The continuation of my 7th grade novella, Shadows of the Night. Let me just preface this chapter by saying that though I grew up in the church, my ideas of the afterlife and spirituality were influenced more by popular media than from, shall we say, a purely Biblical perspective at this time in my life. Still, this book is, to me, evidence of a heart seeking for truth.

Someone was calling my name. I turned towards Cathy. “Did you hear that?” I asked.
“Yes, I did,” she replied.
We went outside and saw four figures coming towards us. “Maria, is that you?” one of them shouted and started running over to me. It was Laurie!
“Laurie! How did you find me?” I shouted back. The other three people were Miss Ramsel and the twins.
“Oh, Maria, are you all right? You should be in the hospital!” She took a step back as she noticed Cathy.
“Oh, Laurisa, this is um…” I paused for a second, wondering if I sould say she was my mother. Was she my mother? She never said she was, but that voice did. “This is Cathy,” I finished.
Only, Cathy wasn’t looking at Laurie. She was looking at something behind Laurie. Miss Ramsel. They stood there for about ten seconds staring at each other.
Finally, Cathy said, “Why don’t we all go in my little house over here and explain everything to each other there.”
Everyone agreed to that, so we followed Cathy inside.
“Maria, help me get the cookies I just made,” Cathy said. “We’ll be right back,” she called to the others.
When we were out of sight, she started whispering furiously to me.
“Stay away from that woman, Maria. She’s bad news. I’m warning you, stay away!” I could tell Cathy was nervous.
“What are you, my mother?” When I realized what I said, I waited to see her reaction.
“Look, Maria, I know it’s hard to understand, but I am your mother. I can’t explain right now how I found you and all that because that woman’s out there.”
“Wait a minute. do you mean Miss Ramsel?” She was the only woman out there, but I couldn’t see what Cathy had against her.
“If that’s her name, yes. She’s a part of the team. I told you I’d explain later. Right now let’s just bring out the cookies.” I looked around for the cookies when she said that, but I didn’t see any.
“What cookies?” I asked.
“The one right in front of you,” she replied. I jumped as I saw the cookies right at my elbow where I had been leaning.
“Wait a minute! Those weren’t there a second ago, and don’t try to tell me they were!” I looked at Cathy. “Something strange is going on, and you’re strange, too. Besides, how could I be your daughter if your only daughter died in a plane crash?” She didn’t get to answer my question, though, because Laurie burst into the room.
“Hey,” she said, “are you baking the cookies, too? You’ve been in here for awhile.”
“Sorry. We were just talking,” I answered.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Miss Ramsel is going back now to tell the police we found you.
“You know, it was really weird. I mean, ever since you got that bump on your head, you’ve been acting weird, but I didn’t expect you to wander off in the middle of the night. You need to have a doctor look at that bump.” I slowly turned around to face her.
“What do you mean ‘wander off in the middle of the night’? I was taken here during the fire. And what bump? I never bumped my head,” I said to Laurie. She gave Cathy a look that said I needed help.
“Why don’t you and your friends go with your teacher? I’ll take care of Maria. She just needs a little rest,” Cathy said as she winked to Laurie. She’s a pretty good actress, I thought. I love to act too, so I took up on my role.
“Gosh, Laurie, what kind of make-up did you put on this morning? Your face is getting all twisted.” I put my hands to my face a shook my head hard, as if trying to clear my thoughts. “Camp really wore me out.” I bent over and leaned the top half of my body on the counter. I started to slump down to the floor as Cathy caught me.
“You’d better go fast and tell them we need a doctor, but I’m sure it’s not an emergency,” Cathy baited Laurie.
When Laurie and the twins left, I stood up.
“All right, Cathy, Mom, Dad, whoever you are, could you please explain to me what’s going on?” I recovered fast form my little break down.
“All right. Sit down. I’ll start form the beginning, but don’t interupt me to ask a question unless I stop.” Whe she thought about what she said, and realized it sounded corny, she added, “You know what I mean.” I nodded.
“It started with the plane crash when you were five,” she began. “Your father had left us and we were going to Nevada to live with a friend of mine until things got better for us. Only, we never got there. The plane crashed in the Rocky Mountains. Fortunatly, there were only three people on the plane. Those were you, me and the pilot.” She paused for a moment. “Everyone on that plane was killed.” her last words cut through me like a knife. I looked at my hands. They were pure human. I would’ve thought this woman was crazy if it wasn’t for the other unusual events since last night.
“Are you saying you and I are dead?” I asked a bit sarcasticly. She looked up at me and I knew her answer from the pleading look on her face, begging for me to believe her.
