Chapter 1: The Flame

6:13:38pm, February 14, 2003

In a state of pure peace, Kaleigh and my ‘essences’ watched from a bird’s eye view as my earthly body was utterly destroyed in our car crash. When we saw that her physical body was basically unharmed and slightly moving within her Maxima, her spirit turned to me and thought, “Am I still alive in the car?”

As I was forming a reply in my mind, we were instantly taken off and carried across a space so beautiful and colorful that it overtook our mind’s ability to comprehend. Before we lost our ability to think, both Kaleigh and I shared a feeling of ‘true love’, even though we couldn’t communicate with each other. During this brief time, I wondered if this deep feeling was our pathway to heaven. Neither of us had a chance to formulate an answer as we lost consciousness on our journey to where ever.

When our essences awoke or came to, Kaleigh and I were, for a lack of proper words, face to face with nearly pure energy beings. The first thing we heard was their answer to my last thought on our journey. They said, “This is not what you, Nevins would call heaven.”

Kaleigh’s spirit turned to me and said, “It’s definitely not what I pictured hell to be like though.” Even as we were in some strangely beautiful place, Kaleigh’s fearlessness came through in her initial words to me and them.

“We are, to use terms you can understand, called Energists. We are evolving from our completely pure energy and knowledge state of being into physical/mass based beings such as you humans. Even though we have all the knowledge and capabilities to control energy, we as a species, again using your terms, are in dire need of the knowledge you possess regarding how to live and learn in a physical realm of existence.” As their leader or spokesperson finished sharing that with Kaleigh and me, all of us materialized into recognizable human like forms. Kaleigh and I were our ‘old selves’ again, and the Energists appeared as humanoid creatures.

Similar to Kaleigh’s earlier show of strength, I fearlessly asked these strange Energists, “Where are we now, if this is not our heaven or hell? When we die or perish, we believe that our spirits and souls are immediately transported by our God to spend all eternity either with Him in heaven or completely separated from Him in hell.”

“We have ‘claimed’ you, Nevins and brought you, Plyer to our home or space-time continuum where our energy based essences have lived for an unknown time. We are in what you would call an alternate universe. It is here where we have our greatest control and power, and that is why we have brought you here to help us. We have conducted studies and had interactions with others of your kind who were also claimed. However, they were of limited value to our quest for the required knowledge to function in a physical world.”

“You were responsible for KILLING three of my friends on that road?” Kaleigh raged at the Energists. I reached over to take a hold of her as she was as angry as I had ever seen her. Not knowing what they would do to her or us if we didn’t behave appropriately, I attempted to settle Kaleigh down and find out what kind of ‘sticky-wicket’ we were currently in.

“Most of those claimed in the crashes on that road weren’t of great use to us. They were either teenagers or infants as you call small humans, or were not educated enough with limited knowledge or experiences in how to master complex actions in a physical realm of existence. Because these claimed people couldn’t provide the needed information to guide us into the future, we Energists did not ‘feel’ obligated to compensate them beyond allowing them to journey on to their afterlife destination.”

Listening to them explain why they claimed or killed various people on Hwy 216 and how they then allowed those poor people to journey onto their ‘afterlife’, I asked, “You claimed - killed a young woman named Danielle Smithson a few weeks ago. Was she allowed to journey on to what we call heaven?”

“Yes, please tell us that she has gone onto heaven or so help me, I will guarantee you won’t make any transition or evolution into a ‘whatever’ you hope to become!” Kaleigh fired off with pure venom in her voice.

The Energists acted without any undue alarm at Kaleigh’s threat and calmly replied to our questions and angry statements. “If that was her belief, which it strongly appeared to be as we studied her, then yes, Smithson has journeyed to your heaven. In addition, this young lady was much more helpful to us then all the others combined. Smithson was the human who directed us to both of you.”

Kaleigh and I looked at each other with shock and confusion. Kaleigh sternly asked, “How did my friend help you claim or kill us? She would never ever put another person in harm’s way or help you to claim anyone, especially us, as you just said.”

