The Adventures of Horatio Hope and Clara Compassion
Michael Morel
Published by Lifeset Publications
at Smashwords
Copyright 2011. Michael Morel
Discover other titles by Michael Morel
Sex is for Sinners
The Organic Mind
Earth Reborn
Dickheads and Witches
Confidence for Life: Teachers Resource Manual
ISBN: 978-0-9871958-2-1
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Author’s note
Throughout this book, I have referred to the great creator. I have used this term in the literary sense only, as a way of giving a label to that part of life that still remains a mystery to me. Some see their god as a super-conscious, and others as a higher intelligence. Many have different titles for this unseen force, while others do not subscribe to a god at all but worship their ancestors, often praying to them for help. I do not subscribe to one religion, and nor do I consider one religion superior to another. Once when I was asked which religion I subscribed to I replied, ‘Honesty.’ I believe that it is entirely the choice of the individual to believe or not believe in a god or gods, as referred to in this book.
CONTENTS
Book I: Horatio and Clara confront the dark forces
Chapter 1: Earth, the jewel of the universe
Chapter 2: Crisis at the Bank of Good Deeds
Chapter 3: Horatio and Clara rescue the rainbow
Chapter 5: Triumph of the good and faithful servant
Chapter 6: The three keys to the door of freedom
Chapter 7: The Pyramid of Dreams
Chapter 8: Banishing the phantom of fear
Chapter 9: The Knights of the Golden Realm lose their way
Chapter 10: Someone has stolen the sword of truth
Chapter 11: Rescue at the lighthouse
Chapter 13: The disease of negativity is defeated
Chapter 14: Emperor Ego creates a bride
Chapter 15: The seven great gifts
Chapter 16: The School of Hard Knocks
Chapter 17: The great battle between the dark forces and the warriors of faith
Book II: Horatio and Clara’s journey to the mansion in the sky
Chapter 1: The City of Inspiration
Chapter 2: The City of Departure
Chapter 3: The City of Loyalty
Chapter 4: The City of Communication
Chapter 5: The City of Creativity
Chapter 8: The City of Justice
Chapter 9: The City of Passion
Chapter 10: The City of Adventure
Chapter 12: The City of Conclusions
Book III: Horatio and Clara rediscover the lost law of the universe
Chapter 1: Fairy Faith explains universal law
Chapter 2: The search for the wise guide
Chapter 4: The cave of swollen heads
Chapter 5: The valley of temptation
Chapter 6: Shopping for promises
Chapter 7: Crossing the Sea of Sadness
Chapter 8: In the Flowerless Desert
Chapter 9: The clouds of criticism
Book I
Horatio and Clara confront the dark forces
Horatio Hope, a wandering philosopher, and his indispensable companion Clara Compassion are sent on missions by their mentor Fairy Faith, Queen of the Clouds. On their adventures Horatio and Clara, supported by their many friends who make up the warriors of faith, face all manner of challenges while learning much about the human race and its struggle on Earth. Horatio and Clara become shining examples for the whole universe, but their task is a difficult one because the dark forces of their archenemy Emperor Ego are never far away. Horatio and Clara battle often with the emperor’s general, Danny Despair, and his vast army of evil soldiers.
Chapter 1
Earth, the jewel of the universe
Fairy Faith, Queen of the Clouds, had been created in the Land of Eternal Light. Her companions were elves, pixies, wizards and the little folk whose task it was to create the millions of varieties of flowers, birds, animals and sea creatures for planet Earth. In the Land of Eternal Light there was no darkness … no night-time, ever … just a soft, pink twilight haze that was most restful, providing a serene resting place for the hundreds of workers who lived there.
Fairy Faith was beautiful, exquisitely beautiful and she was dearly loved. The stars shone even brighter when she travelled through the universe on a comet’s tail. She would wave her wand of faith, which looked a little like a candy stick with a five-pointed star, and blow kisses to all she came in contact with.
She was one of many daughters of Mother Nature. Although no one had ever set eyes on Mother Nature, they knew she existed; otherwise there would have been no homes for the creatures that inhabited the universe.
It was Fairy Faith’s coming of age and Mother Earth and Father Sky had created a special gift for her. The gift was to be known by the other stars and planets as planet Earth, the jewel of the universe.
Mother Nature had domain over the lands beneath the stars and Father Sky ruled the skies. To make this new planet, Mother Nature and Father Sky had had to seek the cooperation of two very powerful gods: the god of fire and the goddess of water. After prolonged consultation with the two gods of great wisdom, Father Sky and Mother Nature realised they needed four elements to create the jewel: earth, air, fire and water. The goddess of water promised to shed bucketfuls of joyful tears to form the seasons and the rivers, and the god of fire promised to provide the warmth needed to enable the plants to grow and to keep the new animals warm in winter.
Mother Nature felt there would be little difficulty in creating the mass required for the planet, but she knew she would need the help of the sun, as the giver of fire, and the moon, who controlled water.
The sun and the moon were once one entity but they had quarrelled about who was the more important with such violence that they were forced to separate and now lived a great distance from each other. The sun was still angry about the split, occasionally threatening to burn up the universe, and his grumblings had been felt on many planets in the form of volcanic eruptions. The moon kept cool and distant, at times disappearing altogether, which was why she was known to be so mysterious. Occasionally the two meet in what is known on Earth as an eclipse, when they come together to try to solve their problems and get back together again, but sadly this has not happened over millions of years. After a short time together in the darkness of each eclipse, they emerge to go their separate ways once more. This saddens the great creator, who sees such behaviour as ‘ungodly’.
When the new planet was nearing completion and Mother Nature and Father Sky were away consulting with the god of fire and the goddess of water, Fairy Faith went on a short journey to the Temple of the Four Wise Winds. She observed a new star that seemed to shine much brighter than any others, and when she returned to her palace in the clouds, she sought council with Waldo the Willing Wizard to find out more about the big golden light.
