Dad In Spirit, Chapters 7-9

For listeners 8 & up. This is the continuation of the story of Ebon Jones who thought he was the normal one in the extraordinary Jones family until his dad fell into a coma and Ebon started to hear his father's voice in his own head. Can he use this skill to help his dad well again? He's certainly going to try.

Transcript

Hello,

This is A.

Le Fay of Sylvanoscele.

Thank you for joining me.

We're going to be reading the next few chapters of Dad in Spirit.

I hope you've had a chance to listen to the earlier chapters of this story.

If not,

Feel free to look them up and give them a listen.

Before we start tonight,

Has anything ever happened to you that you barely believed yourself and you had to share that belief with someone else?

You spoke with uncertainty.

You weren't sure if they believe you.

Did they believe you the first time you told them?

Did you need to provide them with proof?

Did they believe in who you are,

Even if they didn't believe in what you told them?

It's important to have someone who believes in us.

Maybe you should take a moment to think of the people who believe in you in your life.

Maybe you should silently thank them.

And if you feel as if you don't have anyone who believes in you,

Perhaps you should seek someone like that out.

I bet you they're there,

Waiting to be discovered.

Hmm,

Kind of like you're waiting for me to start this story again.

Well,

Here we go.

And you're not going to be surprised at the title of this next chapter.

It is.

.

.

Believing.

I woke up in Mom's arms.

She had me all tucked into a blanket in the hospital bed we shared.

Seeing her rings,

Hearing her hum,

Smelling that dusty talcum powder scent that could only be heard,

Made me warm right up to the roots of my hair.

I hugged her closer.

Eben,

She kissed my ear.

I heard Dad,

Mom.

That's what BJ told me.

The distant,

Oh really?

Sound in her voice said she didn't believe me.

He told me where to find all of the hidden tricks in Hamilton Hall.

Look at me,

Sweetie.

Mom nudged me to roll over.

I did.

Dr.

Parker says you haven't eaten all day.

Now,

Running around on an empty stomach in the stress of all this with Dad,

Made you think you heard him.

I did.

Shhhhhhh.

Mom rubbed my forehead,

Her face wet with tears.

Is Dad still asleep?

Okay?

Awake?

I had no idea what to ask.

He's still the same,

Eben.

Mom wiped away her tears.

Her hand shook as she rested it on the bed.

I put my hand over hers to steady it.

Smiling,

She said,

I can't stop shaking.

Me either on the inside.

I patted my chest,

Taking a breath.

I asked,

Mom.

She hummed to let me know she was listening.

I didn't know what to say.

I just wanted her to keep talking.

I needed her to tell me everything would be okay.

What is it,

Eben?

Nothing.

I really didn't know what to say.

Mom rubbed my shoulder.

It's okay,

Kiddo.

We'll be okay.

Are you sure?

She looked at me,

Her eyes so dark they look black.

Deep and safe,

Like a familiar room.

She didn't even blink,

As she said.

Yes.

We will.

I believed her.

Dad had to be all right.

If life were a picture,

It'd be like cutting Dad out and leaving an empty hole.

Seeing pictures with holes always made me lonely.

That evening,

Dr.

Parker let us all see Dad.

We stood beside him,

Holding his hands,

Rubbing his forehead,

Telling him how much we loved him,

Or tickling his feet.

Juliet did that.

In my mind,

I saw Dad coming out of Hamilton Hall,

The purplish horizon of dawn behind him.

The die-hard fans of the place,

Sleeping on the lawn to be there when he came out,

They all clapped.

He bowed,

Smiling,

Looking like he'd melt into the house if he got any happier.

Dad never really got credit for all the work he did.

Every day he researched for another author,

Who would stick only one name on the book that got published,

And when the reviews came in,

And the critics praised the historical accuracy of the piece,

They never mentioned Dad.

The author got all the fame.

Hamilton Hall was the one time Dad got to take all the credit.

People had to see all of Dad's hard work.

Hamilton Hall had to open,

Even if Dad couldn't be there.

Mom,

Juliet,

And Samuel agreed.

Giving Dad one more kiss,

We all headed out for Hamilton Hall.

Daffodils and Glimpses.

The way Mom walked into Hamilton Hall and looked around like she had embarked on a hunt for a new home,

I figured she knew something I didn't.

Do you know where the control room is?

Look for a daffodil.

Why?

Juliet asked.

It's corny,

Mom warned as she turned a corner.

Corn me,

We three shouted together.

When your dad gave me our engagement ring,

It hung in a bouquet of daffodils.

And the card said,

Here's the key to my heart.

