by Rick Kueber
“Well, that was...something.” Grace said with a long pause between words, still shaken by the sheer power of what she had seen.
“You get used to it after a while.” Del joked, as if this were an everyday occurrence.
“Oh, yeah... this stuff happens all the time.” Barb jested back to Del. Jenn's sarcasm was rubbing off on everyone.
“I wonder if we will ever see Ash again.” I thought out loud. “Whether we want to or not, we will.” Katie said, as she wandered from the stage to where we sat.
*** “The room upstairs, opposite from the 'Gentleman's Room'...” Rick instructed, “…is where we need to go. I feel that is one of the few places left in this building, where the family used to spend time together, that hasn't changed dramatically in the past century.”
“I agree. It feels right to me also.” Theo commented, and so, without taking a proper rest to gather our thoughts, we trekked up to the second floor of the home.
The dark and dismal room now seemed inviting to us. We gathered ourselves in a semi-circle on the floor, and quietly waited. Exactly what we were waiting for, we weren't sure, but the moments passed and though I had no real idea of how to begin, I held no worries that we were doing the right thing. The silence was broken by the smooth sound of Rick's voice.
“Charles... bring your mother and join us, please.” Rick's thoughts were far deeper than his words. In his mind he was connecting to the spirit world around us, as was Theo.
“Amelia... follow the energy of my voice. Find my thoughts.” Theo drew himself deep into a state of mid-world-ness. The conscious, and the physical, part of him remained on our plane of existence, while his subconscious journeyed to the spiritual plane. His summoned his spirit guides to help him find and connect with Amelia, in a similar, yet different, way that Rick was connecting to Charles and his mother.
“There is no need to hide anymore, children. Come join us all.” Jenn spoke into the blackness of the night.
“Donnie, Timmy, Brian, Little John…” Katie called out, looking around. “We are your friends, and we want to help you.” The rest of us remained mute, and simply thought about each of the seven family members who had been scattered like ashes in the wind. We imagined their reunion, and what a joyous time it would be. Our thoughts called out to them, or at least, that was our intention.
Rick Hayes and Theo watched as, one by one, the Bettiger family gathered in a room they once called home. Even those of us who do not have a sixth sense felt the growing presence of spiritual energy around us, and hoped for some sign that we were nearing our goal. The collective energy shifted and its power began to give Jennifer one of her migraines, the ones that we had always attributed to intense spiritual activity, or sometimes electromagnetic frequencies that were off the charts. Rick spoke again.
“Seven is a powerful number, and family is a powerful bond. You have both.” As he paused I realized that this must mean all seven of the Bettigers were now together. “Take each other's hands, reconnect, and look deep inside yourselves. Can you feel the warmth and the light?” Rick and Theo watched as the family embraced one another and formed a spiritual bond.
“Now, look outside of you. Focus on a point. See it as a point of light, and visualize as it becomes larger and closer to you.” Theo continued where Rick had left off.
The two worked so well together, that it almost felt rehearsed, or as if this was something they had done countless times in the past. The power of belief and spirit was so strong that everyone in the room began to visualize this pinpoint of starlight, and we watched it become a glowing orb, ever increasing in circumference. A brilliant, white light flowed from it, and had the appearance of a luminescent waterfall, with its radiance splashing down in our midst. In the miraculous revelation of light, we saw them, for the first time. The Bettigers had been revealed to us, in a way that did not seem ghostly. In many ways, they appeared as a normal, everyday family. The vision we had been blessed with, however, was far from normal and 'everyday'. It was an unforgettable, and life altering glimpse at eternity, an eternity that was so full of omnipotent and omnipresent love and light, that no shadow could exist. We gazed, mesmerized as the utopian light engulfed the family, and the family consumed it, until there was no discernible separation between light and beings. They had become beings of light, and as miraculously as it had all began, we watched as the light shrank back to into the most beautifully incredible orb, and then even further, to become the most brilliant starlight we had ever experienced... and ever so slowly it faded from our sight.
