Chapter 16:
I Can Hear You
If I told you that I never had any interest in where my powers come from, I guess that I would be lying; every night, the days after I heard Sara’s voice, I would wonder why I was able to do this, I felt like it was the first truly special thing that I had lived for. After that, when Zack died, I instantly knew that I had to do something; I had no doubt about my capacities, this was my chance to prove myself as something special, and I think that I did it…
Every time I met another spirit, I thought that I was making myself a bit better, this made me somehow better, happier, I didn’t want to lose these experiences, nor the feeling that these were special things that only I could live, so I stopped thinking about why this happened to me, I thought that if I discovered a reason for this strange capacity, I would miss this special sensation… I never thought that a chance to know why this happened would come to me…
“Adam, boy, are you ready to listen to my story?”
“Well… I don’t really know…”
“Come on, dummy, let him tell you the story, you will be ashamed if you miss this chance!”
“I- I don’t know if I want to hear this…”
“Boy, I completely understand the fear that comes with knowing that this isn’t your own unique skill; I’ve seen countless persons going through the same experience once and again”
“What do you mean by countless people?”
“Well, you’re not the only one as you may have already realized; I just happen to be the man that’s supposed to guide people like you or like Fennel”
“Bob… maybe I could be wrong on this, but you aren’t a normal ghost, right?”
“First of all little boy, my name is Robert Damian, some people know me as the guide, and some other people have seen me as a father, a friend…”
“Master, please! You should go straight to the point”
“I’m sorry, really sorry; I’ll do it now Fennel…”
“You really love to divagate when you tell a story master… *chuckles*”
“I promise that I will avoid it from now on my dear”
To be honest, I had a weird first impression about Bob, he seemed just like your usual crazy old man from an 80s movie, the little green master that knows almost anything, but likes riddles enough to use instead of actual explanations for everything he says; now that I was actually interacting with him and his apprentice, Fennel, I could realize that he was more than that, something that especially called my attention, was that even with a mocking attitude akin to Fennel’s, he was quite a polite person on how he treated us, or at least way more polite than his apprentice, I guess that she hasn’t learned certain things from him…
“Then, Adam, pay attention my friend”
Bob and Fennel sat down; Bob was waiting for me to sit, so he could start talking, besides him, Fennel was extending her hand, she wanted me to sit right next to her, and so I did.
“Believe me Adam, you will not believe this, it’s like the craziest thing ever, at least I didn’t believe it when he told me this story”
“Don’t give him ideas Fennel, he could start treating my story as merely more than a lie; now, Adam, let me tell you, I have been around since… two thousand years? No, maybe it was three thousand”
“The important fact is that it has been a lot”
“As my cute assistant said, it has been quite a lot… Long ago, I came to this world looking for another man, my son”
“Wait, you came to “this world”?”
“Well, yes, I’m not actually from the same Earth where you were born, I come from a place called Can’eders, a place out of this world; there I used to follow a peaceful life alongside my kin and my family… That was until something happened with my son…”
“I don’t know how to follow this; you’re telling me that you come from another world?”
“Boy, you can see actual ghosts, and you think that the idea of another world is weird or unbelievable? Your mind sure works in some strange ways”
Damn it, I don’t have a way to answer when he is right…
“Think about this, you have heard about what people call “angels”, is that's right?”
“Well… yeah, they are like part of almost every culture or at least every culture that I’ve managed to understand”
“Then let’s say that we are almost like angels or at least something that people from older times thought were their angels”
“That… That’s so absurdly weird”
“It is, quite weird actually. The people from my world were supposed to stay forever in that world, everyone followed that rule, but we could actually come down here if we were tasked with something to do on this world”
“Wait, what’s that about “coming down”, like you descended to Earth?”
“Something like that, I guess that you could say that our land is special when compared to this; it’s a place that would mesmerize any person who could put an eye on that marvelous place, and it is something akin to a planet of its own, even if it isn’t exactly that”
“When you talk about such a mesmerizing place… you mean something like Heaven?”
“Well, yeah… people who managed to learn about this in the past ended giving it different names, Heaven, Valhalla, Paradise, Elysium… lots of names for that single place”
“And people who truly know about that place, do people like that exist?”
“So you’re getting invested in my story, boy? *ho ho*” – Now that I look at him, he basically acts like what a grandpa could be, I guess that it isn’t half bad.
“Well, I think that no one would be able to deny how interesting that idea can be, another world existing out could mean a lot for how we understand the universe…”
“Which means that you’re getting invested *ho ho*, don’t feel ashamed of admitting it boy; but answering to you, I am something akin to an ambassador to in this land, so I’m the person who needs to look up for anyone like you, and, to be honest, there are really few people, which seems wrong for the number of people that should be like you”
“Master, shouldn’t you explain the thing that makes us special?”
“Oh, you are right little Fennel; ok, Adam, let me tell you a story, the story about how I was expelled from my land”
“*Ha* So you’ve committed a crime or something like that?”
