The Spirit Walker 2

Guess what I am back with part two of my Spirit Walker series. This book has more action and reveals more about the main character's past. I think the pacing is much better, and you will want to keep reading it to find out what is going on. So please download it from Amazon, available starting July 15, 2016!

The Spirit Walker II Voyage


Also here is a sneak peek!!

     Nick decided to break the ice and said to Harold “Your boys remind me of us when we were little. How old are they?”

     Harold replied “Well, Harold Jr. is the oldest and he is nine, and then there’s Blaine who just turned six. I’m lucky to get them for the week. You see my wife and I have been separated for over a year now, and she usually has them most of the time.”

     Nick then chimed in “I’m sorry to hear things aren’t working out between you and…”

     Harold smirked as he said “Right you have never met my wife. Her name is Kristine. She decided that the life I gave her wasn’t exciting enough. I thought we would be together forever like God intended, but somehow the devil made other plans.”

     Nick then said “Well anyway dad would have been proud to see those two now that they are big enough to cut some grass!”

     Harold laughed as he replied “Whatever, dad would have had them out there in diapers like he did with us. You remember what he told mom.”

     The two brothers then looked at each other and laughingly said in unison “If they can walk they can pick up sticks and trash!”

     The two brothers then spent the next half hour reminiscing on the good and bad times of their childhood growing up together. At times they let out burst of laughter when they remembered something particularly funny or stupid the other had done. Nick tried not to let loose too much, but Harold on the other hand couldn’t help himself. He had a very loud and noticeable laugh. Even when he tried to keep it quiet it still came out loud. His family and friends used to make fun of it, but his ex-wife apparently hated it. When she left it was on the list of things she hated about him that she made sure to let him know. The conversation then moved forward in time to their adult years, and the elephant in the room was finally talked about.

     Nick killed the happy family reunion mood they had going when he asked Harold “Why did you want me dead brother?”

     Harold’s face went from happy to angry to sad in a matter of seconds. He was flooded with mixed emotions from the last time he saw Nick, at the Scopes County Hospital in a coma. He was going through his divorce at the time and harbored a lot of anger and resentment for his wife. She left him to be with some guy that just got out on parole. She had apparently been secretly writing to him for years. Harold understandably couldn’t accept it when she told him that this guy was her soul mate.  Just a few months prior Harold had lost his job as a floor manager at a furniture manufacturing company when it went bankrupt. He had spent months searching for a job and the family began to have financial difficulties right around the time Kristine left him. Then out of nowhere he gets blindsided with news of Nick’s coma. It was all too much to bear back then and it led Harold down a dark path. He turned away from the church he had always known and the God he had always served.

     Though Harold had worked to suppress the memories of that part of his life they were now flooding back. Since he hadn’t actually dealt with any of his problems all the emotions attached to those memories were still raw and real. For him it was like it just happened yesterday. Nick could see his brother was in pain and after concentrating on Harold he could feel it too. Nick moved over and knelt in front of a seated Harold, and reached out to touch his face. Harold tried to move his face away at first but when he saw the sincerity on Nick’s face he decided to trust him.

     As Nick’s hand covered the side of Harold’s face he closed his eyes and softly said to him “Share your pain with me brother.”

     Harold closed his eyes as well and let his mind remember the moments in life that were the sources of his pain. As Harold remembered the moments they flashed in Nick’s mind as well. He saw and even felt all that his brother was seeing and feeling. One minute Harold was a child being scolded by his mother for not doing as good as Nick in school. Next he was an adult watching his wife load her stuff in the car along with his kids and berate him as she pulled away leaving him. As those memories played flashes like quick snapshots kept popping in. At first Nick paid them no mind, but as he started to focus on them they began slowing down. Almost to the point where he could comprehend what he saw. It was like a tug of war as part of Harold didn’t want him to see, but at the same time another part did. As Nick finally pushed all Harold’s other thoughts aside he froze one of the snapshots. The image was almost too much to tolerate seeing. All the emotion that went along with it was almost overwhelming. It was as if every other feeling of sadness, powerlessness, disrespect, and anger was tethered to what this image represented.

     The great release of emotion broke the connection between Harold and Nick. Harold got up from his seat and ran out his back door to the fenced in back yard. He stopped in front of the old lawn mower shed and knelt down crying. Nick came running out after him, but approached slowly when he saw him kneeling in front of the shed. A shed that he had just seen as the setting of traumatic memories in Harold’s mind. Nick walked over next to his brother and knelt down with him.

     A crying Harold looked over to his brother and said “He is dead now. He can’t hurt me anymore.”