“First, we have only claimed Nevins as our assistant. Plyer, you will be returned to your former world at the appropriate time. Now to address your questions, we learned from our initial examination of Smithson’s knowledge base that both of you would be ideal helpers or teachers for us as we evolve into our new physical existence. Smithson informed us, quite unknowingly or involuntarily, if that helps with your present state of mind, that Nevins was a skilled instructor of humans in physical movements and decision-making. Based on this, Nevins is a near perfect match for the areas we require the most assistance with as we transition to our new state of being. Plyer, as an accomplished student of Nevins, would have been an acceptable helper to us as well. While you are younger and more vigorous, we have learned from our studies of various physical species through the universes that a wise, skilled teacher will be a more valuable asset to us than the less experienced student.”

Kaleigh and I both looked at each other with confusion on our faces. Why did they take both of us then if they only needed one of us, me obviously, to assist or help them with their evolutionary journey? The Energists analyzed our thoughts and eliminated them from our minds for the time being. A quick energy tracer from them focused both our minds back on what they wished to share with us.

The Energists then explained how they acquired a good bit of useful information about Plyer and me from Smithson. They learned our travel schedules, where we lived and when we traveled to and from our various domiciles, and our regular daily or weekly activities.

The key piece of information was the Valentine’s Day dinner and show, which Smithson postulated had the greatest likelihood for one or both of us to be on Hwy 216. With there being a tight time constraint in getting to Kaleigh’s church, the Energists assumed we would be more inclined to take that shorter and faster route to that destination. Thus, the Energists predicted that to be their most opportune time to claim one or both of us. All this information from Smithson greatly aided the Energists in being much more selective in their claiming process.

The Energists told us they were befuddled because we used a different route on most of our journeys between Tuscaloosa and Kaleigh’s family community. They asked us why we changed our habitual travel routines, and took another less direct or desirable route after Smithson’s death. Kaleigh told them that we were greatly saddened by Dani’s death and didn’t want to be reminded of that awful event as we drove past that accident site. While I listened to her reply, I noticed that the Energists were actively absorbing and integrating our experiences to acquire a more complete picture of their future physical world existence.

As the Energists hypothesized, our Valentine’s Day trip to Hepzibah was the first time we used Hwy 216 to get to the Plyer’s community. As this was the Energists only physical portal to our world, they took full advantage of this opportunity. Prior to claiming me and bringing Kaleigh, the Energists related how they learned that simply blinding a human driver was not enough to ensure their desired result. They explained how they almost ‘claimed’ Nevins/me by pure randomness on that icy Sunday morning as I journeyed to Hepzibah Baptist Church for the first time. After that unsuccessful attempt, they studied our vehicle systems to gain all the required knowledge to take full control over them to ensure success in their future claiming process.

Additionally, the Energists were surprised by how well a human, who just happened to be me, maintained control of a vehicle under such severe weather conditions, while physically blinded by them. The Energists knew that if a human could master and counter all those ‘negative’ physical complications, then a similarly knowledgeable human would be ideal for assisting them on their evolutionary journey. I smiled as they basically complimented me on my driving prowess. I then explained that they were unsuccessful because I accessed my prior memories, which subconsciously kept me from using or ‘locking’ my brakes as my car slipped on that icy curve. The Energists were digesting my story details like a spider does with a moth’s juices as they adjusted their knowledge on how previous physical memories or events could influence present or future physical actions.

I then told the Energists that I felt something, a strange presence, during that near accident, and the Energists acknowledged to us that we both were able to feel their presence on several occasions due to their physical entrance into our universe. When they ventured into our world, Kaleigh and I were able to sense their targeted focus on us as they analyzed our brain waves and memory networks. Kaleigh and I both recalled several experiences where we felt their presence, especially the time or two we traveled by their corporeal portal (the crash sites on Hwy 216) into our physical universe.