He told her that the bright star was the planet where the lion of love dwelt. ‘A marriage between you two would be most pleasing,’ he told her. ‘Faith and love are most important when it comes to creating a new world. However, it would take a great deal of persuasion for the lion to leave his lair, being so content where he is.’
Fairy Faith decided at that moment that she would work very hard to make her new home attractive for a companion, and the lion of love sounded mysterious and exciting.
Fairy Faith called a meeting. Although Mother Nature herself had planned the design of the new planet, it was the wee folk who would do all the necessary work: make the seeds, plant them, decide on the colours and the textures most suited to each, and nurture them until they could look after themselves. These planners and cutters, sorters and stackers, painters and sculptors, perfume brewers and tasters would be the ones who would do all the hard work of manufacturing and colouring the millions of varieties of plants and creatures that would eventually inhabit the planet.
Those summoned included Peter Pixie Perfect, an artist of great renown she could be relied upon to design the flowers and vegetation that would be planted on Earth; Fairy Fauna, a good friend of Fairy Faith’s, who would be responsible for the creation of the animals and fish, together with the cosmic clown, who could be counted on to add a touch of spice and humour to the creatures; and Waldo the Willing Wizard, who would have no trouble building the mountains, plains, valleys and hills.
There was so much work to do before Fairy Faith’s guardians returned. They had encouraged Fairy Faith to use her own magic to dress the naked planet and she became somewhat like a mother dressing a small baby. So far there had been no mention whatsoever of human beings. The creator was not in a hurry, knowing full well that all would come in good time and all would be perfect.
Waldo managed to slow the swirling gases enough to form the tiny planet, but it was so hot that it would not have been able to sustain life, so the south wind was called upon to cool it down. When this had taken place Waldo began to whirl the planet again and again and it became bigger and bigger until it finally reached the size it is today.
The god of fire began to get a little angry because he had not been asked to do more towards the formation of the planet. He couldn’t wait until it was completed, when he would play a major role in sending forth the warming rays necessary for the seeds to germinate. He launched to Earth an army of thunderbolts that were like arrows piercing deep into the surface to become volcanoes, which took the trapped heat deep in Earth’s core to the surface.
When the goddess of water saw this happening, she cried a great cry that formed the oceans, the rivers and the lakes, and so Earth was cooled again.
Now Peter Pixie Perfect was not only a great and clever artist, but a poet as well, usually speaking and answering in rhyme. While Waldo the Willing Wizard was brewing up a spell to stop the whirling gases and thus form a solid mass, Peter began to think a big, big think. It went like this:
The new earth must have many, many seeds,
All must be perfect, without any weeds,
Seeds for the young earth, see them unfold,
Flowers for the young, flowers for the old,
Plants with a beautiful, wonderful smell,
Plants if you’re sick that can make you get well,
Fruit for the animals, man, birds and beast,
Oh! What a wonderful, glorious feast,
In all the universe, Earth will shine,
Let’s drink a toast, friends – bring in the wine.
This was followed by a lot of ‘dum, dum, diddly dum’s as he thought up new verses and hurried off to find his paints and brushes to begin what would be a work of art, the colouring for the planet Earth’s clothes: the trees, flowers and grass, and all the birds, animals and insects. But so magnificent were the seeds that Peter Pixie Perfect created and sowed on Earth’s surface in the dark of night that they grew and grew and grew and it seemed as if they would never stop.
‘We must do something,’ cried Fairy Faith, ‘or Earth will suffocate.’ And so she called another meeting of all those who had helped create the planet.
‘I can cast a special spell and make Earth disappear,’ suggested Waldo the Willing Wizard, who was always ready to help.
Fairy Faith did not think that was such a good idea, considering all the work they had done so far. She turned her gaze to Peter Pixie Perfect, who was never short of ideas and who once more began to write a poem:
Listen to the mountains speak,
From their spirit strong as teak.
Listen to the song they sing,
They will tell you what to bring.
Hark to the trees so high,
As they reach towards the sky.
Time for animals to be,
Time for fishes in the sea,
Listen, listen to the plan,
Time to sow the seeds of man.
But humans would take many years to evolve and grow to maturity, and Earth could not afford for the forests to keep growing in the meantime, for they could suffocate the inner breath of the planet and it could even die.
So Peter Pixie Perfect, in his wisdom, quickly sketched the dinosaurs. They were made big enough to reach even the tallest of tall trees, and they had large appetites. The dinosaurs grew and multiplied at such an alarming rate that there was soon another problem: if they continued to multiply at their present rate, soon there would be no trees remaining. So Titans were created to do battle with the huge dinosaurs, which were becoming more ferocious every day. The Titans were not unlike the humans of today, but they were at least five times taller and had only one eye, shining like a beacon in the middle of their foreheads.
Day and night the battle between the Titans and the dinosaurs raged, and it lasted for nearly a hundred years. Finally the big beasts were conquered, but sadly the Titans had developed a thirst for blood. When there were no more creatures to destroy, they turned upon each other in an all-out war to determine who was the best fighter. The strongest would rule the world.
Fairy Faith had never intended such terrible things to happen.
‘It’s the devil of darkness,’ she sighed. ‘We thought him long gone when he was banished to the land of nothingness, but it would appear that he has tricked his jailers and escaped.’
It was decided, therefore, to call a halt to the work and ask the west wind to use its iciest breath to brew up a gigantic snowstorm that would freeze Earth and all who lived upon it. And so began what the humans now call the Ice Age. The god of fire also created a few more volcanic upheavals, which dried up some of the oceans. The ice did not cover the entire planet, however. Many forms of life existed, in warm caves and underground, and when the sun’s rays eventually melted the ice in many parts of the planet, these life forms emerged.
