A Thin Slice of Heaven was a complex book to write because every scene has more than one meaning and more than one context. This includes the intimate love scenes which take place between Charleigh, who is stranded in a castle in Northern Ireland and Sean, a man who died more than a hundred and fifty years earlier.
In the first intimate scene, Charleigh questions how physical love can even be possible:
When her palm reached his face and her
fingers followed the line of his jaw, she asked hesitantly, “How is it that I
can—?” She stopped herself. Maybe she didn’t want to know. Maybe if she knew,
he would disappear and she would be left alone in this massive castle. Perhaps
if he wasn’t here, the moon and the stars would seem to disintegrate as well
until she was left with nothing but the inky blackness of a night that would feel
too long and too painful to endure.
He placed his hand atop hers. “I am not
going anywhere. I swear to you.”
Their faces were inches apart. The heat from
his body was immense. She could see the fine pores in his skin, the individual
hairs on his brow, the smiling lips that beckoned to her to kiss them.
“Do you know what an aura is?” he asked.
“You mean like colors around a person? A
halo?”
He shrugged. “It is—a bit more like an
energy field. Close your eyes.”
She didn’t want to close them. She
didn’t want to tear her eyes from his face. “Promise you won’t go away?”
He brought her hand to his lips and
kissed it. “I promise.”
As she closed her eyes, he continued,
“Can you feel your skin?”
“Just where you’re touching me.”
“And if I were not touching you? Say,
the skin on your neck. Do you feel it there?”
She giggled. “No.”
“Then you cannot truly feel where your
body ends, can you?”
She lay motionless for a moment. “No.”
“The truth is, m’ dear, you do not end
at your skin. Your presence reaches beyond it. There is an energy field that
encircles you.” A moment later, he said, “Do you feel anything different now?”
“I—oh, it’s my imagination.”
“Tell me.”
“I—”
“Keep your eyes closed now.”
“I feel a warmth.”
“Where?”
“Just above my torso.”
“Be more specific.”
“Between my neck and my breasts.”
“Open your eyes.”
She opened them slowly. He had shifted
soundlessly until his torso lay inches from hers and just above her. His shirt
gapped open until it stopped just an inch from her.
“My energy field is far greater than yours
just now,” he went on. “I can regulate it. When I do not wish to be seen, I can
pull back.”
As she watched, he began to fade from
view. “No,” she blurted. She thrust her hand out to pull him back but her
fingers went straight through him. She felt a burst of energy pulse through her
fingertips, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.
“When I do want to be seen,” he continued calmly,
returning to a state as clear as she saw herself, “I can become like flesh and
blood.”
Spoiler Alert: If you have not read the book, stop here.
Toward the end of the book, Charleigh realizes that she was Sean's wife in a previous incarnation. Part of her process of dying and passing through the veil to the other side meant reuniting with her one great love - her soul mate. It is through his undying love for her coupled with the intimate moments that can only be uniquely shared between two people that awaken memories within her.
When they meet on the parapet as two spirits at the end of the book, they discuss this intimacy:
“This was all part of our plan?” she asked.
“Aye. We discussed it in great detail.”
“Then why don’t I remember it?”
“It is amnesia; yes, it can affect you
here just as it could on the other side. You have been through quite a shock.
When you returned as Charleigh, you could not recall your life as my wife at
all. You had to live as Charleigh Dircks. It has been only a few days since you
arrived here; only days since you passed over. Everything will come back to you,
I promise; every last memory… in time.”
She nodded wordlessly, allowing his
words to sink into her consciousness. “You’ll help me remember?” she said at
last.
“Of course I will, just as you helped me
when I passed well over a hundred years ago.”
“And the sex—” she began tentatively.
Sean laughed out loud, a boisterous
laugh that shook them both. “Ah, yes. In the days before you left for your
incarnation as Charleigh, it consumed all our time. You made me promise to make
love to you as soon as you passed through the veil—a promise,” he hastened to
add with a lopsided grin, “—that I was more than happy to oblige.”
“I remembered things when we made love,”
she said, a blush creeping into her cheeks.
“I hope you remembered our love for one another.
That is what I wanted you to remember most of all—that our love transcends time
and place so that you would want to return to me.” A Thin Slice of Heaven is many things to many people. Those who have lost loved ones have contacted me, letting me know how much comfort there has been in reading this book. Each of us has felt a loved one after they have passed over; each of us have heard their voice, if only for a moment and only in a whisper... Each of us has spotted something that had meaning to us both: a particular type of sunrise or sunset, birds or animals we enjoyed - in Charleigh's case, it was the butterfly suncatcher. Each of us has felt that brush past us, that feeling that someone was at our shoulder, watching over us, and that inspiration that led us somewhere we least expected.
That is what this book is about... It is the eternal love; the soul that never dies.
Buy A Thin Slice of Heaven in paperback at any fine book store, or online at amazon. It is also available in Kindle, Nook, in iBooks and all other eBook formats.
