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Heaven Or Hell The Reception Office

For those who have not read my previous adventures in “The Perpendicular World” and “Dracula” I need to tell you that I am an artist-painter who owns an art gallery in Hilton Head Island and in Montréal. I like to play golf with the members of Palmetto Dunes Golf Club as well as with the members of Le Blainvillier golf club. I am an ordinary man who acquired extraordinary powers in The Perpendicular World. Lise, my wife doesn’t know about it, nor does she know anything about my adventures in The Perpendicular World, my encounter with Dracula and how I fought with its help an Alien invasion that would have destroyed our world. I destroyed The Balboars spaceship in which Dracula was trapped and we got rid of it at the same time.

She knows about Eden since I finally convinced her to walk through the contraption that was a door to another world called Eden.  That contraption was purchased at a Marriott Hotel drug dealer auction in Hilton Head Island. We now live partly in Eden and partly on Earth on Hilton Head Island and in Laval, Québec, Canada.

To reward me for saving the world, the USA president initiated a huge purchase of my paintings from several USA museums totalizing $100 million dollars and awarded me 10% of all the profit that will be generated from the advanced technology I got from another alien civilization “The Birdies” that presently live in The Perpendicular World. With that technology the department of defense is presently building our first interstellar spaceship and once tested successfully, they will build a fleet of advanced spaceships for the defense of our world against a future alien invasion and for the exploration of star systems with life sustaining planets for colonization. I will also get 10% off the cost of building those spaceships.

My wife doesn’t know that we became immensely rich; I decided not to tell her since she would be traumatized by a sudden change in our lifestyle. She is very happy with the life we live now and our frequent visits to the Eden world are always wonderful.

I don’t want her to know about my adventures and special abilities either since she would start worrying every time, I must leave home for a few days. She knows I am hiding something from her, she worries about it, probably thinking I am a special agent.

To face the Alien invasion, I was granted a permit to kill anyone that would try to stop me in my fight to save the world and I still got this permit since I am the ultimate defense weapon against another attack by the Balboars.

The Hummel visit

We met the Hummel several years ago and had dinner with them. Lise like to go shopping or bicycling with Laura and I like to play golf with her husband Richard.  We are both 10-12 handicap golfers and enjoyed the competition. Richard and Laura are cultured, and we never lack subjects to talk about. We have many friends in Eden but very few ones here on Earth. 

Richard and I were having a drink at the Palmetto Dunes beach bar awaiting our charming and beloved girls. We had played a golf game that afternoon and they were to join us there for the lobster special night. They were late by one hour and I had the intuition that something bad had happened to them. They had gone to Savannah for a nice day of shopping and should have been back with us at the bar by 5:00PM.

“They may have had a car accident” I said to Richard. “Let’s call the police and find out if there was one and the identity of the victims if any.


I called and found out that there had been a terrorist attack in Savannah that killed 28 people and injured 98 more.


“I need to know if they are safe Richard, I said; for this I will do an astral trip, an out of body travel to Savannah. Let’s move to that corner table where you will hold my body while I am away.”

Richard did not know about my special ability but looking at my face he saw that I was dead serious and did not make any objection. We moved our drink to that corner table where I sat in the lotus position and induced total muscle relaxation. I asked Richard to hold me, I let go, turned my soul around and out of the body, turning it from right to left and I saw the two of us sitting under where I was floating. I then sped up towards Savannah at a height where I could watch any important disturbance. It took me only a few seconds to find the smoke and the crowd at one of the shopping centers.  I flew down and quickly went over the area. I went inside the mall and found them. Lise and Laura were safe except for a few small cuts, they were being taken care of. I flew back over the shopping center, watched if I could find any Arab or Pakistanis’ bystanders that would look suspect and I spotted a group of three men that could well be the terrorists. They got into a minivan, I took the license number then flew back to the Palmetto Dunes bar and back into my body.


“They are safe!” I said as I opened my eyes.
“Did you see them? Are they injured?” Asked Richard worriedly.
“Just a few scratches, nothing serious and they were being taken care of.


At that time Richard got a call on his cellular, it was Laura; she told him what happened…we are not seriously hurt, she said, just a few scratches but they insist to take us to a Savannah hospital; we will come back later on today.

Meeting with the President of the USA

“Would you mind holding my body again Richard”, I asked, “I need to do another astral trip, at one point my body will be just gone. Don’t worry, I will be back at the condo later, but I need to act at once to get that terrorist cell out.


He held me; I induced total relaxation and quickly moved my soul out and flew at incredible speed to the White House. Once there, I spotted the president and took
the exact space time location to the ten decimals of his office back corner and jumped my body in. Jumping is always dangerous since if a piece a furniture or a person occupy the space I jumped my body to, there will be a tremendous explosion that could kill everybody in that room.


“Hi Mr. President” I said as he looked up to the sudden whoosh noise as the air was suddenly displaced.
“Hi Richard” the president said not overly surprised since he had seen me doing it several times when I fought the alien invasion. (Previously in “Dracula” story).
I told him about the terrorist attack in Savannah and the license plate of the suspects. The president called right away the FBI director.
“I can help to take them out if you wish Mr. President if you give me the address of the car owner.
“And how will you do that?” Asked the president.
“I will separate my soul from my body and fly in an immaterial state to that location; once there, I go through the walls and find the terrorists; then I register the exact space-time coordinates of a corner of that room, return my soul to my body and then jump my body in that location like I have been doing here.”
“So once you are there, won’t they shoot you?”
“No, I still have the Dracula invisible cloak and my laser gun the Birdies from the Perpendicular World gave me. (Read “The Perpendicular World”) Once there, I can shoot them or interrogate them. The apartment might be booby trapped and the FBI agents might be killed as they burst through the door, it is safer that way.…”
“Yes, you are right; said the President, they will prefer to die as martyrs in an explosion than to face intense interrogation and a lifetime in Guantanamo.
If the apartment is booby trapped, shoot them and if you can do it, please disable their bomb so that we can find important information in their computer and documents that will lead us to their superiors.”
“I don’t like to kill people Mr. President but these terrorists want to kill our babies and children, our wives and as many innocent people as they could; they are vile cowards. Yes, I will shoot them but I will try to interrogate them first if I can, before shooting them. I will sit now and proceed to my astral trip; please do not move my body.”
The president had already found out the address and showed me the location. I sat, relaxed and a few seconds later, I was hovering in the terrorist’s apartment.

