The Gemini Bridge

by Shea Meadows

  “Let’s take a walk together; bring the etheric emeralds,” Shri Kria said.

  Ricky brought her attention to her body, and stood up, stretching cramped muscles and letting the energy flow back into her legs. She looked up. Her spirit companions were flickering in and out, and she noticed that Maya had popped into the group as well.

  “My duty as your life-long spirit guide is to be here, even though you are being well taken care of,” Maya said with a smile.

  Ricky reached out and patted Maya’s arm which was there at the same time it wasn’t. The guides kept on phasing in and out. “How can I keep in contact with you all and be in my body at the same time?”

  “You’re trying to see with your physical eyes. Concentrate on seeing through your third eye and heart energy,” Maya said as she reached out and touched first the center of Ricky’s forehead and then the center of her chest.

  “That’s better. You’re all there,” Ricky said, as she reached for the stones, she saw Pigeon with the parcel in his paws, batting at the silk bag. “Thanks Pigeon, I’ll take those now.”

  The group moved down the stairs, all the guides floating a couple of inches off the floor, except for Moon, who was making contact with the ground so Pigeon could weave in and out of her legs and brush up against her purring.

  As they came toward the meditation room, Ricky could hear Beth Ann and David whispering back and forth. As they passed the room, Moon waved to them and said “Hi Beth Ann, Hi David.” Beth Ann stopped in mid-whisper and stood up, a look of shock on her face, her body still as a statue.

  “It’s Moon! She said hello to us and I saw and heard her! That’s never happened before. Hi Moon; I’ve missed you so much.”

  Moon stopped and the rest waited for her as she stepped back to the doorway. “I’m so glad you can see me. I’ve missed you too. I’m talking to you daily, now maybe you’ll answer.”

  “I love you, Moon. Can we come with you and Ricky?”

  “Not yet. There are four of us with Ricky and you can only see me. If you work with the stones, pretty soon you’ll be awake enough to participate. Be patient. Have to go now.”

  “Good Bye, see you soon.” Beth Ann answered with a sob in her voice.

  As they moved away from the meditation room, Ricky heard David saying. “I didn’t see her but I felt a whole bunch of them. I think one was Nellie.”

  Ricky called back. “David, you’re right, Nellie waved ‘hi’ to you.” The sound of Beth Ann and David’s excited conversation followed the group as they went downstairs.

  “Here, we need a crystal from the living room to demonstrate,” Moon said as she picked up a double-pointed quartz crystal from the bookcase. “I’m not going to reprogram it now. I want to talk to a ghost before we put it in contact with the etheric emeralds.” She turned to her sister. “Pick out a crystal also. We can interview two of them.”

  “So do we need a crystal for every ghost?” Ricky asked.

  “No,” Shri Kria answered “Once a stone is programmed any ghost coming in connect with it will be freed from the ‘mission’ that that Stealer has placed into them. If we want to get any information out of them before we remove the implanted story, we have to have a dialogue before using the cleansing stone.”

  Ricky nodded. “So I’ll watch how you do it then follow your example?”

  “Yes, but realize circumstance will be as unique as the history of each ghost,” Moon answered. “Trust your connection to the Akashic record while speaking with them.”

  With that, Moon and Ricky walked into the pantry as Nellie, Shri Kria and Maya watched from the kitchen. The room was dark and Moon stopped Ricky from reaching up to yank the light cord. Within a second of their entry, a large shape of a man materialized next to them. In life, he had been at least three hundred pounds, and seemed to be wearing a large blousy top, a red cloak and tight pants made of black velvet.

  The pantry was the size of a large walk-in closet with rows of shelving on either side stacked with flour, salt, sugar, canned goods and extra cleaning products. The bulk of the ghost’s energy pushed Ricky into the shelf behind her, toppling a row of canned tomatoes. As she struggled to get upright in the small space, she noticed her clothing had changed to a linen dress and a white head cloth and Moon was similarly attired.

  “Are you here to fight the good fight with me, or are ye witches” the ghost said, with a snarl in his voice. His multiple chins wobbled and his eyes bugged out in absolute hatred.

