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BECAUSE SPIRIT SAID SO
By Kathleen Cribb
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Cribb
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-4749-8
Chapter One
ACT ONE Scene 1: THE FAIR
While the audience is being seated the organist or orchestra will softly play The Trumpet Séance.
Curtains are still closed and the theatre is dimly lit. Amale announcer with a very deep voice is standing on the right corner of the stage in front of the curtain.
ANNOUNCER: Welcome viewers: Mediumship Saturday has been a monthly event at Memorial Spiritualist Church for over twenty years. Mediums donate their time and energy to sit at card tables to deliver spirit greetings. In these modern times we have changed the name to Psychic Fair in order to draw a crowd. After all this is a fund raising event for the church. If we placed a sign out on the lawn saying Mediumship Day no one would know what it meant. They might think we are selling clothes at a yard sale for medium sized women only.
This is a story about Claire and spirit entities using tables to communicate. She works one of these tables every month. Fortunately she has been doing it for so long that the church leaders allow her to pick where she would like her table placed. She always chooses the platform in the front of the church where the preachers speak and the vibration is the strongest. When it comes to understanding spirit readings the first order of business is choosing a spot where the vibrations flow freely and the spirits like to gather. Spirits love to collect on the stage or platform of a Spiritualist church.
Claire is a Cancerian baby boomer. She has medium brown shoulder length hair and hazel eyes. Claire is a bit of a chameleon. Her eyes change color depending on her mood and the color of clothing she happens to be wearing at the moment. In her youth she held a strong similarity to Jacqueline Kennedy. As far as the young men were concerned it didn't hurt that she had a top heavy hour glass figure accentuated by an 18" waist-line. Now at the ripe old age of 60 due to high cheek bones; she has maintained moderately good looks, a medium frame and a playful heart.
The table has changed its appearance over the years too. The first table that ever communicated with Claire was made of wood and had a firm glossy cardboard top. If the legs didn't fold inward you might have mistaken it for real furniture. The second was a hand-made pine hutch table located in Claire's kitchen. The third table was an antique dressing table hiding in plain site at the church. Then of course the fourth is the over-worked and under-appreciated card table Claire uses today at Psychic Fair. This leads us to our story.
Lights come up now and curtains are drawn.
ANNOUNCER: Try to picture if you will please, an old stone church located in a very old section of Norfolk, Virginia. It is the second Saturday of the month at approximately one o'clock on a sunny spring day in 2007. Folks are gathering in the office and lyceum room to await their turns to meet with their medium of choice.
A few readers have tables set up in the background. Claire's table is set up on the platform in the front of the church. On the card table she places a white table cloth, a small odorless candle and a note pad and pencil. A box of Kleenex rests close by on a stool.
Behind Claire is White Swan, a tall very strong Indian man. He is organizing people behind a gauzy curtain. White swan stands in both worlds. He can reach over to touch Claire when he wants to convey a message from the spirit who is next in line.
The line continually flows. One spirit moves forward Claire recognizes them delivers their message and then they disappear into the shadows.
Our first eager participant in the fair is Sally. She is a very ordinary looking woman in her early 40s wearing blue jeans and a powder blue sweat shirt saying "Angels can fly because they don't take themselves seriously!" Sally's lips and eyes are smiling but her brows maintain a permanent knit. This is not her maiden voyage to a psychic fair. However, she has never sat down at Claire's table in the past. Her regular reader is out of town so she had to chose someone else or go home empty handed. She chose Claire but looks frustrated.
CLAIRE: Hello Sally. Come sit down at the table with me. I'm sorry Estelle is out of town today. Let me hold your hands for a short prayer. Infinite Spirit, please bless this reading. Allow only good to come to me and through me for Sally's highest and best good. Amen.
Sally, this is your reading. You can accept or reject anything I say. Do you have a piece of jewelry you wear regularly? SALLY nervously: Will my watch do?
CLAIRE: Does it have a metal band? Good, may I hold it? Watch changes hands.
Thank you Sally, I don't know if this is you or a spirit I'm feeling. As soon as I touched your watch I got this strange headache at the base of my skull. It seems to carry over to my shoulders, especially my right shoulder.
SALLY: Yes it is me. My chiropractor told me just this morning I need to carry a lighter pocketbook. It is the cause of my shoulder pain and yes it does go up my neck too.
CLAIRE: Okay, well I don't know if this is from your vibration or spirit's. I am feeling tightness in my ribcage and my back. It is as if I am bound up tightly to support my spine and keep it rigid. I don't know if it is tape or some kind of apparatus making my ribs on both sides ache. It is making me breathe very shallowly. I think it is spirit. She is making me feel considerably older than you and perhaps her leg is in traction or something.
SALLY Gasps: Oh my Aunt Mabel was in a terrible car crash. A drunk hit her little VW and put her in the hospital for months. She never did get to go home because she contracted pneumonia and died. Is she here now?
