Despite the Angels - By Madeline A Stringer Page 0,101

the door, “Something has happened to Mr Lindsay!”

“Oh, dear, do I have to sort this out as well?” Lewis stopped to think. “But I cannot, because I am lying there, yet I am here and can change nothing. I think I will leave him to it. He likes me well enough, but he does not love me, so he will be well able to manage.”

“Of course he will, Daddy.”

“Oh, hello Dawn, how did you know–” Lewis stopped short, “Dawn!! Oh, my Dawn, you beautiful girl, you came for me?”

“Yes. I came every year.”

“I thought so, recently. Did you see your ark?”

“Yes. It is beautiful.”

“Would you like to see it again? It is on a shelf, we will be able to see it easily. Am I allowed to do frivolous things when I have just died, or is St Peter waiting impatiently for me?” He winked at Dawn, who giggled.

“You believed that sort of thing, an hour ago,” she said.

“Yes. It was easier, believing something. It stopped me worrying about the possibilities all the time. I was reasonably sure I qualified for Heaven. Some people really suffer imagining hellfire. Neil, maybe. Though I don’t know if he really has much conscience this time.”

“Oh, look, it really is beautiful. And my favourite whale out in front, showing the way.” They had arrived at the house and were hovering at the level of the shelf.

“Your favourite whale? I thought your favourite was the giraffe?”

“No, it was just the one we could move. But it worked for you, didn’t it?”

Lewis threw his arms round Dawn and hugged her tight. “Yes, it did, my pet. You did well. I am donating the Ark to the children’s hospital, with a little plaque in your memory. It is there, behind the animals.” Dawn moved over and read the brass plaque. Her eyes glistened.

“Oh, Lewis, I’m so sorry you had to go through all that all alone. I did try to stop Dorothy getting on the train, but she didn’t understand me, even though I cried like anything. Next time, we must try to get it right.”

“Do you want to try again? We haven’t been particularly good parents so far.”

“Of course. It hasn’t been your fault and I’d love to see you both together for a full life. You deserve to have a long time together, after all that’s happened. Come on now, the others are waiting.”

“There’s Trynor!” Lewis broke into a run and Trynor held out his arms.

Dorothy and Lewis were sitting on a marble bench in a sunny courtyard, vines and bougainvillea trailed over the walls above them, a hot sun beat down. They were talking intently, filling each other in on the thirty two years they had spent apart, catching up with news of those still on the earth and those in spirit. They sat close, occasionally stretching out their energies to interlink, or to remind each other of fun times they had had in their bodies.

“And what did you think of being a woman?” Lewis looked suggestively at Dorothy and she laughed.

“You forget, I have been a woman many times.”

“All right then, what did you think of being my woman?”

“Actually, being your woman was fine. Being a woman in that society was not particularly easy. Everything had to be so polite, so well behaved. It was stultifying at times. And hard work.”

“Yes, hard work – like being a peasant a hundred years earlier. I worked hard then and got no respect. Crete was easier, at least in the body.” Lewis stopped, remembering Eloise and Alessia and how it had felt in those bodies. “Rasifi was just as skilled as when she was Rosemarie, but less relaxed about it. And as Rose she was comfortable- got you through Dawn’s birth well, didn’t she?”

“Yes. Lovely having her as my mother, you usually get that honour.”

“No, never my mother. Just a mother figure.”

“Pedant!” Dorothy found some of her Danthys energy and pulsed it out towards Lewis/Alessia, who responded with a coil of energy in return. The two strands of energy met, the colours scintillated and the two energy beings that were the souls of Dorothy and Lewis twined together, rising higher, moving in and out, twisting around, chasing each other to the ground, taking it in turns to surround and be surrounded. A musical note hummed from the centre of their mixed energies and harmonics joined it, so that the note became a perfect ‘ohm’ as they melded and parted and came together again, their energies vibrating