CHAPTER- 1

NEAR DEATH

A lot of things happen on this planet every day.  Some days have more important things happen than other days, and certainly, out of each day some things that happen are more important than other things . A case in point is the date December 7, 1941. Now if you ask 100 people what the most important thing was that happened on that date at least 50 of them would say “That was the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the day that, to quote President Franklin Roosevelt; will live in infamy.”  Unfortunately the other fifty wouldn’t have a clue as to what happened on that date.  Actually the fifty percent of the people that were able to name Pearl Harbor would be just as wrong as the other fifty percent when it came to naming the most important thing that happened on that day. This story details why the most important thing that happened on December 7, 1941 was what happened in an operating room in the county hospital in San Bernardino, California because of the incredible chain of events that it set in motion.

Rosco came through the lobby of the hotel, he'd  too much to drink and staggered a little. As it turned out he staggered a little too much and spilled his glass of champagne on the shoes of one Ozzy Carabuchi.  Now Rosco and Ozzy weren't of the same family nor were they of the same city.  In fact they hardly knew each other.  An animated exchange took place and had either soldier had a piece he'd have drawn it and dispatched the other.  Thank God that Al had strictly enforced his rule about no hardware on the premises or they'd have had their first bloody confrontation right then an there.  Dominick, ever the congenial host, and a man with more than his share of guile and diplomacy, interceded and disaster, once again was averted.

It was the third time this day and probably the tenth time in the last week that Dominick had stepped in to avert a confrontation.  Later Dominick sat in his favorite chair in the lobby and appeared to doze off.  One Franklin (Fat Frankie) Gispazio noticed that Dominick wasn't moving and fetched his brother Alphonso to have a look at him.   Al was no doctor but he did know how to check to see if a guy had expired or not.  He decided that Dominick was definitely still alive but not by much.  

They loaded Dominick into the back seat of Alphanso's Pierce Arrow Limousine and headed for the nearest hospital in San Bernardino.  Upon their arrival, at Al’s insistence, and Al could be very insistent when he wanted to, Dominick was rushed into the emergency room, and from there to the operating room.

The most important thing that took place on December 7, 1941 happened in the county hospital in San Bernardino, California, in one of the operating rooms.  Following a three hour trip in the back seat of the Pierce Arrow Limousine, all the way from the small town of Joshuaville, in the middle of the Mojave Desert,  this man, Dominick Gianelli, in his early thirties, had made it to the hospital after suffering a massive coronary seizure. His brother Alphonso had sat beside him and helped him stay alive the whole time.  

The emergency room crew went to work on him immediately but their efforts appeared to be too little and too late.  The emergency room crew rushed his lifeless body up to surgery anyway, hoping Alphonso would not blame them for his death. The surgeons went to work with reckless abandon knowing they'd nothing to loose.  This whole morbid process, the pushing of the gurney out of the emergency room, down the hall, into the elevator, up to the second floor and into the operating room was observed very closely and with intense interest by one Dominick Gianelli.  

Dominick realized that it was his body on that gurney and that he wasn't in that body.  He wanted to set things right but didn’t know exactly how to go about doing that.  Desperate enough to try anything to regain his young life he positioned himself just above and assumed the exact position his body. He then lowered himself until he'd successfully regained entrance.

The Surgeons congratulated themselves on their success at saving a life that'd almost been lost and transferred the patient to intensive care.  Not to mention that they'd avoided the wrath of Alphonso Gianelli.  They were happy to have this incident behind them because they were anxious to get back to their radios to hear the latest news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  

Two months later Dominick was declared well and discharged from the hospital.  He was wheeled out to the curb where a friend of his driving a sparkling new 1942 Cadillac Limousine was waiting for him.

His hospital bills had been paid in cash by the driver of the limousine, one Carmino Gespachio. “Boy am I ever glad to see that guy out of here,” said Dr. Thompson.  “I know what you mean,” answered Nurse Caruthers,  “It kind of gave me the creeps how nice he was to everybody.”  “Those Mafia guy’s scare the hell out of me,” replied Dr. Thompson.

During his convalescence Dominick, who wasn’t a Mafia guy at all, had spent his time recovering from his heart attack but also practicing entering and leaving his body at will.  “I have just had a near death experience and by god I am going to make the most out of it,” thought Dominick. By the time he was released from the hospital Dominick had mastered the art of entering and leaving his physical body any time he wanted.  By the time he returned to his brother, Alphonso Gianelli’s hotel, in the middle of the desert, he'd be able to leave his body to gather information on what all the real Mafia guys, that frequented the hotel, were talking about in their closed rooms.

CHAPTER- 2

HOW THE HOTEL CAME TO BE

Alphonso Gianelli, was just plain fed up with his chosen profession.  He was sick of the killing and the macho and the dirty streets and the hatred all around him.  He had wanted to get out of the mobs for a long time but knew that wasn't possible.  Al gave it a lot of thought and eventually came up with a plan.  It wouldn't get him out of the mob entirely but it'd sure be a step in the right direction.

He took a trip to New York and went to see Nicholas Bandavino, the man you had to see if you wanted to get permission to do anything.  Alphonso had been the boss of his family in Chicago for over five years but nobody liked the way he ran things.  They liked him fine as a person, it was that they'd just come to the conclusion that they needed new more aggressive leadership.  Alphonso and Nicholas were both aware of this and Nicholas had been considering replacing Alphonso the easy way. Nicholas felt he had to do this to keep peace in the families.  Keeping peace in the families was one of Nicholas main duties.

When Al asked Nicholas to allow him to build a hotel out in the middle of the desert where all the bosses could come and talk things out rather than shooting things out if they happened to disagree on one issue or another.  Nicholas felt like he was receiving pennies from heaven.  He gave his blessing for the venture on the spot.  Al assured Nicholas that they would have a strict rule that no guns would be allowed on the property.

Alphonso had built his hotel in 1928 with ten million dollars supplied by the bosses of the Eastern cities.   The hotel was never given a name, that was Nicholas' idea.  The hotel was simply referred to as Al's place in the desert.

Dominick who'd recently resigned his commission in the Army for health reasons had been asked by his brother Al to manage the hotel.  The plan worked out pretty well. There had never been a hit take place at the hotel but several hits had taken place right after guys had left the hotel and returned to their home cities.  Fortunately Nicholas Bandavino didn't hold Alphonso responsible for these events.

Between February 1942 and March 1946 Dominick was immensely successful at his job of managing the hotel.  The guys liked and trusted Dominick.  That was quite an accomplishment for Dominick because these guys didn't trust, or like many people.  Many of the guys would bring money with them when they visited Al's hotel so they could give it to Dominick to hold for them.

Then one fateful night in March 1946 Dominick, who was out of his body at the time, returned to his room to find that his body had died.

 His body it was cold as a mackerel.  He made several attempts to re-enter the body but soon gave up and just hung there in mid air looking at the deceased body.

 Dominick wasn't a gangster type at all, he was, for one thing very religious, having been raised in Catholic schools, very patriotic, having been a captain in the U.S. Army. When he saw his lifeless body lying in the bed where it'd expired he was befuddled.  Remorseful as he was, and still intensely interested in what was going on around him, he was more curious than anything else at seeing a tunnel open before him.  He proceeded a short way down the tunnel and saw the light at the end.  he'd heard stories about this “Light at the end of the tunnel,” and knew what it meant.  

The light was beckoning him stronger than anything had ever drawn him in his life but he stopped long enough to think things out.  “If I go to that light I'll enter another dimension of life,” he thought.  “Will that dimension be heaven, or hell or purgatory?  It can’t be heaven because I've not had my last rights nor have I given my confession recently; it can’t be hell because, in my whole life I've never done anything deserving of hell; so it must be purgatory.”  “If I go to purgatory and there is no one on this side to pray me through then I'll remain in purgatory forever or worse yet be sent to hell.”  At that point Dominick Gianelli opted to exercise prudence and backed out of the tunnel, very cautiously.

CHAPTER - 3

THE GOLDEN FAMILY

Josh Golden was a very bright boy.  He'd finished high school in Los Angeles at fourteen and received his bachelors from UCLA at seventeen.  Josh had attended USC Law School.  he'd passed the bar examination, on his first try when he was just under twenty-one, too young to drink in a bar but he was California’s youngest licensed Attorney.  The firm of Bradcroft and Myers had gobbled him up right after the exam scores were posted and they knew that he'd passed with very high marks.  

His modest starting salary grew rapidly over the next five years and by twenty-six he was anticipating a partnership in one of the largest and most prestigious law firms on the west coast.  he'd dated, then married Joan Crackatur as soon as he'd passed the bar and become employed.  At the age of twenty two the young couple already had two kids, Alan and Karen, in their first two years of marriage.  

At twenty-six the Golden family was truly a Golden family.  That fall of his twenty-sixth year Josh and Joan had managed to get away from the Los Angeles rat race for a week and wondered what to do with the time.  Joan had an Aunt and Uncle who lived just out of Palm Springs on the road to Twenty-Nine Palms, a desert community about four hours out of Los Angeles. She wanted to get back in touch with them as she hadn't seen them in several years.  She suggested that they spend the week in Vegas and go through Twenty-nine Palms on the way.  

Upon consulting the California map Josh determined that Palm Springs wasn't at all on the way to Las Vegas but she wanted to see her aunt and uncle so they loaded the kids into their Jeep station wagon and they were off.  It was overcast and mucky as they left their home in Thousand Oaks and got on the freeway. Josh was amazed at how good he felt to be getting out of the basin for a while.  Though he'd been very successful for a very young man he'd grown to hate the city.  The traffic, the crowds and the crime had already taken their toll on his mental well being.  he'd began to wonder about the prospect of raising Alan and Karen in this environment.  Alan would be in kindergarten next year and this city sucked.  

Even though very successful at his job and Joan fairly happy as an RN in the emergency room at L.A. County General they were both feeling the pressure of  the city and the scum that lived there.  She dealt with the bottom ten percent of that scum while Josh had to deal with the top two percent.  They often discussed those elements, she was of the opinion that the bottom ten percent were the worst but he knew better.  The top two percent of the population were the real scum.  His company paid him handsomely to cater to these leaches, getting them out of jams that they deserved to be in and preventing them from getting their comeuppance for their indiscretions.  Of course Josh and Joan both had a good point and were both right in their own way.  They were both drowning in scum which put a pallor of nausea on their otherwise perfect lives.

CHAPTER - 4

MEL  AND HILDA  KORMAN

They arrived in Twenty-nine Palms by mid morning. It wasn’t difficult to locate her relatives.  They spent a pleasant day with Joan’s aunt and uncle and checked in to a local motel after they'd hosted them to a rather expensive dinner at a local bistro.  The aunt and uncle were in their early sixties, recently retired and seemed to enjoy their desert life.  Their names were Hilda and Mel Korman. Hilda’s grandmother had died in the gas chamber’s at Buchenwald.  They were just two old Jew’s trying to reap their reward for a lifetime of dedicated service.  Hilda, had been a cook at a local restaurant and Mel had been the maintenance man at a posh hotel in Palm Springs.  They'd both just recently qualified for their Social Security.  

The next morning Hilda had insisted on preparing breakfast before Josh and Joan left for Las Vegas. They couldn’t believe the spread she laid out.  She served ordinary food prepared to perfection.  This breakfast was truly fit for the most discriminating jet setter.  They dined like royalty then said their goodbyes with promises to get back together again soon.  It appeared on the map that the most direct route to Las Vegas was straight through the desert.  

A short distance out of Twenty-nine Palms they made a left turn on to a paved desert road that appeared to head more or less North; to Las Vegas.  In less than an hour they reached the town of Amboy, which couldn’t have a population of more than twenty people.  Just out of Amboy they shortly made the indicated left turn toward their destination.  About one and a half  hours out of Twenty-nine Palms they approached their next  turn at Joshuaville.  “Look Hon, Josh said we're coming up on a town they named after me.”  “I doubt that they named it after you dearest, I think they named it after the Joshua trees that seem so abundant around here.”  The map showed that they would cross some railroad tracks at Joshuaville. They finally reached the so called town only to find it was ghost town.  There were a group of deserted ramshackle buildings and right by the railroad tracks and one of the grandest sights Josh had ever beheld.  There was a long abandon railroad station.  The building displayed the graceful flowing Spanish lines of California in the 1920's.  

The building had been surrounded by a chain link fence and posted with no trespassing signs and a sign erected by a Las Vegas Real Estate Agent by the name of  Pamela Gianelli.  Josh copied down the phone number for no particular reason, other than he was a lawyer and lawyers always wrote down phone numbers, didn’t they.  As he continued his stroll around the fence, admiring this grand old building he tried to imagine how the people of this desert community had been able to acquire such a grand and beautiful railroad station for such a humble place.  Yet here it sat out here in the middle of nowhere, left to the elements.  The trains still ran by but it was obvious none had stopped at this station in many a year.

CHAPTER - 5

THE HOTEL

“If you're looken for the hotel, mister that ain’t it” Josh turned to see a scruffy looking old codger that could've passed easily for a prospector from a century earlier.  He had everything except the burrow loaded with mining gear.  “Sorry, you startled me, old timer, I didn’t see you come up.  So where's the hotel?” Josh played along.  See that gravel road up yonder bout two hundred yards, takes off to your left?”  “Yeah, I see it.”  “Foller that road back bout a mile or so and you come to a rise, kinda steep rise, once you get to the top you'll see the hotel.  Ain’t nobody there and it’s all fenced like this here old station.  Easy enough to get through the fence but I wouldn’t advise it.”  “Is there security or viscous dogs or something,” Josh asked?   “Hell, no there ain’t no dogs but they say hereabouts that the place is haunted.”  The few folks that’s been in there come out lickety split and took out here like skert rabbits, they did.”

Josh thanked the old timer, loaded his family in the car and took off up the dirt road.  It was lucky Josh had four wheel drive on his station wagon because he put it to good use navigating that road.  He finally negotiated the road through a couple washed out places to the top of the rise, the old man had described.  What lay before them was a magnificent, if neglected complex.  It looked to be a Hotel out of the nineteen twenties.  The main building appeared to be about the size of a football field but it was two story so it had maybe ninety thousand sq. ft. of floor space.  There were two other large buildings on the property, set off to the side of the main  hotel building.  There was a house or dormitory of maybe  fifteen thousand square feet, Josh guessed that was where the staff and workers lived.  Adjacent to that there was what could best be described as a huge carriage house of maybe another fifteen thousand square feet.  

The landscaping that obviously had once been very lush had given way to native desert plants. About three dozen palm trees of different types still survived but looked to be in pretty sad condition.   The large circular driveway indicated that the huge covered patio which was easily ten thousand square feet lead to the main entrance.  The whole building reeked of opulence long neglected.  Josh parked by the main gate and walked around the whole property taking his digital camera and photographing the place from every angle.  He wasn’t even sure why he was doing this, but the place just fascinated him.  He noticed signs about every thirty feet or so advising against trespassing and promising prosecution to violators.

After completing his walk around the fence enclosed property he came once again to the main gate where he noticed  a small white metal sign. It was painted with black letters but very old and weathered.  He hadn’t noticed this sign when he got out of his car.  What he read left him breathless, He couldn’t believe it until I'd read it twice.  “IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES OR FOR ADMITTANCE PLEASE CALL - MELVIN KORMAN, CARETAKER.”  The sign then gave Mel’s phone number.  

As they left the site and headed for Las Vegas he couldn’t get the place out of his mind.  What a waste allowing a building as grand as that to fall into ruin.  Josh wondered what Joan’s Uncle Mel could tell him about the place; who owned it; how much were they asking for it and why did he care?

As soon as they'd checked into their room at the Ritz in Las Vegas he picked up the phone and called Mel.  Hilda answered, “Korman residence” “Hilda, he said, this is Josh Golden”.  “Who?” “Josh,  Josh Golden, you fixed breakfast for us this morning.”  “Oh, yes, Josh, how was your trip? Did you get to Las Vegas all right?”  “We got here fine Hilda, listen, is Mel around?  There is something I want to ask him?”  “This is Mel, Josh, I'm on the other phone, in my workshop, hang up Hilda, I’ve got it.”  “What can I do for you Josh?”  “It’s about that old hotel in Joshuaville, the sign says that you're the caretaker.”  “I guess I am, Josh but I haven’t even thought of that place in a couple weeks and haven’t been out there in several months, why is there something wrong that I should know about? “No nothing in particular that I happened to notice but I was just curious, Who owns it and how do you come to be the caretaker?”  

“The place belongs to one Alphonso Gianelli of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, formerly of Chicago, I used to work for him when I was a kid.”  “I guess I'm the only guy around that he knows that isn’t dead so he ask me to keep an eye on it for him.”  “Not Thehonso Gianelli! I'd no idea that he was still alive, I thought he went out with Al Capone and the rest of them.”  “No, he’s pretty old now but he's still around.  he's in a rest home, I guess he must be pretty near a hundred years old by now, but still kicken.”  “Do you happen to know how much he's asking for the place, or who I'd see to find out about it?”  “Yeah, he has a niece or something that has a real estate business in Las Vegas, Pamela Gianelli. I have to see her when I need money for anything to do with the property.”  “I’ve got her phone number around here somewhere”.  “No, that’s OK her name and phone number were also on the fence at the old railroad station so I jotted it down.”  “You don’t know what he's asking for the place though, do you?”  “Oh shit I dono maybe ten million dollars, I heard that number somewhere about twenty five years ago.”  My heart sank, I had a few bucks, but nowhere in that league.  “Where did he ever come up with a number like that Mel?”  “He said that's what he paid to have it built in 1928, of course that was before the crash.  He ran the place and kept trying to sell it right up until the end of World War II, then closed it down and kinda forgot he had it.”  “Say if you’re really interested why don’t I give him a call, he might even give it to me for cheap, I just don’t know.”

“How sound is the place, structurally, I mean?”  “The building itself is sound as a dollar, but the interior has gone to hell just from age.  Nobody goes too near the place because they say it's haunted.  Everything is pretty much intact but no one has lived there for over sixty years.  That place was built with real lath and plaster and many of the walls are steel reinforced because the original clientèle insisted on it.  It wasn't exactly a hide out but a lot of the old time mobsters used to go there when they wanted a little peace and quiet, if you know what I mean.”  

“Uncle Mel, would you call him for me, Joan and I've talked of nothing else since we first laid eyes on that building, we can think of nothing else.”  “we've both about had it with the rat race in Los Angeles and I think we could make a go of a place like that.”  “Of course it'd take a lot of work fixing it up and developing a clientèle but I think it could be done.”  “In case you didn’t notice, Josh there's not enough traffic going through Joshuaville to support a little motel much less a grand Hotel.  Maybe if it was in Nevada where you could have gambling, but that place is in California.”

“I've something in mind Mel, but no use getting into that unless we can get it at the right price. When do you plan on making that call, Mel?”  “As soon as we hang up son, no wait he's in Florida and it's three hours later there so I better do it first thing in the morning.” “I’ll call you and let you know what he says.”  “OK, I will make sure that one of us will be here in the room to get your call.”  Josh gave Mel the room number and hung up.  Josh had his cell phone but wasn't sure that he could get the call on that thing since he was out of the Los Angeles area and he didn’t understand much about roaming.  He just didn’t trust the darn thing, he even missed some calls when he was in Los Angeles.  

Josh was up at 5:30 the next morning and eased out of the room quietly so as not to wake Joan and the kids.  He left them a note and stole out the door.  The coffee shop in the hotel was almost deserted, just a couple guys in a corner booth reading the paper and talking politics.  Josh sauntered up to the counter and sat down.  Without asking, the waitress brought him a cup of coffee.  The morning paper was laying on the counter one seat over so he picked that up.  The waitress ask “you haven the special”?  “What’s the special?” Josh responded.  “Two scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and coffee, for a buck before 6:00 AM, it’s all anybody ever orders this time of morning.”  “Sounds too good to be true, bring it on.”  

After breakfast Josh returned to the room to find his family just getting up.  “Has Mel called yet?” “No, the phone hasn’t let out a peep yet this morning.”  “I, woke up early so I went down to the coffee shop and had breakfast  so I could be here to take the call from Mel. You and the kids can go now, but come right back because we may want to go back to Joshuaville and look at the place, depending on what Mel finds out.”  

Mel finally got through to the old man, explained that his nephew had fallen in love with the old hotel in Joshuaville and wanted to restore it.   Al couldn’t believe his ears.  “You want the hotel, Mel?”  “Sure, see my niece in Las Vegas and she'll deed it to you, she has my power of attorney.”  “You mean for free?”  “You better pay her a dollar for it to make it legal but yes, for free”.  “Why are you doing this Al, it’s not like you?”  Mel, I used to hold you on my knee when you were just a little tike, I watched you grow up, you're like family to me, besides, you're the only guy I know from the old days that’s still alive,  you were there, kinda like one of us, you know, I want you to have it.  You gotta fix it up though and re-open it, that’s all I'm asking.”  “What, I’m one hundred and two years old, I live in a rest home and I still have about forty million dollars that I'll never live to spend.  When we hang up I’ll call Pamela and tell her to just deed it to you or your nephew.  She has my power of attorney, like I said.  I was thinken about making you and your nephew fly back here to get the deed just to have some company for a while but save your money, I might be gone by the time you could get here anyway,” with that Alphonso Gianelli hung up the phone.

About ten days before this conversation took place Pamela had received a letter from San Bernardino County telling that the place was a public hazard and that if she didn’t demolish the buildings the county would do it for her and bill her Uncle for the work.  They said they suspected that asbestos had been used in the construction and she could plan on getting a bill for around $450,000.00 when the work was completed.  She'd sixty days to comply.

She knew that the section of land that the hotel sat on was worth only about $150,000.00 so it looked like this old hotel was a $300,000.00 liability.  There was still the problem of all those stolen cars that Alphonso didn't want to have to deal with at his age.  Pamela had offered to donate the property to several different charities but no one was interested.  She'd tried to explain all this to her Uncle Al on the phone but doubted that he understood.  She didn’t know what to do with the damn place.

She was overjoyed when Al called and told her that he'd sold it to some rich Jew kid out of Los Angeles for one dollar.  Al said the kid would be in touch, probably that day,  and that she should conclude the transaction as rapidly as possible.  Pamela went to her computer and started typing.

 Alphonso Gianelli, a single man, hereby sells all of his right title and interest, if any in the following described real property: (legal description)  to_______________ for the sum of $1.00 (one dollar) in United states currency.  This sale is for the above described real property and all appurtenant structures and personal property at the location.  The sale is for the property as is and where's without warranty express or implied.  The sale is subject to all liens and encumbrances whether recorded or not.  Upon signing of this document this sale is final and irrevocable.  Buyer hereby understands.

She left them a place to sign and a place for her notary seal.  While the document was printing the phone rang.  Josh identified himself, got the directions to Pamela’s office and said he'd be there within the hour.  Pamela met Josh at the door to her office. She was a woman in her late sixties or early seventies, but appeared to be in good shape. Her platinum hair and olive skin gave her a very striking appearance. She invited Josh into the office, offered him a cup of coffee, which he politely refused, then proceeded immediately with the closing. .

 “Do you know of any liens on the property Pamela”, Josh asked “As far as I know there are none, here is a copy of a preliminary title report I obtained on the property about a year ago and there have been no transactions since then to the best of my knowledge.  I'll tell you though that the taxes are current I always see to that for all of my Uncle’s properties.  that's not a warranty, you understand but what I'm telling you is that I pay all of his property tax bills when they come in.”

The title report was simple, it showed Alphonso Gianelli, a single man to be the sole and vested owner of the property.  There were no exceptions noted.  He filled in the names of Joshua A and Joan M Golden on the line provided, signed his name, signed his name and handed her one dollar.  As she notarized his signature she said “be sure and have your wife sign and have her signature notarized before you record that deed, Mr. Golden.”  

“Tell me something Pamela, I'm just curious, what ever happened out there to that place?”  “After the war things had just changed, that’s all, the old mobsters from Chicago and Detroit and elsewhere no longer needed that kind of refuge to retreat to and there was no other clientèle.  Then when Alphonso’s brother Dominick, who managed the place for Al, died in his sleep one night of a massive coronary , Al took it pretty hard.  He laid off all the employees except for Mel’s grandfather, Silas, and moved out right after the funeral.  Silas continued on until he was almost ninety before he passed away, that was probably over fifty years ago.  Silas had a grandson named Mel that grew up on the property and still looks in on it once or twice a year.”  With that he thanked her and left.  Josh rushed back to the room, picked up Joan and the kids and got directions to the recorder’s office.  The office was on the top floor of a jazzy new pyramid shaped building adjacent to down town Las Vegas.

  The girl at the recorder's office notarized Joan’s signature and told them that she'd record a copy of the document to record the transaction but that the property wouldn’t be officially their’s until they filed  the original with the San Bernardino County recorder.  Their nearest office was in Barstow, a couple hundred miles south of Las Vegas.  

CHAPTER - 6

THE NEW OWNERS TAKE POSSESSION

Josh called Mel on his cell phone and ask him to meet them at the property the next morning with the keys, he briefly outlined all that'd happened.  They headed south on Interstate 15 for Barstow. The only took about three hours. They arrived just in time to have the deed recorded before the office closed for the day.  They found a sitter for the kids, took a room at the El Rancho Motel in Barstow and had the most enjoyable meal of their lives at the best restaurant in town, even if it did double as a truck stop.

they had breakfast out of the way by 6:00 AM and were headed for Joshuaville, arriving a little after 8:30.  Mel showed up an hour later. That was the longest hour of their lives.  

Mel walked casually over to their car and ask “Would you guys like to see what you just bought?”  It took Mel a couple minutes of fumbling with the keys before the padlock on the main gate snapped open but eventually they were in.  The property covered a full section of land.  About half of that was fenced with a twelve foot high chain link fence topped with  concertina wire.  There was the main building of about ninety thousand square feet plus the huge covered entrance and front patio.   There were two stories so the main building had maybe 45,000 thousand square feet of interior space on each floor. The entire upstairs was suites of about 800 square foot each. The entire downstairs was lobby, restaurant, kitchen, a large dining area in the kitchen and several little rooms off the lobby that would be ideal for small shops like a barbber shop or a gift shop. There was a residential outbuilding of about fifteen thousand square feet where apparently the employees resided and a fifteen thousand foot carriage house and maintenance shop.  There was covered parking for about two dozen automobiles.  There were over one hundred palm trees on the property and a huge swimming pool that was green with algae, almost empty, and covered with some bluish gunk.  There were dead and neglected plants everywhere, those that required care had died and those hearty soles native to the desert had spread to the point that it was difficult to get through any of the doors.  

“Mel, what exactly is your connection with this place, how long have you been associated with it, how did you ever happen to be here?”  “It’s like this, Josh, my mother died in childbirth when I was born in 1938.  My dad enlisted in the army in 1941, right after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  He sent me out here to live with my Grandpa Silas.  Dad never came back, he took a bullet at Normandy on June 6, 1944.  I was the only child here and my playmates were all the famous mobsters of the 1920's and 1930's.  My particular favorite was Al’s brother Dominick, he wasn't like the rest, not a mobster, I mean, he was just a nice unassuming guy that went along with his brother’s wishes and did everything that Al asked of him.  As time went on Dominick became more and more the host of this place.  He saw to everything, he ran everything, Alphonso just kind of sat back and shot the breeze with his old buddies from the mob.  When I got old enough to attend school it was Dominick who arranged for the boarding school, paid for my tuition, and made sure that a car and driver drove me there and picked me up for all the holidays.  My grandfather was a nice guy but we were never close.  Dominick was the closest thing to a parent that I ever had during those early years.”

“Dominick, he’s the one that died  here in his room right after the war, wasn’t he?”  “Yeah, Al couldn't possibly run things here without Dominick so he closed the place up.  In his will Dominick left me a trust fund to provide for my education through college but allowed that I could have the rest of the money anytime after high school if I wanted.”  “I stayed on here and gradually took over the maintenance chores from my grandfather as he became too old and feeble to handle them.  I finally put my grandfather in a rest home and took a maintenance job in Palm Springs, where I met Hilda.  At that time Al was doing time, just five years for something he'd plea bargained to so there was no money coming in to keep this place going. The remainder of my trust fund from Dominick was spent keeping Silas in the rest home until he died.  Since then I've just kind of looked in on the place once in a while.”

“What happened to Alphonso after he closed the hotel?” “Alphonso kept his chef, and his kitchen staff from the hotel and opened an authentic Italian Restaurant in Chicago. When I say authentic I don't mean the best. The best places aren't very authentic. Al served the kind of food that the guys grew up with, that their mothers cooked for them back in Sicily .”

 “By that time Al was old enough that nobody in the mob bothered him much. Al kept a back room for his old mob buddies and kept good security so that no one except his friends could ever have access. Eventually Nicholas Bandavino got himself into an income tax fraud and  drew twenty years in the Federal Penitentiary, he remembered how Al had kept peace in the family when he had the hotel so he passed the mantle on to Alphonso when he went away.  Al became the boss of all the East Coast mobs and got a piece of the action no matter where it happened or who did it. It was during Al's time that the mob did so well in Las Vegas.  Al became the King of Crime in America. That happened around 1955. Al continued  to run things until he was around 85 or 90 when he got too old, and when the mob started loosing their grip on Las Vegas.  When Al was the boss he never stepped on anyone's toes, he would listen to the Captains and generally let them have their way I guess that is why he lasted so long. It was around 1990 that Al gracefully bowed out and moved to Florida.

“I heard something about this place being haunted, what’s that all about?”  “I don’t rightfully know anything about that but I’ve heard those rumors myself.  I do know that from time to time people have been in the place but from the looks of things they didn’t stay long.  Once I found the front door open and on the hall floor upstairs I found a full backpack, nice one with everything a guy would need  for a long hike through the wilderness, except for food,.  Whoever owned it left here in too much of a hurry to go back upstairs and get it.  There were a few other things over the years but nobody stayed around long enough to do any damage to the place.”

As for fixing the place up Mel said in his own defense “I kept giving the old man an estimate of what it'd cost to get this place cleaned up but every time I could get him to agree to a figure the price had doubled so he refused.”  “How about the main building?” Josh ask. “ I haven’t been in there in years, no telling what you'll find”.  “The employees building is in much better shape though, ten years ago, or so Hilda and I spent my vacation from my job in Palm Springs up here Hilda and I stayed in the employee building.  At that time the water and electricity worked and the toilets flushed.  The well house is in the back of the carriage house but I suppose the pump’s are shot by now.

They went through the carriage house to reach the pump house.  Josh noticed that there quite a few of old cars and other assorted debris.  In the pump house Mel said “the only way to check the pump out is to have electricity, which obviously you've not had time to turn on yet but not to worry, we have generator power.”  “Bring your car around to the back door here josh and I'll see if I can get this old Buddha Diesel to kick over, it did ten years ago.”  Josh fetched his car and opened the hood.  Mel ran some jumper cables and pushed some buttons.   The ancient Buddha coughed a couple times, belched some smoke then fired just as pretty as you please.  Lights and sirens began to go off all over the facility.  It took them almost an hour of frantic effort to get them all turned off but they learned a lot about the place in that hour.  

Mel finally announced “well you have electricity and water, the pump is screaming like a banshee but it's pumping water.”  “How’s our supply of diesel, Mel?”  “You are pretty low, less than ten thousand gallons but that'll last for a month or two.”  “You are going to have to order a couple truck loads of diesel or turn on public power, In 1946 Al had Public Power run lines out here but then he closed the place before he ever got around to having the power hooked up.  Mel scrounged around the pump house and found new gaskets for the pump then shut down the water supply briefly while he repaired the pump.  When he finished you could run the water anywhere on the property and you would never hear anything but a quiet hum from the pump, and then only if you were standing in the pump house.  

That evening after Mel got the Golden’s situated so they could at least sleep and fix some meals in their new digs Mel went back to Twenty-Nine Palms.  “I'll be back in the morning, Josh, but I have to pick up a few things first that I will need to get the place humming again.  The Golden’s drove about fifty miles into the little town of Searchlight, Nevada, bought some groceries and had dinner at a small casino.  

Upon their return to the property they explored the main section of hotel, the wood on all the furniture was intact but needed refinishing, all the  upholstery was shot and had to be replaced.  The kitchen was intact and as far as they could tell was functional.  The grills and ovens ran on propane but the tanks regestered empty so they'd have to order out a propane truck to fill them, or maybe several trucks, there was a pretty big propane tank in back of the kitchen, two in back of the hotel, one by the employee house and one by the carriage house. Even though five of the tanks read empty there was enough to fire up the stoves, grills and ovens which all seemed to work, after a fashion. One of the two tanks behind the hotel registered almost three quarters full Josh couldn’t tell whether it was from low propane pressure or the little holes and the delivery system were clogged. Josh would have to ask Mel if he knew of a way to transfer propane from one tank to another.

Everything in the kitchen was stainless steel, thicker and heavier stainless than you find today, the real stuff.  The PA and music system was vacuum tube equipment and didn’t work at all.  A lot of the lights were burnt out but enough of them still worked to see their way around, once the cobwebs had been cleared away.

The next morning, Joan cooked her first meal in the employee house which they had already taken to calling just “The House.”

When Mel arrived around ten AM  he found the room where the Golden’s were exploring.  “Josh come here I have something to show you.”  As Mel led the way through a door leading off the kitchen and down some stairs Mel turned on his flash light.  It was cool and musty smelling down here and the cobwebs were very thick, worse than on the floor above.  Then Mel played his light out over maybe twenty rows of wooden racks about seven feet high.  Then he shined his light toward the back of the room where Josh could see disintegrating cardboard boxes stacked floor to ceiling .  The row was perhaps forty feet long and stacked six rows deep, enough boxes to fill a semi trailer.  “What’s in all those boxes?” Josh asked. “Wine, some good, some very rare, all in all I imagine there are more than ten thousand bottles, all prewar.  The latest bottle I found was dated 1946.”  “Is it still good” “I doubt that anyone will ever know because we'll sell it to collectors and they wont open it.  “How long have you known about this, Mel”.  “All my life, I guess, I never touched it because it was Al’s wine, nobody ever messed with Al’s things, not if they wanted to stay healthy, so I've just always had this wine cellar in the back of my mind, hoping someday I'd find some way to gain access to it by just biding my time.”

