1
Zoron and Jonah both faced Joan in the chamber. Zoron told her, “Joan, you will now be able to communicate freely with me and Jonah.” She nodded her understanding. “The Council has decided to request that you perform the work of God. Do you understand?”
“Not exactly,” she admitted. “What is it that I’m supposed to do?”
Zoron glanced at Jonah, then turned back to Joan. “God has spoken to me, Joan. It is His will that you return to walk among mankind as the servant of God. You will be instructed on what you need to know and what you are to do. You will carry with you a heavy burden.”
“What do you mean, Zoron?” she asked. “What do I have to do?”
“It will be left upon you to undo that which the six of you wrongfully did. You will be returned uncleansed to be reborn among mankind. You will carry with you the full memory of the last two lives you have lived; Joan Spencer and Paula Austin. You will also carry with you that which we will teach you. You must find the other five and undo their terrible deed that returned them to earth uncleansed. Do you understand all this, Joan?”
“Yes, Zoron. But isn’t there a way for God or you or somebody else to fix this thing without me?”
“God in His infinite wisdom has made it impossible for He Himself or any others of us to venture forth on earth. Earth is the Kingdom of God created for mankind alone. You have been chosen by God to do his work on earth, and this is indeed a rare and blessed thing. You have returned to us so that we may know the wrong that has been committed. You are truly sent by God as His messenger.”
“But I just came back because I wanted to. It wasn’t God that made me want to come back here.”
“Oh, precious child, how much you know and how little you know. It was indeed God’s will that you return. It was God who restored your memory of Joan Spencer and your sense of guilt which all combined to lead you back to us. But God could not force you to decide to walk with Him. You chose that path of your own accord, and that is what makes you holy, child. Do you not see that it is you and you alone that has chosen to return? The others have had the same opportunity and have not chosen to do so.”
Joan was very nervous. “But maybe they will in time. Maybe they just didn’t figure things out as fast as I did. Can’t you just wait and see what happens?”
“You are right, my sweet. They perhaps may yet choose to return to us, but then again, they may not. Man is master of his own destiny. Some go forth and live in goodness, and some do not. God refuses to intervene in this choice, for it was deemed to be a choice that each man makes of his own free will. Your return to us was your choice, and you must surely know that your work has just begun.”
The words of Zoron were hypnotic. As he spoke Joan accepted his words as absolute truths. She was prepared to do whatever Zoron required of her. She looked at Zoron and then at Jonah. “I will do as you order.”
“Wonderful!” Zoron exclaimed. “But you need not look so glum, child. You walk in the presence of God, and that is the greatest of all things that man can ever achieve.”
Jonah spoke, and his voice was not nearly as powerful as Zoron’s. “You must learn many things in a very small amount of time. We will begin at once. What we teach you is holy and sanctified. It may never be repeated to any human being, or you shall risk the harshest punishment that God can dispense. Do you understand this?”
“Yes, but what if it just slips out? Like if it slips out before I get big enough to understand it all. I might tell things to my new parents while I’m small. Do you understand what I mean?”
As difficult as Joan thought this might be, Jonah did understand. “Your secret should be safe before you mature enough to remember and understand your purpose on earth. If it should happen to slip, you will know exactly what must be done to remedy the error. For you are indeed a wise and holy one.”
This comforted Joan at the same time it raised questions; questions she chose not to ask at this time. “I’m ready,” she meekly announced.
Jonah began the lessons. “What you will learn is a great simplification of the way things truly are, but it will be enough for you to understand what you must do. The soul departs only after two things happen. The heart must stop, and the consciousness must cease.
“In the creation of mankind, God attached the soul by two means. You can best visualize them as groups of threads. The first group of threads connects with the heart muscles, and the second group connects with specific areas of the brain. There are things in the brain called enzymes that are generated in the process of life-thought; consciousness as you may better perceive it. These enzymes are what the soul threads cling to. When the enzymes are sufficiently depleted, the threads can no longer hold.