She used her isn't-this-stupid voice when she described the message on the card,

Then continued in her regular voice.

He always refers to the control room as the heart of his operation.

So I'm guessing the lock will be behind a daffodil.

That's ridiculous,

Juliet said.

What part,

Jolie?

I wasn't going to give in this time.

When I heard Dad's voice,

I figured Mom and Dr.

Parker had it right.

I had let my mind carry me away.

It's all true,

You know.

The daffodils and the ring and the lock.

There were daffodils in a vase on the counter when your Mom was on duty at the front desk of our dorm the night we met.

I'd heard that story before.

I wasn't about to fool myself.

This time Dad couldn't put his thoughts into my head.

Mom found a painting of some crabby-looking lady holding a daffodil.

As she moved the painting to get to the locked door,

I could see the lady better.

It was Mom in an old-fashioned dress.

Pretty good,

Huh?

I used a projector to chase Mom's face onto an old painting.

I am not giving in.

I told myself as I gave Mom the key I'd found so she could unlock the door.

Dad had made an old pantry into the control room.

He had labeled all the drawers to keep track of the spare parts he stored inside.

We searched inside them for Dad's code book.

I wanted to ask Dad to tell me where he hid the darn thing,

But I was afraid that I'd hear his answer.

I actually felt relieved when I heard Juliet shout,

Here it is.

Juliet had found the book under a stack of floor plans in one of the cupboards.

The book told us how to set up each trick Dad had created inside the house.

We learned how to make a ghost float from a parlor to a dining room with film projectors rigged up on either side of the wall.

B.

J.

And I ran trigger wires across hallways in between furniture so unsuspecting visitors would set creaking chairs,

Moaning doors,

And an empty dress into motion.

Going from room to room,

We set up everything Dad had created.

We got so busy reading,

Rigging,

And preparing that I forgot all about the extra voice in my head.

By nightfall,

We felt almost ready.

Juliet and Samuel kept their old rolls.

B.

J.

Collected tickets.

I ran the soundboard at the back of the stage,

And Mom played special effects wizard in the control room.

No one seemed to notice the difference.

Everyone came out as dazed,

Shaky,

And psyched as they always did.

The diehards camped out in front to listen to Samuel roast marshmallows and wait for dawn.

Seeing them there only reminded me that Dad wouldn't come out to take his bow,

So I felt relieved when B.

J.

's Mom came over.

Hey,

Eben.

I can run the board if you want to go through.

Thanks,

I said,

Standing up to go in.

Rita asked,

Want anyone to go through with you?

I just wanted to get away from the growing crowd on the lawn,

So I shook my head and went inside by myself.

Dad had outdone himself.

Spirit slipped through walls.

Faint whisperings led you through secret passages to a ghostly meeting about a pirate raid.

And a distressed mother of generations past roamed the halls for a missing child.

I had my worries scared right out of me.

Stepping into a hallway,

I cut a glimpse of a beatable conductor's hat.

The man who wore it stood ahead above the five people behind him.

Dad?

I ran after him,

But he was gone when I got around the corner.

Did I just imagine him there?

The rest of the way through Hamilton Hall,

I didn't even pay attention to the tricks.

I just looked for Dad.

I never so much as thought I cut a glimpse of him.

Castle Rook.

When I walked out the back door,

I came right,

I kept right on going.

I needed to be closer to Dad,

But knew the nurses wouldn't let me see him so late at night.

Everyone has a place that makes you think of all the time you spent together.

BJ and I had her tree house.

Dad and I had Castle Rook.

I got close enough to rub the walls of Castle Rook,

But I couldn't go inside.

I just sat down in front of the drawbridge,

Remembering our after school ritual.

When I didn't have piano class practice,

I'd come home from school and run upstairs to feed Fred,

My iguana.

Dad would show up and sit on the banister.

When he leaned back,

He could rest his hand on the slanted part of the ceiling so it looked just like he was floating there,

Above the open stairs.

I'd tell him about school.

He'd tell me about all the weird facts he'd found,

Like Thomas Jefferson didn't give public speeches after he became president because he had a speech impediment.

Or that Andrew Jackson drooled all the time and they tried to get him kicked out of the Senate for it.

I'd feed Fred.

Then we'd collect everybody for a little time in Castle Rook.

It was my favorite place in the world.

I even kept a map of it to show my friends.

The castle was built out of the cement blocks you see in cellars.

Ours was more like a cave with those trippy rock walls.

Spooky.

Two stories tall,

Castle Rook,

Or Raven Castle,

As Samuel sometimes called it,

Had six rooms.

