It was a pleasantly warm day in the middle of July, and I was reflecting on how nice it felt to be relaxing in my chaise lounger. We were in the back yard, and I was watching the continuous progression of "cumulus mediocris" clouds gliding across the sky just above the barn yard. I noticed the entities Nicole and Noellen on their backs in the grass, lazily pointing up at the sky and talking about the cloud motions and other things I couldn't hear.
Suddenly, both girls popped up with an impulsive burst of energy and turned to me shouting in unison; "Shine up your spirit lens and lock out your light guides. We're goin steeplechase father!"
In the next moment I was swept away, finding that all three of us were with our own velocilators on the front lawn of a familiar looking rural church in the vicinity of Waco NE. I recognized the church because we had only just discovered it two days prior to this one, on a car ride. I realized that my astral-emotional body was now some forty miles away from the back yard I was just lazing around in. I could also tell that the church seemed to have no other human souls here in its front yard, but that I was also awash in a pleasant lavender and gold illumination which seemed to be emanating from the walls of the church, and outward as far as the gravel road in front and well beyond the cemetery fence behind it.
While resting upon my own velocilator, my mind reflected back to when I was first introduced to these spirit crafts for a game the girls had called "cloud tag". Astral steeplechase, it appears, is quite different from cloud tag, and there were settings that had to be adjusted on the instrument panels for this event. I was sitting, straddling the saddle, with my feet separated just slightly wider than shoulder width and to either side of a very large golden ring that was imbedded into the floor board. The gold ring seemed to be full of a crystal clear, liquid-like substance, and held in place with only some kind of surface tension between it and the metal ring that housed it. The liquid was viscous and I could tell that it was bulging both towards me and away, as the velocilator hovered just inches above the quaint manicured lawn of this quiet little rural church yard, on a pleasant mid-day Monday.
With Nicole on my left and Noellen on my right, I could see them pointing and talking about what I had gotten done already, and what I was supposed to do. Nicole said that I had already rigged my spirit lens and managed to get it into place without any help. I looked at her and down between my legs at what she was talking about and pointing to. It reminded me of one gigantic magnifying glass lens that was just laying there to fill an almost two foot across, circular hole in the floor. I didn't remember doing anything with it before hand, so I don't really know how it got to be "in place" already. But that's okay I guess, because I wasn't really sure what the significance was anyway.
Noellen was eager to elaborate for me. She told me that the clear ring thing at my feet was called a spirit lens. It was basically the motor that powered the machine, but it has no mechanical parts. Instead, the spirit lens is a device of etheric energy, built and brought together astrally, by the individual entity who's using it.
Noellen emphasized, "That makes it customized to the entity's vibration, and that means your determination and will power, father, is what propels and maneuvers the unit".
Nicole chimed in, "Yeah, just think of it as a carburetor with attitude - your attitude, father."
Then Noellen reached out to a knob on the instrument panel in front of me and added, "but this is the most important part of an astral steeplechase. The whole point of the race is to keep your astralight shining on the ground, but to race fair means that we all have to turn our shadow charger off, like this. See..?"
In a momentary lapse into confusion, my gaze fell from the dash board to the floor, and I noticed the liquid glob at my feet seemed to turn slightly amber and milky in color. I interrupted Noellen with a broken question as to each of the strange words I was hearing ; "astralight...? ... shadow charger...? What are we doing here girls ...?!"
I could tell that my companions were practically beside themselves trying to get me to understand something that I had never heard of until now. Nicole jumped up and down once and blurted out: "Okay. These are the rules for astral steeplechase father..."
In the next few moments, both girls were pointing at one thing or another and speaking with hasty concern for what to them, seemed to be rapidly changing conditions in the air surrounding us. What I gleaned from all of it was this :
An astral steeplechase is an obstacle race between cloud shadows. There are two churches picked with very prominent steeples - a basis for the namesake of this race. One steeple marks the beginning of the race, and the other marks the finish point. They are usually between 15 and 30 miles away from each other in any given direction. The perfect day for such a race is when there are a multitude of these "mansion sized" clouds flowing across the sky on stiff upper air currents, that from the ground, look to be moving quite rapidly along. These "fair weather cumulus" typically stay in relative proximity to one another as they sail across the sky, and this allows for a maze of light "corridors" and cloud shadow "islands" to be cast upon the landscape below.
