1
Dawn and Derrick Perry were shocked at the dream Don described. They talked it over that evening and decided that they should mention it to Reverend Porter on Sunday. They thought that there must be some explanation that the Reverend would be able to give them. They speculated that it must have been a bible story or a conglomeration of stories that Don mixed up in his mind. How else could a four-year-old come up with such a story?
After Don went to bed, Dawn asked Derrick, “Do you suppose this has something to do with Don’s imaginary friend Hank? I’ve listened to him talk with this Hank while he draws.”
“I don’t know where it comes from, but I know I don’t like it,” Derrick complained.
Dawn was surprised by his tone. “What’s so terrible?” she questioned.
“I can’t help it,” he confessed, “but it feels like blasphemy to me.”
“This is a child of four we’re talking about, honey,” she argued. “I hardly think this is a matter of sacrilege.”
“Look!” Derrick replied. “You asked me and I told you. It’s how I feel, and that’s that.”
“Please don’t bite my head off, Derrick. I’m just trying to talk about it. I’m concerned about Donnie.”
“I am too, Dawn. I’m concerned because he sounds possessed to me.”
Realizing that the conversation was going nowhere, Dawn ended it by saying, “Okay. We’ll leave it up to Reverend Porter. I’m sure he’ll know what to do.”
The rest of the evening, both of them made certain not to bring the subject up again.
.....
On Sunday, just after church, Dawn and Derrick approached Reverend Porter with Don.
“Can we talk with you for a moment?” Derrick requested.
“Certainly,” the Reverend replied. “Give me a few minutes to say good-bye to everyone and I’ll meet you in my office.”
Derrick, Dawn and Don waited in the office for about five minutes before Reverend Porter arrived. He closed the door and sat down behind his desk.
“Now, what’s on your minds?” he asked.
Dawn had been elected to tell the story. “Reverend, our son has begun to have some strange dreams. Dreams about God and Heaven and someone named Oren. Is there someone named Oren in the Bible?”
“Oren sounds familiar to me. Just a moment.” He reached for a book and leafed through the pages. “Here we are. Oren was a son of Jerahmeel. It’s from Chronicles.”
“Is there mention of Oren in one of the Bible stories?”
“No. Not that I’m aware of. I think Oren is mentioned only once in the genealogies of the first book of Chronicles. What’s this all about?”
“Don had a dream about God killing this Oren,” Dawn explained.
Don objected, “No, Mom! Oren keeps the people out of Heaven. He was friends with God before he killed him.”
“What are you talking about, child?” the Reverend piped in.
Don suddenly felt frightened. He didn’t like seeing people mad. He started to cry.
Reverend Porter apologized. “I’m sorry, young man. Don’t cry. Please tell me all about Oren. I want to know. It’s very interesting.”
Don stopped his tears and studied the Reverend’s face to determine if he was telling the truth. It appeared that he really was interested.
“Oren sends the souls away from Heaven,” began Don. “Oren killed God a long time ago or maybe he just threw him out or something. I’m not really sure about that part. Anyway, Oren sends the souls back.”
“Back where?” inquired Reverend Porter.
Don looked at him strangely. “Back to earth,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Back to live again.”
Reverend Porter was very interested in what Don was saying. “Tell me more, please.”
Don said, “Oren tells each soul all about God’s secrets and then doesn’t let them remember.”
“What do you mean, Don?” asked the Reverend.
“Oren doesn’t let anybody remember what he tells them about God.”
Reverend Porter paused for a moment and then asked, “Do you know God’s secrets?”
“Yep!” he responded proudly.
“Who told you the secrets, Don?” the Reverend continued.
“Oren did.”
“Didn’t you say Oren doesn’t let you remember?”
Don’s face revealed his confusion. He seemed to be thinking that last question through. Then he got angry and told the Reverend, “I don’t want to talk about Oren any more. You don’t believe me anyway.” He stood up and said, “I’m going out to the car.” Then he opened the door and left.
Derrick and Dawn remained seated. Dawn asked, “What should we do, Reverend Porter?”
“Why don’t we try some counseling?” he suggested. “Can you bring Don to me during the week?”
