Sitnalta Page 17

Natalina's Discovery

Still nervous about Rus seemingly having been able to unintentionally split into two people, Natalina walked over to talk to her mother. "Mom," Natalina asked, "have you ever known anyone to split into two people?"

"Why do you ask such a question?"

Natalina wasn't sure whether she should tell her mother about Rus. "I saw two of the same boy."

"Show me who you are talking about. Maybe it is just two souls who look similar."

"Trust me, it is the same soul in two places at once. No two souls are identical so it has to be the same boy."

Natalina's mother looked up and looked down and looked all around. "Let us see if we can find a spot where we might not be overheard." Pushing past and darting around souls who wanted to shove back against the rude intruders into their space, Natalina and her mother rose through the thick crowd of anxious, vulnerable beings. Slowly they rose above the seeming stacks of people floating in lines above and below them. Then finally they reached far above the many levels where the crowds lined in wait. They looked down to witness the crowds at times gleeful in anticipation for their outing to planet earth. Still, at other times a seeming nervousness seemed to sweep through the crowds. Staring down and realizing the magnitude of what was happening, Natalina's mother trembled. She whispered, "God help us all."

Natalina realized her mother and perhaps others in the crowd shared her disconcerted feeling of impending discomfiture. "This trip isn't like our other outings. I guess that is obvious but still I want to think it is not so different. Please, tell me that I am wrong and that this trip is not so special from our other trips."

"I wish I could."

"Mom, what is going on? I have this awful feeling that we are about to be defeated. Ever since I saw two of the same boy and he said he didn't split in two on purpose, I can't shake this odd feeling. It makes no sense. I mean, why would anyone want to defeat us? What would they gain? But look at all these people. Did you expect all these people?"

"What do you know about earth?"

"Just what the travel agent showed us."

"Earth is one of the nine major planets included in the Realms of Sunev. Earth exists between Mars and Venus and like Mars and Venus has what is called life cycles. Earth's life cycle is based on what is called a thaw cycle."

"Mom, I don't want a full science lesson. I want to know what is going on. I want to know how the boy could split in to two people by accident."

"Dear, I'm trying to explain the best I can."

"Okay!"

"Earth is a planet that has always been the most spectacular when it thaws from beneath the ice. Its beauty has always attracted many seekers toward the end of the ice thaw cycle. No one knows for sure when earth will reach the end of its life cycles. Some souls always speculate that this will be the last thaw cycle and then will also end the cycles on Mars, Venus, and Mercury and so also will end all the realms of Sunev. It probably will not happen this time, but the notion that it might happen always attracts a crowd." Natalina's mother looked at her daughter and wondered how much she should tell her. She didn't want to scare her daughter. Still, she didn't want to intentionally mislead her daughter more than necessary. She had always been more than willing to tell her daughter more than was allowed, but she had to be careful. Ellen stated, "Maybe that is why there are so many people." Ellen thought to herself, "If I didn't know better I would accept that explanation. But now to try to explain why a boy would travel so much faster than the speed of light that it would appear he is in two places at once. Obviously he is a higher being on a mission, but I can't tell her that. Or can I? I've got to say something."

Natalina waited for her mother to say more. When she didn't, Natalina frowned. "Mom, how could Rus split into two people." Natalina had not meant to mention Rus' name. But she could not undo her words and she did not try.

"Ellen, Natalina, here the two of you are. We need to get back in line."

Ellen looked at her husband Fitzgerald. "Did you hear?"

"I was going to pretend I didn't, but yeah, I heard. I hope Lucifer's gatekeepers don't discover Rus' second entrance into this plane."

Ellen looked at Natalina. "Who else knows?"

"Michelle and of course the present Rus. What will happen if the gatekeepers discover he has split into two?"

Fitzgerald explained, "He hasn't really split into two. He is simply in two places in the same near plane at once. We all have the speed to accomplish what he has accomplished, but except for the higher beings I've never known of anyone with the skilled coordination to actually do it. The gatekeepers will assume he is a higher being and banish him if they should discover what he has done."

Natalina's mouth fell open. "Banish a higher being! Who in the hell is Lucifer that his gatekeepers would try to banish a higher being? Why in the world would you use such a man as our travel agent."

Ellen gave her husband a look of disapproval. Ellen spoke, "Dear, there is a lot we both would like to tell you. I've already told you more on the sly than is allowed. Maybe I have already told you too much. I don't want you to be harmed. I don't want you sent back to Saturn."

"Saturn? I've never been to Saturn. Why would you say such a thing?"

Now it was Ellen's husband who gave the disapproving look. Their conversation seemed to be becoming more dangerous by the moment.

Despite the fact that Ellen's husband wanted her to shut up, Ellen told Natalina. "No one remembers going to Saturn. It is where Lucifer sends the souls he has damned, that he has cursed, that he has sentenced to be mentally altered. Every soul who you see as a child of another soul has been to Saturn in near spatial time."

Ellen's husband screamed. "Shut-up! Do you want to risk us to be cursed by Lucifer and end up on Saturn?"

