Posted by Bruce Moen on August 28, 2001 at 11:05:30:
To All,

Cheryl, the Asheville, NC workshop participant who visited with Jay in the account below, asked that I post her account of her first retrieval exercise. There's so much detail in this one that perhaps she'll be able to verify some of it in the future. If so, perhaps she'll have some clues about a previous lifetime with Charlie, the Helper in this exercise Cheryl believes to be her deceased husband, Dave, in her present lifetime. Interesting food for thought . . .

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Cheryl's First Retrieval Exercise

Sunday 8/19/01 First meeting with Helper

I was in a large barn looking out toward a corral when I first saw him standing just outside the wide, open doorway. He was dressed in tan leather chaps, dusty, dark brown boots with silver spurs, a red shirt and scarf and light-colored, wide-brimmed hat. He was also sporting a beautiful silver and turquoise belt buckle. He held a coil of rope loosely in his left hand with the end, which he kept twirling, in his right hand.
When I walked over toward him and said, "Hi!" He told me his name was Charlie Grant but that his friends called him Curly. He pushed his hat back a bit on his forehead and I then saw the reddish brown curls that kept slipping out from under its brim. Just behind him I could see a corral full of horses that seemed to keep moving skittishly from one side to the other. I was transfixed by a gorgeous white stallion. We walked closer to the corral to get a better look at them. I saw his dark palomino mare, Dolly, saddled and tied to a side rail. Charlie put his right foot on the lower rail and leaned on his elbows over the top rail to show me a couple horses that he had just acquired. He said he was a horse trainer and trader. I found myself hanging on his every word -- he had the most engaging grin and blue eyes.
Next he told me that he had a friend, Pete, that we were going to see. Pete was a prospector that had a claim called the Lost Creek Mine some distance from the ranch. I looked about -- the surroundings were very dry, hot and dusty. There were low pines and a few boulders strewn about.
Charlie then saddled a horse for Pete -- a sorrel mare named Rusty. I told him I wanted to ride Cloud, the white stallion, bareback! Cloud seemed to recognize me as I entered the corral and I vaulted seamlessly onto his back. Next, I was riding Cloud bareback over the trail with Charlie leading the riderless Rusty.
When we finally arrived at Pete (Bratcher's) mine at Lost Creek, he met us with a shotgun aimed right at us until we got closer. Then he seemed to recognize Charlie and his own mare, Rusty, whom he seemed overjoyed to see. Charlie said, "What happened, Pete?" and Pete told him about some claim jumpers that had arrived a week ago with guns blazing and frightened of his horse whom he had already loaded with ore he had planned to have assayed in Culver City. With his horse gone and fearful that Stu Mitchell and his gang might return, Pete said he had stayed at the mine to scare off any others who might come by. But then he winked and said the gun was just for show because he was all out of shot.
Charlie said, "Well, let's go then!" and we were off on horseback to Culver City. It was there we found the assay office on the Main St boardwalk with a sign in the window that said Jake Owens, prop. It was on the end and right next to Penelope's Dry Goods. Pete walked in and Jake, behind a counter, said, "Well, Pete, you ol' rattlesnake! How you been?"
And Pete replied,
"Oh, fair to middlin' I guess, Jake. But say, I brought ya somethin'" and with that he drew a couple of small leather pouches from his shirt. Jake winked at me -- which I interpreted as my cue to leave. I turned to Charlie and asked him if I could borrow Cloud for one more ride. He nodded and I vaulted onto him once again.
We took off for a familiar, favorite place near a stream in the hills with birches lining the river bank. I slid off and let Cloud drink his fill. He stopped suddenly and his head came up with a jerk, ears twitching as though he were listening for something.
Charlie was there again ...coming through the trees behind us. I asked hm why I was chosen to help him retrieve Pete. He just flashed that familiar, engaging grin and said, "Rowena, we both know the answer to that!"
Then I saw the house and ranch home that we had shared. Charlie pulled out a worn, folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket. It was a Homestead claim deed dated 1861 and signed by Jake Owens in Culver City -- though it felt like the current year was around 1869.
I told him next that I wanted to see the library if possible. Charlie laughed again and said, "Rowena, you haven't changed a bit! You always did have your nose in a book." Next we were on the steps leading up to a massive stone building. Once inside, I told him I wanted to see either a Secrets or Mysteries of the Universe book. Charlie said once I found it, all I had to do was hold the book in my hands and the knowledge would be mine. I thanked him and told him I had to leave right then but that I would be back soon.
Once back, I really regretted that I had to cut this whole scene short. It was all so REAL -- some of those scenes were so vivid I could feel the heat and taste the dust from the horses hooves as we galloped toward that assay office. I also had the strongest feeling that Charlie was actually Dave. Oh, and I also saw myself in a mirror at that ranch house. As Rowena, I was a pretty, long-haired blond with blue-eyes and at that point was wearing a cotton dress with small cape-cuffed (from the elbow) sleeves -- it was a pink floral print, with a narrow waisted, long, slightly flared skirt. The detail throughout this entire experience was amazing!
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End of Cheryl's First Retrieval Account