ALWAYS IN MY HEART

The sky above was ablaze. The ground shook violently.  Karis had a death grip on her boy.

She was grace, kindness, and life to him, then at this moment , she was fury, invincible, resolute.  

Both mother and child were trembling at a vibration so strong, it had to be Godly.

"We are leaving. I know it," she shouted above the roaring blasts of blistering winds, '' Don't be afraid.  We are blessed,"

Alareic could see his mother's lips moving, but couldn't hear a single word above the environmental apocalypse.  He saw her golden heart shaped locket that held his picture banging against her chest.  In all this chaos, she was brave and actually smiling. He wrapped his tiny arms as far as they could go around mama's waist.   Karis cradled his unruly amber curls against her belly button.  He closed his eyes, hoping to drown out the sounds of mayhem and the uncontrollable pulsing of his own body.  His skin felt charred by  the scorching heat.  He imagined he was a popsicle, dripping with stickiness and soon to dissolve into a puddle of sugary goo.  

A sharp familiar bark in the clamor caught Alareic's attention.  He opened one eye and saw his Australian Shepherd  pacing in circles around him, biting at the air between whimpers and yelps.   Alareic reached out his small hand and shouted, "Apollo!" The dog stopped his frantic spinning. He cautiously approached Alareic and his dry,  grey tongue flicked the outstretched palm.  The dog's muzzle was singed, his black nose cracked and bleeding. His eyes were no longer bright and eager; they were dull and exhausted, like those of a lost, unloved stray.  One brown eye, one blue looked up at their beloved master sadly. Apollo pawed at Alareic's leg.

"Sweetheart, Apollo is trying to tell you goodbye."

The sweet boy knelt down to hug his favorite companion. Apollo rolled over on his side.  "I love you Buddy."

A soft tuft of fresh spring grass was blowing gently across the young man's flushed cheeks.  Its caress woke him from his peaceful slumber.  Eyes fluttered open to a surreal aqua sky dotted with an occasional perky cloud drifting swiftly by.  Light all around him, but no sun.  He propped  up on one elbow to get his bearings.  His body felt cool,  probably for the lack of clothes.   He was naked and his legs were, well, long and his feet looked like man feet.  He noticed his hands.  He had grown up. The fact amused him.

Then he saw her with long, sun kissed hair, full lips that made him long to kiss her,  long  dark lashes and also, no clothes.  She looked familiar.  "I could love her," he thought.  Karis  opened her eyes, the unusual green gems were unmistakable as she smiled at him. The locket came out of hiding between her breasts as she stood up, "Alareic!"

"MOM!"

"We made it!  Just as the prophet predicted. The next plane of existence.  We are so blessed!"

She was practically laughing, but something was making her sad.  Alareic could see it in her eyes.

 "Look at you."

"Mom, don't. I'm naked!"

"You are beautiful and grown.  How does it feel to be an adult?", she was proud,  happy but...still, her sweet little boy was gone.

"I don't know. I haven't had but a minute here.  I have questions."

"That I would love to answer. We are going to figure this out together."

"Mom! It's just us. Where is everybody?"

"Here somewhere, I'm sure.  Let's go  find them."

Alareic stood up.

"Wow, you obviously got the tall gene gift."  He was towering over her. Karis sighed and touched the locket with the memory of her little boy inside.

"Do you recall what the prophet told us?"

Alareic nodded, "Unto the next plane, our souls shall reach, there will be no greed, no disease, no hardship, no hate.  All will be equals, the divine and the mortal. All will love one another as it was always meant to be.  Leave the fields of green, for those that wander, are not lost.  To know the Creator, experience all he made for you out of love. When you are full of awe and gratitude, the angels will guide you home and give you the keys to heaven."

"Well? Are you ready to climb the highest mountains? Swim the seven seas? Run with the lions? Jump off ocean cliffs? Swim with dolphins? Let's leave the fields of greens and begin our journey home."

Neither one could figure out how long they had been globe trotting, but they both knew when it was over.

Alareic spoke up first, "Mom, I think I'm drunk on awe and gratitude. And I've been thinking.  Maybe we aren't worthy? When we got to the top of Everest, it should have been very convenient for the angels to pick us up there.  But they didn't so I rationalized this is a phenomenally beautiful nightmare and I'll wake up to Apollo insisting on his morning romp. That didn't happen and my heaven is going south like a misplaced dystopia.  My heaven would have dogs in it. I miss wet sloppy dog kisses."

 "D. O. G. - G. O. D.- that's no accident.  It's a sign telling me this heaven has no D. O. G.'s or G. O.D."

"Alareic, you just experienced G. O. D. in everything! I just think you miss your dog a lot."

"I do. He is the last thing I remember  when I was alive."

"Alareis, you are alive!"

"Am I?  This doesn't feel like living."  "We've seen all of God's beautiful creations but there is no one else to share them with."