“The heart threads attach in a much simpler fashion. When the heart stops beating, the threads begin unraveling. If the heart begins to beat again, then the threads rebind themselves.
“As long as one group of threads is attached, the other group will try to re-attach itself. And so God created the method by which life and death could be defined to His satisfaction. In almost all death, the memory is intact within the soul as it departs. There are but two ways to detach the soul without the memory. One is to sever the memory before the enzymes are depleted, and the second is to destroy the memory areas themselves before the enzymes are depleted. The first method involves very precise knowledge and skills that would be all but impossible for you to learn. The second method is what you will be taught.
“Do you understand so far?”
The entire lesson was scaring Joan very much. There were many things she wanted to say, but she simply replied, “Yes.”
Zoron spoke next. “What God has called upon you to do is to locate the other five, and to release their souls without memories. To err in this task is to risk the chance of allowing these souls an opportunity to wreak havoc upon the earth. It is a heavy burden to bear.
“But you need not feel remorse for what God sends you to do. For you know that the souls you so release will be reborn as any other, and thus enjoy God’s gift of eternal life in His Kingdom.”
Joan looked into Zoron’s eyes. She saw compassion despite the seemingly gruesome nature of what was being discussed. “I understand, Zoron.”
He seemed to smile. “And you are indeed wise, my child.”
.....
The lessons were not very complicated. Zoron and Jonah taught Joan all she needed to know about properly severing the souls. They made her repeat the lessons many times. They could not chance that these memories might be forgotten in her next life. The technique of rote worked equally well on souls as with mortal brains. By repeating these lessons hundreds of times, they were imprinted redundantly throughout the soul.
2
Joan was tired of the repetitions of the first lessons. She was glad to be moving on to another aspect of her training. She approached it with some trepidation. It was likely to be the hardest of all her tasks.
Zoron and Jonah stood before her as Zoron explained it. “As part of your work, you must locate the souls that processed with you. That is not going to be an easy matter. We are forbidden from recording our Transactions at the Processing Station. Therefore, we do not know where any departing soul has been transported.
“But we do keep journals of the arriving souls. These journals are ironically called by some the Books of Life. There are one hundred twenty-seven such journals always opened. As souls arrive, their names and other personal information are written in the journals by the next available Recorder. The Recorders direct the successive souls to a particular pod until it is filled. The pods, as you well know, each hold six souls.”
“So the souls in the pods are really distributed randomly?” asked Joan.
Zoron was surprised by the question. “Yes. But of what significance is this, my child?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. It was just that I can remember arriving in the cell; the pod you called it. Well I sort of figured out that it wasn’t random. It’s just interesting to me to find out now that I was wrong. I’m sorry to waste your time with this. Please continue, Zoron.”
Zoron found it interesting that Joan had tried to analyze the nature of the selection of souls for the pods. It showed a remarkable sense of order in her thinking process. This pleased Zoron. “Do you remember how many souls were in your pod when you arrived?”
Joan thought briefly. “When I arrived I was the third one in the pod. There were two men before me. And after me...”
Zoron interrupted her and said, “There is no need for any of that. If you were third, that is all we need to know. Do you recall the earth-date when you were reborn?”
“As Paula Austin?” she asked.
Zoron nodded.
Joan thought of Sarah’s special poem on Paula’s third birthday.....
On January five,
You first came alive,
Sent from up above,
To bring us all this love.
She answered, “January fifth. I was three in nineteen eighty, so it must have been nineteen seventy-seven.”
“And what was your address when Joan Spencer died?”
It struck her as a strange question, but she answered it and several other personal questions before she got an explanation.
Zoron said, “That’s wonderful.” He turned to Jonah and asked, “Would you check the journals around that date? Find the entry for Joan Spencer and bring the data from the two before her and the three after her.”
Jonah vanished from sight. Zoron turned back to Joan to explain. “We will give you all the information we have on the others that were processed with you. We can only assume that some of them may contact former family members as they recover their memories of their previous lives.”
It struck Joan as a brilliant idea, but she was somewhat skeptical. “If they were really out for evil purposes, wouldn’t they know not to contact former relatives?”