CLAIRE: Yes and she is telling you she feels great and she is very pleased with something you did for her son a month or two ago. Do you know what she is talking about?
SALLY: He was having girlfriend troubles if you know what I mean and I talked to him like a big sister.
Ronnie and I were always close when we were young.
As kids I'd go spend a week or two each summer at his house or he would come to mine. We didn't get to see each other a whole lot during the year because he lived 50 miles away from us. But we are still close like brothers and sisters. I'll always be there for him if he needs to talk something out.
CLAIRE: That is beautiful. Your aunt is giving you a big kiss to say thank you. Who passed over with a pain in their right side? It really feels like where the appendix would be or that general area.
SALLY asks quizzically: Could it be the colon? My grand daddy had a colonoscopy go bad on him. I didn't really learn the details I just know my mom wouldn't let us go to the hospital to see him. Then just before he died she let us go in. He had all kinds of tubes and needles sticking in and out of him it scared me. His face had a gray mask over it and he never opened his eyes.
CLAIRE: Your Granddaddy says thank you for coming to see him. He knew you were there. He is sorry he couldn't tickle you one last time. He is giving you four small roses. He says they are a symbol of something. He wants to thank you for the little bottles and he says your grand ma is with him. She would like to cook one of her famous Sunday dinners with three kinds of meat and lots of fresh vegetables. She says, you need some meat on your bones and she loves you.
CLAIRE hands back her watch, pats her hands and says: Sally, Have a blest day.
As Sally leaves the room a little Indian maiden spirit, Dahlia pirouettes like a cloud all around Claire and the table. Claire smiles but is only vaguely aware of her presence. Claire waves her hands through the flame of the candle. She ritualistically whooshes the warmth of the candle over herself and the table. Now, they are both fresh and clean for the next sitter. The vibration on the platform is one of love and acceptance. She can sense a new set of spirits gathering behind her for the next reading.
White Swan, her gatekeeper, is organizing them at the edge of the Etheric world. Sometimes he will allow the spirit to touch her aura directly. Most often, White Swan will intervene and deliver the message to her himself.
Dahlia dances over to the announcer
DAHLIA (begging & tugging on his arm): Tell the people about White Swan. Tell them about White Swan.
ANNOUNCER: Claire's gatekeeper has been with her since before birth. As soon as she chose her parents he agreed to protect her and help her throughout this life time. She has kept him very busy. Thank God, he is a very powerful spirit entity.
During one long hot summer she flirted with death on three occasions. White Swan managed to save her life every time. Claire met this hunk of a man we'll call Chesapeake one Friday evening while she was in a bar with a girlfriend in Annapolis, Maryland having a quick drink. He asked her to dance. While they were swirling and dipping on the shiny wooden dance floor Claire got hooked into the dream of living the movie Grease. He looked very much like John Trevolta and wow could he ever dance. Her first brush with death occurred when Chesapeake, her Chesapeake Bay waterman friend raced his small flat bottomed workboat strait towards a water spout and crashed onto unfamiliar shoreline in the pouring rain. Miraculously, she was not hurt. She ran up to the nearest town and away from him as fast as her little flip flops would carry her. White Swan directed her to the home of a kind stranger who allowed her to use her phone to call for help. The second near miss was when she drove home from work to find her waterman juiced up on pot that had been laced with angel-dust. He was so far out of his mind that he literally fired his shot gun at her head. Once again either destiny prevailed or White Swan intervened. The blast of the shot gun destroyed the mailbox just as she was racing away from her own home in a borrowed car. The pellets of the shot gun riveted the rim of the car door as she drove away. Some of the shot reached all the way across the street and peppered the aluminum siding of her neighbor's house. Not one stray shot gun pellet ever touched Claire. It was as if she was protected in a bubble of spirit light. Finally, one hot Sunday morning, Claire was getting ready to take a bath to dress for church. Her now ex-boyfriend broke into her house slammed her up against walls and furniture. Just as Mr. Chesapeake pinned her down on the vinyl flooring with his hands firmly gripped around her throat, Claire inaudibly screamed, "Get this demon off of me!!!" Claire only weighed 125 pounds. The waterman weighed about twice that and then some all pure muscle. White Swan levitated him like a feather off of Claire. The intruder was in utter shock, he took her hand lifted her off the floor and then he ran out the door like he had just been touched by a ghost.
Claire massages her temples. All these terrifying scenes raced through Claire's mind as a very tall good looking gentleman walked slowly toward her table.
WHITE SWAN: (leans over to assure her) He is not Chesapeake from all those many years before. You are safe and this soul needs your help.
Claire shakes her shoulders smiles and offers the gentleman a seat across from her at the table. As she gazes into his eyes she realizes he does not look anything like Chesapeake. It was just a very old fear clouding her judgment. However, this man is astonishingly handsome. He is tall with dark hair and even darker eyes. The kind of eyes you can stare into for minutes at a time and completely get lost in the moment. Snapping back to the here and now
CLAIRE: May I hold your hand for a moment? What is your first name?
