An Incremental Journey
Chapter 3
By Portia Bennett
Maddy hasn’t given up totally on finding The Wizard, and she may have actually seen the shop in the distance during one of her trips to the mall. Her best friend has a medical crisis and Maddy stays by her side through her recovery. Maddy had thoughts about how short her life as a woman would be; however, her life is just beginning. Then she dies.

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Hopefully, there haven’t been too many violations of the universe created by Bill Hart perpetrated in the revelations in this story. Robert A. Heinlein proposed that each time an author takes to the pen, a new universe is created and I guess I will beg the number of the beast that this universe is just a variation of SRU.

Thanks again to Holly for her enlightening editing.

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

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Chapter 3
 

Chapter 3

Maddy didn’t spend that much time on the internet, as she seemed to be more and more involved with activities in the retirement home. There were always those moments of regret when she prepared for bed and when she dressed in the morning; however, her time for regret seemed to be getting shorter and shorter.

She found that Alfred Gontarski had apparently died with his parents in the airplane crash in central Africa. She found the obituaries first, and then found several articles from the business sections written about the unusual terms of his parents’ wills that had stipulated if there was no survivor, meaning Alfred, in the event of their deaths, the real estate business was to go to the employees and associates. The six associates would receive equal portions of two thirds of the business, and the administrative personnel would divide the other third equally. Obviously, the wizard had to have done many ‘corrections’.

She took over the task of monitoring the common computer and making sure it wouldn’t get corrupted. She knew that many of the residents didn’t have a clue about the evil some people were inflicting on the internet. She encouraged the management to subscribe to one of the good virus protection programs, and they agreed. Regardless of the warnings she posted about downloading from unknown sites, things kept showing up. Many of the users were very naíve about these things. Maddy also set up a strong SPAM filter. Her surveillance prevented one couple from losing thousands of dollars to a Nigerian based scheme claiming that the couple was coming into a huge inheritance from a deceased relative they had never heard of.

Her weekly trips to the mall proved to be fruitless. She thought she saw Spells R Us in place of a shoe store, but when she looked again, it was just a shoe store. Still, she hoped she could confront the wizard and give him a piece of her mind. It wasn’t the money; obviously, she had little use for a lot in her current state. It was just the principle of the thing. She had been cheated, pure and simple. She hadn’t thought about it lately, as she had not been dwelling on the situation that much. The activities at the assisted living home seemed to be occupying her more and more.

Things took a downturn a few weeks later. Gretta had returned from the doctor and Maddy immediately knew something was very wrong. Maddy caught up with her as she was unlocking the door to her room.

“What is it, Gretta? I can tell something is wrong.”

“Come in and close the door.” Maddy closed the door and sat across from Gretta’s easy chair.

“Maddy, I have lived in fear of this all my adult life and now it has happened. I have breast cancer. I’ll be going in for surgery next week. There have been times today when I thought, ‘Why bother’. I might as well curl up and die. What’s the use? I’m old and don’t have much time left anyway.” Gretta was close to tears and Maddy wasn’t far behind.

“How old are you, Gretta? I can keep a secret.”

“I am 69, why?”

“How old do you think I am?”

“I don’t know. I never thought about it, I guess”

“I will be 83 next month. I am 14 years older than you, and there is no reason in the world you won’t live as long or longer. If you don’t take care of yourself, you will be cheating your family out of many years of love. I’ve seen your grandchildren, and they love you very much. Don’t you want to see them marry and have children of their own?

“I haven’t been as fortunate as you. I never married and have no family. I’ve spent all my life making money and avoiding relationships with others. Believe me, it’s not worth it.”

“What do you know about this sort of thing, Maddy?”

“I know a lot. I lost both of my breasts to cancer many years ago. I used to think that having breasts would be my badge of womanhood and because I didn’t have them, I would be less of a woman. I found out I was wrong. There is more to being a woman than I will ever experience in my lifetime, but I know I am a woman regardless of the fact I don’t have breasts. As a young woman, they have a lot more significance than they do now. You won’t be any less of a woman or person than you are now, if they have to take one or both of them.

“You are a good friend, Gretta, and I don’t want to lose you. You are going to do what the doctors say, and you’re going to get well. We’re going to continue to play Bingo and Bridge together, and you’re going to live to see your great grandchildren.” She stood and embraced Gretta, who was considerably shorter than she.

Maddy stayed with her at the hospital, helped her with her dressings and drain when the home’s nurse wasn’t available, and stayed by her side as she fought the effects of the chemo. She helped her select some wigs, and when the usual ones looked too much like wigs, she bought her one made of human hair that was as perfect as a wig could get.

The next few months continued in a fairly positive way. Gretta’s attitude continued to improve as did her health. The lymph node tests had been very good and the doctors decided there was no reason to remove her other breast. Gretta’s hair was growing back and at first the growth was quite curly.

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The bus took the small group of shoppers to the mall as usual. The weather was pleasant, and Maddy and Gretta were standing near the covered entrance, waiting for the rest of the group to catch up to them. Maddy was watching a harried young mother trying to control her three year old while carrying several bags and a small infant. The three-year old was on the verge of a tantrum and was testing his independence. Maddy was walking toward the woman to offer her help when the little boy broke away.

Maddy was 83 years old, and certainly looked and felt it. She saw the approaching retirement home bus, and at the same time the little boy headed for the curb. There was only one thing to do, and she did it almost without thinking. She had the angle and threw herself at the little boy, knocking him back on the walk. Her momentum carried her into the path of the bus. The last sounds she heard before the bus struck her were the sounds of screams.

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“Well, Al, that certainly was a spectacular way to go out. I’d ask you how you feel; however, in this form there is nothing physical to feel. We didn’t expect you to do that. You were supposed to have a heart attack a few weeks later.”