Time stood still during the Ice Age. With the planet frozen over, there was little to keep Fairy Faith and her friends occupied, so they snoozed comfortably in the pink twilight in the Land of Eternal Light. When they awoke after their long sleep, they discovered a very different world. Long gone were the dinosaurs and Titans, their bones and flesh sinking into the earth to be buried forever.
The spring maiden rushed from one to another, shaking them awake, calling in a singsong voice, ‘Awake, awake, dear people. We must get back to work. We have the seeds to plant in Earth’s bosom. We must hurry, hurry … there is much to do.’
So Peter Pixie Perfect, Waldo the Willing Wizard, Fairy Fauna, Cosmic Clown, all the cutters, sorters, stackers, painters and other little people began to prepare the seeds for the new planet.
Peter worked at such speed that there was a blur like a whirlwind where he stood. From his pallet and easel came painting after painting. His helpers coloured in the daisies, daffodils and violets, bluebells and foxgloves, and all the other hundreds of beautiful plants and foliage that were to be delivered and spread over the planet. Fairy Faith clapped her hands with glee as she saw the pile become bigger and bigger. Once the task was completed they loaded everything onto the four winds, which would carry them to Earth and distribute them.
Such was the plan. Under the warm blanket of Mother Earth’s soil, the seeds would sleep for a while and, at a pre-arranged signal, they would awaken, stretch, yawn and begin their journey to the surface. They were very, very intelligent, these seeds, and knew exactly what to do and when to poke their heads through the darkness and out into the light.
The next task for Fairy Faith, with guidance from Mother Nature, was to create the seasons: spring for growth; summer to harvest the seeds; autumn to store the crop; and winter for rest (or sleep, as the case may be). Every seed was different.
Now that they had perfected this beautiful garden in the new world, it was time to resume the creation of the new creatures on Earth, which were to be called humans.
The trees, which were smaller now, had become the playground for a small band of apes that had survived in a huge underground cavern, through which flowed a river stocked with an ample supply of fish and other foods. The apes, which grew along with the cycle of Earth, learned to live in harmony with the cosmic clock, which had begun ticking. Other animals were then created and the world as we know it today came into being. Such was Mother Nature’s grand plan.
Fairy Faith became the guardian of all that lived on Earth, swam in the sea and flew in the air. As her most trusted friends, Fairy Faith chose Horatio Hope and Clara Compassion because she knew faith, hope and compassion would be in demand as the humans multiplied.
Horatio and Clara were inventions of the great creator, who knew that humans would need help from time to time during their journeying on planet Earth. Hope was the strength people called on when they felt a little lost or bewildered and had no one to turn to, and compassion was inseparable from hope. Fairy Faith knew that the two belonged together.
Horatio and Clara had so much magic within them that they could be in millions of minds at the same time. They were given their titles and their responsibilities for those on Earth. They knew that humans needed to evolve slowly, embracing charitable acts and living in the ray of hope before they could receive the gift of faith. With faith, anything was possible, but such magic was not to be misused. Only a very few were given the magical gift.
Chapter 2
Crisis at the Bank of Good Deeds
Horatio Hope was a knight of the Order of the Higher Kingdom. He had eyes as big as dinner plates and they never closed, even at night. He did not go to sleep like humans. Horatio was neither tall nor short, fat nor thin and he was small enough to sit on a mushroom. He had a generous smile, rosy red cheeks, large ears and a bald head. Horatio Hope simply was … Horatio Hope! And he was known by everyone, although many may not have been able to describe him.
Clara Compassion was not very big either but she had a large heart and warm hands. She was a touchy-touchy kind of person who loved giving people comfort. She had long black hair that nearly reached her ankles, and kind, but somewhat tired eyes, caused by the excessive tears she had shed for the unfortunate on many, many occasions. She often used her hair as a cloak, which she either unfurled as an aid when she wanted a lift by the wind god, or to hide herself in the darkness when she was on an errand of mercy whispering words of comfort in an unhappy ear.
During their time on Earth, Horatio and Clara were not always spirits. They spent many lifetimes as human beings, thus acquiring a great understanding of their problems. They lived in the Land of Dreams on an island in the middle of the Lake of Tranquility with their friends Jimmy Joy, Leo Laughter, Suzy Smiles, Gertrude the Gentle, Harry Happy, Barry Bright and many, many other warriors of faith.
One day Fairy Faith sent Horatio and Clara details of their first mission via a cosmic through-mail, an invention of the creator whereby messages could be ‘read’ within the mind instead of on a screen. The message said:
There is trouble brewing in the Bank of Good Deeds.
I need you to investigate immediately.
Horatio and Clara were most concerned that the Bank of Good Deeds was considering closing its doors. The bank was like a normal bank in that it accepted deposits, allowed withdrawals and extended credit when necessary, but it relied very much on the deposits of kindness, charity and loving selfless deeds to stay open. Due to the many wars over the centuries, and the greed and selfishness of the human race, its reserves were becoming very small indeed.
The bank was located on a high mountain in a land called Conscience. It had four round turrets, which gave it the appearance of a castle, and on top of each turret was a platform. On the flat surface of the platforms were four earthscopes, manned by four cherubs (or apprentice angels) with jolly faces and eyes nearly as big as Horatio’s. The cherubs continuously searched the lands below for good deeds created by humans. They were so clever they could tell the difference between every individual on Earth.
Each deed of kindness had a different value, and they were all fed into a very large computer, which was not at all like a normal computer. It was like a huge vacuum cleaner, sucking in positive deeds and spitting out negative ones, which it then sent back to their owners.
Every human on Earth had their own account, and records were kept meticulously by other cherubs called keepers of the records. Each keeper had at their disposal a set of golden scales on which they measured good and evil, and they were very particular concerning accuracy and balancing the books. It was of extreme importance that the computer was kept in tip-top condition. Any malfunction could cause it to retain some of the negative deeds, which created great storms on Earth, not to mention sunspots and the odd cosmic flare.
