BOOMERANG EFFECT

Continuation of the  chapter 6

Marie-Claude, my beginning of Paradise!

We were then only in October or November, but we were already hoping for spring renewal. We all the more clearly hoped that the day of the appointment at this "monsignor" had arrived. He was working just behind the Saint-Lazare station in Paris, in the basement of a tiny shop that served as a waiting room. According to his "tests", we were obviously part of his heavily fraught customers... but he was going to be victorious.

I must admit that his explanations corresponded quite well to my understanding of certain forces subject to physical laws, but his way of acting seemed to me far-fetched on the moment. However, the morale somewhat returned with this possible departure in Venezuela, the theatrical behavior of this man was not likely to harming us, at least it seemed to us then. We therefore expected to regain health for Marie-Claude, as well as the resources of success in the work for me. We were not, however, eager to spy on our slightest doings and did not really see the first paranormal phenomena, which were soon to multiply.

We first received repeated anonymous calls two, three, four times a day. We got it, and no one answered. Me too you will say, I have already received this kind of anonymous call, sick persons, children... As you, we did not attach any importance to their beginnings. The phenomenon lasted long enough in my opinion before Marie-Claude and I began to make the connection with sensations of discomfort that followed. In the first place, we simply forbade the children to answer the phone, giving as pretext our financial difficulties and possible bailiff's calls.

When we have been at this stage, other manifestations of a more surprising character did not delay and the first was for me. One night, about two o'clock in the morning, I got up very banal to go to the toilet, and took advantage as often, to go for a drink of water at the tap of the kitchen. Scarcely had I crossed half of this room, far from any object, I received what I could call a "Punch" in the jaw, which deformed me the mouth and left me full of tingling in the cheek. I was stunned! I looked around, nothing! So I went back to bed without really understanding.

I think besides I did not tell anyone about it at the time. What would you have done in my place? It seemed so astounding to me at the moment that I almost fancied I had dreamed. I obviously knew that was not the case, but how to explain such absurdity to someone "sensible" who does not believe in paranormal phenomena.

I do not know if I have to say fortunately for me, a few days later the phenomenon was going to be openly confirmed while no one slept in the circumstance. We had gone out one evening, Marie-Claude, the children and I, and returned after dinner at home, when another incident left us all speechless, while with certainty, we were well awake this time. Nothing could allow us to assume anything, and each in turn passed our clothes in the large dressing of the entrance, without us being aware of any anomaly whatsoever. Marie-Claude was the last to put down her garment, but when she wanted to close the door more than half open, she could not move it. A little like I had reacted the night of the punch, she did not insist due to the lack of understanding and went to the bathroom door. Like for the dressing door, it was beating at the slightest draft, and just like the first door, we had left it half open. Again: Impossible to move it! Not even a centimeter! Her surprise was growing, so she braced herself! But the door still did not move. She called me, I turned around and closed it as usual???

At the next rendezvous with this "Monsignor," we spoke to him of our astonishing experiences. He did not seem surprised, but on the contrary pleasantly comforted. He explained to us that it was the evil spirits who were fighting in front of the good, not wanting to give way, but that if they behaved already in this way, all hope was of course permitted. It must be said that he was making us incense the house of the basement to the attic, of a mixture of herbs with a blackish paste rather badly odorous which, nevertheless was spreading a not too unpleasant odor to burn. He had besides told us that he was going himself to look for this precious commodity in Egypt. As for him, he was a nice man, very open, not at all Professor Calculus, but on the contrary very good appearance and even talking about his family experiences in all simplicity.

For three or four months when the phenomena went on increasing, we passed then by various scenarios. It was for example in the style heartbeat in the wall that each one sometimes heard several tens of minutes. In another style, it happened one night to Christophe, to be awakened by the vibrations of the bars of his bed. He had seven or eight vertical bars at the head and foot of his bed that had all started to vibrate without any explanation. He then turned on the light, sat on the edge of his bed and lit a cigarette until the phenomenon stopped. Another time, Marie-Claude, who had put his clothes on a large wicker basket in the bathroom and entered quietly in the bathtub, heard a rustling that made her turn around. It was only her clothes that had flown away from the basket, although all the exits were closed and no draft swept the room.

