A Halloween Carol in Texas

Time is relative once you start thinking in terms of 'eternity'. But it still seemed to Carol that she had arrived at the cemetery only moments before the two automobiles appeared. It was nearly midnight and she felt stronger than she had ever felt so far since she had arrived in Limbo. Her Blue Light was so strong that it lit up nearly the entire graveyard in ethereal light. It was even brighter than a full moon on a cloudless night. The Cypress Tree was easily seen in the luminescence.

Roger, Amanda, Jennifer, and Jeremy exited from the vehicles and approached the grave. Carol noticed that her 'tunnel of light' was located at the very top of the tree that she favored. She shook her head wondering if Saint Peter had a sense of humor or not. He must have because in a nanosecond's worth of time, Carol planned her exit. Reaching out to the controls of both cars, she activated the electric windows rolling all of them completely down.

"For the next few minutes, from now until you crossover, I am giving you a small gift to make up for having to depart from your family." A disembodied deep-bass voice could be heard by all present. The three adults quickly made the 'sign of the cross' over their torsos. Little Jeremy was observing and copied the adults as best as he could.

Carol felt something within herself change and she realized that her apparition had solidified into an actual body. It wasn't a living, breathing, vessel. But it was solid.

"I wanted you to be able to hold your family in your arms and give them proper goodbyes," the voice continued before fading from existence.

Carol approached Amanda first and wrapped her up inside of her arms. "Oh dear God!" Amanda whimpered while rapidly grabbing onto Carol and holding on to her tightly. They separated after a moment but Carol wasn't done yet. She slipped a hand behind Mandy's neck and pulled her in for a passionate goodbye kiss.

As their tongues caressed each other, Carol's mom nearly had a heart attack watching the Sapphic display before her. But in the following week during the Christmas holidays, she would come to a broader understanding of everything that Carol had told her. She recalled Carol's caution about not touching their souls together whenever she merged with her mother to give her a daughter's love as well as her recount of what had happened with Amanda when they had accidentally touched souls. She remembered Carols description of being married for the rest of eternity to her best friend. That is when full acceptance of Carol and Amanda kissing each other touched Jennifer deep inside and she was at peace with what she had just witnessed.

Carol stepped up to Roger next. They too held each other in a warm, loving embrace while kissing and rubbing noses Eskimo style. They both said their 'I love you's and both of them included the phrase "for all of eternity" at the end. Little Jeremy rushed over while his parents stood close to one another and grabbed them, one in each arm, around their legs.

Carol reached down and scooped up Jeremy in exactly the same way as she had done using Amanda's body. Jeremy threw his arms around his mother's neck.

"I love you, mommy," he said. He sniffled a little then continued, "I'm glad that God turned you 'real' just now. But I wish that you could have been 'real' for me when we got to play together. I think that it would have been a lot more fun that way."

Carol couldn't agree more and told Jeremy so. She held him close for several minutes and kissed his little cheeks again and again. "I'm going to miss you something awful, Big Man! But you remember what I told you. You be a good boy and obey Mandy and your father. They will teach you how to be a really good man when you grow up. You live a long and happy life for me! When God tells you it is time, then you can join me in Heaven. But not before then, okay?

"Okay Mommy! I promise. I love you!"

"I love you, too! Forever and always until the end of time."

After she set Jeremy back onto the ground and before approaching her mother, she leaned over and whispered into Roger's ear, "It's another girl." Roger grew a smile wider than the Grand Canyon after hearing the prediction about his unborn child. Carol was never wrong about such matters. She had not intentionally saved her mother for last, but as it turned out Carol was kind of glad that it happened that way.

"Momma, don't forget that Daddy and I will be waiting for you when the proper time comes. So please don't rush to be with us or feel badly for us. Especially since Jeremy still needs his Mam-maw for a long time to come. I am at peace now and that is why they are calling out to me from the 'other side'. Everything is okay and all will be well."

