The Books of James C. Patch: Utopia

By Gary D. Henry

This is the continuing story of James C. Patch and Jacob Masterson. The first book, The Books of James C. Patch: The Barrier chronicled the adventures of Jacob Masterson as he attempted to destroy the evil barrier that was preventing spirits from entering the Utopia on the other side. James C. Patch was an author living in the early 1900's when tragedy struck his family when he decided to write down what he found out about death and the afterlife. James C. Patch was a split-spirit. A spirit that could split from his body prior to death and was able to cross through the barrier and see through his spirit what was on the other side. While in his spirited state he noticed millions of spirits that were not able to penetrate the barrier. The majority of these spirits were children who had not had time to collect a lot of memories and those are the spirits that the barrier preyed upon. Jacob found out that memories were the key to the rapid penetration of the barrier and they were able to connect with loved ones that were already on the other side. This is the third and final installment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481730884

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© 2013 by Gary D. Henry. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/21/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3089-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3087-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3088-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013905063

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Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Gary D. Henry

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Cover Design: Gary D. Henry, Colleen Lockard

Cover and Layout Designs: Colleen Lockard

Edited by: Belinda R. Bell

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgment

Prologue

Chapter 1

The Black Cloud

Chapter 2

Jacob’s New Home

Chapter 3

Jacob Gets Back to Work

Chapter 4

The Illusions

Chapter 5

Jacob Corrects Many Wrongs

Chapter 6

The Resurrection of Joan

Chapter 7

Harry’s Fight with Alzheimer’s

Chapter 8

Harry Conveys the Future

Chapter 9

The Death of a Titan

Chapter 10

Harry’s Words Strike Home

Chapter 11

A Final Celebration

Chapter 12

Jacob Implements His Plan

Links

Dedication

As always, dedicated to my family and friends.

Live your life to the fullest. Create a wealth of memories in your lifetime, and relive them as often as you can because memories will be your riches when your allotted time on this earth is expended. Reflection will be your last greatest moment.

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Belinda Bell for her professional editing expertise. She edited The Books of James C. Patch: The Barrier, The Books of James C. Patch: Returning, Legacy of the Unsung, The Abel Conspiracy, and Montana’s Own and did a fine job. I look forward to working with her in the future. I would also like to thank Colleen Lockard for designing an excellent cover.

Prologue

The first book of the Patch trilogy, The Barrier, introduced Jacob Masterson, a fearless thrill-seeker and best selling author living in present day New York, and James C. Patch, and author who lived 100 years prior in rural Vermont. Patch possessed a gift that no other human, past or present, had. For centuries people told stories of how their spirit appeared to drift from their bodies during near-death events. They hovered above as they saw the doctors’ work on their bodies. When life returned to them they told what they had experienced. Patch could do the same thing except he didn’t need a near-death experience to release his spirit above. He could do it at will.

He found that when he released his spirit, time or distance held no boundaries. It could travel to the past and to the future, and all the time, Patch could see through his eyes what the spirit was seeing. The spirit could return to him in a split second so he deemed himself to be a split-spirit. Patch released his spirit one day to go further than it had ever gone and discovered another realm. It was a lofty world full of specks of lights penetrating a dark Barrier. Some would pass through and others would become trapped within the Barrier and have their light extinguished. The Barrier grew darker and more menacing with every speck of light it captured.

James Patch sent his spirit to that place everyday to find out what was its purpose. Eventually he decided to send his spirit through the Barrier and find out for himself. His spirit sailed through it but not without a cost. He seemed to have forgotten something from his past when he returned. A memory had been removed. He saw an incredible sight on the other side of the Barrier. Clusters of lights twinkled in unison and his spirit was being drawn to one off the clusters. He decided to allow his spirit to be drawn in and found to his surprise his long dead mother and father as well as all his ancestors together in a beautiful setting of green mountains, blue seas and even appeared in human form. From them he gleaned where he was and what he was experiencing. Those specks of lights he saw were spirits of departed humans trying to get to the Utopia he was in.

