Radiance (Riley Bloom 1)

Glowed in a similar way to Bodhi’s and everyone else’s I saw on that stage.

And even though my glow wasn’t anywhere near as bright as theirs—

I still shone.

There was no denying it.

I swerved to the right, narrowly avoiding crashing smack through my own image at the very last second, before swooping, making a big, loopy U-turn, and confronting myself once again.

Seeing it all laid out before me plain as day.

My smallish, slim body, my practically sunken, flat chest, my lank blond hair with the bangs that fell into bright blue eyes that flanked the beginnings of what swooped down to be an undeniably semi-stubby nose. But my cheeks were widened and flushed as a big toothy grin spread across my face, as I continued to stare at the brilliant, pale greenish glow that shimmered and danced all around me.

“You see it?” Bodhi said, coming up right beside me, his smile almost as big as mine.

I nodded, so struck by my appearance, at first I couldn’t speak. Having to clear my throat a bunch of times before I could utter, “Yeah, I see it. But what does it mean?” Glancing at him briefly before focusing back on this sparkling new version of me.

“It means you got your glow on.” He smiled, hovering right there alongside me. “It means you’re on your way.”

24

Even though I initially wanted to stop, and maybe even pick up some souvenirs for my family (still don’t know how I would’ve handled the actual logistics of that, but it seemed like a good idea at the time), after seeing my glowing reflection, after listening to Bodhi explain that there are many different levels to the Here & Now, and how each one just gets better and better than the one just before it, and how my new pale-green glow clearly marked me as a bona fide member of the level 1.5 team, and that if I kept up the good work, I’d be transcending that color and level in no time at all, going on to glow in a variety of colors, each of them representing a higher and higher sphere—after he explained all of that, I no longer felt the need to land.

London was a busy city.

Too busy for me.

And to be honest, I’d grown pretty weary of the spying life anyway.

Of existing vicariously through the living.

Especially now that I was finally clued in to the irony of it all—of how my life would only get richer and richer even though to all those below I was buried and dead.

But more importantly, for the first time in a long time, I had somewhere important to be.

For the first time in a long time, I had no need to live through someone else’s experiences. Not when it was so clearly time to start claiming my own.

“Let’s head back,” I said, at first a little shaken by my decision, though it was soon overruled by eager anticipation. Knowing I’d be back to visit the earth plane again, sooner rather than later considering how many more ghosts it was my job to cross over, but for now, I just wanted to celebrate my victory in the one place in which I truly belonged. “Let’s just go home.” I smiled, soaring ahead and instinctively knowing just how to get there.

Occasionally gazing down at the earth plane as I soared through the clouds, knowing that just like all of the people rushing around right below me, I too had somewhere important to be.

Coming in Spring 2011

Riley’s, Buttercup’s, and Bodhi’s

adventures continue in

Shimmer

“Go on, Buttercup—go get it, boy!”

I cupped my hands around my mouth and squinted into a blanket of gooey, white haze still hours away from being burned off by the sun. Gazing upon a beach that was just the way I liked it—foggy, cold, a tiny bit spooky even. Reminding me of our old family visits to the Oregon Coast—the kind I sometimes tried to re-create on my own.

But despite the infinite manifesting possibilities of the Here & Now, something about it just wasn’t the same. Sure you could replicate the same sensations, the way the tiny, pebbly grains wedged between your toes, the way the cool ocean spray felt upon your face, but still, it didn’t quite cut it.

Couldn’t quite live up to the real thing.

And clearly Buttercup agreed.