‘Returning’ Archives
RETURNING CHAPTER 27: Light Bends to the Heart
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL Patrick Cabello Hansel Luz and Angel, with Angelito in tow, stood in front of the day care where they had last seen their daughter Lupe. It seemed like days since they were last there—no, much more than that: years, scores of them, more than a century they had traveled. And yet, in our cold benighted age, it was but a few hours. They still had the scrap of paper that read: Don’t worry. We have your light blessing. You will know where she is. They took it out and looked at it again. This time, they noticed the marks on the bottom of the page. There were two arrows ^ ^ pointing up, and a vertical straight line. next to it. Luz took the note from Angel’s hands, held it to her face, and said: “There’s something missing here.” Angel peered at it. “Or we’re missing something,” he said. They stared at it for a long minute, trying to figure it out. Then their 4 ½ year old son spoke, the one who always seemed to find the [...]
RETURNING
Patrick Cabello Hansel CHAPTER 26: PROMISES KEPT, PROMISES BROKEN By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL Rules may be made to be broken, but breaking promises leads to generational devastation. The promises made to the Dakota that were broken by the U.S. and the subsequent environmental and human disaster ring down through the generations. We are part of a bigger web, one based on getting: getting as much land, money, power as is possible. That is what motivates Brian Fleming, his “associates” and the powers that have permitted him to cause such damage. He did not get here on his own. He is the descendent of greed writ large. Promises kept can have a rippling effect as well. The promises Luz and Angel make to each other each day in their marriage—to sustain, love and protect each other and their children—also did not appear all of a sudden. They are the legacy of promises made and kept by generations of ancestors. Promises to [...]
Returning CHAPTER 24: TRANSCENDING
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL Where is the best place to jump between centuries? Or perhaps, the better question is: when is the best place to jump between centuries? For while travelling through space seems pretty straightforward, it often isn’t. Roadblocks and detours abound. Travelling through time, with the idea that you can bend time to your advantage, is both impossible and widely practiced, sometimes successfully. Thank you to Dave and Mary Ellen for their suggestions of the liminal spaces where time travel of the unusual sort can occur! For those of you who doubt its existence, hang in there. You’ve followed the previous 23 and ½ chapters, which are in the past. You’ve wondered where our blessed family is going, which is in the future. So right now, in the present, suspend disbelief and follow along with me. I may not know where I am going, but I trust the trip will be fine. This is a ghost story, after all. In the first novella “Searching,” Matthew Kelly [...]