I miss out to you many details little edifying, because it lasted all this winter 87/88, but surprisingly, we felt no fear, we laugh even frequently of it. On the other hand, we were rather easily irritated and irritable, not in the face of all these phenomena, but as lacking patience with all the circumstances of life.

The anonymous calls, however, continued to arrive and the more time passed, the more we were challenged by these sensations of discomfort that followed. We started not laughing any more, but wanted to have a clear mind about it. Without having warned Christophe of the sensations of discomfort that we seemed to observe after these phone calls, we let him one day answer banally. As usual he said hello, hello, nothing! He hung up.

An hour later, he, who was already a tendency of asthmatic form, fell into respiratory failure, to a point that we almost had the phone in hand to call the Samu (Emergency medical service), when the discomfort dissipated on its own. This time, we really seriously took the telephone phenomenon, and from that day on, I only, believing myself stronger than the others, picked up the phone without speaking any more. Soon, I realized that instead of hanging up quickly as it was before, our interlocutor, remained longer and longer on the phone. The more days passed and the more I could even noticed his breath. A few days later, a week, two at most, he or she persisted for several minutes with sighs of anger, which ended almost with grunts of wrath. Some may be able to imagine something else, but it was quite anger. This was the last time we had this kind of phone call. The manifestations ended one evening with a loud noise, while there were four of us watching television. I cannot tell you which ones besides Marie-Claude and me were present, when we had the impression that half of the house collapsed. Distraught, we rushed all with a same leap toward the rooms from where the noise came and there as usual: Nothing! Not even the shadow of a draft!

With the exception of the evening when Christophe had felt this discomfort, Marie-Claude had remained a spectator of all this without really believing too much it, even for what she had lived herself. If I personally had the hard head to accept God, she, for this kind of occult phenomena, had it just as hard as me.

Several months passed before she spoke to a colleague and friend by chance. The latter believed not only what Marie-Claude told her, but she confirmed her existence of the practices that she had herself experimented in that sense. It was only then that Marie-Claude began not only to assume that all this could have been real, but also began to be afraid of it. However, we had to go through another path that I will not tell you in order not to discredit anyone. This time Marie-Claude saw. Yes you read well, because it had to happen to see to believe, like Thomas for Jesus, except that it was no longer about Jesus.

At the beginning of January eighty eight, we left side all these “absurdities” and left both towards Venezuela. During our absence which was going to last three weeks, mom on our premises came to keep the children. Sabine had only just ten years and Sebastian eight years and half. We flew away with the promise which we were going to prepare the arrival of all the family. Useless thus to say you, that as from this moment at the house, each one was going to live at the Venezuela hour in waiting of our calls and our return.

There we joined our friend Felipe, who was spending a few weeks off, happy to be in the warm sun of his dear country. So, once again, we sought to combine business with pleasure, for the original purpose was of course the work.

Given that everything, absolutely everything, seemed so nice and unexpected, I do not know what else to say to you. From the meetings with embassy attachés and industrialists, until all the various human contacts we had with the family and several of Felipe's friends, not to mention our travels to the very edge of the Amazon, everything attracted us to come back . We felt truly: At home! The climate of Maracaibo, where we normally had to settle, was certainly quite hot, because this city is located at sea level, but it was not too painful for Marie-Claude that I had the pleasure to see for the first time, happy to take a swim on a beach. I'm not telling you there will not be others, but for her, she needs these latitudes to be able to bathe, unless it's in his bathtub.

I take the opportunity to tease her a little while she cannot answer me. In Caracas as in Maracaibo, there were very good French colleges for our children. The potential clientele, although often of foreign subsidiaries, was certainly not as abundant as in France, but existed at least as a potential market. Other French laboratory contacts also allowed me to consider a good opening on Sao Paulo in Brazil, so everything seemed advisable. We had all the necessary, potential customers, technical potential, correct schools, country in which we would have liked to live, the doors could finally open...

On our return to Evreux, the whole family without exception was waiting for us. Everyone saw themselves in the plane except "the little Nono", as we still called Sebastian at the time. He had seen on television several plane crashes the previous months, so he had no confidence in this means of transport, he was more reasonable, he was going to fabricate himself wings.

As soon as I returned, I set about on duty to find industrialists, to create a partnership in the image of the company I had lived for some time. I was happy to live not far from the station, because we had favored the budget Venezuela to the vehicle budget. So we walked on foot, except exceptionally for long journeys when mom could lend me her car.