JOHN: John
CLAIRE: Infinite Spirit, please bless this reading for your son John. Allow only good to come to me and through me for John's highest and best use. Thank you.
John this is your reading. You may accept or reject anything I say. Do you have a piece of jewelry you wear regularly?
JOHN: I want you to hold this ring. Offers man's wedding ring. The lady out in the office said you hold onto jewelry and read a vibration off of it. Is that right?
CLAIRE: Yes as a matter of fact that is my preferred way of giving a spiritual reading.
Sometimes, people are more comfortable when readers use tools such as crystal balls or tarot cards because they think messages are emanating out of reflections in the ball or the pretty pictures painted on the cards. The tools appear to be less personal and some folks think they are less intrusive into their personal space. In reality, once a person sits down at this table their spirit loved ones come swooping in like magpies, all anxious to say hello. Pardon me, John, but you don't wear this wedding ring. You keep it on your person like maybe hold it in your pocket a lot. But you don't place it on your finger. Do you have a brother in spirit? I ask because I feel a male vibration similar to your own moving in closely. He says he got the dashing good looks in the family. I believe this ring belongs to him. He is full of fun and not fatherly at all. Not a paternal type vibration. This is more like a best buddy or a brother.
Someone you were very close to emotionally.
JOHN: Yes, his name was Charles.
CLAIRE: That isn't what you called him. I think you called him Chad. He was happily married. He wants you to know that. I don't know why that is important but you need to hear it. John, please don't answer. Just nod if you understand. Okay. He wants to bring you a little girl who comes in with him. She was about 6 or 7 when she crossed over. She calls you Uncle Jo Jo.
Does that make sense? He nods Okay.
Who had a severely bloated abdomen when they passed to spirit?
Yes, you can speak now.
JOHN: That's my other brother. He was considerably older than me. He was on some assignment for his government job in Latin America. He got very ill and died shortly after returning to the states.
CLAIRE: John, your momma is still here, correct?
JOHN: Yes.
CLAIRE: Well, this brother wants you to confirm your momma's feeling him sit down on the foot of her bed last night. She spoke to him but she didn't sound very certain that he was actually there. He says he likes the shrine.
He's showing me an area on a table that's mostly covered with a doily and only has photos of her deceased family members. He tells me it is getting crowded. He tried to knock over just his picture to let her know he was there but there were too many other photos in the way. He abandoned the effort.
John, do you need to hear that Chad is alive and well now? If so he most assuredly is alive and well and full of life.
He doesn't stay with you all the time. He has a life to live in Spiritland. However, every time you hold onto that ring and think of him with so much emotion, you draw him to you. Do you feel him?
John nods yes.
It would be better if you could do this a little less often. It is not only interrupting his life it is preventing your own life from moving forward. You have not made a change you very much need to make in your life and he is encouraging you to make this change.
Do you know what he is referring to?
John nods yes while sobbing.
John please let him go. It is time for both of you to move forward with your lives.
He blew you a kiss and stepped back.
John's brother steps into the background. John's dad sneaks from behind the curtain and smacks John in the back of his head. Then he races to the head of the line next to White Swan.
Your dad just smacked you on the back of your head.
Did you feel it?
Nods yes while rubbing the back of his head and still sobbing.
John, are you the executor of Chad's estate?
JOHN: Yes.
CLAIRE: Please get it wrapped up soon. A new door wants to open for you and it is stuck. It's kind of metaphysically jammed shut until you are free to go through it. Give the ring to your momma. You could make it a mother's day present to her by framing it with a small photo of Chad. Release him and allow your own self and your life to get well.
They are telling me time is up now. Thank you for allowing me to serve spirit. Bless you John.
Sometimes when a sitter is emotionally torn up his passion will drain Claire of her energy. She pushes her chair backwards and walks out of the room. Claire walks into the kitchen to get away from people and pours herself a fresh glass of cold water. As she takes her first swallow she can feel her energy self reaching for its center. Her solar plexus is hot and she knows she is receiving healing energy from her spirit guides. This wonderful energy feels like warm oil pouring down over her head all the way down to her toes.
CLAIRE: Balance I must find balance and renewal.
Claire centers herself repeating her favorite prayer
Holy art thou Lord of the universe Holy art thou which nature hath not formed Holy art thou the vast and the mighty one Lord of the light and the darkness.
Now one last deep breath in and back out through pursed lips. Claire is centered in the here and now. It is time to go back to work. Back at her table Claire says a quiet prayer of thanks.
CLAIRE: Thank you White Swan for doing a wonderful job lining the spirits up for the sitters.
As she stares into the candle flame
CLAIRE: White Swan are you ever sorry for having made the choice to be my gatekeeper?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from BECAUSE SPIRIT SAID SO by Kathleen Cribb Copyright © 2012 by Kathleen Cribb. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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