Invisible Friends

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Invisible Friends - book excerpt

Chapter 1

“Hello.”

“Hi Dacque, it’s Dani. This will be brief, and I cannot talk very loudly. A friend here at the law office confided in me during our lunch break that she is beginning to suspect her six-year-old daughter’s imaginary friend may in fact not be imaginary after all. She knows a little about our interest in souls and reincarnation, and I suggested she needs to talk with you. Any chance that you can meet us after five in the parking garage down the street from our office, or alternatively outside of our building, and we can walk together to the parking garage so the three of us can huddle in a car for a private chat?”

“Sure, Dani. That will work. I will be waiting outside of your office building before five.”

“Great. Thank you. See you then. Bye for now.”

“Bye.”

Chapter 2

Dacque was people watching outside of The Murtagh Building by ten minutes before five, and the ladies accompanied the departing throngs through the revolving doors at five minutes after five.

“Connie, I would like you to meet a very special friend of ours, Dacque LaRose,” Dani said when they stopped in front of Dacque.

“Dacque, this is Connie Cantland, the friend I told you about earlier with the six-year-old daughter.”

They shook hands and proceeded down the street to the parking garage in silence. The first of their vehicles they came upon was Connie’s Jeep Patriot, so it became the default choice for their secret conversation. Dani quickly hopped into the back seat to leave the passenger seat open for Dacque in order to facilitatehis anticipated conversation with Connie.

“Dani told me on the phone earlier that you are becoming skeptical about your daughter’s supposedly imaginary friend actually being imaginary,” Dacque said to Connie after the three of them were seated comfortably inside the Patriot.

Connie chuckled. “I know it is common for youngsters to have imaginary friends but Camille, or Cammi as we usually call her, seems to know things about her imaginary friend that normal six-year-olds would not likely to be able to make up. Dani told me earlier that you have seen, talked to, and even worked with spirits or souls in the past. Does that include imaginary friends?”

“Well, I cannot say that I have ever been called upon to deal with a child’s imaginary friend, but I did assist five earthbound souls or spirits, stranded at the Anywhere Children’s Hospital, to cross over and join their eagerly-awaiting relatives.”

Connie smiled. “That sounds close enough for me. So, what do I or we do now?”

“I think the first thing we should do is for me to have a little chat with Cammi so that I understand how much she knows about her little friend. Not alone, of course, but with you and your husband present as well. Can you set that up whenever it is convenient?”

“I think the first thing that I need to take care of is to bring my husband up to date. He knows that I am not sure Cammi’s little friend is actually imaginary, but he knows nothing about you and your knowledge concerning souls and spirits. Dani has told me a little bit about what she knows on the subject, but it would probably be wise for you to meet with Carson and I before you meet with Cammi, so we have a little better understanding of what you think might be going on in our home.”

“I agree.” Dacque removed a card from his wallet and handed it to Connie. “When you and Carson are ready for a chat, give me a call and we can set something up. I am retired so my schedule is usually pretty unencumbered.”

“Thank you, I will do that,” Connie replied and tucked Dacque’s card in her purse.

Chapter 3

Connie had Cammi bathed and into bed by eight o’clock and hesitantly but determinedly brought Carson up to date on her earlier conversations with Dani and Dacque. Carson thought the whole idea of survival of souls and reincarnation was humorous, if not outright absurd, but Connie stubbornly hounded him to listen to her suspicions concerning their daughter’s imaginary friend. She advised him that she would have Dacque over the first evening he went out with his buddies if he did not agree to be present when Dacque arrived. A somewhat upset Carson told his unwavering wife to telephone Dacque right then and there and see if he was willing to come over immediately to take care of this anticipated, irritating meeting.

Dacque drove into the Cantland’s driveway within fifteen minutes. Connie offered him refreshments, which were declined, and the threesome settled down in the family room.