Collectively, then, it was the balance of good deeds against bad deeds that kept the Earth spinning on a correct axis. As long as an adequate number of positive deeds were flowing through every day, they acted like oil on ball bearings and the planet kept up a harmonious vibration, which meant that humans could stay on their feet and not fall off. That would have created panic and alarm, not to mention a broken leg or two.
So fine was the balance that it took up all the bank manager’s time keeping track of the energy, watching it rise and fall like the breathing of the humans. As with humans, once the breath stopped or was constricted in some way, there began an Earth wobble, which in turn caused a few minor earthquakes, a volcanic eruption or three and maybe even a strong tornado or two.
Horatio and Clara decided to visit Claude, the bank manager, a very, very old entity whose face had a rather droopy, melancholic look to it. When they arrived he was attending a conference of the council of twelve, a governing body that had been convened to decide the ultimate future of the bank. Claude immediately invited Horatio and Clara to attend.
They felt very important. It was not often that outsiders were invited to sit in on what might be known on Earth as a board meeting with very high officials and listen to the problems of the bank. Twelve very old and wise entities sat at a round table made from millions and millions of stars that glittered like diamonds as they continually rotated. The male council members all had very long grey beards, and the female council members had shoulder-length hair of a similar colour. But it was their eyes that took Horatio and Clara’s attention. They had never seen such eyes before. They were like two crystal balls protruding only slightly from kind faces, in which was reflected life itself in all its many and varied forms. To Horatio, it was like peering into the future and the past at the same time, and the experience left him somewhat bewildered.
Horatio and Clara dared not ask any questions. They remained silent and waited for the proceedings to commence.
Claude sat on his cloud cushion and waited. After a short silence, the sound of a tinkling bell could just be heard. One of the members rose to address the meeting. The figure was very tall, almost twice the size of the average human being, and seemed to float above the cloud layer on which the round star table had been placed.
‘Fellow entities.’ The voice was like quiet thunder. The figure glowed a golden glow and vibrated at the same time, giving off a kind of humming noise. ‘Many times in the past we’ve gathered here in an attempt to help out the Bank of Good Deeds, but this time I’m not in favour of more help. Goodness me! Will these humans never learn? War after war after war, destroying themselves year after year and century after century.’
‘Yes,’ agreed another. ‘After the wars they’re so full of remorse they go about doing kind deeds to build up the balance again, but then they go and drain the funds all over again with more violence and killing, stealing and plundering.’
A third spoke. ‘And there’s always yet another dangerous, stupid leader wanting to start a war somewhere. And one day they might even be having their wars in space and you know what’ll happen then. They’ll go around shooting at stars and planets and goodness knows what else.’
‘And the people who admire these charismatic leaders are equally as stupid,’ offered a fourth. ‘I wonder if it was wise to make humans with free will.’
‘In their defense,’ said the first elder, ‘they were interfered with by the soulless ones. Some breeding still carries in their genes.’
Claude thought it apt to say something at this point.
‘Fellow entities,’ he whispered in his most authoritative voice, ‘there must be a way that we can convince humans to save more; to invest more in their future. Otherwise we must cease to trade, and you know that will mean the end of the human race.’
‘Yes,’ agreed an entity whose eyes rolled as she nodded. ‘Without good works, evil will spread and we’ll see brother against brother in a fight to the death – to the death of all, until not one soul will remain. The Bank of Souls will refuse entry and what we have always feared will happen: humans will lose their souls.’
‘This is a great shame,’ said Claude with a sigh. ‘Especially since many humans are trying desperately to change the way they think, and hoping also to influence others.’
All nodded in agreement and Claude’s weary face took on a very sad appearance. ‘I feel as if I have failed,’ he moaned.
Horatio could hold his silence no longer. ‘You have not failed, sir,’ he declared boldly. ‘All humans need is a little more time.’
‘Time!’ thundered the first entity who had spoken, and the table shook as if an earthquake had erupted beneath it. ‘Time, time, time! It’s about time they got their act together. Maybe a few force-ten earthquakes would shake them up and bring back a bit of compassion into the bank vaults. Trouble is, we’re losing too many children and that’s not acceptable. Do you honestly believe they can get themselves sorted out?’
‘I do,’ Horatio said firmly, then added hesitantly, ‘At least I hope they can.’ He told the elders that Fairy Faith was moving through the human consciousness.
‘Humans are slow learners,’ Clara added, ‘but they’re also at their best when they face a crisis.’
‘They’re at that point now, we believe,’ said Horatio, ‘and even though the bank reserves are nearly depleted, Clara Compassion and I have brought with us a few acts of kindness we’ve witnessed. We would be grateful if you would accept our deposit.’
Claude smiled and it was as if the sun had burst through the clouds, bathing the whole meeting in a warm, honey-like glow.
‘Saved!’ he shouted. ‘Saved at the last moment. Thank you, Horatio, thank you, Clara. We believe you and wish you luck convincing them on planet Earth.’
The Bank of Good Deeds was open for business once more, thanks to Horatio Hope and Clara Compassion.
Chapter 3
Horatio and Clara rescue the rainbow
Horatio was resting peacefully in his hammock, which was anchored between two very large palm trees on their island home in the crystal clear waters of Lake Peaceful in the Land of Dreams. He and Clara had recently returned from their mission to save the Bank of Good Deeds.
Horatio was feeling pleased with himself and had allowed himself the luxury of an afternoon nap, something he had been unable to do in the past when he couldn’t close those huge eyes of his. After he and Clara had been blessed by Fairy Faith, Horatio found he could afford the pleasure of sleep and often took a catnap during the warm afternoons. On this particular day, however, it was not the bellbird that woke him from his siesta but a strange sound somewhere between a sob and a howl coming from the forest nearby.
‘I must investigate,’ he muttered to himself. ‘There sounds a sound that does not belong here, I do believe.’
