Sadier had started to worry that his sister was destined to die. Adrian's words had been a wake up call, and the repeated trips to the graveyard scene made Sadier wonder if someone was trying to get his attention. Sadier talked to Abigail and Adrian about the graveyard, but they didn't have much to say about it. He wondered if perhaps he had bought into it a little too much.
Sadier started talking with a junior named Ben who knew a lot about the upperworld and showed Sadier a lot of tricks. He started to wonder if knowledge of the upperworld was more common than he had realized.
Then one day something dawned on Sadier. There's nothing magical about dreams. Abigail and Adrian had said it so many times. It hit him what they meant. He started to wonder if he might be able to enter the upperworld in the middle of the day. And what better place to try it out than history class where he daydreamed most of the time anyway. He focused very hard for a half minute or so, and then he began to float out of his body. He took a few steps around the class room and then started walking up the wall. There were some angels and demons who were at a stand off in the room. He climbed through a skylight that was hidden from the other side and entered into a bright space that was lit with floating white spheres. There was a table where he spotted Abigail hanging out with several other spirits.
“What are you doing here?” Abigail asked.
“I figured out how to daydream,” Sadier replied.
“Shouldn't you be focusing on your History class?” Abigail said.
“With all due respect,” Sadier replied, “shouldn't you be focusing on Atmospheric Science class?”
Abigail smiled. “I'm a Senior,” she said. “I don't have to be in class.”
Someone in the classroom dropped a textbook on the floor and Sadier caught his breath as his soul darted back into his body.
Sadier wondered what he would find if he did the same thing at his house. He tried to get Saymi to come with him, but she was concerned as usual.
So, he left without her. She watched him sit silently in their living room leather chair with his eyes closed clearly not asleep. Sadier had asked her if she would keep from making any sound.
“You have to be careful not to fall asleep,” he had told her. “Because if you fall asleep you go to a starting point like every night when we go to bed, which is usually far far away from here in sky or space. But I want to see what is hidden here in our house.”
After a few minutes, Saymi watched him slowly open his eyes. She was startled when she immediately noticed that Sadier's eyes were a brilliant bright yellow hue.
“Where'd you go?” she asked.
“It makes more sense now,” Sadier replied. “What I've felt. What I've always felt here. Come let me show you. Have you meet Hinn?”
After that she followed him to the other side.
Sadier's favorite part of the school day was the team meeting. His curiosity burned like a fire. He always tried to get Abigail on a tangent.
“I think the problem is that you don't understand what they are,” Abigail was saying one day. “Angels have one objective: to pull souls up to heaven where they're from. Demons have one objective: to drag souls down to hell where they're from. They meet in our realm to do battle over our souls. The war that ensues explains most every event in our lives. So, this war takes place not in heaven, not in hell, but in the supernatural fields that surround and correspond to our existence.
“I get that, but exactly what defines an angel or demon?” Sadier asked.
“Good question,” Abigail replied. “By our dictionary, angels are any and all beings higher than us and for us. Demons are any and all beings higher than us and opposed to us. And those who don't understand the upperworld lump all aliens into those two categories, but you have to realize that there are many races from many surfaces and solar systems just as we are a race. The war is fought because those in our universe usually identify themselves with one ideal or the other.
“Have you ever noticed the closet door in Mr. Bradley's office?” Abigail asked Sadier one morning. “The one that is right next to the main door on the same wall.”
“Yeah, I think so,” Sadier replied.
“Have you ever noticed anything strange about that closet door?” Abigail asked. “Let me show you something,” she said. She drew a dot on a piece of paper and set it on the table. “Have you ever seen this trick?” she asked. “Close one eye and move your other eye over the piece of paper. At the right place the dot will disappear. It's a blind spot in your eye, but your brain usually does a pretty good job filling it in by using what's surrounding to guess what is there.”
“Wow, that's so cool,” Sadier said.
Now this is just your eyesight, but think about how many gaps your brain is filling in when it comes to your view of the world. Any skilled angel or demon can easily hide in these blind spots.”
