Chapter 4A

The shock of discovering she had lost her wings and halo had been too much for Minerva after being pulled through the particle beam. When she had fainted, Chris took her back to his apartment and laid her on his bed. He could readily believe that she was an angel since she looked so divinely innocent and breathtakingly celestial lying there.

While Chris was waiting for Minerva to wake up, he wrote in his journal. He thought the shoe seemed to be on the other foot from when he considered the offer Belle made wasn't in his best interest.

Now it seemed like Minerva was paying the price for his shortcuts and had all the downsides that he had wanted to avoid. He felt very guilty for rushing into his plan without considering the the full effects of everything that he had set in motion.

He should've known that something doesn't come from nothing, since even the laws of Thermodynamics showed that energy could only be transformed not destroyed, not to mention the laws of Karma where every choice has a reaction and has to balance out somewhere.

Even if he had created the template of the chakras and the blueprint for what he wanted, he wasn't creating the person that fit the template. He had only made the map and not created the territory that it described.

Apparently she had been ripped away from her job and the shock of that had taken it's toll on her when the heaviness of the material plane hadn't allowed her wings and halo to emerge in the particle beam.

He was going to have to do something to help her get out of the mess he had gotten her into with his selfish desires and back to where she was supposed to be.

Chris heard Minerva stirring from her sleep and brought her some water to drink. She awoke with a start and cried out "No! It wasn't a dream!" She started sobbing uncontrollably.

Chris tried to console her by saying "There, there it'll be alright, it all works out eventually. As they say, all's well that ends well" Minerva pulled away from him and asked "It will? How will it work out?"

Chris tried to cheer her up by smiling and telling her "I don't know, it's a mystery" He winked and grinned at her.

Minerva wailed even more at this and tried to convey her sorrow "You've been grounded all your life, how can you know what it's like to have the freedom to soar where ever you wanted to? How am I going to get out of this mess without the powers that my halo grants me? This was my first assignment as a Guardian Angel and it's gone down in flames! I'll be considered as a failure and never be able to continue the job!"

Minerva curled up into a ball on the bed and resumed her bawling. Chris had never been very good at dealing with women crying and he didn't know any guy who was. It broke his heart to see someone so stunningly beautiful, looking so desolate and especially since he knew it was his fault, it made him feel even more guilty. He vowed to her "I'm very sorry that my mistakes got you into this chaos. I promise I'll do everything I can to help you get back to where you belong."

Minerva wiped the tears from her eyes and inquired tremulously "Your apology doesn't do much good about repairing the damage to my career, what can you do? Send me back the way I came?"

Chris shook his head and scratched his chin in thought. He declared "No that would be too dangerous, you never know where you could end up, maybe in even worse trouble and maybe just as scattered sub-atomic particles floating around in space. There has to be some other way, do you think that if you can get in contact with those that sent you on this assignment that they would help you get what you need to finish the job?"

Minerva stopped her sobbing while she considered this. She blew her nose and stated "Well Odin was the one that sent me and his power is undeniably monumental. If anyone could help he would be able to, but then I would have to admit that I couldn't handle my duties. Beside how would we contact him, without my angelic influence working?"

Chris tried to reassure her, but wasn't very well versed in this area "I could try to put in a good word for you with Odin and tell him that it was all my fault that you had to call for help. But I don't know much about getting in touch with Gods. Most people here pray to the gods for help, but getting any answers from them is very rare and hard to tell if the ones that say they have gotten them are delusional. The only thing in your favor is that you know Odin personally and are directly doing what he has told you specifically to do. Not many here can say that, so that might be an advantage that will facilitate getting in contact with him."

Minerva wiped her eyes while she mulled this over and verbalized her thoughts "I suppose if I were able to get to a place where Odin was worshiped he might pay attention to my prayers if I was sincere enough to make the dire circumstances I was in known to him. Where would that be and how would we get there?"

Chris turned to his laptop and opened his web browser. He told her "I'll do a search and look up the closest temple of Odin. Let's hope we don't have to go all the way to Norway to find one or it's going to be a lot harder to get there. I'd hate to have to explain you to any kind of customs or immigration officials"

He wasn't very suprised to find that there was a Norse Temple relatively close by in Santa Cruz, since that city had a long reputation for the bizarre and outrageous going on there. As the saying went California was the Granola State, it was full of fruits, nuts and flakes. San Francisco was reputed to have a higher concentration of fruits, Santa Cruz tolerated a lot more nuts, and Los Angeles attracted extra flakes.

Chris had heard of Wiccans, Druids and Pagans of all sorts setting up shops in Santa Cruz to flourish in the New Age trends. He printed out the address and driving directions to the Temple. He went over to give the good news to Minerva while she was relaxing in the jacuzzi.

Chris conveyed the plan he had come up with to her "We're in luck that we don't have to go to Norway, I found a Temple only about an hour away in Santa Cruz. We can take my car and drive down there, then you can try to contact Odin. Hopefully we can get this mess straightened out in short order."

Minvera had regained enough of her composure in the jacuzzi that she could reclaim some hope that the situation might be able to be salvaged. "I don't know if it'll do any good, but at least it's performing a task that might have some chance of helping."