He made his way into the peaceful gloom of the woods. The wailing, sobbing noise grew louder and louder and eventually he discovered the source. In front of him in a small clearing he found a large pink mushroom. Under its sheltering canopy sat a little green elf-like figure who was crying green tears at such a rate that there was a large puddle forming beneath his feet.
‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ the little man sobbed. ‘What will I do? This situation is a disaster, a disaster,’ he wailed and the flow of tears increased.
‘Come now,’ called Horatio bravely, remaining a few feet away from the elf, not wanting to get his feet wet. ‘Kind love to you, sir. What’s the matter?’
‘I’ve made a terrible discovery,’ the little fellow sobbed. ‘The r-r-r-rainbow – the r-r-r-rainbow …’
As he said the word the elf’s crying became so loud that Horatio had to cover his ears and close his eyes. The sight was not a pleasant one, and most disturbing on a peaceful afternoon. When he opened again he saw that Clara had arrived and was comforting the wee chap.
‘There, there,’ she cooed, looking at Horatio. ‘What did this big man do to upset you so?’
‘Nothing!’ said Horatio indignantly. ‘I just came to see what the racket was all about, and I still haven’t found out.’
Under the influence of Clara’s soothing words the elf’s sobbing gradually ceased and he dried his eyes on a rose-petal tissue. He introduced himself with a bow so low that he nearly lost his cap in the water surrounding him.
‘I’m Seamus O’Blarney. I’m custodian of the pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow and caretaker of the colours. I have just carried out my usual weekly inspection of the rainbow pixies and I’ve found, to my dismay, that they’re poorly and their colours are fading at an alarming rate.’
The rainbow was made up of millions of little pixies and sprites, all of different colours. They lived together in harmony, waiting until the time was right to disband and settle on Earth.
‘Oh, the poor wee things,’ Clara said with compassion. ‘Is there something we can do to help? A tonic perhaps, or a kind word or two? That generally puts colour back into place.’
‘I don’t think that would do much good,’ groaned Seamus. ‘They seem to be past the point of no return. It’s as if they’ve contracted some kind of evil virus that’s draining them of their energy. If it continues there’ll be no rainbow at all. It’ll disappear completely.’ He began to sob once more.
Horatio put a kindly hand on the wee man’s shoulder. ‘Come, come, Seamus. I’m sure it’s not your fault, and the tears won’t help. We must discover the cause of this illness so we can find a remedy. We must not give up, my friend. Clara and I will do whatever we can to put some colour back into the rainbow.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Clara enthusiastically. ‘We know how important it is to the human race. It’s a gift from the creator and a promise of hope for all those who suffer.’
‘Goodness me,’ said Horatio, ‘imagine the world without a rainbow! Why, there’d be nothing for humans to look forward to after a storm. What colours seem most affected?’ he asked the little man.
‘They all seem to be fading,’ replied Seamus glumly as he tried to dry his wet feet on the petals of a daisy, ‘and as I understand it, the colours are affected by how humans think.’
Horatio pounced on this statement. ‘So that’s the reason. Humans are creating the problem themselves through their attitude, so it’ll be their own fault if the rainbow disappears altogether.’
‘I’m afraid this is so,’ the wee fellow told them. ‘In their ignorance they don’t understand that the rainbow they see in the sky and have been taught to think of as purely a reflection of the sun’s rays contains the little people of a variety of colours and combinations: the rainbow people.’
‘Oh, how sad,’ sniffed Clara. ‘If only they knew, it might solve the problem.’
‘But they don’t believe in pixies and sprites,’ said Horatio. ‘Not the adults anyway.’
‘This is true,’ agreed Clara. ‘Although some children still believe in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the grown-ups don’t.’
‘Little do they know that the pot of gold is their reward for all their efforts on planet Earth,’ said Horatio. ‘Most think of it as a container full of gold coins they could sell to the bank. Shows how fickle they are. They can’t see beyond the fable to the real meaning. However, we’re wasting time. We must make a thorough examination of the rainbow, colour by colour.’
‘I’ll observe and make notes,’ offered Clara. ‘They might help us reach a verdict.’
So the trio made their way to the land of the rainbow people. Although invisible to the human eye, it existed beyond the veil that separated one dimension from another. Each colour consisted of a pixie and a sprite who, when joined together in harmony, created the colours that collectively humans called the rainbow. Each tiny section of the huge half-circle in the sky consisted of millions of these tiny creatures.
In the land of the rainbow people, each member was trained in their particular colour, and each colour was attached to an emotion. When all the emotions were in harmony, the brilliance of the rainbow came forth, in the same way that humans also become ‘colourful’ when in harmony with each other.
There were hundreds of rainbows in demand all over the planet, and for the rainbow people it was a great thrill to be able to join the others who, after graduating, would leave to be trained as moonbeams.
Horatio, Clara and Seamus discovered that the rainbow was in serious trouble:
Yellow is the colour of joy,
but it is fading fast.
Orange is the colour for laughter and happiness,
but it is getting weaker by the day.
Red is the colour for energy and action,
but it is declining to a weak pink.
Green is the colour for healing,
but it is withering and becoming very pale.
Blue is the symbol of purity and communication,
but it is washed out and in need of rejuvenation.
Indigo is symbolic of the richness of life,
but it is declining fast.
Magenta is the magnificent purple symbolic of the spirit of human kind,
but it is diminishing and becoming a pale mauve.
‘The rainbow is fading fast!’ cried the little man. ‘What can we do? If the rainbow goes altogether, it’ll be the end of hope for the human race.’