The Muslim terrorists’ apartment.

The four terrorists were sitting in the living room watching Fox News live showing the victims of the explosion; some of them were crying for the loss of their loved ones. The Islamists were joking and slapping their thighs in glee. Two of them were obviously high on some drugs. There was some bomb connected to the entrance door; the apartment would explode if the FBI tried to get in.
I registered the exact space-time location to the tenth decimal of one corner of the living room and jumped back instantly to my body. I told the president what I saw and jumped back with my body to my Hilton Head Island condo. There was no one there; Lise was with the Hummels at the beach bistro where I had left them. I had hidden the invisibility cloak and the laser gun in the guest’s bedroom inside one the mattresses since I hadn’t told Lise about my Dracula encounter and the alien invasion. The less she knew about my special abilities and adventures the less she would worry when I had to leave for a few days. When I left for Transylvania, I just told her that I had a showing in France and would be away for a week or two at the most.


I took the cloak out and put it on, grabbed the laser gun and jumped to the terrorists’ apartment.


“Allah gave life to all that live on our world; by killing innocent people you have loss your way to Heaven.” I said in a powerful voice.


The terrorists jumped from the sofa and looked everywhere. I waited until they sat again. One of the two that were high still had his gun in his hand. I lifted my laser gun and cut his head off. The blood splashed out of the empty neck and spilled on one of his partners as the headless body and the head toppled down to the floor. I hid the laser back inside the cloak. The three remaining terrorists kneeled to the floor and started to pray asking Allah to forgive them.


“Who and where are your leaders?” I asked in the same powerful tone of voice.


They looked again everywhere hesitating. I took aim with the laser gun and cut the head off the other terrorist that was high on drug.


“Don’t move; answer me!” I added.


They started to talk at the same time telling me everything they knew. They had been trained in Iran in the special division of international assassins under the Supreme Leader of Iran the Ayatollah Khardhani.  They told me the location of their training camp.
I then shot them both, cut the wires connecting the bomb to the door with my laser and jumped back to the President office.

“They are dead now, Mr. President, I killed the four of them after they gave me the name of their leader and the location of their training camp. I also disabled the booby trap.”
“Good riddance!” Commented the president. “Otherwise we would have to court martial them in Guantanamo, this would have taken interminable court hearings and we don’t even have space in our crowded jails. A liberal judge could have released them on bail…but tell me who their leader is and where is their training camp?”


“They have been working directly under the Ayatollah Khardhani and their training camp is located about twenty miles from Tehran.”
‘’I am calling the secretary of defense and set up a meeting with the SEALOGCENT’s commander, Gerthner. He also served as commander of Task Force 53 and Logistics Forces, U.S. Naval Forces Central. Would you please stay at the White House and assist me to the meeting?”
“Absolutely! Mr. President: I am honored by that invitation! ‘’.


The president showed me the way to a comfortable room where I lied down and soon fell asleep. A few hours later a group of generals and the Secretary of defense were sitting in the oval office and on a screen, I could see Commander Gerthner.
They discussed what should be the appropriate immediate response to this latest attack on American soil. It was decided that killing the Ayatollah Khardhani was the only response that would stop Iran in its effort to destroy the modern world.


“Would you get there and set up on the roof of the main building a device to guide our bombs?” Asked the president?
“Yes immediately. I will induce the astral trip now; I need silence and please don’t move my body.”


A few seconds later I was flying over Tehran. I found the training camp and registered the exact space-time coordinates to the tenth decimal of a spot on the roof of the main building. I then rushed back in my body.


“I am ready to do it” I said.


A marine brought me the device, it weighed about 80 pounds, I took it and held it tight to my chest, then I jumped to the main building roof of the training camp and setup the device. I then relaxed and did an astral trip inside and found a room where the Ayatollah and a few of the leaders were having a conference. I moved back to my body on the roof and jumped back to the president office.
“He is there, Mr. President” I said, “perhaps you should take advantage of it and bomb the building now.”
The president gave the order.
“I will return and witness the destruction, Mr. President.”
I jumped back to the main building roof and then to the ground where I was immediately arrested.
The guards brought me inside to the Ayatollah.
“How did you get here, dirty infidel?” The Supreme leader asked.
“I came to assist to your demise dirty dog.” I replied


At that moment I sensed the incoming of the devil: a dark malevolent mass was now hovering over me, coming for me. I was frightened like I had never been before; there was a foreboding of immediate danger. I jumped back to the President office, but something seized me in midflight, there was a weird sensation of movement, there was a moment of total darkness and suddenly I was on the ground, unfamiliar ground. I looked up and saw three moons over my head and one of them had an atmosphere, some continents and oceans. I was in a strange world, it was a different world and there was a foreboding feeling of danger I could not ignore. I tried to jump back to my condo, but it did not work. I tried the White House oval office to no avail. I could not jump to my world; I was lost on a strange planet and in danger. I was still holding in my right hand the invisible cloak and the laser gun tucked inside. The Supreme leader guards had seen my hand open with nothing in it never doubting that I was holding something invisible to their eyes. I looked around; I was standing on a strip of artificial hard material in the middle of a desert. The ground was flat and there were some kinds of cactus with growths coming out of the main mass that I would call flowers had they not been so repulsive. There were no hills but a speck of something was visible on the horizon to my right. The strip was leading to it. I walked in that direction, and it was an oasis. A few people were watching my arrival. One of them was a priest and he walked to me offering me his hand.