Patch immediately called back his spirit and began writing three books. They were being written to tell the world of what happens after they die and to live a long life and gather as many good memories as they could because they would need them to penetrate the Barrier. The evil within the Barrier found out what Patch was about to do and stopped him because the more people with many fond memories, the less spirits he would be able to capture and thus weaken him. The Barrier took the lives of his wife and three children. Patch, distraught, threw his manuscripts into the fire and hung himself. But before he died, he split his spirit and placed it in a painting of himself. There, it would lay dormant until a stronger split-spirit would come along and rewrite his books and warn the human race of his findings.

One hundred years later the other split spirit came to the cottage as an author in search of a story. Jacob Masterson was a prolific author who was experiencing writers block for the first time. His publisher and friend, Harry Messer, rented Patch’s cottage in hopes that his and America’s favorite author could come up with a story. Jacob, along with assistants Joan and Ken, would stay in the cottage for many months. Many thought that Jacob and Joan had a love affair going but they both knew that business came first. Ken, on the other hand, was a flamboyant, effeminate gay man who did his job very well and secretly had a crush on Jacob as well. Both Jacob and Joan knew what was on his mind but they both tolerated it because Ken supplied them with an unlimited amount of laughs.

It was soon that he would meet the spirit of James C. Patch. The spirit informed Jacob of his past and why he was haunting Jacob. The spirit also informed Jacob that he possessed powers that he never knew he had. Jacob is fearless and didn’t run away from the spirit of James C. Patch, but rather accepted what he was experiencing. James C. Patch delivered words to Jacob on the walls of the cottage. It was his manuscripts from 1905. The Barrier knew what Patch was doing and delivered mind bending horrors to Jacob each time more of the manuscript was delivered to prevent him from writing further.

Together, Patch and Masterson fought through the hundreds of death-dodging illusions and unimaginable horrors to complete the first book. The Barrier was setting up Jacob for the fight of his life during a week-long Christmas celebration at the cottage. The entire town, located nearby, was invited to witness the unworldly terror that emanated from the heavens. Deathblows to the townspeople and all who attended were reigned down with indiscriminate strikes. Men, women and children ran for their lives as the attacks came but Jacob used his new-found powers to defeat the Barrier on a grand scale and the townspeople rejoiced around the huge Christmas tree and sang carols as they tended to the wounded. Once the Barrier was defeated, their wounds healed and the dead came back to life and they continued with the celebration. Jacob, Joan and Ken were held as heroes to the town and all went back to normal.

The next installment of the Patch series called, Returning, revisited the cottage because another book had to be written. With it returned the illusions, and the threatening of spirits in the realm of the Barrier. Jacob was called upon again to fight the Barrier as it wasn’t allowing spirits to pass through and capturing all the spirits of the children because they lacked enough memories and were being captured at an alarming rate. The spirit of James C. Patch returned to deliver the words of his second book that further told the world what was in store for the people after they died. Another fight would be fought but this time would take a serious toll on Jacob as his assistant, Joan perished at the whim of the Barriers evil desire to destroy Jacob. It was known that the Barrier could not kill Jacob because it wanted Jacobs’s powerful spirit to do the bidding of evil forever. The Barrier wanted to make life so miserable for Jacob that he would commit suicide. Suicides go directly to the Barrier and no amount of fond memories could save the soul from an eternity of being an evil minion for the Barrier.

Tried as it did, nothing could break Jacob as they fought another monumental battle. Jacob and Patch prevailed again but at a cost. Jacob wanted out and decided to get married and have two children and put all the spiritual stuff behind him. The second book was published and the world was in awe of the writers’ ability to strike a cord with everything human. Many thought the books were works of fiction but a vast majority of people thought that Jacob had an unnatural bound with a higher order and delivered words of truth to millions. His words were powerful as people did things to create fond memories just in case Jacob was right. Still a lingering doubt existed and the third book would eliminate all doubt.