‘Never!’ vowed Horatio in his most authoritative tone. ‘That would mean I would cease to exist, and I must say that thought does not find room within me. Why, there’s always been hope for as long as I can remember. However, as with all disease in our universe, it starts with the mind, and as humans are the caretakers of the mind, so to speak, we need to look to them to change their attitude. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that this is the work of our enemy, Emperor Ego, trying to plunge the world into darkness.’
g lived in the Land of Darkness where he trained his army of evil, which was headed by his general, Danny Despair. Emperor Ego had never seen the light of day. He was like a white ant. If he were exposed to the energy of the sun, he would immediately shrivel up and die. Evil thrived in darkness and the darkness lived in the Sea of Importance, a deep, weed-infected slimy creation Emperor Ego had conjured up after having been banished from the upper realms.
Once a kindly and generous angel, the emperor had caught a bad dose of greed from a passing planet on the way to its cosmic dump, and he had never recovered. It was not that he could never be cured, but he’d begun to wallow in such self-pity that he was impossible to reach. Instead, he expanded his kingdom to include the minds of humans, this new species the creator had made for planet Earth.
The emperor could disguise himself expertly: an angel one day, a preacher the next, a snake, lion or cat – all could be infected with the ego disease, which was spreading in epidemic proportions throughout the world. His grotesque, hunched body was as black as the world he lived in and his eyes were a pus-like yellow that was going grey around the edges. His breath was of fire and he spat in all directions from his forked tongue, creating thunderbolts that caused lies within them as he endeavoured to sway the human mind from its quest for truth. He sat on a throne that consisted of writhing, deadly snakes that spat and hissed constantly.
A master mimic, Emperor Ego could impersonate any creature – even the creator. He had tapped into the energy of negativity, which was equally as powerful as the positive force of love. He did not like anything positive or loving, so he produced words and energy in opposition to beauty and love to confuse the human.
Seamus was shocked to hear that Emperor Ego might be behind the tragedy. ‘We must call a meeting of the chiefs of the rainbow people,’ he said, ‘so we might know what to do to cure this sickness.’
Although the rainbow people all lived in different energy worlds, they came together from time to time when the need arose. This was one of those occasions. And so the trio made their way to the Circle of Seven Temple, where the chiefs of the rainbow people met. The temple was made from spun sunlight, held together with the essence of moonbeams. Around its circumference stars glittered like diamonds, giving the appearance of a crown that a king or queen would wear. The temple entrance was like an elongated porthole, guarded by three double-headed hounds that symbolised faithfulness, loyalty and courage for both male and female energies. The hounds growled a warning as the trio approached but did nothing to cause alarm or fear, the noise being rather a reminder of the fragility of the temple.
They entered and were shown to the guests’ circle a short distance from the main council. This was on a slightly elevated platform, which enabled them to look down on those assembled. When they were seated, the magenta pixie rose and welcomed them to the conference and invited them to participate should they so desire. Attendants from the honour tribe (a close neighbour of the rainbow clan) offered food and drink in the form of crystal-clear water mixed with honey dew, served in golden goblets and accompanied by sweetmeats of sundrops in a myriad of colours and flavours.
‘We will commence,’ said the first chief. ‘As we all know, we, the rainbow people, were created by the creator, the master architect of the human race. However, our very existence and future depends solely upon the attitude of the humans, who were created to carry the precious energy of soul power.’
He looked around the room. ‘We also know that the human mind was created with the power of free will. Much against my better judgement,’ he added quietly. ‘Now, what I observe on Earth is that humans have lost sight of their purpose, which was to live in peace and to beautify the planet Earth, which we know as the jewel of the universe. Like spoilt children, those who inhabit Earth have become arrogant and forgetful, fighting amongst themselves and slowly destroying what we know as virtue. The Knights of the Golden Realm are all missing, believed dead, and the whole planet is decaying. There is little or no “colour” in people’s lives anymore and many are becoming very bland in their outlook and attitude, I’m sad to say.’
With these words the other chiefs murmured their agreement. The chief sat and another rose and began to speak.
‘As humans lose this “colour for living”,’ she said, ‘the rainbow also fades, and we rainbow people with it. It makes us weep to see it happening but we are powerless to help because it’s all in the minds of humans if we continue to exist or not. Children today seem to get more joy from looking at colours via the television screen. They’re losing the desire to gaze upon a rainbow with awe and wonderment, as was the case a hundred years ago. What humans do not realise is that they are responsible for keeping the rainbow in the sky, not the creator as many of them believe, and that it is only due to their nature and their virtuous actions that we can continue to grow and expand.’
She sat, and the first chief rose again and smiled at Horatio and Clara.
‘We’re fortunate today to have as our guests Seamus O’Blarney, custodian of the rainbow, and Horatio Hope and Clara Compassion, both somewhat closer to the human mind than we. Perhaps we can call upon them to speak on behalf of humankind.’
‘Thank you.’ Horatio rose to his feet, not letting go of Clara’s hand. ‘In our long association with the human mind, we’ve learned that it can be very stubborn, even stupid at times, even when disaster looms. Often there has to be a bit of a crisis before humans will take notice. They’re all very much under the spell of Emperor Ego and his general, Danny Despair.’
Horatio looked down on the gathering. ‘I remember the last time we had a threat to the rainbow. Danny Despair had mixed the colour black with the other colours and we nearly lost the reflection in a storm of mud. Now it seems that the evil ones are trying to bleach out the colours in the hope that they’ll disappear forever. What happens now depends on humans.’
The first chief nodded in agreement. ‘Yes, we are aware that the human mind is very immature and somewhat fickle, resulting in the downfall of many civilisations in the past.’ He sat in silence for a moment, formulating a solution. Finally he spoke. ‘Do you really think the present civilisation will notice if we do not appear? Children seem so preoccupied with their computer games and television programs that they hardly ever walk in the rain or look up at the clouds as they used to. I wonder, I wonder …’ and then he became silent again.
‘Yes? Yes?’ prompted Clara, who had sat quietly waiting for the moment when she could console someone – anyone!
‘What do you think would happen, Horatio and Clara, if we didn’t appear in the sky anymore?’ one of the other chiefs asked. ‘Or at least not for a while. In that way we wouldn’t be putting ourselves at risk, and if we hid, Emperor Ego wouldn’t know where to find us.’