“How exactly do that do that?” Sadier asked.
“Well, for example, there are people in your life that you know well and then people that you don't know so well,” Abigail started. “You assume that the people you don't know so well are known well by someone else. But what if those people you don't know so well aren't known well by anyone. And you say you've seen the closet door in Mr. Bradley's office?” Abigail asked.
Sadier nodded.
“Think about it for second. When outside his office you can see that there's no room for a closet there.”
Sadier paused.
“Because it would be in the hallway,” Abgail added. “Next time you're there you should ask him if you can go inside.”
One day Sadier was hanging out deep in the flashing corridors after a team meeting. He was talking with someone when he suddenly realized that it is was an angel.
“Don't you remember me?” the angel responded suddenly. “I'm Yunki.”
That name 'Yunki' hit something deep and forgotten in Sadier's soul.
“Who are you?” Sadier asked.
“I was your friend,” Yunki replied. “I was thrilled a few years ago when Mr. Bradley began making plans to quicken you because I knew we would talk again like we used to. I've always been here.” Then with a smile he faded through the wall.
I've chosen not to discuss anything about guardian angels beyond this account. If you want to know more I suggest you find yours and talk to him or her or both of them.
When Sadier asked Abgail about it she simply replied, “Yeah, children are very in tune with the supernatural because they have recently come from the pre-life which is special section of the upperworld. You see, there were monsters under you bed, but the reason that the monsters slept under you bed was because there were angels sleeping on either side of you.”
One day on the bus to school when the girls were bothering Saymi, Sadier watched her closely. He saw a tear fall from her eye, and deep anger came over Sadier. Anger not at the girls that bullied Saymi, but at the demons who drove it. The reality hit Sadier again that Saymi was likely a few steps from death, and he knew something had to be done. He was frustrated not knowing what to do. Fortunately Adrian knew.
At school that day Dalton who was the cruelest to Saymi walked up to her with a basketball under his arm and a few girls at his side.
“Hey we were going to play some basketball and we were wondering if you'd want to join us,” Dalton said to Saymi. “Oh but, I forgot, we don't have special Olympics here at Waterfall Academy.”
Sadier heard it, and burned with anger. Adrian heard too, and the tall boy's dreadlocks flowed behind him as he briskly walked up to Dalton and grabbed him by the shoulders. Adrian raised Dalton off the ground, and meant to pin Dalton against the wall, but Adrian was so angry and he did it so hard that he shoved Dalton right through the sheet rock and dropped him as he lost his balance. Dalton fell into a cloud of dust and coughed hoarsely.
“Leave her alone!” Adrian shouted and then walked away. The lunchroom was dead silent. Madeline was grinning. Many of the faculty members seemed as if they had found the scene refreshing too. Abigail was not grinning. She was concerned. Adrian had made a risky move.
The next day when Sadier floated into the team meeting Abigail was crying.
When Sadier asked Adrian what was wrong he replied, “They tracked down Ali last night.”
Sadier's heart sunk in shock, “She's dead?” Ali was a Junior in the Alma. She was a very skilled medic. Sadier thought she was the nicest person in the whole Alma.
“She was brave,” Adrian said sorrowfully. “Her style was effective, but it involved a lot of lone traveling which is dangerous.”
“She always knew it was only a matter of time, that jerk,” Abigail sobbed. “She's home now.”
“In the place far far away?” Sadier asked.
Adrian nodded.
That night after entering the upperworld their team of five climbed into a small car, and drove fast because Adrian said they had to make a sizable correction to their position.
“Adrian, how long has that car been behind us,” Abigail said suddenly.
“Yeah, It's someone of the Darma,” Adrian said. “I think its Fester and maybe Alex.”
“They're trying to hold us off course,” Abigail said alarmed.