The Energists finished up their discussion about Smithson by telling us, “Based on this knowledge we gleaned from Smithson, we decided to recompense Smithson by granting several of her final desires before she journeyed to her final destination. Before you ask, we Energists could not undo the physical trauma done to her body after we acquired the needed knowledge. Therefore, we agreed to these few requests from your friend, Smithson.”

Kaleigh and I were amazed that these unique energy beings would display or grant some type of gratitude to someone who was just ‘claimed’ or considered expendable. The Energists read those thoughts and said, “We are not without ‘heart’ as you would call it. We only did what we had to do for the survival of our kind. The other humans did not provide any real help, so we didn’t, how would you say this, ‘feel obligated’ to offer them compensation. Smithson on the other hand, provided us with valuable knowledge, which led us to you. Thus, we ‘felt’ the need to repay her in some small manner.”

Again, we were initially surprised at their mindset regarding claiming or killing, and then at their later remuneration for services rendered. Kaleigh and I both came to the realization that we would do exactly what the Energists had done, if our family, country or species long term survival was at stake. We both recalled numerous examples within human history where our people had killed numerous others for the long term betterment of society. The use of atomic bombs in Japan was the first to enter my mind, while Kaleigh accessed a ‘Star Trek’ movie as her reference point. I inwardly smiled as she recreated Spock’s death, which saved the Enterprise for the betterment of numerous others.

As Kaleigh and I refocused back on the Energists, we sensed their appreciation of our slowly altered perception of their actions with Smithson and the other claimants. Then they naturally focused our minds again on what they did for Smithson by saying, “First, we allowed Smithson’s spirit essence to visit you and help you prepare for this event.”

My new body reacted with a combination of amusement and bewilderment at hearing that, so I asked, “Was that Dani I heard talking from or through Kaleigh’s body yesterday?”

“Yes it was,” was their simple reply.

“How come I don’t remember that?” Kaleigh queried our new hosts. I recognized the change in Kaleigh’s attitude toward the Energists. In her mind, they now had become our hosts instead of our claimers or killers.

“The only way to allow Smithson’s essence to communicate with you in your physical world was for Plyer’s cognitive processing to be temporarily shut down. This prevented her encoding and recall processes of that event.” I nodded at hearing their explanation because they used terms I was very familiar with and taught to my students. I later learned that the Energists tried to use words, phrases or terminologies, which I was familiar with to help with our soon to be intertwined communication.

Kaleigh slowly assembled the gist of their words, and when she integrated them with the knowledge I taught to her in classes, she accepted the fact that she wasn’t physically able to communicate with or experience Dani’s presence at that time. “That is why I didn’t remember saying those words to you when you bizarrely asked me what I said last night.”

I smiled at Kaleigh as she pondered the moment that Dani came to visit with us. Then she shockingly said, “What was it that you said to me, about, about what ‘Dani’ said to you? I’m beginning to understand and accept that we - you aren’t coming back to our home but uh, you told me I, er ... Dani said something about you leaving me and MY BABIES?”

I was just about to say something on that, when the Energists once again refocused both of us on their agenda and told us they would explain all that to us shortly. They then continued, “As a second reward to Smithson, we agreed to only claim one of you for our teacher or guide to our new existence. That is the reason why we decided to spare Plyer’s earthly life by protecting her physical body within a cocoon like shell during that major vehicle wreck.

When the Energists allowed Kaleigh to completely comprehend their plan to keep me and send her back, she vigorously protested and tried to explain why she was the better choice for their task. As she attempted to make her case, she soon realized she had a losing hand in comparison to what I could provide the Energists and her emotional resources nearly bottomed out. I wondered why the Energists had allowed Kaleigh to have full access to her human memories and emotions right now which I knew would have her on a path of complete despair.

I had to use all my cognitive energy and emotional abilities to settle Kaleigh down, and get her to reluctantly accept their choice. Kaleigh, with my help, soon realized I was the better choice for this unfortunate task, and that there was no way I would let them keep her over me if they allowed us any say in that decision.