Not a sound was made, and no one even moved for the longest time. We had been given a gift very, very few ever receive. The reality of our world was so harsh compared to the peaceful feeling of what I believe is a true universal consciousness, that there were parts of each of us that had no desire to return to our earthly lives...places deep within our souls that desperately longed to follow the family into that great unknown peace, but it was not our time. We each have a purpose here on this earth, and regardless of our accomplishments or lack thereof, when we have done our part, and played out our intended role, our time will come, and we will join with everyone who has gone before us, and all of those souls who will come after us, and the next great adventure will begin.
Chapter 20 A Farewell of Sorts
It was a clear and cool Saturday morning in late October. The air was crisp. The smell of autumn was on the wind, and the leaves on the trees in southern Indiana were painting the landscape with reds, yellows and oranges. Linda and Barb were out for coffee, and discussing the new location for the Owl’s Nest #30, when Linda’s husband, Fred, called.
“You’ll never guess who just showed up at our door.” Fred started off the phone conversation.
“Well, no… I probably can’t. So, why don’t you just tell me?” Linda joked with her husband. “I was getting ready to head next door to take one last look around before the crew fired up the equipment, when a knock came at the door.” He led her on, trying to build her anticipation.
“So, have they started yet?” Linda didn’t bite. “You’re no fun.” Fred moped, but then his voice came to life. “Okay, I’ll just tell you… I am standing here in our foyer, face to face, with Allison Bettiger.”
“Well, why didn’t you just tell me?...uugghh…” Linda groaned humorously. “We’ll be right there. Tell the crew to hold off work for an hour, if they will.” Linda hung up her phone, and putting it in her purse, shot a look across the table to Barb.
“What’s going on?” Barb asked curiously. “Ms. Bettiger is at my house, right now.” Linda scurried to her feet and grabbed up her coffee, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “You comin’?”
“Of course!” Barb answered excitedly. “What’s she doing at your house?” “I don’t know, unless she wanted to see the old house one last time. We had better hurry. I want to get there before the workers get started.” Linda rushed the conversation, and Barb towards the car.
“I didn’t even know that Ms. B. knew.” Barb seemed puzzled. “I don’t think she did… at least I didn’t tell her, so if she knows, I don’t know how.” Linda was just as confused, and somewhat concerned.
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence.” Barb tried to rationalize. “I know it’s last minute, and everything should be in storage until the new building is ready for us to move into, but something is telling me we need to take another look around to be sure we aren’t leaving anything behind.”
“Fred said he would try to put the crew off for an hour, so maybe we will have a chance to do one last walk through…maybe with Ms. Bettiger.” Linda spoke as she sped down First Avenue, leaving the Starbucks in her rear view mirror.
Her home and the timeworn building were less than two miles down the road from the coffee shop. It seemed that the stars were aligning as she drove and passed the nearly dozen green traffic lights. Within minutes, the two women pulled into Linda’s driveway and parking the car hastily, they rushed into the house breathing heav
y from the brisk walk and the adrenaline that was now coursing steadily through their veins. Neither of them knew what to expect, or what Ms. Allison Bettiger’s reaction would be to the old family home and former Owl’s Nest property being sold.
“Well hello ladies!” Allison Bettiger called out to them as they entered the front room where she and Fred were sitting immersed in conversation. The women exchanged hugs and greetings, and the nervousness of Linda and Barb vanished abruptly.
“So, what brings you to town?” Linda opened up with, not beating around the bush at all. “I don’t really know. I just needed to come.” Allison pondered for a moment, as if in deep thought, trying to recollect why she had been compelled to make the long trip. “This may sound a bit ‘coo-coo’, but I had a dream last night, and a little girl told me that I needed to go home before it was too late. I can’t say why, but it really made an impression on me, and I got up in the middle of the night, and called my nursefriend. She is such a doll… she came over immediately, and we left out about four this morning… and so, here I am.” She smiled at the three of them.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to run next door.” Fred excused himself and trotted out the front door with purpose. “Oh yes, by the way…what is going on next door? I noticed all of the construction equipment and dump trucks at the old home.” Allison innocently queried.