The old man finally was showing other emotions, his face changed to that of a serious person for the first time since I met him, I guess that this is something important for him, much more than what I could have thought…
“You could say that there was a crime, but it wasn’t mine… my son, he did something that our people were never allowed to do…”
“So, it was your son… But then shouldn’t be the person taking your role in this world? It should be his responsibility after all”
“Yeah… yeah, it should be his responsibility, but he isn’t around anymore…”
“Uh, I… sorry… did he die…?”
“No, being honest I don’t know if my people can actually die, but I guess that you could say that he did die, or at least something like that happened to him. Our people were, as I already told you, receive tasks from time to time that is meant to help people from this land… Long ago, my son, Gin, received a special task of his own, he needed to come down and help a person, nothing that could be considered out of the ordinary for our people”
“When you say that this was long ago, how long ago?”
“I told you, I don’t remember, but more than two thousand for sure”
“I see, so what happened to Gin if his task wasn’t anything out of the ordinary?”
“I told you that what he did was something like a crime, it was something that my people isn’t allowed to do; Gin came down to help a person, and he committed the error of falling in love with her”
“So your people are stupid?”
“Don’t rush yourself boy, you should wait before making an opinion about the things that you don’t really know”
“But that’s stupid, no one should prohibit the rest of falling in love, even if these are different species”
“That’s why you are in the wrong boy, it’s not only that we aren’t allowed to love humans, is that we shouldn’t, our species isn’t allowed to love them, because of something as essential as energies and reproduction, my people use these two on a different way, and if we happened to reproduce with earthlings, in order to do so, we need to become their energy source, we give away our soul to create a new human”
“So your son, Gin, he…”
“He became the energy source of a new person, and that person was my granddaughter”
“And then what happened to her? Is she still around?”
“No, she isn’t around anymore, when my people descend to this land and give form to a new life, that new life isn’t a human, nor my species, the so-called angels by ancient humans, they are something brand new, akin to a human, but with strange capacities that come from my race”
“Adam, have you grasped what this story means?”
“I don’t really know…”
Fennel laughed a bit after my response, she knew that I was just trying to avoid the obvious answer…
“Boy, I’ve been following every descendant of Gin for all these centuries, but few of them actually managed to learn become what my people expect of them… Once a person is born following her blood, that person should be special, their emotions should help them to feel things that no one else should be able to feel, to see, to hear… but few individuals out there actually managed to fill the expectations. Between those few, Fennel was a special case, but no one in her family managed to do the same before they left her alone; most people lose every chance of doing what you do once they are past their younger years, but I guess that this all goes with what you’re exposed to… I’ve been following you around since you were really young Adam, I wanted you to be special because of how much you disliked your usual life, mostly to test what you could do, but also to see if you live a happier life, but once your time had passed, I never expected you to be able to see what you see…”
“So, you mean…”
“Yes, Adam, when Sara Ravenna died, it was a special situation for you, even if you never managed to know her, being in that situation changed what you felt, it was the first time that you could openly feel bad about failing to someone, even if that wasn't your responsibility at all, the first time that you openly expressed what you truly felt about other people; that changed who you are, that made you one of the few who managed to feel these things during adulthood, I guess that you truly are special, Adam Forte, and I guess that you should call me a kind of grandpa *ho ho ho*”
I couldn’t believe any of his words, but I guess that I was happy… I am a special person, after all the things that I thought during my childhood, I finally feel that I am more than just a regular guy… no, from the start I never was a regular guy, a regular human to begin with…
“You are special, but you should never allow that to change who you are, could you make me that promise, Adam?”
“I’m not really sure Bob…”
“I will be waiting for you, and in that the far future, I want you to take my place, to be the person who will help people like you and Fennel to find a meaning in their life, and to help other people, who are still trapped in this realm, to feel like they aren’t alone, to follow the steps that I’ve done until now, I want you to be my successor, Adam Forte!”
“But why, why would you want me to do that? Isn’t Fennel suited for something like that as well?”
“You could say that I am suited as well, but let me ask you something, have you ever doubted about helping the ghosts that you have seen?”
“Well… every time I have one of those experiences, I always have doubt following me around…”
“But you have never stopped, you’ve always gone forward, because that’s your mission, to help them, to make them free”
“So, what do you mean?”
“I’ve never been able to do the same Adam… look at Carlo, that child who you helped, I tried to do the same years ago, but I had fear, not about anything in special, I was scared of turning this in something that could consume my life; I would have to help every spirit that wasn’t able to rest in peace, I was scared of not being able to follow a normal life if that had ever happened to me…”
“Boy, not everyone is suited to do what you do, not everyone can help another person, and this isn’t only about what you want to do or what you don’t want to do, is about being able to do something, keeping up the walk on your road, but suddenly stopping because you can do something for others, you are that kind of person Adam, you are a really good person”
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