“Welcome to Nowhere;” he said, “I am Father O’Leary.”
“Hi father,” I replied somewhat under shock, “that isn’t possible; you are one of the characters of my trilogy “Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story”.
“We will have plenty of time to talk about it,” said the good father, “but let me introduce you to my companions. This is John, a retired navy officer.”
I shook hand with him and looked into his eyes and I saw the understanding, the maturity, the self-confidence and the awareness of a man that had work for his government as a spy and an assassin for more than 30 years
“Hi John,” I said, “I know you; you are the main character of my trilogy and I love you just as much as I love our good father O’Leary.


John looked at me trying to analyze what kind of man would say such a preposterous thing but decided to reserve his opinion for later. He smiled and said nothing.


“This is Joan.” Said Father O’Leary.


Joan was the most exquisite woman. She had been my wife in my trilogy. I shook her hand.


“In my trilogy, Ghama-2 An Afterlife Story, I loved you Joan and now that I see you, I am again falling in love with you. You were my wife in that story I wrote, and we have been through a lot together.” 


She looked at me, right into my eyes, right into my soul. There was nothing I could hide from that perceptive woman, she saw that I was sincere; she saw how much I loved her, she came closed and kissed me on the lips.


“How long have you been here”, I asked.
“I was transported from Terra two days ago.” Joan said.
“I have been here for 5 days and came from Soil”, the good father said.
“I came from Dirt 3 days ago”, said John.
“And I am just arriving from Earth.” I replied. “We came from different worlds, from different universes, parallel universes and the people who transported us here are very powerful and probable watching us right now.”
“It might be God Himself that transported us here.” Father O’Leary said. “And He might be testing us.”


John was six foot two inches, slim, athletic and very handsome. He was probably in his seventies but looked like he was in his mid-fifties. John had an imposing presence; he was a born leader. There was something about him that would make you refer to him for an important decision; perhaps his maturity and the fact that looking at him, one knew that he would not ridicule anyone. There was also that dignity in him, something rare to be found in a government assassin. I guess he had his own code of ethic just like I had. We had both turn into killers for the good sake of the world.
Joan was slim, very beautiful, extremely perceptive and bursting with life. She was in her fifties too but might well be much older.
Father O’Leary was massive just as tall as John but with an extra 50 pounds of muscle hidden by a thick layer of fat. He wasn’t obese though; he was just imposing and looked very good humored. It seems that there was always a trace of smile on his handsome face.
“Yes it might be God that brought us here, but it might also be the Devil.” I said and went on telling them the circumstances of my involuntary trip here.  “…the Devil was coming to me when I tried to jump back to my condo, I landed here.” I finished.
“Interesting” Joan said, “you can jump from one place to another instantly…”
“Yes, I developed that ability in the Perpendicular World, a fascinating world inhabited by an advanced species, the Birdies. I jumped to that world seizing the fast-disappearing image that came to the corner of my left eye, seizing it and wishing to be there.  I went there many times; I must have spent more than 40 years there, getting younger and more powerful every time and when I came back to Earth after each trip there, I came back at the same time I left. This is why I called that world The Perpendicular World where the time line is perpendicular to our time line on Earth.”
“It seems to me that you are holding something in your right hand,” commented John, “but I can’t see it”
“I got an invisible cloak from Dracula and a laser gun tucked in it, a gift from the Birdies.


I showed them the gun and then covered me with the cloak, becoming invisible.


“This cloak is awesome; please tell me about that Dracula.” Joan asked.


I realized that these people must have found very boring the days they had spent here; the foreboding sense of danger was not immediate, so I went on telling them about the Alien invasion and how I woke up Dracula and succeeded to get his help in the fight against the Balboars.
“Then my wife almost got killed in the Savannah Muslim terrorists attack and I decided to fight them under the President direction.” I finished.
“We had some problems with the Muslims too on my world,” said John, “but we got them out.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We got fed up”, John said, “the United Nations were siding with the Muslim dictators, so we stop our funding and started the Free World United Nations with many countries across the world. Each country contributed to an international force, and we destroyed the power plants of Iran and Pakistan. We declared illegal the practice of Islam and the Charia laws. We closed all the Mosques in all the Free United Nation worlds and stop any business with any country that would tolerate it. We took control of the Middle East petroleum by force. We open huge prison camps where we deported all the illegals that would go on practicing the Charia in our countries.
The few illegal countries that did not follow were totally closed to the rest of the world. We inundated their television and radio networks with messages of liberty and respect for their women and for those who do not share their beliefs. We used the network to warn the people to stop going to the Mosques since we intended to destroy them one at a time. We told the population to revolt against the clericals for lying to them and for treating the women with injustice; mutilating them, covering their faces preventing them to live an active life with equal rights to the men. We told them that the Charia and the Koran text had been written more than 150 years after Mohammed death and it wasn’t what Mohammed wanted. The message caught and slowly the population abandoned the Islam tradition. The destruction of a few Mosques filled with fanatics helped too. They understood the message. That was twenty years ago and since then, there were no more terrorists’ attacks, and the world was not safer when I got here.”
“Yes but what happened when you destroyed Pakistan power plants? Did they retaliate? Did they send their nuclear missiles to destroy the European countries or the USA?
“We were prepared for that; and we had our satellites to watch their activity. They launched some missiles, but we destroyed them in the air and bombed the missiles sites. After that they beg us to help them and accepted to make the practice of Charia and Islam illegal. We forced the army to get rid of the fanatics that had infiltrated their secret services and we let them repair their power plants.”
“What about Russia and China? Did they interfere?” I asked.
“No, they kept watching but did nothing.”
“How wonderful,” I said, “you are free from that terrible menace. Earth is presently in great danger of a nuclear destruction and the Muslims are responsible for the situation. They even kill other Muslims; the Sunni kill the Chiite by bombing them; many of them are bloodthirsty animals with angelic faces.”