The furniture, especially the furniture in the main building was very expensive, the best that money could buy in 1928.  All fabric’s and upholstery, curtains drapes were rotten and would need to be replaced. Fortunately there were no carpets in the building, all of the floors were marble.  All the wood would need to be refinished.  They spent the rest of that day exploring the main building. They finally went back to the house where things were in better shape, because it been used more recently. After a hasty meal they turned in for the night.  

The next morning Joan fixed breakfast at home again,  primarily because the nearest restaurant was thirty miles away.  “What're we doing here, what have we gotten ourselves into,” Joan asked?  “This is like something out of the Wizard of Oz.  we've been doing great up until now, but this, this place?” “We can’t live here, there isn’t a school in fifty miles, the nearest college or the nearest hospital for that matter is in Las Vegas, or Palm Springs almost a hundred miles from here, we’re out of our minds, we've completely lost it!”

“This place was a success at one time and it can be a success again with the right management and a little TLC.”  Josh responded.  “This place was never a financial success as a hotel, this was a sort of a hide out for rich mobsters in the 1930's, something like Hole in the Wall was in the 1880's.  The mob built this place to get away from the government and their rivals.  What the hell are we going to do with it?”

“I've a plan,” Josh answered but didn't go into any details.  With that Josh stormed out and went to inspect the carriage house.  He was pleasantly surprised and a little taken aback to find that the hulks of old cars that were there were now museum prizes that were in the same condition that they were in when they were left there almost seventy years before.  Of course all the rubber, leather and upholstery was rotten and wood all needed refinishing but the cars were intact, almost thirty of them.  Fortunately this dry desert climate with low humidity and clean air had been kind to the relics.   There were Packard’s, Studebaker’s, Ford’s but immediately Josh recognized the prize of the lot a 1935,36 or 37 Dusenburg SJ convertible that appeared to be ready to drive away.   Josh turned to Mel and ask “What the hell is this all about?”

Mel just shrugged and said kind of apologetically, “Well, er these cars belonged to George the Hacker Romanelli.  Well, they sort of belonged to him, he stole them.  Don’t worry though George was gunned down in 1937 in a Chicago Restaurant.”  “So, what more can you tell me about George, Mel?” “Well, Josh before George was a made guy he was a car thief, that's how he got his start and all. George ran what was probably the first chop shop in this country, long before anyone else ever thought of the idea.  His shop was in Chicago.  He liked this hotel and used to come here often.  He always followed the same MO, he'd fly into Los Angeles then take a taxi from the airport to Beverly Hills and have the cabby cruise the streets until he spotted the ride he wanted.  Then he'd tell the cabby, “let me out right here”.  he'd pay the cabby and send him on his way.  George always had a set of cold Illinois plates in his luggage so he'd lift the car, drive a couple miles then change the plates to the ones he carried.  He would then drive up here and spend a week or two relaxing in the sun.”

 Mel continued, “eventually he began to worry that his cars were getting too much exposure to the weather so he paid to have this carriage house built to protect them.  When his vacation was over he'd take the train back to Los Angeles and fly back to Chicago.  See over there along that wall, there is a workbench there with a key grinding machine. The Hacker used to make keys for all the cars after he brought them up here.  There are still hundreds of blanks for every make of car of that era in a drawer over there.  That's where I learned to make keys when I was a kid.”

Josh  then knew that his financial worries were over.  After more than seventy years there was probably no record that these cars had ever existed much less were stolen, and even if there was those records wouldn’t be on the computer.  He ran back into the house and told Joan of his find.  She was less than properly impressed but seemed pleased at the news nonetheless.

CHAPTER - 7

SETTLING IN

With Mel’s help Josh had made the employee house quite livable.  Mel then went out and got the old bull dozer running.  “My first order of business is to make that road in here passable or we'll never be able to get anything delivered or to even get in and out ourselves, much longer.”  Mel worked for almost a week on the road.  “that's no freeway, he announced but I had ten truck loads of type II gravel hauled in after I finished the grading then I ran a roller pulled behind the dozer to smooth it out.  It will do fine until we get around to having it paved.

Within two weeks they were then able to have phone service and public electric hooked up.  they'd replaced the old septic tank system with a new one that worked at least well enough to accommodate the employee house.  Josh had subscribed to a satellite Internet service so he was once again on line.  The old pump and generator seemed to be working perfectly and they never ran short of water or electricity. Josh had installed a new water heater in the employee house so they had plenty of hot water.  

Mel and Hilda had moved their entire household to the property and put their mobile home and lot in Palm Springs up for sale.  By the time their lot sold and Mel cashed in his life insurance and withdrew their savings they discovered that they were marginal millionaires and they still had their social security income.  

Josh had telephoned in his resignation from Bradcroft and Myers and withdrew his profit sharing and retirement.  Joan quit her job with Los Angeles County, she cashed in her retirement account. Josh had Joan returned to Los Angeles and hired movers to move their personal belongings to the hotel. They listed their house for sale and sold their Jaguar.  Joan returned to the hotel in Josh’s Toyota pick up loaded with the rest of their small personal items.  By the time all the counting was done Josh discovered that he was also a marginal millionaire, not bad for a kid wonder at twenty six.

About eight one morning after they'd been living at the hotel for close to a month a black and white Sheriff’s patrol car drove through the open front gate.  The deputies had two punky looking teen age boys in the back seat of the patrol car.  “Are you Mr. Golden”, one of the deputies asked?  “Yeah, I'm Josh Golden, Officer, is there some trouble?”  “We found these two vandalizing your railroad station, Mr. Golden and wanted to know what you want us to do with them.”  “My Railroad Station!”  “We called the Realtor on that sign and she said you had recently purchased the hotel and the railroad station from her uncle.” “I guess I should have read the property description closer, I knew there were two parcels but I didn’t know that one of them was the railroad station, so I didn’t even know that I owned it”.  “According to Pamela Gianelli you own it, and she should know.”  

“we've been keeping an eye on these two old places for years, and we know a little of the history behind them, but this is the first time in all these years that there has ever been any trouble.”  “Josh took the deputy that he'd been talking to aside out of earshot of the punks and asked “Where do those kids say they're from?”  “Las Vegas, they were just passing through on their motorcycles when they spotted a blank wall that was just begging for a little graffiti Mr. Golden.” “Just call me Josh.”  “OK, Josh, glad to meet ya, my name is Delbert and my partner over there is Waylen, we've patrolled everything from the California State line to Twenty-Nine Palms for the last fifteen years.”  “Why don’t you just scare the hell out of those punks Delbert, have their bikes picked up by a tow truck then take them in to Twenty-Nine Palms and hold them overnight then tell them they can return to get their bikes when they get the money for the towing company.  You could then let them out at the Nevada State Line and let them hitch-hike back to Vegas.”  “That sounds like a good plan to me Josh, I had something like that in mind anyway.”  “By the way Delbert you and your partner are always welcome here, we always have a pot of coffee on and there is plenty of lemonade and ice tea to go around in the summer time.”  “I think we might be seeing quite a lot of each other, Josh, especially since you had that road fixed.”

Alan and Karen, Josh and Joan's two children were having a grand time at the hotel. There seemed to be no end to the amazing places they could explore. Joan was concerned because after Memorial Day and Alan should be in kindergarten. Karen still had another year of freedom before she started school. Joan went on the internet and was able to download the kindergarten curriculum and teaching materials that she would need to home school Alan. She found that there was no legal requirement that Alan had to enter school for another year and then he could skip kindergarten and go right into the first grade if he could pass a test.  

CHAPTER - 8

THE WINE MERCHANT

Josh called a wine dealer in Los Angeles that he knew.  “Herb, I've some old bottles of wine that I'd like for you to sell for me.”  “Well bring them in Josh and lets have a look, I’ll give you an estimate on their worth and sell them for you on commission if you like.”  “I’m afraid there are too many bottles for that maybe you had better come out here to my place in the desert and have a look.”  “Yeah, I heard you bought an old hotel out in the middle of nowhere.  I couldn’t possibly get away myself but I'll send one of my delivery trucks out to pick them up.”  “Herb, there are around ten thousand bottles.” “Josh just send the good stuff the old stuff, over ten years old.”  “Herb the youngest bottle in the lot is dated 1946.”  “I'll be there in the morning Josh, give me the directions.”  

After spending the better part of two days in the wine cellar with two assistants Herb emerged with an inventory.  “This is better than I expected, or even hoped.”  “Josh, I'm sixty two years old and one of my competitors has been wanting to buy me out for years.  Would it be possible for me to sell out everything in Los Angeles and move up here.  I want to slow down and I could spend the rest of my life properly marketing your wine.”  

“I guess its time that we called everyone together and had a little understanding.”  “When everyone was seated around the main dining table Josh began.  “Mel, Herb and the rest of you this is my proposition, This hotel and everything here is in my, and Joan’s name.  We have young children, and I want to keep the ownership of this hotel registered the way that it is.  We would love to have you and your families come and spend out your years with us in this place that'll become more delightful with every passing day.  You will never want for anything and other than doing work that you enjoy you'll never have to do anything.  I know there is going to be plenty of money so that we can all live the good life.”

  “I am an Attorney by profession, a specialist in estate, gift tax and money management, I insist that if you decide to put in with us here that I've all your money at my disposal to manage for you and to invest safely and profitably.  I have reason to believe that we'll never be short of money to have anything we want, eat anything we want buy any existing or new technology that comes along that we want and just live very comfortable lives.”  “If any of you  ever want out you'll receive back your personal investments in full, immediately, but not the interest.”  “The interest on our personal wealth is what we're going to have to look to for maintaining our lifestyle for now and for the foreseeable future.”  “I’m for it said Mel, this is about the nicest place to live I've ever seen and there are a thousand things around here that I'm just itching to get at.”  “What if my wife and I wanted to get away for a bit, take a cruise, for instance?”  “it'd depend on cash flow and how much you needed.”  “I doubt that you'd want to spend money on things we couldn’t afford, Herb”.  “We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it”. Herbert Jabonowiz looked Josh square in the eye and said,   “That’s good enough for me,I'm just dying to be the world’s leading trader of rare wine, and with that wine cellar, I will be, believe me.  Just give me a computer and a broadband Internet connection and I'll make us enough profit to keep this whole place going.”

Herb took three months to finally move in to a suite on the top floor of the hotel.  He turned over just over 2.5 million dollars to Josh for investment.  Herb estimated that he could liquidate the wine in the cellar for another 1.5 million and the inventory he brought up with him for another half million. Herb told Josh, “I don't intend to sell off this wine and then go out of business, you understand. My clientèle will actually be bringing me rare wines from around the world to trade for some of the wine that I have here. These folks are all rare wine dealers but they realize that I will be making a profit on every transaction.”

Soon one or two vans began to show up at the hotel every day loaded with cases of rare wines to trade.

While Herb was busy selling out his home and business Josh obtained title to all of the old cars in his collection by following the State of California rule for taking title to old cars that were abandoned on your real property.

CHAPTER - 9

SELLING THE OLD CARS

The antique car auctioneer was flabbergasted at Josh’s car collection.  His name was appropriately enough Anthony Carbetia, his auction was held in various cities around the country and he made his money off both ends.  He charged the guys that'd bought old cars for one thousand dollars and spent three or four years of their time and twenty thousand dollars restoring them five hundred dollars to auction them off for, usually around ten to fifteen thousand dollars, then he charged anyone who wanted to come and bid on them thirty dollars for a bidders permit.  Those who didn't intend to bid got in to his sales for five dollars which all went to making Anthony one well off dude.  

Anthony started out by saying “Well, lets see there would be your cost of transportation and a $15,000 fee for offering the cars for sale and,” Josh stopped him right there.  “Anthony, or I should say Tony, is it all right if I call you Tony?”   “Sure, call me anything you like, Tony will do.”  I already have an offer of two point five million for these cars as is and where's, so if you want to market them for me it's going to require a two point six million net guarantee or I'd just as soon sell them for my previous offer.”  Anthony felt like he was dealing with a big city Lawyer rather than a country bumpkin so he cleared his throat, well er a I think that's doable, but there will be other charges of course.”  “Absolutely not” said Josh, “you'll charge me the actual cost of transportation to Los Angeles and $500.00 per car for the offering and I'll agree to $250.00 per car for clean up.  Clean up must be done very carefully with your most skilled people.  The upholstery on these cars is very fragile, they've been setting in this carriage house for almost eighty years. The upholstery is all original but it's all rotten.  You may have the metal polished but don't ever allow anyone to enter one of the vehicles or sit on the drivers seat or they could come out wearing the upholstery on the seat of their pants.  You aren't to use high pressure sprayers on the engines as the force of the spray could disintegrate the rubber.  You may charge me for any inner tubes that need replacing so that the tires appear full of air but not for any tires as these tires are all rotten, they have good looking tread but won't last a mile if driven.  Do we've a deal?”

The Dusenburg went for two point five million, the 1932 Packard Duel Cowl Phaeton went for one million and the other cars collectively brought just over one million so Josh received a check from Anthony for just over four million dollars.  Their little project was now funded for a little over nine million dollars. Josh  was ready to proceed to phase two.

CHAPTER - 10

THE VILLANUEVA’S

Josh had acquired a couple Rottweilers after taking possession of the property.  He named them appropriately enough Mike and Ike because they looked alike.  They were actually very gentle dogs but they looked ferocious and were a lot cheaper than a security company, especially in this remote location.  The dogs barked viscously at any intruders so the family slept in relative ease.  About five AM one morning the dogs set off their alarm.  Josh crawled out of bed and groped for his flash light.  As he stepped out of his room Mel met him in the hall.  Mel didn’t have his flash light but he did have his old double barrel twelve gage shotgun.  They eased out the front door of the house and over to the patio of the hotel.  They could see the dogs in the corner of the property where the chain link fence stood.   Huddled in the corner were a group of pitiful looking human beings.  

As Josh and Mel approached they called out in broken English for help in saving them from the ravenous dogs.  Josh and Mel relaxed a little and approached the small group.  The man who, as it turned out, was Manuel Villanueva, his wife Enna and their two teen age sons Pedro and Armando along with their six year old daughter Sophia.  “What the hell are you people doing on our property,” asked Josh?  “So sorry Senior,” Manuel responded in broken but understandable English, but when I came up from Mexico two years ago I spent the night in this very spot.  It was safe from bandito’s inside this fence senior so now I'm bringing my family up to join me, I have work on a farm in Spokane and I wanted them with me so I went back to Mexico and brought them over.”  “where's your car? asked Mel”  “we've no car Senior, we're walking to Spokane, it's not difficult for us, we're used to hardship.  We are just happy to be together again, we mean you no harm Senior.”  “When have you and your family last had a good meal?” Mel asked.  “Oh, not for many days Senior, but that's not of your concern, just call off your dogs and we'll be out of here.”  “Not until you've been properly fed,” Josh answered.

Josh put the dogs at ease then escorted the pitiful family into the house where they were met by Joan and Hilda.  “These folks need to be fed,” said Mel.”  “Hilda started fixing a hearty breakfast.  Hilda had been doing all the cooking since the start as she was a professional. Joan was best at heating frozen stuff in the microwave.  In a few minutes there were places set for ten at a table built to accommodate twenty.  

For very hungry people the Villanuevas ate but not with the gusto one would have expected from people who had not had a good meal in several days.  They kind of picked at their food like they didn’t know quite what to make of it.  “what's the matter, Senior Villanueva, do you not find this food to your liking?”  “Oh see, I'm accustomed to it, Senior, and might I say that it's delicious but my family, they've never eaten any food like this before.”  “My wife Enna was a cook in Mexico but she cooked only Mexican food, this food is strange to her and to my children.”   “Well then perhaps Enna would like to prepare lunch for us” said Mel,  “between now and then perhaps you'd like to give me a hand with some of my chores, Manuel?”

And thus Manuel,  Enna, Armando, Pedro and Sophia joined the family.  Manuel had a green thumb, that's the best way to put it.  He could grow prize winning roses on a cement slab.  If Hilda wasn't the worlds greatest cook then certainly Enna was.  Meals were always fantastic, gourmet quality all the way.  Manuel’s broken English rapidly improved and the rest of his family picked up the language at an alarming rate.  The only restriction Josh placed on them was language, they had to say what they wanted to say in English, the only time they were to speak Spanish was when they wanted to ask someone else how to say it in English.  Josh actually spoke Spanish but Manuel didn't found that out until years later.  

Hilda taught Enna everything she knew and Enna taught Hilda everything she knew so that eventually the diners never knew who prepared the food.  It was always a unique presentation of sophisticated, upper class cuisine with a southwest touch.  Enna and Hilda hit it off great and were soon creating their own unique prize winning recipes for everything they prepared. Josh Remarked, “When we finally open for business our food will definitely be our strong point.”

Actually though not open for business they had been accommodating a number of wine merchants who bunked in the house. No one was staying in the hotel until the furniture was restored.

CHAPTER- 11

THE THROUGHGOOD’S

Josh had placed an ad in a snooty Beverly Hills newspaper for a full time upholsterer and furniture re finisher.  The telephone response was just what he'd expected, a self centered, egotistical eccentric.  Reginald Throughgood, didn’t have money of his own but turned his nose up at everyone. Josh knew of Reginald’s work and knew that the only way he could get away with being such an ass all these years was that he was the best furniture man in Beverly Hills.  He only worked on quality pieces and he charged a fortune but when he finished with a piece it was far better than new, he took real pride in his work.  Josh had told him that he had several hundred pieces that required  re-finishing and would fly him out for an estimate.  Josh sent him a ticket to Las Vegas and met him at the airport.  

Reginald wasn't quite the pill that Josh had heard.  He did have a distinct British accent and freely expressed his contempt for the upper crust that employed him.  Underneath it all he was a regular Britt. Fine furniture was his life and the upper crust were the ones that owned it.  Thus his reputation as a snob was largely undeserved.  

Reginald spent a whole day inspecting the furniture at the hotel.  When he finished he estimated the job at $275,000.00.  Josh made him an offer of a suite to stay in, two helpers and a place to work and $150, 000.00.  The settled on $175,000.00 and Reginald moved in. After two weeks on the job he'd taken such a fancy to the place that he asked Josh about making the arrangement permanent.  Josh laid out the rules of joining the clan and Reginald accepted.  He brought with him his wife Beatrice, Daffeny, his daughter of eighteen, and his English bulldog Pepper.  Daffeny had finished high school with a D average and had no aspirations for higher learning.   She would be the ideal chambermaid once the hotel got rolling.  Reginald contributed a paltry $600,000.00 to the project once he'd cut his Los Angeles connections, plus the $175,000.00 Josh had agreed to pay him for restoring the furniture.

Reginald also brought along his two expert helpers. Josh agreed to pay them a wage suggested by Reginald, which seemed a little high to Josh but after all they were experts.

CHAPTER - 12

JOSH’S BROTHER SOL

Josh’s brother Sol was the foremost remodeling genius in Beverly Hills and the surrounding area. When a movie mogul bought a mansion for five million dollars and wanted to spend another five million personalizing it they more than likely called Josh’s brother Sol.

Sol, his wife Alice and their three kids spent the holidays with Josh and the others during their first Hanuka at the Golden Hotel.  It was Alice who fell in love with the place first, she had the same reaction that Josh did when he first saw it.  Right at the dinner table she just blurted out “Sol I love this place, I know we're making a killing in Beverly Hills but this is where I want to be.”  Poor Sol was caught flat footed, he didn’t know how to react, he was very taken with the place too but he'd never put it into words.  Sure he liked the money he'd been making in Beverly Hills but there was more to life than that, wasn’t there, sure he liked the fresh air that we'd here and the solitude but he knew that he could never commit to living in a place like this because he was somebody in Beverly Hills and he was nobody here.  He was friends with most of the big names in the entertainment industry, not close friends but they all knew him well enough to say Hi when they found themselves at the same cocktail party.  “No way” said Sol “we've too much going for ourselves at home, I've worked hard all my life to get where I am now and I'm not about to throw all that away.”

At that point Josh realized that it was now time to disclose to the rest of them what his plan for this place was.  “So far we've not had a paying customer and may not for a good while yet, and when we do we'll only accept the rich and famous from the entertainment industry.  We'll offer them a place where they can come and get away from the agents, the groupies, the fans, and the hoopla.  As far as I know there is no place like that this close to Hollywood.  At least here they'll be able to let their hair down and just be themselves.  Our prices won’t be cheap and we don’t care much whether they come or not.  Our funds have invested so that we're already realizing more than fifty thousand dollars monthly in income. Our expenses at this point run just over ten thousand, anything we realize in business will just be gravy.”  “Sol, you wouldn’t be throwing anything away if you joined us, there is a lot of work for you to do here and eventually you're going to be able to come to know everyone that's anyone.”

Sol’s daughters Angeline and Rebeca were thirteen and fourteen respectively. Sol’s son Arthur was a quiet reflective boy of 11, no one ever knew quite what Arthur was thinking.  All three were attractive and bright children.  Alice had them in home school since the first grade and they liked it.  They were pleased about moving to the hotel because here they'd have other children to become friends with. Alice would have  all the children at the hotel in the home school program.  Alice was a credentialed teacher but hadn't worked at it since Sol had become so successful in his business.  Neither Sol nor Alice wanted their children attending public schools.  

Sol brought in another 1.5 million dollars. Soon Sol set to work remodeling the whole place.  There were fifty six suites to be redone.  The swimming pool needed refinishing,  the main floor and a dozen other projects were just crying for attention.  Sol brought two helpers with him that were to be paid by the hour.  They seemed pleased to be earning the same salary as the furniture refinishers received.

As soon as the first seven suites were finished they were taken over by Josh, Mel, Reginald, Herb and Sol.  The Villanuevas and the other paid help stayed in the house.  The sixth and seventh suite was because Josh and Sol had commandeered  double suites to accommodate their families of four and five.  Reginald’s daughter preferred her small room in the house to a suite adjacent to her parents.  

There was one problem, at the end of the hall on the second floor there was a room that was barred from the inside.  Sol tried everything short of dynamite but couldn't gain admittance.  The door was like the others, heavy steel plate with wood on both sides.  The doors were all hinged on the inside and locked with a steel bar slide from the inside that went a foot into the wall which was also steel reinforced.  The only way that lock could've been slid home was from the inside so there had to be someone in that room to have done that.  Mel came up while Sol was working on the problem.  “What seems to be the problem, Sol?” Mel asked.  When Sol finished explaining, Mel looked very perplexed.  “That’s Dominick's room,” Mel said.  “I was here when we found him dead in his bed in there in 1946.  As far as I know no one has been in there since, except maybe for Al, cleaning out Dominick's personal stuff. that's where Al found Dominick's will.  Al left just about everything else as he'd found it”.  Mel then explained to Sol who Dominick was and what part he'd played in Mel’s upbringing.   Sol said, “I think we will just leave it for last. It may be that the only way in would be to cut our way in with a torch and someone may come up with the answer before we have to do anything that drastic.”

Villanuevas had brought in several of their friends, they said from California, but Josh suspected otherwise because immediately upon their arrival they set about learning English which they seemed to have no previous knowledge of.  

The extended family had began taking their meals in the main dining room while the hired hands ate at the house.  That table for twenty was now almost full.  Josh handled all the paper work and even obtained a restaurant license, business license, liquor license and hotel license.  One day a letter arrived from the county once again threatening demolition of buildings but Josh just answered saying that the property was now under renovation and sent them copies of all his permits and licenses.  He never heard anything more about that matter.  

Things were shaping up, the carriage house had been cleaned out since the cars had been sold but no one was quite sure what use it should be put to but while they were pondering this question in kind of filled up with equipment.  Reginald was making great progress with the furniture refinishing and there were now two suites completed and ready to serve as rentals.  Sol had the pool area complete and Armando Villanueva had taken over as the pool boy.  He cleaned it and checked the water as Sol had taught him and served drinks as requested by the family and the workers.  Armando’s English was improving and he was turning into a very attractive young man with a pleasing personality and constant sense of humor and well being.  Angeline and Rebeca were quite smitten with Armando.  

David Straw, one of the workers hired to help Reginald wasn't only great with furniture but he was great with dogs and after work every day held his own classes for the two Rottweilers Mike and Ike and Reginald’s English bulldog, Pepper.  As it turned out both Mike and Ike were females from the same litter and soon there were half dozen strange looking pups running around the hotel, thanks to Pepper. The dogs were quite happy in the carriage house where they made their home and would occasionally go into the kitchen of the hired hands house if invited but couldn't be coaxed into entering the main building, not even for the promise of food.  When someone tried to coax one of the dogs into the main building their hair would bristle, they'd crouch low to the ground and growl maliciously.   Everyone finally just accepted this as the way things were, who wanted a bunch of dogs in the hotel anyway.

After dark every evening David Straw, who everyone called Red, would bring his old guitar into the lounge of the main building and serenade whoever wanted to listen, from the stage. Josh had purchased a new PA system but most of it was still in the boxes.  David had hooked some of it up so the stage had a loudspeaker system of sorts.  The old hotel lobby had become a game room and home theater but only the new giant screen TV had been plugged in and hooked up to the satellite antenna provided by dish program provider.  It was becoming obvious that they needed an electrician and sound man.  Everyone wanted a TV signal and so far the only place that'd one was the home theater.

There were now enough children on the property that Alice decided to open a home learning school. They were of all different ages, grade levels and educational needs.  Temporarily Alice commandeered a couple rooms in the employee house but put in her request with Sol to build her a proper school room in the carriage house or somewhere else on the property.  She could obtain almost all of her teaching materials from the Internet.  Alice started teaching six classes a day with different students at every class.  Three evenings per week she found herself teaching adults English.  Alice loved her work, as she got to know each of her students on a personal level and took a personal interest in their progress.

During their second night in the main building Josh was awakened.  He glanced at the digital clock by his bedside and noted that it was 4:12 AM, an odd hour for anyone to be up wandering around but each to his own preference, so Josh turned over and went back to sleep.

That morning at a little after six, Enna entered the kitchen to make coffee and start breakfast for the horde.  She noticed that there was a sixteen ounce pan on the stove half full of black water.  When she poured the mess out she noticed that the bottom of the pan was filled with coffee grounds.  There was an empty coffee cup on the table setting neatly in it’s saucer.  Yesterday’s newspaper was spread about the table.  She just shrugged it off and started about her morning chores.  She guessed that one of the family had got up during the night and made a small quantity of coffee and read yesterdays newspaper.

That morning after breakfast Mel and Hilda took their leave.  There were a lot of loose ends for them to tie up in Palm Springs and they'd be gone for about a week.  Work on everything continued at a steady pace without Mel and Hilda but they were missed by everyone.

CHAPTER - 13

DOMINICK GIANELLI

As Alphonso went about closing down the hotel Dominick became very dejected and confused. What would be his fate?  Would he spend years living alone in a deserted hotel in the middle of the desert or would someone take the place over and reopen it?  As the last of the limousines pulled out of the driveway and as Alphonso locked the gate behind him Dominick felt like crying.   What a fate, he thought to spend eternity alone and invisible to ordinary people. Of course Silas and Mel were still around but he couldn't communicate with them.  He went to his room and looked into the full length mirror on his bathroom wall.  He saw nothing but he continued to stare at the place in the mirror where his image should have been.  He wandered through the building and around the grounds. He pretty much decided that the best thing for him to do would be to leave and seek out a location where he'd be around people, perhaps bars or nightclubs where people were enjoying themselves. If I leave this place will be at the mercy of vandals so maybe I could stick around until I learn how to get along in my present condition and just keep an eye on things.  

On his first Sunday alone at the hotel Dominick found himself wishing that he could attend mass at the little church in 29 Palms.  No sooner had the thought occurred to him than he found himself standing in the vestibule of the church.  He entered through the open doors and partook of the mass. When it came to communion he had to pass.  Father Sebastian wasn't the priest, there was some new priest conducting the mass.   In fact the whole experience had been a disappointment to Dominick.  He wasn't questioning his faith but he got the feeling somehow that the things the priest spoke of in his sermon just didn't seem to apply to him.

Dominick then wondered how he would be able to get back to the hotel and once again, no sooner had the thought crossed his mind he was back at the hotel.  I wonder what President Truman is doing right now he thought and he found himself in the oval office where the president was pouring over a stack of documents on his desk.  This is neat he thought but I'd rather be back at the hotel. There he was back in the lobby of the hotel.  In the years to come Dominick would  became a world traveler.  On one occasion he celebrated Oktoberfest in Munich, On another he celebrated Mardi Gras in New Orleans. He visited Rio for Carnival and watched the Rose Parade from the TV announcers box on Colorado Boulevard.   He saw many interesting sites and attended many historic events but he made it a point to never be gone from the hotel for a long period of time.  On several occasions Dominick attended mass at other churches, but never returned to the little church in 29 Palms. On one occasion he actually sat in on an audience with the Pope but after that he just skipped attending mass anywhere, somehow it just seemed empty.

Eventually even Silas and Mel had left the hotel, now it was up to Dominick to look after everything.

His revere was disturbed by a sound at the gate.  It was Mel entering the property.  Mel went about inspecting everything, making sure all the utilities had been turned off and that things had been undisturbed.  The plants and the lawn needed attention but Dominick noticed that Mel made no effort to care for the them.  Dominick tried to communicate with Mel every way he could think of but nothing worked.  Dominick could pass through physical matter but he couldn't move it.  Inside himself he could hear his voice loud and clear but apparently Mel could hear none of the sounds that he made.  He was sad to see Mel leave, once again he felt totally alone.

He could've allowed himself to be overcome with despair but told himself that he could and would do something about his condition.  He returned to his bedroom and peered once again at his image in the mirror.  After several hours of this he thought that he saw a wisp of an image.  He couldn't be absolutely certain but when he moved the image moved and when he stood still the image stopped moving then faded away.  He spent most of his time for several weeks in front of the mirror. Gradually he could see a latent image of himself whenever he wanted.  He could also make the image disappear entirely at will.  Heartened by this progress he redoubled his effort.

Within two months he could make himself visible or invisible at will.  He could still see the through his body but that was becoming more difficult.  Dust had been accumulating in his room and cobwebs were beginning to form throughout the building.  He found a new hobby,  he spent hours trying to move the dust particles and disturb the cobwebs.  Eventually he was able to put his hand on a cobweb and move it downward and break the strands.  He peered beneath his bed and observed some lint on the carpet.  He tried moving it.  After several days he was able to pick up one of these dust devils with his thumb and forefinger.  

When he concentrated on making himself materialize in the mirror he noticed that he was still dressed in the black suit that his body had apparently been buried in.  The clothing looked fresh and clean, his hair hadn't been disturbed, it was still neatly combed.  He noticed one strand of loose hair hanging down over his forehead.  He grasp it with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, after seeing it slip from his fingers and fall back to his forehead. Within a few hours of trying he was able to lift it gently to the top of his head.

One morning while making his rounds of the property he saw two young men trying to open the lock on the gate.  Not having any success with the lock one of them began to climb the chain link gate. The fence around the entire property was twelve feet high and topped with razor blade concertina wire but the gate had no concertina wire.  The young man reached the top threw his leg over and climbed down the other side.  The one on the outside threw the small suitcase of equipment over the gate while the one on the inside caught it.  The other young man then climbed over the gate.  They were both now inside the property and Dominick was standing right beside them.  The men trotted to the front door of the hotel where one of them extracted a paint can.  As he started to spray graffiti on the front door Dominick stood between the can in the man's hand and the door.  As the paint began to spray out of the can Dominick made his best effort at materializing.  The paint hit Dominick and not the door.  The young painter hesitated then began to spray Dominick intentionally for a couple seconds until the realization of what he was seeing struck home.  He let out a scream that could've been heard for a quarter of a mile, had anyone been around to hear it.  Both of the vandals turned and ran for the gate. The painter dropped his paint can but the other one hung on to the bag he was holding.  As they neared the gate, he threw the bag to the other side as they both climbed the gate then dropped to the other side. They gathered their bag jumped in their old car and headed down the road.  Dominick laughed and thought to himself, well I guess I don't have to worry much about vandals desecrating this property, not with a watch ghost on duty.

Dominick continued with his self training program for the next several years.  Within five years he could materialize himself so that from outward appearance you couldn't tell him from a real person. He could also control his appearance so that he'd appear as a wisp of a ghost like being.  Within fifteen years he'd learned to handle physical matter at will when he was materialized.  Sometimes when he tried to pick up something exceptionally heavy it'd still just fall through his hand but he made a game of  improving his solidity a little every day.  Upon entering his room he'd materialize and slide the bar into the wall from the inside.  It was more from habit than anything else.  After all there was no one else there to disturb him.

He now noticed that whenever he materialized he would be completely undressed. He would then have to dress himself, but he was able to put on what ever clothing he wanted. Usually around the hotel he just wore a robe. Actually there wasn't much to choose from in the way of clothing. Al had only provided him with tuxedo's when he was still alive.

Dominick’s next challenge was to be able to hold food and water in his body when he was materialized. There was still some water in a fountain in the front yard.  It was pretty rancid but that didn't bother him any.  He took some of the water into his mouth and watched as it ran out onto the ground through his lower jaw.  I can tell right now this is going to take some effort.  He spent hundreds of hours over the next two years putting leaves and water into his mouth and retaining it in his body. He didn't understand the science behind what he was doing but he was getting positive results.

He could eventually put some nuts or fruits into his mouth then move his mouth as though he was chewing and swallowing and the food or water would be retained somewhere in his chest.  To get rid of it he need only to dematerialize and the things that he'd consumed would be in a puddle or pile on the floor.  If he'd donned his clothing before he materialized it woulld soil his trousers.  The food that he ate didn't digest no matter how long he retained it.  It appeared to have been chewed and swallowed.  The food would probably spoil if he retained it for too long but he never put that to the test.  His teeth had reappeared and were the most solid part of his body.  He worked at biting until his jaw muscles were strong enough to bite a small stick in half.  He made a strange observation one day while practicing his eating.  He could taste what he was eating and drinking.  That put an end to eating putrid things and drinking foul water.  It now made a difference so he became more particular about what he put into his mouth and swallowed.  