Even after she accepted their decision, Kaleigh’s mixed emotional reaction to this event; pure love for me and unqualified hatred for them, shocked the Energists beyond their comprehension. They thought she would be immensely relieved to be the person left behind and alive. The Energists, in all their universal travels, did not recognize or understand our concept of sacrificial love, which created those mixed emotions within Kaleigh and to some extent, me. As I comforted Kaleigh, I subconsciously explained to the Energists how humans, if they truly love or care about others, would often willingly sacrifice their own life for them, especially with a family member or a true loved one.

When the Energists related this sacrificial concept to the major religious belief in our part of the world, Kaleigh slowly and with great anguish, explained that a good number of humans believe that Jesus sacrificially gave His human body, His blood to repay everyone’s sin debt. Then true believers in Jesus would receive His Father’s free gift of eternal life with Them in heaven. When Kaleigh asked if the Energists believed in or knew of our God or other gods, they simply refused to get involved in that type of philosophical dialogue.

However both of us recalled the Energists saying they allowed their other ‘claimed’ humans to go to whatever end of life existence they held true. Kaleigh and I looked at each other and both took their words or lack of them as knowing that Dani was now with our God in heaven. When the Energists didn’t refute or eliminate those thought processes, we took that as additional proof, even though we really didn’t need the Energists’ confirmation, for our Christian belief.

With a figurative snap of their fingers, the Energists easily changed the discussion to their desired topic. They shared that they learned the true meaning of human love from Smithson. When Kaleigh asked what they learned from Danielle, the Energists said that if a person truly loved someone, he or she would be emotionally devastated at any sudden loss of that person. Then they related that Smithson forcefully exclaimed that we were ABSOLUTELY in love with each other and were meant to be together here on earth.

Based on Smithson’s request to spare Kaleigh’s life and by understanding the absolutely devastating impact losing me would have on her, the Energists decided to bring her here for a very short period of human time, which I later learned was between 4 and 6 seconds. The Energists explained to us that they had and were going to additionally enhance her psyche by granting us the perfect outcome of true human love. They related that they hoped this still unknown gift to Kaleigh would serve as a partial solace for utterly tearing our love apart to ensure their own survival.

Kaleigh and I still didn’t comprehend the meaning of their previous words, so the Energists told us that they imparted a small portion of their unique energy into us on that Sunday morning after Smithson’s funeral. When we both instantly recalled feeling something unique that morning as we made love, the Energists said that was their gift to us, which would enhance Plyer’s psyche and allow her to continue on with her human life without me there with her.

We were both still confused as to the complete nature of this gift. Neither of us felt enhanced in any special way at the moment beyond the awesome pleasure we experienced that morning. Wanting to see just how cognitively sophisticated we humans were, the Energists then gave us a clue by saying Plyer experienced the first ‘human sign’ of their gift this morning when she got out of bed. They told us that same physical sign occurred again while she was at work around 7:30am. I obviously was in the dark on that event.

While I was still confused by their clues or signs, Kaleigh’s cognitive and emotional essence immediately reacted with unadulterated joy as she deduced the nature of their gift to us, and more specifically to her. She turned towards me and said, “I’m pregnant with your child. God Mike, they helped us, me, oooh God, I’m gonna have your child!”

The Energists allowed us to bask and rejoice in that incredible news before they confirmed that Kaleigh was indeed pregnant. Just when we thought they couldn’t top that news, the Energists surprised us even more when they said we were only partially correct about this gift to Kaleigh. When I explained that this was the perfect gift and we didn’t need anything else, the Energists ‘laughed’ and informed us that Plyer was not going to have just one child but twins, a male and a female child. We looked into each other’s eyes and literally cried at hearing this incredible news.

The Energists were suddenly confused again as they recognized our extreme joy filled emotional response to their unbelievable gift. However they couldn’t fathom our apparent sadness or the presence of physical tears at the same time. After allowing us ‘time’ to gain control over ourselves, the Energists asked why we had that physical response to such apparently good news.