.....
Don was upset. He sat in the car with tears in his eyes. Nobody believed him. Nobody but Hank! Maybe if he told them about Hank, they’d believe him.
Deep inside he felt a strange sense of guilt. He wanted to tell everyone all about Oren and God and Heaven, but something inside felt like it didn’t want him to tell. The conflict manifested itself as a stomachache, and Don curled up in the back seat of the car to relieve it.
2
Dawn brought Don back to see Reverend Porter the following Wednesday. The Reverend wanted to speak with Don alone and he asked Dawn to wait outside the office.
“So how have you been, Don?” he asked.
“Okay, I guess,” Don reluctantly answered.
“Tell me all about Oren and God, please. I really want to know.”
Don studied the Reverend’s face and it seemed sincere, so Don decided he would try to tell the story. “The souls go up to try and get in Heaven, Reverend Porter. Then Oren takes them and tells them there isn’t any Heaven and that they have to go back to where they came from and live in other people.”
Reverend Porter recognized the description of reincarnation. “Please go on,” he urged.
“First Oren tells the souls all about how God made things, and all about Heaven being gone. Then he makes the souls forget about all the stuff he told them and sends them back to be new people.”
“Last time we spoke you said that Oren told you this himself, didn’t you?”
Don nodded and said, “Yes.”
“When did Oren tell you this?”
“When I was Hank.”
Reverend Porter wasn’t certain how he should continue. He could see where the inquiry was leading. He wondered just how vivid Don’s imagination really was. He didn’t want to upset him, though.
He continued cautiously, “Let’s see if I understand it right. Oren told Hank all these things, and then he sent Hank back here to you, Don. Is that right?”
“Yep.”
“What exactly did Oren say about how God made things?”
“Well, I remember he said that God so loved mankind that He proclaimed that each soul shall know the truth of His creation before that soul shall be issued forth anew.”
Reverend Porter was astounded, but he tried not to show it. “Did Oren say anything else?”
Don casually informed him, “He told them about the paradox God made.”
“What paradox, Don?”
“That Heaven is really earth and everyone gets to live eternally.”
“What’s Hank’s whole name, Don?”
“I’m not really Hank. I’m Henry. Henry Alderfer.”
“You said that Oren makes all the souls forget all these things. Then how come you remember all this?”
The look on Don’s face was positively frightening. Reverend Porter actually felt for a moment that Don was possessed. Don screamed, “Oren died and we left him there!” Then he began to cry uncontrollably.
Reverend Porter ran to get Dawn.
“I’m not sure what just happened,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to get him so upset.”
She picked Don up and comforted him. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” she assured him over and over.
Don’s crying changed to sobbing, and then to short gasping sounds. Dawn held on to him despite the strain of his weight. When he was finally calmed down, she sat him down in the office and reached for a tissue to wipe his face.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Don just looked up at her with his sad little eyes and nodded.
“Let’s go home, sweetheart,” she suggested.
Don immediately stood up, took his mother’s hand, and started for the office door. She lagged behind, straining against Don’s tugging, and said, “I’ll call you later, Reverend Porter.”
“Please be certain that you do, Dawn,” he insisted.
Dawn gave in to Don’s tugging. They walked out to the car and got in.
“What’s wrong, Donnie?” she coaxed.
He just shook his head. He didn’t say a word the whole way home. When they got home, Don ran right up to his room and curled up in a fetal position. Dawn followed him up and sat on the bed next to him.
.....
For Don it had been the most horrible moment of his life. He now understood who Hank was, and what Hank had done. He felt ashamed and confused. He didn’t know what to do.
His head was filled with vivid recollections of the six of them in Oren’s chamber. They had all sinned. They had all done what God specifically prohibited. What sort of punishment could possibly fit such a heinous crime?
As he lay there on his bed, all of the confusing memories started to make sense. Hank Alderfer’s life unfolded in Don’s consciousness, and Don knew that he had been reborn. He felt his mother’s presence on the bed beside him, and then her fingers stroking his hair. He loved her so deeply and he felt such shame. How could he bring himself to tell her?
.....