“Oh, I am so sorry, to have not called you about this, but it just kind of snuck up on us.” Linda admitted and looked to Barb for some help explaining the situation.
“I’m afraid the Owl’s Nest just couldn’t afford the upkeep on the old place, and the utility bills were outweighing the income… I don’t know how to say this, but we’ve sold the property to the plastics plant that’s just between us and the old Willard Library.” Barb bashfully admitted.
“Oh dear!” Allison put her open hand to her mouth. “Whatever would a factory want with an old building like that?” “Unfortunately, they aren’t interested in the building. They are interested in the property for parking and future expansion.” Linda finally spoke the inevitable, as heartbreaking as she knew it would be for Ms. Bettiger. “Fred has just gone over to see if they would delay starting the work for a little while so we could all walk through the building one last time, to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind.”
“I would like to visit the old place one more time. I have to check and see if something my mother told me is true, or if it was just a silly story.” Allison smiled, but the ladies could see the tears growing in her care worn eyes.
The front door opened snappishly and Fred stuck his head in the room. “They said we can have two hours, so we may want to hurry.”
He disappeared back outside again, and just as his words hit them, so did the brisk chill of the October breeze that entered the home with his news. Allison stood up and began to wrap her sweater around her shoulders, as the three headed out the front door. They made the short walk over to where a gate had been put up in the temporary construction fence that surrounded the property. Passing through the gate, over to the building and up the handicap accessible ramp, they found themselves at the front entrance of the old building. The small group noticed a sadness that seemed to exude from the tired old structure. The front door opened with an aged groan, as if the building itself were giving up its last breath.
Inside, an eerie silence filled the empty spaces that once housed the playful laughter of the Bettiger children, and the sounds of music, banters of friends, and the business hoopla of a social club. Every footstep felt burdened, and everywhere they looked, the memories that had hung on the walls or in the vast desolation of the enormous structure were now lost. An overwhelming sorrow grew around them as they escorted Ms. Bettiger from room to room, finding nothing left behind. Despite the unnatural solitude of the vacant building, Allison Bettiger collected memories from each room she visited, from the main floor, to the basement, and eventually to the upper floor, where the home was still mostly original.
Reaching the top of the stairs, the foursome stopped to take a breather, but the eldest of the group pushed past them and into the room to her left. She gazed around the room that the brothers she never known had not been allowed. This room was the ‘gentleman’s room’ where the father (she also had never known) had conducted his business. When the others joined her in the room, they found her standing before the door with the red glass knob. Her frail hand quivered as she reached out and took hold of the knob. With what little strength she had, she applied pressure, attempting to turn the knob, but it was locked securely.
“I don’t think that door has ever been unlocked as long as the Owls have been here.” Barb informed her. “I wonder…” Allison muttered to herself, as she turned slowly towards her friends. Then as if in a daze, she stumbled away from the door and with the labored steps of her tired old legs, brushed past them as if they didn’t matter, or weren’t even there. Fred, Linda and Barb, followed her out of the room past the stairwell, that no longer felt ominous, and through the room on the opposite side of the home. She walked intentionally through the room where her siblings once played…where many of them had also died. She stopped short of the grand front window that was boarded up and turning to her direct right, looked over her right shoulder with a childlike grin to her dear friends, and proceeded to enter the peculiar ‘non-closet’ room. The other three joined her quickly to see where she was headed and why.
“It’s should be right over here somewhere, I’m certain.” Allison said to them as they stood behind her and watched the elderly woman running her hands along the chair rail on the side opposite of the door they had all entered.