“Let’s forget about that for now,” father O ‘Leary said, “we are stuck here, and I want to show you something. Perhaps it is a way out of here. We went to a very strange building surrounded by a wide moat. The moat was 200 foot wide, and I sensed danger lurking inside, some kind of monsters.
On our side of the moat was a statue of an alien, the statue was 12 to 16 foot high and represented a very slim insectoid biped with deployed wings and fur on its chest. The colors of that alien were very beautiful, and its face bare some similarities to a mouse head but much more beautiful. The large eyes seemed to be adapted for nightlife and bore a sense of great intelligence and maturity. There was a pedestal at its base and a 5-foot urn was standing on it. Some signs were carved in the side of the urn, and I figured that it was probably a message from those who built the statue. There were three circles that caught my attention.


“If we move the moat water with a stick, something wicked comes our way”. Father O’Leary said.
“We can’t stay here too long”, John said, “I sense that we are in danger here.
“I sense that too”. I replied. “Nothing immediate though. Is there anything to eat here, I am famished”.
“We eat the nuts growing on the few trees of this oasis but they are becoming scarce and hard to reach” Joan said.
“I might be able to do an astral trip and find out what lays at the other end of that road, I said, “perhaps I could identify the source of this danger we both sense John. I could perhaps find some cities, some people…”
“I believe you should do that”, Joan said.
“For that I need to relax, I need some privacy and someone to hold my head, would you do that Joan?”
“Yes darling,” said Joan with a smile, “come with me on the farthest side of the oasis, there is some kind of shelter”.
She must have caught my intentions; I am not known as a time waster.
We left John and father O’Leary and walked there where we sat close to each other.
“I need to prepare myself for the astral trip and if you kiss me, it would help”. I said.


She looked at me and guessed that what I wanted was way more than one kiss; she smiled in a very erotic way and kissed me. We both undressed and made love passionately. After that we held each other until I was ready again. We made love three times.


“Now I am ready to try it”.


She held me tenderly, I induced total relaxation and moved out of my body turning from right to left, and suddenly hovering over the two of us. I left at full speed following the road and soon reached a very strange city. The abrupt slanting wall encircling the city could not be climbed by man, so I guessed that the people that had live in that city were some kind of quadrupeds, the city was dead.  Theres was nothing moving. The buildings had many openings, and the walls were twisted in some improbable ways; I just couldn’t understand the architectural sense. It had been designed by very different minds but there was a desire to create beauty otherwise the buildings would just be squared. The buildings were interconnected and of strange colors. The color was inside the material that looks like marble and the color as well as the wall material look fresh and would probably resist the weather erosion forever. I flew inside one of the buildings and followed the corridors, I went through the different parts. There was a large room with a pool in the middle and many skeletons. They were quadrupeds and looked like centaurs. Parts of their bodies were covered by some kind of shield; swords were lying on the floor beside the skeletons. There were some kind of stools and other contraptions that had been thrown every which way and I could imagine that there had been a fight. Some of the bones had been gnawed by whatever had killed the quadrupeds.


I went on and spotted scenes of carnage in many places. I left the city and flew at high altitude in the hope to find an inhabited settlement and found other scenes of carnage; everyone had been killed and eaten. Then I spotted a castle and flew over it. I immediately sensed some alien thoughts trying to get inside my mind. Whoever was trying to get in my mind was repugnant and evil. I could block it having practice mind blocking with the telepathic Birdies on the Perpendicular world. I decided to go inside the castle and found a large room with hundreds of demon statues. Each one was twelve feet high, and the demons were standing on powerful goat legs ending in hooves.


They seemed to be hard as stone, but I detected life in each one of them. One of the statues, the one right in front of me was looking at me and I detected a movement in the clawed fingers. The demon was getting out of the stasis he had put himself in; they were probably awaiting the arrival of a new foe on this world, some spaceship landing, they were surely not expecting my presence, but they nevertheless spotted me in my immaterial state. Now they would come searching for us and we better find a way to get out of this world. I rushed back to the oasis and awoken in Joan’s arms.
‘’ What happened? asked Joan as she noticed by looking at my face that I had seen something horrifying.

‘’Let’s get back to our companions, I will tell you then.’’

 We ran to where we had left John and Father O’Leary. John looked at Joan and then at me and I knew that he had guessed what we had been doing.


“You know Joan”, John said, “I also have feelings for you even though we have met only two days ago, and I would like to have a chance to win your heart.”


I realized that what Joan would reply would decide the relationship between John and I. I wanted to get John friendship, but I did not want to lose Joan. Why not share, I thought.


“My dear John, I sensed your sentiments towards me”, Joan replied, “and I have the same for you. Tonight if we can, I will be yours; you will both have me.”
“I am ok with that John”, I said, “only one woman and the two of us in love with her…we can share; it will be awkward but if we do not try to have more time with her than the other one, it should work; it is a matter of respecting the other and treat him the way we wish to be treated.”
“I will love you both equally.” Joan added.
John looked at me and thought it over for a moment.
“I don’t want to kill you Richard”, John said, “let’s give it a try and let’s be friend.”


We shook hands at that, and Joan kissed us both. Father O’Leary had not said a word, he had just observed keeping out of it.


“All right, my friends,” the good father said, “now I want to know what you found out Richard about this world and what is menacing us.”
“The demons will be coming,” I said, “We must get out of here. The way out must be through that building in the middle of the moat. Otherwise, God or whoever put us here might as well have killed us.”


