A Song of Songs: Mary Magdalene Awakes

By Jennifer Chapin

This is anovel about the return of Mary Magdalene at the end of time.

It tells of her final incarnationasa young woman named Jenna who is born with a birthmark over her forehead shaped like the continent of Africa. Jennaisirreligious and tough, andunhappily immersed in the corporate world. Unbidden, she starts to have dreams and visions of a time with Christ, andthey become soreal that she crosses through time tofind herself weeping at hisfeetduringthecrucifixion.

This is also a story about the Cathars in the Languedoc area of France. The Cathars embraced the idea of reincarnation. For this, andfor theirbelief indirect revelation and a dualistic universe of good and evil, theywere destroyedby the Catholic Church in the 13th century. In the process, their society was destroyed too as town after town was mercilessly razed by the crusaders andthousands put to death: men, women and children, none were spared. This became known as the first western genocide of Christian against Christian. Because of theCathars, the Church gave birth to the Inquisition.

The Cathars loved Mary Magdalene, andbelievedthat she was the beloved of Christ and the keeper of his teachings. Their story is interwoven with the Knights Templar who were embedded in the Languedoc, and with Jenna's ongoing odyssey as she comes to full awareness ofwho she is.

Ultimately, this is a story about love that does not depend on time.

It is also a warning about the end of time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 27, 2008
• ISBN: 9781468569759

Jennifer Chapin

Jennifer Chapin worked as a freelance writer and researcher in the legal field investigating issues related to international law, the environment, the rights of women and the plight of refugees.  She is also a photographer with a passion for adventure travel, and has self-published a travel anthology that spans several countries. This is her first novel and she lives in Nova Scotia.    

Book preview

1

He was heading home on Highway 99 from a poker game at a friend’s house living in Pawhuska. Andrew Longstead drove carefully to avoid going off the road because of the vicious winds that were beating against his car. The rain came within seconds after the wind began, and beat so hard against the car’s windshield that he could barely see out. He dared not roll his window down for fear the wind would push through the open space and cause his car to turn over while he was still driving it. The winds began to get stronger and started to rock his car back and forth and side to side, making it extremely difficult to keep the it on the old Oklahoma road.

Nothing could spoil his night, however, because only a few hours ago his losing streak had ended when he finally won the last hand he could play in a game of poker at his friend’s with a full house. Even though the hand was good; the cards that he held weren’t the best, but with the way his luck had been going he wasn’t complaining. He’d take all the luck fate handed him and run with it. When he had won the hand with three aces and a pair of eights, he called it a night and took his winnings. Thinking of this lightened his spirits just a bit as he tried to keep his car on the road. The road was lined with several houses on either side, and there were trees swaying back and forth in the wind as if they were dancing marionettes controlled by an unseen master.

It wasn’t quite midnight yet but the dark, low hanging clouds made it seem later. When he rounded a curve in the road, the highway suddenly became vacant of wind and rain and the sky became darker with each quarter mile that he traveled. When the road straightened once again and he could see more clearly what lay ahead, Andrew found that funnel clouds were starting to form off to his right. They were starting to drop very slowly one at a time, and then suddenly they rose back up into the sky.

Slowing his car and peering out the windshield, Andrew watched as the clouds skimmed across the tree tops and then watched as three more funnel clouds began to drop in place of the first two. They looked as though they were only a few feet apart but in actuality – he knew – they had to have been a few hundred feet apart. Unfortunately, these didn’t look as though they were going to spring back up into the wall cloud but instead dropped completely to the ground and headed straight for him.

The twin twisters zigzagged their way across the prairie toward him, uprooting what trees were in their way as they headed for the paved road. Pressing his foot on the accelerator, determined to outrun the twins before they could hit him, Andrew maneuvered his car around flying branches and other debris until both twins were in his rearview. They hit the pavement nearly a mile behind him.

Feeling relieved that the worst was traveling in the opposite direction; he let up on the accelerator and began to relax. A sharp curve ahead came up and he saw a huge oak tree standing solitary only five miles from the edge of the road. From something out of a nightmare, blackness engulfed the tree and it disappeared from sight as though it were pulled out of the ground by its roots by a monster. It must have been twice the size of the three combined that he had previously outrun, and it barreled at him with unbelievable speed.

The defensive driving courses he thought he had slept through in high school kicked in, or maybe it was just the sheer animal instinct for survival erupting inside him – he didn’t know which. He stomped hard against the brake and turned the wheel simultaneously, sending the car into a spin until he stopped parallel to the monster as it came straight for him.

Andrew opened his car door and scampered out, ducking his head and body as low as he could to the ground. He ran to the nearest ditch and dived in for cover. With the roaring beast moving closer behind him, he landed in the ditch with a harsh thud, almost knocking the wind out of him.

Just as he pushed his face into the ground with his hands folded across the back of his neck he heard the beast roar overhead. Then he heard the creaking of metal as his car was lifted from the ground and thrown into the trees standing over him. He then heard the car drop and be lifted from the ground once more. A few minutes later the winds and noise subsided.

Daring to look up from his hiding place, Andrew popped his head out of the ditch and looked around. It had stopped raining. The wind had slowed to barely a breeze and the clouds overhead were starting to recede enough to where a few twinkling stars began to shine their way through.

Standing up from the ditch, he began maneuvering around fallen branches and some fallen trees, shrubbery, and other debris. Andrew made his way back to the road and stood looking left then right searching for his car. He found nothing.

