Dark Secrets Unveiled (The Children of the Gods #45) - I.T. Lucas Page 0,54

must have been a hallucination. Gudbrand was someone he’d dreamt about. There was no way Sari could know that name.

“No, he is not,” he heard the goddess answer. There was no mistaking Annani’s voice. It was what people imagined angels sounded like. “And the more I get to know him, the less he reminds me of Gudbrand. In fact, I am not even sure that it was him. Gudbrand was arrogant and selfish, while David is none of those things.”

If he could smile, he would have. That was so true. He was nothing like that man. But how did Annani know about Gudbrand?

“He might have worked on improving his character throughout his subsequent incarnations,” Sari said. “Isn’t that the entire purpose of the never-ending cycle? Through its own suffering, the soul learns to be compassionate and selfless.”

David had been afraid of that answer, but it was the only one that made sense when his dreams were considered. The dreams had not really been dreams at all, but past life memories. He used to be Gudbrand, a brutish, arrogant, and selfish man, and over many life cycles, he had learned humility and selflessness.

But had he?

He was still quite arrogant. He’d only learned to hide it better. And as for selflessness, he wasn’t sure about that either. He could have swallowed his pride and been a better son to his father. He could have ignored the put-downs and visited more. But he’d been arrogant, and his father’s dismissal of his professional successes had angered and saddened him.

And what about his mother and sister? He thought that staying away and letting them live their lives was the right thing to do, but perhaps he’d been motivated more by laziness than altruism. He should have been a better son to his mother and a more caring brother to his sister. Lisa barely knew him.

Bottom line, he was not so different from Gudbrand.

“Gudbrand was never as whiny.” Jonah floated down from a spot on the ceiling and sat down on David’s bed.

Strangely, the mattress sank under him even though he appeared weightless. But then none of this was real, and he was probably dreaming again, a strange dream within a dream.

“How do you know about Gudbrand?”

It was a stupid question to ask a dream apparition that was a product of his imagination. Besides, Jonah’s ghost knew everything because he lived in David’s mind.

His brother smiled. “Asked and answered. But I’m not a product of your imagination, and I don’t live inside your head. I’m just as real as you are but in a different way. While you are still bound by your body and its limitations, I am a bundle of information that is part of the cosmic smorgasbord of information. It’s all a mind game, David. The very reality you live in is an illusion. It’s thought made manifest.”

“That’s an old idea.”

“It doesn’t mean that it is untrue.”

“If thought can create reality, then if I think you are actually here, sitting on my bed, I can touch you.”

“Go ahead.”

As David pushed up on the pillows, he realized several things. In the real world, he had a ventilator stuck down his throat, but in this dream, he could breathe and talk freely. He could also move, which he couldn’t do in reality. So, if he could do all that, he could also embrace his brother.

“Bravo.” Jonah clapped. “You are learning the rules.”

“Or lack thereof.” David leaned forward and put his arms around his brother. “Thank you for coming back. I wasn’t sure you would.”

“I got permission.”

“From whom?”

Shaking his head, Jonah smiled. “Nice try. You know that I’m not allowed to answer that.”

“I figured it was worth a shot. Can our father get permission to visit me as well?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because he has already been reborn. Only those who remain in the in-between can make contact with the living.”

That was disappointing. If he could have told his father that he was sorry for not trying harder to be a better son, maybe he could have gotten rid of some of the damn guilt plaguing him.

Jonah laughed. “If anyone needs to apologize, it is he, not you. You’ve done nothing wrong except to follow your heart. If the old control freak could not accept that, it’s on him, not on you.”

“He wasn’t mad at you for choosing business over medicine.”

“That’s because I never showed any inclination for the medical field, and frankly, I didn’t have the stomach for it. He knew that there was no way I would