The cloud shadows are the obstacles to be avoided. When the "light guidance" system sets the "shadow charger" in the off position, your spirit lens has to remain in the sun light to power your velocilator. Any cloud shadow that you and your vehicle pass beneath acts as a "kill switch" and you promptly come to a halt until the sunlight shines directly through your spirit lens again.
The race occurs high above the ground - but several hundred feet below the cloud deck - so as to get the best perspective on the lay of the land and to take the actual cloud gaps away from your direct line of sight. That's what makes it the most challenging. The textures from such things as woodlands or contours in the surface topography may affect how well the participant can visually navigate the race. The best strategy is in being sure that your "astralight" stays in clear view in relation to where you are in the sky.
To do this, the light of the sun beam that passes through your astral body as you sit (or stand) on the velocilator is being translated through the spirit lens on the floor board below you (see what a magnifying glass does outside on a sunny day). This light beam continues down to the ground, and from the racer's vantage point, will look like a focused ring of subtly intensified radiant glow. Your astralight glides over the terrain as you race along the sky. You navigate the course by keeping your astralight out in the middle of all the light corridors, which are also racing across the landscape in relation to how the wind is moving the clouds. You pick whatever course you want to take by jockeying between the fast moving ground shadows, and not by directly watching the clouds moving overhead.
The difficulty of the race is not only determined by the wind direction and cloud speed in relation to the finishing steeple, but there is also the matter of what angle the sun light is shining from. As a day progresses, the angle of the sun to the cloud groupings will make corridors narrower or wider because of cloud heights. But at the same time, your astralight will be skating across the terrain below, either nearer or farther away, making navigation more difficult at the beginning of the day, or later in the day as it wears on. That is why an astral steeplechase is the most fun when it occurs between the hours of ten a.m. and two p.m. ... The girls' sense of urgency had now become apparent because by now, it was already noon.
Now that I understood the race better, I glimpsed down at my spirit lens and noticed that it had once again become crystal clear. When Nicole and Noellen observed this too, they remarked that I was ready for the race and promptly jumped on each of their own velocilators. Noellen spoke with glee in her voice, "Be sure that your 'shadow charger' is on until we get up in the sky. We have to make a complete circle around this steeple first, and choose another one that we want to race to."
I asked, "How am I supposed to know where the next steeple is, if it's going to be another county away?" Then, figuratively speaking I added; " We're kinda' in the dark 'here,' ... as to where the other churches are, aren't we...?"
Nicole, from my other side, quickly responded with a giggle, "Nothing's in the dark father. You'll see when we get up there. Look at this church and you'll see what I mean."
I trusted in the wisdom of my little angel entities, and with anticipation all of our spirit crafts began to lift from the lawn at once.
As my heart lightened with the anticipation of play, my soul gained elevation. I followed Nicole's advice and looked upon the facade of the church. Though it was obvious that the church had white siding and brown shingles, there was still something else. The church had a particularly bright glow to it, and I could tell that this glow alternated between shades of lavender and shades of gold. As I and my velocilator rose ever further from the lawn, I noticed the colored light was rippling like heat waves and rising well above the height of the church steeple itself. Nicole said, "Every church has a special aura. Once we get high enough, all we have to do is pick a color stream that we want to race to. That's why the race doesn't start until we make a circle around this one and choose where to go."
We kept rising up into the air. I was now at about two stories high, passing the front stained glass lancet window, that framed a Christian cross which was anchored out in front of it. The cross was blocky looking, and I wondered for a moment if the thing would light up after nightfall or if it were just a three dimensional ornament to be seen only in the day. Looking to either side of me, I noticed that Nicole and Noellen were both standing up on their "trusty" machines, and poised with anticipation while they scanned the cloud deck above.
We had now floated high enough to clear the sharply gabled roof. I rose beside the louvres in the bell tower, and found that my perspective had enhanced my curiosity and the need to pause and observe. The slots were quite narrow and the slats sharply angled, and though I noticed some undiscernible shapes in the darker areas, it was still impossible to know what those shapes actually were. Had the cluttered shadows inside been actual bells? Or, were they just speakers that the holy sounds might be broadcast from when it was time to call in the congregation? I couldn't be sure but as my attention turned, I could tell that there were other things on Nicole and Noellen's minds, anyway.
"Head in the game, father...!" Noellen barked. "Head in the game. Help us find a target."