"No. I don't want that. It is so hard for me to decide what I should tell either one of you. But it is obvious that Natalina has been blessed. Even if the blessing was an accident, maybe it is a sign that we should be more honest with Natalina. To speak with a higher being is a blessing. Isn't it?"

"Excuse me, but it is a very dangerous blessing. You can rationalize that it is a sign you should tell Natalina more, but the truth is you've always told her more than is allowed. What if Lucifer and the Gatekeepers should find out? What if we should be sent to Saturn? What if we should be separated from one another for eternity?

"That would be beyond awful. Knowing that I should be separated from the two of you would destroy me. But dear, our trip to earth is not going to be some simple picnic. It is not the simple outing that we keep pretending. You do know that, don't you?"

"I know no such thing."

"Dear, have you looked at the birthing ponds?"

"They look no different than from our previous outings to earth."

"Look at the people as they exit the pools. Look at the waters' weed in their aura. See how it locks their astral body to the soul. If we can't shed the earthly astral body, we can't leave earth." Ellen sighed, "There, now I've said it. I've said what I did not want to tell either one of you."

Fitgerald quickly focused his soul's eye beyond the crowds and toward the birthing ponds. Floating closer to the ponds he watches a small boy and the boy's sister as they walk past the gatekeepers. The two of them look familiar but he can not place where he might have seen them before. He focuses his hearing so that he might hear them speak.

[***Fitgerald Witnesses things between the boy and his sister and others near the Birthing Ponds that gives him hope.***]

Fitgerald hears the girl tell her little brother, "No, the Gatekeeper told you to go over to the pond where the little boys go. Stop following me."

Stubbornly the boy wants to argue. "The Gatekeeper acted all creepy. What the heck does he know anyway. I want to go with you. You know several of the girls in the pond where you are going but I don't know anyone in the awful mud hole the weirdo Gatekeeper pointed out to me. Please! Why can't I go with you? No one will notice me there with you."

"Of course they will notice. Don't talk like an idiot. You are the wrong age and you are the wrong sex."

The boy mimicked his sister. "No. It is you. You are the wrong age and you are the wrong sex. Call me an idiot! I don't know why I want to go with you anyway."

"Look, Steed. I'm sorry. I don't fully understand it but the Gatekeeper said that I require a different astral body type from you. It is required that we go to the pond that is designated for us depending on our current soul image from Eden. Men go to one pond. Women go to another. Girls go to yet a different one. And boys like you go to that one over there."

The boy Steed stood almost in tears. "Molly, I don't like this. It is bad enough I just got returned from Saturn but now I'm going through this."

Trying to stay calm the girl Molly stared at her brother. Acting as though she were going to run her fingers through his velvet black hair, she instead roughly grabbed hold of his hair and pulled it tightly into her fist. "Are you crazy to say such a thing." Managing to smile when she really wanted to cry, she knelt down close to her brother and tenderly fingered his tangled hair from her fist. She gently petted each strand back in to place as she carefully looked around to see who might be watching and listening. She softly whispered to avoid being overheard but still Fitgerald focused and could hear her words. "You must not let anyone know that being on Saturn did not fully wipe your memory."

"Don't get so wild. Even dumb kids my age, if you catch my drift, know they've just come from Saturn. We soon forget, but we remember for a time." Steed lowered his voice. "It is not like I'm much better off than the other kids. There is so much I don't remember. Surely I knew people as you know people. I try to remember them and sometimes I think I do remember a few of them but then I can't. If my memory had been fully erased I could deal with things better."

"I know it is not easy for you. Jason told me that in time you would remember everything. But you must not let anyone know except that if they should share their confidence with you first. Even then, you must take care. Now, stop making this more difficult than it already is. Go to the birthing pond as the Gatekeeper instructed."

Steed whines, "But…"

Molly stands up and with her hand placed firmly against her brother's back she gives him a hard shove. "Enough with the whining. Go to the pond. Now!"

Glancing back at his sister Steed stumbles forward several steps. "Try to push me back to Eden want you." Not looking where he is going he bumps into a woman emerging from an iron gated exit. She is donning a new astral body from her being immersed in a pond for young women. Steed's mouth opens wide as he gawks at her beauty.

A nearby Gatekeeper screams at the top end of sound, "Cover yourself up woman."

The aura of the woman turns blush red on seeing Steed staring at her breast. The woman whispers sorry and Steed thinks her whisper is the most odd and amazing sound he's ever heard. Upon hearing her sultry, sensual whisper a seeming quiver rushes from the bottom of his big toe to the tip of his right, arching eyebrow. The woman looks at her own nakedness and quickly tries to cover and hide her astral body in shame. She says to little Steed, "I'm so embarrassed."

Steed shakes his head. "What for. You've given me a reason to want to go to earth. You are the only good thing that has happened since my family brought me on this trip."