On several occasions every year Mel would appear and check things out.  Dominick had considered revealing himself to Mel but thought better of it.  It also became important to put things back as he'd found them so Mel wouldn't be aware that anyone was living on the property.  Eventually he'd reveal himself but not until he could pass for normal to all outward appearance.  He was now able to change his clothing, but was having problems with his shoes.  His feet seemed to be his biggest problem.  With enough work and effort he finally mastered the ability to wear shoes and socks.  he'd some difficulty learning to move rapidly when he was materialized.  he'd a tendency to run right out of his body.  Again with practice he got to where he could hit a tennis ball up against a wall then hit the rebound without coming out of his skin.

He'd tried creating a voice but had no one to practice on so he didn't know whether he was successful or not.  He thought he was because he sounded different to himself when he threw his voice. Not too much time passed before he'd the opportunity to put his skill to the test.

One afternoon he saw a strange man climbing over the gate.  The man had a lot of difficulty in the climb because he wore a large back pack.  He was dressed in blue jeans with a tee shirt and what looked to be expensive hiking boots.  Dominick just watched the man and did nothing.  The man crossed the yard to the hotel he jimmied the lock on the front door with little difficulty and entered the hotel.  He explored around the building but didn't bother anything.  So far so good, Dominick left him be.  At the top of the stairs the man set his pack down then entered one of the bedrooms, located the bathroom and prepared to take a dump in the toilet even though he could see that it hadn't had water in it for years.  At that point Dominick decided that enough was enough.  Dominick half materialized presenting a ghostly image then said in what he hoped was a ghostly tone of voice “what are you doing here”.  The man looked up to see a ghost standing in front of him.  He tried running with his pants down but when that didn't work he got up off the floor, pulled up his trousers and dashed out of the hotel.  Went over the gate in record time and headed down the road, back toward town, at a full run.  That answered Dominick’s question.  There was no doubt that the man had heard his voice.  

Dominick waited a couple days then went through the man's backpack.  He removed what food the man carried but left everything else intact right where the man had left it.  Over the next week Dominick ate the food and thoroughly enjoyed it.  He buried the wrappers and containers behind the hotel.

Once the Golden's had taken over the hotel and Dominick had seen that their intentions were good he was thrilled.  He wanted to get to know them and wanted them to know him but he knew that Mel would recognize him so he'd to be very careful not to scare them off.  

One morning around 3:45 AM Joan had gotten out of bed to use the facility and upon her return to bed had heard someone shuffling their feet as they walked down the hall to the stairs leading to the main floor.  She made mental note of this but didn't bother to open her door and look out.  When Enna entered the kitchen that morning she noted that once again there was the pan of cold coffee on the stove.  Later Reggie was unable to find yesterday's newspaper, and today's paper didn't get there until after ten AM.  He grumbled a little but put off reading the paper until the new paper arrived.

The next morning Josh and Joan slept soundly during the early morning hours but Sol was awake and heard the shuffling footsteps in the hall.  He thought nothing much of it and went back to sleep. Around five that morning Armando was up because he'd an outside job to do that day he wanted to get at it before it got too hot.  He wandered over to the main building and went to the kitchen to get the coffee going before returning to his room to conclude his limited toiletries.

Armando noticed a chauffeur, or at least someone who looked like a chauffeur seated at his fathers usual place at the kitchen table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.  The strange fellow was wearing a motley old tuxedo and very dark wrap around sun glasses, even though the light wasn't very good in the kitchen.   Armando had learned that if there was anything consistent about this place it was change.  Armando’s mastery of the English language was still quite limited so he just smiled and said “Buenos Dias, Senior”.  The man, who appeared to be in his late thirties just nodded and continued reading his day old newspaper.  Armando got out the filter and put it in the coffee pot then turned on the water until the indicator glass tube was full then put about two pounds of coffee into the giant basket,  put the lid on and turned on the switch to start the coffee brewing.  He noticed that the new man at the table paid close attention to his every move with intense interest, but thought nothing of it. Armando nodded politely to the man once more as he left.

By the time Armando returned to the kitchen his mother had cleaned the pan used by whoever during the night and had set about her morning chores of preparing breakfast for the horde.  Reginald came in and set about locating yesterday's paper but found instead, the day before yesterday's paper that he couldn't find the day before.   It seems that no one had ever thought any of these occurrences worth mention so no one had mentioned them to anyone else.

The next morning when Enna entered the kitchen she noticed that the coffee had already been brewed, there wasn't the customary pan of coffee grounds and water on the stove  There was, however the customary empty coffee cup and saucer on the table and this morning there was an empty plate and fork, setting beside it.

That morning, in the kitchen in the presence of Manuel and Enna, Sol was discussing the late night hall walker with Josh when Enna told Manuel in Spanish to tell them about the pans of coffee and the signs that someone had been coming in very early, having coffee and lately left signs that they'd enjoyed a Danish with their coffee.   Josh and Sol just looked at one another then Josh said, “That does it we're going to post someone down here all night until we get to the bottom of this.”

The next morning David Straw was on duty from 3:00 to 5:00 am when the man came down the stairs and entered the kitchen.  This strange man wore dark shades and a black suit like a chauffeur.  He had already started to make the coffee when he noticed Red sitting at the table.  Without flinching he continued making the morning coffee for the group.  Red broke the ice, “Pardon me fella, but I don’t believe we've met.”  “I believe you're right but we'll be seeing quite a bit of one another from now on, I suppose.”  “My name is David Straw, but you can call me Red.”  “Nice to know you Red,I'm Dominick Gianelli.  I used to manage this hotel for my brother Al.

“I've been here for a while now Dominick and I never heard of you or your brother Al.  How come your tux looks so ratty, and why are you wearing a tux anyway?”  “Well, I've been delayed here at my brothers hotel for some time now, and there isn't a decent dry cleaners in this damn desert, I assure you that I don't usually look this shabby.”  “As soon as that coffee is ready Dominick I'll have a cup with you,” Red said.   Dominick left the room only to return in a couple minutes with yesterday’s newspaper.  He offered to split it with Red then fetched them both a cup of the fresh brewed coffee.  “You take anything in it, Red,” Dominick asked.  “Naw, just black for me thanks,” answered Red.  Dominick then ask “You want a Danish, Red, I'm having one.”  “Sure,” answered Red, I'll have one, have they got any Raspberry?”  “There is some berry here but I don't know whether it's raspberry or not.” “I'll take it anyway,” said Red.

The two sat quietly reading yesterday's morning paper,drinking their coffee and eating their Danish. When Dominick finished his coffee and roll he mumbled something about “see you later,” then he got up from his chair, tucked the paper under his arm and ambled out.  He kind of sloshed with each step he took.

“OK, Red, you tole me guy who drink the coffee from that other cup there on the table?” Red tried his darnedest to explain to Enna about Dominick but doubted if they were on the same page.  

Josh and Sol reluctantly accepted Red’s bazaar story.  The next night Josh and Sol both spent the night in the lobby, taking turns watching the kitchen.  Sure enough about three-forty AM in comes Dominick for his coffee.  While he's setting up the coffee pot Josh and Sol both came in and seated themselves at the kitchen table.  Dominick wandered out into the lobby and returned shortly with yesterday’s newspaper then bids them a good morning.  Dominick then asked, “where's my friend, Red, I enjoyed visiting with him.”  

Josh cleared his throat and started, “I assume you're Dominick Gianelli.” “That I am and who might you be?” I'm Josh Golden and this is my brother Sol, we're the new owners of this hotel.” “So, my brother finally found a sucker to buy this dump, huh”.  “Dominick, if that's your name, your brother says he’s over one hundred years old and you're what, thirty-eight?”  “Yeah, I’m thirty-seven, actually but I been dead for almost sixty years.”   “So that makes you what, a ghost?”

“Oh goodness no I was a ghost a long time ago, now I'm what you might call a poltergeist, but no not really a poltergeist either.  Everyone knows that poltergeists are troubled spirits that throw things. Do I look like somebody that'd throw things?  I think that I'm just a spirit. Not really a ghost or a poltergeist.”  “And what, pray tell is the difference between you and the other two?”  “Well a ghost is how you start out, you don’t have the ability to manipulate physical matter.  It takes years of practice for a ghost to learn to do the simplest things.”  “By the way, a spirit is what you refer to when you say ghost.  As you can see, I can walk and read the paper and make the coffee and things like that, an ordinary spirit can’t do any of those things.”  “So, how did you learn all that stuff Dom’” “Practice, practice, practice, and it wasn’t easy, most lingering spirits just give up at some point and go on through the tunnel  but not me, I persevered, and now look at me.  My goal is to make it all the way back to my complete normal body and live forever.”  

“Do you know any other spirits or poltergeists, Dominick?”  “Well, no I don’t but that's just because we're so isolated out here.”  “If there were any more like me I'd have read about them.” “Oh, I've read about them,” Sol put in.  “They move things about and throw things and scare the hell out of people.”  “Some of them even open and shut doors and windows,” Josh added, “but all of them I ever heard of were very unfriendly, even hateful, they resented anyone trespassing on their territory, how come you're not like that?”  “Look at this place you two, I've been without my coffee and my newspaper for more than fifty years, the place was falling apart from neglect, I didn’t have anyone to talk to, now, thanks to you everything is changing for the better and I really appreciate it.  You are more than welcome here, keep up the good work.  I do have one request though, could you start ordering some raspberry Danish?”  “So you prefer raspberry Danish do you?” “No, my new friend Red likes them and I thought it'd make him happy if you ordered some when you buy Danish.” Dominick then added, “I hope that you don't change too much, this was once a beautiful and elegant hotel, and it could be again.”

“You can relax, Dom’ we're here to restore, not to change this place, of course there have been a lot of changes in the last fifty years and you're just going to have to accept those.”  “Oh, yeah, like TV and better electronics and kitchen machines, those things are OK, I enjoy them also.  it's me that you've to thank for this place being intact, over the years I've scared off dozens of bad people who would have pillaged and vandalized this property if I hadn’t chased them off as soon as I saw that they were up to no good.”

“Er-a-yes, I suppose we're indebted to you, Dominick, we appreciate all you've done, my name is Sol, and this is my brother Josh, we've been so fascinated with this conversation we forgot to introduce ourselves.” Josh then added, “We hope to be around for a long time so you can quit playing games and join the group, Dominick, it's actually kind of a nice touch having a ghost, I mean spirit living here with us.”

“it's been nice talking to you two but materializing like this is a real strain on me so I'm going to rest now, I'll see you again tomorrow morning if you get down here early enough.” With that Dominick got up from the table placed the folded paper under his arm and shuffled off making a sloshing sound with every step he took.

Josh and Sol just sat quietly for a moment and looked at where Dominick had been sitting.  Josh smiled and said “Old Dominick makes a pretty good pot of coffee for a dead guy.  I wonder where he puts it, the coffee, I mean where does it go, and how does he get rid of it?” Sol replied, “I guess that is just one of the things you will have to ask Dominick the next time you see him.”

“Josh are we going to be able to raise our children with a ghost running loose in the house?”  “What does this change, Sol?”  “Dominick doesn’t mean any of us any harm and I think it's kinda interesting having a spirit for a house mate.”

CHAPTER - 14

SUE AND BOB JENKINS

Around noon that day Mel and Hilda returned.  they'd stayed with friends in Palm Springs and visited almost everyone they knew.  Mel got out of his car and opened the sliding gate and Hilda drove the car in followed by another car, a blue, five or six year old Chevrolet Station Wagon. There were two new people with the Kormans, Sue and Bob Jenkins.  Sue had worked with Hilda as a cooks helper and Bob had been an electrical installer/electrician that Mel had run into frequently in his years as a hotel maintenance man.  They were in their late forties and seemed very pleasant and congenial.  “Josh, Sol, I want you to meet some old friends of mine, Sue and Bob Jenkins.”  

Mel continued with his introduction,”Sue recently quit the restaurant where she worked because the new chef was overbearing and frequently made racial slurs about African Americans, only he didn’t refer to them as African American if you know what I mean. Sue and Bob talked about it and Bob insisted that she just quit that stinking job so she did.  A week later Bob was left out of a job when the company he worked for went belly up and filed for bankruptcy. Their two kids are both in college so it left them in a real bind.  I figured Hilda and Enna could use some more help in the kitchen and we have full time work here for an electrical whiz so I offered them a job.  Hilda and I've known these folks for almost twenty years and they're both first class workers.  They were just renting an apartment in Palm Springs so they've already tied up all their loose ends.”  

“Well, welcome to the Golden Desert Hotel, folks, let me show you around,” Sol said.  After introductions all around and a tour of the facility Sol said “It looks like we'll put you folks up in employee house or one of the suites upstairs in the main building for now and then figure something else out later.”  “If you don’t mind, Sol, I have a suggestion.”  “Sure, what's it?” “When you were showing us the place I noticed an alcove in the carriage house, it appeared to have about eight or nine hundred square feet of floor space with nothing at all in there.  I'd sure like to take that area and build my own apartment, if you don’t mind.  You get me the material and I'll do all the work on my own time.”  “You won’t have to do it on your own time and we already have all the materials we'll need.”  “I'll put a couple guys on it right away and you can go to work on this wiring.”

“What needs to be done, Sol.”  “Let me put it this way, the place was built in 1928 and nothing much has been updated since.  The walls are almost impossible to get behind or to cut through because they're made of steel plate covered with reinforced concrete then lath and plaster.  Believe me when I say you've your work cut out for you for the next several years, rewiring this whole place, adding wires for satellite, TV and computer broadband service and about a thousand or so additional electric outlets as well as a whole new electrical service.”  “Do I get a helper?”  “The youngest Villanueva boy Pedro seems to like electrical things and he's available when he's not in school, other than that we'll have to place an ad in the paper and hire someone.” “Can you afford that, Sol?”  Don’t worry about it we've plenty of money for this restoration project.” “How about my helper from my old company?  She's Chinese, around forty five but knows a lot about electricity , more than that she knows more than I do about electronics connections. I don’t know that I could do my end of the job without her.”  “The problem with her is that her husband is a cook in a Chinese Restaurant in Palm Springs and he'd need a job also.”  “Sounds good to me Bob, we've great food here but neither of our cooks knows anything about Oriental cooking so bring them on, they sound like the ideal couple.”

The Jenkins' put up in the employee house temporarily but within a week they moved into their new apartment in the carriage house. Josh sent a truck in to Palm Springs almost every day for things they needed. He had put all new furniture and appliances as well as kitchen cabinets and bathroom fixtures on the list. When the Jenkins moved in to their new apartment it was all brand new including the carpet. Sue had ridden in with the truck driver and picked most of the things out herself.

CHAPTER - 15

KIM AND DA WANG

Kim  and Da Wang arrived about a week after the Jenkins had moved into their apartment. with their sons Carl 18 and Frank 19.  Both boys had finished high school and were doing construction work while they were saving up for college.  Carl and Frank fit right in and both commenced college almost immediately through the University of Southern Australia, on line from Hobart, Tasmania.  They adjusted quickly and the Chinese food was a wonderful addition to the facility diet.

The Wangs were happy to make their home in the house with the other employees. The boys were pleased because they had a bedroom with a bath that was not right next to their parents, but in a different part of the employee house.

As it turned out Da Wang was a super oriental cook, he was an expert, not just in Chinese but also in Korean and Japanese Cooking.  He was a graduate of a fine culinary institute in New York City and had cooked and cheffed at some of the better restaurants in New York.  He had thought the family might do better in Palm Springs than in New York but the job he moved out west for never panned out. He had been cooking in some really nice Palm Springs Oriental Restaurants over the last seven years but had never found the place that he was really happy with. When this job offer came about it sounded interesting so he quit his job and moved to the Golden Desert Hotel with his wife and son's.

Da immediately assumed the role of chef, it flowed to him naturally, he began to plan menu's, establish recipes, assign cooks, and generally manage the entire food preparation function of the facility.  He oversaw the ordering so that the right ingredients were always available.  No one begrudged him these jobs because no one else had been seeing to them.  Da Wang was a real find.

Da was very easy to get along with and exhibited a wry sence of humor, he made light of everything but every one working in the kitchen knew who the boss was.

CHAPTER - 16

MEL AND DOMINICK

On the  evening of the day  Mel returned from Palm Springs with the Jenkins Josh said to him, “You better get to bed early tonight Mel, there is something we have to do early tomorrow morning so if you don’t mind could you meet Sol and I for coffee in the kitchen of the main building around 3:15 AM?”  “Sure Josh, what is it we'll be doing so early?”  “You’ll see, Mel, you’ll see.”   With that Josh mumbled something about having to tell Sol something and abruptly left in search of his brother.

When Mel showed up in the kitchen the next morning a little before 3:15 AM Josh and Sol were already seated at the kitchen table waiting for the coffee to brew.”  “we're expecting another guy so just have a cup of coffee and be patient.”  Shortly a man came into the room walking in a shuffling gate that took Mel by such surprise that he couldn’t catch his breath.  Josh and Sol became a little worried before Mel started stammering.  “God, this guy is a dead ringer for Dominick, who's he?”  “You must be Mel, my my how you've aged, you're an old man!  The last time I saw you, you were just a little kid!” “Yeah I'm Mel and who in the hell are you?”  “I’m your old buddy Dominick, Dominick Gianelli, don’t you remember me?”  “Sure, sure I remember you Dom’ but I also remember that you died over sixty years ago, you're buried in that little cemetery, inside the back fence, I put flowers on your grave from time to time, when I get out here. This is going to take some explaining, you don’t look a day older than you did the day you died.  The day you died!  Of course, you're dead and I'm just imagening  this.” Dominick did not respond directlly to Mel but said,  “Oh, sorry I'm late getting here guys, I must've slept in or something.”

Josh laughed and said, “you're not imagening any of this, Mel, you knew this place was haunted well I want you to meet the ghost, er I mean spirit, that haunts our hotel.  Dominick Mel, Mel meet Dominick our resident spirit. “This is going to have to take some explanation, Dom,” Mel interrupted.

“Mel, do you remember that I had a heart attack in December of 1941, you might not because you were pretty young at that time.  That was the first time that I died, Mel.  I was out of my body watching the Doctors work on me.  I figured they wouldn't have much success if I wasn't there so I reentered my body and they revived me.” Dominick went on to describe all of the events leading up to his death and his quasi life over the last sixty some years.

This was also the first time that Josh and Sol had heard the entire story. When Dominick came to the part about him not wanting to go through the tunnel of light because he had not had his last rights and not given his confession in some considerable length of time and not having anyone to pray him through purgatory he could see that he had completely confused his listeners. Since the three men that Dominick was describing these events to at the table were all of the Jewish persuasion they just looked at each other and kind of shrugged, with their hands out in front of their bodies which in international sign language would be like saying “What is this guy some kind of a nut case?”

They all knew enough about the Catholic faith to know how Dominick felt but not enough to know exactly why he felt that way.  Mel was the first to speak “So if as you say you're a ghost then how come we can see you and hear you and how in the hell is it that you're sitting here drinking coffee?”  Dominick explained,“Mel, over the years I've done my exercises and I'm no longer what you'd call a ghost, nor am I a poltergeist, the difference being that a poltergeist has developed some ability to control physical matter, like the ability to throw small objects, slam doors, rattle chains and such.”

Dominick continued, “Over all these years I've learned to regain control of certain parts of my body and I can now control matter with my hands and feet and mouth as I considered those the most important functions.  I can also completely vanish from your view but that's sometimes very inconvenient.  You see if I choose to vanish then the clothes that I'm wearing lay in a heap on the floor and I must materialize in order to retrieve them.  Then the person or person I vanished from would see a naked Italian guy picking up his clothes, usually from a puddle of coffee, and in this case a chewed up Danish.”

Then Dominick changed the subject, “That reminds me guys, laundry has been a real problem for me and I hope you'll begin to render me some assistance in that regard.  I have a pile of laundry you just wouldn’t believe. Actually I need all new clothes, mine are way out of date and mostly worn out.  While I'm at it Sol would you mind refurbishing my room next, I've looked at some of the other rooms that you and Reginald have finished and I think I deserve to live like that also.”

“Dom’ you keep your room locked from the inside and we can’t get in without using dynamite.” “No longer, Sol, I'll move today in to 210, which is finished and you can have that old room at the end of the hall, I'm tired of it anyway.  I'll not lock that one from the inside but I'll allow you, Josh to have the key so you can bring me some new clothes, my pants are 38X30 and my shirt size is large, with a 42 neck and my coat size 44 and I prefer to dress rather formerly by your standards.  I prefer to wear a black tuxedo and black shoes size 11 and black socks most of the time, but I have seen new colored tuxedos that I like the looks of.

“Why do you want to wear a tuxedo?” Sol asked Dominick.  “It's like this, Sol, when I got out of the Army and came here to manage this place for my brother Al, I didn't have any civilian clothes at all.  I talked to Al before I came out here and he said he'd already bought civilian clothes for me.  When I arrived I found that all he'd bought for me in the way of civilian clothes was three black tuxedo's.  Al said that he wanted me to always wear a tuxedo in my work here it gave me a psychological edge over the mobsters that I'd be dealing with.  I didn't like wearing tuxedo's at first but I kinda got used to them so now I have reached the point where I have not worn anything else since before World War II.”

“When you order clothes for me I'd like six black tuxedo's and six more tuxedo's in various colors, all with appropriate shoes, socks, shirts, handkerchiefs and neckties.  I'd also like three pair of pajamas and three bath robes. Here this money should cover my clothes nicely,” with that, Dominick handed Sol a hand full of small change.  Sol was shocked and amused that Dominick should expect to pay for a major purchase like that with a hand full of coins.  “I hate to tell you this Dominick but prices have gone up a little since your time.  Your clothing order will probably come to more than three thousand dollars.”  “Look carefully at the coins that I just handed you, Sol.  The last time that I checked prices the coins that you hold in your hand should be worth more than fifteen thousand dollars.”  

“I'd also like several pair of dark glasses, I found these in one of the rooms but they're the only ones I have.  I must always wear dark glasses in the presence of others.”  “Whys that, Dom?” “My eyes...”  “You mean your eyes are light sensitive?”  “No, I mean Ihave no eyes, just empty holes in my head, can you imagine how that would affect someone who didn’t know me?”  With that Dominick removed his glasses.  Mel looked right through his empty eye sockets and saw the other side of the room.  “How in thunder do you see,” asked Mel?  “I can’t explain it but I see just fine.  While we're on that subject you might also be interested in knowing that I have no hearing mechanism but I have better hearing now than I ever did when I was alive.  I can’t read your mind but I hear everything you say when you vocalize.  You don’t have to say it out load for me to hear it. It seems that when you're speaking you are also transmitting your words, you don't realize it but that's how it works.  I suspect that on the other side of that tunnel that's how people communicate, they transmit what they want to say and everyone around them hears it, I can also direct what I want to say to just one person in a group.”

“How much do you weigh now Dom’” “ I've been gaining lately, the last time I weighed I was up to six pounds when fully materialized.  that's pretty good considering that for the first twenty years I didn’t even register on the scale.”  “Just so you'll know I'm increasing the amount of time that I can spend in the materialized state each day by a couple minutes.

 “Since you guys got here and I have a life again.” Sol then asked “Dominick do you need to shave and get a haircut, what I mean is does your hair grow?” “Only when I am materialized, Sol, If I stayed materialized all of the time I would need a shave and haircut as ofter as I ever did, speaking of which who gives haircuts around here?” “There is one of the guys on the furniture finishing crew that opens the combination barber and beauty shop in the hotel lobby most evenings. He doesn't have professional training but he claims that he learned to cut hair in the navy, my guess is that he learned to cut hair in prison, he just doesn't look like a navy guy. Daffeny has had some professional training so she takes care of the female population, gives perms and the like. Neither of them are very good at what they do but they get the job done,” said Josh.

The longer I stay materialized the more my beard grows. I have been shaving with a straight razor but I have noticed that there are new disposable razors on the market now, I have seen them advertised. I wonder if one of you has some spare razors and some shaving cream because I feel like I need a shave now?” Mel said, “I have some extra disposable razors, and an extra can of shaving cream Dominick, I will go up with you when you leave and give them to you.”

Mel asked,“Are you really talking to us, Dom’, I see your lips moving and I hear what you're saying plain and clear and in you own tone of voice, the way I remember it but it seems a little out of sync, somehow.”  “Good point, Mel, I can’t talk as you know talking because that'd require breath, and vocal chords, I have neither, but I'm somehow able to project my thoughts to you and able to read your’s when you're speaking.  I've no way to actually hear or speak but my way is better, a lot better, you should try it sometime.”  I just move my lips as I say the words to you so you don’t feel so ill at ease in my company.”  “Can you actually see through those eye’s Dom’?”  “Not see by your concept of the word but yes I can see, or rather sense everything around me to a much sharper degree than you can see anything.  I can sense well enough to read this newspaper, for example, I know that's not a good explanation but sooner or later you'll understand what I'm telling you.  My senses are different now but they produce more or less the same result, and no I can't read your mind unless you're vocalizing what you're thinking, I wish I could but I can’t please always remember that.  

I should add  that I mean none of you here any harm, I'm so pleased to have someone here with a positive attitude, someone for company and companionship and I hope as time goes on that I'll be able to materialize for longer periods of time each day and spend more and more time with you lovely people. For now however I've about had it for one day and I'll be retiring.”  With that Dominick arose from the table, tucked the paper under his arm and shuffled off  to his room. Mel followed along so he could get Dominick the shaving gear.

Josh said to Sol “I guess I should order an additional newspaper subscription also.”

Work went on as usual that day, Sol and his crew were remodeling the wine cellar for Herb, Armando was cleaning the pool and surrounding area.  Bob Jenkins was putting in a more complex satellite system that'd support multiple computers and TV in every room.  Kim was busy helping him.  Josh was at work on the books and correspondence while June was cleaning and straightening up the downstairs with Daffenys help.  Reginald and his helpers were replacing the drapes in the main house where Joan and Daffeny were trying to clean.  Manuel and Pedro were planting two young African Sumac trees that they'd picked up at the nursery in Palm Springs the day before.  Mel seemed to have a dozen work orders to fill, everything from leaky faucets, to toilets that didn’t flush properly.   Alice was teaching school and handing out homework assignments to her students.

Around noon Sue Jenkins served a lunch fit for a king that had been prepared by Hilda, Enna and Da.  Da proved to be more of a perfectionist than the women were and had a real flair for adding the first class touch to every dish that was served.

After lunch Mel, Josh and Sol said they were tired and went to their respective rooms for a nap. Since Dominick had entered the picture they'd started taking naps so they could be up when he came downstairs for his coffee in the very wee hours of the morning.  they'd all thought of things they wanted to ask him about.  While working on the computer Josh had made notes of everything Dominick had said so far.  he'd even been toying with the idea of writing a book about Dominick. he'd already been toying with the idea of writing a book about the hotel and the crew, but wanted to wait until he had some interesting guests to include.

Once everyone had left the table Sophia Villanueva cleared off the table while Alice ran the dish washer that Mel had just installed the day before to see how good a job it did on the dishes.  School was out for the day at noon so everyone had more help in the afternoon.  Everyone had a job or a variety of jobs which they cheerfully did except Dominick.  So far only Red, Josh, Mel and Sol even knew of Dominick’s existence.  

After the kitchen was all cleaned up and things put away Da Wang asked Sue Jenkins if she'd get up early the next morning and Help him prepare things for a magnificent dinner he had planned for the next afternoon. “Fine said Sue, what time do you want me to be here?”   “Oh lets make real early, say 4:00 AM so we won’t interfere with them fixing breakfast.  This conversation took place in the kitchen so Mel, Sol and Josh knew nothing about it.  

CHAPTER – 17

FETCHING THE PRIEST

At 4:00 AM the next morning, which happened to be a Saturday, Sue entered the kitchen and saw the three of them, Josh, Mel and Sol sitting at the kitchen table talking to Dominick.  “Good Morning gentlemen,” Sue said cheerfully, “My but you're up early for a Saturday Morning.”  “Er yes,” Josh blurted out, “We wanted to get up early so we could attend Synagogue, in Palm Springs.”  “we're just waiting for the women to get dressed.”  That was a good line but since the women weren’t even up yet Josh realized as soon as he said it that it wasn't going to fly.”  “So who's that gentleman sitting with you, I don’t believe I've met him before.”  “This is Dominick, Sue he's an old friend of mine that's been convalescing here with us, he stays in his room most of the time resting, but comes downstairs most mornings to have coffee with us and pick up yesterdays newspaper.”

With that Dominick arose from the table “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Sue, perhaps in time we'll be seeing more of one another.  I seem to be getting stronger with each passing day.” With that said he drained his coffee cup and shuffled off to his room.  “We better be checking on the girls and see if they're ready to go yet”, said Mel.  Under his breath he muttered “Now that we'll be going to Synagogue.”

They put the bums rush on the girls to get up and get ready then they all crawled into one of the three new vans that they'd acquired and headed for Palm Springs.  After the service they left the girls off at a coffee shop and stopped by the Catholic Church in Twenty-Nine Palms.  Father Sebastian, who had just celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday the previous week, was in his study reviewing the mass that he planned deliver the next day.  The good father had been at this post since he graduated from seminary at twenty five, almost sixty years before.  He idly wondered how much longer he could continue.  He liked it here, this was his church.  he'd started it back during the war when the Marine base was first opened at 29 Palms.  He was the only pastor the church had ever known and this was the only place he'd ever worked.  Now the Arch Daises was insisting on his retirement and had already assigned a young priest as his assistant.  “Assistant, my foot” he thought, “My replacement”.

“How can I help you, my sons?” he ask.  “Well we're not exactly your son’s sir, you see the three of us, we are all of the Jewish faith.”  “Please address me as Father, that's even proper for Jews to say when they address a priest.”  “OK father, we're here on behalf of a friend of ours who's Catholic,” Mel Said.  “What is the nature of your friend's need, and how can I be of service to him”?  “He needs to give his confession father,” said Josh.  “And he needs for you to administer his last rights”, added Sol.  “Where is this friend of yours, in a local hospital, we mustn’t delay, time is critical in matters such as this.”  “Not so critical as you might think, Father, he's at our Golden Desert Hotel in Joshuaville.”  “Yes, I heard there are some workmen out there restoring the place.  In fact a family by the name of Villanueva, who work there, are attending mass regularly, they're wonderful people, I certainly hope that it's not one of them that requires my services.”  “No Father it's not one of them.” “I assume this one in need is too critical to be moved, I'll get the things that I need and follow you out in my car.”  “We left our wives at the coffee shop down the street and we're driving a white nine passenger Ford extended Van.  we'll pick up the women and be right back, we'll meet you in  front of the church, in say five minutes?”  

Upon their return to the church the priest was already parked there in his ancient Oldsmobile.  “No, father you can come ride with us, I'll have someone drive you back.”  “That’s all right I'm perfectly capable of driving myself, and besides old Betsy here needs the exercise.  She hasn’t taken me on a journey this long in years.”

As they entered the compound on the newly paved road with the priest right behind, Manuel Villanueva immediately spotted Father Sebastian.  Manuel started making over him, he told the priest, “wait right there and I'll fetch the rest of my family.  “Hold on a moment Manuel, I certainly want to visit with you and your family before I take leave of this beautiful place but at the moment I'm about The Lord’s more pressing business.  I'll look you up as soon as I've seen to this fellow that's in dire need of a priest.” That left Manuel confused, he knew, or thought he knew everything that went on, and everyone that lived at the hotel. He knew of no one that needed the services of a priest. “Si' Padre, my family and I look forward to meeting with you later.” Manuel then shrugged and walked off.

As Father Sebastian was ushered into the Main Lobby of the hotel he couldn't get over the beauty and grandeur of the place.  Mel asked the padre to have a seat on one of the newly restored leather couches and offered him his beverage of choice.  “Oh, no, not yet, it's important that I see the man who needs my services immediately.”  “it's not all that urgent father, true this man needs his last rights and needs to confess, but he'll be around when you've rested, then we'll take you up to see him. One of our group is up there now making sure that he's ready welcome you.  “that's certainly a strange approach,” Father Sebastian muttered, as he took a seat and accepted the glass of cold lemonade they brought him.

In the meantime Josh was in Dominick’s empty bedroom trying to call him out.  At length the closet door opened and Dominick appeared still arranging his attire.  “we have a wonderful surprise for you Dom’ someone you've wanted to see for a long time.” Josh said.  “Who is it, and how is it that they'd be coming to see me?”  “Just make yourself presentable and have a seat in that recliner over there”, Josh said, indicating one of the two upholstered easy chairs in the corner of the room.  Dom reluctantly did as Josh had requested but didn’t look very pleased about this turn of events.

“Now you stay there in plain sight and I'll be right back with your guest,” Josh admonished, as he left the room.“ Josh approached Mel and Sol in the lobby and told them that their errant house guest was prepared to meet with Father Sebastian.  When the priest entered the room he recognized Dominick immediately but Dominick didn't recognize him. The last time they'd met was about two weeks before Dominick’s untimely demise when Father Sebastian was just getting his church going. Dominick had attended mass once at the church during his early years alone but on that particular Sunday another priest had conducted the mass as father Sebastian had been asked to conduct a special mass at the marine base.  Dominick remembered Father Sebastian as a twenty-six year old.  

All Father Sebastian could think of to say was “Good afternoon, Dominick, it's been a long time since you last attended mass, my son.”  Then he caught himself, “Wait a minute, you shouldn’t be here, I conducted your funeral myself all these many years ago, you shouldn’t be here at all, this just isn’t right, go away.”  

Dominick calmed the shaken priest as best he could followed in turn by Josh, Sol and Mel.  They explained all they knew of Dominick’s unusual circumstance and emphasized his need for giving his confession and receiving his last rights.  Finally Father Sebastian began to act as though he understood but all four of them could tell that he really didn’t.  Josh, Mel and Sol took their leave, shutting the door quietly behind them leaving Dominick alone with his priest.

