Mana in the Modern World non illustrated version (14 page)

In one rare case a Finder asked to Mexico was
able to use sign language to understand what a set of twin spirit’s
were ‘saying’ as they were deaf mutes in life. This led to
discovery of the twin’s bodies and three other sets of murdered
twins that were buried in the same area. The name of the murderer;
a meth and cocaine user and a driver for one of the cartels, was
‘accidently’ leaked by the police and the ‘suspect’ disappeared
before the cops got to his home.

His body was found 8 days later with his
tongue burned out, tourniquets placed on arms, legs and which were
then chopped off. The cuts were then cauterized and the man was
left by an ant bed with tiny cuts on his penis and scrotum. Time of
death indicated he may have stayed alive for five to six days.

In one recent case in Nevada the agents
arrived to find a man digging up a woman’s body. Questioning the
man revealed that the woman was his wife and she was reported
missing, by him, three months ago. He claims he had a dream about
where he could find her and decided to see if she was there and was
about to call the authorities. The gun used to kill her was also in
the shallow grave and, though wiped of fingerprints, still had his
prints on the clip and bullets within the clip.

Reports of spirit, or ghosts, sightings are
on the rise worldwide tho as yet without verifiable photographic
proof; except for possibly one interesting case in Pakistan. A very
faint spirit figure of a 10 year old female child briefly appeared
to a grieving family. She was hovering over the small open grave
where her battered body had just been placed and the family had
gathered beside the hole at her funeral. She pointed at her uncle
and appeared to weep.

The uncle allegedly screamed, dropped to his
knees sobbing; confessed to molesting and killing her and others;
but saying it was all their fault because they seduced him! The
family group promptly stoned him to death. The body was then
dragged into the desert and left for the buzzards. Several cell
phone videos caught the faint spirit weeping and pointing at the
Uncle.

Reports of murders, except for child and
serial murders appear to be on the decrease worldwide while divorce
rates increased dramatically in several countries. Italy still
refused entry to IMS agents. The Vatican has begun meetings on how
to set up divorce so to be less ‘complicated’ and difficult to
achieve.

Especially as several young girl and boy
spirits appeared kneeling in prayer at the altar in the Vatican
Chapel during a large gathering of priests. Then they stood, turned
and begin pointing at several priests. More and more reports of
magic and weird happenings appear on the Net, newscasts, newspapers
and especially the tabloids. Riots have happened in some countries
as people suspected of magic are hunted down and most often shot,
stoned or beat to death. Cries for laws swell to do something about
‘those’ dangerous people.

Previous reports of banks missing bundles of
money, according to authorities, appear to be a rogue Mage but
stopped some time back. Police have video of a person at several of
the banks who stands at the center counter for a time then leaves.
Anyone recognizing this person of interest are asked to phone the
number shown on your screen. A reward of $20,000 was authorized and
to date remains unclaimed.

Coming back from a three day weekend of
tiring mystic research and practice with a mainly Gypsy community
in Baton Rouge, Anna and Jack decide to try a restaurant in Orange,
TX. A large electronic billboard displaying some great looking
steaks and desserts made the place to stop an easy decision.
Besides they were ready for something besides shrimp or fish.
Especially not cooked in Cajun or Creole spicy style.

Being almost 6pm on a Sunday the parking lot
was half full with 35 or 40 people inside. Once inside they asked
for a table off to the side as they could talk without much chance
of being over heard and also because both enjoyed ‘people
watching’. They had just ordered the Blackberry Cobbler dessert and
were betting a dollar on which one of three rambunctious kids at
three pushed together tables would be the first to start throwing
food.

Two men, one black, the other white and a
white woman walk in; all three are wearing full face carnival masks
and rubber gloves; dragging the cashier with them. The men were
armed with automatics and the woman had a sawed off pump shotgun
which, in a theatrical move, jump cocked it with one hand. Silence,
surprisingly, even those misbehaving kids. Shoving the cashier
forward, the three fan out somewhat and in a loud voice the woman
says, “All wallets, cell phones, rings and jewelry into the
bag.”