"I know honey, I know. I am so much better now for the short amount of time that we were given. We got a second chance to set things right with everyone and that was absolutely the greatest gift that I will receive this Christmas. The past two years nearly killed me. There were so many times that I was just ready to give up on life. But thank God for Jeremy. Like you said, he needs me very badly. I carried on just for him. But everything is different now. Rest easy dear. I'm going to be just fine."

Carol stepped back after kissing her mother goodbye and snapped her fingers. The radios in both cars came to life and were clearly audible as if they were tuned into the same radio station. The music that they played was hauntingly familiar to everyone there except for little Jeremy. But he would clearly remember that haunting melody and learn to love it as he grew older. He would often play it on his cell phone whenever he thought of his biological mother in the coming years...

And as we wind on down the road, Our shadows taller than our soul. There walks a lady we all know, Who shines white light and wants to show, How everything still turns to gold. And if you listen very hard, The tune will come to you at last. When all are one and one is all, yeah...to be a rock and not to roll.

All during this time as the song was playing, Carol had turned away from her family and approached the big beautiful Cypress Tree. She stepped up to the lowest branch, then began to walk around and around, using the tree's perfectly placed branches to ascend to the top. When she reached the end of her journey, just before stepping into the bright light, she turned and blew a kiss in the direction of her family followed by a wave goodbye. And as the final haunting notes of the song accompanied her exit, she stepped into the light and crossed over into Paradise.

And she's buying a stairway to heaven....

The End!

Appendix

1. [Mechanics of Conception] -Following ejaculation, sperm have to swim a long journey. They need to travel from the vagina, through the cervix, into the uterus, and finally into the correct uterine tube to locate the egg — no mean feat. All in all, this encompasses a distance of 15 to 18 cm and is, as Dr. Tiffany Jones puts it, "a very long way for a sperm to swim!" Now that we know how far they have to travel, you're probably wondering how long it typically takes for sperm to swim the distance. Usually, the first sperm reaches the egg within 15 to 45 minutes of ejaculation. However, the process could be much longer than that if you haven't ovulated yet by the time you have sex because sperm can live inside a reproductive tract and wait for an egg for up to five days. While the journey to the egg is certainly long and arduous for the tiny sperm, they do have a helping hand to swim the distance. Within just eight seconds of sperm entering the vagina, the pH in the upper vagina is raised, making it a nicer environment in which to swim. Around the same time, within a minute after ejaculation, the semen becomes a gel or coagulum. Researchers aren't yet 100% sure why this happens, but it has been suggested that it can help to keep the sperm near the opening of the cervix. Then, around 30 to 60 minutes later, the gel degrades, and the sperm can begin to swim again. Pretty clever, right? The bottom line is that sperm can theoretically reach the egg within 45 minutes after ejaculation. But there is also a process called capacitation that must occur. This is part of what aids a sperm in achieving penetration of the wall of the egg to successfully achieve fertilization. All totaled, it usually takes between 10 and 24 hours after the end of making love before conception occurs.
2. Tootle -Wikipedia has a very good write up about this tale created in 1945. I grew up in the 60s, so this book was already more than 15 years old before my own mother read it to me for the first time.
3. Jennifer Anderson's Recipe for New Orleans Creole Style "Red Beans & Rice" - If you purchase a package of Camellia^® Brand Red Beans (Kidney Beans) you can find the recipe on the back of the package. It is also available on the World Wide Web at the address located at the end of this entry. Where the recipe calls for 'Cajun Seasoning', I recommend using Tony Chachere's^® Original Creole Seasoning. Jennifer Anderson uses BOTH one pound of salt pork cubed into small pieces along with one pound of Andouille for a meatier dish. This is a departure from the recipe that you may want to try. I would also like to point out that Creole cooking is vastly different from Cajun cooking. They are NOT the same and are not interchangeable. While the Tony Chachere's^® seasoning is heavily laced with Cayenne pepper, Creole cooking isn't spicy for the most part. If you use enough seasoning to give the dish a good strong hot bite, it is no longer considered Creole, but Cajun. The dish as Jennifer Anderson (and myself) prepare it is just barely spicy. So if you want to taste what is in the story, adjust your seasonings accordingly.