The last of the trilogy called Utopia finds Jacob back to fight a final fight. All of his friends and family would be impacted to the highest degree. Massive illusions was in his future as Harry would now have to be the hero because the Barrier has taken the memory of James C. Patch and everything that has happened to Jacob. The Barrier implanted a false wife and children to eliminate the possibility of Jacob writing the third and final book. Harry was the only one who knew the truth about what was happening. He knew that Jacob’s wife was not who she appeared to be and he remembered the Barrier and what it did to people but he was not listened to because he was diagnosed with having Alzheimer’s disease and no one would believe him. History repeats in the third and final installment of the Patch series but Harry is the only one who sees it. Its Harry’s fight to make Jacob understand what’s happening before his disease takes his mind away.

Chapter 1

The Black Cloud

Jacob, Jenna, and the kids made their way back to the car, but Jacob closely monitored a black cloud as it followed them. He didn’t know why but speculated he hadn’t seen the last of the Barrier dwellers. He thought back to the time when he had the opportunity to destroy the Barrier, but the spirit of his friend, James C. Patch, had thwarted his attempt. He had hoped he would not regret having let the Barrier off the hook. However, the signs were unmistakable that more loomed than just a war. He glanced back and forth at the cloud as it followed him all the way back to his townhouse.

Jenna asked, Honey, what are you looking at?

Surprised, Jacob questioned, You can’t see it?

Jacob pointed to the sky, and Jenna said, I don’t see anything, Sweetheart. Come inside, and I’ll get dinner ready.

Amazed that she couldn’t see it, Jacob noted that the little light inside Jenna’s ring had dimmed slightly, an indication of his concern. Jacob gave Jenna the very special and unusual ring when he proposed to her. The ring was special because Jenna had captured Jacob’s spirit, so it now resided as a shimmering light inside her ring.

Some time ago, Jacob forged an agreement with an evil dark spirit residing within the Barrier. He agreed not to use his ample powers to destroy the Barrier where the evil resides. In exchange, the powerful dark spirit promised to bring no further harm to him, his family, or friends. The cloud’s presence certainly had him curious and wondering about its intent. It followed him everywhere, yet no one else saw it. Jacob speculated it planned to bide its time then make its purpose known when it chose.

Jim Patch had warned Jacob that the Barrier would not excuse the punishment Jacob dished out while writing his previous two books and would exact some sort of retaliation. Jim had also warned Jacob of the potential for his readers to change words within their copies of his published manuscripts. Jim had explained that the books Jacob wrote relayed information provided by Jim, and the information was to remain exactly as he had had Jacob write it, word for word. Any alterations by readers, even if only to a single word, might affect Jacob’s life minimally or drastically, depending upon the altered word. Jacob knew the power of one word considering he has affected millions of people with the words he has written.

The evil within the Barrier agreed not to harm him, his family, or friends. However, it most assuredly could affect the millions who had purchased his books by changing words within those books, thus indirectly affecting him or his family and friends. Thus far, he had seen no obvious changes in his life, but he kept the original manuscripts in a safe, ready to correct an occasional word or two should a problem arise. Jacob wanted to hurry up and move out of New York. If there was a fight in the offing, he wanted it to take place within the expansive confines of his newly acquired horse farm in Northern Virginia. New York City streets were loaded with innocent people. The crowds made him nervous considering the forces with which he would be dealing did not to care about collateral damage.

Jacob’s publisher and close friend, Harry, and his family had already moved to Northern Virginia. Harry’s company had moved as well. Jacob’s former assistant, Joan, was now deceased. Her assistant, Ken, had worked his way up within Harry’s successful publishing company and did an excellent job running it.

Jacob found some office space in the historical town of Leesburg in Northern Virginia and was nearly ready to move there. The last thing Jacob would move would be the massive safe. He planned to accompany the safe to Virginia because it contained probably the most important documents of his life, so he wanted to insure the safe’s protection during its transit. At the last minute, he decided he wanted it moved to his massive estate rather than to his office building because he thought he might need quicker access to it should strange things start to happen.