‘Hmm,’ said Horatio, not sure how to respond. ‘It could work. Either the humans would notice or they wouldn’t, in which case they might begin to wonder why there was no rainbow. And either they would worry or not worry, which again, in my opinion, would illustrate that they’ve become prisoners of Emperor Ego and cannot free themselves.’
Clara stood and addressed the meeting. ‘And that would be terrible,’ she said. ‘If that happened neither of us would be needed. We would vanish!’
‘But on the other hand,’ said Horatio, looking for hope, ‘it might jolt them into reality and create a desire to bring back the rainbow and we would’ve prevented a possible disaster.’
‘But if they don’t,’ said Clara, ‘it could have a domino effect – the flowers would also lose their colour, and birds and animals and humans would find themselves in a grey, grey world, with no colour whatsoever. It’s too horrible to even imagine.’ She began to cry silently.
A moment later Seamus also burst into tears.
‘Come, come, you two,’ said Horatio sternly. ‘Where’s your faith and courage? Don’t tell me they’ve deserted you, although I wouldn’t blame them, especially if they had to live in such sad faces.’
The chiefs had listened to the conversation between Horatio and Clara with interest. Now the first chief spoke up. ‘Perhaps we could take out one colour at a time as a test,’ he suggested. ‘It would be interesting to see how many colours we could remove before someone noticed.
Another chief spoke up. ‘But if we removed them all we’d be in trouble because that could mean no more rainbows and we’d have to use our magic elsewhere, maybe on another planet in need of some colour.’
‘No,’ replied Horatio, ‘I think it’s all or nothing. These selfish humans need a jolt to bring them to their senses. It seems to be only during natural disasters that they reach inside and bring out the best of themselves.’
‘And they are gossips, so word would spread quickly,’ the first chief said. ‘Someone will say, “I haven’t seen a rainbow for a long time, I wonder why?” and someone else might say, “Come to think of it, neither have I, and I used to love rainbows, especially when I saw a double one. It just makes me feel so good”.
Horatio and Clara agreed.
‘And another might notice that the flowers were a little drab that season,’ said Horatio, ‘and that most of the other blooms were a little off colour as well.’
So it was agreed. The chiefs of the rainbow people would accompany and Clara back to their island home on the Lake of Tranquility.
‘We’ll be able to observe the world through my earthscope, which can be tuned into any part of the planet,’ promised Horatio. ‘This will be a do-or-die exercise for the humans to see if they really care about beauty or whether they just want to live in that grey area of neither here nor there.’
‘It will be pleasant indeed,’ remarked Seamus O’Blarney, ‘not to have to watch over that pot of gold day in day out. Not that I minded, mind you, for it’s me job, but it’s still nice to get away, indeed it is. On the other hand’ – he looked a trifle glum – ‘if the humans don’t notice that the rainbow no longer appears in the sky, then I’ll be out of a job, so I will.’
‘No, you won’t.’ Clara patted him on his little green head. ‘There’ll still be rainbows in the Land of Dreams, and those ones will never disappear. Why, that’s where they started in the first place.’
‘That’s true,’ Seamus said. ‘And maybe humans will learn to do the right thing,’ he added with a twinkle in his eye.
‘Do you believe that humans will learn how to dream again?’ asked Horatio hopefully.
‘I do, sir, indeed I do,’ chuckled Seamus. ‘Like wishin’ on the blarney stars, so to say.’
And so the trial began. Those in the Land of Dreams were quite content to wait for as long as it took. If the humans on planet Earth did not respond, fading into the greyness of apathy until they were finally swallowed up by the darkness of doom, there were always other worlds in need of their services.
So they waited, and they waited, and they waited. A year went by without a single human being noticing that there were no longer any rainbows, that the roses were fading to a dull dishwater colour, and that the birds and bees all seemed to be the same colour. They had glum looks on their faces but their egos convinced them that it was the weather, or the high cost of living, or the bad news on TV, or even perhaps the result of the ozone layer, and still no one spoke out.
Eventually, some ten years later, scientists admitted that there was something very wrong on planet Earth. For some strange reason, they said, colours were being drained off to locations unknown.
All the time, Horatio and his friends watched from behind their veil, waiting for humans to do something to help themselves for a change.
A wish, a word of hope, a desire, a plea, a cry for help … anything! pleaded Horatio silently.
‘Oh, why can’t they silence the ego inside and be honest with themselves?’ she said to Horatio. ‘Why can’t they admit that they miss rainbows? Why can’t they be truthful about themselves and acknowledge that their lives are dull and colourless with rainbows?’
‘You can lead a horse to water,’ said Seamus, ‘but you can’t drown it.’
‘I think you’ve got that a bit mixed up,’ said Clara gently. ‘You can’t make it drink, I think is the correct saying. In this case it means that you can’t force humans to do anything because the creator made them with free will.’
‘But … but can’t they see?’ argued the little fellow. ‘Are they blind as well as stupid? Why, they’re like lost sheep milling around awaiting the slaughter, so they are.’In a small town in Australia a young boy was getting dressed to go to school. Nine-year-old Mitchell often daydreamed, like most young boys. Sometimes he was an astronaut flying to new planets, and at other times he was a top baseball player with a curved ball as fast as lightning.
‘Hurry up, Mitchell,’ his mother called from the kitchen. ‘Stop daydreaming or you’ll be late for school again.’
Mitchell wandered into the kitchen and stared disinterestedly at his plate of already soggy Weet-Bix. ‘Mum,’ he said sleepily, ‘what’s a rainbow?’
‘A rainbow, a rainbow … what a strange question,’ she replied. ‘You know what a rainbow is. It’s that coloured arch you see in the sky from time to time when it’s stormy.’