Now that we were above the roof line, the girls were turning this way and that, surveying the landscape in every direction. They continued to do so even as we floated higher than the copper colored shingles of the steeple. And now, even I could see all over the countryside. There were scores of columns of colored light rising from the ground to the clouds. More than likely, even beyond them too. From here it wasn't easy to tell, because we were floating in a distinctly narrow band of open space between a carpet of land and a patchwork ceiling of cloud forms.
When I reached the height of the Lutheran "rose" cross that adorned the peak, I looked through the hollow area, which was like looking through the "cross hairs" of a rifle scope. Beyond it, way out in the distance, I could see a beautiful column of violet-blue and ruby-gold light that towered towards the heavens like a Hollywood spot light. It was as if Noellen were looking through my eyes, and she pointed at precisely the same place my vision had fallen, way out in the eastern reaches of this beautiful summer landscape. "There's our finish line," she shouted.
With a quick movement, Nicole matched her glance to our target. But Noellen, in seeing me reach for my light guidance knob quickly lifted her hand and said, "Not yet. We have to get to the sweet spot first." Then, apparently satisfied in knowing that my hand remained suspended in midair, she added with a grin, "I'll tell you when."
In a matter of moments, we were well above the roof of the church, and getting pretty darn close to the bottom of the clouds. I was mesmerized by how flat the cloud base was, and how far it reached over the land. Earlier, when we were leaving the ground, I could see a bunch of gaps between the endless cloud forms that revealed the blueness of clear skies above. But now, it felt like they were a solid layer because we were directly underneath one of the fluffy giants.
The range of our country wide race track had now widened out as far as it would. While we waited for the imposing cloud to pass completely by, I watched with anticipation beneath me. The cloud shadows were scurrying across the landscape, mirroring the activities that were going on well above our three souls. Suddenly, I realized that their silent march was at an obtuse angle to the course we planned on taking.
Noellen said, "Here's that sweet spot. let's do our loop. Father; pay attention to the shadows. Look down there... that's your astralight. This'll be the last time you should have your shadow charger on."
Nicole banked her velocilator to the left. I was expected to fall in behind her and Noellen behind me. Each, in our turn, made a counter clockwise circle around the church that was well below us. When I was halfway through my turn, I heard Noellen shout, "On your marks."
And I thought to myself in that instant, "Now wait a minute. I'm not even facing the right way yet." Incredibly, it was as if my ambitious need to get to the starting line made my velocilator lunge into a tight cut to the left and finish its turn. As I came to an abrupt stop, a spontaneous grin came to my face. What manifested instantly in my mind was thinking, "this velocilator's response time was like 'greased lightening'."
At the words, "Get set!", I found myself instantly abreast with Nicole who was poised and ready to go, at some twenty feet or so, once again to my left. I saw her snickering and with a glint in her eyes, she gave me one of those "sideways" glances. Her face was almost maniacal.
I remember thinking that she must really be into the game, because I don't ever remember seeing her face with such a competitive expression on it before. It was almost unnerving. But Nicole couldn't contain herself any longer and blurted out with her strategic secret, "It's all for the effect, father! ... That's me intimidating you." and then laughter came at me from both sides.
I turned to my right and saw Noellen abreast at another twenty feet or so, away. We were all in a line now, and hovering in the air, non responsive to the stout wind blowing across our souls. I could see my astral companions both intently surveying for their own race lanes. Each of them were standing as they straddled their own spirit lens, and both leaned far to peer over the edge of their vehicles, looking this way and that.
I relaxed a little into my own seat, leaning forward a bit to get a bead on my astralight. When I found it, I allowed myself a peaceful moment to observe the cloud shadows move across the vast landscape that had opened up to our view. I could feel the serenity of the scene flowing into my soul as if I were a funnel. I closed my eyes for a moment and it felt like my soul had picked up on the rhythm of clouds and their shadow's movement. But the sensation was quickly suspended when I heard Noellen speak; "D'ya want the honors of saying when, father?"
I opened my eyes and looked at her. Her hand was floating over the control panel. I turned to look at Nicole, whose hand was also in position, now. I looked to the ground and saw a corridor of light swiftly approaching us from behind. With a building sense of confidence, I answered Noellen with a simple word; "Sure."
They watched me reach up and turn my shadow charger off, and immediately followed suit. Nicole's astralight fell into the brightness somewhat to the left and front, below us. Then, so did mine. In another instant, so did Noellen's. I shouted, "Go!", and we were off for my first steeplechase; targeting a nostalgic little country church south east of the town of Garland some thirty miles or more away.