Don said nothing to his parents for almost a week. He tried to act as naturally as he could, not wishing to give away his secret. But it eventually became too burdensome for his immature mind to conceal.
He first told his parents while they all sat around the dinner table.
“I used to be a man named Hank Alderfer,” he announced out of the blue. “I was reincarnated.”
Dawn and Derrick both stared at Don, neither able to speak. Dawn gained her composure first and asked, “Is that what you and Reverend Porter were talking about?”
“Yes,” he confessed meekly. “But I didn’t tell him the whole story.”
“What whole story, Don?”
“I didn’t tell him about how I sinned.”
“What are you talking about, Donnie?” she asked.
“I didn’t do what God wanted me to do,” he confessed. “That’s sinning, isn’t it?
Derrick listened quietly to all of this. Then he couldn’t refrain from speaking any longer. “Stop all this nonsense right now, Donald!” he demanded. “Don’t tell us all this baloney about reincarnation. You’re making all this up. Admit it!”
Don broke out in tears and jumped up from his seat. “I hate you!” he screamed at his father. “You don’t know anything.”
He ran upstairs to his room and Dawn stood up to go after him. Derrick grabbed her arm and said, “Leave him alone, Dawn. We can’t let him lie and get away with it.”
She yanked her arm free and blasted him, “What the hell is the matter with you? This is your son, Derrick. He’s not lying. Can’t you see that he believes this?”
Derrick was outraged. “This kind of talk is sacrilege!” he shouted.
“Take your sacrilege and your blasphemy and stick it! Our son needs us and you’re abandoning him.”
Dawn ran upstairs to comfort Don while Derrick sat at the table disgusted with all the nonsense.
“Donnie,” she pleaded, “I want to hear about you and Hank. It’s okay to tell me.”
“You’ll get mad!” he insisted.
“No I won’t. Why should I get mad?”
“You think I’m lying, don’t you?”
“Donnie, I know you’re not lying. I don’t really understand all that you’re telling me, but I know you wouldn’t lie.” She kissed his nose and wiped away some tears from his eyes and cheeks.
“I really was reincarnated, Mom. I know what it means. I’m not making it up. Why won’t Dad believe me?”
“He’s just upset, dear. I think he’s afraid of what you’re telling him. Do you think that might be it?”
“Well I’m afraid too,” he admitted. “Maybe he’s afraid, but he said I was making it all up. I’m not!”
“I guess it’s just a hard thing for some people to listen to,” she speculated. “I’ll listen, though.”
He told her everything he could remember about Oren, God, Heaven, and the cleansing of souls. He told her about the Processing and the giant bowl where the souls waited to be processed. And he tried to explain God’s paradox, but couldn’t seem to find words that would help his mother understand.
“I just don’t know what to think of all this,” she admitted to Don. “I know you didn’t make it up. It really catches me off guard.”
“Then you believe me?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you what, son. You say you were Hank Alderfer before you became Don Perry. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember a whole lot about Hank’s life?”
“Yes. Lots of it.”
“Then here’s what I think. I think you should tell me as much about Hank Alderfer as you can. I don’t think you should talk about this to your father right now. Let me check out your memories of Hank, just to prove to myself that you remember everything correctly. If what you’re saying is all correct, then a lot of people could get upset by hearing it. The Hank Alderfer part of you should be able to understand what I’m saying.”
“I do understand, Mom,” he acknowledged. “And I understand why you need to check it out.” He wiped a tear away with the back of his hand and said, “I love you, Mom.”
“Me too! Now tell me all about yourself, Mr. Hank Alderfer.”
.....
Dawn checked out the story. Don had given her names and descriptions of people and streets, addresses, events, and even some phone numbers that he remembered.
It took her about a week to track down and confirm most of what he told her. She was very careful not to divulge to anyone where the information came from. When she was satisfied that Don was right about all of it, she sat down with him and declared herself to be a believer.
“Don, you have to realize that people don’t want to believe in this. If you talk about it, they’ll just get upset with you.”
“But it’s the truth, Mom. Why should I have to keep the truth from people? Isn’t that the same as lying?”
“No, it’s not the same,” she argued.