“Okay, let me get this straight. We’re dead. yet we’re sitting her at this solid table, on this solid earth, talking and eating solid cookies that are going to give us a few more solid pounds,” I looked at my hand with the fifth or sixth cookie I had had that day and silently put it down.
“That’s basicly right,” she said and added, “Only, you’re going to get a few more solid pounds, not me.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I replied. Then I said, “But you’ve eaten just as many as me.”
“I’m not human,” she said, as simple as that. “You are. There was a mix-up as we were going to heaven. You ended up in hell somehow and they tried to get you out, but you ended up as a human on earth. The same human as before, actually. Maria Wright you name was, now it’s Phillips, your adopted parents’ name.
“You were in a coma for all the doctors knew, when they found us. When you woke up you had forgotten everything about your previous life, so to speak.” She got tears in her eyes when she said that. Real tears.
“I’m sorry,” I comforted her. “I didn’t mean to forget. If I had any control over it, I’m sure Maria Wright loved her mother very, very much and wouldn’t want to forget a thing.”
“It’s all right, Maria. Don’t worry about me. It’s not a bit your fault. But anyway, I guess I should explain the rest of this mess to you.
“Well,” she started, “when you ended up on earth it was sort of a compromise between God and Satan. But you weren’t just human because you had experience life after death. You’re part angel even though you never really got to heaven. In heaven everyone can look down at earth and help people out or whatever, whenever they want to. But my point is, you could do that too, and still can. It’s not really thought about that much by the people in heaven, our “powers” I mean, but on earth they’re magnified, so to speak. If you wanted to right now, you could disappear and fly away. Just like I did with the cookies that you knew weren’t there a second before I put them there.”
Slowly, I took it in. The funny thing was, I believed her. “You know what, I really believe you,” I told her.
“Oh, thank you so much, Maria, but let me finish up before they come back.”
“There’s more?” I asked.
“Just a little. You’re going to be sixteen on October 29th, right? Well, on your sixteenth birthday, Satan was planning on taking you back. Since I’m your mother, I’m here to guide you and protect you. And also, you must always remember to use your powers wisely.”
“He’s taking me back to hell? Couldn’t he wait until I got my driver’s license? I can’t wait to be able to drive without my older sister hanging over everything I do.
“But, seriously,” I continued, “How did you find out he was planning to take me? And why would he want to take me?”
“We found out from our “detectives” I guess you would call them. They watch carefully what Satan is up to at all times. Satan does this just for attetion and to annoy us. He chose you because you’re smart, powerful, you have a family that loves you and would miss you deeply, and because you didn’t know anything about what’s going on until I told you. Oh, and that teacher of your is with their team. Well, I guess that pretty much wraps it up.”
“Except for one thing,” I corrected her.
“What’s that?”
“I still don’t know how to use these “powers” I have.”
She laughed. “You already have used them many times. Sometimes when you can’t wait to get out of a class or something, the class then ends.” She paused. “See that vase over there? Try to bring it there.”
I weaved my eyebrows together and concentrated on the vase. Suddenly it disappeared. “Hey, where’d it go?” I asked and it reappeared on the table in front of me.
“Very good,” she complimented me. “But don’t use so much brain power next time.”
“I hear foot steps,” I said. “I wonder what took them so long.”
“Let’s just say they got a little lost,” Cathy explained. “Hey, where’s our talented actress? It’s time for scene two in “The Sick Child”.”
“Oh, yeah.” I layed down on the couch and watched the second hand on the clock tick it’s way around.
Cathy let Miss Ramsel and two men in. “Where’s the girl?” one of them asked. Cathy brought them all in to the room I was in. Miss Ramsel’s face was bright red. It was obvious she knew what Cathy did to make them late.
“Sorry we’re late. We had trouble finding this place,” the other one said. Miss Ramsel’s face turned even a deeper shad of red. I turned my attention back to the clock as one of the men took my pulse.
“Would you like a cookie?” Cathy offered to Miss Ramsel. I could tell from the way she said it she felt like laughing.
Suddenly the second hand stopped. The man’s hand became very stiff on my rist. I looked up at him. He wasn’t cold, but he seemed to be frozen in a pose. I looked at the other man and saw the same thing. Something crashed to the floor. I turned and saw glass at Cathy’s feet and her face as white as a sheet. Miss Ramsel’s right hand was raised as if she had stopped time. Stopped time! Of course! And Cathy…
“I’ve had enough of your games, kid,” a threatening, sinister voice said to Cathy. Miss Ramsel?
“NO!” I screamed.