“Human and other physical creatures can react with similar responses to very different emotional situations. We have learned how to interpret the true meaning of these responses based on the context or situation in which they are generated. Tears can be associated with sadness, like at Dani’s funeral services, or they can signify great joy or relief. Those tears you just saw from us were joyful tears, mixed with a sense of relief on my part,” I said to the Energists.

“What is relief? And how were you able to mix those two together in one physical response?” they queried me.

“I felt relief, a lessening of concern or worry, because I am now confident that Kaleigh has a new purpose or goal in life, and will go on living it because of the children she is now carrying. I was concerned for her mental state of health, as she has experienced a lot of major mental trauma in her short lifetime.” The Energists quickly let us know they now understood that new concept.

“I am able to combine emotions together because we, humans are just able to do that. Do you recall Kaleigh feeling love for me and hatred towards you earlier? We humans don’t understand how we’re able to combine or integrate various emotions together at the same time; we just have learned how to do that and hopefully respond in an appropriate or socially acceptable manner to those mixed emotions.”

“Very good Nevins. This is further proof or confirmation that you are the perfect choice to assist us on our transitional journey. In addition, we ‘heard you question’ us earlier as to why we brought Plyer here, if we only needed Nevins to help us. That is indeed a fair question and we are now ready to answer it. We brought Plyer here with you, so we could ensure she was completely enhanced to overcome her upcoming earthly situation. If we did not inform her in a controlled manner why you were chosen to help us, combined with the sudden knowledge of her pending motherhood, we genuinely think she could have succumbed to those tremendous stressful situations.”

Both Kaleigh and I internalized what the Energists just said and showed them our appreciation for their thoughtfulness in caring for Kaleigh.

The Energists acknowledged our emotions and said, “We are not ‘cold hearted killers’ as you initially thought of us. We do not wish to harm you or your people. We have caused only the minimum human suffering necessary to increase the chances of our long term survival. That is the only reason we have claimed other humans. In addition, our desire to do no unneeded harm is why we honored Smithson’s requests and why we are compensating you, Ms. Kaleigh Plyer for the upcoming loss of your human companion, Dr. Michael Nevins from your life.”

This was the first time they addressed us by our full names and we both took that as semi-convincing proof of their benevolence towards humans. When I focused my attention back on Kaleigh, I could see that she wasn’t just physically stronger than 90% of human females, but that her spirit was also reenergized and her mind was suddenly sharp as a tack. The Energists confirmed that they had completely enhanced her in every way possible to overcome any situation she had to deal with upon her return to our previous lifeline.

The Energists said that they now had a better understanding of the conflicting emotions Kaleigh and I showed when we learned that I was going to be ‘claimed’ and she was going to be returned to her former life. The Energists also showed that they were somewhat proud of themselves for performing this ‘well-received’ action. The Energists then asked us to try to understand their position and their dire need for my expertise. When they recognized a small sign of our cognitive or mental acceptance of their unique situation, they correctly surmised it as a sign of mutual respect.

In addition, because I had already proven my worth to them in this brief ‘moment of time’ and would be their essential partner on their evolutionary journey, the Energists agreed to give us a few final moments together before they had to return Kaleigh and her enhanced essence back to her human body. Kaleigh, while currently heartbroken at knowing I wasn’t going to be returned with her, used my complete exhilaration and pure delight in knowing I was going to be a father for the first time with her to put on a brave face for me. We kissed for what I hoped was an infinite amount of time here in the Energists’ universe.

As we separated, Kaleigh said she would take perfect care of herself and of our two children. She said they would know everything about their father, and his family in Canada. She additionally said our kids would become the best children ever: academically physically emotionally and spiritually. I told her I knew she would be an awesome mom, and that our parents would do anything to help her with our kids.