The safe accompanied him during the five-hour drive to Virginia. He left Jenna and their kids back in New York to continue packing. Upon arrival in Virginia, Jacob saw the construction on the house was far from complete. It looked as if the contractor had a few more months of additional work to do on it. They had installed the pool, which looked beautiful even though they had not yet completed some of the additions. Jacob wanted an indoor area off the kitchen to be a showplace. A massive space with fine stone tiles on the floor, it was an all-glass room that brought the outside inside. Walking into the space and seeing the thirty-foot ceilings had the effect of entering a massive three-level mall. Adorning one corner was an indoor coy pond with benches and a huge hot tub. Landscape artists had meticulously placed lush green and variegated bushes, colorful trees, and other plants throughout the space.

Two floors of guest bedrooms, each with a window view of the vast indoor courtyard, lined an entire wall. The heated pool split between the inside and exterior of the structure for the guests’ comfort and enjoyment. Opposite the pool was a large alcove area with no doors. Tables, chairs, an all-wood bar, and a massive 150-foot screen adorned the room. There, guests were free to relax, drink, and enjoy movies. Jacob also had his family in mind when he had the alcove built. It would be a cozy place to spend both the hot summer and the chilly winter months together as a family. Jacob would tell the contractor to incorporate an eight-foot-wide fireplace within the space.

The undertaking was tremendous and quite expensive, but the room would be a place for Jacob to have the sense of living in the out of doors without actually being outside. He would have music pumped into the area to make the space even more relaxing. A separate bathroom would accompany each of the ten bedrooms, but, thus far, those had yet to be completed. All the glass panes had arrived onsite, but the contractor had not yet installed them. As Jacob walked into the unfinished area, he imagined the echo the room would produce.

Of course, the courtyard would be for guests, but when he was alone, he and Jenna would just sit in the hot tub and admire the stars. Jenna loved stargazing because she still thought the stars had somehow brought Jacob back that cold night five years earlier.

Jacob called Jenna and said, Honey, it’s nowhere near being done, but what they’ve completed so far looks great.

Jenna replied, I can’t wait because I don’t want to live in the city any more. Sweetheart, why can’t we just move now and live in the house while they’re working on it? We gave notice here, so we can leave anytime.

Jacob said, That’s a great idea. How much more packing do you have to do?

Jenna answered, I’m just about done. I can check the kids out of school and be there in three days. The dogs are ready, and so am I.

I agree, Sweetie, come on down. I can’t wait to watch the dogs run, and you know how much collies love to run, Jacob said.

It surprised Jacob when Jenna asked, Collies? What are you talking about, Honey? Did you get more dogs?

Jacob said, No, I meant our dogs.

Jenna then stated, Jacob, our dogs aren’t collies. They’re terriers.

Jacob was stunned. He looked up to the clear blue sky, saw the persistent black cloud, and knew the illusions were about to begin. He and Jenna owned two beautiful collies when he left New York, yet Jenna had just said they’re terriers.

Jacob agreed with Jenna just because he knew what was happening and said, Oh yes, you’re right. What was I thinking? Well, I gotta go, Jenna. Call the movers, and I’ll see you in a few days. Be careful, Sweetie.

Jenna said, Okay, I love you. Bye bye.

Jacob hung up the phone, went immediately to the safe, and opened it. He searched both books and found the first mention of the dogs within the text. Someone somewhere had crossed out the word collie and replaced it with terrier, and that someone’s edit appeared inside Jacob’s original manuscript. Jacob simply crossed out the word terrier, and magically, both the correction and the word terrier disappeared before his eyes. Jacob didn’t know until after he completed both books that they chronicled his own life. Making this single correction was easy, but he wondered how often he would have to go back to the books to make such corrections.