  Moon put out her hand, and grabbed one of his large paws in her much smaller hand. “Sir, we join you in the battle. I am part of the cause. This is my sister; she has also heard the call. We are joyous to be part of this new cleansing.”

  The man sighed. “There have been others here saying such like, but they are dressed in foreign garb. It sooths my soul to have others of my ilk.”

  “Tell, kind Sir, under whose banner do you fight, and what be the plan of conquest?” Moon asked.

  The ghost seemed confused for a moment, eyes shifting wildly around the space, and then blustered past his momentary lapse.

  “Twas the keeper of the doctrine. He knew of my hate of all things magik and begged me join. His anger at these pretenders matched my own. At present, his plan is to put them affright. We scold at them and fling whatever is at hand. With much discomfort they will bend to Holy Will and allow purification of their souls.”

  “What be his name? We ask only to be sure that ye be the one we are to aid.” Moon said.

  Confusion again played over the ghost’s face. “Twas the High Bishop, his Lord of Avercio, I believe. He was of familiar features.”

  “How long hast though known him?” Moon asked, still looking at the ghost with eyes full of respect.

  The ghost ran his hand over his forehead, closed his eyes, and shook his head. “The facts escape me. I think he rescued me from witches and in gratitude I agreed to be part of his inquisition. Is that how you came to be here?”

  Moon smiled. “Do you remember anything about your death?”

  “My death! Woman are you mad? I am as alive as you. Why say such to me?”

  “Because currently I am without a body, and you are right to say you are as alive as me. My sister, on the other hand still dwells in a body, and we are visiting her home.”

  “No!!!” the ghost thundered, “This is a witch’s cave. I was led here by the High Bishop to hold the witch at bay. You lie; so must be evil and of the coven.”

  Moon radiated love to the spirit as she touched the emerald to the crystal. “Here is something we must share and then all will be clear to you.” She held up the crystal and the ghost’s hand seemed drawn to it.

  As he touched it several things happened. A look of shocked surprise widened his eyes and his body started changing. The form that he had first presented to them, sloughed away and in succession, he was a young child, a thin woman with a gentle face, an Arabic- appearing man with long black hair, an Asiatic woman with wise haunting eyes and many more personas, shifting in and out too quickly to see. It was as if all of the ghost’s incarnations were happening at the same time. This process ended with a man who appeared to be about fifty, with sparse hair, a round stomach and a big smile. The ghost put out his hand. “Hi, I’m Hank Roberts. I work for Freedom Insurance. So happy you called for a quote. How many cars does your business own?”

  “Hi Hank, I’m Moon Angel. What were you doing just before you came here?”

  The man looked around in obvious confusion. “I’m not sure. I was on the way to sell car insurance to a prospect. Said he had a fleet of rentals, it was a big score so I was going in person….but….” He trailed off. “There was a crash. Head on, on 35W. I remember lots of pain and not being able to breathe …. then I’m here among the cans and flour. Is this the afterlife? Does it happen in a grocery store?”

  Moon gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. “No, you ended up here because someone grabbed you when you were dying and pulled you into his own idea o
f power. Do you remember that at all?”

  “No, nothing. I crashed then I’m here. Where am I supposed to be?” Hank looked around at the food close on either side of them.

  Moon pointed at the pantry door. “Go through there. People will help you get settled in. It might even be someone you know.”

  Hank opened the door, turned back to them with a confused smile. “Thanks ladies. Hope it gets better from here on out.” A glow of light surrounded him and he was gone.

  “Wow!” Ricky said after they stood in silence for a moment. “Was that one of his incarnations? Does the Soul Stealer pull out the persona that will work the best in his plan and put it to work?”

  “Looks like that’s getting to be the case more often than not. That’s why you have to tune into the Akashic record when you talk to a ghost and see how you should approach them. Most likely he’ll pull out a persona that has some history that he can use to convince the soul to get behind his cause.”

  “No one else here. Where do we go for me to try?”

  “Let’s brose the area and see if the other flinger of objects is around,” Moon answered with a smile.