At the moment I chose the start, a light corridor became available to both the left and right, with a tangent one almost directly in front of me. In that moment, Nicole cut hard to her left, Noellen cut hard right, and I launched myself forward.
Noellen and I took to opposite sides of one cloud shadow; the light corridors on either side pulling us hard to the south where we quickly crossed over I-80 and I knew that all the drivers below were oblivious to our invisibility. Nicole was far behind us and to the north. And if such a nautical term could be used, I'd say that she was "tacking" the light on a more direct bead than mine and Noellen's option had allowed. It was probably the more sensible move. She could go north for quite a distance, meandering with an easterly aim. If she could keep it up, I saw no reason that all she had to do towards the end of our game, would be to fall into the same direction that the clouds were passing in, and keep to the moving light corridor that would eventually pass over the target steeple.
I kept flying in a southeasterly direction, but it didn't seem like my side of the shadow was cooperating as well as Noellen's. I suppose it was the cloud expansion overhead that seemed to press me into a tighter and tighter corridor. There was another group of clouds over to my left, and it seemed that their light channels could take me back to the north. So I raced up with all the speed I could muster and took an arcing left turn at the next light intersection. It was just in time too, because somewhere over Beaver Crossing from what I could tell, my old corridor had just been pinched off. As a side note, I didn't realize that the Blue River ran so close to the township until I could view it from this height.
In a few moments, I was crossing I-80 again. There was a speck way to the north of me, and I couldn't tell whether it was a really big bird or if it was Nicole. To my right side, and at least two miles away, Noellen was giving it her best shot. The two of us were completely perpendicular to the cloud movement with our last maneuvers, and it felt like progress could only be made with an exaggerated zigzag motion. With a jaunt to the right, I could ride a light cushion for awhile. But that kept taking us away to the south and further from the east edge of Seward county. So, to counter that, a hard turn to the left was immanent at nearly every shadow gap that I approached, just so I could jockey back to a northward course and get back on line. But those pockets were always short lived. The new clouds kept forcing us southward more than they allowed us an eastward progress.
I think that I got distracted when I felt like the marble in a pachinko game. I was just getting ready to lunge into another light pocket, when I found myself trapped in the hook of a shadow. It crept up from behind, and I didn't see it coming. Instantly, I jolted to a stop. That's when I found out how sensitive a velocilator's light guidance system really is.
There I was dead in the air over the Seward airport, and I could see Noellen coming up on a rapid northward tangent just a few miles away. My lull did give me the advantage of tuning in to the pace of the cloud movement once again. I took advantage of it at the next light corridor sweeping across the landscape with me in its path. I had a good northeasterly run for a change, because there seemed to be a diminishing count of clouds in the space surrounding me. The corridor was wide and I quickly returned to the race.
In less than a few moments, I had zipped past the west edge of town, hoping that my light channel would hold out a little longer and give me a cushion like I expected Nicole to be vying for. I had to cut back and forth a couple of more times to home in on the violet-blue and ruby-gold column that was radiating far larger than it had been at the beginning of this race. But, even though my last route adjustments brought me as far north as the township of Garland, I was still able to keep on the good side of Highway 34 until the church steeple was clearly in sight. The inviting waters of Oak Glenn, a memorable fishing pond I and my father shared time with when a little boy, had to be all but ignored now, as I concentrated on my own agressive course towards the race's finale.
Branched Oak lake was out in the distance, and now, I could also see both of the girls at the same time. They were closing in just ahead of me. Noellen had to make a hard cut back, to dodge another cloud shadow. For a minute, I thought she was charging at me. But once she got next to the nice round form of this decidedly smaller obstacle, I knew that she would be able to flank it, and turn away from me with ease. The words, "she corners like she's on rails." came to mind as I witnessed her maneuver.
Nicole had found her light corridor opening up just as wide as mine, and now we were both making a bee line for the steeple. Her distance was closing fast. Her line was coming in from the northwest. Mine from the west, beside the highway and over the cemetery that was next to the church. And after Noellen's smooth arc, her approach was from the south and west, and practically cut me off in the last instant. We all converged above the "more broad, blunt and squat" steeple and began our spiraling descent. This time, in a clockwise sweep. As it turned out, Nicole had cut off both me and Noellen just before her hard turn and quick plummet. Noellen, now well in front of me turned hard into her own downward spiral. I came in last place, but as a consolation prize to myself I decided to swirl downward with more than one turn, taking in the distant scenery at every angle I could see from. As far as I was concerned, I was still the winner in this race.