“That, my dear child, is a very good question,” commented Zoron. “I don’t know the answer. But you have much detective work to do, and this is as good a clue as any.”
“I suppose so,” she conceded.
“Time is of the essence in this matter,” began Zoron. “There are two things driving this. We must plan your new life the best we can. You will be approximately four years younger than the others, so you will be at a disadvantage. You must find a way to locate them before they have an opportunity to do irrevocable harm.”
“What sort of harm?” Joan inquired.
“Think of things this way, my child; the more time they have, the more likely they are to figure out how to protect themselves.” Zoron noticed Joan’s confusion. “If any of them decide to use their power for evil, they will deduce that they may be in danger from the other five.”
“But why, Zoron?” Joan asked. “Why the other five?”
Zoron knew that she would figure it out eventually, but there was no sense in wasting time. “You must understand the nature of man’s inherent greed. When coupled with a propensity for evil, that greed becomes obsessive. To put it simply, if one of the others desires to utilize his power for evil, he will understand that the others are a threat to him.”
Joan found this fascinating. “You mean like competition?”
“Competition is one possibility. The other possibility is that one such as yourself might try to stop this soul for the good of mankind. You yourself took an action because of your concern for mankind. You chose to return to us, but you might have chosen to act against the others without returning.”
“But how would I have known the right way to stop them?” she asked.
Zoron smiled. “My child, nothing I have told you is beyond the realm of your own deductive powers. This whole business comes down to separating memory from life. Do you think you would have figured that out for yourself?”
Joan had to admit it. “Yes, it is a pretty obvious thing once I recognize the objective. But you said there were two reasons for urgency. You talked about an evil soul having an opportunity to do irrevocable harm. Is there another reason?”
“There is a much more subtle reason, my child. You must understand that these five are reincarnated with the full knowledge of their previous lives. I have already explained that some may contact their previous families, and that such contacts might be valuable clues for you. But so too can such contacts cause mankind much harm. The knowledge these five possess is in violation of God’s mandates. God refers to this knowledge as the taste of the fruit of the tree of life.”
“Oren spoke of this,” Joan recalled. “He said it made man like God. But I still don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“You simply do not see the forest for the trees, my wise and wonderful child. Imagine if some of these souls inform their families of the way of God. One soul’s story alone might be discounted as an unexplainable supernatural event. But if two or more of these souls corroborate each other’s stories, there might follow a broad change in mankind’s beliefs about God.”
Joan nodded in agreement. “I understand now! For the first time I really understand why God had to keep this knowledge from mankind. It would destroy the balance of good and evil in society. Mankind must fear the consequences of doing evil, or everything would be destroyed.”
Zoron knew that moment that he had made a wise choice. He knew that Joan would carry out the holy mission. “Your powers of reason are incredible, my child.”
“Thank you, Zoron. Now I really do understand the urgency in correcting this problem.”
“Let us refer to it as adjusting the problem. You have been chosen to be God’s Adjuster.”
“So be it,” Joan smiled. “What do we do next?”
Zoron summarized the process. “We will have you learn the identities of the other five souls and their families. Then we will create a plan for your new life and have you learn it as well, including techniques you might use to find these five. Then you will be on your way to do your work in the Kingdom of God.”
“I’m ready!”
.....
Jonah returned with the information he had been sent to retrieve. Joan began the unpleasant task of memorization once again. But her resolve was stronger than ever now that she fully understood how important her mission was. She began to think of herself as God’s hand-picked Adjuster. She actually liked the term. It removed some of her innate reluctance to kill these five strangers.
After many repetitions of the personal information, Joan was once again becoming impatient. Zoron and Jonah kept explaining that this was the only way to imprint the information on her soul.
She stuck with it until it was finally time to move on to something else. She welcomed the change when the next phase of her training began.
3
Jonah began by asking some questions. “What do you think is the best way to locate these other souls?”
Joan thought about this for some time. “Can’t you tell me?”
