posted February 08, 2012 08:09 PM
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
By Max Ehrlich
1974Pg. 194-195
As he drove, he thought of himself and Jeffrey Chapin. Their karmic resemblance was remarkable. Bits and pieces of the puzzle became clear now. There was the matter of the strange and painful attacks he would sometimes get in his hip. He knew the answer to that now. And the Prison Dream. Of course it hadn’t been a prison at all. It had been a teller’s cage at the Puritan Bank. Now the cage was separated from the public area by a glass partition. But at one time it must’ve been protected by bars or some kind of iron grill. The fact that he dreamed he was counting money spoke for itself.
He knew now that, as Jeffrey Chapin, he had died on September 25, 1946. As Peter Proud, he had been born on October 10 of that same year. It had been a quick reincarnation.
And, of course, there was the Baby Dream. In his previous incarnation he had been the father of a three-month-old baby daughter, Ann. He and his daughter would be about the same age now. Or, to be accurate, his daughter, if alive, would be three months older than he was.
He came down the long slope, and at the foot of it he saw a gas station. It was drizzling now. He got out and went into the telephone booth in the station parking lot. A Riverside directory hung from a chain. He fumbled through the pages, his fingers trembling. He turned to the names beginning with “C”.
Then he found it, as he had known he would.
Chapin Ann-16 Vista Drive-341-2262
Chapin Marcia-16 Vista Drive-341-2262
Without thinking, he dropped a coin into the slot and dialed the number. A woman’s voice answered, soft, melodious, a little blurred.
“Hello?”
He did not answer. He couldn’t. Say it to yourself and see how foolish it sounds. “My name is Peter Proud. I’m the reincarnation of your dead husband. The man you murdered at Lake Nipmuck…”
“Hello? Hello? Who is this?”
He hung up.