From overhead, he began to hear a whistling, whooshing sound, and so he looked up. He found his car.

2

It was just after nine-thirty when Jaime Storm arrived home from a blind date with an accountant out of St. Louis named Robert Dreskell. She had met him by way of an on-line dating service which she thought was something that she would never do in her life. When she first used the site it had made her feel that she was desperate and she hated that feeling.

Women had used more natural methods throughout the years to attract men but she had been so far out of the game by putting her career first that she felt she must’ve lost those natural instincts. She didn’t really see herself as being ugly, her father always told her that she was beautiful and her mother always complemented her on her brilliance. She was five-nine and weighted around a hundred and twenty pounds, had shoulder length dark-blonde hair with red highlights, blue eyes, and a fair complexion. Maybe she was lacking in some other area.

She had met Robert through one of these dating sites and corresponded with him for several weeks before she finally decided to take him up on his several offers to meet in person and have their first date. When he had arrived at her house and she was able to get her first look at him she didn’t find him exactly unattractive; he stood about six feet tall and dressed very nicely. He had dark hair and bright green eyes but wasn’t very stout, quite thin actually.

He had arrived at seven o’clock that evening, as planned, and knocked impatiently on her door until she finally answered it. Upon opening the door she had been presented with flowers and a sarcastic statement as to why he thought she had taken so long to open the door.

No, I wasn’t scoping you out through another window, she said, I was just finishing my hair. I wanted to look nice for our date.

Of course she was lying; she had been scoping him out through the window in the living room. She was certain that he could not have seen her for she was careful not touch the curtains when she peered through them.

You look beautiful. He said almost apologetically for his arrogant comment when she stepped aside and allowed him to enter her home.

Robert had taken her to an expensive restaurant in St. Louis; which was only half an hour from her home in Ballwin. He had paid for a wonderful meal and spoke through the entire date of useless accountant babble; she didn’t understand a single word of what he was talking about. Every time she tried to ask him to explain it he would talk over her and wouldn’t allow her to get a word in edgewise. Finally, she gave up, realizing that he was only talking to hear himself and didn’t have any real interest in her. She remained quiet, pretending to listen until a headache started to form. When that happened she managed to finally get a word in – but only by putting her forehead in the palm of her hand. He asked her if she was alright – and she asked him to take her home.

At her door, she decided to end the date with a friendly hug when he wouldn’t accept a handshake. She lied by telling him that she had a fairly decent evening and if not for the headache she would’ve invited him in for a nightcap. She hated to lead him on considering that he was about as charming as an decrepit old oak that had seen one too many snow storms, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell the guy how she really felt, considering her profession.

Now inside, Jaime stepped into her bathroom, taking the hair braid ties out as she went. She turned on the shower so that she could wash the entire horrid date from her mind. As she peered into the mirror above the sink, it became a window to her subconscious mind and began to replay the evening’s events.

Looking back over her life she saw that it actually had not been that bad. She had chosen a career over having a family when she was only twenty-one and in college studying for her current occupation; a psychiatrist. Eight years of her life, from the age of eighteen to twenty-six, she had spent studying instead of partying. Now at twenty-nine years old she realized that she was lonely and needed companionship.

She removed her underwear and bra and threw them in the hamper with the rest of her evening attire. She climbed into the shower and relished the ambiance of the steam and warmth of the water. Hot showers always relaxed her and with the aid of the massaging shower head that she had installed six months earlier; she began to feel a little better as the memory of the worst date of her life slowly washed its way down the drain with the water that cascaded down her body.

Over the pounding sound of the water hitting against her head, Jaime heard the phone ringing from the living room. Rather than interrupt her escape from reality, she decided to allow the answering machine to retrieve the call. After hearing the final beep, sounding barely audible, in the background signifying the end of the call and the message, she heard the phone ring again.

She chose to ignore the second call as well. She waited for the machine to activate again but the phone stopped ringing before it could.

Huh, I guess no one wants to talk to me this time, she said, returning to the enchantment of her shower.

From the living room came the faint sound of the telephone ringing yet again. She reluctantly turned off the water to the shower and stepped out of the tub, grabbing a towel to wrap around herself. She made her way to the living room to the insistent ringing phone.

Reaching just before the machine played its prerecorded greeting, she picked up the phone and said, Hello.

May I speak to Dr. Jaime Storm please? The caller announced.

This is she.

Dr. Storm, this is Detective Anthony Turvoe with the St. Louis Police Department – there’s been an accident.

Thinking that something may have happened to her sister Ashley, who was currently her only living relative but whom she had not seen or heard from for nearly two years since their parent’s death, she said, What kind of accident? What happened?

Are you familiar with a man by the name of Robert Dreskell? He asked.

Unfortunately I am, she said, why; is he hurt?

Actually, he’s dead. Turvoe said. He was murdered this evening.

Murdered? How? Why? She said as she sat down on her couch in disbelief.

Well, apparently, when he came home this evening he walked in on a robbery in progress and was shot by the intruder when he opened the door and stepped over the threshold. Turvoe said.

That’s awful, she said, How did you know my name? Why would you call me?

How long have you known Mr. Dreskell? The detective asked eluding her question.

We just met in person this evening. We went to dinner and then he took me home.

How did you meet him Dr. Storm?

You never answered my question detective.

Would it be possible for you to come to the station this evening? I find it a lot easier to talk when we don’t have a phone to our ear. He replied, still

Reviews for A Song of Songs

[Mar Ciana · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It's not the book described! It's a crime book, terrible one tbh