  As they came out of the pantry Nellie pointed to the stairs that she had haunted for many years. “There’s another one hiding in the servants’ stairs, and from what we can see, she’s nasty,” Nellie said with a frown. Shri Kria and Maya nodded in agreement.

  “Maybe you should do this one too, Moon.” Ricky said with a quiver in her voice.

  “Nope, you can do it. Maya will join you since she’s your guide, and you’ll be able to call her where ever you are,” Moon answered firmly.

  “I never did like those stairs, not since the day Nellie played her little trick on us,” Ricky said, glancing at the door next to the pantry that opened into the dark, winding staircase with the creaky steps.

  “Sorry Ricky” Nellie said with a downcast look. “I didn’t know you then.”

  “I’m going to be right there with you,” Maya said, an etheric hand on Ricky’s shoulder.

  Ricky gripped the crystal that she had already touched to the etheric emerald and noticed a strong light emanating from it that surrounded her and the guide with a luminescent green light. Just at the curve of the stairs, where it headed up to the second floor portal, Ricky noticed their next client. The ghost was so thin that her “bones” were visible through her wrinkled “skin”. Her hair was long and dirty and plastered to her head with some sort of sticky substance. Her teeth were rotten and showed through a menacing smile, much like a cat which has finally seen the elusive mouse that it has been waiting for.

  A wispy voice greeted them. “The witches come to the crone, now this be a turnaround; ever so much easier for the old bones.”

  Ricky and Maya stopped two stairs down from the landing and Ricky smiled in spite of her fear. A flood of information from the Akashic record flowed into her awareness.

  In fifteen, forty-three, in North Chambray, England, Mother Anna had lived. She had lost her skills due to dementia caused by lead poisoning. She had not been allowed to brew herbal potions because of the unbalanced nature of her blends. The wise women of the province warned others so she was no longer able to trade her creations for food and shelter. She began an aggressive attack on those she saw as guilty. She added her blends to the village cistern thinking she would cure the pox plaguing the people, but it sickened the healthy along with the ill. The wise women were blamed and arrested but they pointed the law in Mother Anna’s direction. They were freed and she was hanged.

  Now, the ghost of that persona crouched on the landing in front of them. Ricky summoned clothing of a lady of the manor for herself and a dress fit for a lady’s maid for Maya. “Mother Anna, we have come to right a wrong. Ye were judged wrongfully. Can ye tell me what ye are doing in this place?”

  The ghost looked them up and down and rubbed her rheumy eyes. “Me Lady, I knew not it was ye. I wandered into a wrongful place, I fear. Am I in your manor?”

  “Ye are in my dwelling, who sent ye here and why?”

  “Twas the man dubbed Honey. He hates those witches as much as me. Sent me yonder to their home to torture them afer dark. But I be, at the manor. Why is that so?” The ghosts face was contorted with confusion.

  “When did you receive this quest from ‘honey’?” Ricky asked.

  The ghost pulled at a long strand of sticky hair that had dropped into her eyes. “Cannot remember when. Such time near the hanging is my belief.”

  Confusion again making her pull at her hair and close her eyes. “Memory of stretching of a neck. Maybe mine? But that cannot be.”

  “So he saved you from the hanging?”

  “Perhaps. But no.” Her eyes widened. “He met me on the other side. But there was a strangeness about him. He said kind words but was filled with hate. He was a haunt but not one.” She looked at Maya. “Your servant is a haunt, but you are more like him in form. In a body but not.”

  “Do you remember him living in North Chambray?”

  “No, he was familiar but not. But even with the hate, I trusted him.” She shook her head, then stood up, looking like she would continue up the stairs.

  “Wait, I have something that will clear up this mystery,” Ricky said, as she took the attuned crystal from her pocket and handed it to Mother Anna.

  The ghost smiled when she saw it and took it between her palms. She laughed as a parade of incarnations rushed by, ending with a petite, stylish woman of about sixty in a pink dressing gown with spongy rollers in her grey streaked hair. “Oh my! I was snatched, I heard of this happening to others but thought I was savvy enough to recognize the signs.”

