Cloud to Cloud

Episode 16: A Cloud of Knowledge

Fred awoke to an empty house. Evan had been leaving earlier every morning, it seemed. Though Fred had begun to be concerned his nephew was not sleeping at all. He knew the signs of anxiety and stress. He had once been far too intimate with them as well.

Since the incident on the train, the near death experience, or NDE, as Hannah and the others in the support group had called it, however, Fred seemed to have lost the ability to be anxious. It was a symptom, a sort of side effect of touching the other side. At least that's how Fred understood it.

He rolled out of bed and made his way to the kitchen. Tea, in place of coffee, had become his new drink of choice. When he mentioned this to Hannah she had given him a sample bag of hibiscus flowers.

Fred pulled the bag from the cabinet and turned back the small tabs holding the mouth of the bag closed. The aroma of the flowers filled his senses.

"Smells as purple as it looks." Fred mused as he fished a tea cup from the cabinet.

Following the hand written instructions on the back of the little bag, Fred spooned a few dried petals into the tea strainer. He set the strainer in the tea cup and the kettle on to boil as he wandered to the front of the house.

A few scoops of dried petals were not the only gift Hannah had offered Fred on their meeting.

He took a canvas tote from the hook by the door. He grunted as he remembered the weight of the contents. He peered into the bag.

"Homework time." He mumbled.

The whistle of the tea kettle drew him back to the kitchen.

He laid the bag on the kitchen table while he completed the task of brewing tea. Hannah had also mentioned the ritual of making the perfect cup of tea. Using a tea ball was more than enough ritual for now.

"Smells nice enough." He admitted as he sniffed at the curls of steam rising from the cup.

He settled in at the table and drew the books from the tote bag.

He scanned the titles spread before him. "Evidence of Life after Life, Tomorrow's Return, Dying to Become Me." He turned one of the books in his hand.

Many of the men and women in the support group had mentioned the titles as guides that allowed them to understand their experience, yet as Fred flipped the pages he found little fully explained the man he had spoken to in the vision, or the scenes whirling in his mind.

Fred moved to try the tea. "Shit! Hot!"

A spattering of pinkish liquid speckled the table and the pages of the book as Fred thumped the cup onto the table and fanned at his open mouth.

"Great." He muttered as he rose to snatch a towel from the counter to mop up the mess.

As he patted at the pages of the book something caught his attention.

He put the towel aside. "The Akashic records are a compendium of all of existence. They are considered by some to be a sort of library of data stored in the greater consciousness of reality. Contained in this library are the past, present, and potential of all existence."

Fred laid the book on the table. "A library of data." He repeated the words aloud.

Glancing again over the books before him he wished he had more than a table of contents to guide him to more information on this Akashic library. Undeterred, he flipped through the next book in search of keywords.

"Hey! Fred! You here?" Evan's voice sliced through the fog of Fred's thoughts.

He lifted his gaze from the stacks of books and notes spread across the table as his nephew appeared in the doorway.

"How goes the day, old man? Any adventures with lady friends today?" Evan mused as he opened the refrigerator in search of food.

Evan turned to his uncle when Fred didn't reply. "Have you been sitting here all day?"

Fred blinked at the analogue clock across the room. He lifted the now cold tea cup.

"I need to get online."