Charlie’s eyes opened wide as his cuckoo clock told him it was 8am. Charlie had severely overslept. However he was still recovering from his all night antics for the solstice. It was a powerful time and since the solstice took place over 3 days Charlie had been manifesting over the entire period. The results were already beginning to show.
He propped himself up further on his eight pillows. He was reluctantly indoors due to the severe gales and storms all night which he believed had come as a direct result of his rituals. ‘Aah! The winds of change indeed!’ he declared out loud to the universe and all sentient beings. He had heard of the severe weather warnings affecting buses, trains, roads and even flooding of buildings in some areas. ‘That will teach them to kill innocent animals and sell poison!’ Charlie took every sign as an indication that his rituals of manifestation were working perfectly. The world was being shaken up and he was the grand magician playing a big part in it all. He also thanked the many invisible beings who were also on his side helping with every spell. There were those from other planets, and some from different realms. All were helping and all deserved to be thanked.
Charlie supped his herbal tea stored in a flask by his bed, a mixture of lemongrass, chick weed and dandelion from the garden. ‘Beautiful!’ he declared. He then sprung up and stood in his favourite yoga position looking far out across the surrounding countryside with a bright yellow sun. His left leg was positioned like a triangle at the edge of his right leg with his hands in prayer position over his heart. ‘Thank you sun! Thank you air! Thank you great waters of the land! Thank you Earth for sustaining us!’ He bent down and prayed towards his giant Buddha statue. ‘May we all find the peace and silence of Buddha today’. He turned to face a great wall hanging of Jesus, ‘May we find the great love and compassion of the master magician Jesus!’. He looked at a huge picture of Lakshmi on the wall, with pots of gold by her feet, ‘May we find great abundance through dear Lakshmi!’ Finally he faced a giant statue of great Ganesha the elephant god and breaker of obstacles, ‘And dear Ganesha may we use your strength, great will and power to cut through all obstacles along our paths.’ Charlie bowed to each deity and master then sprang across the floor, leaping and gyrating as he chanted a Ganesh chant (Om Gum Ganapataya Namah) ending up stripped naked by his beautiful waterfall feature in the garden. The grass was so thick with wet dew and rainfall he decided to roll in it first and sucked the dew with his lips. ‘What beautiful dew drops do fall upon my tongue!’ he sang to the trees and grass.
Now Charlie knew it was a special day somehow but he did not know why. Although he had many admirers, fans and those needing his tricks of the trade his home was not available to all. His manifestation rituals kept those at bay who were undesirables and the remoteness of his home meant not everyone found him. In fact there was an uncanny spell playing a part since only a select few ever found Charlie’s home and those who were unsavoury would find Charlie’s address disappeared or they would wander in and out of lanes and crevices never finding the place. Charlie smiled to himself as he thought of his quiet, beautiful and safe haven. He emerged from the thick long dewy grass and threw himself under the cooling waterfall feature. ‘Aah! He let out a great yell giving out a deep sound from the depths of this stomach and solar plexus area patting his arms, legs and chest at the same time. ‘The great Charlie Bones arises!’ he declared to the universe.
There was a mooing at the door, his doorbell. Charlie threw on his magician’s robe and hemp trousers and sprang into action, pulling the door chord. The front door flew open and as Charlie approached a postman stood there looking awkward and wary, carrying a big brown parcel and grey plastic bag. ‘I take it you’re Mr Bones!’ he said matter of factly. ‘I am indeed. What a delight! Are these all for me?’
‘Looks like it.’ The two men looked at each other, one trying to keep a distance, the other seeking to detect who this person really was underneath his dour postman’s exterior. ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ Charlie enquired.
‘Not right now sir. There’s letters to post. Can you sign here please.’ Charlie took the strange looking pen and little board he was handed and tried to write. ‘Its not the normal pad of paper is it?’
‘If you could just sign there please. It’s an electronic board.’
‘Oh!’ Charlie kept trying to work the pen on the board but his name was just not coming out right. ‘That will do!’ postman declared.
‘It certainly will not!’ Charlie stated. ‘That’s not how my name should look at all. Let me try again.’
After several attempts and an increasingly irritated looking postman, Charlie finally managed a scrawl he was vaguely happy with. ‘Will that do?’ he asked politely.
‘That will do!’ The angry postman just about slammed the bag and parcel on the floor and hurried off. Charlie rarely received mail except his fan mail and unpaid water bills. However he refused to accept any junk mail, especially adverts for pizzas and kebabs, so he’d blocked up his letter box permanently. The only way any post got to him was by a postman knocking on the door or usually he was required to collect it from the local post office. That was the only way they knew how to deal with mysterious and sometimes awkward characters such as Mr Charlie Bones.
