Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
COR
Edict Three: Souls must take your hand to cross the veil.
“I can’t wait to see Ginnie!”
I smile. Beverly’s soul may be the most talkative and excited soul I’ve ever encountered on the short walk through the veil to paradise. “Ginnie will likely be the first you reunite with, as well as your parents and your brothers.”
“What about my old cat, Possum?”
I smile. “Of course.”
“You scared the hell out of my friend, you know.”
“Your friend?” I recall Sunny Day’s tear-streaked face, and my cord to her is quivering. The waves of her fear and horror still chill both her and me, and my chest is tight with pain. “Do you mean Sunny Day?”
She plants the fist of her hand not holding mine on her hips. “Yes, I mean Sunny Day. She’s probably in her shop still scared out of her wits that you’re some kind of demon who hurt me.”
I gasp. “I’m no demon.” But Beverly’s assessment is true. Sunny Day was so frightened that she almost talked her friend out of taking my hand.
“I know that now,” Beverly says, “but she doesn’t. Poor thing’s all confused. You have to go back and explain everything to her.”
I shake my head. “I’m not allowed. But...I don’t know how she could see what was happening.” She shouldn’t have been able to. Although…the realization hits me. “I think it was my fault that she could. My mistake to appear to her in the first place. And my mistake to keep appearing to her.”
It was also my mistake to want…
What I should not want.
“So I was right! You are sweet on my Sunny.” Her sly smile lights up her face. “I can tell what a good soul you are. Promise me you’ll go back and make things right with her?”
“I don’t know if I can. I’ve already messed things up so badly.” As it is, I’m fighting my impulse to go straight to Our Heavenly Mother and beg for her forgiveness and help. She never angers, but what if she takes me away from my duties and I never see Sunny Day again?
“Well, I think God wants us to love each other. Surely She’ll understand why you did what you did.”
I narrow my eyes at Beverly. “You knew God is a woman?”
She smiles. “Obviously. What else could She be?”
I return her smile and part the veil: we’ve arrived, and her whole being lights up. Faster than a thought, Beverly is in the arms of her wife, and their beautiful, joyful reunification brings tears to my eyes and makes the place on my belly that connects to Sunny Day ache.
I swallow hard. More than anything, I want to soothe Sunny Day, to comfort her and ease her suffering. But explaining myself would violate Edict One. And if I can’t tell her the truth, what else could I possibly say that would ease her mind?
I record Beverly’s homecoming in my notebook. She’s right, and I know it. I can’t leave Sunny Day in such pain. I don’t know what will come of it or even what I will say, but I have to go to her. I take a deep breath and slip into the veil.