“Actually, you are much better equipped than I or Zoron to answer this question. You are to be the detective, and you are most familiar with the earthly world.”
“Well, besides contacting the families, I guess I should figure out what clues these souls might leave as they grow up. Do you think they would be prodigies of some sort?”
“This may be the case. What were you like in the short time you were Paula Austin? That might provide some insight.”
“Well, let me think. I was aware that Joan and Paula both existed. Memories were coming to me very slowly. Then the memories just hit me like a ton of bricks. I spent lots of time thinking about things, but I didn’t discuss them with my new family.” She looked at Zoron and Jonah. “That doesn’t help, does it?”
Jonah commented, “Your behavior was definitely different than the others. After all, you’re here and they’re not. Why did you ask about prodigies?”
“They took me to see people in a gifted program. I guess I was pretty smart for a tiny kid.”
Zoron prompted her, “And what might that tell us?”
Joan contemplated the question. “I guess all these souls probably exhibited some weird behavior in their new lives. It’s probably a good bet that their parents thought they were disturbed or gifted, or both.”
Jonah took over. “Do you feel that their parents might take some unusual actions in dealing with these symptoms?”
Joan caught on right away. “Yes, they probably would do that.” A thought crossed her mind. “Were we all born at the same time?”
“Probably within hours I would think,” replied Zoron. “How would you use that information?”
“I think there might be organizations and associations for gifted children, and for troubled children too. Maybe there are data banks that I could get to. But I’m going to be so young. How would I ever be able to do that? And where will I be living? Can you make it so I could live wherever I want?”
“I don’t believe so,” Zoron said, “but where would you want to live if you could pick and choose?”
“I’d like to live in a big city. Maybe even Washington, D.C. That would make it easier to research things.”
“What if you could get others to do research for you?” asked Jonah.
An idea flashed through Joan’s mind. She smiled and told them, “I think I know exactly what I could do to accomplish just that! I could be the prodigy of the century!”
Zoron cautioned, “You aren’t planning to draw attention to yourself, are you? We certainly wouldn’t want you to be the one spreading information about reincarnation. And besides, the others might suspect you.”
“No!” she exclaimed. “I could pull it off perfectly. And the beauty of it all is that I’d be so much younger than the other five. They’d never suspect me at all. Wouldn’t they be expecting the others to be the same age as they are?”
She was right. Zoron and Jonah looked at one another. They both seemed pleased. “Tell us your plan, child,” Zoron commanded.
Joan thought for a moment or two. Then she began, “I’m quite a wiz at Physics and Math. Even for a seventeen-year-old I know more than most college graduates. I can develop myself into an apparent child prodigy. Wouldn’t a five-year-old who could do calculus make quite a headline? The thing is, I could get myself on television and inside universities. I could get access to all the help I needed to research the whereabouts of the others. It would be perfect. Nobody would know what I was really doing.”
Zoron said, “I believe you have a feasible plan, child. What do you think, Jonah?”
Jonah’s eyes shifted back and forth as he thought this thing out a bit. “Yes, I believe it’s an ingenious plan, indeed. Let’s begin immediately to develop the details.”
With that, Joan was quite pleased with herself. She had thought it up all on her own. It was going to be fun planning this new life. She wouldn’t even mind the memorization exercises that were sure to follow.
4
With the plans for her new life firmly enmeshed in her soul, Joan was becoming anxious for it all to begin. She thought that the training was done. She, Zoron, and Jonah were going through everything one last time, as Zoron had suggested.
“When do I leave?” she impatiently asked.
Zoron shook his head and told her, “There are still more things that you must learn. Please have patience.”
“What else is there, Zoron?”
“We will do something to help assure that you can direct your soul to keep secrets. You have already touched briefly on this issue early in your training. Before your new body’s mind develops, you will not necessarily have the awareness you need to prevent yourself from making those slips you talked about before. You know that you mustn’t tell your new family about Joan Spencer and the ways of God.”
“Yes, I know that!” she fired back in an impatient tone. “What do we have to do, and how long will it take?”