“Where do you suggest that we begin this most unusual procedure, my son” “I guess with you hearing my confession, Father.”  “Then proceed, my son,” Seated in side by side chairs Dominick started “Forgive me Father for I've sinned” “How long has it been since your last confession, my son?”  “Well, let me think, it was probably late 1945 or early 1946, I can’t say for sure, but somewhere in there.”  “You mean it's been sixty years, more or less since . . .?”  “Yes, Father, more or less”.  “Go ahead and unburden yourself of all your guilt, my son,I'm listening, I expect that this may take a while.”  “Why do you say that, Father?”  “Well, it's been sixty years, more or less, I assume a lot has transpired in all that time.” “Er-a-no Father, you see for most of that time I've been dead and I can’t remember committing any sins from my last confession until my demise.”  “Then you say you haven’t sinned, you haven’t even had an evil thought?”  “No, Father, not that I recall, I enjoyed scaring a few nare-do-well’s that ignored the signs and came on the property to do mischief but I don’t think that was a sin, I was just protecting the property in hope that someday someone would reopen the place.”  “Oh I just thought of one sin”.  “Proceed, my son” “I lied to a priest.”  “When was that, my son?”  “Just now, Father, when I said 'Forgive me Father for I've sinned' that was a lie.”  “That wasn't a lie, my son that's just what you say to start your confession.” “it's just that I need to confess before I try dying again.”   “OK, OK, you're resolved of all the sin’s that you didn’t commit and you don’t have to do any penance, are you satisfied?”  “Now go in peace and sin no more”.

“Now I'll administer your last rights and you can go on back through the tunnel, as you put it, to the light at the end, where you belong.”  “You will no longer be a troubled and tormented spirit, you'll be at peace and one with our Lord, this day.”  “Do you mean to say, Father that as soon as you administer these rights I have to leave here right then, I mean leave forever, I can’t come back?”  “I suppose that's what will happen, yes.”  “You don’t see any other spirits on this side of the tunnel do you?”  “Sure I want to go there someday as we all do but I'm not sure I'll be one with the Lord, I'm not even sure that I want to be floating on a cloud and strumming a harp right now.  In fact, Father, I'm not sure you know any more about what awaits me on the other side of that tunnel than I do.  On the other hand I know what I have here, I'm with people that I like very much and I'm having a great time.  Someday soon I may have a great job as the official host here at the hotel, once more, and take an active role in management.  I think I'll have you or some other priest administer my last rights when I'm ready to go, but for now I believe that I'll just stick around, for a while anyway.  Thank you very much Father for hearing my confession and who knows I may be able to attend mass in Twenty-Nine Palms again one day soon.”

“This is all wrong, Dominick, but it's up to you.”  “Please don’t tell anyone else in the church about me, Father, or some zealot in the Vatican may get the idea to have me x-communicated or something like that.”  “Believe me my son, I will tell, no one, they already think I'm senile, this would just add fuel to the fire.  If I told them about you they'd think I'd lost it completely.”

Father Sebastian, dined with the Villanueva family and three other Catholics among the work crew before he left but didn’t bring up the subject of Dominick in the conversation.  

CHAPTER - 18

THE ROBBERY

Monday morning, right after breakfast a dozen or so chopped Harley’s thundered into the compound.  Several of the workers stopped what they were doing and gathered around admiring the bikes.  Josh approached them and asked if he could help them with anything.  At that several of them pulled hand guns and grabbed two of the women.  “OK ring the bell or what ever you do to summon everyone down here.”  

The hotel, in fact did have a large steel triangle shaped bell that they rang with a steel bar that hung from a rope beside the bell. When everyone had been assembled the bikers herded them all (except for the one they couldn’t see) into the carriage house and locked the door.

Fortunately the Jenkins apartment had been completed and the carriage house was where all the food was stored.  Josh and his crew had control of all the utilities but left them on for the moment.  The bikers were a rough nasty looking lot, they used profanity profusely and unnecessarily knocked people to the ground and struck them just to show their bravado.

Karl, Frank Wang and Armando and Pedro Villanueva and a couple of the workmen had tried to resist a little but after Pedro took a viscous blow to the head from one of the bikers with his handgun the resistance ceased.  

The hoodlums called out the leader of the group.  Mel immediately stepped forward and said “I am the owner of this place, what do you want.”  “Money man, we want your money and your dope.”  We don’t have any dope and we don’t keep much money here, there is little use for it,” responded Mel.  “Everything is delivered to us on account and we use credit cards when we go anywhere.  I doubt if there is more than a couple thousand dollars in the safe but I'll be happy to open it for you and give you what's there.”

About that same time Josh heard Dominick’s voice right beside him.  “Come back to the pump room Josh I have something for you.”  “Sure, Dom’ I was wondering when you'd show up.” Josh just mouthed the words and didn’t say them out loud, he knew that Dominick could hear him just fine.

Dominick told Josh, “Make your way back to the pump room.” Josh entered the room and  shut the door.  Dominick then told Josh, “that's a false wall there, behind the Buddha Generator.  You gain access by turning that valve in the far back to the on position.”  Jeff tried it and sure enough the wall slid back exposing a four by twelve foot room that looked like an armory out of the 1930's.  All the old mobster weapons from that era were neatly arranged against the entire back wall.  Boxes of ammunition were stacked four feet high in several neat rows.  “I hope this stuff is still good, it's been here for a while, said the invisible Dominick.”  Most of the ammo had been sealed in covered boxes and was like new.  “Sorry about this Josh but I'm going to have to materialize to show you how to operate these machine guns and I don’t have any clothes on or they'd be able to see me so hand me that apron hanging on the wall.”  It took only a few seconds for Dominick to materialize wearing the apron.  Dominick  took an old machine gun with a cylindrical ammunition clip from the wall and loaded it with new ammunition from one of the boxes that Josh had opened.  “Nothing much to it really you just pull back and release this lever then pull the trigger.  It keeps firing until it runs out of ammunition or until you release the trigger.  I guess you or one of your people know how to operate the pistols.  I don't want you to take any offensive action with these weapons until or if I give the word but if any of those guys comes in the carriage house after you, to do you any harm, then blow them away.   Now if you'll excuse me I have some mischief to attend to.”

 “Wait, Dominick, I don’t have any military experience, do you, I don’t know what to do, where to start, do you have any suggestions?”  “Military experience, yes, not combat but I had lots of training.  I was a captain in the Army for four years, I’ll tell you all about it sometime, Josh, once we get out of this jam.  For now take my word for it, arm your men and divide them into two groups.  Alternate them at one hour intervals.  Keep everyone, including the off duty men in a back room where they'd not be hit by gunfire coming from the front doors.  Have the on duty men lay flat on the ground with their machine guns aimed out.  When you send in replacements send them in one at a time.  Keep one of the off duty guys on guard at the back door here.  Keep all the women and children in the apartment.  I doubt they'd come at you but it pays to be cautious.”  “Do you think we're going to have to shoot it out with them Dom’?”  “No, not if I get busy and get rid of them first, I have a plan to chase them off.”  “OK, Dom, I wish you luck.”  “Don’t worry Josh, they can’t kill me, remember.”

Josh wasted no time in arming the men and showing them how to operate the weapons.  He picked the apron up from the floor and hung it back on the hook.  “Did you know this stuff was here”, Sol asked?  “No, Dominick was just here and showed it to me, then he explained how to use these old machine guns and said he had some mischief to attend to and left.”  “I almost feel sorry for those thugs,” Sol remarked.  “Now folks here is what I want you to do”...he laid out Dominick's instructions just as though they were what he had decided...

The first thing Dominick did was to materialize long enough to get six pounds of sugar from the kitchen then he carried it out the back door without them seeing him and added a half pound or so of the sugar to each motorcycle gas tank.  He then disappeared into the main building where he listened and watched his pray.  He took note of each ones dope stash and where they kept their guns and ammunition.  He sure wished he could pick things up while he was invisible, but he couldn’t.  

He went upstairs to his room, got out his new laptop that Josh had recently taught him how to use and went on line.  Cell phones just didn’t work out here there were no pick up stations within range. Satellite phones were over priced so they'd been just using land lines for their phone calls.  he'd overheard one of the bikers say that they had cut the phone lines but the Internet was still active so he settled for email. “Besides no one can hear me over a phone anyway,” he thought.  He typed in several key words then found an email address for a police department somewhere in Georgia.  He sent out an email and told them what was going on.  Then ask them to get in touch with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office and send help.

Then he went invisible again and returned to the lobby.  The hoodlums had been hitting the booze, in the main bar pretty heavy and were beginning to show the effects of the alcohol.  One talent Dominick had picked up was the ability to mimic speech patterns.  He moved about the room listening to one of the thugs talk for a minute then stand directly behind the man and insult the man next to the one he mimicked.  He repeated this procedure only three times before he'd them all at each other’s throats. Dominick then suriptiously raised the issue of the rest of them wanting their share of the $2,500.00 that they'd found in the safe when Mel opened it for them.  Mel had convinced them that was all the money there was and in a way Mel had been correct.  The bikers returned Mel to the carriage house to be with the others and then started their party.  

Five females accompanied  the group of hoodlums, two of them raided the kitchen, walk- in refrigerator prepared snacks for the group that were better than anything any of them had eaten in a long time, if not ever.  A guy called Chain had the money and wasn't anxious to distribute the shares, besides he didn’t know how to divide it up.  After much haggling they finally decided that each of the twelve men should get $200.00 and each woman get $20.00, even then it was Dominick that made that suggestion using one of their voices.  Mostly when Dominick was projecting his thought, voice it was to just one man at a time.

Finally Dominick figured they'd drank enough so he went over to the front door and said so they could all hear him at the same time “Hey, one of those guys called the cops on a satellite phone, we better get out of here.”  With that, there was a stamped to the to the bikes and away they went, out the main gate and on to the highway leading to Las Vegas.  Dominick went upstairs and dressed then came back down and opened the door to the carriage house. Pedro Villanueva got so excited when he heard the sliding door start to move that he pulled the trigger on his machine gun and before he could release it, he  mowed down one of his dads prize Palm Trees. As soon as they were out of the carriage house Kim Wang, found the cut and repaired the phone line.  She then placed a call to the Sheriff’s office in Twenty-Nine Palms.

They told her that Delbert and Waylen could be there in about an hour but it'd be a couple hours or more before they could get more cars out there.  they'd have to wait and hear from Delbert and Waylen before they dispatched more cars for a call that far from the station. The Sheriff's Station in Twenty-Nine Palms said that they had not heard from the Police Department in Georgia that Dominick had sent the email to.

 Dominick called Josh over and said “I suggest you  load the two groups of men into the back of the two pick up trucks and have another drive the cargo van behind the two pickup’s.  Have the men take their machine guns and take several rolls of duct tape, you may need it.  Once you get to the main road take the road to Las Vegas.  “No use, Dominick'  they're long gone and good riddance”, said Josh.

“I doubt that they'll get very far”, answered Dominick, “not with all that sugar I put into their gas tanks.”  “You really are a poltergeist, aren’t you,” Josh quipped.  The men from the hotel had only gone about a half mile when they overtook the first of the bikers pulled over to the side of the road, down on his knees fooling with the carborator of his motorcycle.”  Sol pulled the truck to the side of the road when he saw the biker and the six men in back got out of the back of the pickup. They spread out, machine guns ready and approached the man.  At first he acted like he wanted to go for his pistol but when he saw those old tommy guns, he apparently had second thoughts. He dropped his pistol and threw his hands up over his head.

They taped his hands behind his back and taped his ankles together then threw him in the back of the cargo van that was following.  They found a bad guy every couple hundred yards and repeated this procedure until there were twelve men and five women in the back of the cargo van which was a little uncomfortable on a day that was 105 degrees Fahrenheit, all that free booze they'd enjoyed didn’t help matters.  By the time the van was loaded some of them started to complain that they wanted to use the rest room.  Manuel Villanueva who was driving the van just told them in Spanish that he didn't speak English.  

As soon as the group got back to the hotel they pulled the punks out of the van and stacked them in the sun to await the arrival of the police.  By the time Delbert and Waylen arrived about half an hour later several of the punks had peed on themselves and one of them had messed his pants pretty bad which made several of the group sick and they'd heaved on some of the others.  What you had was a real mess waiting for the two Sheriff’s deputies.  

It took Delbert and Waylen almost an hour to get the information they needed for their report and to figure out what to charge them with.  They settled for armed robbery and kidnapping for starters.  They then picked out one of the cleanest ones and found the $200.00 on him that they were told they'd find on each of the culprits except that the women would each have only $20.00 of the money that had been taken from the safe.  

“We can’t carry this mess in our radio car so how should we go about getting them back to town,” Delbert asked Josh.  “I can send one of our men and he can drive them back in the old dump truck that we use as a garbage truck,” offered Josh, “Of course it's about a quarter full of garbage but they shouldn’t mind, it'll give them something soft to lay on.”  “All of the men helped in loading them onto the truck and away they went, for Twenty-Nine Palms, with Delbert and Waylen following in their Police car.  When they got into the jail the other deputies had to unload the truck and then Delbert dispatched a tow truck company with four men and a dump truck to go out and fetch the bikes and put them in storage.  

The deputies, with the consent of the accused hosed them down before locking them up in the holding tank.  These were seventeen miserable people.  A few of them were able to make bail but most remained in the county Main Jail in San Bernardino until they went to trial.  All the men received five to fifteen years and each of the women got one to five year sentences.

  As the story unfolded it turned out that they were an outlaw gang out of L.A. that had tried to attend a motorcycle convention at Laughlin, Nevada but had been run out of town by the Viet Nam Veterans, Motorcycle Club so they had left in a bad mood, looking for someplace to vent their anger when they came across the hotel.

CHAPTER  - 19

MORE OF DOMINICK'S  STORY

At four AM the next morning Sol, Mel and Josh were already having their morning coffee and had the paper laid out in front of his favorite chair when Dominick came shuffling in.  "There he is, our hero," said Mel.  “Oh, guys, come on, any of you'd have done what I did if the situations were reversed, and you know it".  "Why don't you just fill us in on what all you did , Dom, and let us be the judge of that." Well after I visited you in the carriage house, Josh, and showed you where the guns were kept, I [… ] and that about sums it up."  "From now on Dom you're to be our head of security."

"Now tell us more about you being a captain in the army, how did you happen to be in the army?"  "I was just a little younger than my brother Al but we were quite different as kids.  He was wild and infatuated with the gangs, not street gangs as you know them but the mob.  Al was born in ought three and I was born in ought eight. he was five years older than me.  Our dad was fairly high up in the organization and Al wanted to follow in his footsteps.  Our father met his untimely death in 1920 and Al just kinda stepped in and took over for him at 17 he was already a boss.”

“Al wanted me to have a different life than he and our father had.  Al wanted only the best for my mother and me so he set her up in a nice apartment and sent me to parochial school.  I was raised more by the nuns and the fathers than by my parents or the mob.  At Al's insistence, I graduated from Catholic High School in Chicago in 1926.  My brother Alphonso wanted me out of the way so he sent me to Nebraska.  I attended the University of Nebraska for two years then entered the University of Nebraska Law School.”

“While attending the University I had the opportunity to see a stage hypnotist perform. That caused me to become interested in hypnosis.  I read everything available on the subject.  I began to practice on my friends and even put on some local shows in the dorms once I'd mastered the art.  I delved quite a bit into self hypnosis so when the time came that I found myself out of my body I put that knowledge to good practice and didn't panic.  That may have a lot to do with why I survived and was able to reenter my body when it lay on that operating table and it may have had a lot to do with me mastering the art of astral travel.  My interest in hypnosis may even account for my being able to partially reconstruct my body.”

“I was a good student and got my law degree in 1932.  I passed the Nebraska State Bar that same year.  When I signed up to take the Bar Exam I got a letter from the U.S. Army offering me a commission as a first lieutenant in the JAG corps if I passed.  I passed the bar and took the commission.”

“By 1927 Al had enough and wanted out but that was just not possible in those days.  So he had an idea, he went to Nicholas Bandavino in New York and ask for permission to build a retreat, on neutral ground out in the middle of the desert where all the bosses could get together without worry of being hit and that rule would be enforced by Nicholas Bandavino.  

I wanted to make the Army my career, but I came out here for a visit and saw how badly Al needed me.  He didn't have the education that I had and he'd no idea how to run a hotel, especially a hotel like this one.  There was quite a bit of dissension at the time going on between the bosses and they were all in and out of this place all the time.  Al worried a lot that someone would break the rule and do a hit here which would put him out of business and make him liable to be hit."

"Even with Al's problems with the hotel I tried to remain in the army but when they discovered that I had a heart murmor I resigned my commission and came in and took over this operation.  I held it all together until 1946 when I just died in my sleep, and you know the rest.  The rest, except for one thing, different guys, including Al trusted me for some reason because I was one of them but not one of them if you know what I mean.  Believe me when I say that there may never have been any other guy in mob history that occupied a position like mine.  

They trusted me far more than they trusted one another.  Over the years many of these guys gave me money and other things to hold for them for safe keeping.  These were guys you understand that couldn't have bank accounts or safety boxes in their names.  They had to trust someone and in a lot of cases that someone turned out to be me.  When they gave me jewels I'd put them in my private hidden vault, when they gave me money I'd tell them up front that I was going to buy rare coins with their money and put that in my private vault, they'd agree or I wouldn't accept their money.  The way I figured it the coins would appreciate and it'd give me the extra income.  The guys never expected that I'd pay them any interest on their money."

"So do you still have it, I mean their coins and jewels etc.?"  "Most of it, sometimes the guys would ask for it and I always gave it back to them.  Then invariably they'd give me more once they knew they could trust me.  I have an accounting of who all gave me what but all of those guys are dead now and have been for a long time."  "So where's your stash, Dom'? I'm not at liberty to tell you that, Josh because I have to live on it for the rest of my er a life and I may be around for a long time.  I'll tell you this, if you ever need money for anything just let me know, I can't tell you how much it's all worth because I don't know but I'm sure it's now worth well over ten million dollars and possibly ten times that much, it depends on what those coins are worth on today's market. I am possibly the only paying guest that you'll ever need in this hotel. If I decide to give up and go on through the tunnel to the other side I'll be sure to give it all to you before I go but for now you just tell me how much you need to build a golf course or what ever and I'll give it to you, fare enough?”  Dom still didn't realize what it'd cost to build a golf course on today's economy.

"Sure it's fare enough, Dom, by the way, in what way are you related to Pamela Gianelli who handled this transaction for Al, he trusts her enough to give her his power of attorney and he refers to her as his niece?"  "I am not sure, Josh, she was born after I died and I don't have any other brothers or sisters other than Al, I never had any children so one thing is for sure, she's not his niece.  My father had a brother named Vito who was gunned down later than my father.  He had a family and his kids would be my aunts and uncles.  Their kids would be cousins to Al and I so I suspect that Pamela is my cousin. It doesn't really matter, lots of family guys refer to various family members as their nieces and nephews, I guess it's just easier than figuring out just what relationship they really have."

Josh had never really given much thought to a golf course but now that he had access to enough money, if they did the work themselves, he just might consider small golf course and maybe a driving range. Josh and Sol loved to play golf and that was one thing Josh missed out here.

Josh knew that the hotel sat on a giant underground aquifer or river and that water wasn't a problem so he decided to look into it. Maybe he could build a nine hole pitch and put, executive course, a regulation course would be out of the question with Dominick's money.  Another project that came to mind was converting the pool to an indoor/outdoor pool, he'd have to run that by Sol and see if he had any ideas.

The next morning when the group met for coffee at 4:00 AM Josh brought up the subject of the railroad station.  “Tell me Dominick, how did that railroad station come to be?”  “Al built it Josh, around 1930 but I wasn't here then.  Several of the bosses were afraid to fly and didn't want to drive out here so they ask Nicholas Bandavino in New York if it'd be OK for them to have a railroad station close to the hotel.  The boss thought about it for a while then said “I don't see why not, but who's going to pay for it?”  “We'll all chip in for half and Alphonso said he'd put up the other half.”  They all began to brag about how much they'd committed to the railroad station project, the first thing you know they've raised almost half a million dollars for the station.  As the money accumulated they were sending it to Alphonso so that Alphonso was stuck for half a million.  Al was afraid to pay less than the half that he said he'd pay and all the guys knew how much money Al had received.  Al just bit the bullet and spent a million dollars on a railroad station in the middle of nowhere.  The general public didn't even know of the existence of the hotel and they wouldn't have been welcome there had they known.  People on the train were always amazed to see a town with at most 200 population and a railroad station that'd rival one in a major city.  The railroad at first was reluctant to allow the trains to stop in such a Podunk town but when they'd sent a company officer out to inspect it Al told the inspector that he was a big real estate developer and he planned on having a city of more than 50,000 people at Joshuaville in a couple years the railroad agreed that the trains could make it a stop if anyone wanted to get off there or if anyone notified the railroad ahead of time that they wanted to catch the train there.  It's kind of funny I doubt if the train ever stopped there more than a hundred times in twenty years.  The railroad finally rescinded their permission for trains to ever stop at this station.  By that time I'd died and the hotel was deserted.”

Josh then speculated “don't have any plans for using it so I think I'll put an ad in the paper and see if I can't sell it or lease it out.  I've no idea what it'd be good for.”

With all the excitement provided by the robbery Herbert Jabonowiz had forgotten about marketing the art work that hung throughout the hotel.  The more he thought about it the less he liked the idea of putting it up on an internet auction website.  So instead he found Josh and another idea. “Perhaps we should have a representative from one of the major auction houses come and appraise these paintings.  With an average of three paintings per suite plus the paintings in the restaurant, the bar, the lobby and the halls there were 215 paintings.

Herb placed the call to Sofkins Auction. The auctioneer didn't seem very interested until Herbert rattled off some of the artists names he got the auctioneer's attention in a hurry.  The auctioneer's agent spent three days viewing and cataloging the paintings.  Josh and Herb had hoped that could bring close to a hundred thousand dollars but couldn't believe their ears when the auctioneer's agent came through with an estimate of almost a million.  “What I don't understand is why you want to sell them.  These are all originals and many of these artists never painted any other bawdy pictures in their whole careers.  On the whole these sensational works are priceless.”

“Right on the spot Josh said “You know I think you're right, we'll keep them.  How much do I owe you for your appraisal, would five thousand dollars do?  Of course you know that I'll want a well documented formal appraisal.”  Josh could then use photos of the better paintings in any ads and brochures that he had printed in the future advertising the hotel.  Josh also had a photographer prepare a deluxe art book featuring all of the paintings which he sold at the registration desk for a forty dollars a copy.

CHAPTER- 20

TV INTERVIEW WITH DOMINICK

**

The first vehicle to reach the security gate was the new red Lexus convertible.  The security guard on duty stepped out of his dog house and approached the car with his hand out to receive the credentials being presented by the attractive young woman driver.  "As you can see young man I'm Sylvia Smart from ABS News.  I am here with a film crew. My crew is in the white van right behind me. We are here to interview a Mr. Dominick Gianelli for a feature we're doing."  

"Oh yes, Mr. Gianelli said you'd be coming, Ma'am, go right on ahead.  You may drive right up to the main endurance and park there.  The hotel isn't open for business yet so you'll not be in anyone's way.  The van can park right behind your car.  That way both your vehicles will be in the shade.  Once you're parked just walk right into the main lobby, the door is unlocked."

Sylvia was taken with the beauty of the place.   The vegetation all around the facility was immaculate and lush.  "This hotel would be worth doing a special on itself.", Sylvia thought.  She couldn't think on any place in Las Vegas or Los Angeles with a more attractive entrance area.

As Sylvia and her crew entered the main building she was once again astounded by the beauty of the place, the quiet elegance, but with the modern touch high tech electronics and real live plants, the recently restored antique furniture, the highly polished real marble floors.  The place was stunning.  As she neared the registration desk she was approached by a lank gentleman in his late thirties wearing a beautiful Rose colored tuxedo and wrap around sun glasses, his wavy black hair caused Sylvia to assume that this was their host.  "My name is Dominick Gianelli, I assume you're Miss Smart from ABS, I've been expecting you.  Will you follow me please, we have a conference room right here off the lobby where we will not be disturbed."

Sylvia and her crew were seated at a huge conference table and two waiters in tuxedos appeared immediately to take their drink order and their lunch order.  They were offered a limited menu.  "I hope you'll excuse us but since the hotel isn't officially open yet we don't have our full menu available but our wine cellar is stocked, here is the  wine list?" the waiter handed Sylvia an expensively printed twelve page wine list with prices that ranged from one hundred to two thousand dollars a bottle.  “Many of these rare wines are available nowhere else on earth,” the waiter informed her.  Sylvia ordered a Manhattan and a chef's salad for lunch.  The crew ordered various drink and food items and looked pleasantly surprised at their surroundings and the service, something they hardly expected.  

"This hotel, it's magnificent, not what I'd expected at all Mr. Gianelli."  "Perhaps you'd like an abbreviated guided tour while they're preparing your lunch, Ma'am?"  "No thank you Mr. Gianelli, though perhaps we'll see the place later while we're tracking down that ghost you promised us."  "You will be spending the night then, I'd be so disappointed if you hurry off right after our little talk."  "we're prepared to do what ever it takes to have an interview with a real live ghost, Mr. Gianelli."  "I notice the brief case that you're carrying, Miss Smart, is that what we agreed upon?"  "Yes it's, one million dollars cash, but before you get any part of it you had better produce that ghost of yours and we have to be completely satisfied that he's granted us an interview, understood?"  "Completely" responded Dominick with a little smile.

They enjoyed their drinks and the crew set up their equipment.  Sylvia asked if this would be the room that they'd be using for their interview.  "Yes it is and I advise your crew to commence filming right away in order to get everything that's said and everything that takes place here.   You never know when something will happen that you'll wish you had filmed."  "Oh, so this ghost of yours may pop in at any time huh?"  "Something like that, yes".  

The crew took turns eating their lunch and filming, they recorded everything that was said while Dominick and Sylvia ate their lunch and made small talk.  "This is all very elegant, Mr. Gianelli, and the food was magnificent but when do you expect that we can get down to business?  When do we meet your ghost?  

"I am not sure of how I should word this, Miss Smart but you just had lunch with him."  Before she could respond Dominick excused himself saying there was something urgent he had to attend to.  He went immediately to his room where he got rid of all the food and beverage he'd consumed then returned to the group at the table.

 "What were you saying, just before you left the room, Mr. Gianelli, you're not pretending to pass yourself off as the ghost, are you?  If you want to know what I think, I think you just planned this hoax to get a news crew out here to get some free publicity for your hotel at our expense."  

"I am sorry that you feel that way Miss Smart so why don't you have your crew pan in for an extreme close up of my face and I'll give you a little proof." Dominick called the waiter over and ask him to please bring in the newspaper from the main lobby.   “Now James, if you'd be so kind as to hold the paper behind my head.”  James did as Dominick had requested.  Once the camera was in place Dominick casually reached up and removed his glasses, revealing his closed eyelids.  Then he opened his eyes and the camera focused on the empty eye sockets, where they could look right through his head and read the headlines on the newspaper.  Dominick then turned and faced Sylvia who couldn't see what everyone else had seen because of the angle in which she was seated.   Sylvia Smart fainted dead away, then Dominick disappeared leaving an empty tuxedo piled in the chair where he'd sat.  

Dominick returned to his room and quickly donned a new powder blue tuxedo then returned to the room. "Any questions," Dominick asked.  He'd been out of the room just long enough for Sylvia to regain consciousness.  She gasp, but had her wits about her enough to blurt out, "Yes there are, Mr. Gianelli, about a million dollars worth of questions!"

Dominick spent the next two hours filling her in on his entire story.  When he finished Sylvia ask, “ And what can you tell us of heaven and God and life on the other side, and all of that, Dominick?”  “I am afraid, Sylvia that I can’t tell you anything, you know as much about that as I do, like I said I didn't go through the tunnel, all I know about the hereafter I learned from the nuns and priests, perhaps you could consult with them.”

“I hope you got every word of that on film and tape guys,” Sylvia finally said.  “You had better have them play a little of it back just to be sure,” Dominick put in.  they had the pictures just fine and had picked up every word Ms. Smart had said and every noise in the room but nothing Dominick had said was on the tape.  “I am really sorry about that Miss Smart but I just told you that I only move my lips when I talk so as not to make the people I'm talking to feel uncomfortable but that I communicate through thought transference. What did you think I meant by that?”  

“In that case we don't have a deal and I don’t owe you anything because I didn't get my interview.”  “Oh but you did, you'll just have to get a lip reader to read my lips and fill in the words as I mouthed everything I told you.  This is just additional proof that I'm the genuine article and I'm who I say I am.  Now since I retained editorial control of this interview I'd like for you and your crew to accompany Josh and Sol Golden and Mel Korman on a tour of the facility and film everything you're shown.  I want that edited into a fine classy portrayal of this hotel and the facilities here and included with everything that's happened so far.  You have my permission to use everything and exclude nothing.  Once I approve your finished production then and only then will you be permitted to air it in its entirety.  You see the publicity we'll receive will be worth more than the million dollar fee you're paying me.  Of course you have the right to walk out right now and pay us nothing but if you choose to do so you'll not be permitted to use anything you've filmed here.”

The entire one hour film was run as a two hour news special and had the biggest viewing audience in network TV history.  

“We sold out too cheap,” Dominick said after seeing the special and reading about it in the paper. “Maybe not, Dom, Sol replied, I got the feeling they'd be back for more. Now we can afford to open the Golden Desert Hotel.”

Eventually Josh found a tenant for the railroad station who leased it and turned it into a touristy restaurant and gift shop.   Sol had his crew remodel and restore the original station to it's original splendor.

CHAPTER - 21

HOW BRIGHT THE FUTURE

Josh bought 25 new park model trailers in Phoenix and had them set up inside the fence but over two hundred yards from the hotel. The area in front the units and the was planted with thick foliage.  While waiting for delivery Sol put down a road and landscaping so the trailers wouldn't look like boxes on dirt.  As soon as the units were delivered they were all hooked up with TV and computer terminals. Skirting and Awnings were installed and each space had a driveway and golf cart.  

It only took three weeks to finish with the trailers then all the family who lived in the hotel were moved to the trailers as well as some of the employees on a space available basis.

While this was going on Josh contacted a famous retired golf pro and had him begin installing a beautiful pitch and put 9 hole golf course between the trailers and the  front of the hotel.  

Then Josh placed an ad in the Las Vegas and L.A. Papers announcing that the hotel was open for business and that Mr. Dominick Gianelli would personally greet each guest.  The suites were priced at a modest $2,000.00 per night with a seven night minimum stay, but that included meals and beverages, everything except the items on the wine list.  Besides the rental rooms Dominick kept his room in the hotel. Josh and Joan, Sol and the Kormans kept their rooms as well.

That left them 52 suites available for guests. As soon as the ad ran in twelve major newspapers scattered about the country the rooms were booked solid for the first year. The hotel provided them with three million dollars a month cash flow for the rooms in the main building, over two million of that was pure profit.  

Mel had located the people who owned the adjacent properties and bought the three adjacent sections before any notoriety had been released about the hotel and its manager.  Josh used some of the property to build an 18 hole championship golf course with a new, very luxurious hotel, club house complex.  The hotel had five hundred rooms which rented for $250 to $500 per night.  The exterior of the hotel was very modest but nice.  Josh didn't want it to outshine the original hotel.  On another section of land Josh built five mansions, thirty upscale homes and purchased 200 large manufactured homes for employees.  Then he started renting the Park Models in front of the hotel for $500 per night.

The golf course featured two 15 acre lakes with a nice stream that ran from the upper lake to the lower lake.  Water was then pumped from the lower lake, then flowed underground back to the upper lake where it reappeared as a waterfall.  There was a water and light show every evening at the upper lake with lights playing on the spouting water and the falls.  The lakes and the stream were were stocked with trout, crappy, cat fish and blue gill.

On part of the property Josh had a small airport with ten hangers. The airport offered full service for private planes. Josh had a fully manned control tower and three commuter aircraft that carried twenty passengers.  It connected the Golden Desert Hotel with Las Vegas and  Los Angeles. There were scheduled daily flights between North Las Vegas airport and the hotel and daily scheduled flights between Ontario Airport and the hotel.  Guests at the hotel received complimentary flights.  There were three small private corporate jets available to the guests and to the family.  The hotel also maintained a fleet of five limousines to take guests and family to Palm Springs or 29-Palms or wherever they wanted to go in the area.

Josh began to comp the golf course hotel rooms to players who were on the PGA tour or retired golfers who had big names.  Josh sponsored an annual one million dollar desert classic tournament annually.  Dominick made a pass through the golf course hotel restaurant and bar at least once a day without wearing his glasses.  If he put them on people just kept asking him to take them off so he finally quit wearing them altogether.

After the golf course had been open for two years Josh began to pursue his real dream for the hotel.  He placed an ad offering a lifetime membership with everything included for one billion dollars.  The first year he had five takers.  Four Men and one woman who had accumulated several billion dollars in their lifetimes that loved golf and loved to be pampered.  Without exception these people had spent a week at the hotel during the first year it was open and considered it one of the best hotels in the United States, if not in the world.  They were told that they could share their suite with one other permanent resident and have as many guests as they wanted to spend up to a week in their suite.  All meals and beverages would be furnished for them also.

The twelve man security force was expanded to twenty four and then to thirty six.  The entire property was fenced and patrolled.  Josh had been advertising in the Las Vegas newspapers.  He advertised for and hired the best waiters, cooks,  concierge, room stewards, and other hospitality professionals he could find.

Of the original family Enna and Hilda, still prepared meals for the staff over at the house, but only when they felt like cooking.  Da Wang had become the executive chef, for the main dining room, it was his kitchen and everyone knew it.

All toled there were over 300 employees at the hotel counting Security, grounds keepers, golf pro's, room stewards and dozens of others.  Manuel Villanueva was the head grounds keeper, he supervised a staff of twenty plus the golf course greens keeper and fairway keepers.  Josh had even hired a fish expert to keep the lakes and stream teeming with catchable fish. They maintained a small fish farm where the fingerings were kept until they were large enough to do battle with the fishermen.

Even the town of Joshuaville had grown from a population of fewer than 12 people to a small town of over two thousand people.  They had two restaurants, a super market, two filling stations and a couple general stores.  Most of the houses in town were now new and most of  the residents were employed. They had three churches and a kindergarten through 12th grade school.  

On the hotel grounds there was a clinic with five beds and an emergency room, a small hospital really.  It was staffed with five Doctors and a dozen other health care professionals.

All of these improvements attracted six more Billionaires.  They seemed to come in at the rate of about one a year and fortunately for Josh the seemed to die off and go out at about the same rate.

All of this came about in the first ten years after Josh Golden had bought the place for one dollar.

