Sep 20
28
In The Beginning (16)
SIX
I woke up with a start. It was totally dark and I didn’t know where I was. I fumbled around on the right side of the bed and found a nightstand and finally managed to find the switch at the base of the lamp. It was almost 6:30. It was 12:30 back in Ponte Vedra, Florida where the “group of twelve” lived and I had promised to call Darlene an hour and a half earlier. I remembered that I wanted to call Jeff and Roberta Barrett first, but that would have to wait now.
I stumbled, still half asleep into the kitchen where the printed instructions that included the codes necessary to make a long distance call were laying on the counter. Thus armed I took them back to the bedroom and sat on the bed preparing to make the call.
I changed my mind to make a quick check of my e-mail – the instruction card also explained how to turn on the wireless modem and the code I would need to tune my laptop to it.
My e-mail inbox was loaded with forty new messages …the last time I’d checked them was at LAX before boarding my flight to Honolulu this morning. It seemed a lifetime ago. I scanned them quickly …Darlene, Brad – what was he doing writing me, I mused, he wasn’t even supposed to be back at the house in Ponte Vedra until around 7:00 p.m. Florida time.
Wait a minute! I had things backwards – it was already past midnight there …good thing I checked!
I scanned through the rest of them …one each from Sid Wilmot and Al Edmund, the only other one I was interested in looking at right now was from Jeff Barrett:
Jeanne, just a quick note to tell you how excited Rob and I are about the possibility that you and maybe even Brad might be visiting! We’ve been following Brad’s writings ever since we stopped going to church …I suppose you are familiar with his website? www.spiritualhealingsource.com, anyway, please call or write when you get a chance! Jeff & Rob
“Slow down, Jeanne,” I thought …or was it Spirit telling me that? Oh my, I was so excited I needed some direction. I had thought that after I made a quick check of my e-mail that I’d call the Barretts. In fact that was the source of my excitement …what’s going on with that? I was reminded again that the meeting with Jeff on the plane was “ordained” and that something was brewing with that connection.
Okay, I said aloud, what should I do first? Then I knew …I was to call them AFTER reading the e-mail from Brad:
Well, Jeanne, here we go again into some uncharted waters. It’s 11:20 p.m. here and I thought I’d dash off a note to you before going to bed; we just finished our nightly ritual of the twelve + one (Daniel) of us gathering together to share. Will, Bob and Vic picked me up at the airport earlier, which was kind of a surprise, normally only Bob comes, but Will and Vic were too excited to wait to dump the news that I’m supposed to come to Hawaii for you to do an interview of me in person — the three of them met me at the gate. Jack had already given me a hint on the phone earlier, when I called from Toronto.
“Do we ever have news for you,” is what he had said. So help me, Jack is such a serious sort most of the time, he sounded as excited as a six year-old …but he refused to elaborate, putting me off by saying they would all surprise me when I got home. So, everybody is excited for me to come there; now then, do you have a plan?
b
I now had the clearance to call Jeff and Roberta. “This is Jeff,” he answered on the first ring. When he found out it was me, he told me to hold on and I heard him yell, “hey honey, pick up the phone, it’s Jeanne Stockwell.”
“Hi Jeanne,” Roberta said almost immediately, “I’m so glad you called, we can’t stop talking about the possibility of you coming for a visit …please say it is possible.”
I told them about the availability of free flight vouchers and my thoughts of wanting to come over even ahead of Brad’s coming unless he is willing to come right away …and I told them about his e-mail and time differential and how I’d gotten it backwards in my mind.
“Any chance you can do both? You know, since air travel will be free – come for two or three days now and then come again with Brad when he does come?” Jeff asked.
I asked them about their schedules which they said were wide open …I asked if I could call them right back with an answer.
______
Wide awake now – I asked, “What am I supposed to do?” It was like a plan had already been laid out for me. I knew exactly what I was to do …I was a little surprised. I was to e-mail Brad asking him to please arrange air travel to Kona to arrive early the following week and advise me by e-mail the flight details; I would pick him up at the airport and a comfortable place would be available for him to stay. I asked that he allow three weeks so that we could “fight our way” through another manuscript and discuss the details of a publishing contract.
I also asked him to apologize to Darlene that I hadn’t called, but some things had come up; and I didn’t elaborate further.
This was weird, because Brad and I had been instructed by Spirit, all those years ago, not to publish the first Leapfrog Manuscript, it was absolutely clear to me that we were now to publish both and incorporate them into a book. How can I be so overwhelmed and calm at the same time?
“Because it is in My hands.”
I was so excited – I hadn’t heard that voice in that way for so long …is this what happens just at the thought of writing an addition to Leapfrog? I was dancing around like an eighth grader with my hands in the air with unbridled excitement!
I picked up the “book” of instructions and called from the phone mounted on the wall next to the bed and called Auntie Em. It rang six or seven times and with a sinking feeling I thought she must have gone out… “Hello Jeanne …”
I stammered a quick, how did she know it was me? – She replied, with that enchanting sing-song and a smile that I felt rather than heard, “We all fixed up very modern here, Jeanne, just like you have on the Mainland, caller I.D. …did you get some rest?”
Finally past the pleasantries, I asked her about the flight vouchers and she told me they were good for one way only and for any flight for which the fare was under $100; there were several of those flights each day to choose from. She told me there was a flight schedule in the top drawer next to the stove with the 24 hour reservations numbers and that she’d be glad to drive me and pick me up. I cautiously asked her how many vouchers she had.