I went to the statue and tried to lift the urn cover. It was jammed. I looked for a way to open it and my attention was caught again by the three circles. The Statue hand had three fingers and I thought that the three circles were probably a place the alien would put his fingers on.
I tried to press on the three circles carved on the side of the urn at the same time and heard a click.


“Please lift the cover,” I said, “while I keep my fingers on the circle John.”


John lifted the cover and we saw that the urn was filled with a green powder. It was the same color as the moat water.


“Let’s carry the urn closer to the moat,” I said, “I will try something.”


John helped me with it because it was very heavy. Once at the moat, I took a handful of the green powder and threw it on the moat. There was some kind of chemical reaction and a path of rocks that were at the water level and totally unnoticeable changed color at the contact of the powder.
We walked from one rock to the other as I threw more of the green powder ahead and we reached the other side of the moat without ever touching the water and being attacked by the monsters lurking underneath. We walked around the strange building to find an entrance to no avail.
“Have you noticed the carving on the wall?” Joan asked. “It was the right size to hold in the urn.” She went on.
“You must be right,” Joan, “John said, “it got to be the way in; I noticed nothing else.”


Father O’Leary who had been carrying the heavy urn brought the urn to the carving and inserted it. It fit perfectly. Suddenly a part of the wall disappeared, the opening had the urn shape and was big enough to let us go through.


“What do we do?” I asked John, “Do we just walk in? Perhaps the opening will also let the demons go through and I sensed them coming, they must be nearby already.”
“My child,” Father O’Leary said,” Joan and John walk inside, Richard, get in between the opening walls and wait for me, I don’t think it will close on you and crush you. I will go back for the urn and bring it back where it was on the other side of the moat. If some other people are transported here, they will also have a way to leave this world. Once I am back, we will walk inside. I am quite sure that the wall will close again and prevent the demons to reach us.”


The father was already running over the stones in great agility with the heavy urn in his arms. He had just placed it back on the pedestal when I saw a group of demons running on the road towards the little oasis. They were running very fast, and I worried about the chance of the good father escaping them. He rushed over the stones at full speed; one demon was reaching the moat and splashed in it to be caught immediately by the tentacles of one of the monsters hiding under the water surface. More demons walked into the moat and fought the moat monsters, ripping the tentacles apart and swimming quickly towards us. Father O’Leary reached us, and we walked inside the building. The wall opening close, we were safe for now, but we did not linger, we walked quickly through the corridors and the rooms trying to find something or someone that would help us escape from that dangerous world. There was no one, but we found a room with a wall covered with primitive weapons, swords, fencing swords, knives, axes, lances, shields and helmets, gloves, sheaths for the swords and knives, first aid kits. There was a cream in the first aid kit, I applied it on a small scratch, the result of too much passion and the scratch disappeared under my eyes.


“That cream has tremendous healing power,” I commented to my friends.
“And here,” Father O’Leary said, “is a mirror that isn’t a mirror; I put my finger on it and went right through. I could sense a gush of wind on the other side of this mirror simile.”


The mirror was twelve foot high by 6 foot wide.  We looked at it and pushed a sword right through and pulled it back.
“It has to be our way out,” I commented, “it is a door to another world.”
“Perhaps a door to Heaven!”  Father O’Leary added.


“Do you think we are dead Father?” I asked. “Perhaps we died and were given a new body and a testing challenge…”
“Richard, I don’t think so,” the good father replied, “
“In such case,” I commented, “all those weapons will somehow become very useful in the next world. John, you have been a navy officer and one of the best armed and open-hand combatant for your country. We will need a leader and you are surely the most experienced in that role amongst us. So, I propose you to be our leader; what do you think Joan and you, Father?”
“Yes sure.” Joan said.
“You can be my leader, John; I will follow your orders if they don’t go against the teachings of my church. If I feel uncomfortable about it, if it goes against my ethics, I will tell you.” Father O’Leary said.
“Thank you my friends; I accept the responsibility but if I say jump, you must do it. If I am not sure about a decision to make, I will refer to all three of you. My  intuition of immediate danger tells me that we can’t stay here; we need to go through that mirror simile and go well armed.”
John told us to put on the leg, arms and body armor, the helmet and to select a sword and a knife we feel comfortable with and a lance as well.
“You know John, when I come back from a trip to the Perpendicular World, I come back young and strong, unfortunately, my body age quickly. I am due for a rejuvenating trip there. I am afraid that this sword and the body armor are intended for a younger man and I don’t know if I will be of much help if we get into a fight.”
“I understand,” John said, “But God or whoever put us here, must know about that. We are all in our sixties and we all lost much of our younger age energy. If we can’t cope with the incoming challenges, they would have just killed us instead of transporting us here.
Also we need a plan, an objective; we can’t just get through that mirror door to another world without a goal, an objective. So there must be a map that comes with that mirror showing us where we should go. ”
“Here is the map.” Joan said.


She had been looking at the huge mirror while we were talking and had noticed some carvings on the side of the mirror. She had pressed on to several of them and after many trials a map had appeared covering the whole mirror. The map showed a ring world; a world artificially built around its sun. We could see on the top of the screen the ring world with the stars around it and a menacing repulsing yellow cloud moving towards it. It hits it and splashed of yellow bounced off the back of the ring world that protected all life on its interior surface.
Underneath that movie was a small part of the ring world covering sixty per cent of the screen. It indicated where we will be and a castle with the words “Saint-Joseph castle”.
It also showed a human settlement and a Kzinti settlement. It was written dangerous underneath the Kzinti one.


“All right,” John said, “now we know where we have to go, let’s walk through the mirror with our sword drawn and be ready for whatever happens on the other side.”


We went through it and walked right into the middle of a lion’s den. The lions attacked us immediately. One of them jumped at me and as I moved quickly aside to escape the charge, I trusted my sword into its side and killed it instantly.
I didn’t have time to look around for Joan as another one was trying to bit my leg; I fell but trusted my sword in its throat and somehow, in great agility, I jumped back on my feet. There were six lions lying dead on the ground and three more were backing up growling.


