The Unpretenders - Chapter 17

By the time I'd gone downstairs, and opened the front door, the anomalous person had disappeared. Or perhaps I had imagined the whole thing. That was certainly possible, considering everything that I had just been through. In any case, I immediately ran to the end of the path in order to get a clearer view of the street. Looking to the left, everything appeared to be normal. Looking to the right, however, I saw the same masked figure standing, quite inexplicably, in front of an approaching car; still completely motionless, still completely silent, and still completely transfixed on my position.

The car then slowed to a halt behind them, which confirmed to me that I probably wasn't hallucinating. A simultaneous blast of the horn made me jump a little, but made no impression on the eerie stranger. They didn't even flinch.

By this time my mother had emerged, and promptly reminded me that I was grounded. "Come back in at once, young lady," she angrily yelled from the doorstep, followed by numerous warnings about what would happen if I didn't. It was all pitifully ironic, really, since she was the one who was grounded. Not merely forbidden from flying away, as I was, but utterly unaware that she even had wings.

As I considered what to do next, the stranger suddenly turned around and leapt onto the bonnet of the car. They then casually made their way over the roof and down the other side, as if was the most natural activity in the world. The driver was understandably incensed, of course, and immediately got out to confront the offender. But it was too late. All he could do was curse and hurl insults at them as they fled the scene.

Now rather amused, as well as intrigued, I decided to ignore my mother and give chase. The subsequent five minutes took me into the next street, over some waste ground, across a railway bridge, and eventually through the gates of a local park, where I lost sight of my target. I knew they couldn't have gotten far, however, and immediately began a search of the area.

A fair number of people were milling around that day, due to the balmy weather. Still, I didn't feel that the stranger would be very hard to spot. For even if they had discarded their mask, I knew that they were taller than average; plus I had retained at least some sense of what they were wearing. In the end, however, and to my utter amazement, it happened the other way around.

"Sophie, isn't it?" said a young woman, who was sitting quietly on a nearby bench. For some reason I had barely even noticed her. "I hope I didn't alarm you," she added. "My name is Melody. I'm a friend of Julian's."

Warily, I sat down beside her.

"I'm not really supposed to be talking to you," she then confessed. "At least not yet. The whole mask thing was purely symbolic; to let you know that you're not alone; that you're one of us now."

"One of whom?" I asked.

"One of those who understands the Truth, and is willing to accept it; to actually live it as a physical reality. Do you have any idea how precious that is, Sophie?"

"I'm beginning to."

"I know how much you'd like to leave this planet, believe me. But there's an opportunity here, for as long as you're alive, to assist those who are looking for a way out, just as you were. A door which only the Truth can point to. But not as words, or teachings, or doctrines of some kind. Those days are over with. No, I'm talking about living embodiments of the Truth. For that is your purpose now, Sophie. To become what you are, and lead by example. Which is ironic, in a way, because so many of those who came here looking for the illusion of meaning, in a meaningless universe, have actually succeeded in generating a real one for themselves."

"What meaning?"

"The only meaning there can ever be: a return to love. That is the real journey home, after all. And that's why there are so many starseeds on the planet right now, to assist in that process. For the possibility exists to utterly transform this reality, once and for all."

Her description reminded me of a passage from the Bible. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes," I quoted, "and death will be no more. Neither will mourning, or sadness, or suffering be any more, for the former things have ceased to exist."

"You have a Christian background?" she asked.

"Kind of."

Melody laughed. "No offence, Sophie, but haven't you found that Christians are often the most unchristian people you could ever wish to meet."

"I know. My parents taught me that, by example."

"Mine too. And yet there are no excuses for them, because everything is there in black and white: He who loves his life will lose it, while he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternity."

"It's talking about consciousness, isn't it?"

"Right. A highly conscious person cannot help but see this world for what it is. Whereas it takes a person of diminished consciousness to actually love their life here. And that love will compound the problem even further, until eventually..."

"Even what little they have will be taken away from them."

"Exactly."

"That would certainly explain the zombie-like behaviour."

"Let the dead bury their dead," she quoted Jesus as saying.

"Yes, of course. The living dead. The zombie apocalypse isn't something to prepare for. It's already happened!"

"Tell me about it. But for as long as there are those who can still be saved, there will always be those who respond to their cries for help. They'll never be abandoned."  

"Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno."

"Yes, you could say that," Melody agreed, standing up.

"Are you leaving? When will I see you again?"

"When you're ready for the next level."

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"Meaning crede quod habes, et habes. Believe that you have it, and you do."