CHAPTER - 22

DOMINICK'S  MISSION

**

There was a menacing appearance to the new black SUV that pulled up to the gate house, probably it was the heavily tinted windows, even the windshield of this vehicle was tinted.  It was illegal in all 50 states to tent the windshield, but this one was tinted.  When the guard approached he was amazed at the speed of the drivers side window when lowered.  First it was closed then it was open, just like that, the guard didn't even see it move as it went down.  

Tony, the guard working the gate, hadn't noticed the GSA plate on the front of the SUV as it approached.  “Good morning, gentlemen, how can I help you?”  “You can direct us to one Dominick Gianelli, and be quick about it, we don't have all day.”  “Mr. Gianelli doesn't receive drive up visitors, do you have an appointment?”  At that the badges came out in unison.  “NSA, I'm Agent Carter and this is Agent Blackwell, I'm sure that Mr. Gianelli will see us, so open that gate and let us pass.”  Tony said, “I'll notify Sergeant Uni that you're here, until he arrives you must pull into one of those three parking spots by the fence, so as to not block other traffic using the gate, until he arrives.”  Agent Carter didn't like that a bit but there was little else he could do under the circumstance, Carter really wasn't that bad a guy but he was accustomed to being allowed in anywhere once he'd identified himself.  Now he realized that he'd gotten off on the wrong foot with this guard.  The black drivers side window appeared and he pulled into the first of the three parking spots indicated to await this Sergeant Uni.  

Fifteen minutes went by before a fit looking man in his late thirties, wearing a guard uniform with Sergeant stripes and dark wrap around sun glasses, sauntered out of the hotel, across the yard, and headed toward the gate.  Before he reached his destination he was intercepted by a man in work clothes who stopped him and engaged him in a three or four minute conversation.  Apparently Sergeant Uni wasn't that impressed by having two government agents waiting by his gate.  Blackwell was becoming furious.  “He better get his but over here if he knows what's good for him.”

Sergeant Uni, finally made his way through the pedestrian gate and approached Tony at the gate house.  After a brief conversation with Tony Sergeant Uni approached the SUV.  Carter once again made the window disappear.  “Tony tells me that you want to see Mr. Gianelli without an appointment.”  “Yes we're here representing the National Security Agency on a matter of business with Mr. Gianelli.”  What, may I ask, is the nature of that business?”  “We didn't come way out here to discuss our business with a rent-a-cop, are you going let us see Mr. Gianelli or not.”  “we're here at the behest of the deputy director of this whole district,” put in Blackwell.  

After checking their Id's carefully Sergeant Uni told Carter to unlock his back door and nodded to Tony to open the gate.  “Park right in front of the hotel and I'll escort you in, gentlemen.”  Does that mean that you're going to summon Mr. Gianelli,Sergeant?.”  Sergeant Uni thought for a moment then said “Let's discuss that inside, you can be my guests for lunch.”  

The government agents were appropriately impressed by the grand entrance to the hotel.  They were even more impressed by the tuxedo clad waiter who brought them menu's and water.  “Order anything you want gentlemen, it's on the house.”  Carter and Blackwell were a little taken aback to see the worlds finest foods listed on the menu which only listed the lunch items and didn't list prices.  They gave the waiter modest sandwich orders and opted for the iced tea.  

“Tell me Sergeant is this Gianelli, character really what they say he's on TV?”  “I sure am” said Dominick as he removed his dark glasses.   Both agents got a little frigidity as they peered through Dominick's empty eye sockets.  “Now that I've seen your credentials and you've seen mine, suppose you tell me what brings you to our humble desert abode?”

“We need to determine what ability's you have and to find out if you'd be willing to put those talents to work in service to your government.”  Dominick put his glasses back on then explained what all he could do and how he communicated.  He told them of his military service and his loyalty to his country but then dropped the bomb on them.  “Of course I'll be very happy to serve my country in any way that I can, but as you can see by looking around, I'd not relish leaving my home and if I didn't draw the line somewhere I'm sure that your agency would keep me busy constantly so I've thought it over and here is the deal.  If the President of the United States needs me for a special brief assignment I'll be happy to oblige him.  All he's to do is to come here and describe the assignment to me and his estimate of how long it'll take to complete.  If I choose to do so I'll assist him.  That sound fair enough to you boys?”  

“That's utterly preposterous, you know that the President of the United States isn't going to come clear out here to the middle of nowhere to ask for your help.”  “He will, if he wants my help, enjoy your lunch.”  Carter and Blackwell were then very surprised to  see an empty guards uniform where Dominick had been sitting.  Their waiter promptly scooped up the empty uniform and whisk it away. The agents finished their lunch, debated between themselves whether they should leave a tip, then opted to just leave.  “I don't think the Assistant Director is going to like what he hears when we get back.”

Dominick had reappeared in his golfing attire and was seated beside Josh at the bar when the two agents stormed out, got in their big new black SUV, headed out the gate and down the road.  

Dominick had thought no more about the incident until one Monday morning a van pulled up at the gate with a picture of a lightning bolt on the side with an inscription under the picture that just said “Communications”.  The driver pulled off to a parking spot by the fence, got out of the van and approached Tony at the gate.  He was a frail, slightly balding man in his late thirties.  He asked Tony to call Sergeant Uni and ask him to come to the gate.  With that he flashed his badge and handed Tony his photo ID.  He was Ralph Dobbs, Agent, United States Secret Service.  “Apparently, you already know who Sergeant Uni is and he's the one you want to see.”  “That's right and I think he'd want to see me but I'm not taking that for granted.”

Dominick didn't even bother with his guard costume.  He just rode a golf cart to the gate dressed in his  tuxedo.  He exited the hotel grounds through the pedestrian gate and introduced himself to Agent Dobbs.  “I thought that I explained to the the two agents that were here several weeks ago what my terms of service would be, so what brings you here? “  “The president would like to speak to you Mr. Gianelli, I'm here with the equipment that'll enable him to do that.”  “Wait a minute, I really don't want to work for the government and setting a requirement that the president appear here in person should have discouraged any further contact from the government.  That was the whole idea.”  “I realize that, and believe me the president realizes it also but he'd like a few minutes of your time to hear him out on this.”  “OK, Tony let this gentleman and his van in the gate, I'll meet you at the front of the hotel, Agent Dobbs, is it all right if I call you Ralph?”  “Sure, call me anything you like, do you mind if I call you Mr. Gianelli?” Dominick chuckled at that and followed the van to the entrance.

Dominick offered Ralph lunch but Ralph took a postponement.  “The president wants to speak with you as soon as I get the equipment set up so is it OK with you if I take care of that first.  I'll need a room where you can be assured of complete privacy.  No one should know who you're talking with and no one else should be permitted into the room, even me.  This will be a brief personal chat you'll be having with the president, what you'll be discussing is strictly his business and yours. I'm just here to set up the equipment.”  

Dominick stopped Ralph right there.  I hate to tell you this, Ralph but my voice doesn't carry over electronic media.  You see, I don't actually have a voice, I communicate by thought transference.  The person that I'm speaking to thinks that he hears my voice and I move my lips just to add to the effect but my voice can't be recorded. I am unable to talk on the phone or over a microphone.

“You can tell the president that if he has something to discuss with me I can be in the oval office in about three seconds.  If he wants me to do that I can materialize for him but only after donning a mens large bath robe that he should lay out for me.  I would not enjoy standing in the oval office naked.  Tell him also that he should have a tuxedo and shoes waiting for me in a private adjacent room so that I'm able to look presentable when we talk.  If that's what The president wants to do then I'll give you my size for the clothes and shoes.  Please, Ralph let me know when you're ready for that lunch I offered you.  Our food is nothing short of magnificent.”

Ralph got on his phone and spoke to someone, presumably at the White House.  When he finished he said “Maybe I'll take you up on that lunch now Mr. Gianelli, it'll be a while before the president gets back to me.”  Dominick seated the man at a small table in the back of the restaurant and summoned the waiter.  Dominick told the waiter that this man is my guest. Allow him to order anything that appeals to him and that everything will be compliments of the hotel.

After lunch Agent Dobbs took another call on his cell phone.  Then he found Dominick and told him that the things that the president wanted to talk to you about weren't all that pressing.  If a situation comes up where he absolutely needs your help he'll call here and have someone relay the message to you.  Agent Dobbs then bid Dominick farewell and drove his van out the front gate.  The president never summoned Dominick again.

CHAPTER - 23

FISHER

**

One afternoon when Dominick returned to his room he noticed that there was  a pleasant looking older gentleman wearing a gray knit sweater and tan slacks sitting in one of his overstuffed chairs. Dominick  wasn't sure how he knew but he just knew that this was a spirit.  Dominick approached the man and held out his hand.  “Hi I'm Dominick Gianelli, and you are?”  “Oh, you can just call me 'Fisher' , if you must call me by some name.” Dominick took note of the fact that the man didn't take him up on the hand shake. “And what brings you to my hotel and more particularly to my bedroom, Mr. Fisher?”  “I've heard of you Dominick and I wanted to meet you for myself.  So far you're the only spirit that's done what you've done in restoration of your physical body.”

“You know this because?”  “Because The the counsel wants to know when a new life form emerges. They want to know if this life form poses any threat to us or could be of some use to us.”  “So you were dispatched here by something called the counsel, whoever they may be.  Perhaps Mr. Fisher you'd like to explain to me just who, or what, the the counsel is and what part you play.”  “Yes, I guess it just never occurred to me that you would not be familiar with the counsel since you never went through the tunnel of light.  I suppose I should give you a thumbnail sketch of who they are, who I'm and what part we play in the grand make-up of things.”

Fisher continued, “At some point somewhere in time and space my people, my race lived on a planet much like this  Earth.  We were much like the inhabitants of this planet are now.   Our people advanced to the point where you're race is now when I was still alive in the flesh.  we'd gone a little further than your race is now because out of body experience and astral travel were common among us, we all learned to do it at a young age.  A few people refused to engage in it, mostly for religious reasons but most of us spent a lot of our time out of body.   When one of us had outlived our bodies we did much as you did and continued on as spirits.”

“You see, we had no tunnel of light that we could cross through.  Our only way to survive was to continue on as spirits.  Even though our planet had a population of around ten billion we, over time, accumulated hundreds of billions of souls that had lived out their lives in the flesh and were continuing on simply as spirits living out of body.  I guess it never occurred to any of us to reconstruct our physical bodies.  That's where you're unique, Dominick.  Frankly I didn't even know that it could be done until I found out that you had successfully done it.”

“We reached a point where we had these hundreds of billions of souls when our sun went into nova, burning our planet to a crisp.   Our sun then went on to become a red dwarf.  Our billions of spirit beings weren't harmed by this but we no longer had a planetary home.  It wasn't easy for us to find another home as the entire universe was contracting into critical mass.  We continued on as we were for what you might think of as several trillion of your earth years.  This phenomena is what your science has identified as the big bang.”

“After the big bang billions of hot partials were thrown out into space forming new galaxies,  Suns.  Some of these new Suns threw off particles that took up orbit around these suns and became planets, thus forming new solar systems.  On a few of these planets we found conditions that we considered promising, that would someday be able to support life.”  

“The spirits from our home planet were all individuals but lacking physical barriers we united into one super being  so that we would not all go our own way drifting off in different directions throughout the universe we formed a bond that held us all together as one entity.  That entity is what I referred to earlier as the counsel. The counsel is governed by the same laws of science as you are here on Earth. Don't get me wrong, our science is way ahead of your science because we've been at it many trillions of your years longer than you have but some laws are universal and must be taken into consideration when any one is making plans.  There is no way around them, what's possible is possible and what's not possible is impossible.  that's true for us just as it is for you.”

“What the counsel did  was to wait, that was really our only choice.  We scouted millions of these new planets and from time to time we'd find one that had developed an atmosphere that would enable life, where single cell life forms had began to appear.  We were heartened by these discoveries but we still had to wait until evolution had performed it's miracle and higher life forms had began to emerge.”

“At this point the counsel did as it had long known that it had to do at some point or another and we began to cleanse ourself of all of the spirits in our midst that weren't perfect.  We banished some of them to become attached to each habitable world that we came across until eventually all of the spirits remaining in the counsel were perfect.”

“Upon the discovery of each new habitable planet a number of our counsel members elected to leave our counsel and remain with this new planet.  I assume they formed a new counsel of their own to serve the imperfect spirits that we had deposited on that world.  This counsel would remain with those spirits and that planet for eternity. Besides counsel members we had to leave one of our Creator Sons. A Creator Son is like other spirits but they are spirits that have developed special abilities that the rest of us do not posses. Any spirit could develop these abilities with practice but few did. Most of us just didn't understand the practicality or necessity of being able to heal or direct the evolutionary progress of creatures of the flesh. It was in this way that the Creator Sons were unique.”

“When we arrived at this particular planet, the one you call Earth we still had about ten billion of these errant spirits.  This small planet at the edge of a small galaxy turned out to be our final destination, not because it looked so promising but because there weren't enough of us left to move on. All told there are more than a million other planets where we have left spirits to mature.  This  Earth then has been home to these ten billion errant spirits and home to what has remained of the original counsel and home to our one remaining Creator Son, for perhaps five million earth years.”

“As fish and birds and mammals developed through evolution the errant spirits, wanting to experience life in the flesh would periodically enter the body of one of these animals for a brief period of hours or days.  They would then become separated from the animal and continue their lives in the spirit form.  Eventually many of these spirits would enter the body of a host animal and become trapped.  they'd have to remain in that body until that animals demise before returning to their spirit life.  You see the spirit life is immortal.  Once created, a spirit continues on forever.  These spirits, your spirit, Dominick has existed for trillions of earth years and will continue on for eternity.”

Dominick at this point decided that he would try asking a question. “In all of these trillions of years how many errant spirits have improved to the point of perfection and have been brought back into the counsel?”  “Well there has been a... None to date, actually”, Fisher reluctantly confessed.  “Dominick continued, “And how many of these perfect Spirits are presently in the counsel?”  “Well counting Myself and the one remaining Creator Son, there are tw...fiv...”  “Did you say twenty five?, Fisher.  “Well, OK, Well so there are only twenty five of us all right.”  “Dominick replied “I thought you said there were millions or billions of perfect spirits in the counsel?”  “Well there were, originally but...”  “But what Fisher?” “Some, actually most, actually almost all, found places in the Universe where they wanted to remain, they left of their own accord, others had to be expelled because over the test of time they were found not to be perfect as we had at first assumed them to be.”  “So, of these twenty five what part do you play?” Fisher.  

Fisher donned an angelic smile and said “I am their leader, their shepherd, I lead them in the paths of righteousness, I show them the way that they must go.”   “So in effect you are who we're referring to when we say G...?”  “Don't say that word Dominick, but yes, I guess that's how I'm known here on Earth, I'd just like to point out though that some of the members of the counsel don't seem to hold me in that high a regard.”

Dominick changed his approach “Did you or the counsel or one of The Creator Son's, as you refer to them, actually create the Universe and this planet in particular?”  “In a manner of speaking we did yes, or I should say that the one remaining Creator Son did.”  “Tell me, Fisher just what was involved in this creation process?”   'Well he monitored the evolutionary process and at a given point in time he forbade the spirits from taking residence in the living animals.  He demanded that only one animal was to be allowed for this purpose and that the other animals were forbidden.  There are still occasional human births that have fins or feathers or scales, not as many as there used to be but still a few.  That's a carry over from when the errant spirits used to enter these creatures to experience life in the flesh.”  

“Tell me about that one animal Fisher.”  “Well, Dominick if that animal was around today it would be classified as a member of the Lemur family.  It was quite common at that time but over the centuries it has become man.  At the time The Creator Son selected this particular Lemur it was most like us in our original form of all the animals on your planet and it was important to us that mankind, over the centuries develop as nearly as possible in our likeness.  “I see now,” said Dominick, that's where we get the message that God created man in his own likeness.” “You see, just as the artist doesn't make the materials he uses in creating his masterpiece he nonetheless creates it.  It wasn't created by the factory that turned out the materials.  The Creator Son, didn't create the dirt and the rocks and the atmosphere or even the evolution of the species, he just created his masterpiece from the materials available as he found them.”

Our counsel member, The Creator Son, designated this animal to be the only animal that one of our spirits could inhabit.  He also mandated that this habitation must take place simultaneous with the animal drawing it's first breath after leaving it's mothers womb and must remain with the animal throughout it's life.  The spirit was then free to resume it's spirit life until it wanted to experience another life in the flesh whereupon the spirit could once again enter this animal's body at birth.  The animal is no longer with you in it's original state because all of the births from the time of the edict of the counsel were inhabited by our spirits.  It evolved rather quickly into what you have today, human beings.  Today a Spirit enters the body of the human as it draws it's first breath and remains with that human body throughout it's life but returns to the spirit world through what you've come to know as the tunnel of light. The Creator Son closely monitored this process for thousands of your years, finally becoming so curious himself about what a life in physical body would be like that he tried it.  About two thousand of your earth years ago.  I know you've read greatly exaggerated accounts of that life.  Since that time none of our counsel members has been tempted to experience a life in the flesh.  I guess that they feel they might fall short of perfection while in the flesh and be banished from the counsel.  From all accounts The Creator Son did live a perfect when he was here and we're very proud of him for that.”  

 “Toward the end of that life in the flesh he'd began to think that the counsel and I had forsaken him but even then he held to his vow to live a perfect life in the flesh.  Upon his return to the counsel he tried to convince the counsel that his followers should all be admitted to counsel membership once they'd crossed through the tunnel of light.  So far we've tested millions of them but have yet to accept one.  This has become a real sore point between The Creator Son and I. ”

Dominick then asked Fisher, “What, if anything have you heard from the other counsel members that voluntarily left the counsel along the way to remain with some developing planet?”  “Not much, well actually nothing.  The distances are too great.  Communications are too slow.  While we were wandering looking for a new home we could move as a group at about the speed of light but lacking a physical body and unable to handle physical equipment the only way we had have to communicate with another group would be by going there in the spirit which would take thousands or even millions of your years. I'm afraid that we'll never hear how any of them fared.”

“Why are you sitting here in my bedroom telling me all of these things Mr. Fisher, just where do I fit in to what you're doing?”  “I'm glad you asked me that, Dominick.  First I wanted to lay the groundwork before I got right down to telling you what part you play.  You see, we're all spirits, we're all  many trillions of your years old, we've simply lost track, you can measure the passing of time in years but we don't enjoy that luxury, we have no marker to denote time.  we've simply been here in this spirit form for eternity.  Of course we measure earth years the same way that you do, but that's only since we arrived here at  Earth.”

“Here is the problem that we've always had.  We can experience life in the flesh by entering a host physical body.  When we do that all of our conscious memory is lost to us until we depart from that physical body.  We don't carry our memory on our person, we don't know where it's kept but we know that we can't access our memory when we're in the flesh.  Once we depart we have full access to all of the memory that we've always had plus we have the complete memory of everything that we experienced while we were in the flesh.  While in the flesh though we have only the memory possessed by that physical body when we entered. That creates what you'd refer to as catch 22.  A spirit enters into a physical life because there are things he wants to accomplish but once in that physical body he can't remember what those things were.  In the physical life he can manipulate solid objects, in the spirit he can't.”  

“There are some troubled spirits that have left their physical bodies but haven't crossed through the tunnel of light that have developed limited ability to manipulate physical matter while in spirit form, you call these spirits poltergeists. There are some troubled spirits that have learned to project a physical appearance that can be seen by mortal humans and even photographed, these you call ghosts.  No spirit that has crossed through the tunnel of light to the other side has ever been able to manipulate matter of be seen by mortal human eyes.  We can see you but we can't communicate with you while you're in the flesh.  All of the spirits observe those in the flesh but can't tell them when and where they're going wrong.”

“You are unique among all beings, Dominick because while in spirit form you can at will, apparently, take on physical form and you have the ability to manipulate solid matter.  You can see me now but that's because I'm projecting a physical image for the spirit part of you to see.  It makes for a better conversation than if I were just a voice.”  Dominick said “I think I could probably learn to project an image that could be seen by other spirits but I've really never had the need.”  “that's a skill that you may want to acquire, Dominick, I can think of circumstances that might arise when you might find it convenient to be able to do that.”

What we need from you Dominick is to have you teach us how to develop a physical body while we're still in spirit awareness.  All of these billions of people on your  Earth and none of them has the slightest idea of what they're doing here.”  “As soon as they depart from the physical body everything flashes back to them in an instant.  Then they kick themselves for not remembering what it was that wanted to accomplish while in physical form but couldn't remember to do.”  “We're unable to communicate with those currently in physical form from the other side so we can't guide them or converse with them, to tell them when they have it all wrong or to tell them that they'll suffer great regret once they return to the other side for their misdeeds while they were in the flesh.”  

Fisher continued, “I know from observing beings presently in the flesh that they sometimes do horrible things but there is nothing that I can do to intercede in what's taking place in the physical world.  If I just had the ability to appear as a physical being perhaps I could help mankind avert many catastrophic events.  I'd love to be able to stand up before an audience or before television cameras and be able to lead them in the way that they should go.  I'd love to be able to debunk all of the religions of  the flesh and point mankind all in only one direction, toward the truth of our situation.”

“That, Dominick is why I'm visiting you.  You represent the only bridge that we've ever had between the spiritual world and the physical. I'm so thankful that you didn't go through that tunnel when it beaconed to you.”

Dominick inquired, “Would it be possible for you to make all of my memory available to me?” “Yes, I could do that but I'm not going to for fear that it could cause to loose all of the special abilities you've developed while in spirit form but still in the nether land.  The easiest way I could restore your total memory would be to have you to cross through the tunnel of light but then I fear that you'd loose the special abilities that you've developed here.  Actually I've even been a little apprehensive about approaching you here for fear that my presence would convert you back to pure spirit form.  As it is now you can pick up a remote control in your hand and change the channel on the television set, you can move an item from one physical location to another, you can use a computer. My, how I'd love to be able to access the internet.”  

“You've convinced me, Fisher, I'm willing to give it a try, teaching some of the spirits to regain their physical bodies but I can't guarantee any results, remember these spirits have already crossed through the tunnel and regained their total memories, it may just be impossible for them to learn to do what I've done.”  With that Fisher bid Dominick a good day and with a little popping sound he vanished.

Dominick dressed in a fresh tuxedo and resumed his duties as host of his wonderful hotel.

The visit from Fisher had completely changed Dominick's perspective.  He no longer enjoyed his visits with Josh and Mel and the others as much.  He always seemed somehow detached from them and a little aloof. Dominick would constantly find himself preoccupied with Fisher.  Dominick had lost interest in attending Mass, what was the point.

About two weeks went by before Dominick met Fisher again.  Once again he entered his bedroom and there sat Fisher, just as before.  

“Good afternoon Dominick, as you see I've returned.”  “I was wondering if I'd ever see you again, Fisher, I was beginning to think that I'd just dreamed that last conversation.”  “Do you dream, Dominick,? I don't believe that I've ever heard of a spirit dreaming before, I know that I certainly don't dream, or sleep, for that matter.”  “I don't need sleep, Fisher but I do relax on the bed there for several hours every night.  I do that when I'm fully in my flesh, my goal is to not revert to spirit form while I'm relaxing.  I may look to you like I've fully restored my physical body but I still have a long way to go.  I just finished restoring my eyes.  I've been studying vocal chord structure and I thought I'd try to slowly but systematically restore the vocal chords.  It's a slow and tedious process but when I'm finished restoring all the parts of my body I hope to be able to take a physical examination by a competent Medical Doctor and he will not be able to tell that there is anything unusual about me.  I sit in on a lot of gross anatomy classes at Medical Schools and I've come to believe that goal is within my grasp, if I want it badly enough.”  “Don't go too far, Dominick.  The problem that I see is once you've restored all of your internal organs you'll be just another mortal and you could begin to age normally and die all over again.”  Dominick, thought about that statement a lot.

Well I've come to the conclusion that I want it badly enough Dominick,I'm determined to reach the level that you are at now and I'm certainly willing to put forth the effort required.  If I'm able to master the process I can later teach the others.  After all, I didn't feel that you'd enjoy teaching a class.  As chairman of the counsel I think that it's only fitting that I have some special ability that the others lack.” (Dominick thought, wait a minute, if he's going to teach the others then he'd not have a special ability, there is something wrong here and I'm going to find out what it's.) but Dominick said “Well then Fisher what do you say that we get started.”  “that's why I'm here Dominick.”  

“This is how I started, Fisher, I stood in front of the full length mirror just inside the bathroom, I stared into the mirror looking for some sign of a reflection.  I did this for hours and for days on end. Eventually I at least began to imagine that I could see a faint, wispy reflection in the mirror.  After several hours I was sure of it, the image was smoky and fragmentary but I was certain that I definitely saw an image.  I was elated, I wanted to celebrate but I didn't know how to celebrate in my circumstance at that time.  There was no one around to share the joy of my achievement with so I'd to settle for self satisfaction.”

“Within six months or so I was able to see my full reflection in the mirror when I wanted to and to present no reflection at all when I wanted to do that.  I'd begun the long road back.  The road I still travel.  So stand right here Fisher and stare at that mirror. I'm going to check my email and surf to websites that I'm interested in.  Let me know if you make any progress.”

Dominick turned his computer on and went to his email site, not five minutes later Fisher called out I think I've done it.  I haven't looked at a mirror in many years but I see my reflection fine.”  As Dominick approached Fisher he noticed that he could still see the projected image of Fisher that he'd been talking with a few minutes earlier.  “You aren't seeing an image of your Spirit, Fisher you're seeing the reflection of the projected image you've been using with me.  Dissolve that image now and try and see the image of your soul in the mirror.”

Dominick went back to his computer.  As the dinner hour neared Dominick peered at the spot where Fisher should have been standing but he saw nothing.  He looked into the mirror and still saw nothing so Dominick reverted to his spirit form and sure enough there stood Fisher just as he'd appeared when they'd first met but there was no image in the mirror.  “I am going to cocktails and to dinner now Fisher, I have guests that I must great and make happy and other duties as host of this hotel that I must attend to.  I'll probably not return for several hours.  If you tire of your quest before my return feel free to leave.  Also be aware that you can practice with any mirror at your disposal any time you like, there is nothing special about this mirror.”  With that Dominick dressed in a fresh tuxedo and went down stairs.  

The Billionaires, all five of them were having a great time at a large round table in the bar.  They were playing poker with a cheap set of chips that were that had been kept at the bar for just such occasions.  Allen Shafter, who'd owned one of the largest websites on the internet had just dealt each of them five cards.  Allen was 74 years old.  he'd sold out two years earlier for a staggering thirty eight billion dollars.  he'd tried living in several places when he happened to spend a week at the hotel.  He complained that since he retired he was constantly hounded by people wanting money.  At the hotel they provided him with the privacy he'd been looking for.  He had gladly paid the billion dollars for a lifetime membership.  The man to his left Curtis Crawford had stared in over a hundred movies he still worked as the executive producer of several of the highest budget films in Hollywood every year.  In his lifetime he had accumulated 12 Oscars in various categories.  Wherever he went he was hounded relentlessly.  He encountered Paparazzi at every turn.  He said the only place he could live out his golden years in peace was at the Golden Desert Hotel.  He too considered it quite a bargain. He was almost 80 but looked younger.  Here he wasn't bothered by anyone, he could tee off any time he liked and no one else was allowed to tee off until he'd cleared the third hole.  If he couldn't find a partner there was always a world famous retired golf pro available.  Maude Toucoo had her own daytime TV show for many years and had invested her money wisely.  She was said to have built an estate of more than twenty Billion dollars.  The other two players in the game had similar stories.

Dominick approached the table and ask if he could sit in for a few hands.  That was always a standing joke.  The Billionaires thought that he could see their cards and that he'd use that information to clean them out.  “Fat chance, Dom, you know that we won't let you play in this game.” Dominick replied, “I am surprised that you allow Darrell to play.  You know that he was a professional gambler and illusionist.  I see that as usual Darrell has most of the chips in front of him.  Do you guys want me to hire a poker instructor so that you'll learn to play this game right?”  “No thank you, Dominick,” Maud responded, “You know that we just play penny ante poker any way.”   Dominick chuckled and continued on making his rounds, visiting briefly with the other guests.

After dinner Dominick made his way over to the bar at the golf course and visited briefly with each of the guests there.  Around midnight Dominick returned to his room to see how Fisher was coming along.  Fisher appeared to have accomplished nothing but insisted that he'd gotten a glimpse of a wispy image earlier in the evening.  “Well keep at it Fisher, and remember I never said that it'd be easy. I'm going to relax on my bed now until about 4:00 AM when I go downstairs for coffee and a Danish and visit with Josh, Sol and Mel.  You can leave the light on in the bathroom if you like but shut the door.”  “I don't think that I need the light on but who can say how this works.  Thank you Dominick, I'll leave the light on since I have no way of turning the switch off. If you want the door shut then you will have to shut it, I can't manipulate matter, remember.”

Dominick didn't sleep the way others slept he just put himself into a restful hypnotic trance and drifted off.  His last lucid thought was “Who knows maybe I do actually sleep.”  

Fisher and Dominick kept more or less to this same schedule for the next month.  Eventually when Fisher claimed that he was able to see his image Dominick allowed as how this time he could see it also but this time Dominick busted out laughing.  “I'm sorry for laughing Fisher but this is funny, you look like one of Santa's cunning little elf's or an adorable little leprechaun more than you look like a human. Even when you finish restoring your body  people aren't going to take you seriously when you try to tell them that you're The Lord, Thy God Almighty.”

“Yeah, that could be a problem all right,” Fisher exclaimed, “I'd already thought of that, so you aren't so smart.  Why is this happening to me?” Fisher demanded to know.  You got your actual human body back when you did this but I look more like a clown.”  “Did you ever have a real human body to get back?” Fisher, “or is that the way you actually looked the last time you were in the flesh?”  “that's more or less the way we all looked, Dominick.”  “How about the rest of the counsel, Fisher have any of them had a life in the flesh?”  “No, I told you that Dominick, the only one of us that's had a life in the flesh experience is The Creator Son and I'm not on very good terms with him.”  “If you have a strained relationship with The Creator Son, Fisher then perhaps that's a shortcoming that you both have and neither of you are perfect, therefore maybe neither of you is qualified to be on the counsel at all.”  “that's a cruel thing for you to say to your God, Dominick, I should punish you for even thinking that.”  “Except for one thing, Fisher, you lack the capacity to punish anyone.”  “I know that, Dominick, but all these spirits here on  Earth living in the flesh don't know that.  Besides, I just want to help them, provide them with leadership and keep them from slaughtering each other as they've been doing for thousands of years, you wouldn't believe the heinous deeds that I've witnessed that mankind has done to his own kind, over the centuries.” “Yes, I believe that I would, Fisher.”

“The way I read this situation Fisher is that the only avenue you've to help mankind in the short fall is to have me teach The Creator Son how to restore his body.  If you're not in that big a hurry then we can arrange for you to be born into the flesh, raised by me, and guided by me until you body of flesh expires then have you refuse to go through the tunnel of light and return to me in spirit form so that I can then teach you to regain your human form.  One problem with that scenario is that when you expire you may actually go through the tunnel of light, on the other hand if you learn out of body travel while you're here in the flesh you could possibly arrange to be out of your flesh body, as I was, when your physical body expires.”

“Actually The Creator Son may be the best way to go because he already has a physical body that he can learn to reclaim.  He didn't go through the tunnel when he left Earth plane at the end of his physical body experience the last time he was here, did he?”  “No, as I recall, he ascended directly to reclaim he seat on the counsel, without going through the tunnel.”  “In that case those are our two options,” Dominick responded.

Fisher then took his leave and said he'd think on it.

CHAPTER -24

JESSY CHRISTOPHER AND DOMINICK'S NEW SON

The very next afternoon when Dominick returned to his bedroom to rest he found not one but two spirits, awaiting him.  One, of course was Fisher, the other was obviously The Creator Son, Dominick knew this because The Creator Son was still in costume.  He was dressed and looked very much as he'd looked when he left this Earth the last time.  “Well, Fisher, I see you've made your decision.” “Actually Dominick I opted for both plans.”  “You can teach 'The Creator Son' here to materialize and you can arrange for me to become your son in the flesh.  Have you thought how you'd go about that Dominick?”

“Yes, I've given it some thought.  It shouldn't be difficult to find a very pregnant woman that's down on her luck.  I'll offer her a substantial amount of money for the right to adopt her child, when it's born.  it'll be born right here at our clinic.  I'll have made all of the arrangements to have the adoption take place immediately upon your birth.  I'll spend several hours a day with you right from the start.  You can tell me the things that you should be taught and I'll teach them to you as you reach the level of maturity that you stipulate.  When you start school it'll be right here at the hotel.  You will be home taught.  After you finish your primary education you'll finish your education on the internet.  Once you have the education that you'll need you can assume a position here at the hotel as my assistant.  By the time you finish your full life the people that are here now will be gone.  There will be others over the years that'll take their places.  I, however will remain the manager and you'll remain my assistant throughout your life in the flesh.  I should easily teach you to master out of body travel early in life so that you'll be able to travel all over the world and learn all you need to know about it.”  “I already know all I need to about it,” responded Fisher.  

“Things should change rapidly once The Creator Son here begins his second ministry.  I have a feeling that people will accept him as the Masai as soon as he's able to appear to them.  he'll have credibility and many people will be willing to follow him and do with their lives as he teaches.  By the way it's awkward for me to keep calling you 'The Creator Son' what name should I call you by if we're going to be working together for years?”  “You could just call me Jesus, or The Savior or The Christ.” “I think not,” replied Dominick, “that'd be awkward for me and it'd certainly raise some eyebrows if I ever had to introduce you to someone or refer to you in a conversation that I was having.” “You pick a name that you find convenient, Dominick, you can call me by that name.”OK, I'll call you Jessy,... Jessy Christopher.”  “That name is fine by me, it seems appropriate, I'll henceforth be known as Jessy Christopher.”  

“Are you ready to start your classes now, Jessy?”  “Yes I'm ready how do we start and is it all right that I wear these clothes?” “When you first start it's very helpful to picture yourself wearing garments that you're familiar with but once you start to become visible to others you should don contemporary clothing.” Dominick started Jessy out the same way he started and the way he had Fisher start.”