“Anyone injured?” asked John worriedly.


None of us was injured; our arms and leg shields and our body armor and helmet had saved us from a bad injury. I felt some unnatural energy flowing through my body. I felt as strong, perhaps stronger than when I came back from one of my trips to the Perpendicular World.
“I feel so good, young again.” Joan said excitedly. That was a rush.”


We talked about it; something in the mirror had eliminated our old cells and whatever was weakening us and rejuvenated our bodies. I kissed Joan on the lips and felt a tremendous sexual urge. 

“My turn,” John said as he pushed me aside and took Joan in his arms to kiss her.


We were both totally excited and Joan was feeling the same urge to have sex right away. The lions were gone, we felt safe. Joan started to take off her clothes; John was doing it too.


“I will stand watch.’’ The good father said. “Go for it.”


I watched John and Joan making love, lying beside them. I kissed her. I undressed too and waited for my turn. When John got into the euphoria of the aftermath, I pushed him aside and went into Joan’s open arms. We made love and both got a very intense orgasm.


In the following hour, we both made love to Joan three times, she had multiple orgasms and enjoyed each one of them.


“I had been thinking about that for two days Joan,” John said, “ever since I saw you for the first time.”
“I knew it,” Joan said, “but you did not make me any pass. So, I waited for it.”
“We are young again and loaded with hormones,” Joan said, “I will be yours when it gets too pressing.”


Joan went to the good father and talked to him.


“Do you want me too, father?” She asked.


“Very much so, my child.” The good father replied. “But I made a vow, and I will offer my unsatisfied need to God and ask Him to help us in return.”


Later on, we started our trek across the land, it had been transformed or built into a gorgeous park. There were fruits bearing trees and berry bushes everywhere, wheat fields, small mountains and streams. There were forests too, and trails to follow across these forests.


“It looks like Ghama-2,” I mentioned one evening as we were roasting a lamb, we had killed that evening. We had also found potatoes and we were baking them under a pile of rocks. Joan had crushed some wheat and mixed it with the milk we recuperated from the Goat and cooked it into a delicious smelling bread. We traveled for months, discovered and investigated some ruins. They looked like one million years old; it was fascinating, there was so much to see, so much wildlife, we were happy, sexually and emotionally satisfied. We survived the attack of wild dogs and lions without any serious injury. Months had passed since our arrival in the ring world, we became very close friends. 

At night, or on our way towards that castle area, we talked about our life, what we had been through, our adventures in our respective worlds. The ruins were always spiking our curiosity and we often wondered what kind of people, what kind of alien had built those long-abandoned settlements.
One day we spotted a group of twenty people that were being attacked by some rat face humanoids. They were outnumbered and many of them lay dead on the ground. We did not even think about it, we charged to their rescue risking our lives, but we saved those people and came out of it with
just a few cuts that our first aid kit cream fixed in no time. We wished them the best of luck and went on towards Saint-Joseph castle.


Every night was a feast followed by many intimate moments with our lovely Joan. I had never been so happy. Our conversations were always interesting, and we loved the good father sense of humor. We were laughing at nothing and living the best time of our lives. One day we spotted the huge castle. It was more than huge, it was enormous, perhaps one mile square, with thousands of minarets sticking out. Electrical sparks, thousands of them per second sometimes were hitting them. 

“I once wrote about Saint-Joseph castle,” I told my companions, “it was where the souls go, it was the admission office and all those sparks might be the recently deceased souls hitting the receiving minarets.”


We came upon a bridge and stop; for a couple of goblins were awaiting us. The goblins were about two feet high.


“Hi.” Said Joan, all honey. “You are so cute; I never met with goblins before, they were part of our legends on Terra.”
“Hi.” Said the goblins simultaneously.
“I am Fripouille.” Said one of the goblins.
“I am Freluquet.” Said the other one.
“I am Joan and here is John our leader; Father O’Leary and Richard. Can I hug you?” Joan asked with a smile.”
“Why?” Asked Fripouille, with a suspicious look.
“Because I would like to hug you and kiss you.” Said Joan, all tenderness.
“What? Kisses? Hugs? Certainly not.” Said Fripouille as Joan lifted him up and nevertheless kissed him on the cheeks.
“Will you stop that?” Said Fripouille, his cheeks red of injured pride and mixed emotions.
“Put him on the ground Joan.” John said. “Fripouille is not a doll but a venerable being, possibly thousands of years old.”
“I am even older than that.” Fripouille said. “For I was here when the ring world engineers were still building this ring-world and that was a billion years ago.”
“And what did you do, how did you spend your time for a billion years?” Joan asked.
“That’s Goblins secret.” Answered Fripouille; a little ashamed. For everyone should know, thought Fripouille, that Goblins don’t do much except drink ale, argue, and pull pranks.
“We take care of the land.” Freluquet said. “And we give puzzling answers to questioning visitors.”
“I got a question for you!” Said John. “Can you tell us how to get inside that castle; I don’t see any door…”
“Why do you want to go inside? You are not dead yet.” Fripouille said.
“We don’t know what to do,” Joan replied, “we were taken away from our world, woke up on a very dangerous planet, we barely escaped the demons there as we walked through a mirror simile to get here. There was a map in that mirror showing a castle location, it was written Saint-Joseph castle.

On the map. So, we came here.”
“St-Joseph can tell you why you are here; he might help you for he knows a lot more than mere goblins.” Freluquet said.
“But how do we get to the castle dear?” John asked
“You follow the right road. That’s all.” Fripouille said.
“OK, let’s go then.” John said. “These Goblins are of no help.”

We crossed the bridge and halted in front of the huge wall. There was no ring button.
“Anyone there” I shouted, “Hello, anyone there?”


