by Brandt Legg
“I’m ready.”
“Good. But I will need your patience once more. We won’t find him right away. There is an order to how we have to do this. I need you to trust me.”
“Fine, but you’re not going to ask me to spend the night in the woods again, are you?” I smiled.
“No. You’ve done that. Did it better than I could have hoped, as a matter of fact. You should know your father is proud of you.”
“I felt him that night.”
“He was with you.” He nodded. “Now, do you see that seagull up there?”
“Yeah. Where are his ten thousand friends?”
“They may show up yet. But we’re only concerned with that one. You need to connect with him and then put him to sleep.”
“How?”
“Remember everything I’m showing you is knowledge you already have. These are things your soul has been able to do for millennia.”
“So, you’re saying you’re not going to tell me how to do it?”
“It’s enough that I’ve told you that you’re capable of it.”
I watched the bird for a moment, then closed my eyes and flew with him in my mind. We became one. ‘Sleep,’ I whispered in my head. I opened my eyes and instinctively ran to where the seagull was dropping out of the sky. My arms extended as it fell softly into my hands.
“Easy, huh?” Spencer asked.
I gently cradled the gull and said, “Wake up now. Fly,” as I tossed it into the air. My bird circled once and then flew away.
“It’s harder with people. But you’ll practice.”
“You mean I can put people to sleep?”
“Yes, it’s a subtle form of mind control, part of Solteer. You can do all sorts of things.”
“That’s frightening.”
“Yes, it can be. Use it wisely.”
I nodded. My thoughts raced with possibilities, then a nervous feeling arose, what if Sanford Fitts and the other Lightyear agents could also use Solteer?
“Don’t worry about that,” Spencer said, reading my mind. “If people use these powers directly to cause harm, then they weaken considerably.”
“What about someone from the dark side?”
“The dark side is a myth, made up by religions to keep people in fear.”
“Why?”
“So they could be controlled easier. In the modern world, Hollywood has perhaps done more to propagate the presence of a dark side than the Church.” Something I couldn’t see out in the ocean took his attention for a couple of minutes. Then, he turned to me staring intensely into my eyes. “There is no evil in the natural universe. It is a creation of man, and they do it extremely well. One could say the human race has mastered the art of evil.”
I thought about his words. It was a revolutionary idea to me, and he was not presenting it as a theory but as fact. And if the only evil that existed in the world was from ordinary men, then I might have a chance against them. After all, I had the power of the universe at my disposal.
“Yes, it is a fact,” he was reading my mind again. “And yes, you do have all that power within you. But you’re still a mere mortal, just like them, and they have all the power of the U.S. government at their disposal. That’s no small thing, especially because the battle is being waged on earth, a decidedly human place.”
“But earth is part of the universe, and it’s inhabited by souls, right?”
“Yes, but most of them are trapped in the amnesia of their human existence. Earth may have once been one of the jewels of the universe, but man has been doing a good job of burying its beauty and power in layers of filth and mayhem for the past few thousand years. And with each passing decade, their rate of destruction has been expanding exponentially.”
“But I have a chance. A good chance.”
“Yes, you do. And the more people you help to awaken, then the better your odds.”
“When can I read minds like you do?”
“Much later. If we are both among the living, I will help you remember more of your lost powers next summer. And still more a year after that.”
“And if we’re not among the living?”
“Then you won’t need reminding, you’ll already know.”
“What if I’m alive and you aren’t?”
“Someone else will help you. There is never a shortage of help. Always remember that.”
“Finally some good news from Spencer.”
“What I’m about to show you may appear to be a weapon, but of course it’s not. You can use it for protection, but there are many other uses, as with all knowledge. But this is most often used as a healing tool.” He cupped his palms in front of him, looked slightly toward the sky, and then focused his gaze on his hands. Slowly, he worked them back and forth as if forming a ball out of clay. And then, there it was, nearly invisible but there nonetheless.
“What is it?”
“This is a healing orb called a ‘Lusan’. It’s made using Foush and Vising. It even mixes in Gogen.” He placed the grapefruit-sized ball gently on the sand and rolled it. Tiny green sprouts formed in its wake. Then, he pushed it softly against a small scab on my hand. No blemish remained when he removed the sphere and hurled it against a nearby boulder where a ten-inch chunk of the rock obliterated.
“Incredible!” Beyond that, I was speechless. The first thing that came into my mind, “Does the military have this?”
“It’s hard to say how far things have gotten at Lightyear.”
“But they can’t use these powers for harm, right?”
“Not directly, but they manipulate the people into believing they’re doing good. And they believe it. They think they are protecting their country from terrorists or enemy nations, and so the power is real.”
“In other words, if they convince an agent I’m evil, then they can use powers against me.”
“Something like that. Back to your training.”
I watched him make another Lusan and throw it into the ocean producing a momentary geyser thirty feet high. “Now, you do it. Gather your thoughts. Pull the energy from the universe, focus it in your hands, then just imagine making the perfect snowball, keeping your focus until the ball becomes independent of your energy.”