No matter how fast Adrian drove or how many sudden turns he took they couldn't shake the agile Darma sniper car, which zeroed in on them more and more until it was able to clip Adrian's vehicle and send it into a tail spin. A couple strong angels managed to keep the car from flipping. A freshman of the Darma named Alex, jumped from the roof of the sniper car and came diving through glass into their car with the clear intent of pulling someone out for the demons to pounce on. Adrian jumped into the back seat and wrestled with Alex for a few seconds until the car plowed into the concrete base of a windmill.
Sadier was scared when he realized that his leg was broken. An angel dropped out of a helicopter and quickly grabbed Sadier and took him up to the helicopter just before a rush of warrior demons reached the crash site.
Sadier was taken to the back of the helicopter. His leg didn't hurt, but he was more scared than he had ever been in his life.
He woke up two hours later in an angel hospital. He sat up and started breathing fast. Abigial hopped up and calmed him down.
“Where's everyone else?” Sadier asked.
“We all made it out,” Abigail replied. “The guard was not penetrated.” Sadier saw that Abigail's left shoulder was heavily wrapped. He asked how bad the others' injuries were from the crash. In the upperworld though, healing is fast. Nothing lasts longer than 24 hours, so every night is a clean start.
“Don't we need to get to Brook City tonight?” Sadier asked.
“We'll still catch up,” Abigail replied.
“I don't understand how we can afford to be so lax,” Sadier blurted out. “Aren't there souls on the line teetering between heaven and hell that we can steer?” Abigail tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't stop, “We shouldn't ever rest. We can't let the Darma outwork us. What if we end up going to hell because we didn't work hard enough.”
“You have to learn to have faith, Sadier,” Abigail replied.
“Faith in what?” he asked.
“Faith that your story is told,” she replied.
“Told by who?”
“By a storyteller,” she said.
“A storyteller? Who is he?”
“We don't know,” Abigail said.
“Is he good?”
“Perhaps, it depends on how you define good,” she replied.
“And how much power does he have?” he asked.
“He has all power,” she said.
Sadier's expression twisted into confusion. “Then... if he has all power, why does he let us hurt so much. He can't be good.”
“Did you take Mrs. Wright's creative writing class in seventh grade?” Abigail asked.
Sadier said he had.
“What was your final project?” Abigail asked.
“Well, it wasn't that great,” Sadier replied.
“What was it?” she insisted.
“Well, it was about this guy named David who got swept out to sea,” Sadier told her. “He made it back eventually.”
“But not without a fight,” Abigail said. “You put your main character through something that was painful? How dare you, Sadier.”
“What do you mean,” Sadier responded. “David wasn't real!”
Abigail's eyes lit up, “You don't know that your character David isn't real.”
“But if I somehow believed he was real I would have wrote the story a lot different,” Sadier said. “Why does our storyteller let us hurt so much. Why does he make my sister hurt,” Sadier said his voice choked with anger.
“I don't know,” Abigail replied. “But why do all the stories that we write have characters who are struggling? I don't know. There's a lot we don't understand. Maybe part of it is because we're struggling too. And maybe he's struggling too, Sadier. Just as much as we are. He's trying to find hope and give hope to others. As for us, we will watch the clock because every minute is a victory. Time will run out as we stand and believe. The key is to believe that you are in a story.”
“Well if that's what we are, just characters in a story, then our fate isn't in our own hands,” Sadier said. “I mean either our lives our predetermined or they're not. It can't be both.”
“Yes, it can be both,” Abigail replied. “Listen to me, no one knows the answers to some of these questions, but I believe that no matter what something good is coming for us. Something worth everything it will take to get there. Coming soon. We won't go on forever like this, Sadier. One day, everything will change. I have seen something, I've seen visions, I don't understand, but it's like darkness pushed, but now the light pushed back even harder, saying, 'No, that's not the way the story will end.' Death is not the end for us. I can see a day in my mind when we pass out of this life. I can see you, and me, and Adrian, and Saymi and Madeline, your parents, Mr. Bradely, all together in the end. That images drives me. It drives me get up every morning no matter how dreary life may look. I will believe that there is something to live for. That day is not so far away. Every day is closer. We're closer now than we have ever been. Every question will have an answer. It will be worth it in the end. You have to stop being so hard on yourself. You're right on track. You will make it, Sadier. Don't you know who you are.”