     Nick looked at him and replied “No! He is still alive in you as long as you give him power. As long as you keep inside what he did. As long as you know that I did nothing to stop him, and I left you here alone. I feel that pain now that I know. Now that I admit what I couldn’t. I left to escape and left all this behind. That included you and that was wrong. I worked through the pain of what he did to me, but I forgot about the others. I forgot about you and mom.”

     Harold was still crying when he angrily shouted up to the sky “He did this to us! Made our lives this way. Made me hate myself. Stole my life!”

     Nick put his hand on Harold’s shoulder and said “Yes brother, release your pain. Give it to me now!”

     As Harold started letting go of his pain Nick began to feel it move from his brother into him. The emotion was like electricity powering Nick up. Instead of Harold letting out a scream or having an outburst of emotion he became almost serene while Nick began to become angry. Nick’s eyes turned black as felt a rush of power surge within him from Harold’s release of his pent up negative emotions. He then pointed his free hand at the shed before him. He started to make a motion like he was gripping it in his hand. As he closed his hand the wooden shed began to break, splinter, and finally collapse. After it did Nick’s eyes returned to normal and Harold shook his head as if he just woke up from a nap. He knew he hadn’t woke up though. He hadn’t dreamed what had just happened, and it scared him.

     Harold stood up and looked at his brother asking “Was that… Was that magic? Was I just part of some kind of Hoodoo?”

     Nick responded “No brother it was nothing demonic or angelic. You could say magic or even science, but those are only words. Either way it just is, as we just are. Good and evil in everyone, and we choose which one to follow.”

     In his mind Nick could hear himself speaking so prophetically, but it was almost as if they were the words of another. He was surprised that he was speaking so assertively as if he truly had a handle on life and its meaning. As if he really understood who he was and what he was doing. His use of power in crushing the shed was something he just did as if it was instinctual. Channeling his brother’s emotion to power himself was something he didn’t even realize he could do, but he just did it without any difficulty. Before coming he wasn’t even sure he could talk to his brother let alone help him unleash the pain that had been eating away at him for years after an hour of talking. Here in his old home he was finding out so much about his past, but also seeing his future. He had been learning so much about his life and his potential on his journey this past year, but he knew that to truly understand who he was and who he could be he had to get to The Spirit.

     To get to The Spirit Nick had to leave his old life behind. To do that he once again had to let go of his brother. As the two brothers walked back into the house Nick began to try explain to Harold that he didn’t come to reconnect, but instead to say a final goodbye. The news didn’t sit well with Harold, who had made so much progress during the minimal time spent with his brother. He couldn’t understand how Nick could swoop in just to tell him he was leaving for good. For Harold his big brother had been a hero to him when they were kids. Then his hero left, and to him became a villain. Now what happened over years of time was happening in just mere hours. Once again Nick was going from hero to zero.

     Since he and his brother had been reconciling their differences over the last few hours Nick had felt taped into Harold. Upon revealing that he was once again leaving and might not ever see him again the connection he had established began to fade until Nick could no longer feel Harold’s emotions. He didn’t need to sense them though because he could see the sadness on his brother’s face. Once they were back in the house they sat and talked more with Harold asking why and Nick trying to answer him as best he could. Finally after close to an hour of Nick giving him half answers a frustrated Harold gave up. Nick wished he could tell him everything, but he knew he couldn’t take the chance. He believed that the government was done with him, but he couldn’t be for sure. The less people knew of what he had done for the FBI and where he was now headed, the better it would be for them and him. Once Harold had given up with questioning Nick he offered him a place to stay for the night since it was getting late. Nick decided to decline the offer. He explained that it was best that he continued his journey. Harold still was at a loss in understanding his brother, but decided to just accept the situation.

     A final goodbye with a hug, and then Nick was gone. Amazingly Harold found that he was more at peace than before his brother came, maybe more at peace than anytime during his adult years. Inside he felt lighter as if a weight had been lifted from his soul. Even now with the reality of his brother leaving him again he was saddened but not burdened. For the first time in a long time he could recognize that life was good. Not because everything in it was wonderful, but because the important things, the things that truly mattered, were. Harold could finally push aside all the thoughts that had worried his mind and concentrate on positive things. Things like how his brother was alive and well, and so was he. Even more importantly than his brother or him was his children who were sleeping peacefully upstairs. They weren’t mistakes or bad decisions. They weren’t forced situations or bad breaks. They were nothing but pure hope, and from now on that’s what he would cling to if he ever needed a reminder of higher purpose. A reminder of God.