It was surprisingly easy. Once I found the moment the ball no longer required my kneading, I couldn’t help but laugh. The feeling was invigorating, warm, and tingling. It made me want to jump up-and-down like an excited kid. “What should I do with it?”
“Follow me,” I walked with Spencer to where the narrow trail left the trees to meet the sand. “Walk up the trail four or five feet, then roll it down slowly.”
I did and was amazed. The trail vanished as greenery of all kind from ferns to wild flowers grew before my eyes and filled the worn path. “Wow! That’s unbelievable!”
“Turns out the most unbelievable things are the most believable.” He smiled.
“How have we forgotten all of this knowledge?”
“That is a story as long as human existence. And not really worth telling even if I knew all the reasons, which I don’t.”
“Imagine what the world could be like if we all remembered.”
“Yes, imagine.”
And I started to, still caught in the euphoria of producing the Lusan.
“Not now though. Time for that later. There is much to do,” he said.
I picked up the ball and walked to the water, rolling it on the surface like I was bowling. It sliced a shallow gutter through the surf for several feet before being swallowed by a wave in a sizzling bubbly stew.
“Your next lesson won’t seem as flashy as a Lusan, but it will prove to be one of the most profound things you’ll learn in this life.” He paused to insure the impact of his words resonated. They did. After everything Spencer had shown me, I was open to anything and intrigued by what he would attach so much importance to. “You know how to hug people?”
“Yeah.” I laughed.
“Good. Next time you hug someone, close your eyes and picture their
eyes in all the detail you can. And hold that image with the thought of finding their soul. I find it useful to silently but passionately ask, ‘who are you?’ And then you should begin to see their past. Their whole life will flash before you in a matter of minutes. The longer you hold on, the more you will see.”
“No!”
“Wait, there’s more. If you continue to embrace them, you will see a brief few seconds of blackness and then a review of their prior lives will begin to flood in. It will accelerate so that you can go through a thousand years in a minute.”
“How would I digest all that information?”
“Your soul will process it. Remember, you’ll be potentially seeing hundreds of lifetimes. This is all part of your Vising power.”
“I don’t know if I want to know anyone that well,” I said, thinking of the slave trader.
“It can be a difficult thing. You’ll find it easier if you can remove judgment from your personality traits.”
“How hard could that be?”
“Just when I forget your age, you remind me quite nicely.”
“Can I try this out on you? Can I see your past?”
“I think that would complicate things considerably right now. Try it on Kyle or Linh when you next see them. It’s time to visit the astral.”
“Really? I’m ready?”
“We’re going to find out.”
“This is going to be so cool.”
“Before we go into this. I want you to know there are two reasons why we are progressing this way.” He picked up some sand and let it slip from his hand into the wind. “As I said earlier, there is a logical path that makes each step easier than the last. But I’m balancing that with what I anticipate you may need on your immediate journey.”
“You can see my future, can’t you?”
“Only parts, and it changes as I watch it. It’s not like the past; the future is fluid. It is constantly in flux and rearranging based on what we do, think, see, and hear and by what billions of other people do, think, see, and hear as well. So, if I see something of the future right now, five minutes from now it could be very different.”
“What good is it then?”
“As one gets more proficient with Timbal, one begins to develop a knack for deciphering it and an ability to guess what the ramifications of a subtle change in the present will do to the future. Obviously, the farther out in time you go, it becomes more difficult to rely on anything we see.”
I dug my toes into the sand, looked beyond the ocean, and squinted into the sun for a moment. “When will I be able to see the future like that?”
“Sometime in the future.”
I laughed, but he wasn’t being funny.
“Astral traveling is one of the soul’s core abilities, and it’s accessed through Gogen. It’s like being on a highway of sorts. But what I just said may be the greatest understatement ever spoken. Still, it will give you a reference point to try to grasp the unfathomable. Through the astral, you’re able to move within your lifetimes as in your Outviews. You can also move between time and dimensions to any place or moment in the universe.”
“My head hurts. I don’t think I can handle this.”
“Do you remember lesson number one?” he asked.
“Everything can change in an instant. Everything can be learned in an instant.”
“Close enough. Don’t worry. You don’t need to understand it. You won’t ever anyway. I don’t, and if I try too hard, it hurts my head, too. All you need to do is know how to access it.”
“Can I get lost out there in time?”
“You can temporarily get stuck in between, but you should eventually return to where you started from.”
“So what do I do?”
“It’ll be different when you teach other people, but since you’re one of the seven, all you need to do is get yourself in a slight meditative state and disengage your personality by feeling pure love. Surround yourself in white light, and you will feel a moving sensation, kind of like how it feels to fly in a dream. Soon that will be gone, and you will just be at places and times.”
“But how do I choose the places and times?”