Then one day something dawned on Sadier. There's nothing magical about dreams. Abigail and Adrian had said it so many times. It hit him what they meant. He started to wonder if he might be able to enter the upperworld in the middle of the day. And what better place to try it out than history class where he daydreamed most of the time anyway. He focused very hard for a half minute or so, and then he began to float out of his body. He took a few steps around the class room and then started walking up the wall. There were some angels and demons who were at a stand off in the room. He climbed through a skylight that was hidden from the other side and entered into a bright space that was lit with floating white spheres. There was a table where he spotted Abigail hanging out with several other spirits.
“What are you doing here?” Abigail asked.
“I figured out how to daydream,” Sadier replied.
“Shouldn't you be focusing on your History class?” Abigail said.
“With all due respect,” Sadier replied, “shouldn't you be focusing on Atmospheric Science class?”
Abigail smiled. “I'm a Senior,” she said. “I don't have to be in class.”
Someone in the classroom dropped a textbook on the floor and Sadier caught his breath as his soul darted back into his body.
Sadier wondered what he would find if he did the same thing at his house. He tried to get Saymi to come with him, but she was concerned as usual.
So, he left without her. She watched him sit silently in their living room leather chair with his eyes closed clearly not asleep. Sadier had asked her if she would keep from making any sound.
“You have to be careful not to fall asleep,” he had told her. “Because if you fall asleep you go to a starting point like every night when we go to bed, which is usually far far away from here in sky or space. But I want to see what is hidden here in our house.”
After a few minutes, Saymi watched him slowly open his eyes. She was startled when she immediately noticed that Sadier's eyes were a brilliant bright yellow hue.
“Where'd you go?” she asked.
“It makes more sense now,” Sadier replied. “What I've felt. What I've always felt here. Come let me show you. Have you meet Hinn?”
After that she followed him to the other side.
Sadier's favorite part of the school day was the team meeting. His curiosity burned like a fire. He always tried to get Abigail on a tangent.
“I think the problem is that you don't understand what they are,” Abigail was saying one day. “Angels have one objective: to pull souls up to heaven where they're from. Demons have one objective: to drag souls down to hell where they're from. They meet in our realm to do battle over our souls. The war that ensues explains most every event in our lives. So, this war takes place not in heaven, not in hell, but in the supernatural fields that surround and correspond to our existence.
“I get that, but exactly what defines an angel or demon?” Sadier asked.
“Good question,” Abigail replied. “By our dictionary, angels are any and all beings higher than us and for us. Demons are any and all beings higher than us and opposed to us. And those who don't understand the upperworld lump all aliens into those two categories, but you have to realize that there are many races from many surfaces and solar systems just as we are a race. The war is fought because those in our universe usually identify themselves with one ideal or the other.
“Have you ever noticed the closet door in Mr. Bradley's office?” Abigail asked Sadier one morning. “The one that is right next to the main door on the same wall.”
“Yeah, I think so,” Sadier replied.
“Have you ever noticed anything strange about that closet door?” Abigail asked. “Let me show you something,” she said. She drew a dot on a piece of paper and set it on the table. “Have you ever seen this trick?” she asked. “Close one eye and move your other eye over the piece of paper. At the right place the dot will disappear. It's a blind spot in your eye, but your brain usually does a pretty good job filling it in by using what's surrounding to guess what is there.”
“Wow, that's so cool,” Sadier said.
Now this is just your eyesight, but think about how many gaps your brain is filling in when it comes to your view of the world. Any skilled angel or demon can easily hide in these blind spots.”
“How exactly do that do that?” Sadier asked.