Jacob immediately called Jenna and casually asked about the collies. She simply replied that they were fine. Everything Jim Patch said would happen was coming true, so Jacob now knew why it was so important to keep his books safe. Knowing what to do eased him a bit, but still he hoped that future corrections would be few. He wanted some room to think, and the 200-acre farm would allow him the luxury.

Ken called with an update, Jacob, we’re all set. I hired four people, two editors and two office people. When will you start on your next book?

Jacob said, I’ll get settled in first because Jenna and the kids are still in New York. I’ll probably start it about a month after the house is done.

Ken asked, What do you want me to do until then?

Jacob directed Ken, I want a digital copy of everything I’ve ever written, and I want you to get a new Webpage set up.

Ken said, Okay, that’ll take quite awhile, so I’ll get them started on it right away.

Jacob asked, Ken, how are you doing? I know Travis’ death really hit you hard, and I want to make sure you’re ready to return to work.

The mere mention of Travis’ name caused Ken to cry loudly and become hysterical.

Jacob had to say something to calm him down. Usually all it took was a complement, and this event was no different.

Jacob said, Okay, I see you’re perfect. You’re just as you were years before you ever met Travis.

Ken instantly stopped crying and listened as Jacob massaged his ego.

Ken, ever endearing and flamboyant, replied simply, I am perfect, aren’t I?

Still whimpering, Ken said he was fine and ready to start his new life in Virginia. Jacob had become accustomed to Ken’s hysteria and blew it off as normal for his little diva office manager. However, he also knew the love of Ken’s life, Travis, had been one of many massacred by Joan’s insane ex-boyfriend during her wedding some years earlier. Ken was one of many who had suffered terrible grief after the crazed gunman mowed down a large crowd of innocent wedding attendees.

Three days later, Jenna arrived with their daughters, Sarah and Hannah, along with the family’s two beautiful collies. They were finally all together, but the movers had not yet arrived. Jacob called the moving company, and they said they would check on their drivers and give him a call back. The construction crew was very busy setting the windowpanes in place in the outdoor patio, and they finished quite quickly. Jacob enjoyed his new space and couldn’t wait to show Jenna his vision.

Two moving trucks were to depart a day apart. The second truck wasn’t due for another day, but the first one was overdue. The dispatcher called back and informed Jacob that something had forced the driver off the road, killing both the driver and his two workers when his truck hit a tree head on. He said he assumed the truck’s accelerator stuck because the impact indicated the truck struck the tree at a high rate of speed. He also said nothing was salvageable because the truck caught fire, destroying everything inside.

Jacob was more concerned with the driver and his workers and asked who he was. The dispatcher said that the driver’s name was Randall Jones, and he was an experienced mover with a spotless driving record. Before hanging up, the dispatcher said that the second driver was enroute and should be there in approximately four hours. Jacob felt bad about the trucker. He was not concerned with his things because they were replaceable. He told Jenna what happened. She said she talked to the driver before they left, and he was a very friendly man.

Six hours passed, but the second truck had not shown up. Jacob again dialed the moving company and asked why the second truck had not arrived. The dispatcher seemed distraught and said that the second truck driver and his crew met the same fate as the first one and, strangely enough, ran into the same tree as the first truck had. The woman dispatcher cried openly and stated that her husband was one of the men killed. Jacob offered his condolences but didn’t want to press the issue. He didn’t know what was going on but speculated that the black cloud following him around had something to do with the movers’ deaths. Jacob needed to split his spirit and go into the cloud to try to get some answers. Doing so would be impossible, however, because his sprit resided within Jenna’s wedding ring. Jacob had no choice but to smash the ring to release the little speck of light that was his spirit locked inside the diamond.

He didn’t even know how to smash a diamond, the hardest rock known to man. Asking Jenna to get the ring back was not something he was willing to do. Not only was it hers and special to her, but she could look at the small light that was Jacob’s spirit and get an indication of his well-being, even his mood.

Jacob remembered giving up his lofty pursuits for Jenna because of his agreement with the dark forces that allowed him and his family