June 1, 1999: Sarah Manning rushes from a taxi into a terminal at Kennedy Airport. Looking much like a model, 5 foot 8 inches tall, slim, chiseled features, people stop to look at her as she hurries to the check-in desk. Sarah pulls her carry-on luggage to the gate. As the last call is heard over the loud speaker, Sarah presents the needed passport and paper work to the flight attendant and enters the Concorde, catching her breath as she does.
Last minute planning were not part of Sarah's personality but events of the day had caused a sudden change in her life.
Happy to have gotten a ticket in first class, Sarah places her laptop computer under the seat in front of her, her carry-on luggage into the overhead compartment and takes the window seat next to an Asian gentleman who smiles politely at her. Sarah adjusts her seat belt as the pilot announces the departure instructions over the loud speaker.
At twenty four Sarah was well traveled for a woman of her age, having seen much of the world with her family and as an archaeology student.
Doctor Areulla had become a Professor of Archaeology at Columbia University in New York where Sarah had just completed her Masters program in May.
Steven Areulla had come on several of the expeditions as he and Sarah had remained friendly through the years. Though attempts at romance were made between them, Sarah discovered that she could not give her heart to anyone. Sarah always knew in her heart that her soul mate was Alexander. Alexander would return to her one day-- of that Sarah was always certain.
Sarah wore the amulet wherever she went from the time she entered college. At times it would pulse but never was she able to understand how it worked.
All of the Manning grandchildren had inherited a sizable trust fund, from Thomas and Rose, at age twenty three. They had all remained close even with geographic separations.
Sarah peers out the window of the Concorde as it begins to taxi down the runway. As the plane lifts from the ground Sarah feels a release as if she is leaving one aspect of her life behind and entering something new. Her heart races with anticipation, her mind flooded with thoughts of what she had left behind.
Sarah's High School years had been filled with friends, fun, and excitement. She had been an honor student, with an active social life. Sarah loved the world of the esoteric and like Grandma Rose, developed friendships in that realm.
The female figurine Doctor Areulla had shown her had been verified as being made of a metal not used in modern technology- possibly some exotic alloy of gold and platinum. Based on the attire and design of the figurine it was felt that she was indeed the Goddess Isis. The figurine had remained in Egypt where it was placed in the Cairo Museum in a specially secured showcase. Sarah thought it odd that the one opportunity she had to visit the museum, the figurine had been removed and taken on tour for three months.
Sarah had learned at an early age that things happen as they are supposed to and that if she waited long enough all of her answers would come.
Her father had published a story in Follow-Up Magazine about the figurine and its potential importance in history. Samantha had written the story which had earned her professional kudos.
Sarah lived at home until her sophomore year in college when she had moved into her own apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan. From there she could easily travel to Twin Crossings where she felt closest to Rose and Alexander.
Sarah had often driven to Twin Crossings to be alone and do her work. She had found the carriage house to be the best place for school work. These were now her quarters. More than that she felt it to be her home. Sarah had set up her computer and school work on Rose's old antique desk. There she could talk to Rose and feel her energies though Rose never connected.
Sarah felt the strongest connection to Alexander in the woods by the tree, where she would meditate and commune with nature. The tree and Sarah had grown up alongside each other, each with an inner strength in its own way. The tree had grown to be twenty-four feet tall, with dark green leaves which possessed an eerie bluish tinge at the borders.
One day, during her Junior Year at Columbia, Sarah sat at the foot of the tree, watching the water flow beneath the footbridge. She had just been studying the work of Carl Jung and his concepts of the Collective Unconscious. A poem seemed to flow from her like the water in the small stream:
With school behind her Sarah decided she needed a new direction. She understood that to 'bring in the new, she must get rid of the old.' And so Sarah 'cleaned house'.Bridges Of The Soul
While clearing out Rose's antique desk, Sarah had discovered an old genealogical chart that had been wedged into the side of one of the desk drawers. The paper was frayed where it had been folded for so many years. Sarah assumed it must have belonged to Rose as the names were current to her immediate family. It remained incomplete, but Sarah felt drawn to it nonetheless. As she slides her hand into her jeans pocket Sarah pulls out the old genealogical chart and looks at it.
In Rose's hope chest Sarah remembers finding the old tapestry Rose had kept the music box wrapped in. It held a strange beauty. Its borders contained symbols Sarah had never seen before. In the center was a needlework rendering of a pyramid amid a blossoming tree with females in it. Sarah had carefully packed the tapestry away along with the music box before she had set out on her current journey, one which pulled at the very fiber of her being. Suddenly Sarah's mind flashed to the day she and Alexander played in the carriage house. She remembered that there was a word he had used that referenced 'finding one's destiny'.
Sarah walks to the rest room at the back of 'first class'. On the way back to her seat Sarah searches her mind for the word as she excuses herself to the Asian gentleman attempting to pass him and return to her seat.
"NARU, that was it!" Sarah thinks out loud.
The plane suddenly lurches due to a pocket of turbulence causing Sarah to fall into the lap of the Asian gentleman.
Sarah looks at the man feeling very embarrassed.
The airplane steadies.
"Please excuse me. " she says shyly.
Sarah secures herself into her seat.