“Well, for example, there are people in your life that you know well and then people that you don't know so well,” Abigail started. “You assume that the people you don't know so well are known well by someone else. But what if those people you don't know so well aren't known well by anyone. And you say you've seen the closet door in Mr. Bradley's office?” Abigail asked.
Sadier nodded.
“Think about it for second. When outside his office you can see that there's no room for a closet there.”
Sadier paused.
“Because it would be in the hallway,” Abgail added. “Next time you're there you should ask him if you can go inside.”
One day Sadier was hanging out deep in the flashing corridors after a team meeting. He was talking with someone when he suddenly realized that it is was an angel.
“Don't you remember me?” the angel responded suddenly. “I'm Yunki.”
That name 'Yunki' hit something deep and forgotten in Sadier's soul.
“Who are you?” Sadier asked.
“I was your friend,” Yunki replied. “I was thrilled a few years ago when Mr. Bradley began making plans to quicken you because I knew we would talk again like we used to. I've always been here.” Then with a smile he faded through the wall.
I've chosen not to discuss anything about guardian angels beyond this account. If you want to know more I suggest you find yours and talk to him or her or both of them.
When Sadier asked Abgail about it she simply replied, “Yeah, children are very in tune with the supernatural because they have recently come from the pre-life which is special section of the upperworld. You see, there were monsters under you bed, but the reason that the monsters slept under you bed was because there were angels sleeping on either side of you.”
One day on the bus to school when the girls were bothering Saymi, Sadier watched her closely. He saw a tear fall from her eye, and deep anger came over Sadier. Anger not at the girls that bullied Saymi, but at the demons who drove it. The reality hit Sadier again that Saymi was likely a few steps from death, and he knew something had to be done. He was frustrated not knowing what to do. Fortunately Adrian knew.
At school that day Dalton who was the cruelest to Saymi walked up to her with a basketball under his arm and a few girls at his side.
“Hey we were going to play some basketball and we were wondering if you'd want to join us,” Dalton said to Saymi. “Oh but, I forgot, we don't have special Olympics here at Waterfall Academy.”
Sadier heard it, and burned with anger. Adrian heard too, and the tall boy's dreadlocks flowed behind him as he briskly walked up to Dalton and grabbed him by the shoulders. Adrian raised Dalton off the ground, and meant to pin Dalton against the wall, but Adrian was so angry and he did it so hard that he shoved Dalton right through the sheet rock and dropped him as he lost his balance. Dalton fell into a cloud of dust and coughed hoarsely.
“Leave her alone!” Adrian shouted and then walked away. The lunchroom was dead silent. Madeline was grinning. Many of the faculty members seemed as if they had found the scene refreshing too. Abigail was not grinning. She was concerned. Adrian had made a risky move.
The next day when Sadier floated into the team meeting Abigail was crying.
When Sadier asked Adrian what was wrong he replied, “They tracked down Ali last night.”
Sadier's heart sunk in shock, “She's dead?” Ali was a Junior in the Alma. She was a very skilled medic. Sadier thought she was the nicest person in the whole Alma.
“She was brave,” Adrian said sorrowfully. “Her style was effective, but it involved a lot of lone traveling which is dangerous.”
“She always knew it was only a matter of time, that jerk,” Abigail sobbed. “She's home now.”
“In the place far far away?” Sadier asked.
Adrian nodded.
That night after entering the upperworld their team of five climbed into a small car, and drove fast because Adrian said they had to make a sizable correction to their position.
“Adrian, how long has that car been behind us,” Abigail said suddenly.
“Yeah, It's someone of the Darma,” Adrian said. “I think its Fester and maybe Alex.”
“They're trying to hold us off course,” Abigail said alarmed.
No matter how fast Adrian drove or how many sudden turns he took they couldn't shake the agile Darma sniper car, which zeroed in on them more and more until it was able to clip Adrian's vehicle and send it into a tail spin. A couple strong angels managed to keep the car from flipping. A freshman of the Darma named Alex, jumped from the roof of the sniper car and came diving through glass into their car with the clear intent of pulling someone out for the demons to pounce on. Adrian jumped into the back seat and wrestled with Alex for a few seconds until the car plowed into the concrete base of a windmill.
