Pieces of You (27 page)

Over the next few years, Janine gradually became more comfortable with miracles. She credited every one of them to Mark’s love and intervention, having no problem in reconciling this with her religious faith since she saw Mark as now existing under the dominion of their Maker.

Many people questioned her confidence in the existence of this supernatural sponsor, suggesting that it had just been time for her to have some good luck anyway
,
but those people didn’t know what she knew. Her life was changed in extraordinary ways, ways she could not have suggested or even imagined.

This is not to imply that Mark’s death was all right with Janine! He was her ideal
--
the only man who had inspired in her the belief that she could do and become all she had ever dreamed. Mark was a man bursting with charm, intelligence, and compassion. He was also a romantic lover and an extraordinary communicator. Losing him was, undeniably, one of the great tragedies of her life.

He lived in her thoughts each day, although the intensity of her grief gradually lessened and the routine episodes of uncontrolled weeping eventually ceased; the need to find fragments of his life—someone who could talk to her about him; some object that he had touched or that defined him—passed, too, but for a different reason. She sometimes glimpsed his presence.

At first she could not find what she was looking for—pieces of Mark in some recognizable form—though she searched incessantly. She read about people being visited by deceased loved ones, sometimes seeing a physical form, sometimes hearing a beloved voice or smelling a particular fragrance but, as she read of visions and encounters with the supernatural, she began to recognize how very little she knew about the spiritual world and its links to ours.

A new impression gradually took shape: she would find Mark’s ‘signature’ imprinted on every remarkable event and triumph of her life. A strange notion accompanied this impression—whether it was intuition or imagination is impossible to say. Even as earthquakes occur when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another on a fault plane, so do tiny shifts in the earth’s atmospheric layers allow beings from another universe(s) to pass through. But those passageways, unlike the conditions that result in earthquakes, require invitations for entry.

If acute desire would admit an otherworldly Mark, he was there, surely, and using his now complete knowledge of Truth to disrupt, maybe even to illuminate, Janine’s thinking. Small, regular miracles attested to the probability of their partnership.

Recently, Janine returned to the town of her youth, but not alone.  Mark was there. Even if not in a supernatural sense, he is a significant part of who she has become.

As Bernard Stevens said, in the series ‘Northern Exposure’, after returning from Africa: “In a sense, it is the coming back, the return, which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we come back to where we were—only where we were may not be as it was, because of who we’ve become, which, after all, is why we left.” 

Since Mark died, Janine is compelled to seek answers to questions she had never articulated. What has become of Mark? Did he have a choice whether to stay or pass on? What do people do in heaven? Do the spirits of the deceased visit us? Serve us? Does love—human love—live on, even if we love again?

Janine began to document some of her findings, the writing made easier by the security of being home—taking her place among family, caring companions and stimulating colleagues.

Janine had found her abiding purpose—to define and deliver justice, using the lessons of one who had served and killed in war
;
one who had submitted to the demands of others and, through justifying his actions, set a course for destruction; a man who had gone from following for personal gain to leading by serving
,
even rendering loving service to those who had caused him harm.

Her valiant hero, when faced with his flaws, allowed shame and sorrow to transform him into the devoted lover whose only possible choice was the way of love—whatever the cost.  Her hero was no longer her earthly lover but he would always be her spiritual traveling companion and cherished guide.

This knowledge was strengthened even further, years later, when Janine sat dozing in her sunlit garden after lunch one day and distinctly heard Mark’s voice, that beloved sound which had remained silent for years:

“Janine, I’d like to introduce you to Zachri, my guide and companion. From now on, he will be yours too.”

She knew instantly what this meant. She had been thinking lately that she needed far more help than was available from her local partners to tackle as many as possible of the injustices that were escalating around the world. She had become exhausted and over-stretched. The introduction assured her that her own dear Mark, with Zachri and the rest of their supernatural team, would be there to help her from then on. 

Suddenly, Janine was looking forward to her future with enthusiasm and energy once again, knowing that Mark would always be a part of her universe.

J.F. (Joyce) Elferdink started
Pieces of You
, her first novel, after living through the intense and thought-provoking experience upon which the book’s story is based.

A college instructor, she is also a
s
eeker of social justice and a traveler into the unknown. Her favorite things include: science fiction (among many genres); stimulating conversation (actually, that should be at the top of the list!); all shades of pink and purple; trying new things (especially with her grandchildren) and the list goes on…

She welcomes discussion at her blog,
A Novel Site
at
http://harmlessjoyce.wordpress.com

on her Facebook Page,
www.facebook.com/joyceonsocialjustice

or as a twitter follower
https://twitter.com/harmlessjoyce