CHAPTER 2 EARTH BORN

John walked down the stairs from their bedroom that morning and as he entered the kitchen the look in his wife’s eyes was enough for him to understand that their child was on its way. Susan was sitting at the table, her eyes said it all. She had a look he had not seen since the times of unease and imbalance she had been prone to from before their marriage. She looked afraid and unsure as if what was likely about to happen she would prefer to postpone for as long as possible. “Good morning” she said, with a faked sense of ease. He could tell she was trying to hide it, he knew that she was fully aware that they were going to make a trip to the hospital today regardless of the outcome. In an unworried tone he replied “good morning darling, how are you feeling today, ready for a car ride?” saying it with a mischievous smirk on his face.

Replying in a subtly sarcastic tone she said, “Just wonderful but our baby though, seems to have other things on its mind”.

Just then he saw the muscles in her face clench and tighten as what he guessed must have been a contraction coursed through her body. Immediately he was at her side asking how long she had been having them. Before she could reply he was helping her out of her seat and towards the door to the garage, in his hart he knew that this time it was urgent. Wordlessly she let him guide her gently through the door towards the car, he smoothly helped her into the back seat and without hesitation he was at the wheel backing the car out onto the road.

On the car ride to the hospital Susan went into labor. Up until this point her pregnancy had gone without complication but now her contractions indicated their baby would be born 6 weeks early. Her water had broken on route to the hospital and from that point in the ride until they made it to the hospital John had taken on a more urgent method to his driving style. Her deepest fear was to have a child malformed or incomplete, but their doctor after looking at the mammograms a few weeks earlier had assured them both there would be nothing to worry about even with a premature birth. How could she not worry! This would be her first born and she had just turned thirty five, she knew today would be the day, it was time. Her baby was on the way, early or not there was no getting around the fact that she would be bringing a new life into the world in the very, very near future.

John calmly drove the car to the hospital, his white knuckles on the wheel and the extra few miles an hour over the speed limit were the only indication of the urgency he felt inside. He had been given the time he requested from his demanding job to be with his wife at this crucial time. His ham had nearly completed the onsite consulting assignment in Dubai his firm had been tasked with. His role as acting chief director on the construction of once again, one of the tallest buildings in the world had kept him onsite nearly full time. But they had moved the project along and it had only taken a few telnet presentations and a series of conference calls to wrap up the loose ends from home. They had counted on him to pull all the pieces together on their biggest project to date and he had, leading the project to completion ahead of schedule, under budget and at a higher quality assurance level then had been required of them.

Now as he had promised seven and a half months earlier, he was here for her. As they got closer to the hospital, he reached back to hold her hand speaking to her in gentle tones. He had a way of making her feel so safe, always facing life with the attitude that everything would be fine one of the characteristics of his that made her love him so very much. His positivity and can to attitude in life had translated to her, giving her confidence and a drive to get through whatever she faced. John’s calm strong perseverance in life had helped her rise above the endless emotional turbulence that had consumed her life before she had met him. Throughout college and then after her graduation she had been stressed, confused, afraid and unsure about who she was and what direction she was going to follow. She had nearly fallen prey to a psychiatrist who had tried to convince her to use antidepressants to solve her emotional problems giving her an evaluation that declared she was a clear cut case of generalized anxiety disorder and likely suffering from a mild case of bipolar disorder. Luckily though John had come along right around then and everything had seemed to change for the better. With his help she had gotten away from the suppressive boss and low income job that had trapped her for so long with its false sense of security. Ever since she had met him, a tranquil calm had washed all the fears in her life aside. It seemed everything now, just, went well. She thought things happened for a reason and now her life was happy and safe. She felt that someone must have been watching back then giving her the chance to pull through those difficult times and maybe fulfil some purpose that was yet to present itself in her life.

As another contraction came she snapping out of her revelry and realized they were just now arriving at the hospital. Once again her husband’s instincts had been correct and she was thankful he had taken it upon himself to get her to the hospital before it would have become an emergency. Once inside, everything went smoothly. It was a perfect birth, one that went quickly without any complications. Later on that day, once she had recovered and the baby had been cleaned, stabilized and checked for any health hazards the nurse entered her private hospital room carrying their newly born child. John had left the room on the pretense that he needed to use the washroom but when he followed the nurse who was carrying their baby she knew he had gone to see how soon their child could meet its mother. Lying in her hospital bed, she cradled their new baby boy. He was wrapped in a hospital cloth and she held him as close to her chest as she could without squeezing the life from him. She lay there holding her new child with a mother’s gentle loving embrace.   Susan and John both grinned from ear to ear as their child with his tiny little sausage arms reached out as if trying to touch the sky. They both had tears of joy in their eyes, hers spilling out and running down their cheeks. The nurse and their Doctor Paul watched over the events amazed at the premature baby’s health.

Cradled in his mother’s arms he stretched and reached out in an unexpectedly controlled and relaxed motion. He was a very good looking new born with deep dark blue eyes, thick tufts of dirty blond hair sprouting evenly from all over his head and milky almond colored skin. Susan lay there savoring the happiest day of her life as her husband watched his new born son pull on his pinky finger. He calmly laid there, eyes wide, unblinking while gazing up at them. Everyone was astonished at how healthy this new child was. Doctor Paul said to her and John that their new son was in perfect condition. Stating in a clearly amazed tone, “he is as healthy as any child you would typically see” expressing his astonishment as he pointed out the controlled motor and vocal skills their baby was putting on display. He exclaimed how extraordinary it was for a child less than a few hours old, let alone 6 weeks premature to have such a developed sense of control. Doctor Paul confided in them that he had been a little worried about the potential complications of giving birth to such a premature baby, but from the now completed tests and obvious look of the child, he adamantly expressed that the only explanation was the development of their baby had simply happened faster than most cases and the infant had decided it was time to exit the oven.