Dominick then turned his attention back to Fisher.  “Do you've the ability to monitor my activities closely Fisher?”  “Yes I can observe your every move, if that's necessary.”  “Can you remain by my side for the next few days so that you'll know everything that's happening as it happens without me having to fill you in?”  “Yes, Dominick, I can do that.”  “ If things work as I imagine they will you're likely to be called upon to enter the body of a newborn host in a few days.  If I need you immediately is there some way that I can summon you and know that you'll be there?”  “Yes, just think of me but don't think of me as the deity, think of me as Fisher and picture me the way I've presented myself to you on these occasions when we've met and conversed. If you do that I'll be there instantly.”

“Now all we have to do is to find a pregnant woman,” Dominick told Fisher.  “I think I can be of some help there, I do have some abilities that you've not stripped me of yet, Dominick.  I can filter through all of the spirits and know their situations.  When people pray I don't always hear them and as you know there is little that I can do to answer their prayers anyway, but when they pray I can hear them if I listen.  I can even hear the prayers of many people or spirits at the same time and keep them all separate in my head.”  “In that case Fisher I suggest you go about finding yourself a mother, someone that'll give you up at birth and never cause us a problem.  I'll have her brought here to the hotel clinic where our doctor will induce labor.  The baby should take his first breath moments later and you should be prepared to enter that host body immediately.  You should also make sure that no other spirit competes with you for that privilege.  I'll prepare papers for the mother to sign giving up all rights to the child.  I'll have the doctor list the mother's name on the birth certificate and I'll have him enter the name of Dominick Gianelli of Joshuaville, California as the father.  You will be named Fisher Gianelli.  Is there anything that you want me to tell you as you mature into a man, anything that'll steer you in the right direction?”  “Not that I can think of Dominick, you pretty well know the whole story and by the time I reach the age of accountability Jessy should be able to materialize enough to teach me the things that you don't know.”

“Fisher, I have heard that when a baby is born that it does not loose it's entire memory instantly but a baby looses his memories gradually over a few days or even weeks. When you first enter the host body try to make an effort to remember all you can for as long as you can. I will try to have you here at this house as quickly as I possibly can so Jessy and I can begin to reinforce what memory you still have as quickly as possible. I don't know how much of that memory, if any we can salvage but we will give it our best effort.” “Great idea Dominick I will give it my best effort to remember all that I can and maybe I will retain some of it.”

Dominick, “You will never know how much I appreciate the things that you've done and are doing for 'Jessy' and for me.” “I am doing these things as much for myself and for mankind as I'm doing them for you, Frazier.”

Dominick found Josh and asked him “Josh I've one big favor to ask of you and I think you know that I'd not ask it if it weren't vitally important.”  “Sure Dominick, anything, just name it.” “Josh, I need one of those five mansions that you built, I know that they're all occupied but is it possible that one could be vacated immediately. I'm going to have some very important guests staying with me for a long time, maybe for years and we don't want any infringement on our privacy.  I'd also like to employ three housekeepers who are also experienced nanny's and good cooks.  it'd be better if you could find mutes who could fill those positions.  I'll need older women, perhaps between 50 and 60 who have no family ties.   Come to think of it I believe that I may be able to locate these women all you've to do is to hire them and assign them to the mansion that I occupy.”  “I assume that when the time is right you're going to tell me what this is all about, right?”  Yes Josh, it pains me even now to keep you in the dark like this, even for a little while.”  “The Kormans have mentioned on several occasions lately that they were thinking of moving back down here with the rest of us but they hated taking up one of our valuable hotel rooms.  They say that they're beginning to feel isolated up there on that hill all by themselves.”  “I don't like to rush anyone on a move this big but do you think you could bring this move about in the next couple days, Josh?”  “It's as good as done, Dominick but I have to admit, the curiosity is killing me.”

Dominick's next stop was at the clinic.  He knew all of the doctors pretty well as he usually swung by the clinic every day to see how things were going and he always chatted for a few minutes with the staff and the patients when there were any.  Dominick knew which doctor. he wanted to work with on the birth of his son.  He cornered Dr. Ton Fuhrman as soon as he entered the clinic.  “May we have a word in private, Dr.?”  “Certainly Mr. Gianelli, what can I do for you?”  “I am thinking of adopting a child and to simplify things I'd like my name listed on the birth certificate as the father.  I assure you that the mother will also want me listed so.  The mother of the child will be flown in to this clinic some time in the next few days.  She'll be due to deliver at about that time.  What I want you to do is to induce labor and deliver the baby as soon as you check on her health.  She may not have had adequate prenatal care so she'll require a full physical examination before you induce her.  Once the baby is delivered you can treat the child as you'd any other child but be prepared to dispatch the child in the care of one of your nurses or a member of my staff as soon as the baby is old enough to be transported to the Korman Mansion up on the hill.” Do you think you can handle that for me?”

I might have some ethical problem with some of that but I guess that there isn't anything there that I can't live with.  I can appreciate that you'd like to be a father and I know your situation, we all do, of course.  I guess we could list your name as the father if the mother tells us that you're the father, we're not required to verify what the mother tells us in that regard.  As for inducing labor if it's not medically called for I suppose I could fudge a little, many obstetrician's do that so they can free up their week end and everybody knows it.  I'd say yes Dominick I'd be happy to handle that for you.”

Next Dominick located Enna, “I am preparing to adopt a baby boy, and I've not purchased any of the items that a baby needs.  This will be a newborn and I'll have adequate professional care for the child but I need all of the things that new born baby requires.  Would you consider going in to Palm Springs and buying everything that I'll need, including the best crib you can find.  You can take one of the vans because I want you to buy everything that you see that a baby might need.” “Well, congratulations, Dominick, on becoming a father, when will the stork arrive?”  “Pardon me Enna, I don't know what that means.”  “It means when will the baby arrive, when will you be needing these things?”  “Oh, I imagine that it's a little late today so tomorrow will be fine.  When return with the purchases please take them directly to the Korman, mansion.”  “So the Kormans will be taking care of the baby for you?”  “No not exactly, I'm moving in to the Korman Mansion and they're moving in to my room in the hotel.”  “Sure, Dom I'll go to Palm Springs first thing tomorrow and I won't need a driver I enjoy driving myself.  I should have your things back here by tomorrow afternoon. Take this credit card with you and charge everything to my account, wait, on second thought, see Mel and have write you a check for ten thousand dollars. Tell him he can deduct that check from my account. When you get to Palm Springs go to the bank and cash the check. You can give Mel back the change when you return.”

Dominick returned to his room and sensed Jessy's presence immediately.  He was hard at it staring into the mirror but with nothing to show for it so far.  Jessy materialized an image for Dominick in his long flowing garments.  “This just isn't working Dominick I've been staring at this mirror for hours and nothing is happening.”  “I stared at it for months before anything happened, Jessy, It should be easier for you I'd imagine.  Don't be so easily discouraged it's a process that may take a lot of time.  it's taken me sixty years so far and I still have a long way to go.”  Jessy just shrugged, his image disappeared and he went back to work staring at the mirror.  Even though Dominick could no longer see him he said “we're going to be moving to the second mansion on the hill in the next couple days so if you're looking for me and I'm not here you can check up there.”  “I know how to find you Dominick, you disciples never give me the credit I'm due.  Don't worry I can find you wherever you are.  Dominick sort of felt honored, The Creator Son had just called him, Dominick one of his Disciples.

Dominick cleared his mind and pictured Fisher sitting in the overstuffed chair that he usually occupied when he was in the room.  Within one second flat there sat Fisher.  “Quick work, Fisher this system really works.  How are you coming along in your quest to find a mother?”  “Great news, on that front Dominick, I found a pregnant Nun.  A priest in the same church is the father.  they're both strong healthy people and no one even knows that she's pregnant.  The parents are attached to a parish in Italy so if you follow me I'll take you to her.”  “As soon as you get me there Fisher I've one more chore for you, well actually three chores.  I need for you to locate three women that you'd want bringing you up to serve as your nanny, cook, maid and sort of mother.  These women should have no outside ties and women in their fifty's would be preferable.  Pick women you like take me to them and then I'll hire them.  By the way we're moving to the mansion on the hill presently occupied by Mel and Hilda Korman, are you familiar with the place?”  “Yes Dominick, I'll be able to find it and I'm able to find you no matter where you are.”  

The next instant the two of them in spirit form were standing in what appeared to be a hospital laundry room.  Dominick realized that he was naked and grabbed a set of scrubs.  Fisher remained in the spirit form so he needed no clothing.  While Dominick was getting dressed he asked Fisher if he'd located a Tuxedo shop in the town, whatever town that was.  As it turned out they were in Milan, a large city.  Dominick spotted a bank and went in.  He asked to speak to the manager.  The receptionist noticed that he was dressed in scrubs and assumed that he was a doctor from the nearby hospital.  “Certainly Dr. have a seat at this desk and Mr. Pavaluci will be right with you.  When Mr. Pavaluci appeared Dominick told him that he was Dominick Gianelli of Joshuaville, California and he'd lost his wallet and his clothes and credit cards, the whole thing.  The manager was very obliging.  He photographed Dominick and sent a Fax to Josh asking if knew this person.  As soon as Josh said he did he put a call in to his bank and had fifty thousand dollars cash wired to Dominick.  The whole transaction took no more than an hour.  Dominick thanked Mr. Pavaluci walked out of the bank and into a tuxedo shop that he'd been directed to by Fisher. Fisher remained by Dominick's side because Dominick still didn't know how to find the expecting parents.

Another hour went by before Dominick, with a pocket full of money was standing with Fisher behind a church in Milan, Italy near the front door of the rectory.  Fisher told Dominick that the father of the child was called father Hidalgo, the pregnant Nun was sister Paulina.  Dominick approached the rectory a little reluctantly and knocked on the door.  A nun answered but it wasn't sister Paulina.  I've come a long way sister and I must speak with Father Hidalgo.  “Just a moment please,” she said in Italian.  She disappeared briefly down the hall then momentarily a Priest appeared.  “I am Father Hidalgo, how can I be of service to you my son?”  “Is there a place that we can talk in private Father there is something of great importance that I need to discuss with you.  Once they were seated in the pastor's office Dominick started by saying “Don't ask me how I know this Father but I have my sources. I'm a very wealthy man. I'm a single man but I have no son and heir.  it's my fervent desire to adopt a child, preferably a newborn baby, can you help me Father.”  “It was like a flash bulb had just gone off in the priests face, “Yes my son I may just be able to help you.”  It took a little prodding but within a couple minutes the priest was telling Dominick his whole sordid predicament with sister Paulina.

Within the hour Dominick had negotiated a deal whereby he'd fly Sister Paulina by chartered Jet to California where she'd deliver the baby.  he'd have himself listed as the father on the birth certificate and Paulina, Valdipeno listed as the mother.  She'd be flown back to Milan without the baby and he'd have the child he so desperately wanted.  This transaction, of course came along with a generous donation to the parish.  

On the trip back to California Fisher showed up and told Dominick who and where the three women were to be found that he wanted to raise him through his early years.

Since, Dominick had chartered the corporate jet to fly them to California he skipped the airports and had the pilot land directly on the Golden Desert Hotel runway.  The pilot had been told to file a flight plan for North Las Vegas Airport. The pilot then taxied to a hanger where they were met by Josh in a limousine.  The pilot was given a generous tip and told that he couldn't remember where they'd landed but that he should continue on immediately to North Las Vegas airport.  He readily agreed after seeing the size of the tip.  He said that as far as he knew it was just a landing strip in the Mojave Desert where he was told to put down and he was told to take off again right away, if it ever came to that, but since he would be arriving according to his flight plan he doubted that anyone would ever ask.  He couldn't remember where they'd landed or even if he had landed.  With that reiterated the pilot refueled, took off and headed for North Las Vegas.  

Josh drove Dominick and Sister Paulina to the clinic because as luck would have it she'd gone into labor somewhere over Texas.  Dr. Tom Fuhrman was waiting for them when they arrived.  It was an easy delivery and within three hours of their arrival Dominick was the father of a bouncing baby boy, who was even Italian.

During the wait for Fishers arrival at the clinic Josh cornered Dominick and asked for the explanation that he said he was entitled to.  It took Dominick the entire waiting time to bring Josh up to date.  Josh didn't exactly believe him but agreed to hold off judgment until Dominick could more fully explain he and Sol and Mel at breakfast.

As soon as the baby arrived Dominick sat beside the crib, he was shortly joined by Jessy. Jessy immediately went to work trying to salvage Fisher's memory. Even though Fisher was less than one hour old he was alert and awake and seemed to be understanding what Jessy was conveying to him.

Dominick could soon see that Fisher was in good hands so he got out his notes and was pleased to see that all three of the women Fisher had chosen were in the Western United States.  No more of this arriving naked for a while anyway.  Dominick rousted a pilot at three the next morning and they took off for Seattle to hire his first nanny.

CHAPTER- 25

FISHER IN HIS NEW HOME

Artis Filmore was single, as they all were, she was a Registered Nurse Practitioner, as they all were, she was in her middle fifty's, as they all were, that's where the similarities ended Artis had raised her son but he'd died in Iraq.  Her husband had died a year later from colon cancer.  She was employed as a supervisory RN at one of the largest hospitals in the Northwest.  She had enough time on the job to retire but didn't know what she'd do with herself if she did.  Artis was African American, she knew a lot of people but didn't have anyone that she could really call a best friend.  When Dominick appeared out of the blue and offered her a job paying twice what she was now earning plus board and room and a fifty thousand dollar signing bonus to sign a ten year contract she snapped it up.  Her duties would include cooking, cleaning and caring for one infant.  She'd have two other ladies to share the burden.  She looked forward to being out of the rat race.  She knew that she would love living in a mansion on the grounds of one of the most famous and prestigious hotels in the United States. Artis had also seen Dominick interviewed on TV and knew that he was a very special person. She'd been praying out loud every evening for some change in her life, but she seriously doubted that God ever heard her prayers.

Karen Schultz had never been married.  She worked as a primary health care provider under a family practice Dr. in Denver, Colorado, She was of German decent but had never been out of the United States.  She watched TV on evenings and week ends. She knew immediately who Dominick Gianelli was and was thrilled to be working for perhaps the most famous man in the world. Karen loved to cook. She had grown tired of her job. There was little variety or challenge left for her in her chosen profession.  She'd been praying out loud every evening for some change in her life, but she seriously doubted that God ever heard her prayers.

Dominick's next stop was in San Francisco. Kau Sue Lum worked in China Town, she'd been married for almost thirty years when her husband came home one night and told her he wanted a divorce.  Sue worked as a primary health care provider at a free clinic in China Town.   Her daughter was grown. She'd a good marriage, four kids and and an Ivy league education.  The daughter and her husband lived on the East Coast.  All she and her daughter had done for the last ten years was exchange Christmas cards.   Sue was simply ready for a change, something that would make her feel alive again. Sue was an excellent cook and she loved babies.  She'd been praying out loud every evening for some change in her life, but she seriously doubted that God ever heard her prayers.

It would seem that they were all wrong about God not hearing their prayers.  Karen and Sue accepted Dominick's offer of employment as readily as Artis had.  Dominick had each of them call a packing and moving company to pack and ship all of their personal belongings to the Golden Desert Hotel in Joshuaville, California, care of Dominick Gianelli, Manager.

By late that evening his corporate jet landed back at the hotel with the three nanny's en toe. Their things were to be sent along later.

The next morning Dominick contacted Manuel and had him send the best bouquet he could muster to Paulina, who was a patient at the clinic.  Dominick timed it so that he arrived at the clinic at the same time that Manuel arrived with the flowers. Dominick took the bouquet from Manuel pulled up at the curb. Dominick then visited with sister Paulina briefly as he presented her with the bouquet.  Enna showed up at the mansion with the baby things and turned them over to the three waiting nanny's.  The duty nurse that'd attended Fisher's birth carried the baby Fisher into the limousine for the short trip up to the mansion.  

Upon their arrival the nurse carried the baby into the house and asked to speak with the nanny's. When they were all assembled the nurse said, ”I wasn't at all in favor of sending a child this young home I think he should still be in the clinic where at least he'd have professional staff to care for him. Have any of you ladies ever had any experience with infants this young or with medicine.?  Artis volunteered that she was a Registered Nurse Practitioner, Karen and Sue told her that they were also RN practitioners.  At hearing that the RN who'd carried the baby into the house turned on her heals and headed for the waiting limousine. She muttered something about “Well I can see that this baby is going to be in good hands” as she went out the door.

CHAPTER 26

JESSY LEARNS ABOUT LIFE ON EARTH

Dominick went up to check out his new bedroom and found Jessy staring into the mirror on his bedroom door.  Dominick was amazed to see that Jessy had already produced a faint image.  “Good work, Jessy. I can already see that image.  You've attained as much in two or three days as I did in the first two or three years.”  “Thank you Dominick, I appreciate that coming from you.”  

The next morning at 4:00 AM when the big four met for breakfast there was a little tension in the air. “OK, Dom you're probably more to thank than any of the rest of us for the fortune we've all made but, guy you've cost us over three million dollars in the last week or so.  What gives?, said Sol. Josh told us the condensed version of what you told him in the clinic but it sounds too far fetched to be believable.”  “Believe it Sol”, Dominick answered. “At this moment, Christ, Jesus is standing in my bedroom trying to materialize himself by peering into the mirror on the back of my bathroom door, and the lord Jehovah is lying in a crib in the next bedroom.  Now these are big names to be throwing around I realize but these two guys aren't as special as humans have always made them out to be.  Christ is a little stuck up, maybe but he's really a good guy at heart.  they've never misrepresented anything and they've been trying to talk with us since the beginning, they just never knew how to go about it. Once I figured it out for them they jumped right in to change things in the only way that I could figure out.  

This Earth of ours was the last stop on maybe a five or ten trillion year migration since they lost their planet.  Sure they've botched things, sometimes pretty badly but they've always meant well and they've been just as appalled at mankind's behavior as we have.  Once Jehovah lives his life and passes from this  Earth and once Jessy learns the things that I've learned they're going to attempt to set things right on this planet.  My job for the next hundred years is to make sure that Jehovah lives a perfect life and that Jessy learns to materialize his physical body beyond where I am now.  He needs vocal chords so he can be heard over a microphone and his voice recorded.  I can't do that yet but I'm working on the vocal chord thing, that's my current project.  I may stop after that and one other thing that I've considered.  Fisher told me that if I finished everything then I might be just another mortal and probably die of a heart attack again.  it's something I've been thinking about seriously. I have decided to stop progressing once I get this vocal chord and that one other thing done.”

“What's that other thing that you're considering, Dominick?”  “Well, after this thing with baby Fisher I may want to actually be a father one day.”  They all busted out laughing. “Somehow I've a real problem with picturing you in the sack with a gal, Dom.” “Of course, you could always be a sperm donor, there might be a pretty good demand for spook sperm.”  They all, including Dominick laughed heartily once again.

Dominick continued “For financial reasons and because you three guys are my best friends I'd to tell you the truth.  I thought about concocting a bunch of lies but I'm not a practiced liar and you would not have believed me anyway so I decided to tell you the truth.  If you want to ruin this business and all that we've built here then all you have to do is repeat the things that I've just shared with you, in confidence.  we'd have pilgrims lined up from here to Palm Springs, they'd trample the fence and brave the concertina wire just to get a peek at their lord and their Saviour, not to mention get a peek at their lord Jehovah as an infant.  Our guests missions would fail and the world would be thrown into turmoil.  You should never utter a word of this to anyone, not your wives, not your children, not anybody.  To do so would be like putting a gun to your head and pulling the trigger, only worse.  Am I clear on that?”

“We all see your point Dominick and it's well taken.”  said Mel.  I won't even tell Hilda, I especially wouldn't want to be the one to tell her that Christ was really who he said he was, sort of.”  “Actually, Mel, Christ was who he said he was, it's just that people got carried away and extremely exaggerated the things that he said, he was quoted out of context and the counsel refused to back him up, oh, and there really isn't any paradise or any hell; there is only this side and the other side.  About half of the spirits are on this side right now and the other half are on the other side and neither side has any idea of what they're doing.” Heaven and Hell are what the spirits themselves make of their existence on the other side.

Some spirits who have been very terrible people while in the flesh have a great deal of difficulty in dealing with the things they did. Some go into a state of suspended animation that may last hundreds of years. No one knows where they are exactly when they are in this state. It is possible that their minds have created a mental hell that they just have to live through before they can face the others in the spirit world on the other side. If that is the case then they would truly be in Hell. Once they awaken they still have to review their most recent life in the flesh and learn to deal with the issues that imposes.”

Dominick continued, “Fortunately there are support groups on the other side that work much like support groups work on this side. These very troubled ones tend to join a support group or groups that deal with the kinds of problems that they have. They may never feel confident enough to want to experience another life in the flesh. When and if they opt for another life in the flesh it provides them with great opportunity to earn their own forgiveness. On the other side in the spirit world no one ever judges another spirit. The only one who will ever pass judgment when you arrive on the other side is yourself.”

Dominick then describes Paradise to them, “Like Hell being of man's own creation it should be noted that Paradise is also of the individual's own creation. One who has lived an essentially good life in the flesh, has been considerate of others, has sacrificed for the people around him and for less fortunate people that he may not even have known may be in a position to rejoice upon his return to the other side. He may compare his most recent experience in the flesh to previous experiences and realize that this time around he has made great progress. Other spirits will sense this when they are in his presence. The other spirits may seek out his counsel and listen carefully to his teachings that they may learn from him. He may enjoy an exalted position position in the spirit world and truly dwell in Paradise.”

“Perfection has proven very illusive to the point that has so far proven unattainable. Perfection can be stated simply. It amounts to living a life in the flesh where the individual loves the most despicable man on  Earth more than he loves himself. This love can not be just spoken but must be felt genuinely by the perfect one. If it were just spoken it would make the alleged perfect one a hypocrite. Such a hypocrite would be very unhappy with his accomplishments in the flesh once he returned to the other side.”  

The things that I have just told you I got from Jessy and from Fisher in personal conversations that I have had with them.”

Dominick then apologized for getting so heavy with his friends at their morning coffee. The things that Dominick had told them were pretty heavy but it gave them all food for thought. The morning coffee session broke up but Josh, Sol and Mel spent many hours mulling over the things that Dominick had shared with them. The next morning Josh, Sol and Mel arrived a little early for coffee. Sol said, “I don't know how you guys feel about it but to me somehow old Dominick just doesn't seem as much fun to be around as he used to be.” Josh and Mel agreed. Then Dominick arrived and carried things on a much lighter note. The four of them discussed the ongoing projects at the hotel and their plans for future projects just like they had been doing for years. The others were happy to see this but things still seemed different about Dominick, and they were just not comfortable with it.

Everything went smoothly at the mansion for the first three months that of Fisher's life.  Dominick kept the bedroom that was being used by Jessy locked.  Once a week he'd enter to see how Jessy was doing.  He was always amazed with the progress that Jessy was making.  Jessy was never pleased but he grudgingly acknowledged that he could tell that he was succeeding little by little.  Dominick told Jessy “You have come as far in three months as I did in ten years.” “On his weekly visits he always asked Jessy to dematerialize briefly while the ladies dusted and cleaned the room.  This was the only time that the ladies had access to the room.  They thought this was peculiar but they figured that Dominick had his reasons for keeping the empty room locked.  

Almost immediately after Fisher arrived at the mansion Dominick began to probe his mind. Dominick had heard that all memory of your former spirit life didn't vanish instantly but faded away very rapidly.  Fortunately this had not proved out in Fisher's case.  At three day's of age Fisher still knew who he was in the spirit world and what his status was.  Dominick spent hours in the baby's room beside his crib probing his mind and reinforcing the memories that he found there.  Dominick wished he knew more about the human brain but he was experiencing limited success in preventing Fisher from loosing all of his memory.  What Dominick was doing was catching loose and fleeting memories that flashed through Fishers mind and etched them permanently in Fishers human memory center.  Dominick would constantly reinforce those memories so they'd not be permanently lost by the time Fisher was one month old he was conversing with Dominick the way spirits communicated.  These early days and weeks were a critical time in Fisher's life and Dominick knew it.  The ladies were amazed at how much time Dominick spent just sitting by the baby's bed and staring down at him.  Whenever Fisher needed human attention Dominick would summon one of the ladies whether it was for cleaning, feeding or diaper cleaning, Dominick wouldn't do those chores.  

Later on the ladies said that after Fisher was a couple weeks old they could never remember hearing him cry.  Dr. Tom (as he'd become known at the mansion) was summoned at least once a week to give Fisher a complete check up and a clean bill of health.  By his sixth month Fisher was talking to the ladies.  The ladies had all thought the heard him talking by the third month but by the sixth month they were sure of it.  They were amazed that Fisher never talked baby talk from the very beginning he used proper English, he seldom mispronounced a word, his vocabulary was that of an adult by his sixth month.  Of course Fisher was using thought transference and not his vocal chords to communicate with the ladies.

Before anyone other than Dominick had seen Jessy Dominick told him that it was time that he started appearing in contemporary clothing.  The flowing two thousand year old clothes that he still wore had served their purpose.  Dominick ordered a complete wardrobe for Jessy and spent a whole afternoon teaching him to wear the clothing properly.  He also provided Jessy with a wrist watch and taught him to tell time.  Dominick figured that getting him a computer would have to wait a little longer.  Jessy had the same problem that Dominick had had with not being heard by electronic media. Dominick, however had by this time a set of completely developed vocal chords so he also had a new blackberry that he had become very attached to and used it a lot.  The mansion also had a land line outlet and telephone in every room.  Josh had three relay stations installed between the hotel and Twenty-Nine Palms so cell phones now worked just fine at the hotel.

After giving Jessy his clothes and wrist watch he assigned Jessy to watch TV at least six hours per day.  He also assigned Jessy the chore of learning English so that once he'd developed his vocal chords he'd be able to understand and speak to people.  He didn't want Jessy exposed to the world without being able to speak into a microphone.  Dominick began to think that the second coming might be sooner than expected.  Jessy was also enlisted to help teach Fisher.  Dominick asked Jessy to enter the child's mind and teach him all of the things that he knew as the chairman of the counsel. Both Dominick and Jessy stressed the point over and over to Fisher that he wasn't just a little human boy but he was in fact a very special spirit, one that could never be less than perfect throughout his entire life less he chanced loosing his position as chairman of the counsel, a post that he'd held for virtual eternity.

To go along with his new clothes Dominick summoned the barber from the hotel.  He instructed the barber to give Jessy a contemporary haircut.  Jessy was a little reluctant, “he said what if he takes off too much, Dominick?”  “It doesn't matter much,” said Dominick  A phenomenon that I've observed  with my reconstructed body is that my hair and nails started growing normally again.  If the barber cuts it a little to short for your liking you can just let it grow out a little longer.”  “How can that be,” remarked Jessy.  “I don't know, they just started growing again, you tell me how it works, you're the expert.”

When Fisher turned six months Jessy had reached the point that Dominick had been at sixty years. He could readily materialize and was able to stay in the flesh for about two hours.  He could project his thoughts to visitors and the ladies.  Dominick knew that it was time to talk with the ladies.

He called them all together and invited Jessy to sit in on the meeting.  Dominick started the meeting by introducing Jessy as a spirit that he'd agreed to train in the art of restoring his physical body.  The Ladies had known from the start who Dominick was because they'd seen him on TV.  They felt honored to be keeping house for such a famous and important man.  “Ladies, Jessy is the one who's been using the bedroom upstairs that I always keep locked.  I didn't want you disturbing his studies. What he's doing is very difficult and he's progressing much more rapidly than I did.  I think that Jessy has progressed to the point that he'll start taking his meals with me in the evening.  During the meeting Dominick kept Fisher sitting on his lap.  

“I've agonized over this next subject ladies and I just don't know how much of it I should tell you. Certainly you need to enough to behave appropriately in the presence of Fisher and Jessy but I'm so afraid that if a word of this leaked out of this house it could cause an irreparable catastrophe on this Earth that could never be repaired.  It also might cause you to be very awkward and clumsy in their presence.  I know that two of you're Protestant Christians and one is Buddhist, and that all three of you take your religious belief's very seriously so I'm going to trust you if first you give me your solemn pledge that you'll never leak a word of this to anyone, not your families, not your friends and most particularly not to other employees here at the hotel.  Do I've that promise”?  The all vowed their assent.  

Karen then said, “we've pretty much figured out what you're doing Mr. Gianelli, we've also figured out who Jessy Christopher really is.  What we've not figured out who Fisher is and we've not figured out why the Saviour is starting out as an invisible spirit and Fisher is starting out as a baby.” Dominick explained, “I suppose that you ladies have heard the expression , 'The light at the end of the tunnel, well when my life in the flesh was terminated, I was reluctant to pass through that tunnel and never have passed through it.  When Jessy's prior life in the flesh was terminated, he ascended directly up to the other side, so we have the capacity to regain our physical bodies through hard work and concentration.  Fisher however, has never experienced a life in the flesh on Earth so he must live a perfect life here and cross over but not go through the tunnel, then he'll be able to do what Jessy and I are doing.  We both still have a long way to go.  Fisher will need to live here until at least age 40 and preferably age 50 before he crosses over then it'll take him a couple more years to reconstruct his physical body.  I hope that you're following all of this ladies.”

“Mr. Gianelli, we can appreciate that Fisher is actually someone with very high status in the Kingdom of God, it doesn't really matter who he is, he and you should know that we hold him in the very highest regard possible and we'll do everything you, or he or Jessy asks of us to help him fulfill his mission on Earth.  We could figure out for ourselves that if the religious nut cases of the world knew who lived in this house we wouldn't able to raise Fisher in the way he has to be raised and Jessy wouldn't be able to complete this stage of his return to Earth” Artis said.  

Jessy interrupted, “Let me say a word here, Dominick.”  Yes, ladies, I'm indeed who you think I'm.  Counting Fisher and I there are only ten people that know my true identity.  Seven of those people know Fishers true identity so you might as well be included.  Ladies I'd like to present the The Lord Jehovah.”  They gasp at hearing that name invoked in connection with the baby that Dominick cradled on his lap.  “Oh, my God,” said Sue.” at that Fisher said “Yes”.  Despite the gravity of the conversation they all had to laugh.  Jessy continued, “What I really wanted to tell you was that I have been the most misunderstood and the most misquoted, individual in the history of The Earth.  I came here some two thousand years ago because I wanted to experience a life in the flesh.  In doing that I was risking my status on the counsel as The Creator Son.  If I'd lost my control and failed to live a perfect life in the flesh I'd have become just another of The Earth's fifteen Billion spirits.  I was fortunate and survived the ordeal with my status intact.  I tried to get the counsel to admit all of those who chose to follow my teachings to be permitted to join the counsel of perfect spirits.  To sort of ride in on my coat tails, so to speak.  the counsel, however, and thanks largely to our friend Fisher here who governs the counsel, would have none of that.  the counsel, ladies, consists of only twenty three members plus Fisher and I for a total of twenty five members.  There are at least a million other spirits who have lived near perfect lives in the flesh who should be admitted to the counsel and I maintain that all of the other counsel members should have to prove their perfection by living a life in the flesh.  None of them has been in the flesh in the several trillion years since our home planet was destroyed.”  These are the things that Fisher and disagree on, we still love and respect each other but our relationship has been a little strained for the last two thousand Earth years.  No, neither Fisher nor I created the rocks and the water and the dirt that this planet is made of.  Our definition of the word create comprehends the level of civilization that exists and not the making of dirt out of nothingness.  that's about all I had to say, I'd appreciate it if you'd not pester me with a lot of questions in the coming months because I must maintain my level of concentration in order to prepare myself for my coming mission in reshaping how this Earth is run.  We should have a meeting like this three or four times a year and you can save your questions until then.  Dominick is capable of answering most of your questions so you can interrupt his work, he's easily distracted and gets interrupted quite often anyway.”

Having said his piece, Jessy just dematerialized and was gone.  Dominick said I guess we should all get back to work now. I'm spending most of my time educating Fisher for his coming life and mission on this Earth.  that's why I spend so much time with him we're deep into thought communication. I guess that you should know that Jessy has been spending more time with Fisher than I have. Fisher, unlike most humans living in the flesh knows who he is and knows all too well the importance of this life in the flesh that he is pursuing. Unlike the rest of humanity Fisher retains much of his memory from the other side.”

CHAPTER -27

DOMINICK LEARNS ABOUT THE OTHER SIDE

One morning as Dominick prepared to go to his breakfast at the hotel Jessy said “If you think that I'd be welcome Dominick, I'd like to go with you for the coffee and the Danish that you seem to enjoy so much.  I think it also time that I met Josh, Sol and Mel, that you have coffee with every morning.”  “Yes, Jessy I suppose that's time that you met them. They're wonderful people Jessy, but you must keep in mind that they're of the Jewish persuasion and they officially don't believe in you.  That should make for an interesting conversation if you don't push them to change their deeply held religious convictions.”

When Josh, Sol and Mel arrived for their morning visit with Dominick the were surprised to see a smartly dressed man in his early thirties seated by Dominick.  The each already had their coffee and were waiting for the others to arrive.  Josh asked, “who is your young friend there Dominick?  I thought we'd agreed that we should not invite outsiders to this meeting?”  “This is Jessy, I've told you about him, he's a spirit much like me that I've been teaching to regain his physical body.  As you can see by looking into his eyes he's made remarkable progress.  In fact he and I are at about the same place in our body reconstruction efforts.  He will probably be moving on soon to take up his work, I think he should first learn to vocalize fluently in English and I think he should have a solid education before he ventures out.”  

Josh introduced himself, his brother Sol and Mel, Josh then as he extended his hand Jessy arose from the table and took both of Josh's hands in his. I'm pleased to meet you Josh, I've heard so much about you from Dominick that I feel I know you already, and I want you to know that I'm aware that I've you three gentlemen to thank for the privacy that Dominick and I have enjoyed since he's been teaching me the things that I'll need to know to get along in your society.  You know, I guess that unlike Dominick who never really left I was here once before but that was a good many years ago.”  “I don't see anything wrong with your English , Jessy,” Sol ventured.  “Ha,” said Dominick, “ he's been using thought transfer to speak to you and just mouthing words but ask him to vocalize in English and he sounds like he just got off the boat.”  Jessy said in very heavily accented English “I think my friend Dominick speaks truth, I know I need lots more practice to get English.”  We see what you mean, Dominick,” Sol said. “If you want to learn English the way people really speak it why don't you come down here and I'll put you on one of my work crews for a while, in no time you'll be speaking like a native.?  “You should carry a tape recorder and record things people say then when you get back home you can practice getting the right voice inflection and speaking without an accent. There are lots of folks that resent people who speak with an accent in our society.  they'll be nice to you to your face but they'll never really become your friend, nor will they ever really trust you.”