"I know. I'm sorry. I've been very selfish . I just wanted you all to myself for a little while and that took longer than I expected.  I have the keys to heaven, Son. I'm just having a hard time letting you go.  I can now.  The first key is Sacrifice.  The second is Devote Prayer."

"Come sit with me."  They faced each other with  legs crossed and held hands. "Close your eyes, Alareic, feel your breath and its lifeforce. Ask that your path through the universe be revealed.  I am your guardian angel and the rest of your journey has now begun. Repeat these words, believe them, and use them to serve the Creator at your best :  If you can imagine it, you can make it real, if you can make it real, you will have all that you will ever need.  And Araleic, remember, I love you, Son, to the farthest star and back again."

"I love you Mom, beyond the farthest galaxy and back again."

They both began the mantra that carried their souls into the depths of their consciousness until the words were a hard pounding strum.  Alareis opened his eyes as he  felt his soul channel starbound into a day that finally became a night.  He danced among the celestial bodies and stopped to rest by sitting on the moon.  From there he observed constellations and planets flying by at unbelievable warp speeds.  He couldn't catch them so he took a mental screenshot of each before they disappeared from sight. This part of his journey was more incredible than the last and too beautiful to describe.

"Pick one," said a voice that came from everywhere.

"God?"  

" How can I choose the right one? And they are traveling so fast, how do I get there before they're gone?"

"Take your time. There are no wrong choices here and nothing to fear."

He saw a planet that reminded him of home but he  wasn't quick enough to go  there.

"Manifest your desire."

Alareic imagined living on the green and blue planet that had people and dogs.

He landed in salty water.  Sunshine rippled at the surface and he swam towards it.  A barge barreled toward him.  He waved  his arms at the gang of more naked people aboard this human ark.  He scoured the ship's deck expecting to see his mother. She wasn't there.  Alareic smiled anyways as he was pulled out of the sea.

The watercraft headed for shore and Alareic leaned on the railing, relaxing in his new surroundings.  He wanted to know everything about this place and how he would fit in.

"Want to know how this works?'' asked a sweet-faced woman with bright red locks blowing in the sea breeze.

"Please, all that you know."

" Of course, I've been here through many cycles."

"Cycles?"

"The amount of time suspension you have before zoning to another realm, the next plane."

"And you came back?"

"I like it here best."

"How will I know what I like best?"

" You will listen to the teachers here.  One golden rule: Love one another. Loneliness is indulgence and not tolerated when there are so many to connect with here."

"Aren't you allowed to miss your loved ones? Did you journey here with anyone?"

"People I cannot remember anymore.  My sacrifice was to lose their souls to my memory."

"I will never forget my mother," Alaric thought,

"I heard that. Memories always fade."

"Not mine, not ever," and now he was worried about his mother being worried about him.

"You are in her heart, she is fine."

"How did you know about the heart?"

"It's my job to know."

He realized her lips weren't moving except to smile as she spoke to him.  Maybe he could steal a kiss.

"Not allowed or needed, Only kindness brings us  joy."

He didn't look very happy.

"I know what you really need. C'mon,  it's over the rainbow. Think of the brightest spectrum of vibrant blue, green, yellow, orange, red and purple and now look beyond it.  Is that who you were looking for?"

"Buddy! " Apollo was racing towards them. He got his first heavenly kiss and the one he had truly been longing for - a wet sloppy lick.  He romped with his four legged friend until couldn't take any more fun. " This is my kind of heaven," he surmised.

"That smile you have right now, could blind a village.  You can visit here as much as you like, whenever you aren't working. And It's time for our Calling."

Alareic heard a horn beckoning him to a distant mountaintop.

"I'll race you. Fly!"

Alareic found the two of them surrounded by ageless thirty year-olds.  He saw a couple of others like him that were in their twenties.  "Why am I so young?", he whispered to his new friend.

"That's right you don't know your destiny yet. You came to heaven as a child and children serve God as angels."

"I don't have wings."

"Have you needed any yet?"

"Good point."

The teacher balanced on a lofty ledge, "Welcome all.  Search your heart. Find your purpose. Do good work."

 Alareic was left alone with the teacher staring him down.  "You were a  young one.  Angel, Innocents do not judge. Heal the tortured with your love and light to free them from misery."

Alareic got used to "winging it" on  his own pretty quick, once he realized how powerful his thoughts were. He was wildly successful saving the tortured from purgatory.  Each healing was more rewarding than the one before it because the more love he gave, the happier he became.  

At the end of his shift, he would close his eyes and think of rainbows and puppy dog tails to fly home.  Occasionally another angel would join him or the redhead would stop by.  She told him she missed the smile she couldn't forget.  But his best visit home was when he found something around Apollo's neck that he'd thought, he might never see again.

He opened the heart shaped locket and across from his picture was a new inscription "Always in my heart"

"Mom! You found me!"

"You can't find something you've never lost, Son."

"You're always in my heart too."