Below and Beyond

By Jerry Clark

When people pass away, there is a grieving process for those who die, as well as those left behind. Is death final? Is there a Heaven? Is there a Hell? Where do souls go, and is there a way to find them once they have moved on? Below and beyond is one young man’s quest to find the answers to these questions as well as a little about himself in the process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jerry Clark
• Release date: Mar 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463003848

Book preview

Introduction

When people pass away, there is a grieving process for those who die, as well as those left behind. Is death final? Is there a Heaven? Is there a Hell? Where do souls go, and is there a way to find them once they have moved on? Below and beyond is one young man’s quest to find the answers to these questions as well as a little about himself in the process.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imaginations or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Other fine books by this author include:

Tales From the Grimacing Goblin

The Forging of the Ring

Tome of Terror

Contents

Below and Beyond

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

About the Author

There comes a time in everyone’s life where the road taken leads them out of their comfort zone ...

Chapter 1

Summertime was the best time to be a kid in Spring City. The little town on top of the hill was buzzing with things to do. For Jack Collins, this hot August day began as many did. Jack and his friends were at the local park working on their skateboard tricks. They built a ramp and were working on their stunts. Jack had just landed a pretty cool rock n’ roll to the amazement of some of his friends when his sister came running down to the basketball court where the crew had set up shop. We have to go now, she said. Why? Jack snapped. I just got here. We have to go home quickly, Pap has been rushed to the hospital, his sister yelled.

Tears streamed down his face, as the young man tried to hold them back by pressing his thumb and his index finger so hard against his eyelids it actually hurt.

I know, I know, said a comforting voice, you loved your Pap …

Jack, age 13, had just unexpectedly lost his best friend in the world. His last memory was just days prior as the two were picking off game birds with their shotguns and planning a camping trip for the fall. Now, there were no plans, just a funeral service and uncertainty.

To this point in his young life, Jack, or JC as his friends called him, spent countless hours with his grandfather. They hunted, fished, walked in the woods, and Pap taught JC everything he could about life. A family man and engineer by trade, he spent many years in the military before settling down in the town of Spring City with his family. Pap had a rather sizeable piece of property a few miles past the city limits. The property was heavily wooded with ponds and streams and there was a clearing where Pap grew crops and tinkered around on cars in a barn he built.

JC began lamenting the fact these days were over as he composed himself enough to attend the service.

The boy took little solace in the fact he was raised with a belief in spirituality, an afterlife where the souls of friends and family are reunited, but that was a long way off he thought.

As the casket was lowered into the ground, JC felt as if he was being lowered into the ground too.

Hopefully, he thought, he hoped that he would see signs or visions that Pap would still be around, still there to guide him.

Sadly, days turned to weeks, and weeks to years … JC never saw anything definitive. The afterlife he was taught to have existed seemed like make believe.

One day while riding the middle school bus home, he felt a hand press down on the top of his head, but when he turned to see who it was, there was nobody there. He hoped it was Pap looking over him. He would hear stories of dreams or visions from other family members, but just wondered why he never had anything as vivid as them. No dreams, the prayers for something went unanswered.

Chapter 2

Seven years passed since Pap had gone, and JC enjoyed the milestones many young adults achieve. He graduated from Spring City High School and then graduated college. He had a job unloading grocery trucks as he searched for a real job, but the $200 a week he made was only enough to rent an apartment in a building his Pap built decades before he was born and was still family owned. His life was just getting started, but he would sometimes reflect back on what could have been had Pap not passed so untimely.

But, JC was a resilient kid. He knew the best thing he could do to honor his best friend was to work hard and live life to the fullest.

Another day, another dollar at the truck docks for JC. He took his paycheck in a cash payment that day and decided to walk the three miles from the docks to his apartment. It was a hard day, but JC liked to work and he liked to walk, but he also liked to party. JC’s key hit the lock at his apartment door, and he could hear the phone ringing inside. Fumbling through the front door, he grabbed the phone

halfway through the last ring.

Hello, JC said. Hey John, what’s going on?

What are you up to tonight? John asked.

A whole lot of nothing … I was going to grab some Chinese food and a few beers and play some video games here, JC lamely admitted.

Change of plans, John ordered. I’m having some people over to my new house down here in the valley. I need you here.

Oh, you need me …, JC said sarcastically.

Ya, I need you to get over your ASS, John said. Anti-Social Syndrome. I even got you a fifth of Jack Daniels, come on.

What time? JC asked.

Eight, John said. So, you’re coming?

We’ll see, JC said and hung up the phone.

JC really didn’t do much aside from work and hang out by himself. Many of his friends were still in college, or had left Spring City for bigger opportunities. After a little self-debate, JC changed out of his work clothes and into some jeans and his finest white T-shirt. He grabbed his black hoodie with the eyes of Alice Cooper embroidered on the back and his keys and out the door he went.

John’s house was a hike by the Converse express, so JC opted to catch a bus, even though he hated public transportation.

JC arrived at John’s place at about 8:30 p.m. He knocked on the door, but the techno tunes were blasting so loud, he was sure nobody could hear him. The sound of Nine Inch Nails shaking the foundation of the house let him know he was at the right place.

Man, what am I doing? JC muttered to himself. This is going to suck.