An opening took shape, and we could walk inside.  There was a park inside the encircling stone wall; there was a freshly cut lawn and here and there some fruit trees, walkways and fountains.  The castle was blue with silver roofs topping the high towers and set on top of a hill. It was elegantly designed and looked right out of a fairy tale. We followed the main way to the castle and stopped in front of a huge front door. The door was solid gold, ten-foot high by eight-foot wide and carved. John shook the silver bell hanging on the left side and the door silently opened onto a vast hall. The floors were made of black granite and here and there were gold sofas and tables. Magnificent artworks were decorating the walls. The ceiling was thirty feet high, carved and painted with scenes showing angels fighting along with humans and other humanoids against demons and evil looking aliens.


“Look at that painting!” Joan said.


The painting showed a man in his sixties writing a book. On his right was a partially painted canvas set on an easel. A pillar of light was set on the book and the pillar was supporting a world. Angels and demons were flying about the world. Coming closer, Joan recognized me, I was the writer.


“That’s you Richard,” Joan said, “how could it be?”
“I recognize you too,” John said. ”
“I told you,” I replied, “that you, all three of you are the characters of my trilogy Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story, so I come to the conclusion that writing that story gave life to you, my friends; God must have like you and decided to create you in parallel universes.”
“Hi everyone.” Said a holy looking man.


We were taken by surprise for there had been nothing to warn us of his arrival and suddenly, he was there, standing a few feet from our group. The man looked like he was in his late forties but there was something ancient about him. He had a beard and long brown hair; he was dressed in a gold and beige robe and wore leather sandals. He had a little gold cap on his head; he held a five-foot long gnarled stick made of some kind of multicolored wood.
He was smiling at us and there was such kindness, warmness and an air of calm understanding in his face that I felt we were meeting with a real saint.


“I saw your coming to the land of magic in my crystal ball and I am very pleased that you evaded the deadly lines of defense the land opposes to all visitors.” The man said. “My name is Joseph.”
“We were transformed when we passed through that mirror and got younger, stronger and faster than we had ever been in our youth.” John said. “That helped us go through all those fights with aliens and wild predators that attacked us. 

We introduced ourselves in turn and told the saint looking man what we were doing before we got trapped on the demon world.


“That’s a cool castle you got here.” Said Joan. “On Terra I was very rich, and I would have given a fortune to have one like that on Earth.”
“I grew up on Earth.” Answered Joseph. “At that time, nobody was dressed like you all are. Can I have a look at your sword?”


John quickly handed him his sword and Joseph looked at it interestingly.


“Nobody on Earth could have made that sword.” Said Joseph. “The blade is made of fused atoms; it seems indestructible, yet light in weight and extremely sharp on its cutting edge. Moreover, that blade could serve as a shield against a black magic bolt and return the bolt to the aggressor.”
‘’We found those weapons in the same room as the mirror that brought us here.” I mentioned. “You mention those, but we never got confronted with sorcerers or witches.’’


“I will be glad to hear all about your odyssey, but for now, Freluquet and Fripouille will lead you to your rooms where you will have a chance to have a good bath. Then we will have dinner and talk about it at length.”


Suddenly the goblins were there, smiling maliciously at us. The goblins led the way to the back door that opened by magic to another very large room with a two-way fireplace in the center and a large and magnificent stairway on the left. The ceiling of that room was even higher, possibly sixty feet high. The stairway led to a balcony circling the large room. We went up the stair and got to the balcony.
“Please walk to any of those doors,” said Freluquet. “Say the magic word and the door will open to your bedroom.”
“And what is the magic word?” Joan asked.
“It is the symbol of the ratio of a circle circumference by its diameter.” The goblins answered bursting in laughs as they ran down the stairs.
“That’s an easy one.” I thought and said Pi (3.1416…).

Joan heard me and said Pi in front of the next door, it opened. John was quicker than me this time. “Can I come with you, my sweetheart?” He asked.


They walked inside the room while Father O’Leary and I went to our rooms. Each room was different but each one had a king-size bed, a table with two chairs, a sofa and a rocking chair. Each one had a window with a wonderful view of the valley and its labyrinth of roads and streams. The windows were open, but gold shutters set on the sides could be used on rainy days. There hadn’t been much rain since we have been on the ring-world; sometimes it did rain but not for long. I knew what was happening in Joan’s room and wished I had been quicker than John in inviting myself. I took a shower and lay on the bed thinking about the strange life I had been blessed with and I silently thanked God for it. I thought about Lise, my wife Lise, that I left on Earth, and I missed her badly. Lise was an extraordinary woman, I wondered if I would ever come back to my world and live with her again. I might come back hundreds of years later if for each day on the ringworld one year or more pass on Earth. The timeline might be different. Half an hour later, Joan walked into the room. It was my turn, great! We made love and soon fell asleep. We woke up later and found our clothes neatly placed on a sofa.


“Someone must have wash and dried our clothes Joan,” I said, “and I don’t know how or when; We put them on a heap by the bed and now they are clean and dry and neatly placed on that sofa.”
“ We should not be overly surprised by a touch of magic on this land.” Answered Joan “The goblins disappear at will; the saint can appear in our back without a movement of air and the baths filled by themselves…”
“So you too think he is a saint?” I asked, all interest, as we went down the stairway. The goblins were waiting for us at the end of the stairs.


“No kiss no hug and no picking up.” Told Fripouille to Joan who picked him up anyway and kissed the goblin on both cheeks then hugged him lovingly before letting him down.
“Please follow us Earth emissaries.” Fripouille said, walking hastily forward, seemingly under high emotion.