Suddenly, both girls popped up with an impulsive burst of energy and turned to me shouting in unison; "Shine up your spirit lens and lock out your light guides. We're goin steeplechase father!"
In the next moment I was swept away, finding that all three of us were with our own velocilators on the front lawn of a familiar looking rural church in the vicinity of Waco NE. I recognized the church because we had only just discovered it two days prior to this one, on a car ride. I realized that my astral-emotional body was now some forty miles away from the back yard I was just lazing around in. I could also tell that the church seemed to have no other human souls here in its front yard, but that I was also awash in a pleasant lavender and gold illumination which seemed to be emanating from the walls of the church, and outward as far as the gravel road in front and well beyond the cemetery fence behind it.
While resting upon my own velocilator, my mind reflected back to when I was first introduced to these spirit crafts for a game the girls had called "cloud tag". Astral steeplechase, it appears, is quite different from cloud tag, and there were settings that had to be adjusted on the instrument panels for this event. I was sitting, straddling the saddle, with my feet separated just slightly wider than shoulder width and to either side of a very large golden ring that was imbedded into the floor board. The gold ring seemed to be full of a crystal clear, liquid-like substance, and held in place with only some kind of surface tension between it and the metal ring that housed it. The liquid was viscous and I could tell that it was bulging both towards me and away, as the velocilator hovered just inches above the quaint manicured lawn of this quiet little rural church yard, on a pleasant mid-day Monday.
With Nicole on my left and Noellen on my right, I could see them pointing and talking about what I had gotten done already, and what I was supposed to do. Nicole said that I had already rigged my spirit lens and managed to get it into place without any help. I looked at her and down between my legs at what she was talking about and pointing to. It reminded me of one gigantic magnifying glass lens that was just laying there to fill an almost two foot across, circular hole in the floor. I didn't remember doing anything with it before hand, so I don't really know how it got to be "in place" already. But that's okay I guess, because I wasn't really sure what the significance was anyway.
Noellen was eager to elaborate for me. She told me that the clear ring thing at my feet was called a spirit lens. It was basically the motor that powered the machine, but it has no mechanical parts. Instead, the spirit lens is a device of etheric energy, built and brought together astrally, by the individual entity who's using it.
Noellen emphasized, "That makes it customized to the entity's vibration, and that means your determination and will power, father, is what propels and maneuvers the unit".
Nicole chimed in, "Yeah, just think of it as a carburetor with attitude - your attitude, father."
Then Noellen reached out to a knob on the instrument panel in front of me and added, "but this is the most important part of an astral steeplechase. The whole point of the race is to keep your astralight shining on the ground, but to race fair means that we all have to turn our shadow charger off, like this. See..?"
In a momentary lapse into confusion, my gaze fell from the dash board to the floor, and I noticed the liquid glob at my feet seemed to turn slightly amber and milky in color. I interrupted Noellen with a broken question as to each of the strange words I was hearing ; "astralight...? ... shadow charger...? What are we doing here girls ...?!"
I could tell that my companions were practically beside themselves trying to get me to understand something that I had never heard of until now. Nicole jumped up and down once and blurted out: "Okay. These are the rules for astral steeplechase father..."
In the next few moments, both girls were pointing at one thing or another and speaking with hasty concern for what to them, seemed to be rapidly changing conditions in the air surrounding us. What I gleaned from all of it was this :
An astral steeplechase is an obstacle race between cloud shadows. There are two churches picked with very prominent steeples - a basis for the namesake of this race. One steeple marks the beginning of the race, and the other marks the finish point. They are usually between 15 and 30 miles away from each other in any given direction. The perfect day for such a race is when there are a multitude of these "mansion sized" clouds flowing across the sky on stiff upper air currents, that from the ground, look to be moving quite rapidly along. These "fair weather cumulus" typically stay in relative proximity to one another as they sail across the sky, and this allows for a maze of light "corridors" and cloud shadow "islands" to be cast upon the landscape below.
The cloud shadows are the obstacles to be avoided. When the "light guidance" system sets the "shadow charger" in the off position, your spirit lens has to remain in the sun light to power your velocilator. Any cloud shadow that you and your vehicle pass beneath acts as a "kill switch" and you promptly come to a halt until the sunlight shines directly through your spirit lens again.
