A Loosening of the Spirit

As I get older I find I’m more aware of the astral plane than the earthly world, even when I’m awake. It’s as if my spirit is gradually coming loose from my body, ready for that final trip. I keep slipping out and coming back in, like when you dream you’re falling and wake with a jump. I can no longer control when it happens; Annabelle says she often sees me standing in a daze and then giving a startled twitch, as if I’ve just woken up.

This can cause problems, because if I don’t concentrate on staying upright, I fall over!

Recently, I needed to go out in the early hours of the morning. The garden is magical at that time on a summer day – you can often catch the tail end of a fairy music festival – so I climbed the steps to the back lawn to see what was going on. The next minute I was fully on the astral plane, dancing with the fairies to wild music. It was wonderfully exciting, but when I got back to my body, I found I’d fallen off the steps and landed on my back like a beetle. It was a horrible shock.

I’ve recovered now, but since then Annabelle has been afraid to leave me on my own. The upside to this is I get to see a lot more of Snip and Frieda, because Annabelle leaves me with them when she has to go out. She has also arranged for me to go for little walks with them so I don’t have to worry about strange dogs. I always feel safe with Snip, he’s so big and strong and protective.

I’m not so scared now about crossing the Rainbow Bridge. The fairies have told me there’s a wonderful place on the other side, called the Land of Summer. It’s always summer there and it has a special place that’s just for us dogs, where we get to play all day. We stay there for a while, then we come back to Earth in a new young body.

Talking of reincarnation, I’ve been checking out Annabelle’s work in progress, about a boy called Charlie who has lived before as a dodgy wizard. The ghost of that past life turns up and reawakens Charlie’s power, without telling him how to use it properly. This doesn’t stop him experimenting with it, and his inept attempts at magic cause chaos in the stuffy little village where he lives. It’s all a bit lowbrow for me – at my age, I prefer Hemingway – but children who like daft slapstick humour should enjoy it.

I just hope I live long enough to see it published!