“Why not?” he challenged.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
3
Don took the advice of his mother and managed to keep things to himself. He confided only in her, and they developed a special closeness that transcended normal mother-son relationships. Dawn was fascinated to learn all she could about the rebirths and the souls, and the journeys through the conduits. She understood how difficult it must be for Don to remain silent. She could barely do so herself.
When Don started Kindergarten, he came home crying the first day. When Dawn tried to find out what was wrong, he wouldn’t tell her. He said he didn’t want to go back, but Dawn explained that he must.
She pushed him harder for an answer and he told her he had said something to another child about how big the fish were in the stream by Hank’s old house, and they called him a liar. One thing led to another, he told his secret, and he got ridiculed.
“That’s why you mustn’t tell people, honey,” she implored. “We’ve been through this before.”
“But I want to tell them, Mother,” he begged.
She just shook her head and hugged him. “I know, honey. I know.”
The next day, before he left for school, Dawn reminded him about the rule of silence. He acknowledged, kissed her good-bye and got on the bus.
The phone rang about ten. It was the Principal of the school requesting that she come to his office to pick up her son. She hurried over as fast as she could.
She met in private with the Principal, and he told her that Don was telling the other children tall stories about reincarnation and all sorts of other things about God.
“I don’t know where he’s getting all this nonsense from, but I won’t allow it in my school. Now you can take him home right now and do whatever you must to drive some sense into him. Don’t send him back here until this problem is over with.”
“Thank you, sir,” she forced out of her mouth. “I’ll speak with him about it. It won’t happen again, I assure you.”
On the ride home, she said to Don, “You got yourself in trouble talking about those things again. Can’t you control yourself, honey? I know it’s hard, but you can see how upsetting it is to some people.”
“I’ll stop,” he assured her. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
The next day Dawn got an irate call from the Principal again. She went back and took another earful.
“Now he’s arguing with his teacher about this foolishness, Mrs. Perry. I will not tolerate it. He is out! You can enroll him for first grade next term, and we’ll see if he can do any better at that point.”
“You can’t do this!” she insisted.
“I’ve just done it, Mrs. Perry!”
Now she was angry. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She decided to talk with Derrick about it that evening.
.....
She should have anticipated it. Derrick didn’t want to hear anything about it. He brought up the same old arguments about blasphemy that he made over a year ago. What ensued was a bitter fight between them that came down to the core of their religious beliefs. Derrick was too set in his beliefs to even listen to Dawn’s arguments. She finally told him that she believed Don.
Derrick was so outraged at this statement that he threatened to have her committed. Somehow he pushed her over the limit that evening. She packed up and took Don with her to her mother and father’s place.
Surprisingly, Derrick didn’t even pursue the matter of the separation or the rights of visitation. It got back to Dawn through a common friend that Derrick considered both Dawn and Donnie crazy and not worth the trouble to pursue. This shocked Dawn and her parents.
Things festered inside of Dawn for another month or so until she decided to file for divorce. She really did believe in Donnie and she knew that Derrick could never accept her under those conditions. She and Don had many talks about it and Don seemed to agree. He really demonstrated a hatred for his father that Dawn had never seen before.
Dawn told her parents about Don and the reincarnation. They weren’t happy about it, and they wanted no part of it. But, they were willing to allow Dawn and Don to stay with them as long as they agreed there would be no religious debates under their roof.
Dawn had become such a believer in what she learned from Don that it was harder for her to keep mum than for Don. They spoke to each other about it, and nobody else.
In the midst of all the domestic turmoil, Dawn began to get angrier and angrier with the school system. She felt that Don’s fundamental rights were being violated. This wasn’t a matter of discipline or physical violence. He was being denied access to public school because of his religious beliefs. In what turned out to be a monumental mistake, Dawn sought out the advice and assistance of a large civil liberties organization.
The National Civil Rights Committee, NCRC, was extremely interested in the potential case of Dawn and Donald Perry versus the Boston School District. They assured Dawn that they would watch to see what happens in September 1983 when Dawn enrolled Don in first grade.
.....