The race occurs high above the ground - but several hundred feet below the cloud deck - so as to get the best perspective on the lay of the land and to take the actual cloud gaps away from your direct line of sight. That's what makes it the most challenging. The textures from such things as woodlands or contours in the surface topography may affect how well the participant can visually navigate the race. The best strategy is in being sure that your "astralight" stays in clear view in relation to where you are in the sky.
To do this, the light of the sun beam that passes through your astral body as you sit (or stand) on the velocilator is being translated through the spirit lens on the floor board below you (see what a magnifying glass does outside on a sunny day). This light beam continues down to the ground, and from the racer's vantage point, will look like a focused ring of subtly intensified radiant glow. Your astralight glides over the terrain as you race along the sky. You navigate the course by keeping your astralight out in the middle of all the light corridors, which are also racing across the landscape in relation to how the wind is moving the clouds. You pick whatever course you want to take by jockeying between the fast moving ground shadows, and not by directly watching the clouds moving overhead.
The difficulty of the race is not only determined by the wind direction and cloud speed in relation to the finishing steeple, but there is also the matter of what angle the sun light is shining from. As a day progresses, the angle of the sun to the cloud groupings will make corridors narrower or wider because of cloud heights. But at the same time, your astralight will be skating across the terrain below, either nearer or farther away, making navigation more difficult at the beginning of the day, or later in the day as it wears on. That is why an astral steeplechase is the most fun when it occurs between the hours of ten a.m. and two p.m. ... The girls' sense of urgency had now become apparent because by now, it was already noon.
Now that I understood the race better, I glimpsed down at my spirit lens and noticed that it had once again become crystal clear. When Nicole and Noellen observed this too, they remarked that I was ready for the race and promptly jumped on each of their own velocilators. Noellen spoke with glee in her voice, "Be sure that your 'shadow charger' is on until we get up in the sky. We have to make a complete circle around this steeple first, and choose another one that we want to race to."
I asked, "How am I supposed to know where the next steeple is, if it's going to be another county away?" Then, figuratively speaking I added; " We're kinda' in the dark 'here,' ... as to where the other churches are, aren't we...?"
Nicole, from my other side, quickly responded with a giggle, "Nothing's in the dark father. You'll see when we get up there. Look at this church and you'll see what I mean."
I trusted in the wisdom of my little angel entities, and with anticipation all of our spirit crafts began to lift from the lawn at once.
As my heart lightened with the anticipation of play, my soul gained elevation. I followed Nicole's advice and looked upon the facade of the church. Though it was obvious that the church had white siding and brown shingles, there was still something else. The church had a particularly bright glow to it, and I could tell that this glow alternated between shades of lavender and shades of gold. As I and my velocilator rose ever further from the lawn, I noticed the colored light was rippling like heat waves and rising well above the height of the church steeple itself. Nicole said, "Every church has a special aura. Once we get high enough, all we have to do is pick a color stream that we want to race to. That's why the race doesn't start until we make a circle around this one and choose where to go."
We kept rising up into the air. I was now at about two stories high, passing the front stained glass lancet window, that framed a Christian cross which was anchored out in front of it. The cross was blocky looking, and I wondered for a moment if the thing would light up after nightfall or if it were just a three dimensional ornament to be seen only in the day. Looking to either side of me, I noticed that Nicole and Noellen were both standing up on their "trusty" machines, and poised with anticipation while they scanned the cloud deck above.
We had now floated high enough to clear the sharply gabled roof. I rose beside the louvres in the bell tower, and found that my perspective had enhanced my curiosity and the need to pause and observe. The slots were quite narrow and the slats sharply angled, and though I noticed some undiscernible shapes in the darker areas, it was still impossible to know what those shapes actually were. Had the cluttered shadows inside been actual bells? Or, were they just speakers that the holy sounds might be broadcast from when it was time to call in the congregation? I couldn't be sure but as my attention turned, I could tell that there were other things on Nicole and Noellen's minds, anyway.
"Head in the game, father...!" Noellen barked. "Head in the game. Help us find a target."
Now that we were above the roof line, the girls were turning this way and that, surveying the landscape in every direction. They continued to do so even as we floated higher than the copper colored shingles of the steeple. And now, even I could see all over the countryside. There were scores of columns of colored light rising from the ground to the clouds. More than likely, even beyond them too. From here it wasn't easy to tell, because we were floating in a distinctly narrow band of open space between a carpet of land and a patchwork ceiling of cloud forms.