John could only laugh at the child as he rubbed his own balding head where he had once kept hair years ago. looking at their new son and his thick dirty blond tufts of hair he said with a chuckle, "So that’s where it all went", leaning down he planted kisses on both Susan his new born sons foreheads. I love you she said in a warm soft voice, seeing his eyes begin to water and his she knew this was a rare moment.   He had never been one to show his vulnerability, she could see how happy and proud he truly was.

Transition.

One moment he had been in full control in his limitless state of his spiritual existence, floating in space enjoying the freedoms and power that came with being a fully conscious sentient being. He had been analyzing the life forms of a blue world that he thought could be a good place to call home. He felt safe, far from the danger he had escaped from, yet there was a cold feeling within, he felt a chilling sense of dread creeping around the outskirts of his mind, images and emotions of what had happened in his previous existence pulsed through him in rushes of uncontrolled grief, it felt like it had happened just moments ago he thought a little confused having no relevance to time when being in the realm of spirits, but then, it had he thought trying to push the feeling away and return his attention to this beautiful blue planet he had suddenly found himself looking at. From above and from all around he looked in on a thriving world of semi sentient people, interested in their patterns of life and seeing how many lived in drastically different conditions, then, without warning, it all changed.

A blanket of darkness and unconsciousness enveloped him. It had been sudden, no warning at all just a whoosh and there he was stuck in a void of darkness. He had gone from a state of total spiritual freedom and limitless ability to this sudden encasement, trapped and surrounded by he did not know what. His ability to reach out and touch stars, whole galaxies, the ability to push his consciousness across the impossible lengths of space where gone to him. Where he found himself now there was no answer, only there was one thing he knew for sure, there was no way out! Quickly his awareness faded and he existed in a state of blank emptiness but from time to time awareness would return but always seemed to be farther and farther away. Control of the substantial consciousness he had long been accustomed to was slipping farther and farther out of his grasp leaving only a mass of garbled confusion and blindness. His once brimming mind had gone blank, empty of all the vast knowledge he had once retained. Now, each moment of awareness he did have was of a cramped perpetually jarring existence. It was a never ending chamber of swishing and swashing, forever captivity. Feeling trapped and stuck was all he knew now and soon his one single purpose was how to get free, how to release himself and return, return to, something? It was there in the back of his mind but unreachable, a place in his mind he had once known, knowledge he had once had but now the feeling was gone, lost to him as though it had never existed. Trapped, straining to make something happen, anything. Time passed, long periods of empty thoughts and then moments of clarity when he focused his mind trying to break free of this darkness, trying to escape from the constant nauseating void he was perpetually incased in. On and on it lasted until there was nothing left of his mind but the sense of walls all around and the constant motions that filled every waking moment. By now analytical thought was rare, the fleeting moments when his mind came back to him he cherished focusing on the body he sensed was his own and the soft walls that kept him in darkness were not, he had in these moments begun to mentally strengthen this new body while searching for a way to be free, working to bring about a change, then finally something did happen.

With a sudden rush, fluid slid past what he had discovered to be his outer shell. As it started he was squeezed hard and unconsciousness took him. When he came back there was the sensation of being suffocated, squished and pushed. Pain came sharp and fast, pulsing with quick rippling strikes. Sounds of effort reverberated from all around. He felt panic but could do nothing! Helpless and in overwhelming discomfort loud sounds pounded in his mind, then again came a squeezing compression followed by the sense of being pushed. He was moving, inch by inch, and again unconsciousness. He felt a sharp pain at the back of himself and suddenly he was awake now blinded by a white brightness all around, it burned his still unopened eyes and pounded in his head! More noise came from points all around as his head spun. There were blurry shapes, large shapes and then he felt a sense of being touched and lifted. What was happening? He reached with his mind but it seemed the only result was his tinny limbs sluggishly lifted. Helpless he stared up at the large shapes towering and moving above, his mind whorled as they looked down on him. It was frightening, but somehow he felt safe.   

His mind was now totally blank, his sentient consciousness wiped away. Millennia of knowledge vanished leaving him as a fragile new born on a strange planet. All his once limitless outer awareness was gone stripped of him as the cost of entering into this new life. He felt himself vomit as more weightlessness sent him spinning into unconsciousness yet again.

Susan and John Thoth brought their baby boy home two days after his birth. Everyone was amazed at how healthy their child was. Other new mothers at the hospital had been evidently jealous but impressed at how thick her baby boy’s golden head of hair was. When people herd that her child was a premature birth they were speechless, he was so healthy and large for one born so far ahead of the expected time. With the technology of the day, premature children were not at great risk but they would normally spend two to three weeks in hospital being stabilized and given supplements to bring them into a safe level of health before releasing them from medical care. But there child had not needed any treatment of this sort.

Their new child was very calm but when confused or frightened he had the shriek and determination of a creature from another world. After coming home from the hospital they had still not decided on a name for their little one. For two people who would find agreement quickly on most anything, settling on a name for their new son had been a drawn out process. John’s Brother Dan had passed away years ago while fighting over seas. He had been a sergeant in the peace core, he had always been John’s best friend. Early in their lives in times of trouble and doubt he had been the fatherly figure they had both missed while growing up, always protecting John from the bullies and helping him understand why some people wanted to hurt those who were weaker then them. Susan and John after a few days of deliberation decided that there new son’s name would be Daniel Alexander Thoth to honor his fallen brother and an uncle of Susan's who had cared for her as a child as his middle name.