Thus, shortly after our return, we went down to town one day on foot, and met Nathalie, the little Nathalie who was part of this group of friends, at the beginning of our marital life with Marie-Claude. We had a little lost her of sight, she and Dominique, the two inseparable friends and I will not hide that I was then very happy because a time had come where they both somewhat annoyed me. We gave them a kiss on the cheek, because the kiss on the cheek, it's one thing... but that is what Nathalie began to talk about God, like that, almost out of the blue on the sidewalk, to reach everybody's ears and with great enthusiasm. Ah! Really! It was missing her only that; was I thought then!

When we left them, my opinion was made about their motivations for talking to us about God. It was they, who undoubtedly had bad practices against us, and they felt the need to justify themselves.

A month passed without anything settling down in our situation. We always walked on foot, when again, in the same circumstances as before, you'll never guess: Nathalie! And again, the same conversation and the same enthusiasm: God! So, it was too much! It was obvious! No need to be diviner! I joined Dominique and Nathalie, Nathalie and Dominique, and one should never again talk to me about them two.

At that time, however, Marie-Claude and Dominique, although of inverse shift, worked both in the same department at the hospital and therefore continued to have contacts followed together. We thus knew that in her service, she had some difficulties of integration, which came in confirmation of my opinion.

The weeks passed and the industrial partners deferred their answer. As Bolivar was not an attractive currency for speculators, most remained undecided. Everyone of course agreed to go through my intermediary to sell, especially since they had no representation on the spot, but very few agreed to invest a little bit in advance. Only one was too late to allow me to wait any longer. In parallel to these contacts, around April 15, 1988, seeing that nothing seemed to be decanted, I began to look for a salaried job by the never-ending classifieds.

Towards the end of April, perhaps even a little earlier, I was challenged by one of these one, which corresponded perfectly to Dominique's profile and wishes. Go find out why, me who did not want to meet anymore, neither Nathalie nor Dominique, I was animated that day by an intense desire to bring her the few lines of this job advertisement? What's more, she was, on sick leave, and since she lived with a friend ten kilometers away, I do not remember how we went without a vehicle, but still, that afternoon we met her. We only spoke very little about the announcement, but a lot of what they both lived with Nathalie. We talked of the gospel, of "meetings" in which they praised God around a meal, of nonsense in a few kinds for me. I always knew so firmly, that Jesus had been an alien.

If I am honest, a few months earlier, when we had started going to that lady's house near Le Mans, who had sent us to that monsignor's, I had started saying prayers again. I even remember once when mom had lent me her Renault 9 to go to Lyon, on the way back, namely about five hundred kilometers, I had all along, but all along, recited the "Our Father " and " Hail Mary ". It was, I confess, much more by superstition than by belief, because I was always convinced that God did not exist, but Mary, that of "Hail Mary", at least mine, that of the time, was also in all likelihood, an extraterrestrial.

After the visit we had paid to Dominique, I had understood one thing, it was neither of them who was trying to hurt us. On the other hand, Nathalie, who was not yet a nurse but sometimes did some minor replacements at the hospital, was not working at that time. She had all her days of freedom, and came more and more frequently to visit us. Since I was almost always at home, it was with me that she spoke the most. Yet, just as I had acted towards them, thinking about them both very badly, on their side, they had made the decision to speak about the gospel to Marie-Claude, certainly, but especially not to Alain.

There, contrary to their decision, just as I had done in bringing this announcement to Dominique, every week and every day a little more, Nathalie was coming to talk to me about it. She was certainly combative little Nathalie, but I was not easily taken even so. It was of course all that was most friendly, but I was not going to deny my opinions and sincerity! One day without my being able to express the why or the how, I cannot say a certainty, nor even an intelligence, nor a hope, no, none of this, but I "KNEW", that three weeks later, exactly such day, something would happen to me that WOULD TURN UPSIDE DOWN my life. I would not know say otherwise, but it was so, I knew.

Around May 15, just a week after "I knew", Nathalie invited us to a breakfast of "Businessmen of the full gospel" in Meudon. The businessmen, that was suitable to me to the rigor. Was not I besides a little? I said to myself, we said to ourselves: What are we risking? We were no more to a few tens of francs, with all the debts that accumulated from day to day! And then, coincidentally, it was the same day, that to my certainty my life would be upset. I thought then to an unexpected encounter, who knows, maybe any sponsor???