When I reached the height of the Lutheran "rose" cross that adorned the peak, I looked through the hollow area, which was like looking through the "cross hairs" of a rifle scope. Beyond it, way out in the distance, I could see a beautiful column of violet-blue and ruby-gold light that towered towards the heavens like a Hollywood spot light. It was as if Noellen were looking through my eyes, and she pointed at precisely the same place my vision had fallen, way out in the eastern reaches of this beautiful summer landscape. "There's our finish line," she shouted.
With a quick movement, Nicole matched her glance to our target. But Noellen, in seeing me reach for my light guidance knob quickly lifted her hand and said, "Not yet. We have to get to the sweet spot first." Then, apparently satisfied in knowing that my hand remained suspended in midair, she added with a grin, "I'll tell you when."
In a matter of moments, we were well above the roof of the church, and getting pretty darn close to the bottom of the clouds. I was mesmerized by how flat the cloud base was, and how far it reached over the land. Earlier, when we were leaving the ground, I could see a bunch of gaps between the endless cloud forms that revealed the blueness of clear skies above. But now, it felt like they were a solid layer because we were directly underneath one of the fluffy giants.
The range of our country wide race track had now widened out as far as it would. While we waited for the imposing cloud to pass completely by, I watched with anticipation beneath me. The cloud shadows were scurrying across the landscape, mirroring the activities that were going on well above our three souls. Suddenly, I realized that their silent march was at an obtuse angle to the course we planned on taking.
Noellen said, "Here's that sweet spot. let's do our loop. Father; pay attention to the shadows. Look down there... that's your astralight. This'll be the last time you should have your shadow charger on."
Nicole banked her velocilator to the left. I was expected to fall in behind her and Noellen behind me. Each, in our turn, made a counter clockwise circle around the church that was well below us. When I was halfway through my turn, I heard Noellen shout, "On your marks."
And I thought to myself in that instant, "Now wait a minute. I'm not even facing the right way yet." Incredibly, it was as if my ambitious need to get to the starting line made my velocilator lunge into a tight cut to the left and finish its turn. As I came to an abrupt stop, a spontaneous grin came to my face. What manifested instantly in my mind was thinking, "this velocilator's response time was like 'greased lightening'."
At the words, "Get set!", I found myself instantly abreast with Nicole who was poised and ready to go, at some twenty feet or so, once again to my left. I saw her snickering and with a glint in her eyes, she gave me one of those "sideways" glances. Her face was almost maniacal.
I remember thinking that she must really be into the game, because I don't ever remember seeing her face with such a competitive expression on it before. It was almost unnerving. But Nicole couldn't contain herself any longer and blurted out with her strategic secret, "It's all for the effect, father! ... That's me intimidating you." and then laughter came at me from both sides.
I turned to my right and saw Noellen abreast at another twenty feet or so, away. We were all in a line now, and hovering in the air, non responsive to the stout wind blowing across our souls. I could see my astral companions both intently surveying for their own race lanes. Each of them were standing as they straddled their own spirit lens, and both leaned far to peer over the edge of their vehicles, looking this way and that.
I relaxed a little into my own seat, leaning forward a bit to get a bead on my astralight. When I found it, I allowed myself a peaceful moment to observe the cloud shadows move across the vast landscape that had opened up to our view. I could feel the serenity of the scene flowing into my soul as if I were a funnel. I closed my eyes for a moment and it felt like my soul had picked up on the rhythm of clouds and their shadow's movement. But the sensation was quickly suspended when I heard Noellen speak; "D'ya want the honors of saying when, father?"
I opened my eyes and looked at her. Her hand was floating over the control panel. I turned to look at Nicole, whose hand was also in position, now. I looked to the ground and saw a corridor of light swiftly approaching us from behind. With a building sense of confidence, I answered Noellen with a simple word; "Sure."
They watched me reach up and turn my shadow charger off, and immediately followed suit. Nicole's astralight fell into the brightness somewhat to the left and front, below us. Then, so did mine. In another instant, so did Noellen's. I shouted, "Go!", and we were off for my first steeplechase; targeting a nostalgic little country church south east of the town of Garland some thirty miles or more away.
At the moment I chose the start, a light corridor became available to both the left and right, with a tangent one almost directly in front of me. In that moment, Nicole cut hard to her left, Noellen cut hard right, and I launched myself forward.
