New Stuff: The Angel At My Side

Hi Everyone,

I have been away for a while due to illness and dealing with some personal problems but I have now had the chance to produce some new work. It's different to my other work but I fancied a changed and I needed to write about some strange supernatural experiences I have been witnessing in the last couple of years. So I am posting the first chapter of my new book, The Angel At My Side which is a true account of these events.

I would love to receive your comments and your interpretations of my experiences. I would also like to know about your own.

I will try to post some more before Christmas.

Happy Reading

Best Wishes,

Sara


The Angel At My Side



The Angel At My Side

Chapter One : Starry Eyed

Fairytales aren't real, right? There is absolutely no possibility that they can come true. So a man, a knight in shining armour, metaphorically speaking of course, who walks out the pages of a novel that you wrote and presents himself as a real live person can't be true. I mean it just can't be. It must mean that the writer is delusional, in need of psychiatric care and the help of the men in white coats. But what if I told you it was true. Would you dare to believe me or dismiss me as mad? Maybe you should hear me out before you make your final decision on the state of my sanity.
I was editing my finished novel when I first became aware of my character's enigmatic presence. I was quietly typing away on my laptop, feeling the usual frustration of editing when a strong image entered my mind. It was him. He was walking into the dining room where I was sat working. Tall, handsome with thick glossy black hair and dark eyes, just as I had written him in my novel. I would have readily dismissed the image as mere fantasy but it was far too vivid and real in its feeling to ignore.

Confused, I frowned and watched as he came towards me with a gentle smile on his face not knowing what to expect. I sat, hands poised over my laptop ready to type, frozen in time, with starry eyes. To my surprise he lifted my chin with the caress of his fingers and softly kissed me. What frightened me more was that instead of it all just being in my mind, I found my eyes closed and my chin tilted upwards.

Alarmed at my own strange behaviour at what I defined as a strong but simple daydream I did what I do best . . . I filed it under products of an over active imagination caused by stress in a life filled with personal problems and incurable wishful thinking. But I was in for another surprise at my daughter's prize-giving day at school in July.

I hate prize -giving at school. It is always on the last day of summer term. You have to turn up in your best clothes smiling sweetly, and engaging in polite conversation with some people you would never want to associate with in life outside the school. Then there are the parents who are preening their feathers expecting their child to win every prize. To be followed by their arguing at the unfairness of it all when their child didn't get one. Yeah it's definitely fun, not! Although it is nice when your own child defies expectations and gets one over the class genius or the usual suspects getting prizes every year.

Well it was about to be a very different prize giving that day. My husband and I had arrived late that day and couldn't sit. We managed to get seats just behind them in the large sports hall, decked out in garlands and a platform with all the shiny silver cups gleaming in the sunlight waiting to be presented. Further along the line of seats were some acquaintances who were trying to sit all together as friends. Every time one appeared my husband and I were asked if we minded moving down a chair. This happened three times and the final time riled my anger. I announced quite loudly that I was not moving again and thought their behaviour was rude. To be truthful I also felt like Billy No Mates when I found myself pushed right along the line next to a vacant seat on the very end.

Huffed, I sat feeling annoyed waiting for proceedings to begin when I was compelled to glance at the empty chair next to me. This time when I looked, in my mind's eye another strong image of my character Nathan appeared. He was sitting on the empty chair, arms folded, one leg balanced across the top of his knee, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Once again it was so strong I had to look twice at the chair expecting him to really appear and not just in my mind.

I had to grin. I couldn't help thinking how fantastic it would be if he was really there. Maybe this was what writers went on about when they said they could almost see their characters hanging around their house. Maybe I was truly beginning to find my flow as a writer. Yet, a part of me wanted to acknowledge that there was something more than writing going on. I had been seeing a lot of strange blue lights around for a while. Perhaps, I needed to investigate what was happening a little further. Maybe I was actually seeing a ghost?

These images were to become more frequent especially when I was alone and upset which unfortunately happened a lot. Many times I would feel and see him in my mind's eye with his arm around my shoulders comforting me. He also seemed at great pains to show me a gold wedding ring on his finger. I cannot describe how safe and warm his presence made me feel in those times and continues to do so. Nor can I dismiss the strong feeling of love he gave me and generated within me in return. Slowly I began to accept that something wonderful was beginning to happen to me that was outside the realms of my ordinary experience of life. But I would not find out who Nathan really was until the beginning of the following year and begin to see him as a physical presence.