Zoron shook his head at her. “You are a spunky one, Joan Spencer. What are we to do about you?”
Joan laughed. “I’m sorry, Zoron. I’m just so anxious to go already.”
“I assure you that it won’t be that much longer. Your mission is of the utmost importance to mankind. Surely you realize we must do our best to ensure success.”
Joan apologized again. “I’ll try my best to behave. Please begin.”
“You must have a way to silence your voice, Joan’s voice, in the new child,” Zoron explained. “The way we will accomplish this is by using a form of hypnosis. We will implant a suggestion in your soul that you will not be aware of.”
“Then how will I know what to do?” asked Joan.
“You won’t actually know what to do. It will just happen.” Zoron positioned himself directly in front of Joan so they were eye to eye. “We will also implant some suggestions that will help you in your mission.”
“What do you mean, Zoron. I don’t follow.”
Zoron stared into her eyes. “There are certain things that we know might go wrong with your mission. Even the best plans sometime go astray. We will instill knowledge in you to be used only in the event of contingencies. These are things that would only serve to distract you and clutter your mind if they were learned in the usual manner. Hypnotic suggestion is the best way to handle such things.”
“Contingencies like what?” she asked.
Zoron still looked directly into her eyes. “Things like what you should do if asked certain questions. Innocuous things as that, but so many in number that they might otherwise distract you. Do you understand?”
Joan was not certain that she did fully understand, but she said, “Yes, I think I do.” There wasn’t any sense in wasting any more time. She was totally willing to do anything God wanted of her. Zoron and Jonah didn’t have any obligation to explain things to her in the first place, so she was appreciative of whatever they chose to tell her. “How do we do this?”
Zoron explained, “You will feel absolutely nothing, and you will not even be aware that any time has passed at all. The sooner we begin, the sooner your new life starts. Are you ready?”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
Instantaneously Joan was unaware of Zoron and Jonah around her. Zoron turned and said, “Jonah, make certain she knows all the correct ways to kill without detection. Also make certain that she knows the correct circumstances under which to kill. And be certain that she knows to take her own life if anything prevents her from fulfilling her mission.”
Jonah nodded. “Shall I exclude anyone in particular?”
Zoron spoke without any hesitation. “No more than one parent, Jonah. It wouldn’t do for her to be orphaned, would it?”
Jonah laughed and answered, “No, that would certainly hinder her chances of success.”
5
Joan was nervous and excited. The time had finally come for her to be reborn. Her mind was filled with doubts and fears and thoughts of everything that could possibly go wrong. But she was also confident that she was on a mission of God. That made everything all right. She was certain that God would somehow look after her. The only important thing to focus on was that she was on a benevolent mission for mankind. All other thoughts were selfish.
Zoron and Jonah stood before her. Zoron was smiling. “You are well prepared, my child. I am confident that you will be successful in your quest. You are bright and resourceful. And God is with you.”
Jonah added a few words of his own. “It has been an honor to know the goodness and purity that is your soul, Joan Spencer. You are indeed a holy one.”
Zoron then said, “Remember to return at once when your mission is completed. Is that clear?”
Joan nodded.
“I have saved the best for last, child. When you return from your completed mission, something special awaits you. You will become the only mortal soul who will meet with God.”
Joan was overwhelmed with those words. She wanted to respond, but as she prepared to speak, Zoron and Jonah disappeared from sight and she found herself in total blackness, falling into the light of a vast circular room. Before she could even get her bearings, she saw that the robed figure was almost upon her, arm extended. As the figure’s hand approached her head, she felt the sensation of.......
.....
Zoron and Jonah faced each other in Zoron’s chamber. Zoron placed his right hand on Jonah’s shoulder and said, “Thank you for everything, Jonah. I believe she will do well on God’s holy mission.”
Jonah raised his own right hand to his shoulder and placed it on top of Zoron’s hand. With a smile he told Zoron, “Oh, wise Zoron, the others of the High Council will never know.”
Zoron was pleased.
