Chapter 8
Someday I'm going to meet a person who never faced a test.
I'll ask, "What are you doing here?"
It was supposed to be a time for healing, in the hospital. Too slow. I closed my eyes, shifted away.
I opened them flying. Shimoda was now my wingman, floating off to the left. Something different with their time, I thought.
“It’s not fast enough,” he said.
“The time?”
“The healing.”
“No. Not fast enough.” I climbed the Fleet a bit, circled a lovely hilltop. “I’m doing fine here, Don. I’m healed instantly here. Part of me’s back on Earth, in the hospital. Can you find me there, heal me, get my life going again?”
He was quiet for a while. “So I guess you know what people wanted, when I was the Savior.”
Oh, my. Of course, I knew: Heal me. Feed me. Give me some money.
“Sorry.”
No answer.
I turned away toward the place we started, the hayfield. “Would you maybe just give me a speed course in how you heal folks? I’ve never asked you for the course, but my way, it’s so slow.”
“Your way is the way you want to heal.” He moved closer, close formation. “You want me to do it for you, heal you instantly on Earth? You don’t have to learn anything. You’ll let me do it?”
So easy: let him do it. Someone says, How did you heal from your crash? You’re well! Immediately! And I tell them, I don’t know, I had a Savior heal me.
“Well, no,” I said. “Just some hints, so it goes faster for me, on my own.”
“If I tell you hints, is the healing your work or mine? You don’t need to be healed now, you need know it when you’re back on Earth. You’ll wait for a savior to make you well, instead of listening to your own understanding? Your understanding doesn’t work?”
“No,” I said. “I’ll do it myself, thank you.” I know how to do it. I just need practice.
“You need practice,” he said.
I frowned at him, looking across the few yards between the cockpits. He smiled, innocently.
Something he knows about healing, that I don’t.
What do I know about flying, I thought, that a non-flyer doesn’t know? Is it the same?
I know there’s a principle of aerodynamics, works in space-time. Airplanes use aerodynamics. Learn how airplanes work, how controls work, a few simple rules, flying an airplane’s easy.
I know there’s a principle of spirit, I thought. It works without space-time. I am subject to that principle, in spirit and in belief of body. Learn how spirit works, a few simple rules, living a perfect spiritual life is easy.
“Wires ahead,” said my wingman.
Why do they use wires here? Wires not required, telephones not necessary, in a land of spirit.
“Roger the wires,” I said. I’ll practice flying through them. They’ll be no problem.
In seconds our airplanes hit the wires, flew through them all. Nothing happened.
That’s all right, I thought. No disasters here. What do I need, on earth, for an instant healing?