Letters from the Afterworld
T.L. Orcutt
 The third novel in The Path of Return Trilogy, Letters from the Afterworld, begins with Rickshaw reminiscing about his wedding to Crystal Meadows a year before. Crystal is an almost blind fortuneteller, daughter of Carmela de Avila, and a former apprentice on the Path of Return. The event brought together the five members of the Posse, a renegade faction of Sigma Nu Mu at Berkeley. Following a reunion nostalgia that flushes out Rickshaw’s early family life and friends, Rickshaw attends an advertised seance sponsored by Paradigm Research Institute at Kirkwood Inn in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, conducted by a famous medium with a gift for automatic writing. At Kirkwood Inn, he meets new friends and during the seance receives a channeled letter for his friend Murdock. According to the afterworld letter, Murdock is on a soul recall list of people whose souls prematurely inhabited their selected bodies this time around on planet Earth. Besides Murdock, other friends of Rickshaw and Crystal have dreams of similar recall letters and incur near fatal illnesses and accidents to ensure they will comply with the letters’ intentionally vague instructioins. Rickshaw and Crystal try to get a hold of Jamayah who is on another sailing adventure in Cabo San Lucas. Jamayah seems reluctant to respond, but eventually gets word to Rickshaw to seek out Raoul - destination unknown. Eventually desperate, Rickshaw travels to Tijuana to find Raoul. Surprisingly, Juan (an acquaintance in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return), finds Rickshaw and takes him to his brother’s (Carlos) mobile home at Rosarita Beach. Juan informs Rickshaw that Jamayah believes hybrid souls (souls who formerly incarnated on an alien planet), are exploiting humans for enzymatic blood transfusions. The hybrid souls’ former embodied lives limited their current metabolism, which translates to a shorter life span and more illnesses. The tradeoff is they have amazing psychic powers. Juan knows because he is a hybrid soul himself, once healed by Jamayah, who we discover was a restoration master (one who prepares souls for return) between embodied lives. Stakes are raised when Murdock and Rattlesnake Dan are kidnapped and a ten year old son of Crystal’s friend is murdered. Rickshaw, Jamayah, SBL, Weird Willie, Raoul, Juan, Apollo, and a modern day Billy the Kid mobilize the Cosmic Rangers and drive to Mexico to find Murdock and Rattlesnake Dan. After finding a torched police car and three dead policemen, they discover a sustainable society of thousands of hybrid souls living underground, and with a medical clinic for the enzymatic blood transfusions that will extend their longevity and restore the health of their soul-race. As becomes necessary, all of the hybrid souls are in instant communication with each another by telepathy. The Cosmic Rangers manipulate Wasabi Kuroda, spokesperson for the hybrid clan, to give them an underground tour to check the condition of Murdock and Dan. Once inside and entrapped behind vault doors, where they find their friends drugged for the transfusion, a war begins between the formidable hybrid forces armed to the hilt and the Cosmic Rangers. Fighting their way out with explosives and automatic weapons, the Cosmic Rangers escape above ground where the last bloody battle gives way to freedom and justice for all. The Cosmic Rangers return home to their various lifestyles. Jamayah goes on another fishing voyage. Five years pass and Rickshaw visits Naomi, the crone psychic. She informs him that Jamayah, Bamboo II, and the captain died when Zephyra, (the yacht), capsized in a storm. She also informs him that she has less than a year to live herself because of diabetes. In the end, Carmela visits Rickshaw and tells him that Jamayah visited her after his death with the information that Rickshaw is also a hybrid soul, but not to worry. Jamayah has taken care of all the karmic repercussions. Rickshaw and Crystal should live a healthy, long, and wonderful life.