In September 1983, Don Perry started first grade at the same school he had been thrown out of before. Dawn had pleaded with him to control himself about the reincarnation issue. He seemed to understand well enough, but on the second day of school an argument broke out. Several of the children in the first grade class had attended Don’s Kindergarten class. Two of them had been involved when Don told his “tall stories” about reincarnation and got thrown out of school. They ribbed him mercilessly and he lost control. He began to argue vehemently that he was reincarnated and it led to arguments about God and Heaven.
Predictably, the phone call came and Dawn had to revisit the Principal. This time he gave her no second chance, and instructed her to remove Don from school permanently. When she argued that Don was entitled to an education, the Principal informed her that certain problem children were not the responsibility of the school district, and that Don fit in that category. He further informed her that it was her responsibility as a parent to obtain an education for Don, even if that meant putting him in a private school at Dawn’s expense.
That same day, Dawn contacted the NCRC and told them what had happened. They arranged a fact-finding interview the next morning. Dawn brought Don with her and they spent several hours being interviewed by three attorneys assigned to the case.
After extensive questioning of Dawn, they turned their attentions to Don. They asked him all sorts of questions about the arguments in school and his religious beliefs. Dawn found the questioning intrusive and difficult for her to watch, but she knew he would ultimately be subjected to this kind of questioning if the case ever went to discovery or to trial.
The attorneys finished the interviews and sent them home. They told Dawn they would review the case with their superiors in the next few days and let her know the final decision. Dawn was emotionally drained from only three hours of questioning. She wondered how well Don took it.
The call came the following Tuesday. It was from the Deputy Director of the Massachusetts branch of the NCRC, Mr. Andrew Wiggins, Esquire. Dawn met with him that afternoon and he told her that they would like to handle the case for her. He warned her that it wouldn’t be easy.
“This sort of case can be very trying on the Plaintiffs,” he warned. “And it could continue on for many years. You also have a legal obligation to provide an education for Donald the whole time. Are you sure you and he are up to the challenge? We don’t want to start it and then have you drop out after we spend a lot of time and money on it.”
“The way I look at it, Mr. Wiggins,” she answered, “I have to put Don in some sort of school anyway, and I’m angry as all hell that these people can do this to me and to Don. Does that answer your question?”
“Not quite,” he replied. “Are you prepared for a lot of press and intervention into your private life? This may end up being a landmark case; one that commands the attention of the entire country. Are you up to that kind of abuse and invasion of privacy, Mrs. Perry? The scrutiny they subject you to will be terrible. They’ll examine your life, your marriage, your family and probably even your high school boyfriends. Are you still up for it?”
“I’ve talked this over extensively with my parents and with Don. We’re ready to go. We refuse to be pushed around by these bullying, bureaucratic hypocrites any longer.”
“Then you’ve got yourself one heck of a team of attorneys, Mrs. Perry. Sit back and get ready for the fireworks.”
“When do we start?”
“You start in another week or so. We started last week. You’ll be hearing from our people shortly. I’m not certain yet who will head the team, but I can guaranty it will be one of our best people.”
“What will happen first?” Dawn inquired.
“We’re going to follow the chain of appeals right up the line. First we’ll appeal to the school itself, and then to the Boston School District. There’s little hope, if any, that this will be resolved before we go to court; but the law requires that we do everything by the book. We have to build a flawless legal record. That’s the only hope we would ever have for appealing this up to the higher courts.”
“How far will this have to go before we win?” she asked.
“Probably to the State Supreme Court and possibly even the United States Supreme Court. The School District would be smart to roll over on this one, but I don’t think they will. They hate to lose.”
“Will this cost me anything, Mr. Wiggins?”
“No it won’t. But there is one condition we have. You’ll have to sign a statement granting us the rights to fifty percent of any commercial gain you may realize because of this action.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means we’re a non-profit organization and you generously agree to donate money to us if you earn it because of book or movie rights. That sort of thing, Mrs. Perry. Now doesn’t that seem fair, indeed?”
“I guess,” she agreed. “I never even considered making money out of this case, though. Is that really possible?”
“Not only possible,” he assured her, “but very likely if this thing gets to a high court.”