Tossing a burlap bag to a small frightened
looking man she says, “You, little man, take the bag and collect
everything You women dump your valuables including phones into the
bag as he comes by. You men throw your wallets and phones in the
bag. DO NOT attempt to use the phones.” As the man hurries to
comply the black robber seems to take offense at one very thin
woman that is staring at him. “What you staring at Bitch?” Waving
his pistol at her says, “Want some of this?” At this the woman
faints causing the man to laugh and a lot of the customers start
yelling. The woman fires a shot into the ceiling and yells,
“SHUT UP!”

In the silence following the shotgun blast a
chair behind the three robbers is heard scraping loudly as it is
slowly moving out from a table. The robbers look back. The chair is
seen sliding back making the sound but without anyone being there.
Slowly a faint and transparent figure of a marine in dress Alphas
is seen. Now more solid and apparently having drawn out the chair,
he sets at the table and picks up a transparent menu from the table
and begins looking it over.

During the time the robbers are distracted
Jack pulls out his automatic, waves it to get the customers
attention, points to his automatic and then trains it on the
robbers. The patrons, quickly getting the hint, those with weapons
draw and point them at the distracted crooks. One woman even has a
Chromed long barrel .44 magnum revolver!

One of the previously misbehaving kids even
had her slingshot out, loaded, cocked and aimed! The white robber,
not as distracted has just looked back to see 15 plus weapons
trained on them including the kid of about 10 with the cocked
slingshot!

He says, “Uh, ….Margret?” As she looks toward
him she says, “No names dummy!” He points toward the previous
‘victims’ as Jack yells, “Drop your weapons…
NOW
!” Looking
down the barrel of so many weapons they meekly comply. The Marine
stands, salutes the patrons, waves, looks toward Anna and Jack,
winks and starts fading. His grin is the last thing to fade. The
rather large woman with the .44 magnum stands up and yells at the
would-be robbers,
“Hey dummies, you’re in Texas by God!”

Jack looks at Anna, “Class A’s and a wink?”
“O yeah. I loved that red stripe but he always insisted we call
them Alphas. Besides, Hiy-u said to always try for the KISS
principle. Plus I have a solid memory of my late uncle in his
uniform.” “Point,” Jack replies, “Maybe we should work up two,
three, or even more, scenarios for future use? Maybe it is possible
to develop ‘canned’ ones to use with a coded word? Something to
talk with Hiy-u about.”

“O yeah, some scary stuff too!” remarks an
excited Anna. “Ooh, giant spiders, snakes and scorpions! Think I
will work on a Unicorn too. But Jack, I did not have Uncle Robert’s
illusion look at us, grin big and wink! But then Uncle Robert
always loved the Cheshire Cat’s grin in the movie. Could this have
something to do with the Stone and Mana returning?” Jack replies “O
boy, that would really add a nice topping to this whole business!
Real Ghosts on top of magic coming back! Exciting times are ah
coming!”

Anna and Jack are quite pleased with how
their training, mentally and physically exhausting as it is, worked
so well at foiling the robbery. Anna emailed Hiy-u the news and
that they did not even work up a sweat! She asked about the
illusion of Uncle Robert and he had said that would explain some of
the ancient legends. A few claimed illusions that you could feel.
He would do some more research and let her know.

The headline of the local paper, - Ghost
Marine Foils Robbery! -, soon went national and then viral on the
net. Especially when Fox network bought the video that one of the
news savvy misbehaving kids had shot of the action with his phone.
Up to that point witness descriptions of the specter had varied
widely as to which service. One even claimed he saw a Prussian
soldier!

Anna’s mother Beth called and asked Anna if
she thought the Marine had looked a lot like Uncle Robert? That
grin really reminded her of him and, if possible, was certainly
something he would have done; especially that grin being the last
to fade.

Carol, a very petite young runaway girl of
almost 16, is very hungry, getting weaker, feverish and her head
feels thick from the hunger. She knows she must eat soon or maybe
collapse but only has $3.13 left, a one dollar bill and the rest in
small change. Panhandling has been very poor lately. She has been
so afraid while panhandling from the strangers, especially in this
neighborhood, but she has to eat. She is looking into a restaurant
from the edge of the window as a waitress brings a beautiful club
sandwich to a man setting at a table close to the window. O Lord,
the smell of hamburgers cooking! Seeing the waitress glance her way
she quickly ducks from sight.

