Stealing Flowers Read Free

every little detail.
    “Tonight I will show you the path to a
higher plain,” she said, “but first you must let me hold you in my
arms a while as you sleep.”
    When my head was emptied, she whispered that
I was purified and should try to communicate directly with God. I
looked up, stunned and lost for words. Even though she held me in
her arms, her face lay hidden in the shadows of the dark hospital
room, but I could hear her soft voice in my ears.
    “Tonight, Jesus will come for you,” she
whispered, “and will show you the way.”
    I was overjoyed to hear it and when I opened
my eyes, a man came to me with piercing blue eyes and a long
trimmed beard.
    “I’ll take you to a place which few men have
seen and returned to tell,” he said. “You’re a good boy and deserve
favor, but you may refuse to go. Many cannot come back. The joy,
the fulfillment, the pleasures, are nearly irresistible. If you
decide to go, you’ll walk the clouds and follow me inside the gates
of heaven. If you can leave when I say you must, no matter what
enraptures you feel, then you may return to your mother’s arms and
you’ll awake unpolluted.”
    I nodded, not knowing what to say. His
piercing blue eyes looked into my heart and he touched me with his
hand. The g-force increased as we sped to heaven, and for several
minutes, my stomach was in my throat. I hoped he truly was who he
seemed to be. His direct presence in my life would put me further
than I had ever been from a nobody-orphan. God himself spoke
directly to me now, and I figured that was really something
splendid.
    “Listen to me carefully,” he said when we
arrived, “don’t open your eyes and don’t talk. You must think of
only goodness and grace, nothing sinful. Can you do it?” I nodded.
“Your very life depends on it,” he continued. “Do you understand
that you mustn’t talk nor open your eyes the whole length of time
we are beyond the gates?” I nodded again. “Enter here now with me,”
he whispered, “and feel all the senses of eternity.”
    A sudden roar of music filled my head. I
felt the enticing spirits of young virgins swish through me and
whisper into my ears to follow them. The smell of cinnamon and
exotic spices came to my nostrils. My mouth watered with the taste
of a flavor so wonderful that I nearly cried out. Light burned
brightly beyond my closed-eyelids which I fiercely fought to keep
tight. The wind rushed through my short crop of hair and up my
naked backside. I became flush and felt many pleasures rush through
all parts of my body. My head exploded in a flurry of delight so
that I could hardly breathe. Suddenly, I decided I would stay. What
was the point of returning when life up here was so full of
pleasure?
    However, the man touched me before I opened
my eyes and we were gone from heaven.
    “It’s late,” he said almost gently, “and you
have done well. In the grey dawn when you awake with your youthful
health and cleared mind, the body and soul as one, you’ll remember
me. If you ever need to see me again, go to any clergy and they’ll
guide you here. Now before I leave, I must tell you something.
Tomorrow begins your new life. Whatever gifts you are offered, you
must take them, but fear them as well. They’ll only be presented
this one time, and they are indeed glorious, beyond the wildest
hopes of your mortal fate, but in them, lies the seeds of your
destruction unless you follow the guide which has been dispatched
for you.”
    I’d no idea what he meant, but it sounded
complicated and I was glad when he finished. I remembered pretty
much everything during my stay at the hospital, but especially that
dream. I now had a friend in Jesus. When I awoke the next morning,
a song played in my head, a blusterous rhapsody in a language I’d
never heard, but it quickly faded as another group of people
gathered around me.
    “He’s awake,” Mr. Drury said, my assigned
truant-officer, a sad-looking man with a round face and