“What the hell is going on, and who and what are you?” She realized that the entity was just like the one she had dreamed about and had discarded as a figment.

“First of all there is no Hell. That’s just the product of some uninformed and overactive imaginations. I guess I could say you are dead. Well, the body you inhabited this last year is. You know, death of the physical body isn’t really that big a deal. Sometimes the physical pain is severe but that’s the physical thing about it. The body fights. It can’t help it. The important thing is you’re alive and ready to move on. As to what I am and you are: we are the spirits that give the body life, a persona.”

“I’m dead?”

“No, just that body you inhabited. It would have been dead long before, however, we worked a deal, and the previous owner was allowed to leave and move on while you were moved in. It’s all very complicated but the more you cycle through, the better you will understand how it works.”

“I think I am confused here. Are you saying that there is something like you and I that inhabits every body? I am having a little trouble with the math here.”

“There are a number of options. Spirits may move from universe to universe joining with the body of the equivalent of a human being on the planet they are on. There are billions of earthlike planets, by the way, just in this universe alone. Not all planets are in the same stage of development, though. Some are far advanced of this Earth, while others have millions, if not billions, of years before they reach this point.

“Spirits are mortal and pass on to other existences. Sometimes spirits are created at conception, and sometimes an existing spirit will move in the new body. You were a new one, and there was a little error. With the population explosion that has been happening on this planet, it’s difficult to keep track of things, and the entity who was monitoring your creation had just come from a world where reproduction was done by parthenogenesis. All babies are female in that world. You are female and should have been with a female body. Instead you were put with a male body. It does seem to be happening more and more these days. By the time we caught the error, it was too late to do anything about it.

“Damn!”

“By the way, that’s a meaningless expression. Anyway, if you look at the overall percentage error, the rate isn’t too bad. We know it’s difficult for those who are victims, and that is why we have the group you know as wizards out there to help correct these problems. Some, such as your wizard, do get a little out of control when they improvise too much. Still, they’re able to facilitate many corrections.”

Al was confused and perplexed. For over a year she had been Maddy Franken, and had actually become accustomed to the role. No, she had actually been happy for the first time in her life. Then she had to go kill herself saving a child from being hit by a bus. Now there was this. ‘What is going on?’

Al realized that although she had been carrying on a conversation with this ‘spirit’, words were not being spoken. They were words in her head, if she had a head. For that matter, she didn’t have a body, either. “Er, ah, Spirit or whatever you are, do I look like you?”

“If you could see yourself, I guess you would. The thing is I look to you the way you think I should look. You have to realize that you’re not really seeing or hearing things. You are not breathing, because you don’t need to. You are currently in a different dimension. Time and distance are considerably different here, and you’re just a bundle of energy that is maintained on a subatomic level.”

This was more than Al could handle, and she chose not to get into the details. Either she was having a hallucination brought on by the traumatic injuries she had experienced, or the spirit was telling the truth. “If I am dead as you say, when is my funeral?”

“Your funeral was four days after the body’s death. Do you want to go?”

“How can I go if there was a funeral already?”

“You forgot about what I said. Time and distance have little relevance here.”

“Yes, I would like to go,” Al said after a brief pause. “I think I would like to see what some people thought about me. Not that it really matters.”

“Okay, let’s go. This should be the right spot.” They faced a portion of the tunnel wall (if they had faces, if it really was a wall, and if they were in a tunnel). Al finally decided she wouldn’t think about it. The wall opened, and they were at the back of a church. Al couldn’t remember anything about religious preferences; however, they were in a church.

The service was interdenominational and quite nice. Al noticed a large contingency from the retirement home, and several people she didn’t recognize. The family of the little boy she saved was also there. Gretta was openly crying, and Al wished she could comfort her. The eulogy was very complimentary, and Al was pleased that she was obviously appreciated. Her too short stay had some positive results.

“I am going to call you Al for now, as that is the name your spirit was born with. You may want to change that later on. We have a lot to do, and it’s going to cover a lot of time in the world you’re from. We need to go places that you have little awareness of, or may have forgotten. You have much to learn.

“As I said earlier, we spirits are mortal. We gain strength and life through existing in harmony with others and working for the betterment of all and the sphere around us. Some spirits are defective. Things happen in their creation similar to birth defects in the biological world. There is an evaluation whenever the spirit leaves the body. You weren’t aware of it, but you were evaluated at the time of your physical death. Some spirits never continue. Some are relegated to a black hole where escape is impossible. The spirit that was Sadam Hussein was quick to join that group.

“Your original self had an opportunity for growth, but chose to withdraw and care little for anyone but yourself. It was our mistake that helped you along that route; however, many others in similar circumstances managed to overcome adversity and grow in spite of it. You are weak and might have just faded away after that one venture. As Maddy, I must say, you did far better than several thought you would. Your aura is much stronger now but you still have much to learn, and much to gain.”

They were back in the tunnel. Al tried to assess it in more detail. It was difficult to describe and she realized it was rather pointless to try. After all, who would she describe it to? She really wasn’t seeing anything anyway. It was just a sensory impression. Still, she had just seen her own funeral. Maybe all of this was being created in her brain in the fractions of a second it took her brain to die after she was struck by the bus. It was really a moot point. Dead, dying or a spirit being escorted by another spirit: it was all out of her control. What had the spirit said in the dream? That’s right: “Go with the flow.”

“That’s right, Al, go with the flow. Just let it take you. When it’s time, you will know.”

“What do you mean, ‘When it’s time….’?”

“Just what I said, when it’s time, you will know.”

“Know what?”

“I’m not going to keep repeating it. When it’s time, you will know. It’s as simple as that.”

That’s all Al needed — a cryptic spirit.

“Okay, Al, we need to go.”