And everything a good castle should.

A throne room,

A battle room where we kept wooden horses and styrofoam lances,

Two secret hiding places that weren't so secret anymore.

We even had a kitchen,

Two bedrooms,

And a dining room.

Dad built a well outside.

The fireplaces worked too.

But Mom and Dad had to be there for us to use them.

Dad built a watchtower inside.

That was the only place with windows because it was tough to keep a castle cool in the summer or warm in the winter with a lot of windows.

A few years back,

Mom made us armor out of the pull tabs of pop cans.

Even with all the pop we drank,

It took her two years to collect the tabs.

Each summer we gave tours of the castle.

It was just like a saint's day in a feudal kingdom when all the serfs who worked for the king came to celebrate the special day of a saint with their ruler.

Dad said we had to trade off the part of the king.

Juliet was the best at it.

Well,

She was a queen.

But she did the grooviest British accent and had those vows and outs,

Aughts,

Of regal speech down just right.

Even funnier,

Dad was too tall to stand up in the castle.

Since he'd built it for us kids,

He'd made the rooms only six feet high.

That made him the kingdom giant who could sit on our enemies and fart until they surrendered.

We didn't always play act when we went to Castle Rook.

We went there most every afternoon when school got out.

We goofed off on the mats in the battle room,

Wrestling or whatever.

Sometimes we played board games in the dining room or hide and seek.

Every once in a while we'd just work on making things for the castle.

Mom built a loom and we all pitched in to make rugs and tapestries.

Castle Rook was the place Juliet became Lady Divya.

She took archery lessons at the U of M so she could shoot an arrow through the rings Dad had hung from the trees.

Samuel became Sir Obe and he loved making goofy weapons out of anything he found lying around.

He had a slingshot carved out of an old flower scoop he'd found in an antique store for a quarter because it had a crack in it.

I became Sir Harrow,

Said without the T,

And I helped out.

I helped Sir Obe test his weapons and Lady Divya make her arrows.

I guess we were still these things,

But with Dad in a coma it did not feel right to go into Castle Rook.

I couldn't throw rocks out the turret window,

Pebbles really,

And hit the hall window so Dad would open it and shout,

Five o'clock and all is well,

Or six o'clock and the Baker will be served in the hunting lodge.

That's a real house.

In half an hour.

I couldn't scream,

Lord Lucas,

We're being invaded,

And no Dad would come running,

Styrofoam sword swinging.

I couldn't imagine going to Castle Rook knowing Dad wasn't along,

Or inside the house hunting down the reasons why the U.

S.

Has only,

Has one of the only cultures in the world where women shave their legs.

Don't get me wrong,

Nobody could call me a Daddy's boy.

I knew there were lots of kids who didn't have a Dad around,

But mine had always been there.

Sure,

He was distracted a lot,

But my Dad was still a cool guy.

I would have thought so even if he weren't my Dad,

And I wanted him back.

But imagining him in places he didn't exist,

And hearing him when he couldn't speak,

Would not do the trick.

I had to pray and wait for him to heal,

Just like everyone else.

So that concludes the reading of Dad in Spirit for this session.

But I wanted to talk a little bit about waiting and believing.

You know,

When you're waiting for something you really,

Really want,

It's okay to believe you will get it.

But it's also important to prepare yourself for the possibility that you might not.

Either way,

It's important to realize that even if you don't get what you want,

There is a strong possibility you'll get what you need if you work hard.

And keep reaching for a future you want to have,

And building what you need to have that future,

One day at a time.

And today,

I hope you enjoyed this reading,

And that you'll consider listening to other readings from me,

A.

Le Fay,

Of Sylvanosity.

Speaking of Sylvanosity,

Have I told you yet what it means?

It's a word I invented,

From the Latin,

For tree,

Sylvan.

Sylvan is spelled S-Y-L-V-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.

S-Y-L-V-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.

It's about our capacity to use our gifts,

Particularly creativity,

To make the world a better place.

Kind of like Dad in Dad and Spirit,

Using all he knew about castles to build one for his kids in the backyard.

How might you use your Sylvanosity to make the world a better place?

Hmm,

I'd love to hear your ideas.

So,

You could visit me on Facebook,

Instagram,

Or Twitter,

At Sylvanosity.

And let me know what you think of this story,

And your ideas about how you can use your Sylvanosity to make the world a better place.

I hope to see you there.

Thanks for listening.

Until next time,

It's A La Faye.

Signing off.

See you soon.

Reviews

I love Dad in Spirit!!!! I am also making a playlist