Beneath the Rainbow Sky

By Robert Becht

Step into a fantasy world where only birds, reptiles, and insects live, and travel with a gecko named Jonny, who is more than a little determined to find out what life is about. This remarkable gecko embarks on a journey to discover why he's here, what his purpose is, and what is the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Vine Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956896886

Book preview

Contents

Preface

Foreword

Introduction

1 Jonny leaves home…

2 The first encounter…

3 An encounter with the paranormal…

4 The perfect balance…

5 The strangest encounter yet…

6 A fork in the path…

7 The Mountain Kingdom…

8 Life on the other side…

9 A higher life…

10 The Way becomes clearer…

11 There will come a time…

12 In the land of opportunity…

13 Jonny goes home…

I dedicate this book to my dearly beloved wife and partner in life, Claudia.

Thank you for your kindness, honesty, and support, but most of all, for your unfaltering love.

And also to the delight in my life my dear, precious daughter Kaelyn, through whom I’ve come to learn more about love and life than I ever thought possible.

Preface

During the course of my life, I have searched for the truth about the mystery of love. Through my extensive travels and at times arduous journey through life, I have finally found it—at least the beginning of it, the outer, intangible glimmer of the one and only source of true love. Through trying to explain the treasure I was privileged to discover, I realized that I could write a book about it, and that is exactly what I set out to do.

May the gates through which freely flowed the inspiration for Jonny bring you to a place of infinite beauty and joy that holds boundless treasures of a wealth that lies far beyond this world. I hope you will find something valuable as you are taken on an odyssey of your own to see the world from Jonny’s tiny but broad perspective.

May the message of love and joy he brought with him add beauty and richness to your life, as it has mine.

Foreword

One of the ways to understand oneself is by telling stories – about ourselves and other people. Stories of our ancestors tell us what it means to belong to a family and to a community. When we describe where we come from, what we’ve been doing and where we’re going, we express our identity. Our ultimate identity is found only in association and unity with others and the rest of humanity. Therefore, we cannot flourish fully and properly outside ourselves.

As we travel through life and remain open to learn from our experiences, we stretch open and give a view of our little identities, trying to expand and reach out to discover who we really are. So to live within the story we need to grasp the moments of defeat and make them signs of hope.

This is a story in which we can find all the dramas of our lives, as children, young adults, parents, as hurt and rejected and as challenged. All the pain, sufferings and joys are symbolised somewhere in the story, but as we live it we find ourselves moving in forgiveness, acceptance, hope and trust in a future where this hope gives ‘light’ to those who sit in the shadow of darkness.

Sister Cynthia Thompson

Director of the Cape Town office

The Catholic Bible Foundation

Cape Town, South Africa

Introduction

In this day and age, time and place in the universe, geckos are the most advanced species in all of Reptillia. That is a place that is home to reptiles, besides some other less significant but nevertheless interesting creatures that share their world.

The geckos alive today are an intelligent species, far more intelligent than any of their predecessors. The correct name for their species is Gecko sapiens, and they came about somewhere and sometime during the last few minutes on the gigantic clock leading up to the twelfth hour of the earth’s existence. The gigantic clock being the master clock that keeps a record of time of all the events taking place in the universe. Many hundreds of thousands of years have passed since earth began, and no one knows for certain how many years remain. Regardless, the Gecko sapiens have excelled and progressed much more rapidly in the last few thousand years than all the other species of geckos that existed in the millions of years before them.

Few traces are left of the gecko species that came and went before, except for some fossilized bone fragments. The last of the species, the Gecko neanderthals, briefly coexisted with the first of the Gecko sapiens but were soon driven to extinction by the Gecko sapiens themselves. Strangely enough, the two species had similar physical attributes and even brain size, but there was one very subtle but paramount difference: Gecko sapiens have the physical ability to speak! Although they very likely didn’t start out speaking a proper language at first, nevertheless they can communicate.

That one small but important factor gave the Gecko sapiens the upper hand, and soon…the Gecko neanderthals were no more.

Because of the sapiens’ communication with and understanding of one another, they were able to concentrate their efforts to become the strongest, most intelligent species in all of Reptillia.

There were various stages in the development of geckos that took place prior to the eventual culmination into the form of the neanderthals, but with the arrival of the sapiens, every last trace of other species of geckos was completely obliterated from the planet. The only ones left standing in the end were none other than the Gecko sapiens.

As with the neanderthals, the clock continues ticking, and no one knows when the last day for the sapiens species will come—if it will even come at all. Will it be the end when the big, universal clock strikes twelve, or thirteen, or perhaps only when the gigantic gong resounds with a deafening blow on fourteen? Each of these is possible, but, at the same time, it’s not worth too much speculation, for the final hour for every single individual gecko on this planet will arrive, regardless. None in the past ever escaped this startling phenomenon. No matter how great, no matter how smart and advanced a gecko came to be, his or her time was very brief and seemingly insignificant in the bigger scheme of things.