The woman said, "You don't talk like someone who has just returned from Saturn. Actually, you remind me of someone I once knew. I…"

The Gatekeeper rushes to where the woman and Steed are standing. He takes Steeds hand away from the woman's butt. "What do you think you are doing? We will not have any of that here." The Gatekeeper turns to look at Molly. "Girl, you go on and get to the pond where you belong. I will take your brother to where he belongs." The Gatekeeper takes hold of Steed's right earlobe and lifts Steed into quick transit toward the pond. With Steed kicking and screaming at the "monster" hurting his ear, the Gatekeeper tosses Steed feet first into the birthing pond.

As Steed splashes into the water he shouts to the Gatekeeper, "I will get you for this!" Steed quickly sinks beneath the water of the birthing pond. When he swims to the surface he sees several other boys in the pond.

The laughter of a redheaded, freckle face boy gets his attention. The boy pats Steed on the back. The boy tells Steed, "All of us in this pond must be the bad seeds. Not one of us came willingly."

A blonde headed boy swims near and catches hold of a vine. "Oh no, we aren't the bad seeds. But we are the seeds that are going to cause major problems for old Lucifer. We are the good seeds. You feel the mud at the bottom of the pond?"

The redheaded boy said, "Yeah, it is cool. I love the way it squishes between my toes."

The blonde boy motions for all the boys in the pond to swim near. Quietly as he can, he tells them, "Cover yourself in the mud before leaving the pond. The Gatekeepers will complain at you and take you to the shower fountains to clean off the mud. They will complain but they will think we are just being boys. They will not realize the purpose of the mud or why we won't complain too much at being taken to the fountains."

Steed asked, "What will be the reason?"

"The waters in these birthing ponds create astral bodies that lock our soul in. They are intended to trap us in the realms of Sunev. The mud and the cleansing will prevent the lock from working."

When it was time to exit the pond, Steed left the pond first. He had covered himself in mud. Then the other boys still in the pond started screaming in laughter at Steed. "You fell for it. You fell for it. Blonde boy made you fall for his joke." Then the Blonde boy left the pond and the other boys saw that he had covered himself in mud. Quickly the boys began to whisper among themselves. "He was serious." Then one by one they each exited the pond all covered in mud.

The Gatekeeper who had tossed Steed in the pond quickly came to see what was going on when the other Gatekeepers started screaming for help. The Gatekeeper looked at Steed. "You put them up to this. Didn't you?"

"No. It is just the mud feels so good." Steed had a hand full of mud hidden behind his back. As the Gatekeeper came closer to take him by the ear again, Steed threw the mud into the Gatekeeper's face. "I told you I would get even."

Steed expected the Gatekeeper to get angry. Instead the Gatekeeper smiles and gives Steed and the blonde boy a wink. "I was counting on you getting even."

Steed stared into the face of the Gatekeeper in disbelief. "Why didn't I recognize you before. I can't believe it is you Jason."

"Hush, I've got to pretend anger now." The Gatekeeper that Steed now knew as Jason proclaimed loudly, "These awful boys have covered themselves in mud. I've got to take them to the shower fountains."

[***Fitzgerald now knows a dangerous secret that might help his family or cause them to fall victim to Lucifer's damnation.***]

Fitzgerald unfocused and stopped watching and listening to the boys. He focused on a few other people leaving different ponds but could not see the waters' weed in anyone's aura. He knew he didn't have his wife's ability but he hoped he might be able to see what she had seen. From the boys' conversation he overheard though, there was no doubt that his wife spoke the truth. "So what are we going to do?" he asked.

"What can we do?" Ellen shook her head. "Pray that God and his dominion of higher beings such as Rus will be able to save us. That is all we can do."

Fitgerald considered telling Ellen what he'd heard, but he feared that if they used the boys' technique to avoid the lock they might get caught. If he told her, he knew she would want to use the method. It indeed would be a dangerous game, so he had to carefully consider what if anything he should tell her.

Natalina looked at her mother. "You said earth is beautiful when it is thawed. Maybe being trapped there will not be so bad."

Ellen stated. "To not be able to return to Eden may not be as bad as being sent to Saturn, but it is sure damnation just the same."

 Fitzgerald stared into Ellen's eyes and saw her tears. "I love Eden as you do. He embraced his wife and said, "Natalina's discovery of the higher being among us has given me hope. Maybe there are others that we don't know about. We've got to trust that in the end we will be okay."

Ellen shook her head. "Wait a second, you were saying that Natalina's discovery of a higher being is dangerous. Your sudden change of attitude is perplexing. What did you see when you were focusing on the birthing ponds?"

Fitzgerald stared lovingly into the face of the woman he loved deeply but whom he feared would someday cause him to be banished from all that he has ever known. "You remember things I can't, and you know things I can't comprehend. In so many ways you are superior to me, but then you do things that…" Fitzgerald hesitated for he wanted to choose his words carefully. He couldn't decide what he should tell his wife. "I do want to trust you, for God knows I love you but…"

"Say no more. We need to return to our place in line."

Fitzgerald smiled. It would be so easy to say nothing and consider that his wife had made the decision for him. At times Ellen was like a loose ball of fire. What would she do with the knowledge he had accidentally learned from the boys whom he realized most likely were higher beings? What if she did something to accidentally place even them in danger? He feared the odds were against them even without their secret in the hands of Ellen.