  Ricky’s clothes were now back to her peasant blouse and blue cutoffs and Maya was wearing a white cotton tunic. “Hello, I’m Ricky Banner, sister of Moon Angel and this is my guide, Maya. You seem to know something about what happened.”

  The ghost put out one delicate, manicured hand. “I’m Ann Perkins. I was a medium before my death. I’ve never heard of you but I’ve met your sister. Is she still in a body?”

  “No, the Soul Stealer had someone create a fatal accident, but we’re working together anyway. Did you recognize the person who stole your soul? He regressed you to Mother Anna, from the fifteen hundreds.”

  “Oh, that one!” Ann said with a laugh. “She’d fall for his line for sure. He must have dialed me back pretty quickly. I barely remember it happening. Just an out-of-body being swopping into my bedroom as I left the physical. He had piercing eyes and seethed with hate. But let me think…..he was vaguely familiar.”

  “Anything you can tell us will be helpful. You called him ‘honey’ when we asked you as Mother Anna.”

  Ann’s form began to fade, and the wall behind her became bright and pulsing. “I think I’m being called, can’t resist and it wouldn’t be safe anyway. Honey, honey, honey…oh now I know! Sweet! It was Sweet! I did a training with him once.” Her voice faded away as she dissolved into the light, leaving only the crystal sitting on the landing.

  Maya turned to Ricky. “You did an excellent job! You’ve gotten important information. I imagine you and David will be taking a trip to Chicago.”

  “Avery Sweet,” Ricky said, a shiver running through her body. “I wonder if he’s the Stealer or someone working for him.”

  “You have to go there in the third dimension so you can see through the spirit clouds that obscure everyone who is able to observe between frequencies. I’ll meet you there. You might want to bring your father. He’s met Avery Sweet and will be able to tell if he seems different.”

  Ricky nodded as she and Maya made their way back downstairs where they went over the new information with Nellie, Shri Kria, and Moon.

  “Only ones here now are us friendly ones,” Nellie said with a smile, “but it will be best to leave emerald-attuned crystals in every space in the house. When you leave, Beth Ann will be afraid to stay alone if there’s not enough protection.”

  “Do I really need to go
confront Avery Sweet? He’s a medium. Couldn’t you just pop in on him, Moon?” Ricky asked.

  Moon laughed. “You know better. The intervention has to come from the material reality. We can help but not control the action. That’s why he got rid of me. I know too much. By the way, take a car not a plane. No sense in putting a whole bunch of innocents in danger. With the etheric emeralds, you’ll be a lot safer than I was on my last trip toward Chicago.”

  “We better return to the higher vibrations. We’ll leave you to talk to David, Beth Ann and George to arrange the details of your trip. Your father will be more than happy to be included,” Shri Kria said. “Tell him hello from me, and that I enjoyed our visit in San Francisco, two years ago.”

  With that, Ricky was alone. ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ ran through her mind as she climbed to the second floor to talk to David and Beth Ann. It was time to leave Moon’s nest and continue her sister’s quest.

  Chapter 15

  It took nearly a week before Ricky and David, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, packed David’s Chrysler Town and Country and drove over to pick up George Banner for the trip to Chicago.

  “It’s a good thing you and the guides stopped the ghost infestation and trained Beth Ann to use the etheric emeralds,” David commented as they drove toward George’s condo.

  Ricky nodded in agreement. “She’d never have been willing to stay there without us if she hadn’t had five straight nights without one bump or rattle or flung pot. I’m also grateful that Jessica and Dylan moved in to keep her company. She’ll need their help with the Reiki classes.”

  As they drove into the circular driveway in front of George’s building, they saw him standing near the loading area with two large suitcases and a wicker picnic basket. “Good thing we decided to take the van,” David said with a chuckle.

  “Dad always did over-pack, but it looks like lunch in the park instead of a drive-through.”

  George Banner, with about a five day accumulation of beard on his face, wrestled his suitcases into the back of the van and sat in the back set with the picnic basket on the floor near his feet. “So glad you guys invited me. It’s about time you made this trip. Best remedy for our grief is to get on with what Moon had in the works.”