Piercing the Veil

11/11/2022

“Are you ready to come with me?” I asked. “Now is the perfect time. You want to come back, don’t you?” I held my breath, and everything felt eerily silent while I waited for his answer.

“Yes.” His answer was simple, and it came quick. I wondered if I’d heard him correctly. I started breathing again. My heart began to beat wildly as I turned away from him. I had work to do. I looked to the ground where a golden path appeared beneath our feet. Its warm glow would lead him home, back to where my physical body waited for me. I felt the pull of the physical world as I saw the path anchor onto his soul. I knew it wasn’t enough.

This was something new. Something that hadn’t been done before, not by me, at least. Still, my soul worked as if it had done this a thousand times before. It worked with an urgency, knowing we had little time to spare. I needed more than just me, I realized.

We weren’t alone anymore. Visitors began appearing all around us. One held out a glowing thread. I felt relief as I gratefully took the thread from the giver. My old friends were with us now. My black horse stood in front of him, waiting to take him down the golden path to home. She was there too. I can never remember her name, but our souls know each other and last March she came to me in a dream and reminded me that I could always count on her. I’ve been asking her to bring him home. I knew she wouldn’t let me down.

I don’t give it a second thought. I attach the glowing string to the horse’s tail. Others follow suit and now there are many glowing strings. I’m starting to see the faces of souls I recognize and stop short when I come upon my mother. She hesitates and I think for a second she may not give me her string. This is important, I know. I’m holding my breath back in my physical body. I know I need her approval for this. She does it. I can breathe again. More strings. I come to his father and again, there is a hesitation. I wonder why those who brought us into this world are hesitating, but I need that string and I stand stubbornly in front of him and wait, as I did with my own mother. He gives it. It’s the last string from the large group of souls waiting here for us.

“Wait! I need one more.” I tell the group. I disappear into an invisible door and I’m talking to someone I can’t see. “I need yours. I have to have it. It’s important.” I feel pushback and I don’t know how much time passes. I know I leave with the requested string. I hear a gasp from the crowd as I emerge from the hidden space, string in hand. I attach it to the horse’s tail.

He is on my black horse now. My friend is on her white horse. She promises to lead him down the golden path. I remember the box of “chocolates” from my dream a few nights before. They’re not really chocolates. I don’t know what they are. They remind me of chocolates. They fit into this box like a Tetris game or a puzzle. They’re important somehow. I tuck them into a saddlebag. I tell him he’ll need them when he gets to the end to pierce the veil. She knows what to do with them. She’ll help him. Edith is in the crowd. I think back to a few nights before when I bought them from Edith in a dream world and tricked Greg into telling me Edith’s name. This is another story for another entry, but Edith was not too happy about this. She steps forward angrily out of the crowd when I put the package in the saddlebag. Greg pulls her back. Not everyone is happy about what is happening here.

They begin riding. I walk with them for a while to make sure that he is okay. We leave the crowd of anxious souls behind us.

“He’s got to stay on the path.” She tells me. “He can’t get off the horse.” I tell her it’s okay. He won’t, but she warns me that the path will get worse; harder. Things will make him sick as he transitions. It will fight him. It will try to trick him into staying where he is and to turn back. We walk for a while until I notice that he’s starting to struggle. I get on the horse behind him to try and comfort him, but I can feel the sickness and the pain that this part of the journey is causing him.

I check periodically throughout the day. They continue to ride the path. I have no idea how long it will take. I can only conclude that he will end up back in the place where he first left us and so I wait. I wait here in the physical world to see where that golden path is going to lead him. In my mind’s eye I see the path leading to my home. I see it light up into the night like a lighthouse leading a ship to safety. After all this, who knows where my dreams will take me tonight.