Truth is indeed sometimes stranger than fiction, but Jonny is a gecko determined to uncover the bare, obscure facts behind the mystery of life. Why was he born to this world, only to be whisked away again? Where did he originally come from, and where is he going—if anywhere at all? Did he exist before he arrived on this planet, and will he here after? Is this all for real, or is this some great experiment, or just some kind of a big misunderstanding?

perhaps even a grand opportunity? For what though, Jonny pondered?

This was a commonly shared view among the great mystics Jonny had heard about, that life was a gift, a great opportunity. An opportunity to do what though?

None of these questions appeared to have any definite answers – or at least so Jonny initially thought.

This reminded Jonny of a dream he had where he was standing among thousands, if not millions of geckos, all looking in despair in the same direction, toward the only light visible, in the desperate hope of being singled out, and to be given the chance to get out of the dark and gloomy place. There were geckos as far as the eye could see to the horizon, which is probably why it was referred to as the sea of souls. The throngs of geckos were all very sad and anxious to be freed, and come to think of it, was it in fact a dream, a nightmare, or possibly a recollection from a previous existence?

If so how on earth did he get out? Was it at the mercy of some divine force who heard his pleas and took pity on him? Or perhaps just through a song and a prayer…

1

Jonny leaves home…

An individual with a static view of the world, imprinted upon him by the conditioning of his environment, believes the imprint borne reality.

On a bright, sunny day, Jonny set out from his home in Round Rock Valley on an adventure that was to change life, the way he knew it forever.

Jonny did not lament that he would not see his family and friends again for a long time. The prospect of what lay out there was far too alluring for him to pause for remorse or regret. Besides, recounting the fond memories spent with those he loved was as good as if he were sitting right beside them, basking in the glorious rays of the sun on their favorite rock.

There had been travelers who had come back with intriguing tales of the wide world out yonder. Their anecdotes spoke of places so far, so beautiful and magical, it was at times hard to believe them possible. The most enthralling aspect of it all was that each and every one of the roving geckos seemed to adhere to a common code that appeared to elude most of the geckos Jonny knew.

At this stage, Jonny had not yet been able to work it out yet, but from reading between the lines of what the travelers said, he deduced that the key lay in something similar to what he had heard before Horizons that have been broadened will not regain their original dimensions. This Jonny had heard from one of the travelers and had his nose twitching with intrigue. The mysterious world that only the travelers seemed to know about, he simply had to investigate and discover for himself.

Travelers weren’t considered very smart geckos where Jonny came from, and he thought that the travelers were mostly misunderstood. They were talked of as vagrant drifters and homeless vagabonds who made no significant contributions to the gecko society. A truly smart gecko was considered to be one who learned the appropriate skills required to earn a good and prosperous living. Good, upstanding geckos were to make their homes better than those next door and to raise a family of their own. It wasn’t considered proper to deviate from this social conditioning by a fraction of an iota. There was absolutely nothing objective or flexible in how the now predominantly bourgeois society pompously adhered to this view. Nor did it truly matter whether anyone made their living honestly; as Jonny had discovered, honesty was the best policy, but it was the least likely to be applied. Prosperity was the key here.

This grandiose way of life held little appeal for Jonny, and to him it appeared downright banal. Nor did it make any sense to him that in a place so crowded it was so important to do the same thing that all geckos had been doing for generations on end. Why not move along, spread out a little? The world is a big place. As it was, the competition for food and a home of one’s own had already become so intense that geckos had become apathetic, inconsiderate, and downright nasty toward one another.

Indignant by the seemingly incurable disease that gripped the society he was living in, Jonny stubbornly refused to partake in the avarice that prevailed in his community. He chose instead to do his best to be a positive influence on those with whom he came into contact. Yet surprisingly few seemed to realize his efforts, and to his own bewilderment, Jonny was on occasion accused of hindering the development of others himself. This had him thoroughly puzzled, for how could they not possibly see he was trying to help them? Some folks certainly had a very different way of looking at things. To say that beauty lay in the eye of the beholder was only the beginning of trying to explain the inexplicable. For so did progress lie in the eye of the beholder, and so did being a positive influence, and so on…

To his utter consternation, Jonny had become increasingly aware that there were few whose motives were noble and sincere. There was much afoot in Round Rock Valley that was fraught with selfish greed for power and personal gain. This seemingly irrevocable trend was becoming all the more evident in the day-to-day life in Jonny’s part of the world. He even noticed a similar cankerous guile spreading to the geckos within his own family. Jonny became progressively fed up with their constant bickering and subjective opinions. It had reached such a level of absurdity that if he did make any kind of success it only sparked more envy and further disputes among some of those close to him.