“What’s over there?” Fred was curious and puzzled, wondering if their dear old friend was experiencing some mild form of dementia or Alzheimer’s.
“The secret…” Her words trailed off and the ladies looked back and forth at each other wondering what she might possibly mean.
In the midst of the confusion there was an unexpected moment of clarity for all of those who were there, but especially for Barb. Allison grasped the chair rail with both hands near the corner of the wall, and gave it a stern tug upwards. “POP!” A piece of the wood trim rose in her hands and a panel on the lower wall opened up with a loud metallic popping noise.
“That’s what we heard in the basement!” Barb blurted out, and suddenly felt flushed with a cold sweat on her brow. “Be a dear and give me a hand please?” Ms. Bettiger looked over her shoulder with a grin, once again, while she pulled at the panel and swung it open, creaking on its piano hinge.
“What can I do for you?” Fred asked, stunned at the revelation. “Just give me your hand for a minute.” Allison Bettiger instructed and held her hand out, taking Fred’s hand in hers. Clinging tightly to it, Allison knelt down on the floor in front of the small opening.
“Oh here,” Barb called out to Allison. “Take this.” She said. Pulling a small l.e.d. flashlight from her back pocket and turning it on, she handed it to the woman.
“Mother said my brothers used to hide in here where no one would be able to find them.” Allison said, as she crawled into the small space, vanishing into the darkness that the flashlight refused to illuminate. The three friends were unsure what to do, so they stood silently listening to the slow scuffling sounds coming from within this secret room. Momentarily, Allison appeared at the opening again and held her hand out. Fred reached out to take her hand and help the dusty old woman out of the time capsule of dirt and cob webs, but she refused to take his hand and instead, placed an old skeleton style iron key in his palm. Her bent, arthritic finger pointed and motioned for him to go unlock the door with the red glass knob. She disappeared back into the darkness of the hidden haven.
Barb knelt down, and took a seat on the dusty floor near the opening, while Linda and Fred reentered the room opposite from her. Barb could make out very little besides the silhouette of the old Bettiger woman who had also taken a seat on the dusty and dirty floor that hadn’t been dist
urbed in a hundred years. There was a clicking and popping sound that came from within the dark space and slowly the light grew around Allison, revealing her surroundings.
Linda looked on as Fred placed the key in the old lock below the red knob, and turning it, the mechanism spun with quiet clicks, ticks and pops. He took the knob in hand, gave it a turn, and with a pull, the door moaned on its hinges and opened, letting the light of day fall on the area for the first time in numerous decades. Linda inhaled loudly.
There, before them, stood a beautifully ornate stairway that led to nowhere, and ended sharply at the wooden rafter ceiling.
“It’s the stairs that went to the old tower!” Linda called out with excitement. “Oh, how gorgeous!” The smallish room held a narrow space next to the stairs that led the couple to an opening under the oak stairwell. Leaning down to peer under the stairs, Fred and Linda found Allison sitting on the floor with her legs to the side. In her lap was a small, blue, stuffed elephant, and owl, both worn and slightly matted. Allison’s Hand reached out towards the floor in front of her, turning the pages of a large, old, hard covered book… Little Red Riding Hood, and scattered within its pages were the crisp, blackened red petals of a number of roses.
Allison looked up with teary eyes. “Mother told me this existed, and I don’t know if I didn’t believe her, or if I didn’t want to believe her…but here it is. The stories are true, they are all really true. I really did have a family, even if we didn’t share the same time and space.” Allison closed the book and pulled it snug against her chest, hugging it tightly, and allowing the tears to escape her eyes and adorn her spider-veined, rosy cheeks. She sat there in silence and solitude for a few minutes, and when she had gathered her thoughts and taken control of her feelings, she asked for help up. Fred and Linda helped her out of the secret hiding place under the stairs, where her siblings once hid from the villainous thugs their father had done business with. She emerged with spider webs in her hair, and her dress covered in the remnants of time that had gathered on the floor beneath her.