“Jessy reverted to thought transference and said, “I think Sol has something there, Dominick, I notice that even you don't talk the same way that I see lots of people on TV talking, besides it's my nature to work with my hands and work with the common man, in my last life I used to be a carpenter.  I always enjoyed working with wood.”  Josh remarked “Yeah, we heard all about you being a carpenter, Jessy, it's just that we've never been persuaded that you were anything more than a carpenter.” They all had a good laugh at that.  

“Carpentry, or at least carpentry tools have changed since your time Jessy, after this meeting breaks up stick around and I'll show you how to use the tools that we use now,” said Sol.  “Then will you hire me for job”, Jessy asked.  “Sure, Jessy you can start any time you like.”

The second coming thus started with Jessy going to work as a carpenters helper.  Sol demonstrated all of the tools that were in common use today, he noticed that Jessy was an excellent student and caught on quickly.  “Let me give you a little advise, Jessy, when you talk to these men never use thought transference,  vocalize as best you can, they're all good guys and they'll try and help you learn their vernacular.  Never talk religion with them.  If they talk religion you just listen to what they have to say, you might even say that you've never really taken that subject too seriously.  I figure that we should tell them that you're a distant relative of mine that's lived in Israel all of his life, that I helped you come over here to the States and gave you a job.”  “Those are excellent suggestions, Sol, I'll put them to good use.”

The next morning at coffee, Jessy was there again and this time he vocalized everything that he said. “Boy how things have changed in two thousand years, these are a bunch of real good guys that I'm working with and with these new tools they can do more fucken work in one day than a crew that size could do in a year where I come from.”  “Oops, stop right there Jessy,” Sol said, “You can't use that word, it's a swear word, I know they use it a lot, and you've probably heard people talk that way on TV shows but the word is profane and can't be used in polite conversation.  If you want to use it when you're working with the crew, go ahead but it degrades your status and credibility.  If you ever intend to go public and try to convince people that you're who you claim to be they'll not even begin to believe you if you use that word, my suggestion is to learn other ways to express yourself and never use that word again, you notice that Josh, Mel, Dominick and I never use words like that in our conversations.”  “What word be that Sol?”  “The word 'fucken', just ignore it when you hear it.  it's an illiteracy and adds no meaning to anything you say.”  “Oh, OK, thanks boss I'll keep that in mind”, Jessy said. Sol just shook his head slowly for emphasis.

When the morning meeting broke up Josh grabbed Dominick by the sleeve, indicating that he should stick around for a minute.  “I, don't know that it's such a good idea after all letting Jessy work with that crew, do you have any doubts about it Dominick?”  “Why are you trying to protect, Jessy, Josh?, I thought that you didn't believe in him?”  “In my opinion school is still out on that subject, Dominick, ask twenty Jews and you'll get twenty different opinions as to who Jesus was and what significance he had.”

Jessy seemed to enjoy  his time as a carpenters apprentice.  He was getting his hands dirty and he was beginning to fit in as just one of the guys on the crew.  The other guys razzed him often when he phrased something wrong in English but his workday was an all day English lesson.  Dominick was impressed because in a couple months Jessy was speaking English just like a native.  Dominick wondered if it had ever occurred to anyone else on the crew that people just couldn't loose an accent that quickly.

While Jessy was busy learning colloquial English Fisher was maturing rapidly.  At his first birthday party he made a speech of sorts in good English, thanking the ladies for all they'd been doing for him.  Fisher started reading at ten months.  Dominick estimated that by age one he was reading at maybe the 4th or 5th grade level. Dominick's and Jessy's mind probes indicated that they'd been successful in salvaging most of Fishers memory of who he was and where he'd come from.  The blank spots had been filled in by his two mentors.  Dominick was sure that Fisher wasn't aware of what he actually remembered and what had been programmed into him.  Dominick had enrolled Fisher in some on-line grade school courses and observed that Fisher was making remarkable progress.  they'd never allowed Fisher to be a baby or a child.  At two Fisher was just a small adult.  He kind of held himself in reverence.  Fisher was going to do just fine.  

Dominick thought it was a shame that they had not been able to let Fisher just be a kid for a while but Dominick knew that would be too dangerous. All of the people in Fishers life were careful to expose him to a situation that might cause him to commit a sin.

After a year of working at the hotel Dominick figured that Jessy had gained all he was going to gain from that work experience so Dominick got him aside to have a talk.  “What are your plan's now Jessy?, I don't see where you're going to learn much more doing carpenter work.”  “I've joined the union, Dominick and in less than six months I should be a journeyman.”  “I think that it's time that you should be thinking about your education, Jessy.  I'd like to suggest that you transfer from Sol's work crew to Da's dining room crew, those construction crews are real blue collar guys, they're crude and in a lot of respects they're ignorant and uninformed.  If Da were to start you out busing tables you'd get a chance to see how the other half of society lives.  If you progressed as fast there as you have as a carpenter you'd become a waiter and learn what it is to be a gentleman.”  “I know you're right Dom, but I really enjoy working with my hands building things.”  “Lo be it unto me to tell you what to do Jessy but I think what I just suggested would be the best thing for you at this time.”  “I hate this, Dom, you're right and I know it, after all I did come to Earth with a mission and I suppose that I should be about it.”

At coffee the next morning Dominick told Sol that he was about to loose his best apprentice.  Josh started Jessy busing in the dining room that morning by having him bus up the mess that the morning coffee drinkers had made.

Jessy fit in well in the kitchen, he didn't seem too proud at all to bus tables.  He showed an interest in what the waiters were doing.  He rapidly mastered the menu, the kitchen rules and the way the restaurant operated.  he'd stop by Da's office after he got off shift where he'd ask questions about ordering and menu planing, he just made himself a part of the kitchen operation.  He found out quickly that the crude demeanor that he'd developed from working with the construction crew wouldn't work here.  There was a lot that Jessy needed to know to fit in and mesh nicely with different groups of humans, he found out that these groups weren't as alike as he'd assumed them to be.

  Whenever Jessy was off duty in the kitchen and when he was caught up on his coaching chores with Fisher he would attend church.  There was always a service going on somewhere on this planet. He used astral travel and never materialized because it'd be a real embarrassment to have a naked man running through a church while they were holding services.  He was constantly amazed at the different bent that the different churches took.  He attended services held by all of the different religious groups, in different countries and saw mankind's religious experience from all of it's different perspectives.

Jessy spent an hour or more of his time every day for a month in spirit form on the Gaza Strip, just hanging around restaurants and other public gathering places listening to people having ordinary day to day conversations. The next month he did the same thing in Israel. As the months went by he spent time with all of the various ethnic groups learning about them and how their lives were going. He learned about their hopes, desires, aspirations and about their politics. He showed particular interest in their religion's. Most of this astral travel he could accomplish at night when other people were asleep.  Jessy did not require sleep and neither did Dominick. Dominick frequently accompanied Jessy on these nocturnal journeys. The things that they saw and heard had a great impact on their lives. “How is it possible for there to be so many different value systems and religious beliefs on such a small planet?” Dominick ask Jessy. “I guess I just didn't do my job as well as I could have Dominick, I just didn't see all of this chaos coming when I could still do something about it. Our problem now, Dominick is to figure out a way to straighten it all out and get humanity all reading from the same page.”

Jessy brought the subject up while visiting with Dominick one day.  “what's wrong with people,” Jessy asked Dominick after describing many of the bazaar religious events he'd witnessed.  “I didn't ever make an effort to visit all the various churches that you apparently have Jessy, they just didn't interest me as much as they interest you.  I did attend mass in several places and even noticed inconsistency among Catholic Priests, mostly on minor issues but occasionally two priests express opposite opinions on the same issue. Religious practice and language are the two biggest determents to mankind, to people being able to get along with other people.  It won't be long now, a few years perhaps and we might be ready to go out and set things straight but I don't want to rush into it.  Be aware that everything we say will be in conflict with what a vast number of people believe and were brought up to believe. it's possible that even if you could prove that you were the true Christ, and you can't, that many people wouldn't want to give up their established belief's anyway.  If your presentation is eloquent and your showmanship is superb about the best you could achieve would be to succeed in establishing yet another major religion.”  “That's discouraging as hell, Dominick.”

CHAPTER - 28

JESSY ANSWERS DOMINICK'S QUESTIONS

“Speaking of religion, Jessy, I have a few questions that I've been waiting for the right time to ask you.”  “This is as good a time as any, Dominick, ask away.”  “Keep in mind Jessy that I'm asking these questions from the perspective of one who has no memory of life on the other side.”  If I'd crossed through that tunnel of light what would I've found on the other side?”  “Just ten billion more people, people like the ones here, for the most part not much better, than they are on this side of the tunnel.  The first thing that you'd do after looking up some old family and friends is to review the life that you just lead in the context of all the other lives that you've lead in the past.  This is where you'd kick yourself for not having remembered what it was that you wanted to accomplish by coming to Earth plane in the first place.  

“About half of the time the newly returned spirit realizes disappointment with the life in the flesh that he has just lead. The next thing that a returning spirit comes to realize is that the spirit side is a boring place to be. The biggest relief from the boredom is to watch what's going on on this side.”

“Try for a moment to imagine living in a place where there is no money, no food, no sex, no employment, no houses, no books, no gadgets, no wives or husbands or lovers, no booze, basically there isn't anything on the other side that you'd have here on Earth, there would be no need for any of those things.  You never feel cold or wet or hot or horny, or hungry or anything else. Living a life in the flesh followed by a life in the spirit world, followed by another life in the flesh, is our natural life cycle”

“When we lost our home planet all those eons ago, why do you think it was that our most fervent desire was to find another planet to call home?, we need a planet Dominick, that's the driving force in our make up.  That's why the spirits seek to experience life in the flesh.  We could exist just as well in deep space but it is our nature to seek and claim a planetary home. There are some advantages to being on the spirit side, a spirit has so many memories to draw from. Those memories, however center around previous lives in the flesh that they have lived.”

“I can tell you  this planet is a lot more interesting now than it was when I was here the last time I was here. I've already become accustomed to my blackberry and my computer, I can't wait to get a car.  I want to experience it all Dominick, but it's my job to try and direct the spirits presently residing in the flesh to be kinder and more understanding toward one another, to quit going to war, to be tolerant.  I know though that those things are all a part of life in the flesh and I embark on this crazy quest of mine knowing full well that I'll probably not be able to make any significant difference in this society and how it functions.”

“I'm not as fortunate as you are, Dominick you're free to carve out a life that suits you then just relax and enjoy it, I on the other hand I am obligated to act, to at least make the effort to change things, to change the very nature of mankind even though I fully realize that in all probability that's an impossible quest.  As you know I enjoy reading. I recently read a book about the Spanish Inquisition by Miguel de Cervantes. There were a lot of things he wrote in his book. Don Quixote that struck home with me because I frequently feel that I am just jousting with windmills.”

“Jessy, how do your powers differ from the powers of any of the other spirits, how does being a counsel member differ from just being an ordinary spirit and how does Fisher's spirit differ from the rest?”  My spirit's no different from anyone else's spirit.  Membership in the counsel has a negative effect on those spirits that are in the counsel, counsel members are identical to all the other spirits.  They hold themselves out to be perfect but the counsel is really nothing more than a 'Good old boys, club'.  There have been lots of spirits ; for instance, Sister Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Allah, The Buddha, and many many others, including my own disciples that lived near perfect lives but weren't invited to join the counsel.”

Jessy continued, “I've always wanted them to admit all of the spirits who followed my teachings to the counsel but that's gone nowhere.  The truth is that the counsel likes things just like they are.  My definition of a perfect life is mastering the ability to love the worst most despicable person on Earth as much as you love yourself, and the ability to do that from within your heart and not be just paying it lip service. That definition, I'm afraid excludes everyone including myself.  So by that definition none of us are perfect or have ever even come close.  Certainly those stuffed shirts on the counsel wouldn't qualify by that definition.”

Dominick then ask Jessy, “Just what is the function of the counsel, Jessy?”  “Since arriving at Earth a couple million years ago the counsel hasn't had a function, back in the days when we were exploring the galaxies seeking out new planets that might prove suitable for supporting our life form, it was the counsel who decided when to move on, who should go and who should stay.  the counsel won't have another function until a substantial number of The Earth's fifteen billion or so spirits master the art of out of body travel, at that time it would fall to the counsel to once again decide who stays, who goes, and where to go.  Spirits living in the flesh here on Earth are making remarkable progress in a lot of ways, Earth technology has probably surpassed the home planet's technology in making gadgets and vehicles but you still have a long way to go on the spiritual side.  Maybe another million years, who knows?”

“Do Counsel members have any special privileges that ordinary spirits don't have?”  “Absolutely not, there are no facilities on the other side, just space.  the counsel members occupy the same space as the rest of the spirits.  Any group of spirits that share a common interest  can go together and project an image of grand buildings and roads paved in gold, but another spirit that happens to stumble across that projection might not be able to recognize it the way the spirits that created it see it.  The spirits that created it can enter and leave the building through the grand door but that's because they've all agreed that the door is grand and is located right where they imagine it to be.  It's real for them but it mightn't be real for another spirit that didn't know about it.  In that way the spirits have gotten together from time to time and created cities and other things but they're just collective projected images.  Sometimes a group will be going along just fine on creating a really beautiful community and then suddenly poof and it's gone.”

“Who decides when a spirit can come to Earth Plane and experience a life in the flesh?”  “The spirit himself decides when he wants to come to Earth Plane.  He's aware of his goal he wants to achieve in wanting to come to Earth and he seeks out the situation that he thinks would be most likely to provide him with the challenges that he desires.  When he identifies the situation he's allowed to occupy the host child as soon as it draws it's first breath.  He marks the woman in a way that all of the other spirits recognize. Then when the opportunity comes about he'll be the one allowed in to the newborn host.  Spirits for what ever reason tend to repeat in the same sex, the same race, the same geographical area and many times in the same family that they previously experienced.  There are probably a lot of reasons for this phenomena.”

“What about Akashic Records, do they really exist?”  “Not only do  Akashic Records exist, Dominick, but we believe that these records are the substitute for spirit memory.  We believe that's the reason that when we enter a host body in the flesh we have no memory of our life on the spirit side.  While we're in the flesh everything we do continues to be recorded in the Akashic Records but we're unable to access these records.  Once we return to the other side these records are fully available to us.  In your case Dominick you never returned to the other side so you don't have access to them.  The way you and I differ, Dominick is that I do have access to the  Akashic Records.  Fisher doesn't have access to them so when his body expires here in the flesh if he refuses to traverse the tunnel of light he'll be like you, all he'll have is memory of the life he's just lead in the flesh. It's only when you actually pass through the tunnel that your  Akashic Records memory is restored to you.”  There is no way that I know of to access these records without passing through the tunnel except for the way I went about it and ascended directly to heaven or rather to the other side.  No one else has ever ascended the way I did and I wouldn't know how to go about doing it again.”

“Do you have the ability to review my  Akashic Records and tell me, or at least summarize for me what you find there?”  Yes and no, Dominick, the only one that can have full access to your  Akashic Records is you.  I can however read high lights from your records and give you a brief summary of what I see there.  In fact I've already done that because I wanted to know what kind of person I was dealing with.  I think that it'd serve no worthwhile purpose to review what I found in your records, I'll only say that there was a rather long span between your previous incarnation and the one you have just completed as Dominick Gianelli.  You were never an extremely bad or cruel person in the flesh but the last time you passed through the tunnel you were extremely disappointed in yourself.  The best way I could summarize your previous lives were that they were rather mundane and lackluster.  You have never done or been anyone of significant importance, you have on at least one occasion taken a stand for good over evil. You have never done anything that'd cause your name to be in any of the history books that are kept on Earth.  Had you gone ahead and passed through the tunnel this time you'd feel some satisfaction at the progress that you had made this time around.”  that's all that I intend to say to you on the matter ever.  That's, that I feel you're better off not knowing all that I found there so as long as you remain on this side you'll be more comfortable with the identity you've forged for yourself in this life.

There is one other way that you would be able to access your records but it so unlikely that it is hardly worth mentioning.” “What is that way? Dominick asked. “It would be if the entire counsel willed that these records be made available to you when you are in spirit form. Even if the entire counsel willed it, you might loose the abilities that you have now because that action by the counsel would have pretty much the same effect as your going through the tunnel. It is a procedure that has never been put to the test so it might work for you and it might not, we just don't know.

“What about Fisher, it seems that to be effective in this life he'll need to know the whole story?” “I can't go back trillions of years and retrieve all of those records but I've been more thorough in reviewing Fisher's records than I was in reviewing your records because he'll need a lot more information than you'll ever need, Dominick.   I've been feeding him much of the information that he'll need.  He is, as you know aware of his status on the other side.  He knows that if he refuses to back through the tunnel that he'll never be restored to his previous status as God Almighty but I think he'll refuse to go through the tunnel anyway and concentrate on restoring his physical body as you and I've done.  How long he'll want to remain in that status depends on how long he feels that he's accomplishing more for mankind here than he could accomplish if he were on the other side functioning as chairman of the counsel.  My guess is that he'll want to once more head the counsel when they're faced with their next decision as to who should stay and who should go and where they will want to go.”  I also feel that in this life he will want to learn as much as he can about the celestial bodies, which ones would be most easily reached and which ones would be the most fertile hunting grounds for finding a suitable planet for habitation.”

“I in all of your travels have you ever come across any sign of another sentient  race or species anywhere in the universe?”  “No the highest life form I've ever seen would be on a level with the Great Apes on this planet.  Of course man was developed under my guidance. Without my intervention man might well now be at the stage of development of the orangutan, or chimpanzee.  

“Thanks so much for answering those questions for me Jessy.”

CHAPTER - 29

FISHER MATURES

By the time Fisher turned 12 he'd never been off the hotel grounds except on a couple excursions with Dominick and Jessy.  Most of the original owners and staff of the hotel were either dead or retired. Josh was still kind of the director, but Dominick and Jessy had brought along other members of the original staff that now exercised the positions with the most responsible duties.  

Dominick asked Fisher, “Have you ever had an out of body experience, Fisher?”  “Yes, Jessy has been teaching me to leave and to return to my body and we've visited a number of places together.” “You could've asked me, Fisher, I'd gladly have taught you.”  “Sorry Dominick, I know that I should have asked you but your way is a little different than Jessy's way.  You invented your way yourself whereas Jessy has been doing it forever.”  “Then I suppose you and Jessy aught to be teaching me the things that I could be doing better,” Dominick replied.

 Jessy said, “OK Dominick, I'll show you some things, you too Fisher, this is something that I've never taught you either.  When you travel to certain places with another spirit you must have some part of your spirit occupy some of the same space that your traveling companion  occupies.  Let us all dematerialize now and I'll show you.”  Jessy seemed to encompass Fisher and Dominick and in less than three seconds they were in a strange land.  Dominick was alarmed “Where are we Jessy?, I sort of see structures but then I know they're not real.  There are people, lots of people but I, the best way I could put it's that I can't relate to them, but I think I could relate if I tried.  what's happening to me?”  “Don't be alarmed Dominick, we're on the other side, we don't really blend it because we don't belong here at this time and under these circumstances.  The only way for anyone to get here is to die and pass through the tunnel.  The only way to leave is to join a host baby as it draws it's first breath.  The people that we see around us aren't aware of us, we're sort of eves dropping on them.  By concentrating on a spot or a location here I could make them aware of us but I don't want to do that just now.”

“How did we get here, Jessy,” Fisher asked.  “We got here the same way you get somewhere in Earth plane.  Just concentrate on the place you want to be and you'll show up there.  If we made them aware of our presence they'd instantly know who we were, at least they'd know who Fisher and I are, but you'd have a little explaining to do Dominick.”

“Our next destination is with the counsel.  we'll make them aware of our presence and we'll meet with them. I'm going to introduce you to the counsel, Dominick.  By concentrating you can revisit the counsel from now on at will.  You should know that the people that we just observed on the other side can't reach the counsel.  You should be very flattered, Dominick, because once again you're a first.  You will be the first spirit that's met with the counsel since we left our home planet.”

Just as suddenly they were with a group of about twenty spirits.  These spirits seemed the same to Dominick as the ones they'd just observed on the other side only these spirits rapidly became aware of their presence.   There were twenty three counsel members in the room.  Dominick knew that he'd seen a photograph of this room before, then he remembered it was almost identical in appearance to the room where the Supreme court of the United States met to deliberate.  Of course this was a projection and actually didn't exist.  Dominick felt the wall behind where he stood and was amazed to discover that it felt solid, apparently he shared in the counsel's projection of the room.  

“it's about time you two were showing up,” one of them said.  “Then another added “Who's this one that you bring here? You know that this never done,” “We know that he's not just another one from the other side,” I think I've put it together,” a third member added, this is the one you call Dominick Gianelli, is it not?”  “It's a pleasure to meet you Dominick.”  This left Dominick speechless for a moment then, overcome with the kindliness emanating from this group Dominick responded appropriately “I am greatly honored to be presented to this group.  I sincerely appreciate Jessy bringing me here,I'm your humble servant.”

The assembly then turned their attention to Fisher.  “I see you brought our chairman along with you although we sense that he's still enjoying his life in the flesh. We hear that he's living a perfect life and should be rejoining us as our leader in due time.”  

Then Jessy spoke, “As The Creator Son, I wanted you to be aware of my trusted associate Dominick,I'm teaching him everything that I know and I hope that eventually he'll join me here and serve this counsel in some very special way.  I just brought our chairman along because it's what I consider part of his education for living his life in the flesh.  I also want you to know that here, just as on Earth I trust Dominick explicitly and that here as on Earth he has the authority to speak for me.  I've come to rely on him completely, I've reviewed his memories and can vouch for the fact that he's never in all of his previous lives committed an intentional sin and has never harmed another.  He has not gone through the tunnel so it will take a special act of this counsel to allow Dominick access to his  Akashic Records.  With your consent and blessing he should be able to access them wherever, he happens to be.  I should also like for him to observe or address this counsel whenever the need arises.”  “I hope you know what you're doing but I've never seen you make a mistake.”  The speaker received nods from the other members and it was done.  “I bid you farewell now.” The Creator Son said and they were back in Dominick's mansion at the Golden Desert Hotel.

As the three materialized they just kind of looked at each other.  When Dominick began to speak he was very profuse in expressing his gratitude to Jessy for the things he'd just done.  Jessy responded by telling Dominick “You just took a huge risk in having the counsel approve your access to the Akashic records, You know that you could have lost all of your earthly powers at that moment and become just another spirit. It worked out well though, you can now access the counsel's chambers whenever you want but I caution you not to do that unless I direct you to.  As of right now you're the only spirit, not sitting as a member of the counsel that's been given that permission.  “Why is it that the other spirits who reside on the other side can't access the counsel chambers?” Dominick asked Jessy.  

“The best way that I can explain that is to compare it to the internet and how that works.  Anyone can go to any website they want but in order to enter the website they have to sign in with their user name and password.  This works the same way.  Any spirit can go to the outside of the building where the counsel resides but in order to enter they must have been approved by the counsel and the counsel has never extended that approval to any other spirit.”  Dominick then asked Jessy, “Is that the only place on the other side that has a restriction on who may enter?”  “No, Dominick, it's not, there are more than a million places on the other side that restrict admittance in the same way.  Generally a spirit can become a member of a group by being recommended by another member then he may enter the chambers of that group whenever he wants.  These are special interest groups that spend their time while in those chambers working through some particular problem they had in their most recent incarnation, in hopes that they'll be able to avoid that shortcoming during their next incarnation.  The best example that I can think of is a very large group that's the spirit world equivalent of Alcoholic's Anonymous.  The members that frequent that site were alcoholic's in one more of their previous incarnation's and hope to gain enough knowledge or positive reinforcement to enable them to avoid that shortcoming in their next incarnation.  

Counsel members can observe what's going on in any of these groups but since only myself and now Fisher have ever experienced life in the flesh since leaving our home planet none of the counsel members ever elect to visit other groups.  that's always been my complaint about the counsel.  I think they should be required to experience at least one life in the flesh in order to have a seat on the counsel but the spirits on the counsel are afraid that if they do have a life in the flesh they'll come up short of their expectations and then be required to give up their seat on the counsel as a result of having been found unworthy.  This is a long standing disagreement that's long plagued the counsel.   the counsel members should be in a position to assume a leadership role in all of these self improvement groups, as it is they just ignore them and let the poor spirits shift for themselves.”

Dominick spent the best part of the next several days accessing his Akashic Records and reviewing his previous lives.  In his most recent previous life before the one as Dominick Gianelli, he'd been a peasant in Spain during the inquisition.  His older brother had been active in opposing the Royal Administration of Spain and had made certain remarks that if proved against him would give the Inquisition grounds for beheading him.  When the King's men came to the house his brother wasn't at home.  Dominick had confessed that it was he that they sought.  The men accepted that then took Dominick to a cell where he awaited being called before the Inquisition.  Of course, he wasn't represented by counsel.  He was found guilty in a matter of minutes and then beheaded at age sixteen. In that life Dominick had lived a life without sin and he'd willing sacrificed his young life so that his brother might live.  

In the life before that one he'd lived in Rome where he'd been a cheese maker.  He was married and had fathered nine children.  He cheerfully toiled twelve hours a day seven days a week to support his family.  By the time his youngest son turned twenty Dominick had died of old age at fifty.

Back beyond that he'd never lived long.  In one life he died of a plague while still an infant.  In another he was a girl that'd been raped and  murdered when she was thirteen.  In a life before that he was served up as a human sacrifice while a baby.  And so on it went.  He discovered that never had committed any act that could cause him to repent.  Apparently he'd lived a number of lives that were, if not totally without sin, were pretty close to it.  Dominick went on to scan all of his previous lives in the flesh but never found one that he needed to regret.  Jessy had been right when he told Dominick that he'd never lived a life of much importance and had never been a part of a significant historical event.

CHAPTER 30

JESSIES DILEMMA  

Carl Wang had become Josh's understudy when he finished college.  He now pretty much ran everything but he was still Josh's understudy and reported to Josh on a daily basis.  Mel had passed on but not before accepting Jessy as the true Christ.  Frank Wang had finished his education and left the hotel to practice law in Los Angeles and start a political career.

  Jessy had obtained his law degree, online and had passed the California Bar Exam.  he'd also earned a degree in Medicine and was presently an intern at the county hospital in San Bernardino. Jessy planned to specialize in clinical psychology.   The ladies that ran Dominick's home had all retired but still lived on the hotel grounds.  All three of them volunteered at the hotel clinic and at the new hospital in Joshuaville.  Joshuaville was now an incorporated city with over thirty thousand population.  

Fisher had always been home schooled.  Jessy and Dominick had done all they could about filling Fisher in on his true status.  Fisher had accepted this information and he behaved accordingly.  Fisher had never shown any interest in being a child he'd been an adult since age one.  At twelve he'd already earned his masters degree in astronomy online. Fisher was presently enrolled in a doctorate program in astronomy online.  His real interest lay in astronomy and he planned to pursue that as his profession once he had his doctorate.  

Jessy was beginning to use Dominick as a sounding board.  “Dominick was very flattered to hear Jessy start almost every sentence he uttered with “What if we...?”  Dominick had begun to feel like a later day disciple.  Dominick was also constantly thinking of ways that they could change human nature and transform mankind into a kinder gentler people.  “There are three major problems that we must address, we need a common language, a world government and just one religion Dominick, then I believe we could start making some headway in changing the nature of people.  As long as they continue to practice these diverse religious doctrines, they'll never learn to love their fellow man.  As long as they speak more than one language they'll never learn to trust their fellow man.  As long as there are so many corrupt little governments there will constantly be wars and rumors of wars.”

“Oh, I've been thinking about it Jessy, but my mind keeps coming back to the one obvious solution.” “Then you're ahead of me Dom, I haven't even thought of your obvious solution, if indeed there is one.”  

“Let me tell you a story, Jessy, when I was at the University of Nebraska there was a private school functioning in the community that specialized in salvaging teen age boys that had gone astray. Typically these youths had no respect for authority figures, they could best be described as juvenile delinquents. The way this school operated is they would separate out two boys who had proper respect tor for the adults around them. They were diligent in their studies and shared high aspirations for their futures. They would then plant one of the juvenile delinquents with these two high achievers. The delinquent had always been able to gain pier group status by being negative, but quickly found out that that mode of behavior wouldn't work in his present circumstance. The only way to gain pier group status with these high achievers was to out achieve them, to get better grades than they did and to out perform them in every positive way. In this way he would make them look up to him.”

“After the delinquent had lived this kind of life for a period of time the school would introduce another delinquent into the group. The new delinquent adapted even quicker than the first one had. It is important to all people but it was particularly important to these teen agers that they achieve pier group status so it didn't take long for them to figure out what they had to do to gain the recognition that they craved. I don't know if this contributes anything to solving our problem of how to go about changing human nature but it does show that human nature can be modified if you go about it properly.” “You were right when you said you don't know how this lesson could be useful in changing human nature on a large scale but it did teach me something about the effect that environment can have on shaping a human and in changing the way he sees things.”

“I guess that the point is, Jessy that the obvious solution would be to only have a few people on The Earth to work with.  To take control of that small group and lead them in the right direction.  According to you and Fisher time is on our side, we have all of eternity at our disposal.  If the world were depopulated and we concentrated on convincing the few survivors of the truth concerning their eternal nature, we'd have only one government, one language and one religion.  As the population increased to repopulate the planet over the many years they could be lead by you and Fisher and taught the right thing by their parents.”  

“What you say is true, Dominick but I'm trying to come up with a solution that's not so drastic.  You also need to consider that I would not know how to go about reducing the population to just a few people.”  “I don't know either,” put in Fisher, who'd joined the conversation.  We could destroy the entire population but I 'don't know how to go about destroying most but leaving a few.  The spirits on the other side would be furious because there are several billion of them waiting their turn to have a life in the flesh.”

“Our real problem in having you accepted by a majority of mankind is that there are always a couple hundred people on Earth that are claiming to be you Jessy, fortunately most of these people are locked up in mental institutions, and that's probably where you'd end up if you went around telling people who you were.  There is also the problem of credentials, it's not possible for you to have any.  Another problem is that you could tell the people things that only the true Christ would know about but there is no one on Earth that can verify that what you're telling them is true.  You might be able to bring one Christian denomination around to accepting you but even that'd be unlikely.  Sure you can do magic tricks to amaze them but they already know that I can do those same tricks and I make no claim to be a deity.  In short you'll have great difficulty in gaining credibility.”

“Then, where does that leave us?, Dominick, do you have any positive suggestions?” “Not at the moment, Jessy but I will think about it and let you know if I come up with anything.” “I just thought of something that we might be able to use, Dominick.  When I was here before I healed the sick.” Can you still do that, Jessy? ” “Yes, to some extent I suppose I could.”

Jessy went on  “Then maybe that'd be an avenue to pursue, why don't I prepare a list of diseases and afflictions that I can successfully treat on the spot, get a degree in theology and start a non-denominational church that even welcomes non Christians.  I could preach about doing right while in the flesh, then treat a few people at every service.” “If you decide to do that, Jessy,  don't preach about yourself, being Christ.  it'd take a while but if your healing proves successful you'd build a large following of sick people seeking a cure.  You could hold your services on  one weeknight each week, in your home church,  then on other nights visit other houses of worship, like mosques and synagogues, and perform your healing for those people.  After a few years when you have a large following you could divulge to your followers who you really are.  In that way you might come to be accepted by a large cross section of humanity.”

 “I think that we might just have hit on the right plan, Dominick, I hope that I can count on you and Fisher being with me on this.” “Certainly you know that you can count on me Jessy,” Dominick replied.  Fisher put in, “You can count on me to Jessy,  after I cross over and have succeeded in restoring my body I can join your ministry and divulge my own true identity.”

After completing the degree programs that they were presently pursuing they both obtained a degree in theology from an interdenominational Christian seminary, and were ordained as ministers of the gospel.  Medical School had proved invaluable to Jessy, it gave him a lot of insight into the make up of the human body, things that he'd never even thought of before.  By practicing on patients he found that he could cure virus and bacterial based diseases, some mental disease, some birth defects, mental disease like autism, some infection based disease, cancer, Alzheimer's and senior dementia.  

He could not restore lost limbs.  He could restore sight to some blind people.  If the optical system still existed he could make it work.  If the optical system had been completely destroyed or if some essential portion was missing there was little he could do.  He could restore hearing to deaf people, but only if the hardware was still there but just didn't work.  Jessy's ability to cure afflictions required the laying on of hands or touching the afflicted person it required him to direct all of his attention to that person at close range.  At Dominick's suggestion Jessy decided to never treat a person until he'd thoroughly diagnosed the persons problem and then to lay his hand on the persons head, though in truth it didn't matter where he touched them, when he performed his treatment.  

Dominick no longer functioned as the manager of the hotel but still gave the hotel about two hours a day in order to justify their exorbitant rates and to keep the rooms full.  The Golden Desert Hotel had incorporated several years back.  Josh was president and CEO of the corporation.  Dominick was Chairman of the Board of Directors.  Joshua owned fifty one percent of the stock and Dominick owned forty nine percent.  The hotel had incorporated it was as a closed corporation, that is the stock wasn't for sale over the counter or in any stock exchange.  Josh had given his brother Salomon twenty percent of his fifty one percent and the corporation had bought out the interest of the other original founders of the hotel.  Josh had refunded all of their original investment, with interest and given them a place to live out their lives.  The ones that were still young enough to work were given jobs they enjoyed.  The result was that Dominick was the largest stockholder but in the case of a disagreement Josh and Sol together would have the final say.  In their Will's Josh and Sol had left Dominick an option to purchase their shares from their estates.

