Excerpt

He sighed and stared at the bubbles in his glass for a few minutes.

He looked up into her brilliant blue eyes. I guess I just dont want to let go, he admitted.

She smiled. Its not as though youd be letting go of something you couldnt have any time you wanted it.

Yes, but Im afraid that once I let go of these physical pleasures and toys it would be like giving up childhood. I wont be able to come back to it without feeling immaturely out of place, childish.

Theres certainly nothing wrong with wanting to be a child.

Its irresponsible.

Its also part of learning. No matter how many times you feel you want to play with blocks, or shoot cap pistols, or climb trees, you dont fully tire of them until youre ready to move on to a higher level.

He complained, I never properly learned how to live the life I had on Earth. How can I move on to such things as building a galaxy and running it if I never understood how to carry on a conversation at a cocktail party?

She said, You learned something every time you tried, even if it was only to confirm that you couldnt enjoy shallow thinking and petty, materialistic motivations.

He grinned at her. That sounds like something I might have said.

She looked steadily into his eyes. You did say that more than once. I know, because I am you. We are one.

He gazed at her, twirling the stem of his champagne flute. I am you... he repeated, then rephrased it. You are me. How is it you look so solidly placed over there and I am so solidly placed over here, when we are one?

Youre in that body over there and through me youre in this body over here, too.

Jan felt jolted by the statement. He turned his head and with pretended shyness looked back at her. Cmon. Are you telling me Im a girl?

She laughed, You arent either one. Its these bodies that are boy and girl. Theyre your playground--I guess I should say, OUR playground. Theyre fun to use for physical love-making. She raised her glass, And partying.

Okay, so what youre saying is I split myself up to play house with my other half.

WE split up, she corrected.

We..., he repeated, unsurely.

Janice nodded, watching him closely.

He began to feel dizzy, slightly disoriented, but with an increasing sense of awareness. Her eyes were smiling. For a full second Jan saw himself through her eyes, and then popped back inside his own head to be staring at her again.

She laughed and held up her glass. Heres to comprehension, my darling.

Obligingly, he touched her glass with his, the crystal rang and they sipped.

He tried seeing himself again, and was startled to see himself seated across the table. As before he immediately returned to stare at her from his own eyes. And again she laughed, waiting for him to comprehend their potential unity.

He shook his head and placed his forehead in his hand. This is weird.

Janice said, Its exciting.

He suggested, What youre saying is, I can switch bodies with you and learn what its like to be, he blushed, made love to by a guy?

Smiling, but not laughing, Janice leaned toward him placing her long-nailed fingers on his hand. My darling, every Spirit-Being is both male and female. We are the plus and minus energy of living things, the Yin and Yang of oriental thought, the Adam and Eve of Judeo-Christian Philosophy. We start as one. We split up to enjoy life, or lives, separated, then return together to share the experiences and the learning. We are soul mates, separate and yet one. It is normal for you to see yourself as male because you are the minus energy. I am normally female because I am plus energy. But when we choose to experience physical lives we can be either sex--male or female. You have been a woman in many lives and I have been a man. We can switch bodies right now and be perfectly comfortable. These are only bodies. We are a single spiritual being.

A light seemed to be coming on inside Jans head. Again he experienced the lifting sensation of beginning to understand--of verging upon a wonderfully important cognition.

Eyes locked intensely on hers, he said, I thoroughly understand the joining of physical bodies. Fervently, he leaned forward, reaching, taking her hand. Voice trembling, he asked, How do we combine--spiritually?

Tears came to her eyes. Her face glowed with happiness. Jan felt her hand quiver. A flow of unrestrained happiness began to fill his entire being, spilling over, surrounding them. It came from her.

She stood, regally. Her spine curving smoothly naked under the clinging dress, her breasts high and full, her silken hair flowing over her shoulders, her strong, tapered fingers still in his. She moved around the table toward him. Eagerly he rose to his feet, his heart beating rapidly as her face came closer. Her arms slipped over his shoulders and, tipping her head, she placed her lips on his. Her warm body pressed against him for a long moment, then she turned toward the bed drawing him with her.

They stretched out side by side to face the darkening sky.

Jan stiffened in surprise. Janice squeezed his hand to calm his anxiety as above them scores of dimly glowing ovoid shapes began to gather.

Swooping in from all directions, they crowded together over the couple, causing a soft glow to spread upon the trees and gravely river bank, on the river and in the drifting mists of the waterfall.

Her hand remained in his, easing his excited apprehension.

He whispered, What...who are they?

Her soft, loving reply sang in his mind, That, my darling, is our Family.