said Sandra, hugging Church.
“Yeah, you’ve changed our lives for sure,” said John, with tears welling up as he rubbed his pregnant wife’s stomach, and added, “At least he will have a good start in life.”
“Or she,” interrupted Sandra,
“Thanks to Albert” Church reminded them.
John faced the heavens and said aloud, “Cheers, Grandad.”
He then handed Church an envelope and one gold bar. “Here Church, take this as a token of our gratitude.”
Church opened the envelope and pulled out a bundle of crisp banknotes.
“It’s the least we can do,” insisted John. “Now, put it to good use and make sure you keep in touch.”
Granny Pearl had told Church that he could not charge a payment for his help. However, John insisted on him taking the gift, as did many others who Church helped.
Church thanked the couple. He put the money and gold bar into his pocket and said his goodbyes.
Church drove home thinking about how to spend his fortune. ‘Five hundred pounds and a chunk of gold for a few days’ work, that’s fantastic.’ he thought, never having seen that much money before, although he knew it was not always going to be that simple or lucrative.
Church arrived back at the cottage early in the evening. From the familiar smell that greeted him, he knew Granny Pearl was waiting in the portal room. Feeling excited, he went to tell Pearl about his success, and he felt an overwhelming feeling of happiness. He smiled and stood in front of the portal, facing Granny Pearl and Albert.
“You’ve done well Church,” said granny Pearl, adding, “Albert is ready to pass over, but wants to thank you.”
“What’s happening? I have felt nothing like this before,” said Church, feeling euphoric. “It’s amazing.”
“It is the emotion from Albert. A pure feeling of closure and peace,” said Granny Pearl.
“It’s time for me to leave now,” said Albert. “Thank you young Churchill, you will make a great Keeper.”
Church saw the smiling face of an old sea-dog smiling as Albert’s shimmering white apparition faded.
PATH GTR 001: Fisherman’s Friend: Case closed.
* * *
Churchill was an enthusiastic and focused student, spending time during the day repairing and updating the cottage with money he had made from the family business. Apart from when he was away on assignments, Church seldom left the cottage, with his evenings spent with Pearl and Jack in the portal room.
Church used the money from John to buy an Acorn computer to record his assignments and other information. Fitting a washbasin, mirror, and kitchenette in the portal room, he bought a mahogany desk and along with his desktop computer, he felt like an executive in his new office.
Church recorded his observations on his computer, he wrote:
The spirit world has two levels. The first level is similar to border control, known by various names over the centuries depending on religion and culture; Purgatory, Limbo, Twear-Youmork. This level is the soul’s first port of call when mortal life expires. Every soul passes through here and transcends through to the final level ‘afterlife’,commonly referred to as Heaven, Nirvana, Jannat, etc. The afterlife is the soul’s final resting place and a place of no return, so it is unknown.
Granny Pearl and the Potts journal described the first level, which I compare with the ringed planet Saturn. The immense globe of intense white light of the afterlife would be Saturn, while the rings are countless orbs of light.
These orbs vary in colour. Large glowing blue orbs are portals and the multi-coloured lights pulsating in the centre that are spirit Keepers. Crimson orbs orbiting portals or inside are the Chosen-ones’ Spirit Guides and the many smaller crimson orbs that flit about are the Spirit Guides.
The constant streams of bright white orbs are new souls passing through on their journey to become one with the afterlife. Granny Pearl described this as columns of glowing white ants heading for their nest and explained that this little solar system was in perpetual movement: a cacophony of colours, like slow-moving fizzy bubbles of light, with Guides, Keepers, portals, and souls.
Church surmised these lessons thus:
Humans are individuals with their values, ethics, and beliefs. There are leaders, followers, good people, and evil people, with different coloured skin. In life, there are Christians, Muslims, Buddhist, etc. In death, people shed their mortal shell and pass into a state of being, which passed through the first level, then immediately onto the afterlife. However, some souls have something important they need resolving in the mortal world before passing over. These lost souls leave the organised flow to the afterlife to seek out a Spirit Guide to take them to a Keeper at permanent portals or through temporary portals to contact the mortal world, through a mortal Guide at a séance.
Other souls that won’t go into the light taking them on their celestial journey, cannot accept the fact that they are dead. They hang around the mortal plane, convinced that their family will contact them. These lost souls can detect gifted ones’ auras and until they fledge bombard them with futile attempts to make contact, which gave the young one’s gifted blinding headaches and hearing incoherent voices. These souls, once located and reassured by Spirit Guides, continue to the afterlife.
Some souls flatly refuse to pass over for no reason at all. Known to mortals as ghosts and poltergeists, they haunt buildings or a fixed point, poignant to a significant part of their lives. They stay on the mortal world and manifest themselves to scare the bejesus out of people. They were usually grouchy people in life and a nuisance in death but usually pass over when they get bored or exorcised.
* * *
One day, in 1986, Granny Pearl came to the portal. Church picked up emotion from his Spirit Keeper that he had never felt before… fear.
“Hello Granny Pearl… what’s the matter?”
Church could hear the concern in her trembling voice as she told him, “Church, the afterlife’s in turmoil. I haven’t long to explain and I will come and tell you more when we have restored order. In the meantime, you need to research Diabolus in the journal, so you are prepared. Be careful my grandson.”
The portal closed and Church rubbed his chin. “That didn’t sound good,” he said aloud and took the journal from the cupboard, put it on his desk, and looked through the pages. He came across several entries in the journal relating to the subject and read about spirits with dark blue and black auras, known as Aura Diabolus. Church read that this phenomenon, which although extremely rare and inexplicable, Keepers described it as pure evil, capable of damaging the fabric of the spirit world, leaving turmoil in the celestial plane for decades. He became more concerned when he read about the doom the mortal world faced should a Diabolus re-enter the living world as a spirit.
Referred to in the journal as Diabolus or Demon spirits, he read the shortlist of mortals with Aura Diabolus in the past, with only the last two names he recognised, the others pre-dated mortals history books. One was Genghis Khan, and as he looked at the most recent name, a cold shiver went through
