The Color of a Promise (The Color of Heaven Series Book 11) Read Online Free PDF Page A

“What did you think was wrong with you?”
    I sighed heavily and met her gaze. “Don’t laugh, but I think I might be reincarnated, because I remember stuff from other times, too.” I tossed the twig away.
    She sat back. “Wow. Did you ever see the movie Audrey Rose ? I watched it last year. It was really creepy. I had nightmares.”
    “No, I didn’t see it,” I replied. “What was it about?”
    “It’s about a girl, our age, who has strange memories and starts acting weird. The same thing happens to her that happened to you. Her parents take her to doctors and psychologists, and finally this man comes and tells them that he thinks the girl is his daughter who died in a car accident, and she’s reincarnated. Then he hypnotizes the girl to make her remember. But I won’t tell you how it ends.”
    “Maybe I should watch it,” I said.
    “Or maybe not,” Millicent said. “It’s kind of scary.”
    “I can handle it,” I replied.
    She hesitated. “Okay. I could ask my parents to rent the video this week. We could make popcorn.”
    “But don’t tell them why,” I quickly said. “I don’t want them thinking I’m crazy, and I don’t want to go back to see any more doctors. Don’t even tell Gordon. I don’t want anyone to know.”
    “Just me,” she said with a smile.
    I gave her a look. “You like knowing secrets, don’t you.”
    “Who doesn’t?” she replied.
    With that, we rose to our feet and started back to her house.
    As we were crossing the creek, she said, “So is that why you don’t like Aaron? Because he said you were crazy?”
    I stepped gingerly across the rocks and leaped to the other side. “That’s part of it,” I said. “But I think the real reason is because we were enemies in another time.”
    She stopped and stared at me. “You think he’s reincarnated, too?”
    I continued walking, and she followed. “I think we all are. Most people just don’t remember.”

Germany

    2007

Chapter Eight

    “Jack, can you hear me?”
    At that point, I had no idea where I was, or how serious my injuries were. All I knew was that I was lying in a hospital bed and I couldn’t seem to move my body. In my mind, I felt nothing. It was as if I did not exist in physical form, although I was consciously aware of beeping monitors and the typical antiseptic smells of a hospital.
    Somehow I managed to blink repeatedly until my eyelids fluttered open, and my brother’s face came into view. He stood over the bed, staring down at me with concern, urging me to speak or do something— anything —to indicate that I was conscious and aware of his presence.
    “Can you speak, Jack? Are you all right? Can you say something?”
    I was confused more than anything, because Aaron’s face was not one I expected to see. The last thing I remembered was driving in the Hummer with my cameraman, Paul, and two American soldiers. We were in the middle of a military convoy on our way to a remote location where an entire village had been shaken apart by an earthquake. At that time, my brother Aaron was in America…or so I’d thought. I hadn’t seen him or spoken to him in two years. What was he doing there? And where was I, exactly? It was all very confusing and unclear.
    I made an effort to wet my lips and form words, but my mouth was dry as ash. I swallowed hard, and that was the moment I became aware of the pain. At first it was my head that began to throb, then I felt a deep pounding ache in my right forearm.
    Next, the flesh on my abdomen began to burn, as if someone were pouring acid all over me. My breaths came short, and a hot, sudden panic washed over me. I wanted to move, but I couldn’t. My heart hammered in my chest and I stared up at Aaron with wide eyes, not knowing what was happening to me.
    My God, my leg . It throbbed everywhere—from my pelvis all the way down to the tips of my toes, causing me to scream in agony inside my head.
    At last, I managed a word: “ Pain .”
    Aaron nodded and