Chris showed Minerva the way to his car and helped her get in. Minerva squealed with delight at the colorful candy apple red paint and soft leather interior of his Chevy Corvette, then gasped in awe at the way he started the engine and pulled out of the driveway. She uttered her words with amazement "I knew you were a powerful wizard from the way you summoned me here but I didn't expect that your magical chariot would be so marvelous!"

Feeling somewhat sheepish, Chris smiled with embarassment. He informed her "Well I'm flattered at your estimation of my abilities, but it's only magical if you don't understand the principles of science involved in it. I suppose that magic and miracles are a matter of course for angels, but in this place anyone can use the benefits of science without having the natural talent that magic is believed to require."

While weaving through the traffic flow, Chris glanced at the confused look on her face and figured he wasn't getting through very well, so he told her "I might just be making some more assumptions since I don't actually know what it's like where you come from, why don't you tell me some more about it?"

Minerva pondered this as she gazed out the window at the city gliding by. When they stopped at a traffic light, she beamed her radiant smile at a man driving the car in the next lane. He was so stunned by her ethereal beauty, lustrous hair and incadescent smile that he sat entralled by the sight long after the light had turned green while traffic backed up behind him and people honked their horns angrily.

Minerva tried to convey her dismay "It's much different than here, more peaceful, a lot greener with meadows and lots of trees. People seem in such a rush here, where are they all going so fast? Don't they have time to enjoy life? I guess that's why they call Elysium a Paradise"

Chris replied "They're going on with their daily lives mostly, I guess getting a jump on surviving in this world takes some quick actions and speedy decisions, it certainly is no paradise for most people" He marveled how she was so innocent of her effect on people like that guy at the light.

Chris smirked and winked at her then teased her by saying "Except for the driver of that car that you mesmerized. He's too spellbound to make any quick decisions. If you have that effect much more, it'll be a real traffic hazard and we'll never get to Santa Cruz."

Minerva rubbed her chin with a puzzled expression on her face "In Elysium they take a lot more time for feasting, celebrating and carousing. I suppose just trying to survive doesn't leave much time to appreciate the simple pleasures. No wonder the people don't look happy, they're too busy just trying to making a living. How long until we get to the temple?"

Chris merged into the fast lane of the freeway, and traffic was light at this time of day. He told Minerva "We're lucky that this isn't the height of the summer, since this stretch of Highway Seventeen between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz becomes a parking lot when everyone is trying to get to the beach, it can take four hours. I can usually drive the thirty miles when it's clear in about fifteen minutes. I've had a lot of practice with all the curves and weaving through the lanes like a race at Laguna Seca. But with you here just to be safe, it'll take about forty minutes this time."

Minerva shook her head with that deer in the headlights look again and admitted "I don't know what all that means, but you obviously are skilled at your art, so I'll let you take care of the details. However, I still don't understand how or why I was brought here, could you explain that?"

Chris thought about that while he wove his way up to the summit. He told her "Well the how is easier to explain than the why because I'll have to give more background on my life for you to understand why I thought it was necessary. But I can start with the how to lead up it to. Have you heard of the chakra system of energy in the subtle body?"

Minerva nodded and replied "Odin mentioned them in the assignments I was given for my job as a Guardian Angel. He said something about raising the chakras here from Vishuddha to Sahasrara. I wasn't sure at the time what that meant though it sounded complex. Do you know what he was talking about?"

Chris passed the Cloud Nine motel at the summit and noticed they had replaced some of the neon that burned out in the sign. He offered a guess "I know that Vishuddha is the Sanskrit name for the throat chakra, it is the interface between the thyroid gland and the sound frequencies of the subtle energies. Sahasrara is Sanskrit the name for the crown chakra that connects the pituitary gland to the highest frequencies of energies to the rest of the cosmos. In that context you mentioned it sounds like he meant that it was part of your job to increase the level of consciousness from only communicating by language and symbols to a more pure understanding of the whole and communion of the parts with that whole."

Minerva squirmed in her seat and heaved a deep sigh. She turned to Chris and with a wide eyed expression and asked "Wow, that does sound very complex. How do you think I'm supposed to do all that? What does that have to do with how you brought me here?"

Chris shrugged and stated "I don't know what they expect of you since that sounds like a very tall order or how long you have to do it because that kind of thing could probably take several generations. You'll probably have to ask Odin about that since He should know more about it. I was just guessing and giving you my opinion based on what you said. It has to do with how I was able to get you here by the same frequencies in the chakras. You see, each one has a specific range and I was able to calculate them to match a template that corresponded to the glands they are associated with to get a blueprint of how to assemble the molecules that make up your body and even more, the levels of the subtle energies that form your personality."

It was a lot for Minerva to digest, so she took some time to gaze out the window at the trees and mountains rolling by. The scenery of this place was very beautiful as the mountains gave way to a view of the deep blue ocean. A thought occurred to her and she spoke up "There is no doubt that you're a mighty sorcerer to accomplish such a feat. So what you're saying is that you cast your spell to attract someone like me intentionally? That leads to the question of what was your purpose?"

Chris consulted the map and the directions he had brought to guide them to the temple. Scanning the street numbers he found the place he was looking for and pulled up to a building with runes engraved on the walls and horns adorning the columns. He parked in front and shut off the engine.

Then he turned to Minerva and told her "Well that's the more complicated part that requires some personal history. Did you want to go into it now or wait until you've tried to get in touch with Odin here?"

Minerva shook her head and replied "No, it can wait, we had better go do what we can to settle this matter."