He traveled alone.  No planet was his home. The vast reaches of space held no limits, for he was free. Completely free of any encumbrances, free to go where he pleased, to do what pleased him most. Nothing bound him nor restrained him in any way. He had chosen freedom after the Separation, after knowing unification but nothing more.

     The Other had chosen challenge. She desired to expose Her beingness to the diverse array of experiences the universe had to offer. She was an explorer. Her desire had been to know what it was to be separated, to be a fragment, to undergo unlimited physical lifetimes in order to understand the purpose of it all.

     And in so doing, he had granted Her that desire, and had experienced separation in his own way. Yet he always knew that one day She would return to him. When She grew weary of the game, perhaps, or when the great cosmic clock had come full circle, the waves of time would pull the two drifting soul-halves together.

     He didn’t know what it was. Perhaps it was his own thought to beckon Her back, for he had waited an eternity. A nagging urgency prompted him to find Her. It was as though something deep within him knew when She was ready to join him again.

     A stimulus from an unknown source began to prick at the inner core of his being. “Go home,” It prompted.

     “Where is home?” he asked. “I have no home. I travel the universes.”

     “Look within,” said the Voice.

     “Who are you?” he demanded. “And why should I listen to you? I am free.’’

     “Yes, you are free,’’ it said, “but what have you gained?’’

     He thought for a moment. “Nothing,’’ he admitted. “I have gained nothing. But I am free!”

     “Then if it has fulfilled you, go on as you were,’’ the Voice told him. “You are free. It is your choice.’’

     “What are you talking about?’’ he cried. But the Voice had left him. Now he was disturbed. Before, he had been free of any such feelings, but the Voice had spoken to him and left him with unanswered questions.

What had it meant when it talked of fulfillment? What was there to gain except a whole lot of complications and trouble? He had observed. He had watched many lives living on many planets in many galaxies. He had seen a whole lot of trouble and had wanted nothing to do with any of it.

     He tried over and over to forget the intruding voice. But now there was a growing ache from within. As it grew stronger and his thoughts began to stray, he realized it was Her. He missed Her. He began to remember what it had been like when they had been one, and his thoughts could focus on only one thing: It was time to find Her and go home.

​

Beginning of Chapter Two: Reluctance

​

     BLAKE DOBBS sat on the end of his bed, near the window. A warm spring breeze rippled the maroon curtains as he gazed out into the night. The traffic from downtown was a constant blend of noise and a neighbor’s yapping dog made him wonder who was walking the streets. He longed to be out with his buddies, reveling in the cool night air with the delicious freedom of school being out.

     Around his room were scattered half a dozen boxes, most of them empty. Frowning, he reached for his guitar and pulled it onto his lap and sat back against the wall and began to pick out a tune.

     Footsteps from the hallway stopped at his bedroom door. Dorothy Dobbs, clad in blue jeans and a sweatshirt, stood with her hands on her hips. Her dark brown hair was gathered up in a ponytail as her green eyes flashed. “Blake! You’re supposed to be packing. The movers will be here first thing in the morning!”

     Blake rubbed an eye and sighed. He was tall like his mother, but with light-colored hair that graced his shoulders. He wore a simple gold earring on his left lobe. “Mom, why do we have to move? I don’t want to leave my friends.”

     “We’ve already discussed why,” said his mother. “Now put down that guitar.”

     Blake groaned in protest, but leaned the guitar up against the window. “Nobody cares what I think anymore,” he muttered as he stood up. “Just because Dad’s friends are all moving, I don’t see why we have to.”

      “Blake! Get packing,” ordered Dorothy. “I don’t have time to argue with you. I have to get Kelly’s things together too.” She left and Blake could hear his sister’s voice whining from the other end of the house.

     “She never has time to argue with me,” Blake grumbled to himself as he started pulling things out from under his bed and tossing them haphazardly into the boxes. “In fact, she never has time to do anything with me anymore.” Bitterly, he tossed a dirty sock that was encased in a dust clod toward the door.

     He didn’t want to move to Colorado. He had spent all of his sixteen years in this house -- in this city -- and now they were moving. Sure, lots of his friends over the years had moved, many of them more than once. But this had been so abrupt. Just last week his father had announced that the time had come and they had to leave DeKalb. It was no longer safe, he had said. He remembered the wild look of ecstasy in his mother’s eyes when Dad had divulged that he had been told where to go and that they were moving to a small town on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains.

     Blake knew it wouldn’t have been so bad if Dad had received a work transfer like his friends’ fathers did. But Dad didn’t work for a company or a government agency that transferred their employees. Dad was a counselor for people who claimed they had been abducted by extraterrestrials. It was difficult enough trying to explain to your friends what your parents did for a living, but it was worst yet when they explained that the space people were telling them to move.