"What did you say?" he inquires with a Japanese accent.
"I said, 'please excuse me'."
"No, not that! What is the word you said when you" . . . he blushes, "when you returned to your seat, please?"
"You mean 'Naru'?" Sarah answers.
"Yes that is it?"
The Asian man introduces himself as Mr. Nirota from Tokyo. He is a businessman who is connected to the UFO museum in Japan. He is middle aged, with dark hair and dark brown eyes. He is dressed in a business suit.
A UFO person! Sarah thinks! Sarah is intrigued wanting to know more about his connection to such matters 'Naru' he explains means 'becoming". "As in finding your destiny?" Sarah asks.
"Yes that can be the case," he answers. "Is that where you are going, young lady, to find your destiny?"
"I guess you could say that." Sarah replies evasively.
Sarah and Mr. Nirota spend the next two hours discussing UFO activity and an interest they both share on spiritual matters and the current Earth changes. Coming from Japan where the changes are felt almost daily, Mr. Nirota feels they are about to cause global chaos.
Mr. Nirota opens his laptop computer and shows Sarah some of the photos taken at the museum of artifacts and art work contributed by various people and researchers. Sarah looks for a link to Alexander feeling that soon she would have her answers. She stops at a picture of a triangular UFO draw by an artist. Mr. Nirota explains that this particular image had captured his attention though he is not sure why.
"I do believe it to be real," he says as their eyes lock, "as I have seen it in meditation."
He closes his laptop as the conversation suddenly turns to WWII history and possible UFO's developed in that era. Mr. Nirota has been researching that period of history as perceived through the eyes of the Japanese people.
Sarah in turn presents the plight of the Jewish people in Germany during the war mentioning the fact that much was lost about the history, culture, and personal possessions of the Jewish side of her family.
Both Mr. Nirota and Sarah agree that the Germans during WWII were working with advanced technologies, most likely involving technologies from advanced life forms.
Sarah explains that as she was looking for next 'direction' in her life, when she discovered a genealogical chart of her family. She removes it again from the pocket of her jeans and shows it to him.
Mr. Nirota studies the chart and says, "To find the future one must look to the past."
The captain announces that they would be landing in Heathrow in twenty minutes. Sarah uses the time to relax as Mr. Nirota goes to the rest room at the end cabin.
There was so much Sarah had not yet discovered. She knew a smattering about Grandmother Rose and her escape from Nazi Germany, but little more. It was definitely time to find out what happened to Rose's family.
As far as the Mannings were concerned, the history of the family had been shrouded in silence. No one ever talked about the origins of the Mannings prior to Thomas I. But there was more- much more she needed to discovered. Sarah felt it in every fiber of her being.
Samantha, had wondered about it as well. It was time for the sisters to complete the mission they had agreed on the day Sarah told Samantha the truth about Alexander, twelve years earlier.
Sarah prepares her things for the landing at Heathrow. She checks the main pouch in her carry-on bag: Passport. . . The images that Alexander had drawn as a child but which had never been translated. . . Sarah places the genealogical chart with the rest of the items. She opens her purse to check her money . . . American currency that had to be converted to pounds as soon as she arrived.
Sarah smiles lovingly at the family photo she carried with her, taken earlier that spring when all of the Mannings had found the time for a reunion at Feybridge.
Here was her family . . .her bloodline. To think that 20 year old Rose had been stripped away from all that she held dear was more than Sarah could fathom. You were truly a strong woman Grandma, Sarah thought.
Samantha had never given up on her dream to write a best seller. She loved Europe having seen much of it in her high school years. It felt like home to her. Perhaps she had lived a former life in Europe she wondered as she made the decision that London was where she knew she would study and live. The old English countryside and ancient architecture brought out the creative aspects of her personality just as Feybridge has done for Sarah. With hard work, by age 28, Sam had landed her dream job as a news anchor for BBC television. At the studio she had met her beau, Paul, 30, from London who was in television production. They had moved into together sharing a bonded world of love and career.
Sarah looks at her baby sister Shannon in the photo . . . Not so little any more. Sarah's younger sibling, was now twenty. Shannon was a six foot tall statuesque beauty with waist-length natural blond hair and big blue eyes. She was attending Juilliard. Powerful and determined like the other Mannings, Shannon lost little time forming a band with several classmates. Good musician that she was, Shannon's real genius lay with her vocal talents. Before leaving for London, Sarah had allowed Shannon to listen to the tones of the music box and tape record them as Shannon felt so connected. Somehow Sarah new that Shannon would take these new harmonics and bring them to the planet for all to hear.
Then, there were her cousins, Christopher and Patrick, 29. Both brothers had gone to work for Manning Publishing. Patrick ran the Manning Publishing Web Site while Chris became more involved in media and communication-- buying television and radio stations--involving in documentaries, thus keeping the Manning Empire ever expanding in the field of media.
Steven and David still ran Manning Publishing reporting the news with the highest integrity.
Mr. Nirota returns to his seat.
The word 'Naru' returns to Sarah's thoughts. . .
She uses her international cell phone to notify Sam that she is arriving and to send the limo.
Sam is seen sitting at the computer in her office..
Chapter One: The Journey Begins.
