Discovering another past.
"Important encounters are planned by the souls, long before the bodies see each other." (Paulo Coelho de Souza, 1947—)
Part 03: Our Story.
We took my car, and it was about a fifteen-minute trip to the church, and Dr. Simpkins' office. He was in his office waiting for us. Upon entering, I introduced my pretty blonde friend, and the Doc started the conversation to put us at ease, considering the subject matter.
"I understand that you have both had some unsettling ... shall we say, memories, and mental flashbacks."
"Yes," I said first, "and Sarah here, called me Michael, straight out of the blue, and later, I called her Claire ... it just popped into my brain when I saw her ... that name!"
Sarah piped in, "I think it might be interesting to try to find out who Michael and Claire were if the even existed, and what happened to them ... if anything. I guess that psychics might say that it is something like past lives intruding into current times."
We both looked at her and she smiled and added, "I saw
Ghostbusters
four times!"
Doc and I laughed, and he began with, "Okay, 'reincarnation.' That's what we are talking about aren't we? David and I discussed it briefly, and I told him that the Church does not have an official position, but a good percentage of the faithful do believe in past lives. I indicated to David, that I do not disbelieve in anything for which there is some body of evidence, however scant."
He got up to get us each a cup of coffee, and a refill for himself and continued,
"I think you would be well served by trying to find out who Michael and Claire are, or were. You are both about twenty, and with the vividness of your recollections, I think that it might be something somewhere around your births ... that would have to be at least twenty-twenty-one years ago."
"You are talking about research, like old newspapers?" Sarah asked.
"Yes. That would at least be a place to start. It might be a long road to travel, so it would depend on how much time you can afford away from your studies." He said.
"I have no serious projects coming up, and I have a 4.0 average going, so I can afford a few days this week ... to get us started!" Sarah said.
"Yes, I can too. I can manage a few days. I will have to call Julie to let her know, but I am in for a little research."
"Julie?" the Doc asked.
"She's a friend. She and I are dating right now." I answered.
"Is she involved?" he countered.
"Well, maybe, but I want to leave her out of it just for now." I looked at Sarah and reiterated to her, "Just for now!"
After that, we drank our coffee and talked a little about reincarnation, and some of the stories that Doc told us, which came from parishioners over the years. Especially one about a couple who died in a flash flood in the early1800's and were reunited in 1945.
"Oh, that's so sweet!" Sarah said with an uncustomary smile.
We both shook the Doc's hand, and left. I treated Sarah to lunch, to plan our strategy for the research project. We decided to split our forces with her checking the county morgue's records, and I was to look through old newspapers accounts of disasters, accidents, train wrecks. We decided to meet back at her apartment at about six-o'clock for reports on our progress.
I figured that, if it was our previous lives we were talking about, it might have to be something in local newspapers; so I would check them first. I visited the largest newspaper in town to search their archives, since the libraries would not likely go back twenty years.
I had to wait for the front guard to get off the phone, and then he had to find someone who could help me. It was taking time, and I was getting antsy, and then a young woman came into the lobby, and introduced herself as a customer service rep. she was young and pretty, but likely some years older than me. She was blonde, and a bit bosomy, but with a nice figure.
She took me over to a sitting area in the lobby to talk, and I explained my problem without going into details. She handed me her business card, but wrote her home phone number on it before handing it to me "Just in case!' she said,
"Diane Silverton, Customer Service Associate" the card read.
She was all smiles, as I outlined my research needs, and was eager to help. She had me sign in at the guard's desk, and I followed her through doors, down corridors, and we ended up in a basement-looking area with shelves of file boxes, and a few computers. She had quite a shapely ass, and looked back a couple of times as we walked, and just smiled when she caught me looking her over. Sorry, I'm a guy, right?
We sat together, and poured over a computer screen. I could smell her perfume, and since she was wearing a V-neck sweater, I could see down into her cleavage. Not wanting her to think that I'm some kind of pervert, I tried to keep my voyeurism to a minimum. We searched back, and found that the computerized images only went back ten years. Not far enough.
"We will have to look at the old microfiche. But we will have to order it from the records department. I can get it here tomorrow by noon. Can you come back then?" Diane asked.
"Microfiche?"
"Yes David, they are small sheets of film, about four inches' square and contain dozens of images—newspaper pages; you view them in a special viewer. It is more tedious, but look at the upside ... we get to spend more time together."
"Oh, well, yeah, I guess so. Sure. Noon." I said.
"You can call me first to check, if you want." Then she smoothed back an errant lock of hair, and said with a little nervousness in her voice, "You can use the other number too ... if you would like ... I am home most nights!"
"Thanks, Diane, but I have a girlfriend!" I said a little apologetically.
"Well, keep the card anyway, David." Then moving closer to me, and squeezing her breasts between her arms as she did, with her lips almost on mine, she breathed, "You never know!"
"Alright, Diane I call you tomorrow morning ... here!" I told her as she looked a little disappointed.
She escorted me back to the guard's desk, and I signed out, and left. I called Sarah on my way to the car, and informed her that I was through here for today, and she told me that she was not having any luck with the morgue, but had more records to go through tomorrow as well, and was calling it a day. It was only three-o'clock, but we decided to meet for an early dinner ... or late lunch.
At the restaurant, we talked about our research, and told her about the microfiche I was waiting for, and I also told her about Diane and her obvious interest in me, and my keeping her at bay.
"David, I want us to join forces tomorrow. It's not that I don't trust you ... w-well it's
is
that I don't trust you!" then in a pleading voice she asked, "Can we please? The guy at the morgue is seriously creeping me out!"
I laughed, and just to tease her a little I said, "Okay, I'll let you keep an eye on me tomorrow. Might be fun, but I am telling you, Diane might me a little upset, I promised her we could have sex in the file room tomorrow, and she promised not to wear any underwear!"
"David! Stop!" she scolded as she slugged me in the arm. When I laughed again, she said,