“As Carson does not know much about souls and reincarnation, and to be honest I likely do not know much more than he does,” Connie started things off to get their conversation underway and hopefully prevent Carson from saying anything nasty, “maybe the best way to get us rollingalong here would be for you to share with us your experiences with spirits or souls and if you like, reincarnation, if that is alright with you, Dacque?”

“I think that is the perfect way to begin. My wife passed away from cancer over ten years ago now, and not too long after she left us some unexplainable events began to occur in our house. They culminated one evening when I was sitting in our living room reading a book. I looked up for some reason and sitting there in her favorite chair across the room was my beautiful wife. She looked more like she did back when she was thirty than when she passed on. This is not unusual, and I can explain that later if you like but for now, I will continue with the story. My wife smiled at me and then said something like, ‘I am fine. There is no more pain. You must stop moping around and get on with your life.’ She then faded away and as far as I know never returned. The strange events that were occurring around the house also ceased.

“That took place up in Canton, Ohio, where we had basically spent our entire lives. Before long, I decided to sell our home there and move south before the harsh weather set in. I rented an apartment here in the city of Anywhere for the winter. I did not necessarily plan to remain here, but I liked it so much I never bothered to moveelsewhere.

“After the visit from my wife’s soul or spirit, and before I decided to sell our home, I searched out a book I had read years earlier about reincarnation and the survival of souls. It is called There Is a River, by Thomas Sugrue, and it is the story of this amazing man named Edgar Cayce who could put himself in a deep, self-induced hypnotic trance state and perform miracles while he was under. I have a copy of his book for you out in my car, but I decided to not bring it in with me until I saw how you folks received my information.

“A couple of years after I moved here to Anywhere, I came across a group called the Reincarnation Enlightenment Group. It was started by and is still run by a licensed Regression Therapist who also has a keen interest in investigating incidents of suspected reincarnation. She will give her group members past-life regressions in her spare time for free as part of her research into reincarnation. I have had three regression sessions with her and uncovered about ten of my past lives. Enough about that for now.

“As my understanding of souls and reincarnation increased, I gradually realized that I was apparently receiving messages from the other side, or from the Heavenly Powers if you prefer the term. Once I actually accepted that I was being sent messages, I consciously attempted to pay more attention to these messages than I had ever bothered to do before. Many people probably receive messages which they attribute to intuition and pay little or no attention to them, but the secret is to pay attention. The more I paid attention, the more messages I seemed to receive, which I guess makes good sense.

“The next startling development in all of this was that the Heavenly Powers began asking me to help them with assisting people in need, not necessarily financially but to help them to get through some difficult times. Dani Christian, Connie’s co-worker, was one of the first people I was asked to help,” Dacque said, looking directly at Carson. “Dani’s problem was not a very significant one, but I suppose that also makes good sense. If the Heavenly Powers were breaking me in to be part of their assistance assignment program,then they would not start me off with a whopper of a problem, now would they?”

Carson smiled and Connie responded. “That makes perfect sense.”

“Good. Continuing then, my next assignment after helping Dani get her life back on track, turned out to be a whopper of a one that I was afraid was way over my head. It started with a dream about a girl apparently dying at Anywhere Children’s Hospital many years ago. I never saw any date, but I thought the clothing in the dream was from sixty or seventy years ago. I was also given her name. I never bothered to search out the name right away as I had not been given any directions as to what I was expected to do.

“That didn’t last long. The very next morning, on my usual morning walk around the city, I was ordered by my now occasional little voice in my ear or head to go into the Anywhere Children’s Hospital,as I was walking by it. No directions on what I was supposed to do when I got in there, just to go in. To make a long story short, I became a volunteer at the Hospital and was eventually led to the earthbound spirit of the deceased girl in my dream.The only problem was she had four spirits of even younger children that she was taking care of like a big sister would. I eventually managed to get all five of them to crossover and join their eagerly awaiting relatives.