“That part takes considerable trial and error. Initially, what your soul needs you to see will be your destinations, but you can begin to control it by focusing on what you want in your meditations.”
“So, why has my soul needed me to see a hundred of my past deaths?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. But you can answer yourself later. Are you ready to go?”
“I want to find Dustin.”
“I know.”
“Will I?”
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
37
I sat on a warm boulder near the trees, closed my eyes, and let the sound of the waves take me into a deeper state. The surf sounded like his name, “Dussss-tin, Dussss-tin.”
Suddenly, there he was, sitting on a wooden chair inside the green house. His face was pale; dark circles under his eyes. He was thin, wearing a blue sweatshirt and sweatpants that were a size too large. “Dustin,” I heard myself yell. I was sure his expression changed. Was it possible to communicate with him? “Dustin, can you hear me?” His lips moved with my words. I repeated and his lips moved again, saying his own name. I moved right in front of his face. He mouthed my words as I said them. “Nate is coming to get me. Nate is coming to get me,” I said. I saw a look of recognition on his face, and then a smile.
Then he said out loud, “Nate is coming to get me.” He couldn’t see me, but he could somehow feel what I said.
Not knowing how much time remained, I moved away from his room. I needed to know where he was—a locked door, an agent in the next room, two more on the deck. Drifting away from the house with an aerial view, I saw a highway and recognized the mountains. My God, he was just outside Ashland! The roads were familiar. Looking around and seeing the green house, I knew it would be easy to tell someone how to drive there. I had command of the astral!
I glided back into his room. “Nate knows where I am. Nate knows where I am. He’s coming.” He repeated my words. Then he looked around the room trying to see a sense of me. “I’ll see you soon, brother,” Dustin whispered.
Then I was back. Spencer was walking toward me from the ocean.
“I found him,” I yelled. “Spencer, I saw Dustin.”
He smiled.
“I know right where he is. Let’s go get him.”
“Nate, I need you to listen to me now.” I could tell I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. He had that look my dad used to get when he had to tell me we couldn’t free the tiger from the zoo or paint our minivan yellow.
“No, Spencer. Don’t you dare tell me we can’t go get him. If that’s what you’re going to say, I don’t care. Tanya will take me tonight. I’m not waiting until tomorrow.”
“Listen to me, Nate. You aren’t ready for that. If you go now or even tomorrow, you will die and so will Dustin.”
“You don’t know that. You said earlier the future is changing all the time, so you can’t know that for sure. You don’t know.”
He looked at me, his eyes trying to calm. I wanted to turn away but could not.
“You just want to make sure I save the world or something. You don’t care what happens to Dustin. You don’t want anything getting in the way of the plan.”
He shook his head.
I stared at him.
“Have I ever betrayed your trust?” he asked.
“I’ve known you two days, Spencer.”
“Do you believe that?”
I closed my eyes, finally breaking his gaze.
“Nate. If you can’t trust me, trust the universe.”
“Damn it, Spencer. I just want my brother safe.”
“I know.”
“When? When can we get him?”
“Soon.”
My face told him that was not an acceptable a
nswer.
“That’s all I know. Nate. We must trust the universe.”
“Do we have more to go over?”
He nodded.
“I need a break.” I got off the boulder and walked down the beach, ripping open a pack of almond M&M’s. If I had so much power, why couldn’t I make a Coke machine materialize when I needed one?
I wasn’t much good for our remaining time. I was too distracted by Dustin’s physical appearance and how close he was. My mother could be there with the police in about fifteen minutes. But what would the police do? Arrest him and turn him back over to Homeland Security. That might be a little better than his current predicament but probably not. The truth was I didn’t know what could happen or what to do. And I didn’t know about trusting the universe. My dad probably trusted the universe; it didn’t work out well for him. All I could do was trust Spencer.
He started explaining vortexes to me, building on what I already learned from Rose. I knew they fell under Gogen. But his normally simple explanations were not working on this topic. “Vortexes and dimensional doorways are often located at sites considered sacred by indigenous cultures around the world. They’re almost always beautiful places. Even unaware people will feel something at these spots: an increased optimism, heightened energy, euphoria, some kind of awakening, healings. You get the idea?”
I nodded.
“You’ll find large trees grown in a spiral, boulders in strange configurations, anomalies of vegetation, geological formations, or a marked absence of what is otherwise all around the area. There are usually physical characteristics; they aren’t meant to be secret, but most have been lost since no one is really looking.”
“Crater Lake? Mount Shasta?”
He nodded slightly, but his eyes held a combination of wonder and awe. After a few seconds he continued. “And with your increased awareness, you will find many of the less significant ones throughout your travels. But remember . . . ” He paused and then whispered, “Oh no.” A rainbow appeared, seemed to liquefy and spill into the clouds. They immediately blackened and it started raining heavily. It stopped as quickly as it had started. I wouldn’t know until later, when it was too late, what he had seen.
“I was saying, even the less significant ones are important. They will—”