On the eve of this famous day, Nathalie, again her, visited us at about seven o'clock. If I remember well, we had to be on May twenty-eight. According to our new habits, we began to converse on our favorite subject: God! I wonder now, what we could tell us during all these hours. How much did I had to be obstinate, and how much had she to be persevering and combative...

That evening she stayed for dinner with us as from time to time and the conversation continued. No doubt because it was a Friday and nobody was working the following day, Marie-Claude and Christophe came to join us even longer than usual. That's how this evening soon became three o'clock in the morning on Saturday, May 29th, 1988.

I think it was during this evening that she testified us a miraculous healing, which she had been witness or had only heard about, but it does not matter. A ninety-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease walked curved, her body bent in half. The organizers of this meeting, people like you and me, had proposed at the end of the meal, to pray for the healing of the sick and this lady had advanced towards them. From the beginning of their prayers she had fallen without hurting herself, and after she had got up, she was no longer curved to return to her place. A few moments later, it seems to me, she had returned toward the same people so that they would pray again for her, fell again without pain, and got up again this time without Parkinson's disease. She had drunk her coffee in front of them, without trembling, without spilling a drop...

I was perhaps slightly skeptical, but one thing is certain, my remark had been then: "Then really, of a God like that, I want it well! ". It was for me on that moment only a joke, a "you speak, of course that a God like that everyone wants it well," but I had nevertheless been challenged. That had not happened in a specific place to which it was granted a supernatural value, had not been mentioned in the newspapers... No! Just between friends, between simple people, no need for superman with special powers. People like you and I had prayed to God in the name of Jesus, and God had answered with a miracle...

I cannot guarantee to you how much time I stayed then on this reality perceived in banal way as to its conclusion, to know "that a God like this one, I wanted it well". I am not even absolutely certain that she had brought it back to us only a few hours before, why not even a few days, it does not matter at all, one thing was conceivable: "A God like this one, me, I would wanted it'. I do not say that I realized then that God could exist, no, still not, but well in the sense funny and good child: "So yes, ah, ah, ah!" In this case, I'm up for that! “.

One was no longer presented a dead God who imposed his will with harshness, at which he had to please by wearying and hypocritical practices, but on the contrary an acting God. A living God; with all the importance that always had life for me. A God who, today as yesterday, was doing miracles again and again. From that one: Yes! I wanted it, but still it had to exist!

I think that when I accepted that, everything went very quickly in me, and I suddenly realized, as if by enchantment that...

But let's think a bit as I realized then in that instant: Even though Jesus had been an alien, as I had claimed so many times, that was actually only proving that he knew how to easily do it, there is already two thousand years, what we, for our part, we can only do on the moon since a few decades and for my part, I do not know yet to do at all. So, if he had come from another planet to teach us the precepts to follow, how much, all the more reason, should we trust Him; given His ahead on us!

When I realized this, in an instant I measured all my absurdity, all my incredulity, and at the same time pronounced with joy this short sentence to Nathalie's attention: "But yes! You are right! No matter who might have been Jesus; That He had been a man or an extra-terrestrial, which is important: It is to follow His precepts".

I was then only talking, only intellectually understand something obviously new, like I had sometimes understood math problems or understood a fact of the history of France.

I was sitting there in this big settee, Marie-Claude on my right, Christophe in an armchair on my left, Nathalie slightly on my right, almost in front of Marie-Claude. Nothing was more alike for all of us at this moment than at another moment, especially considering the time that was advancing. However! At the very moment when I finished this sentence, at this precise moment, without expecting it, miraculously, yes miraculously I can say it, I was invaded, as overwhelmed by an immense wave of happiness and I had the open mouth to say three words that I was not going to understand.

I was living what is biblically called "Baptism in the Holy Spirit".

I did not know the existence of it yet and I had still less the understanding of it, but God gave Him to me, Jesus gave Him to me, because I agreed to follow His precepts. I, the impious one, who had gone so far as to prostitute my body, who had betrayed God Himself and flouted at His Son Jesus Christ, me because I agreed to follow His precepts, He baptized me with the Holy Spirit.