Noellen and I took to opposite sides of one cloud shadow; the light corridors on either side pulling us hard to the south where we quickly crossed over I-80 and I knew that all the drivers below were oblivious to our invisibility. Nicole was far behind us and to the north. And if such a nautical term could be used, I'd say that she was "tacking" the light on a more direct bead than mine and Noellen's option had allowed. It was probably the more sensible move. She could go north for quite a distance, meandering with an easterly aim. If she could keep it up, I saw no reason that all she had to do towards the end of our game, would be to fall into the same direction that the clouds were passing in, and keep to the moving light corridor that would eventually pass over the target steeple.
I kept flying in a southeasterly direction, but it didn't seem like my side of the shadow was cooperating as well as Noellen's. I suppose it was the cloud expansion overhead that seemed to press me into a tighter and tighter corridor. There was another group of clouds over to my left, and it seemed that their light channels could take me back to the north. So I raced up with all the speed I could muster and took an arcing left turn at the next light intersection. It was just in time too, because somewhere over Beaver Crossing from what I could tell, my old corridor had just been pinched off. As a side note, I didn't realize that the Blue River ran so close to the township until I could view it from this height.
In a few moments, I was crossing I-80 again. There was a speck way to the north of me, and I couldn't tell whether it was a really big bird or if it was Nicole. To my right side, and at least two miles away, Noellen was giving it her best shot. The two of us were completely perpendicular to the cloud movement with our last maneuvers, and it felt like progress could only be made with an exaggerated zigzag motion. With a jaunt to the right, I could ride a light cushion for awhile. But that kept taking us away to the south and further from the east edge of Seward county. So, to counter that, a hard turn to the left was immanent at nearly every shadow gap that I approached, just so I could jockey back to a northward course and get back on line. But those pockets were always short lived. The new clouds kept forcing us southward more than they allowed us an eastward progress.
I think that I got distracted when I felt like the marble in a pachinko game. I was just getting ready to lunge into another light pocket, when I found myself trapped in the hook of a shadow. It crept up from behind, and I didn't see it coming. Instantly, I jolted to a stop. That's when I found out how sensitive a velocilator's light guidance system really is.
There I was dead in the air over the Seward airport, and I could see Noellen coming up on a rapid northward tangent just a few miles away. My lull did give me the advantage of tuning in to the pace of the cloud movement once again. I took advantage of it at the next light corridor sweeping across the landscape with me in its path. I had a good northeasterly run for a change, because there seemed to be a diminishing count of clouds in the space surrounding me. The corridor was wide and I quickly returned to the race.
In less than a few moments, I had zipped past the west edge of town, hoping that my light channel would hold out a little longer and give me a cushion like I expected Nicole to be vying for. I had to cut back and forth a couple of more times to home in on the violet-blue and ruby-gold column that was radiating far larger than it had been at the beginning of this race. But, even though my last route adjustments brought me as far north as the township of Garland, I was still able to keep on the good side of Highway 34 until the church steeple was clearly in sight. The inviting waters of Oak Glenn, a memorable fishing pond I and my father shared time with when a little boy, had to be all but ignored now, as I concentrated on my own agressive course towards the race's finale.
Branched Oak lake was out in the distance, and now, I could also see both of the girls at the same time. They were closing in just ahead of me. Noellen had to make a hard cut back, to dodge another cloud shadow. For a minute, I thought she was charging at me. But once she got next to the nice round form of this decidedly smaller obstacle, I knew that she would be able to flank it, and turn away from me with ease. The words, "she corners like she's on rails." came to mind as I witnessed her maneuver.
Nicole had found her light corridor opening up just as wide as mine, and now we were both making a bee line for the steeple. Her distance was closing fast. Her line was coming in from the northwest. Mine from the west, beside the highway and over the cemetery that was next to the church. And after Noellen's smooth arc, her approach was from the south and west, and practically cut me off in the last instant. We all converged above the "more broad, blunt and squat" steeple and began our spiraling descent. This time, in a clockwise sweep. As it turned out, Nicole had cut off both me and Noellen just before her hard turn and quick plummet. Noellen, now well in front of me turned hard into her own downward spiral. I came in last place, but as a consolation prize to myself I decided to swirl downward with more than one turn, taking in the distant scenery at every angle I could see from. As far as I was concerned, I was still the winner in this race.