Two Moons is a new novel by J. Raymond Ractliffe that explores the inner spirit life of Africa, her people and their powerful faith in the world of the Unseen.
The hazy sleep protecting Jeremy since his arrival home finally parted, the mists becoming thinner as the outside world materialized once more from behind the veil of pain. Claire's beautiful face seemed to hover endlessly over him no matter what time he surfaced to watch the rainbow colours that streamed through the window panes onto the white plastered walls around him. Behind Claire's loving comfort and the dreams of his carefree youth, the ominous presence of quiet terror stalked his mind. Whispers of hot breath tearing at him would wake him with a start, the smell of blood and his own chilling fear leaving his skin wet with perspiration as he fought back the memories that came to haunt his playful dreams. Each nightmare began with him falling in endless swirling darkness, a quiet evil waiting for him below that never moved. It was his own single scream that he feared the most. Many men on the battlefields of Some returned to their war ravaged families, whole in their bodies but scarred in their minds. They were welcomed home with grand parades, well slapped backs and a pint of bitter stood at every turn. Songs were sung at local bars where the night time lights masked the searing flames that rode within. When the bands stopped playing and the taverns were closed, no one else heard the bombs still falling or the comrades pulled from water filled craters, a single limb at a time. Where does a mind put scenes of barbed wire fences lining the long pathways where the old and young in their striped uniforms, held on to each other and their dreams, as black uniforms and violins closed the heavy shower doors on their simple lives. Memories of fire emblazoned skies now mingled with the fresh visions of stalking death. Like a weight scale that had finally tipped over, Jeremy's easy smile had vanished beneath a now silent mask. His mind had began to fight the comfort of the morphine, it allowed the shadows to slip through his sunshine dreams where the nightmares sprung to haunt him. Claire would now wake in the night to find Jeremy staring at the glittering stars that played outside their windows. His eyes darting from side to side as it replayed endlessly in his restless mind. She had noticed his hand twitching as he lay reliving the battles. Each time the lion bit down on his shoulder or he heard the hyena's brutal laugh as it tore at his swollen foot, his hand would twitch to push the terrible pain away. Jeremy's battle had not ended under the tree. It had followed him home where every vivid scene gripped him in terrible fear. Like a trickling river water running endlessly over polished stones, the memories spilled over into his night time dreams. No drought would come to stop their flow. These nightmares would be fed by new lifelong springs.
Chapter 40
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