spoken.
Martha took a minute to consider things, then said,
“Okay, Henry. I know there’s no way of stopping you. And I’ll help you in any
way I can. But you have to know from the start that your chances are slim. More
than likely, Nikki is right and you’ll find that you have no impact on events
in the other realm.”
Martha waited, so I nodded. I understood what she was
telling me. I was basically powerless to do anything, no matter how hard I
tried. On Earth, I couldn’t change the course of a floating dandelion seed,
never mind help my sister.
“These kinds of attempts at involvement can also have
harmful effects,” Martha said. “You have to know this.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”
Martha looked me in the eye, her expression serious. “You
say that now, but you’re used to thinking short-term. In your life, you most
likely thought of a year as being a long time. Ten years would have been a
stretch for your imagination. Fifty years was essentially unimaginable. What
you’re gambling with now involves a much longer time.”
I couldn’t deny it. The truth was I’d never thought much
past a year or two at best, never mind anything like fifty.
“I hate to be this blunt,” Martha said. “After all, you
just got here and you’re still acclimating. But the fact is, because of the way
you Transitioned you’re already stuck for a while. Don’t get me wrong.
Occasionally there are exceptions, but people—young people, especially—who left
their last life under traumatic circumstances tend to take quite some time to
move on again.”
That was something that had crossed my mind a few times.
How long did we remain between lives? How long had the others been here?
Martha seemed to read my thoughts. “Your friends haven’t
been here all that long in the scheme of things. However, what you need to know
is that for every moment we go back we stay here that much longer. It’s not a
punishment, it’s an effect. By going back, you’re telling the Universe you’re
not ready to move on. As a result, you get what you asked for. Most of the
time, this isn’t really a problem. In fact, most of the time it’s completely
natural.”
Martha stopped and waited. I got the feeling she wanted
to be sure I was paying attention.
“But some of the time?” I said.
“Some of the time, souls get trapped. They care too much
about their last life. They become so involved with those they left behind, or
with whatever happened to them, that they can’t find a way to leave again. Do
you understand what I’m telling you?”
I thought about all those stories I’d heard—about haunted
places where souls wandered the same halls, fields or roads for hundreds of
years. “You’re saying you really become a ghost?”
“Yes,” Martha said. “Sometimes it’s forever. Some souls
just never come to terms with the fact that there’s no way for them to exist in
their old life again. And they can’t ever get past failing to be seen, or
heard, by whoever they were hoping to get through to. They just can’t accept
that it’s hardly ever possible for that to happen.”
Nikki cleared her throat. “Sorry, Martha. There’s
something I probably should have mentioned before.”
Martha turned to Nikki. “What’s that?”
Nikki jabbed a thumb in my direction. “River Rat said his
sister could hear him. I think we may have a Speaker on our hands. Not sure,
just putting it out there.”
So, that’s what Nikki had been getting at before back at
the pond. Maybe I was a Speaker, whatever that meant. But while Nikki had
seemed surprised at that possibility, Martha didn’t. Then again, as far as I
knew, Martha always remained calm and collected.
“I see,” Martha said. “That could change things
somewhat, but not necessarily for the better.” She brought her attention from
Nikki to me again. “As we just discussed, getting too involved with those in
the other realm can have negative consequences. And