This saddened Jonny immensely, and it was after another of these all-too-frequent incidences that the importance of exploring the world overshadowed every other inclination he had. With the disturbing thoughts of the general moral decay evident in the world, Jonny set out with grim determination on his journey toward the horizon and on to the wide-open world, leaving behind the place he called home and everything that he held dear. He had set off on a quest to find the true meaning of life. He had become convinced the mystery of life could only be unraveled by those who traveled.

He felt the time was just right. He was old enough to be able to look after himself and young enough to expand his horizons a little more. Things were going quite well for him, but he had to admit he got bored easily. Many of his friends were getting married and starting families. Scary stuff, Jonny thought. Once you go down that path, there ain’t no going back, mate!

He was well aware that he had his shortcomings. At times, it felt as if he had more than his fair share, but getting himself caught in a one-way scenario was definitely one of them. He didn’t like being cornered or being caught in any situation of no return. He liked his space, the freedom to move around and do the things he wanted, when he wanted, and how he wanted. Hooking up with someone was sure going to change all that, unless, of course, the gecko in question complimented things instead of complicating them. Yeah…surely there was hope for the likes of him?

Jonny had walked many a mile by the time the sun had set the sky ablaze with some awesome displays of artwork. With sudden bemusement, Jonny thought that there was absolutely nothing in the world that could ever match the illuminated beauty of the patterns in the sky as the sun makes its decent after a glorious, hot day. While the brilliance of the sky held Jonny’s fascination, a resonant rumbling from the lower part of his body reminded him that it was getting close to dinnertime.

This brought to Jonny’s mind a conversation in which one of the nomadic geckos had told him, No matter where you go, there are always flies and mosquitoes to be found.

This al fresco form of dining was largely frowned upon in his community, but it did not bother Jonny in the least. Fancily dressed-up cuisine only reminded him of the folly that some folks would go through to impress their fellow geckos.

After ridding the world of a dozen or so mosquitoes that were hovering over a stagnant pool, Jonny slicked his tongue over each eye to clear the dust and scurried over to a cluster of rocks for the evening’s rest. Geckos do not have eyelids, so the eye-ball lick was necessary to clear the eyes of dust and give it some moisture.

The journey had thus far been fairly uneventful, a fact that didn’t perturb him in the least. The solitary time gave him the welcome opportunity of uninterrupted peace and tranquility, far away from the hustle and bustle of Round Rock Valley. At moments like these, Jonny took stock of the events in his life and seized the opportunity to become better acquainted with himself. That he had found a temporary shelter from the night was good. That he did not know what the next day would bring was even better.

Dawn awoke him with her usual coy but brilliant spectrum of an awakening world. It was as spectacular, if not more spectacular than a sunset. The cool, fresh morning air brought with it the cheerful and excited chirping of birds in search of their morning meal. Jonny loved the birds…particularly the smaller ones. He knew of incidents in which the bigger variety of birds swept stealthily out of the sky and, at a tremendous speed, snatched a helpless gecko off into never-never-land – that is a place from which they never returned.

Jonny pondered the notion for a moment. Was the real reason why the geckos that never came back, perhaps not simply because they were far happier where they were now? Well, there didn’t seem to be any use in pursuing that line of thought. If he were to be whisked away, and provided he had any choice in the matter, of course, may it rather be from out of the pale blue sky rather than in the bulging belly of a heinous snake.

Snakes were the most feared and hated of all creatures in the gecko community. They would steal out of their hideouts at any time of day or night and plunge Round Rock Valley into sheer terror and mayhem. Once the general order of things returned, the community usually discovered that someone had gone missing during the chaotic frenzy. It wasn’t hard for Jonny to imagine what had happened to these poor geckos. He figured it must be very similar to the way that he and his fellow geckos went about feeding themselves. Not that there could be anything more to an insect than mere food, of course. They were just fodder for the likes of Jonny to feed upon. Surely there was much more to a gecko than there was to a silly, insignificant insect! We geckos are much smarter for starters.

The birds that shared his taste for sustenance did so in more than one way. They could hop and skip along the ground similar in the way he did, but when they were fluttering fussily about, Jonny knew it was a clear signal that there was bound to be a good morsel nearby to satisfy his appetite. Their exited cries lured Jonny out of his shelter on this bright morning, and he crept furtively to a vantage point where he could wait out his morning meal. It did not take long until he was filled to contentment and was once again merrily on his way, farther along on his journey of intrigue and adventure.

The travelers he’d met earlier spoke of both fascinating and treacherous events that they had encountered in their long journeys. It occurred to Jonny that, in the way that his fellow geckos exaggerated and altered the facts, so might the travelers be doing the same thing. Well, there was only one way to find out, and find out he will.

In the stories of how geckos came to be, there were different views, beliefs, and versions of the truth. Geckos placed so much importance on their viewpoint that bitter feuds erupted as a result of their ludicrous arguments. This was all very much beyond Jonny’s grasp, but he strongly suspected that these geckos had severe difficulty practicing