‘But I’ve never seen one,’ Mitchell insisted, stirring the Weet-Bix with his finger, wondering if he should settle for toast instead.
‘Of course you have. Everyone’s seen a rainbow.’
‘Maybe you have, but I haven’t,’ he replied defiantly.
‘Oh, do stop your chatter or you’ll make me late for work,’ she said a little angrily.
Mitchell had had a strange dream the night before. He met a little green elf who was crying green tears. The little man told Mitchell he was crying because he was ‘losing the rainbow people’. Mitchell started to tell his mother about his dream but then stopped. He knew she would just say he’d been watching too much television.
His mother glanced at her wristwatch. ‘Mitchell, please hurry!’ she cried, packing her mobile phone into her already full handbag. ‘You know I’ve got a very important shoot on today. I’m due at the TV station in thirty minutes and the roads are always busy at this time of the morning. If you hurry, I promise we’ll talk about it tonight.’
All that day at school Mitchell couldn’t get the dream out of his head. The little elf kept appearing to him, and with his big pleading eyes, full of green tears, he looked so sad. More than once his teachers had to bring him back to reality to pay attention to the lessons. The boy wanted to tell someone about his dream and ask if they knew what a rainbow was, but he didn’t for fear of being laughed at.
Although his mother had promised to talk about rainbows that evening, she was late home from work and the child minder sent him off to bed early as she wanted to watch a horror movie on TV.
Mitchell had the same dream again, but this time the little green man spoke to him. ‘The rainbow people have gone on vacation,’ he told Mitchell, ‘and they’ll not return unless someone really, really wants them to. You can do that, boy, if you like. I would be most grateful and may even grant you a wish from my wish bag.’ Then the little man disappeared behind a mushroom shelter.
Next morning Mitchell started to tell his mother about his dream, but she was busy as usual and only half-listening so he stopped.
‘I really want to see a rainbow,’ he persisted stubbornly.
‘Then I suggest you pray to the creator and ask him,’ said his mother. ‘I can’t help you.’In the Land of Dreams, Horatio Hope, Clara Compassion, Seamus and the chiefs of the rainbow people were having another meeting on the Island of Tranquility, Horatio and Clara’s home.
‘We really love it here,’ said one of the chiefs and the others all agreed. ‘And your friends appreciate the rainbow so much that we’re happy to assemble every day when the sun god rises from his bed, not like humans down there on planet Earth who have little time for colour in their lives. Has there been any progress?’ he asked.
‘There certainly has,’ Horatio confirmed. ‘I’ve planted a seed of hope in the mind of a young child, and it’s beginning to grow a little each day.’
‘Oh, how clever you are,’ Clara said. She clapped her hands in joy and did a wee dance.
Horatio grinned. ‘Well, that’s my job. Where there’s life, there’s hope. And where there’s hope there’s life, so to speak.’ And he blinked a big blink.
‘I’ve visited the boy in his dreamtime,’ confessed Seamus O’Blarney, ‘but only for a little while, d’ya understand? He’s a good lad and has a very creative mind. He’s well mannered and often helps his mother around the house. I do believe he’ll grow to be a fine young man, especially if he gets to see his first rainbow. And I’ve promised him one wish from my wish bag.’
‘What a lucky boy,’ said Clara.
‘I wonder what it will be,’ said Horatio.That same night Mitchell knelt down to say his prayers as his mother had taught him. After praying for his mother, and his father, who now lived in another land, his grandmother and anyone else he could think of, he added, ‘And God, if you’re not too busy, I’d really love to see a rainbow in the sky. I’ve only seen them in books and they look great. Maybe you took the rainbow out of the sky because you think people aren’t interested any more, that they’re too busy to notice. But that’s only grown-ups. What about us kids? We’d like to have the rainbow back in the sky and not just in books. Thanks, God. Have a nice day.’
Mitchell fell asleep hoping to see the little green man again in his dreams, but Seamus did not appear to the boy that night. He was busy assembling the rainbow people in the Land of Dreams to create the biggest and brightest rainbow ever seen in the whole of the land called Australia, and the end of the rainbow would be right outside Mitchell’s front gate.
That night there was a violent storm over as Emperor Ego fought with the dream-maker. Lightning flashed as they did battle in the sky and their shields crashed to create the thunder heard down on Earth.
Mitchell was a bit frightened and crept into his mother’s bed just after midnight.
‘We don’t want dreams or rainbows,’ screamed the emperor, whose mouth was frothing with slimy black bubbles. Wielding his huge sword, he tried to cut the dream-maker in half. ‘I’ll drown all the rainbow people in a big vat of bleach. I’m sick of all this colour in the Land of Dreams.’
But the dream-maker was too quick, too elusive to be captured. One second here, one moment there, like a will o’ the wisp. On and on the storm raged until finally the emperor fell exhausted onto a huge black cloud and began to weep.
‘I’ve lost, I’ve lost,’ he cried to the dream-maker. ‘You win this time but I’ll be back!’
With a final crash of lightning, the cloud burst open and poured down on the town where Mitchell lived.
It was daybreak before the rain stopped and Mitchell stumbled out of his mother’s bed to answer the call of nature. Then, half asleep, he made his way to his own bedroom. As he began to get dressed he was aware of a strange glow at his bedroom window. He looked outside and, to his surprise, saw a huge rainbow that started at his front gate and disappeared beyond the rooftops of the houses. Sitting next to the letterbox and beside a huge round pot was the little green man from his dreams, whose face was beaming like the morning sun. Mitchell flung open the window.
‘Greetings, Mitchell,’ the little man sang in a lilting voice. ‘I’ve come to grant you your wish.’
Mitchell stared in amazement. He had never seen anything as beautiful as the rainbow. With hesitation he said, ‘I wish, I wish …’
‘Yes?’ said Seamus. ‘Be quick now. I have to be off to another part of the globe.’
‘I wish that rainbows will never go away again, ever!’