Charlie hurriedly rushed out to the garden to open his exciting bag of letters and most of all his intriguing parcel. He carefully unwrapped the parcel, his fingers trembling wondering what could possibly be inside. Already he was sensing some great energy emitting from the parcel and knew it was something very special. On the back was written ‘From Lizzie’. ‘Oh my love Lizzie!’ he cried out deep from within his heart. It was postmarked from (somewhere near Himalayas). As he carefully took off all the layers, including a beautiful gold wrapping, he held in his arms a great statue of Ganesh and Lakshmi together, deities of abundance and obstacle breaking. A note was attached:
To my dearest Charlie, with great love from me to you. This statue has been blessed by some very special mountain dwellers at the foot of the Himalayas. Some who live here are almost 150 years old. They live their lives in mediation and silence. They have great knowledge Charlie. I will tell you when I get back. I am longing to see you again but I am looking forward to my trek up the mountains now and I am well prepared. Your true love Lizzie.
Two large tear drops fell down his face as Charlie clutched the note towards his chest. He had never found real love before and somehow had avoided it most of his life. However he guessed he only had another 30 years left on the planet and wanted to try out the intimacy of love. It was painful at times. He sincerely missed his Lizzie but it did not deter him from his usual activities and rituals. Lizzie had given all the supermarkets Charlie’s home address since he was averse to using technology of any sort. This was the greatest manifestation project Charlie had ever done and the one which he hoped would reap the greatest rewards.
He kissed the great statue and placed it in front of him on the grass as he proceeded to look inside the huge bag of letters. They were all addressed to Mr Charlie Bones or Charlie Bones and Lizzie Softwater. He opened the first one. It was unlikely these were fan mail. Fan’s usually wrote ‘Charlie the great magician’ or ‘Charlie Manifestor’ or ‘Bones the Great!’ These letters were mainly brown or white, not the ‘fan’ kind with bright pink or flowery envelopes sprayed in perfume, containing sage or with pictures of Lakshmi and Ganesh all over them. No, these were quite different.
Charlie grabbed hold of the letter with a logo and supermarket chain name on the top. ‘Oh my goodness!’ he blurted out. The letter read.
Dear Mr Charlie Bones
We are well aware of your manifestation and magic reputation however your suggestions will not be appropriate for our branch as our customers are satisfied with the products we provide and therefore we will be continuing our business in the usual way.
Thank you for your time in writing to us with your manifesto. We wish you all the best,
Yours sincerely
Dick Turpin
Head Manager
Charlie tried to fight a low feeling emerging inside him now. He felt glum without Lizzie by his side giving him love, warmth and magician’s protection. It was always more powerful with two and now she was away he felt things were going downhill somewhat. ‘Oh well, you can’t win ’em all!’ he stated to Ganesh and Lakshmi, then corrected himself immediately considering it a negative statement. ‘Indeed no, Charlie the great can out win them all and he will do in time!’
He now felt wary of opening the second letter. But he did so with trepidation taking a big gulp. This letter read:
Dear Mr Charlie Bones
Many thanks for your heartfelt suggestions and manifesto for the new healthy supermarket. We are very intrigued by your ideas since we are continually needing to take products off our shelves due to health and safety issues. Due to the outbreak of various diseases in meat products and health warnings about numerous products we indeed need to be cautious in the way we sell and buy our stock. It is a great risk to us selling products which may later have health warnings. It is equally a risk to turn our supermarket around to an entire health food shop as you suggest.
In view of this, management have decided to give the health supermarket proposal a trial run for 6 months. We are seeking to sell health products on the cheaper side and to market our branch in a new way. This will also impact all our other branches which will follow suit if we are to be successful.
In recompense to you and your ideas we would like to offer you the position of consultant on this transferral process for the 6 month period with a fee of £800 per week. Please let us know if this is satisfactory and of interest to you.
Thank you in advance,
Yours truly
Graham Tender
Head Manager
Charlie was shocked and overjoyed all at the same time. He flung his arms right up to the sky thanking the universe for its help. ‘I knew we’d do it! I just knew we would! Thank you Ganesh and Lakshmi! Thank you Jesus! Thank you to all sentient beings who assisted me with this task! Thank you Lizzie most of all! Thank you all beings on other realms who have helped this great change to manifest and for many more to happen too! Thank you world for changing right now and for the many great things that are about to change even more! Love, love, love is the answer always! Love is the key! Love and Joy be with me today and always and may this be a blessed day!’
Charlie was so excited he sprang around his garden doing handstands and cartwheels and blessed every living being in his garden. Tomorrow would be even better and he had not even opened half the letters that still remained in that mysterious grey plastic bag!
‘Hallelujah!’ he shouted out to the sky. ‘Charlie and Lizzie will soon convert every supermarket in the world to vegan, organic and pure! Charlie shall be the great consultant and Lizzie will be his life time Magician’s assistant and many more great deeds shall be done!