After a short bit she again eases up to look
and sees the man taking another enormous bite, chews, swallows and
then takes a sip of ice tea. Looking around, he gets up and heads
toward the restrooms. Feeling strange in her head Carol starts to
think; ‘If I could just reach out thru the window and grab some of
the sandwich. It looks soooo gooood! She feels a strong, sharp jolt
of pain in her head and suddenly two quarter sections of the
sandwich are in her hand!!

“
OMYGOD
!” she says clapping her other
hand over her mouth and; NOT dropping the sandwich quarters; bolts
around the corner out of sight. Having wolfed down the oh soooo
delicious sandwich; even with the yucky tomatoes; she then starts
to wonder what just happened.

Hunger only slightly abated, she continues to
think about how that happened. ‘Angels?’ she thinks. “Huh, not very
likely, especially in this neighborhood,” she voices in disgust.
Deciding she needs to think about this in a safer place she heads
to her hidey hole down the street. Tucked back into the cellar of
an old building, wrapped in a thread bare blanket, she goes over
what happened. “OK Carol, you were starving and thinking about if
you could just reach out and take the sandwich. Then it was in your
hand. No, there was something else. But what?” Rubbing her temple
she realized her head was still hurting but as least the pain was
fading.

“That’s it!” she exclaims, “My head felt like
an electric shock! I must have did it, ME! But can I do it again?”
Looking around her eyes fall on her tiny purse. “OK Carol Ann; you
can do this.” Thinking, focusing, with every ounce of her being
she…‘Sees herself r e a c h i n g for the purse with her hand.’ She
feels a stronger electric shock like in her head and the purse is
in her hand. Staring at the purse she feels a bit nauseous,
extremely tired and weak like she had just ran a race but without
being out of breath. “O wow, can’t do that too much but I maybe I
can eat more often now. Really hate stealing though. But I may have
little choice, at least for now, if am to eat. Sleep on it
girl.”

Next morning she awakes hungry as usual but
her heart feels lighter and she doesn’t feel quite as weak.
Deciding that practicing as much as the head pain allows is the new
order of the day so she eats her last two emergency candy bars,
half of a soda and begins. Later she realizes the pain in her head
is decreasing with the practice; plus she is not as tired after
practicing. Much relived; she can now ‘grab’ small objects of about
a pound from 30 feet or so but they must be plainly visible.

Deciding to experiment with different ways,
she soon discovered that if she ‘memorizes’ a very lite weight item
first then she can still ‘grab’ the now hidden item, but from much
shorter distances. Remembering some TV magic shows gives her an
idea how she can get some money and without stealing.

Looking through several store dumpsters she
finds a small old fold up table, a chair, two small plastic bowls
and a glass jar for donations. That afternoon, chipper and pleased
with her findings she sets up to do ‘magic’ show for people passing
by. First she has people show her a small item and then place it
into their pocket or purse. Then she covers her open hand on the
table with an inverted plastic bowl. She points at where the item
was placed and says Abracadabra as she moves her hand to point at
the bowl in her hand. Then she lifts the bowl from her hand
revealing the item is now in her hand. As word spreads donations
flow into the glass donation jar which she had ‘charged’ with her
only dollar bill and most of her change!

A couple of weeks later, now better fed and
with a few dollars extra, she hears that a small carnival is had
come to Conroe, just a few miles away. “Hum, maybe I can get a
small job doing magic in the carnival,” she mutters, “probably be a
lot safer too.” She had lately been noticing an ‘unsavory’ guy
hanging around watching her so she tried to ensure no one followed
her to her hidey hole. She also found an old, but solid, cane for
the just in case factor.

“Looks like a trip to the Goodwill store for
me. I now have enough for a small bag, couple changes of clothing
plus a bus ticket to Conroe. At least I can leave here. Hopefully
the Carnival boss will be easy to convince I’m 18 but I better not
let them know how I do my trick. Maybe have the items covered and
come to my hand under a cloth of some kind. Yes, tomorrow is the
beginning of your new life Carol Ann.”