When a Tear Falls

by Peter B. Forster

Volume 2: The One Soul: When a Tear Falls The day Lightning tore through a clear blue sky changed everything. Joseph a psychologist working with learning disabled adults and their parents sits in his office on the edge of Victoria Park in East London contemplating his day. He is tired and although now recovered from a motor cycle accident that for more than two weeks left him hovering between life and death he has struggled to re-adjust. Joseph worries his level of commitment is less than it once was. Since the accident he has been visited by night terrors. But when he first awoke from the coma he was convinced these dreams had a basis in reality. He believed he had been thrown out of his body and catapulted into a parallel world where he learned about his destiny as a ‘One Soul’ and his role in the continual redress of balance between good and evil; light and dark. After work as he walks through the park to his car the sky is torn in two. A large tear tumbles to the ground and suddenly he is confronted by an old friend: A dream no more. Lightning is real. A living breathing creature and proof that quantum physics is more than just a theory. Also and quite naturally he is a talking, flying horse. He has come to take Joseph back through a portal and into a parallel world where they will try to rescue the other ‘One Soul’ Lady Karina or Cora as she has become-from the clutches of Ben-the damaged son of their good friend Morag. In this tale Joseph is forced to endure frostbite-near drowning, combat with the legion of the damned, as well as the very Devil himself-as Ben’s wildest paintings take on lives of their own and wreak havoc on the world. Unbeknown to Joseph and Morag, Ben is in a desperate fight with the devil to reclaim his soul and put everything to rights, including the death of his father. Joseph and his companions eventually confront God in the cave of the Wolf-dragons and the balance is restored. But not without cost. Meanwhile the appearance of a flying horse ridden by a well known psychologist over the streets of London does not go unnoticed. Via camera phone and news media it sweeps the world. This leads to a horrifying series of near disasters for Joseph’s wife Kiera, a surgeon at the Royal London Hospital. She has to fight for her life after her home is invaded by a sleazy investigative reporter and is arrested by Commander Mudd a secretive member of the security services, himself possessed by the Devil. Kiera is held captive, interrogated and tortured before the intervention of a kindly old gardener aids her escape. In a parallel story of earlier times, Dogbiddy the little tailor who was able to buy back the family business when the evil Lord Charalambus intervened on his behalf is convinced his old employer, the bully Froggat, was transformed into a fat old frog. Although life has been good for Dogbiddy and his family he cannot rest with this belief on his conscience and embarks on a quest to have the charm removed. Accompanied by the ‘One Soul’ Karina, as well as her handmaid and the redoubtable Mister Wheedle, Dogbiddy the ordinary man turned hero undergoes numerous near death experiences, becomes embroiled in a brutal civil war and finally succeeds in his quest when he and his companions are rescued by the Father Himself and the balance is restored. But not without cost.

466 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2013

About the author

For the past fifteen years I have practiced as a consulting Counselling Psychologist in a busy East London community health setting. Although I have previously been published in academic works and provided chapters in books for counsellors’ psychologists and psychotherapists I have always nurtured a love of and talent for creative writing. Over the years I have attended writer’s workshops, written and performed poetry as well as provided lyrics for jobbing musicians. However I have long harboured the ambition to write full length fiction. And this I am now doing. The plain in simple truth is that I enjoy writing. I always have. Sometimes it feels like the flow of hungry words is never ending and I will be swept right off my feet, carried along on an imaginative stream of unconscious process. But like everybody else I have a life. To some it may seem narrowly defined. Focussed as it is on work, family, writing and music but to others without the opportunity to learn, make relationships build a future and have the freedom to choose it may seem like it is a world of riches. Whilst on most days it really can feel like that to me, on other occasions it can be an effort to maintain enthusiasm: In other words my life is not that much different from many and better than most. I have known tragedy and delight and struggle to account for what might be its unequal measure. But I live, love and am loved so in truth I have to say I am blessed. I hope the same can be said of you.

An example of my academic work can be found in - 'Professional and ethical issues when working with learning disabled clients, in Tribe and Morrissey (eds) Handbook of Professional and Ethical Practice for Psychologists, Counsellors and Psychotherapists. Brunner-Routledge (2005)'