CHAPTER - 31

THE NEW CATHEDRAL

Dominick borrowed one hundred million dollars from an investment bank by pledging his interest in the corporation as collateral.  Dominick then built a magnificent house of worship in Joshuaville.  It was a cathedral that would rival any on Earth with a massive parking garage built to accommodate five thousand cars and seating for fifteen thousand in the church main hall where services were to be held. There was a rectory and staff lodging facility built to accommodate up to four hundred.  The entire main hall was wired for TV broadcast with a booth near the ceiling to accommodate a director and a half dozen technicians.  

Dominick had given up going to have coffee with Josh, Sol and Mel every morning he would occasionally have a drink at the bar with Josh or Sol when he made his daily appearances at the hotel.  Dominick seldom ran into Mel any more.  Mel was in good health but he was just getting old.  He preferred watching movies in his room to being out and about.  he'd no real work to do at the hotel anyway.  Mel had retired.  Dominick saw him maybe once a month in the dining room and always exchanged a few pleasantries with him.

During the construction of the cathedral Jessy, Fisher and Dominick spent endless hours in conversation.  There was never any doubt who was the boss from the business standpoint.  Fisher wasn't available every evening because of his work at the planetarium.  Fisher had become an astronomer of some renown.  He kept a locked private closet at the planetarium where he would leave his physical body while he was out of body.  He would transport from one place to the other in spirit form and no one was ever the wiser.  Of course he could visit with Jessy and Dominick while he was in spirit form.

While the cathedral was under construction Jessy taught Dominick the art of healing. Dominick had not been to Medical School but he had sat in on so many classes, especially classes in gross human anatomy that he learned the art quickly. Jessy reminded Dominick that to perform divine healing he had to be one on one with the patient and that he had to lay his hand on the patient to perform the treatment or the cure. Dominick practiced by visiting homeless camps in the area. He healed people without making much to do about it and he knew that he would never get any publicity from dealing with the homeless.

On several occasions Jessy spoke at length of his duties and responsibilities from the time that the counsel and the Spirits had arrived at planet Earth until the present.  he'd describe his duties at each stage of development of the various species.  He told of his sorrow at seeing the spirits entering the bodies of birds and reptiles and fish as the various species developed through the evolutionary process.  “I ask you Dominick do you think that you'd have the patience to nurture these birds and animals the way I did for twenty million years and enjoy every minute of it?”  “Things would be different for you if you had to do that again Jessy because now you have the ability to move things in the physical world, all that time you couldn't even pick up a stick or turn over a rock but now you can,” Dominick reminded him, “that ability alone could cut that twenty million years down considerably, but the answer to your question is yes, I'd have loved to have had the opportunity that you had to create the nature of this world and to shape the image of man.  I don't believe that I'd have been bored with my work for even one instant.  After all, you always had the counsel and the errant spirits for company any time you felt lonely, and I imagine that at the end of every day you had new and exciting stories to relate to them.”  “That's it Dominick, I enjoyed every minute of it, but I'm not sure I'd want to ever to that again,” Jessy responded.

Two years to the day after the groundbreaking ceremony, construction on the cathedral was completed.  Jessy and Dominick had discussed at length what they should name their new church. They had finally decided on calling it “The Temple of God.” They chose this name because that name wouldn't exclude anyone. The cathedral was magnificent inside and out.“Well this is our big night, Jessy, how do you feel?”  “I am ready Dominick, but I've read of actors having opening night jitters and I believe that I may just have them.  Bring on the crowds Dominick, I'm ready,” said Jessy.  

Dominick had been mulling over a potential problem with the plan. He told Jessy “Perhaps you should refrain from healing anyone tonight, Jessy. I have thought this thing through more thoroughly and I can foresee a huge problem that may make this plan unworkable in it's present form.” “What do you mean by that, Dominick, you know that I can perform the healing, you can even perform the healing, so what possible problem do you foresee?”

I think I have a better idea but there is no time to discuss it right now. We'll talk about it after the service but for this evening just preach your sermon and try to exude a feeling of peace and good will toward mankind. I will also be in the room and will help by giving out the same positive feelings of goodwill. Tomorrow we will talk about it.” “If you say so Dominick but I can't help but tell you that I am a little disappointed at this development.” “Just as long as you don't let your feeling of disappointment be sensed by anyone else in the hall, Jessy.”

Jessy was well versed on the bible books that dealt with his life 2000 years earlier, Matthew; Mark; Luke and John. He chose one passage and discussed it at length in his sermon. He then generally discussed getting along better with other people, being more considerate and helping those less fortunate. All the time he was preaching he was broadcasting a feeling of calm and joy. Jessy had done just as Dominick had asked him to do. He didn't feel that he had accomplished all that he had wanted to accomplish in his first service but he felt satisfied that the sermon had been well received.

The service was lightly attended. There were fewer than a hundred people in the hall, built to seat fifteen thousand. The congregation consisted  mostly of locals that had come to hear the new preacher, out of curiosity. Dominick was seated at a small table in the lobby. He had hand lettered a sign saying “Join our Church.” Dominick took the names of the five people who wanted to join the church, jotting the names, addresses and phone numbers on a yellow tablet. After the service Jessy shook each hand as they left. No one had much to say about the sermon but they all seemed genuinely happy when they walked out the door. Most promised to return next Wednesday.

Once the congregation had left the building Jessy accosted Dominick, “OK Dom,I went along with your request but even you must admit that this was a most inauspicious beginning, what is that great problem that you thought of?”

“This is the problem, Jessy, as soon as you begin healing people requests from other religious groups will begin to stream in. We will also be receiving requests from hospitals, hospice providers, mental hospitals, HMOs, foundations who's function was to raise money for muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, the international AIDS foundation, the list went on and on.  

“Most of these organizations would expect you to treat their patients without charging a fee. Even if you set a very high fee and only treated the ones that came to you, you would not be able to get your message out.  Out of the five to six billion people on The Earth at least half of them will at one time or another need to be cured of something. Even if you treated a hundred people a day it would take you roughly 7,000 years to get around to all of them. In addition you need to see some of them two or three times to affect a full cure. It would be physically impossible for one Doctor to treat two and a half billion people.  “There are so many sick people on this planet Jessy, I don't see how we could treat all of them or refuse to treat any of them. You could spend eternity on this planet curing sick people and never get around to even a tenth of them. In the process You would get so involved with treating the sick you would never get your message out. All of those that you treated would love you but the ones that you couldn't get around to would grow frustrated and begin to hate you.” I could kick myself for not thinking of this earlier.”

“So what you are telling me, Dom, is that we now have a hundred million dollar church with no apparent purpose.” Not exactly, Jessy, you said that what you wanted to do was to spread peace and goodwill toward man. Well that is exactly what we did tonight. It is a good thing that when you taught me divine healing that you also taught me how to give off an aura of goodwill and love. I do have a few questions though about how this works.”

“Well, Dominick the closer people are to my aura the stronger it is. The aura extends out for about one kilometer but gets progressively weaker. I don't know if the aura can be carried over broadcast media or not. You have enjoyed a considerable amount of training in hypnosis so you took to learning the technique easily. As I recall, when you were learning divine healing the aura thing was just a little side lesson that we spent little time on.  It has little to do with my divine nature but more to do with psychology. I suppose that because of my divine nature I can emit a stronger aura than most people but anyone can be trained to do it. Did that answer all of your questions?” “Yes, for now, that is about all I need to know. I think that will be the key to our successful ministry bringing mankind around to a better nature.”

“If you recall, Dominick, when I taught you healing I mentioned that there are some illness' that I, and you can treat without laying on of hands. The most important of these is depression. We can treat depression by just being in the same room as the depressed person. This is not an instant cure disease, it is a disease that we can treat and the person being treated will never know that we are doing it. They will just notice that their attitude is improving gradually and will not be able to put their finger on why they are improving. “Does that include manic depressive or bipolar sufferers, Jessy?” “Yes, it certainly does. There is another very common disorder that we can treat by just being in close proximity to the patient, that is autism, when we emit our aura at a certain frequency the autistic in the congregation will begin to improve. Once again if we do not say that we are doing this no one will ever know. Autism like depression would require many treatments and improvement would be gradual. I learned these things when I was studying to become a Medical Doctor. They were not part of the curriculum but when we were discussing them in class I became curious and did a little experimenting on my own. I can easily teach you those things Dominick, then when I am going to emit the aura that will treat these ailments I well tell you using our spirit thought medium and you can omit the same aura frequencies that I am using. I suggest that in all of our future services you stand at the back of the church like an usher and assist me with those two cures.”

“It will be wonderful to be able to help people with these afflictions, Jessy, but other than doing a nice thing for a few people how will this help our ministry?” Jessy responded,“I think that the way it will help us is that the people that make themselves a part of our congregation will be happier people. The people that suffer from these ailments will be drawn back week after week because they will notice that their life always seems better when they attend our church regularly.”

The next Wednesday there were almost three hundred people in the congratulation, a few of them had come from as far away as Indio, California and Henderson, Nevada. This time Dominick had recruited one of the five people who had become members of the church the previous week to sit at the table in the lobby and hand out printed three by five cards to anyone who inquired about joining  The Temple of God and making it their church. Twenty seven people filled out the cards that evening and became members of the church. So far Jessy had not passed a collection plate but that would become a problem they would have to address. Dominick could not go on indefinitely running a hundred million dollar business out of his own pocket. During the second service Jessy had mentioned from the pulpit that there was a collection box located in the lobby for the convenience of anyone who cared to make a donation in support of the ministry. After the congregation had all left the church Dominick opened the collection box and found that it contained two one hundred dollar bills plus twelve dollars and fifty seven cents. Dominick guessed who the two hundred dollar bills were from, he had noticed Sol and Josh in the congregation. Dominick even stopped beside their pew and greeted them.

The next morning Dominick and Jessy looked up Josh at the hotel and told him of their financial dilemma. Josh answered “Sol and I attended your service, we were a little surprised to hear speak so highly of yourself, Jessy. We can't join your church Jessy but I will tell you I haven't had such a positive attitude in years. I left your church feeling just great. I don't know if it has that effect on everyone that attends but Sol and I both commented on how good we felt after hearing you speak. Back to your problem, like I said, neither Sol nor I can join your church but we will sneak in for services on a regular basis and steer a few other people your way as well. Some of those other people just might a few of the fourteen billionaires that we now have in residence. If you reach them the same way you reached Sol and I you just might find some significant donations in that collection box of yours.” “Thanks Josh I had a hunch that you could come up with an answer.” “Now guys lets have some breakfast.” They were joined by Sol and Mel at the employee house. Sol said, “I just like the food better here than in that fancy dining room at the main building.”

CHAPTER 32

JESSY AND DOMINICK FIND A SOLUTION

Every Wednesday from then on Jessy noticed more and more people from the Golden Desert Hotel in the congregation. One Wednesday Dominick counted seven billionaires amongst them. Within all fourteen billionaires had started attending regularly and ten of them had joined the congregation as members. The crowds were getting larger every week. They had now come to expect the church to be more than half full. They also noticed that the collection box was also more than half full. As it turned out the billionaires had turned out to be more than generous. They must have been feeling really good when they left the service.

On Thursday morning following their tenth week of holding services in the new church they were visited by a sophisticated man of about sixty in a blue suit. Jessy and Dominick who were talking in Jessy's study when he arrived. The full time receptionist/bookkeeper escorted him to see Jessy. The man introduced himself as Paul Vaskers. Jessy introduced Dominick as the church founder and manager. Both Jessy and Dominick had noticed Mr. Vaskers at several of their recent services.

What can we do for you Mr. Vaskers, Dominick asked. Vaskers replied, “Please, call me Paul, I am retired now and I moved to Joshuaville for health reasons, I suffer from something they call COPD. The desert air seems to help me breath. In fact I do believe that I am breathing better since I started attending church here. The reason for my visit is that I couldn't help but notice that you don't have a choir.

“Yes Paul, we figured that once we had enough members in the “Temple of God” someone would come forward as you are doing and offer to start one. We do pay a professional organist to provide music for our services but I agree that we need a choir, said Dominick. I assume that you have some experience with church choirs.“ “Some, yes, I was director of an award winning choir at a major ivy league university for seventeen years. I was also director of the choir at my church for the same period. With your permission I would like to form and direct a choir for this church.” “Please invite all those who would like to try out for the choir to assemble here at noon next Thursday. I would appreciate it if you could provide a small buffet lunch for those who show up.

At the next Wednesday's service Jessy put out the announcement that the Temple of God would be forming a choir and invited all members interested to show up at noon the next day if they were interested in trying out. Jessy then introduced Paul Vaskers as the new choir director. The next day there were almost forty members there at noon. Dominick didn't know whether they were interested in singing or interested in the free buffet catered by the Golden Desert Hotel. Two weeks later the church had a choir that sounded better than Jessy and Dominick had expected. Jessy and Dominick had been very interested in the improvement in Paul Vaskers COPD than in the choir. There was no reason they could think of that he should be improving, unless it was from breathing the clear desert air.

They had been hearing from several of their parishioners that they had noticed improvement in their ailments, including arthritis, congestive heart failure and a number of other chronic ailments. Two autistic children had shown marked improvement and no one in the regular congregation were suffering any signs of depression, several people had mentioned that they were no longer suffering from depression and two of them had long suffered from bipolar disorder.

By the sixteenth week the church was almost full for every service. Membership had grown to more than seven thousand. Several other members had come forward wanting to donate their time to starting a Sunday school. Many people had pressed Jessy and Dominick to to start having Sunday morning services. The first Sunday service drew almost ten thousand worshipers. They had Sunday school at nine thirty and church services at eleven. By the church had been in operation for six months the Sunday service was packed with fifteen thousand worshipers. Jessy and Dominick then started a Sunday evening service and that was almost packed. Many members now started and ran special programs and services at the church on various days of the week. Alcoholics Anonymous, drew a particularly large group. Fisher, Jessy and Dominick took turns addressing the AA group and sending out their good vibes of positive reinforcement. The AA group claimed a much better success rate than AA groups meeting anywhere else.

Dominick had started holding the Wednesday evening Service in his new capacity as Assistant Pastor. Fisher had taken over running the Sunday School program. The membership kept growing and more and more of the members were volunteering to head up special programs.

It wasn't long before TV networks had picked up on this phenomenon. The Sunday morning was televised nationwide. Soon the big question was answered for Jessy and Dominick. Yes the good vibrations were going out over the air. The Sunday morning service became the most watched show on television. Watching this program was addictive, attending the services at the church was addictive. People all over the country just began to feel better about themselves.

It was always obvious to listeners that Jessy was Christian but he never acted like an evangelist, he never raised his voice or preached any “Hell Fire and Brimstone” sermons. He spoke in a low key but somehow reached the hearts and minds of the listeners. There was no pomp and ceremony. Jessy never pleaded for donations during the service. Dominick filmed a commercial that was run one time during the service inviting those who wanted to, to send contributions to their P.O. Box in Joshuaville. The network paid the Temple of God handsomely for the right to televise the service, and the contributions streamed in. The church was soon on a very sound financial footing.

One evening Jessy and Dominick had a little time on their hands before conducting services at the cathedral so they ventured into one of the five star hotels that had sprung up in Joshuaville.  They tried to sit at a table in the lounge and have a soft drink but as soon as the people saw Jessy and Dominick they mobbed them, people were drawn to them. They knew they were in trouble when the flash bulbs started going off and a reporter dashed up to the crowed wanting a statement. It became readily apparent that they could no more go out in public than a movie star or a star athlete could.

It was a national tabloid newspaper that first speculated that there was more going on in Jessy's sermons than the words that people heard him speak. They said that they had figured out that it was something like subliminal advertising. They claimed that a message was getting through to listeners that was never spoken. Jessy as a minister was very low key. He was personable, handsome he demonstrated a good sense of humor, always having a couple good one liners to to start his sermon but nothing he said was that compelling. The National Crime Statistics Bureau that reported that during the first full year that The Temple of God services had been televised violent crimes of all types had gone down by seven percent, crime rates were still falling each month the new numbers were significantly lower than the were for the same month a year earlier. This trend was true throughout the English speaking world where the shows were being televised.

The article also pointed out that not only had viewers of the show felt better, noticeably better, immediately after viewing the show but those that were in pain claimed that the pain was not as intense as it had been; Autistic children that watched the show regularly began to show marked improvement; people that had been diagnosed as suffering from depression felt so much better that they were skipping doses of their prescribed medicine; regular viewers who had been diagnosed as suffering from depression had been able to discontinue their medication all together with no ill effects.

 Millions were claiming that their labs and checkups were better, blood pressure was down, cholesterol was down, blood sugar was down. Some regular viewers  that had been on insulin injections for years were discontinuing the injections and controlling their diabetes with oral medication. The list in the article went on and on. The writer concluded by saying “We don't know what you are doing to us Dr. Christopher but keep it up.”

A prison warden in Georgia remarked to his second in command “Isn't it nice that we are not having so many fights any more, I can't recall for sure but I don't think we have had a fight in the yard in the last two or three months. A lot of the inmates are modifying their crude behavior, they are noticeably more courteous to the guards and to one another. What ever is happening is sure making our job a lot easier.” The prison began to extend more privileges to the inmates. Inmates began volunteering for service projects. Many inmates now addressed the guards as Sir and the guards had started calling the inmates Mr. No one at the prison seemed to notice that every inmate in the prison had become glued to the television sets when Jessy Christopher was talking to them.

Dominick remarked to Jessy after they had both read the article, “How do you explain all of these cures that are taking place, you seem to be curing a lot of disease people that you are not diagnosing first and not treating. They just start improving, we never counted on that.” “I don't think we are treating people for those things and we are certainly not curing them but we are replacing depression, anxiety and stress in millions of viewers with happiness, peace of mind and optimism so that many of their diseases are just going away all by themselves, I don't know of any studies that attempted to measure these things that we do as they relate to physical disease,” answered Jessy.

Dominick then said, “I think that the time has come for us to branch out from the English speaking world, I have been giving a lot of thought to how we might reach people that don't speak English.” “Well, have you come up with anything Dom?” “At first I had thought that we could use thought transference but that would be a problem because the people present could hear what you were saying but it couldn't be recorded or televised. Then I figured that the way to go about it would be for you to speak out loud in English and have a translator repeat everything you were saying in the native language. In that way we could still send out our positive vibrations just as we do here so the listeners whether they were present in the room or listening on TV would still get the benefit of your sermon. We both know that it doesn't matter much what you say it is not the words that give the benefit.  What I propose is that we first try one translator in the control booth that translates everything into some other language as the image is beamed live by satellite to a country that speaks that language. We could then have pollsters on the ground to determine if our subliminal message is getting through. If it is then we could start having your words translated into many different languages, like they do at the United Nations and beamed live around the globe.”

The first language that they tried was French. French television carried the show live all over the country. Pollsters then went to work and found that the people who had watched the show did indeed feel better.” They continued the French experiment for four months, carefully monitoring the effect on the French viewers. They were pleased to note that not only did have the same effect on the French that it had on the English speaking world but that the show  became the most popular show on French television. Just as it had affected English speaking people, the show was addicting, once a person had watched one show they were compelled to watch any additional shows that were presented.

The Temple of God started holding what they called their international service on Saturday afternoon. They would particularly focus one a different country each week. The church was open to locals so that there would be a congregation involved in the show. They soon found that representatives of the nation they were featuring that week wanted to be included in the service. If they were featuring Germany for example German Americans would provide an um-pah band, German dignitaries, German food after the service. The German extravaganza ended up looking more like Oktoberfest than it did a church service. That service however had the most positive effect on the viewers world wide than any service they had ever broadcast. Dominick concluded that if they intended to make people feel better it made their work easier if the people had a good time viewing the program.

Paul Vaskers had handled the choir properly and aggressively, he had entered them in choir events world wide. They were soon more famous and just as good as that choir in Salt Lake City. People were coming to the church from all over the world just to hear the choir.

Making headway around the world was relatively easy except when it came to the Muslim world they took the position that it was sacrilegious. Many Muslim households had satellite television. So when a major Arab station consented to carry fifteen international shows over a fifteen week period there were a substantial number of Muslim households tuned in. Somehow the feel good effect was magnified when it was received by Muslims. Neither Dominick nor Jessy understood why but it was. It took five long years of constantly chipping away before the show was finally available everywhere in the Arab world. The effect was overwhelming. Even Militant Muslims were coming around. Israel signed a peace treaty with the Palestinians; the Jordanians;  the Lebanese and the Iranians. All of these countries agreed that Israel had a right to exist.

Once a man that was thinking of joining the church asked Dominick “I have watched a couple of your services on TV but I am not real clear on just what the tenants of your church are. Just what exactly do you believe? Dominick didn't know exactly how to answer, he started by telling the man, “Jessy usually, but not always uses the King James version of the Bible. On occasion he has used the Koran or religious scripture of other religious beliefs, he always presents his interpretation on one or another passage from the scripture he is using. Dr. Christopher likes to stress the similarities in the religious beliefs of all people, not the differences.  We are nominally Christian but we don't make a big deal of it or harp on Christ and salvation like Protestant Churches.  We don't have any saints or statues like the Catholic Churches. If someone wants to be baptized we ask them what type of baptism they would prefer.  We are not evangelicals as many churches are. We have members that are Muslim or Jew or Buddhist or members of many other religions. It has never occurred to us to try to change their minds about their own personal belief in God. Some people after joining our church give up their old religion's immediately some cling to their old religion for several years. Many of our members still observe the holy days of their old religion's for the rest of their lives. A persons religion is something that he has shaped his whole life around. Most people don't want to change their value system or their diet just to attend the Temple of God, but it makes them feel better about themselves to attend our church or to watch the services on television. I would like to point out that even without being evangelical we have the become the largest religion on Earth in just ten years and we have accomplished that with only two preachers, Jessy and myself. Does that answer your questions?” “Yeah, I guess it does but I still just can't figure it out, gimme one of them applications, I think I wanna join this church.”

In one sermon that Jessy preached he addressed the question “Does God hear prayer and does he answer prayers.” Jessy said,”God has the capability to hear prayer whether it is vocalized or not. Does God answer prayer? “He would certainly like to answer prayer but he lacks the ability to intercede in the affairs of man. Certainly he would have interceded in the holocaust or the inquisition if he could have but he can't. While man is living in the flesh he is pretty much on his own.” The entire sermon was longer than these few lines but it caused quite a stir. Ironically many religious leaders from many religion's had made it a practice to watch the TV show. Letters poured in by the thousands contradicting what Jessy had said. The next week Jessy answered all of these letters on the air. “I preach the truth as I know it to be. If you have a problem with that then I suggest that you quit watching the show. In your own church you can preach what you believe to be the truth. I will never write you a letter telling you that you are wrong.” On many other occasions Jessy was taken to task for telling the truth. The answer that gave was always the same, you do it your way and I will do it my way. You can believe whatever you like.

Over the years Jessy managed at one time or another to disclose the whole truth about the nature of man. Many people came to accept Jessy's concept of that reality causing many churches to fall on hard times as their congregations just seemed to melt away. Jessy was not reaching everyone on Earth but he was reaching about twenty percent of them with each of his shows.

Then on one of his shows he either slipped up or intentionally dropped the bomb on them when he said “In my previous life two thousand years ago....” The tabloids jumped all over that remark. “Who does this Dr. Jessy Christopher think he is, Jesus Christ?” Many articles appeared in the tabloids, then in the editorial sections of the conventional press. The talking heads on the news shows on TV could talk of nothing else.

What had started out accusing Dr. Christopher of blasphemy started gradually giving way to some kind of realization that indeed Dr. Christopher not only thought that he was Jesus Christ but most people agreed that he was indeed Jesus Christ. Once again the numbers of people watching the TV show shot up. Within a year of having made that remark the TV audience had grown to a staggering eighty percent. Most people when polled in fact stated that they believed Jessy Christopher to be the Christ.

During the year of controversy Jessy had not commented on his true identity but once all of the evidence was in and the numbers were as high as they were he came on his show and more admitted who he really was rather than claiming to be him. Near the end of the show a man arose from his front row seat and emptied a nine millimeter pistol into Jessy at nearly point blank range. Jessy just stood there and let the bullets pass through his body. People around the man mobbed him and tore him to pieces before Jessy could stop them.

That prompted the media to have another field day. Now the talking heads were convinced that yes Dr. Jessy Christopher had to be the Christ. The bullets had all passed through his body and done him no harm.

Now that they had identified Christ people turned to trying to figure out who Dominick Gianelli really was. When asked Dominick would answer their questions truthfully. Finally Dominick dictated his entire story into a machine, hired a ghost writer and released a book giving every detail of his life.

This could have made things very uncomfortable for Fisher but Dominick refrained from mentioning Fisher by name. When someone figured out who Fisher Gianelli really was Dominick would contact that person and request that they hold that information in confidence. Fisher worked at a remote planetarium and seldom went out in public. He was bothered a little by the notoriety but Dominick had not divulged Fishers true identity in the book. All he said was that Fisher was an agent of God and it was important for him to live a perfect life on Earth. He asked in his book that people not try to contact Fisher. Fisher was living life as a mortal and had no idea what his mission was. Fisher was never bothered.

CHAPTER 33

JESSY'S PRODIGY

Dominick asked Jesus, “what are the difference's that remain between the things that you can do and the things that I can do?”  “Since you have learned divine healing Dominick I know of no difference at all. I would think that you are now a fully qualified Creator Son.”

Very few people are able to resist the lure of the tunnel as that's not God's plan.  Twenty years later when Fisher finished his journey in the flesh he was also so attracted to the tunnel that he too crossed through and resumed his duties as leader of the counsel.  Fisher was never able to learn to restore his physical body as The Creator Son and Dominick had done.  Sure, Fisher could've tried living another life in the flesh but with no guaranty that he'd resist going through the tunnel of light when he passed from that life.

Astral travel had become common.  Millions of people were practicing it and more were learning the technique every day.  The time was fast approaching when mankind would reach the level of sophistication required for man to survive the end of his sun.  God knew that day was inevitable but also knew that it was millions of years away.  

the counsel had recently accepted thousands of new members and was preparing a list of who should go and who should stay when another group moved on to conquer some new world.  Because of his experience as an astronomer while in the flesh God now had a pretty good idea as to where to lead this group for that next step in populating the Universe.  

One of the counsel members who was called Athkol had taken it upon himself to live a perfect life in the flesh and had succeed. No one on Earth Plane had recognized his true status.  Athkol would assume the duty as Chairman of the counsel that remained on Earth when the split came and half the group moved on to some other planet.  Christ had developed a great affection for the planet Earth and wanted to remain with The Earth throughout eternity.  If Christ remained on Earth it would leave the group that was departing without a Creator Son.  Christ himself appeared before the counsel and recommended that Dominick be the one to travel out in search of a new planetary home as The Creator Son.  Jessy assured the counsel that Dominick was well suited for the task.  The one known as Fisher endorsed that recommendation, assuring the counsel that Dominick was the only one who had developed all of the skills and abilities of a Creator Son.”

Christ would remain with The Earth and continue his ministry.  His goal ever to bring about one language and one government. If Christ could accomplish those goals he could end war forever and eventually lead to a mankind that held goodwill toward their fellow man.  Admittedly, Christ had his work cut out for him.  

Every time a baby was born and there was no spirit waiting to occupy that new life there was a new spirit created.  The population of spirits living outside their bodies grew rapidly.  Mankind as a whole had learned to live outside their physical bodies.

Christ had taught Dominick how to heal the sick.  Dominick had taught Christ how to run his church as a business.  Dominick had  taught Christ how to go about helping others to recover their physical bodies.  

Christ never encouraged spirits to refrain from going through the tunnel of light but many of them were refraining anyway. It was probably the influence that Dominick's book had on them. Most of these new spirits who resided in the nether land found their way to Dominick who freely gave them the information that they needed to regain their physical body. It didn't matter much that Dominick counseled them because everything they needed to know was in his book.

Before joining the counsel full time Dominick transferred all of his Earthly wealth to Christ, the amount was considerable.

 Fifty thousand years later a counsel of  five thousand lead twenty billion spirits  as they departed this solar system and journeyed out into the unknown.  Fisher journeyed out with the group that departed Earth as chairman of the counsel and hoped that one day he might once again come to be known as God Almighty by some new race of beings.   Dominick journeyed out with the group as the only Creator Son in that group.

CHAPTER 34

THE IMPORTANCE OF DECEMBER 7, 1941

A lot of things happen on this planet every day  .  Some days have more important things happen than other days, and certainly, out of each day some things that happen are more important than others . A case in point is the date December 7, 1941. Now if you ask 100 people what the most important thing that happened on that date was at least 50 of them would say “That was the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the day that, to quote President Franklin Roosevelt; will live in infamy.”  Unfortunately the other fifty wouldn’t have a clue as to what happened on that date.  Actually the fifty percent of the people that were able to name Pearl Harbor would be just as wrong as the other fifty  percent when it came to naming the most important thing that happened on that day. This story details why the most important thing that happened on December 7, 1941 was what happened in an operating room in the county hospital in San Bernardino, California because of the incredible chain of events that it set in motion.

About the book, Dominick Gianelli, Ghost or Spirit. By Cliff Roehr, the author.

Could the concepts expressed in the book be true?  They are most certainly not true  but I believe that some of the concepts that I put forward in this book have a high probability of being closer to the truth than what we were taught. There are several questions addressed that have bothered me all of my life.

Does God hear prayer?  As far as I could find there is no documented evidence that God has ever answered a prayer. I am sure that the victims of the Holocaust spent a lot of their time praying but their prayers were not answered. That being the case what would make one think that God would answer the trivial requests made by other prayer? When a person prays for something and it comes to pass then the person says “See, God answered my prayer” As is more often the case when a person prays for something and it does not happen then the person says “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

Is God capable of interfering in the affairs of man? Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t. I choose to think that he is incapable of interfering. There is no proof that God ever manipulated physical matter. If he were capable and refused to act then he is not a very caring God. Man has done some horrible things but nothing that man has ever done would be as bad as someone who had the present ability to stop an atrocity like the Spanish Inquisition but refused to act.

How did God come into existence?  Everything that is had a beginning. God started somewhere. As far as I know there is no organized religion that espouses a theory as to where God started or how he came to be. I have given it much thought and the theory that I express in this book is the only one that I could come up with.

Did God create the universe? To the extent that an artist creates a painting. The artist does not make the canvas or the pigment but he does shape them into a work of art. The universe seems to have been created along the laws of natural science. The more we learn about the creation of the universe the less it looks like it was created by a super being and the more it looks like nature at work. I personally doubt that God is any more capable of breaking the laws of nature than we are, though he probably has more advanced technology than is presently available to earthlings. We on Earth plane have come to accept thousands of scientific achievements that people who lived here a couple hundred years ago would have thought could only to have been the work of God. People seem to be easily impressed by things that they don't understand.

How about miracles? We today, not only have science that was not available to our forefathers, but we also have the vocabulary to describe such things that would formerly have been described as miraculous because they people who lived in earlier times lacked the vocabulary to describe these things otherwise.

Is the holy bible the divine word of God? Or is the holy Koran the divine word of God? Or is some other book the divine word of God? The books selected by an ecumenical Counsel called by the Pope in 367 A.D. Most of the Cardinals who chose the books had not read any of them because most of the Cardinals were probably illiterate. There were no books. Writings were kept on scrolls by monks. The Cardinals that did the choosing were probably heavily influenced by lowly scribes, monks and lobbyists. My opinion is that no book is the divine work of God. I was, however impressed by the Urantia book. It has been proved lacking because the science it espouses have been proved wrong since the book first appeared around 1936. It still makes a valid claim because maybe God didn't want to reveal science beyond what man knew in 1936. Beyond the science inaccuracies the book does seem quite credible. Ruth Montgomery wrote a series of books relating her contact with her spirit guide and a friend from the other side where the spirits describe life on the other side in detail. Many of my descriptions of life on the other side were borrowed from the concepts that Ruth Montgomery wrote about.

Is there an afterlife? Yes, there is a substantial body of evidence but not conclusive evidence that there is life after life.

Here is a brief account of what we know of the hereafter:

Near Death, out of body experience. Thousands of people have had these experience, there are many books written on the subject. Many of these experiences involve a tunnel with a light at the end, thus the common English expression “I saw the light at the end of the tunnel” Many people report this and other experience while they are clinically dead. Most people report floating near the ceiling and watching the Doctors work on their body. Near Death experience is not provable and there are many debunker's that come up with alternate explanations for what has occurred.

Ghosts: The fact that there is a word for these spirits in every language on Earth lend some credence to the existence of these troubled spirits. There are millions of ghost stories and many books have been written by researchers that have taken a scientific approach to locating and even photographing ghosts. Many times orb's of light show up in photographs people have taken of other subjects, these almost always occur indoors.

Poltergeists: There have been literally thousands of accounts of poltergeists throwing or moving things around in a house. Some of these events have been investigated using the best science available and have stood up to the most meticulous scrutiny.

Astral Travel: The way usually employed to verify this phenomenon is to have researchers in a room with the traveler and have a card displayed in an adjacent room with writing on it. The traveler is always in a trance. When the traveler is awakened he can tell the researcher what is written on the card. This experiment has been repeated many times. Not all persons claiming to have the ability to astral travel can pass the test but there are quite a few who consistently pass.

Hypnotic regression to recall previous lives. Once again thousands of people have been regressed. Debunker's deny the validity of all regressions. On some of the regressions that have occurred there has been proof that the subject was telling the truth. There was a case in India where a boy of about nine could remember his previous wife and children that lived in a nearby village. Before he had been killed he hidden some money which he wanted his former life, wife to have. The money was found exactly where the boy said it would be found. There are dozens of other verifiable former life recollections. If you doubt that look them up in the library or on the internet.

Visitations from recently departed loved ones. More people than you would imagine have been visited by recently departed loved ones. Almost every time the subject comes up someone in the group tells of having been visited by a loved one that they later heard had passed away just before the visit occurred. Try it yourself next time you are discussing things with a group of four or more people and odds are that at least one of them will have a story to tell of visitations.

These then are the considerations that I took into account in writing this book. Even for the most devout believer it presents things in a new perspective. For anyone that cares I am a born again Christian, I experienced salvation at age twelve, sixty one years ago, but many of the things that I learned in Sunday school caused me to wonder, “How can that be?”

 I attempted to weave an interesting fiction novel around these considerations. No matter how devoutly you happen to believe, whatever it is that you believe, your faith should not be shaken by reading this book but maybe you too might ask, “How can that be?”