The goblins led us to the castle’s main dining room. The room was about two hundred feet long by eighty feet wide and thirty feet high and the whole of the two hundred feet long wall on their left was covered with shelves up to the ceiling. The shelves held thousands upon thousands of books. There was a long table with plates loaded with a variety of fruits, cheese and bread. There were also some covered steaming plates in the center. The chairs were padded and looked very comfortable. The long wall on their right was amazing, it had a series of rectangular and very large windows. The windows gave a view of different worlds and sometimes the world that could be seen from one window would wink out to be replaced by an entirely different one. The windows started at the floor level and reached the ceiling, they were twenty feet wide by thirty feet high and there was no apparent plate glass. We could just walked through and step on another world, I thought.


“It looks so real,” I said, “do you think we can just walk through and step on another world?”

“This you could do but it is not advisable.” Said Joseph in a booming voice.


We had not seen him but there he was, sitting comfortably at the end of the long table.


“Please come over and sit. I guess you are quite hungry.”  


We went to sit close to him.


“Please help yourself with the food and wine. I could fill your plate by the fleetest act of magic but it wouldn’t be as enjoyable.”


We let Joan serve herself and then in turn filled our plates with all kind of appetizing meat and vegetables. I picked a red wine urn and filled the glasses.


“Would you care for a glass of wine?” I asked Joseph.
“Yes, for we have a toast coming up.”


Everyone had his glass in hand.
“Welcome in Heaven! I am Joseph and this is the reception office.”
“What!? This is heaven, the real heaven. I blurted out; did we die?
“No, you came in a different way. This castle has many levels underneath and upstairs filled with thousands of reception offices and the souls are brought here by soul snatchers, some kind of light beams that attract the recently deceased or should I say the recently disembodied souls. When they come here, everything they did in their life is clearly remembered. They remember all their bad and good actions and they come here with the same mix of good and bad qualities. They meet with a person holograph that looks like me but in fact is projected by the artificial intelligence that runs the admission office under my supervision.


My similes or doubles talk to each one and tell them what they did wrong and explain to them that they will now be sent to a hellish place or a sad place or a good place in the ring-world where they should evolve into a better or more mature being. They will be told that on the ring-world, nobody grows old, they will be given a young adult body, and they will try to blend and mix and deserve the approval of the settlement people they are being sent to.
They are being told about the always present danger of being killed by the great variety of predators roaming the ring-world as well as the aggressive alien species. They are being told that if when they will be killed again, they will come back here for another evaluation and send back to another place on the ring-world. It might be better or worse depending on their actions. Eventually, if they evolve to a high degree of quality, they will be sent to the second level of Heaven where they will enjoy their life even more. All this is done in a telepathic way and takes a few seconds only. The souls are then being sent to the body synthesizers where they are given a body like their previous one without the aging virus and then teleported to the ground.’’


“Do you have enough space on the ring-world for every one of every life bearing world in our galaxy?” John asked.
“The ring-world is 10,000 times wider that the circumference of Earth, Dirt or Terra and then it spans an incredible length around the sun. It offers more ground surface than all those life bearing worlds of our galaxy together. Our sun is also 10,000 times bigger than Earth sun. This place is so huge that you could not visit it in a billion years. Some parts are under different physics principles and peopled with witches, wizards, ogres, goblins and all the people of your fantasy books. If God likes a book, he often recreates the characters of this book on the ring-world. In your case, Richard is the writer and you three, Joan, Father O’Leary and John were the main characters of his trilogy Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story. When you jumped back to your condo, Richard, Lucifer who directs the actions of the Ayatollah sent you on that world. God saw all of this happening. He had previous contacts with you Richard. Do you remember when He walked into your art gallery in the body of a gentleman and bought one of your paintings?”
“Oh yes, I will never forget that.” I replied.
“Well, God kept watching you; He kept watching what you did and when he saw Lucifer throwing you to that world, he created the oasis, the statue and the urn, the castle and the moat and he brought back from the ring-world your three friends of the Ghama-2 story. He gave them false memories of their lives on Dirt, Terra and Soil and temporarily erased their memories of their ring-world lives. God wants all four of you to become part of the Galaxy defense corps of Angels and later lead an expedition to a nearby galaxy. But you are not ready yet. Later, as you die and come back here through the usual channels, you will be evaluated and if you pass the test, you will skip the first level of Heaven and you will be sent directly to the second level. You will be together again, and you will have more companions, many of them are the characters of your trilogy, Richard”
“So what happens now?”  Joan asked.
“You three, John, Joan and Father O’Leary, will be returned to the ring-world surface and will be given back your memory and you Richard you will be send back to your condo a few minutes after your encounter with the Ayatollah and Lucifer. For now let us finish that meal and celebrate the moment.”


We talked about all kinds of matters that we were puzzled about and asked hundreds of questions to Joseph who always seemed eager to reply. He told us that there are plenty of delicious and nourishing fruits everywhere on the ringworld and a lot of wildlife to prey upon. He said that in the ring-world there are no mosquitoes, parasite or virus. Nobody get sick and nobody grows old. The weather is always nice. It is Heaven to everyone who is being sent to the good areas. There is no TV, telephones, computers but people have fun on the ring-world. Many go on discovery treks; people practice a lot of sports; they make bands and do music shows in open air.

“What about the Hellish places?” I asked, “where you must surely send those Muslims.”

“The good Muslim males are being sent in places where the women rules so they can learn about equality of sex. The Muslim females are dominant in all the Muslim sectors; their bodies are made stronger, and the men are made weaker.” The terrorists and the bullies are sent to Hellish sectors and God made them bad enough to make sure no one wants to return there when they are killed there. I asked him about the purpose of life and why we were here and where we had been before if we had previous lives… There are so many things that I will have to tell you one day and I will tell you also about our many months odyssey on the ring-world and all the difficulties and dangers we faced. I will tell you about our imprisonment in the city of Laurs and our escape; our encounter with the Wheelers and the dangerous Kzinti. But this will be in another story. After the dinner, we hugged and said our goodbyes and I was back in the condo as Lise, my charming wife was walking in with the Hummels.

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