maja might prevent Marlene from being completely bogged down in melancholy, self-pity and excessive drinking.

  Chapter 10

  RAID

  ”That was a sad experience...”

  Again Anders was together with Dorrit in Limbo.

  ”Well, so you’re back, brother? Yes. That kind of social call on Earth is a self-jnflicted plague. I haven’t been able to pull myself together to visit the other side.”

  ”Things will probably never be any different, then?”

  ”You’re right, but I suppose I deserve to go here and ponder over my unresolved problems. I probably inherited something from Mom regarding this. That is the inability to get my act together and come out of the quagmire. It haunts me even on this side of the barrier between the two dimensions. Yes, it's basically just a curtain, but it’s not so easy to penetrate.”

  ”I also had to make an extra effort to get back there, but it will probably not be the last time. As you say, I have something I cannot leave behind, but with me it's not all bad experiences.”

  ”Your situation is better. You have no guilty conscience. after awhile, you’ll have reassured yourself that life can go on without you. Then you’ll continue to the afterlife as it is supposed with soul transfer, if things work out as they should.”

  ”What do you mean, Dorrit?”

  ”Right now, we’re in an intermediate layer between the physical world and the hereafter. Once you have freed yourself from your mental attachment to the layer you come from, that is the so-called real world, then you're ready to move on to the afterlife, from which there can be a rebirth established in another earthly individual.”

  ”How do you get there, if that’s what you want, and you feel you’re ready for it?”

  ”Usually it happens automatically if your will is set upon it. Otherwise, there is a dimension portal over at the railway station, where the Heavenly Express passes by. It should be easy to figure out, but as I said I have not even tried.”

  While they talked, they had walked through the gray and dreary landscape surrounding them like a pale reflection of places and eras from the earthly timeline from where the lost souls came.

  ”What’s this environment around us?”

  ”It’s built from the recollection souls have about the place where they come from with new and old things mixed together. I brought the room I knew from home and other things from the school and kindergarten along with me.”

  ”Why does it all look so sad and neglected?”

  ”The gray and dreary look is because of the mournful and melancholy state of mind of the souls here. The joyous and cheerful ones passed straight through to the Seventh Sky, where they quickly check in at the reception and line up for a new location in the incarnation pattern. They usually behaved like you, and may, if they’ve behaved responsibly in their past life, expect a repositioning a bit higher up on the ladder of reincarnations.”

  ”It sounds cryptic.”

  ”Maybe, but it’s also very simple. The entire soul administration is a kind of school where the spiritual contributions try to improve themselves to reach a position where they become part of a larger cosmic consciousness. Don’t ask me how it feels or how it works, because I have no idea, and I’m sure I’ll have a long, long way to go before I get up there.”

  ”So the warped souls who wander through this interlayer where we are, can expect to be relocated some steps lower in the reincarnation hierarchy, if they dare to leave this place and show up in the Seventh Sky?”

  ”Not necessarily. Their stay in Limbo also serves to make the souls conscious of some contexts, and so it’s easier to distance themselves to the past. When that happens, the souls automatically seek the hereafter, and by then the soul material is so much improved that it’s not necessarily placed a lot lower within the system.”

  ”Who is left there, further down in the hierarchy of souls?”

  ”Typically, it’s primitive creatures stuck in a childish attitude to life, who think selfishly, and need quick fulfillment of wishes. They are mainly those who get a personal benefit at the expense of others, as well as dominating and controlling others by force and intrigue. There have been too many of them reborn on Earth in the past, but they’re trying to rectify that, now.”

  They came into a place with playgrounds and sports fields, where children were playing. Things looked the way you see them on children's drawings. Little details, like faucets and window catches, signs and mailboxes, swings and slides were much larger than you would think. But that was because children often notice little things and details, and therefore, they seem larger in their minds.

  ”Why are there so many children here?

  ”It’s often like that with people, and thus, with their souls. They like to be together with their peers. A ghetto like consciousness. There are neighborhoods with mostly older people and others where criminal type souls gather. There are districts with soldiers and there are places for gamblers. And here comes a lot of kids because all children regardless of their background like to play with other children.”

  When Anders and Dorrit passed the playground, they suddenly heard a loud whistling.

  ”Drat! Not again!”

  ”What's happening?”

  The children had also stopped to listen.

  ”It’s the ghost hunters. It seems they’re coming from over there. Then we’d better run in the opposite direction. Come on.”

  Dorrit ran ahead and Anders followed. The other children in the playground ran in the same direction. You could see that hunters with large nets had come toward the playground where they were catching those who didn’t run away fast enough.

  After some time, they reached the edge of a nearby forest, where they. together with other children, took refuge.

  ”Whew! Good thing someone brought their idea of a piece of forest with them from the Earth! But I see what you mean about details. The flowers are too big and there are too many Christmas trees.”

  ”I don’t know how long I'll be able to handle this, Anders.”

  ”No, I beat you at the end. Your physical condition is not so good, Dorrit, if you can talk about that among souls.”

  ”It’s because I've been here longer than you. When you’ve been here for a long time, you can’t move fast. It’s typically the oldest souls here who get caught first.”

  ”Who are those ghost hunters
?”

  ”I don’t know, but the raids have become more frequent lately. They haven’t done this very long.”

  ”Maybe they’re missing souls up in the Seventh Sky?”

  ”No way of knowing. Those who end up there don’t come back here, except after another rebirth. But at that time they’ve forgotten all about their stay in the soul center.”

  ”You’d think it would be stupid to catch souls, if by staying here a little longer, they could be ready for repositioning higher up in the soul hierarchy?”

  ”Who knows? With the violent way they catch souls here, it doesn’t make me want to participate voluntarily in the process.”

  ”Now it looks like they’ve discovered us. They’re coming in our direction!”

  ”Then we’d better continue.”

  The other children had seen the danger, too, so they also chose to run further into the forest.

  ”Over there!”

  Anders joined in. They ran through a Christmas tree grove, and some of the Christmas trees still had remnants of glitter and tinsel.

  ”No! Now they’re also come from the other side.”

  Some of the children screamed, caught in the hunters' nets. Now that they were closer, it was easier to see how they looked. They were big, powerful monsters, with warty skin, long arms and big claws. They smiled with their pointy teeth, and grunted hoarsely, while swinging their big nets.

  ”The other way!”

  The fugitives were now much fewer, but Anders and Dorrit ran off with a group of very active children. Anders noticed from his clothing, that one of them had worked in outdoor orienteering races. Also, there were football players, swimmers and other sports people having learned to move fast and stay in shape.