The Old Wayfarer - Chapter 6

Dusk.

Grandmama and Orion returned home.  The air outside was cooler than usual; some dogs in the streets were barking; the world was eerily calm.

"Orion, are okay?" Grandmama asked in her caring way.

Her grandson was lost in thought, thinking about his parents, Grandpa, the meteor sites, and how they all related to each other.

"I'm okay," the boy finally replied.  "I'm just confused, I guess.  A lot has happened over the last few days."

Grandmama nodded and thought for a moment.  She then spoke.  

"When your grandfather left after the first meteors hit fifty years ago, no one understood what they were about.  Scientists knew that ancient people saw them, but they had even less of an understanding than we did.  Everything changed when Grandpa went in and investigated them.  He found out what they meant."

Orion looked up from his plate at Grandmama.

"What did Grandpa learn at the sites?  What did he see?  How did you know?" he rapidly asked.  There was so much that Orion wanted to learn.

"Grandpa sent regular reports to Chief Molu's predecessor, and then to Chief Molu when he took over island security.  Chief Molu was a friend of Grandpa's from grade school, so the chief kept me informed of Grandpa's whereabouts and goings on - all of which were classified for the sake of island safety," Grandmama continued.

Orion was all ears.  His eyes pleaded for his grandmother to continue.

"After those first two people disappeared, Grandpa went in after them to find them, but he had no luck in his search.  Instead, he found himself in some kind of transdimensional waiting station that served as a gateway between our universe and another one.  As you may have learned from your recent visit to the local site, the other universe is where the dead spend eternity.  Grandpa has spent most of his life trying to understand why and how the meteors connect us to the other side."

Orion's thoughts whirred a million miles a second as he struggled to comprehend the immensity of this information.  It all seemed so unreal and dreamlike to him that he questioned his own reality in the process.

"Did Grandpa figure out why the meteors keep coming here?" he asked.

"The best Grandpa has learned is that the meteors are remnants of the other universe that broke off and then entered into our universe, much like a piece of mountain that breaks away and falls to the ground below where it provides a lasting connection to the mountain whence it came.  No one yet knows exactly how the physics of the interdimensional transfer occurs.  All we know is that our universes may connect with each other, and that allows us to learn from the other side.  Death is a part of life that has long haunted humanity, mainly because of its uncertainty and apparent finality.  Having learned about this alternate universe, perhaps we can rest assured that the people we love and cherish in this world will not be gone forever once they die.  Instead, we are only temporarily separated and will soon reunite once we all cross over to the other universe."

Orion smiled and remembered what his parents told him about living his life to the best of his ability.  He felt better knowing that he would again see his parents someday and that they were not truly gone.

As Orion lay in bed that night, he looked up to his window and gazed at the stars that twinkled over the silent black ocean.  How marvelous and mysterious an existence this is, he thought.  He dreamt about Mother, Father, Grandpa, and Grandmama that night.  They were laughing and conversing at a family event, perhaps a birthday party or holiday.  In that moment, Orion knew his family has he had never before known them.

He knew that in the end, his family would always be with him