My Book: "Walking Through Time" …a new kind of online novel.

At Moab Ranch, the party line rang seven times before the Other lifted the earpiece from the hook and answered with a growl, "Yes?"

"OK", the Other whispered harshly, "I'll be there". Before returning the earpiece to its hook, the Other paused and listened. Soon, an audible pop on the line indicated that a silent listener on the party line had just hung up.

Using the Moab Ranch Energy Bridge, the Other materialized on a deserted road, far from town. By the slant of the moon and the height of the canyon walls downstream, the Other estimated that he was half-mile beyond the end of Potash Road, near the Colorado River. Back towards Potash, and up towards the Shafer Trail, only sagebrush and tamarisk stirred in the wind.

Standing twenty yards away, where a social road had once connected to the river, was an orange traffic cone. Judging by its mud-sprayed look, it had been standing at that ersatz intersection for a long time. Because of its location, at an intersection where no one ever turned, the cone looked out of place. "OK, fess up", grunted the Other to the cone. "What gives?"

"Boohoo", said the cone in fright. "What do you want of me? I've been standing here for years, hoping that everyone would just leave me alone. Please, let me live in peace."

"No way, Coney", said the Other. "We got a call about a problem with a coyote out here".

"Yip, yip, Kaua'i", issued an involuntary voice from the nearby brush. Then, as the full moon scudded behind some well-placed clouds, silence returned to the canyon. After a minute or two, a small voice, emanating from nowhere, said, "Hey, ney-tey wa-na".

"Kokopelli, is that you?" hissed the Other?

As always, Kokopelli said nothing. Using his fifth-dimensional mind power, he thought, "We share a party line, you know." Did Kokopelli's "thought statement" explain the mysterious click that they heard on the Moab Ranch telephone, earlier that night?

"Alright", said the Other. "Here we have a traffic cone that spends his life avoiding traffic and our local Ancient Spirit tapping our telephone line. Now we have an unseen animal in the bushes that yips and yaps about Kaua'i. We want to know what's going on around here, and we want to know now."

After almost a minute of silence, Moabbey, the small gray coyote, could no longer take the pressure. Stepping up to the side of the road, he said, "Honest, sir, I wasn't trying to make any trouble. One minute, I was living on the Garden Island of Kaua'i. The next minute I found myself here in the dry brush, a place I vowed never to visit again."

With his tall, dark shadow surveying the scene from above, the Other put his hands on his hips and said, "For whatever reason, we each got the call." The ensuing silence was deafening. Finally, the Other broke the silence and said, "Even if Kokopelli was eavesdropping, he's now in on this, as well". At that, Kokopelli briefly displayed a multicolored blush, and then faded back into the darkness.

Kokopelli - Displaying his multicolored blush.

Standing cone-still, not moving his lips, Coney said, "I did not request a call and I did not receive a call. I was playing it safe out here in the middle of nowhere, and then you all showed up, disturbing my peace."

"Too late Coney", said the Other. "You're not getting off so easy this time. If I remember correctly, Law of Attraction still works. Were you hoping that no one would ever notice you standing there?"

"Well, yes, of course", said Coney. "What does that have to do with you interrupting my peace and telling me something about a 'calling'?"

Smiling in the shadows, the Other asked, "So, you thought that if you asked for 'no visitors' that the universe would hear the word 'no', rather than the word 'visitors'. This is an inclusion-based universe, and attraction rules the realm. As a modifier, negation does not work. 'Asking for' is operative. 'Asking for not' is not."

"Oh, Ohhh", Moabbey and Coney said together. Then, in his high-pitched, staccato voice, Moabbey chattered, "You mean that Law of Attraction brought us together and we cannot leave until we understand the message of tonight's calling?"

After the Other departed, Kokopelli materialized near Coney. Moabbey padded out of the brush to stand with the other two. Looking puzzled, Moabbey asked, "What's next?"

Coney, playing the stoic, neither moved nor spoke. At last, Kokopelli spoke. "Go not in fear, for adventures more fantastic than you can imagine await you beyond. If you live lives inspired by love of Nature, your story will always be true."

Before Kokopelli's voice had died against the canyon walls, Moabbey lit-out toward the river and vanished, leaving the spirit and the cone standing in the darkness.

With a quizzical look on his now dark face, Kokopelli turned to Coney, asking, "What happent?" To find out what happent to Moabbey and friends, tune in again soon to this, the "Other Channel".