Well, the editing is done on the third book in the World of Destiny series. Now all it needs is a cover and it will be ready to go to the publisher. Here is a sample of a part of Chapter Five for all those who can't wait to see the continuing saga of the Sansing Chronicles.
CHAPTER FIVE
Father Joe was visibly tired. He had argued
for days with all the elders of Mary's people. This in itself was a strange
process. Sitting aboard Mary while “talking” to what, for all intents and
purposes, was a bunch of corals resting on the ocean floor seemed surreal at
best. They respected Father Joe as a fellow elder, and one who had immersed
himself in what the humans called religion. As far as Father Joe could tell,
they had heard him out. But this was the first time that a human had really
interacted with Mary's people. Some like Mary had much knowledge of how humans
thought and behaved. But the elders did not. Their knowledge was all second
hand. Father Joe had known from the beginning that it would be an uphill
battle.
Currently he was resting in his “room” inside
the hull of the ship. It was hard not to think of Mary's outer shell as
anything but a ship, space or otherwise. They floated with the currents of the
worldwide ocean. Father Joe was told by Mary that normally she would be resting
on the sea floor with all her companions right now. And that the outer shell
that he thought of as “the ship” would be gone...absorbed into the oceanic soup
to be reconstructed around her once again when she was ready to move on.
Father Joe had apologized for keeping her
away from her friends. Mary had assured him that it was alright, because she
knew the importance Father Joe attached to his mission. Mary was honest with
Father Joe at least. She had told him that she was not convinced that he was
right in his evaluation of the situation with the entity calling itself God.
But Father Joe was her friend, and she respected him. When asked, Father Joe
had willingly opened his mind to her and through her to all the elders of her
kind. She saw what he saw and felt so deeply with unflinching conviction. Even
now, when Mary thought about it she shivered. It had scared her a little. When
she admitted that to Father Joe, he assured her that she was right to be
scared. It scared him too.
Father Joe? Would you like to sleep for a
while? I know my people. They will discuss this for days before they come to
any kind of a decision.
“I
don't think I can right now. And if you mean the chemically induced sleep you
offer then maybe later,” he told her. “For now, I just want to rest.”
Okay. Would you like to see my world while
you rest? I mean really see it as I do.
“Yes. I think I would,” he answered not
really knowing what Mary was offering.
Suddenly
the whole ship became clear as crystal; and not just the one wall like before
when he addressed the elders. Father Joe was still lying on his bed but it was
as though the whole ship had just suddenly vanished. He sat upright quickly
panicked by sensory overload. Once he realized that he wasn't going to drown,
and he reached out and could still feel the walls and the floor where they
should be, Father Joe caught his breath and marveled. It was like being in a
faerie land. There were fish of all kinds, shapes, and colors swimming to and
fro. Father Joe looked up and he could see the sparkling sunlight shimmering on
the “ceiling” of the great ocean.
When he looked down, he saw a great
undulating forest of some type of sea vegetation that resembled kelp but was
multicolored. It was so beautiful
dancing about on the ocean floor that it was hard for him to take his eyes from
it. But when he did, Father Joe was even more awestruck by structures in the
distance that looked like faerie castles.
“Do you build cities?” Father Joe asked Mary
in amazement.
Before she could answer, Father Joe looked
down and a little to his left. He could see Mary there seemingly floating in
the sea nearby.
“I see you Mary! Do you know how beautiful
you are? What a rare and magnificent being God created when he created you,”
Father Joe said sincerely. This place was almost too much to take in all at
once. Father Joe's eyes flitted around like a humming bird taking in bits and
pieces of the glory he saw all around him. It was truly amazing.
No. We do not build cities. Those
structures are built by a colony of animals much like what you call king crabs
that I saw in your ocean. They are the favorite food of another animal that
swims and has many tentacles that can defeat them and pull their hard shell
apart. So they build the structures as extra protection. It is they who plant
the vast gardens of multicolored vegetation as well. They plant, care for, and
then harvest these gardens. When they do, they can become prey to the ones who
hunt them. In their citadels though, they are safe. And thanks.
“Thanks
for what?” Joe asked absentmindedly having forgotten already, in his pure
wonder at their surroundings, his earlier compliment.
Thanks in that you see me as beautiful.
Amongst my kind I am considered quite ordinary.
“You're
welcome. My child, you are the most beautiful and extraordinary person I have
ever met! And I daresay there is absolutely nothing ordinary about you at all,
my dear one,” Father Joe told her sincerely.
Mary
could see in his mind that Father Joe was very sincere in what he had just
said, and she could not help but be astonished. Mary looked up to the humans
like a baby sister to her much older brother. Father Joe's comments made her
feel not just equal but so much more for the first time in her very short life.
It caused her to re-evaluate her whole worldview. She began to see herself from
Father Joe's perspective as one of God's creations. And if it were true, as
Father Joe constantly insisted that God loved all of his creations, she began
to feel a new self-awareness. She began for the first time to see herself as
one who was important. One who mattered to God and the Universe. It was a
strange new paradigm for her. In a world where everyone can read each other's
thoughts and feelings all the time, no one ever felt very special. She saw that
her kind existed in a kind of sea of sameness where individual personalities
were subdued. For the first time, however, Mary thought of herself as being
“apart”. She was an individual who mattered. And she was a beautiful individual
all on her own. With this new revolution going on in her thoughts, Mary also
began to replay in her mind the whole confrontation with the being that called
itself God. She replayed everything in her mind against the backdrop of what
she had seen in Father Joe's mind. Suddenly, she was afraid. Very afraid.
Father Joe. I think you are right. We have
to go back and talk to my elders again. I agree with you now. That creature was
not God. And suddenly I'm very afraid. We have to go!
“Hallelujah,
Thank you Jesus! Let’s go Mary and thank you now for believing me. I thought I
was alone against the world. It’s good to have a friend at your side.”
I believe you, and we have to convince my
elders that they have to help close the necessary portals as soon as possible. That
thing cannot be allowed to come here.
“Amen!”
Was all that Father Joe said. The walls of the ship became visible again, and
Mary began hastily to retrace their path back to where the elders had convened.
She knew that it was a long shot that they would be able to convince all of
them as to the correctness of her new beliefs. But she knew she had to try.
Somewhere between the fear and new found purpose, Mary had caught Father Joe's
comment about being his friend.
Mary was his friend and she delighted in it.
She was beginning to understand more and more what that word actually meant.
And she liked it. In her world where everyone was telepathic, there was her and there were
others, but everyone shared each other’s experiences intimately. So again that
sameness prevailed. It was hard for her to see Georgia, for instance, as a
friend apart. She was more like an extension of self. In Mary's case, however,
her self-image was evolving rapidly because of her close contacts with the
humans. She realized that she was quickly becoming a new person. And it
frightened her a little. But right now there were more important things to
worry about.
*****