Sadier was scared when he realized that his leg was broken. An angel dropped out of a helicopter and quickly grabbed Sadier and took him up to the helicopter just before a rush of warrior demons reached the crash site.
Sadier was taken to the back of the helicopter. His leg didn't hurt, but he was more scared than he had ever been in his life.
He woke up two hours later in an angel hospital. He sat up and started breathing fast. Abigial hopped up and calmed him down.
“Where's everyone else?” Sadier asked.
“We all made it out,” Abigail replied. “The guard was not penetrated.” Sadier saw that Abigail's left shoulder was heavily wrapped. He asked how bad the others' injuries were from the crash. In the upperworld though, healing is fast. Nothing lasts longer than 24 hours, so every night is a clean start.
“Don't we need to get to Brook City tonight?” Sadier asked.
“We'll still catch up,” Abigail replied.
“I don't understand how we can afford to be so lax,” Sadier blurted out. “Aren't there souls on the line teetering between heaven and hell that we can steer?” Abigail tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't stop, “We shouldn't ever rest. We can't let the Darma outwork us. What if we end up going to hell because we didn't work hard enough.”
“You have to learn to have faith, Sadier,” Abigail replied.
“Faith in what?” he asked.
“Faith that your story is told,” she replied.
“Told by who?”
“By a storyteller,” she said.
“A storyteller? Who is he?”
“We don't know,” Abigail said.
“Is he good?”
“Perhaps, it depends on how you define good,” she replied.
“And how much power does he have?” he asked.
“He has all power,” she said.
Sadier's expression twisted into confusion. “Then... if he has all power, why does he let us hurt so much. He can't be good.”
“Did you take Mrs. Wright's creative writing class in seventh grade?” Abigail asked.
Sadier said he had.
“What was your final project?” Abigail asked.
“Well, it wasn't that great,” Sadier replied.
“What was it?” she insisted.
“Well, it was about this guy named David who got swept out to sea,” Sadier told her. “He made it back eventually.”
“But not without a fight,” Abigail said. “You put your main character through something that was painful? How dare you, Sadier.”
“What do you mean,” Sadier responded. “David wasn't real!”
Abigail's eyes lit up, “You don't know that your character David isn't real.”
“But if I somehow believed he was real I would have wrote the story a lot different,” Sadier said. “Why does our storyteller let us hurt so much. Why does he make my sister hurt,” Sadier said his voice choked with anger.
“I don't know,” Abigail replied. “But why do all the stories that we write have characters who are struggling? I don't know. There's a lot we don't understand. Maybe part of it is because we're struggling too. And maybe he's struggling too, Sadier. Just as much as we are. He's trying to find hope and give hope to others. As for us, we will watch the clock because every minute is a victory. Time will run out as we stand and believe. The key is to believe that you are in a story.”
“Well if that's what we are, just characters in a story, then our fate isn't in our own hands,” Sadier said. “I mean either our lives our predetermined or they're not. It can't be both.”
“Yes, it can be both,” Abigail replied. “Listen to me, no one knows the answers to some of these questions, but I believe that no matter what something good is coming for us. Something worth everything it will take to get there. Coming soon. We won't go on forever like this, Sadier. One day, everything will change. I have seen something, I've seen visions, I don't understand, but it's like darkness pushed, but now the light pushed back even harder, saying, 'No, that's not the way the story will end.' Death is not the end for us. I can see a day in my mind when we pass out of this life. I can see you, and me, and Adrian, and Saymi and Madeline, your parents, Mr. Bradely, all together in the end. That images drives me. It drives me get up every morning no matter how dreary life may look. I will believe that there is something to live for. That day is not so far away. Every day is closer. We're closer now than we have ever been. Every question will have an answer. It will be worth it in the end. You have to stop being so hard on yourself. You're right on track. You will make it, Sadier. Don't you know who you are.”