“A marvelous bonus from this assignment is that I acquired a lovely lady friend who is a widow and is still a nurse at the hospital. She also saw all five of the stranded spirits and was with me when they all crossed over which actually took place on two different occasions. It is likely that I will need to work with Cammi’s little spirit friend in a similar fashion as I did with the spirits of these five children at the hospital.

“I have also encountered one more spirit, but this spirit is not earthbound like the children were. It was the spirit of an acquaintance of mine who was viciously murdered. His spirit wanted me to assist it to find its murderer. That is also a very interesting story but has little relevance to Cammi’s visitor. I am also pretty sure that my wife’s spirit was not earthbound but visited me only to get me out of my grieving funk. And that is my story concerning spirit visitors. I welcome your questions or comments.”

Connie glanced over at Carson, having absolutely no idea what he thought about Dacque’s story explaining his spiritual journey. He returned her glance and then turned back towards Dacque. “You mentioned a book earlier about this Cayce chap. I think I would like to read that book if it is alright with you. I must admit that it is difficult for me to grasp how all of this would work, not that I am doubting your word, let me make that perfectly clear, but I need to get a better understanding of all of this.”

“I brought it along, hoping I would hear those words but did not bring it inside in case it caused either of you to feel like I was jamming it down your throat. I actually have two somewhat similar books out in the car so that each of you can read one and then switch them around if you wish. Let me go and retrieve them.”

Dacque returned in a couple of minutes with the two books. He handed Thomas Sugrue’s, There is a River, to Carson, and then turned his attention to Connie. “This second book has a lot of similarities to the first one but is much more modern. It is a true story of how a renowned Miami Psychiatrist, Dr. Brian L. Weiss, got introduced to reincarnation by one of his deeply hypnotized patients. I am sure you will enjoy it too,” he said and handed her the book. “I would suggestthat both of you read both books and give me another call when or if you would like to have a second get-together.”

Connie and Carson thanked Dacque profusely for taking his time to enlighten them on his educational experiences and walked him to the door.

Chapter 4

It was a week later before Connie telephoned Dacque again.

“Hello.”

“Hello, Dacque, it’s Connie. I hope I am not disturbing you?”

“Not at all. How is it going?”

“Good. Carson and I have each read the two books you left with us and we now have a much better understanding of souls and their reincarnation. We agree that we should ask you to check into Cammi’s little friend and hopefully determine whether it is possible for her association with him tobe in any way harmful to her. She told us his name is Zianos, if I heard her correctly, but he asked her to just call him Zee. Are you still willing to get involved with our little problem?”

“Of course. I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of meeting and talking with spirits and helping them out in any way possible.”

“Great. What is our next move?”

“I need to get to know Cammi first and gain her trust. It is unlikely that Zee would appear to me no matter how much time I spent in Cammi’s room unless she sort of introduces me to him as her mother’s friend.”

“That makes sense. When would you like to meet Cammi?”

“I would like you to coach Cammi for a while on your desire to know more about Zee and to have her introduce me to Zee because I am very interested in meeting him, too. As young as she is, it will be really important to our mission to make sure she is genuinely comfortable in my presence, and probably in my presence in her room without you and your husband there with us. That also means that you and your husband must become perfectly comfortable with me being alone with her in her bedroom, possibly sometimes for hours at a time. I do not know anything about them, but I understand people can rent or purchase these child security cameras to keep a check on their small children, and also their babysitters at times as well. I assume you would likely be able to watch a monitor in your living room or on your computer whenever Cammi and I were in her room waiting for Zee to join us. I have no idea whether Zee will actually appear on one of those cameras but Cammi and I certainly will. It is just something you might want to think about.”

“Wow! This is not going to be simple, is it?”

Dacque chuckled. “Not very simple, I will admit.”

“Okay, thanks Dacque for your time and advice. I will bring Carson up to date on the things we need to do and get back to you. Have a good rest of your evening.”

“Thank you and you also.”