When I asked her to please name our son after me, she said she would do me one better than that. Kaleigh told me she was going to name our boy Michael and our girl Micheline, with all their last names being Plyer-Nevins. I glowed with as much joy as any expectant father has ever displayed. I hugged her quickly and said, “I love you beyond time and space. I hope you know some part of me will always be with you.”

Then I took her hands in mine and I told her with all the love and sincerity I possessed. I then said she should give love another chance, should some awesome guy enter into her and our children’s lives.

Kaleigh smiled at me, shook her beautiful blonde hair and said, “No one could ever make me feel like I did with you during our too brief time together. I’m sure if I even tried to give some guy a chance, he would always fall far short of what you and I experienced. You should know me well enough that if I can’t experience that kind of love again, I sure won’t settle for anything less.”

I smiled and shook my head in begrudging acknowledgement of Kaleigh’s answer to my request. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by adding, “At least promise me you’ll consider another gentleman should the perfect prince fall into your lap.”

My beautiful expectant fiancé dropped her head down some and softly replied, “I won’t rule out a true prince charming should that person overcome the infinitesimally small odds of existing AND then have him fall into my lap like you did.” Then as she looked back up at me, her smile expressed a mix of joy and trepidation as she confidently said, “As I recall, your favorite Cheaptrick song is The Flame, and I can easily see how it perfectly addresses this exact situation and this moment.”

Then with perfect pitch and clarity, I heard Kaleigh’s miraculously sweet voice, along with Robin, Rick, Tom and Bunny’s instruments in my head. That song was indeed perfect as Kaleigh sang,

“Another night slowly closes in, and it feels so lonely. Touching heat, freezing on my skin, I pretend you still hold me. I’m going crazy, I’m losing sleep. I’m in too far; I’m in way too deep over you ... I can’t believe you’re gone. You were the first, you’ll be the last. Where ever you go, I’ll be with you. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Whenever you need someone, to lay your heart and head upon. Remember after the fire, after all the rain, I will be the flame ... I WILL BE THE FLAME!“

After I heard her sing that verse, the music stopped and she simply said, “You WERE the first and I honestly believe with all my heart, you’ll be the LAST too. Now do you understand why I told you I highly doubt there will be another prince charming out there for me? Your favorite beautiful song was astoundingly meant for you and me, right at this unfortunate moment in time.” I wiped the tears from my eyes as I remarkably felt the same feeling that Kaleigh conveyed in that song and in her words.

The Energists then reentered our personal space and allowed us to merge our two separate essences together one final time. We both experienced that same incredible sensation as on that Sunday morning when the Energists imparted some of their energy into us and helped us created two new lives within Kaleigh. Before we separated, we said we’d never forget each other and that our love we had would remain strong, linking us forever.

As Kaleigh slowly moved away from me, the Energists allowed her to access all my relevant memories which they believed she would need to successfully live out her former life. For example, Kaleigh now knew where I ‘hid’ our birthday videotapes and DVD, how to take care of my saltwater aquarium. More importantly she discovered how I would like my funeral services to be carried out, and the best ways to deal with my family as they certainly would have strong opinions and beliefs on how to carry out their youngest son’s final arrangements.

As we continually professed our undying love for each other, the Energists’ incredible energy field enveloped her and we were finally and with finality separated in both our physical and now ‘spiritual’ realms. I recalled a line from the final song she sang to me, ‘I can’t believe you’re gone.’ Those words pierced my heart like a double sided dagger as I felt completely isolated from the love of my life.

A deep sadness overwhelmed me as I watched Kaleigh’s life essence fade from my ‘sight’ as she was carried back to her physical body in her mangled Maxima. The Energists decided to mercifully carry my essence in another ball of their incredible energy, which allowed me to see that she was indeed safely back in her physical body. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Kaleigh open the passenger door at 6:13:44pm, 6 seconds after we were whisked away by the Energists. As she walked guardedly away from that crumpled car, I fully believed the Energists were going to keep their promises to Kaleigh and me.