“Jean, there are more here than you could possibly use if you flew everyday for the next six months …you’re not planning that are you,” she said with a giggle. “Let me bring a book of twenty over to you right now …and whenever you decide you are going just let me know if you want me to drive you, but if not please just let me know when you are going so I can make up your hale [pronounced hah-lay …Hawaiian for house] while you’re gone.”
I told her I wanted to get familiar with the territory and thanked her for her offer to drive me, but I’d take the car.
This is so simple and easy I thought, sending a silent thank you to our SPIRIT-PARENT. I called the airline and booked the flight for late morning; then called Jeff and Roberta; “you won’t believe this, but you guys are going to have to pick me up at the airport around noon and I hope you can put up with me for a few days.”
Roberta acted ecstatic. She has a personality that made me feel immediately comfortable as if I have known her forever. I told her I was excited too and that I didn’t know what was ahead, but I had been comfortable about going ahead and booking the flight; I gave them the flight number. That was that! A knock on the back door and Auntie Em was there with my flight vouchers.
I told her I would be leaving in the morning and probably wouldn’t be back until sometime Saturday or Sunday.
She left quickly with a minimum of fuss, after telling me about the insurance card and registration packet that were in the glove compartment along with the 24 hour emergency numbers for towing or any car trouble.
My gratitude for how this was all so easy was coming over me in waves! I settled in to check the rest of my e-mail and decided to put it off until morning. I foraged around the kitchen and refrigerator and found a bottle of some kind of expensive-looking red wine, and found the cork screw – then I found a brand new two pound block of cheddar cheese in the fridge and an unopened box of crackers in the small, but jam-packed larder and I sat down to my fine dining and to muse. Again, this strange mixture of peace, overwhelm and gratitude settling over me.
The wine hit me hard and, realizing that I was exhausted, I quickly cleaned up the mess and headed back to the bedroom.
Setting the alarm on the little digital clock, with bright red-lighted numbers, on top of the bookcase headboard, for 6:00 …I figured I’d answer my e-mail in the morning, make some calls and just darn well relax for a couple hours until time to drive back to the airport.
I woke up rested and started stretching just as the alarm went off. There was barely a whisper of daylight. I quickly made up the bed, got dressed and began to explore. The place was huge. A large master bath was in the main bedroom which also had a large walk-in closet and a nice sized desk. There were two other smaller bedrooms both equipped with large flat screen televisions as well as a desk in each with computers with flat-screened monitors. I walked over to the big double sliding glass door and looked out at the swimming pool; venturing out I leaned over to stick my hand in the inviting crystal clear water – I decided to take a quick dip – it was just too, too perfect to pass up!
I looked around and saw that there were five, free-standing bungalows which were identical to the one I’d just come out of; all looking out to the kidney-shaped pool with a fountain and a miniature waterfall at the opposite end from where I was standing. There were round tables with large umbrellas and chaise lounges and chairs scattered neatly around the reddish brown tile that covered the patio surrounding the pool, bordered by more of the same neatly manicured flowering shrubs and trees, of the type I had seen when we first drove onto the property. There were also a number of small palm trees. It was all perfect! I’d call Sid Wilmot and tell him I wanted to work here forever!
With those thoughts I realized I needed to get busy answering my stacked up e-mail – I’d have to forego my swim until I returned from Honolulu.
What was rather thrilling to me was the publishing contract proposal from Al Edmund. Sid Wilmot’s e-mail was strictly personal …hoping I would take him seriously about using the flight vouchers for both Brad and me to get around the islands to truly absorb the beauty and magic that Hawaii has to offer. This from Al Edmund:
Hey, Jeanne! Sid told me he was going to also write, but more on a personal note. He insisted that I tell you in broad terms what he and I discussed related to the attached publishing contract proposal for about four hours this morning; Jeanne, I have to tell you that I’ve never known him to be this generous with any other writer. –Al
The attachment was conversational in tone …rather than an actual contract proposal. Basically, Destiny Publishing, which operated the magazine as a separate company, was offering a joint contract to Brad and me to develop the Leapfrog Manuscript into a two part book. We were to create a blueprint on how to develop other spiritual centers around the world as I had described to them that had been started in Jacksonville as a result of the first Leapfrog Manuscript. Destiny was offering a “standard” publishing contract to Brad and me as co-authors.
I had to stand up and walk around! Al wrote in the attachment that Sid wanted this book to happen; that he thought it was an important work for humanity and that he wanted to make sure we had all the support we needed. Sid was prepared to give us an advance of $50,000 each! Plus give us a year to write it with a negotiated monthly advance over the year and an expense allowance if we needed to travel to do research. All we would have to do is submit our travel plans for any trip with an itemized budget to Al by e-mail and he would e-mail back the approval. When the trip was completed, we had only to mail the receipts along with a request for reimbursement to him in Albuquerque and he would put a check in the mail.
Fortunately, as a freelance writer, I knew that publishing contracts were never “standard” and can be all over the place. I had been burned a couple of times, badly – what Destiny was offering was off-the-charts generous. I also had found out that even the best of agents tend to look out for their own interests. There was no guarantee of a fair publishing agreement. If anything this was more than merely a generous offer, it would forever spoil me. I was, again, overwhelmed with gratitude about how Spirit had planned everything.
With an eye on the time, I quickly wrote both Sid and Al a quick acknowledgement and thanks and that I was going to forward the offer to Brad with my recommendation that we accept.
“Is this the right thing to do” I asked Spirit …and felt, rather than “heard,” a huge yes!
Still nervously checking my watch, I dashed off a note to Brad saying that I got a “yes” to accept the contract, but I knew he was busy with other things and didn’t know if he was up for tearing himself away from business and the group to work with me for a year to co-author a book!
In Freedom,
Brad