Chapter 9
	Early the next morning, Helen, sitting on the roof of 
Joe's apartment, patiently waited for him to wake up. At last he 
stirred, opened his eyes, rolled out of bed and dressed. Only 
then did she float down through the ceiling into Joe's bedroom. 
	"Wow", said Joe as he noticed her floating down. "So, 
now you can go through things." 
	Helen's feet touched the floor. "Not exactly. Sparky 
eats the things we go through, then afterward restores them as 
they were. 
	Joe pulled the diamond out of his pants pocket. "I've 
had second thoughts about trying to sell this diamond. The 
clerk would want to know where it came from." He handed the 
diamond back to her. "Here. Take it back." 
	She took the diamond in her hand. Joe stared at the 
diamond as it slowly sank into her open hand and vanished. 
	"So . . . How come you're here so early? If you had 
come any sooner, I would have still been in bed." 
	She smiled, but didn't mention her waiting for Joe to 
wake up. "I didn't go home. First I visited the university 
union store. Some people will be a little disappointed that 
now the store's out of cigarettes." Helen grinned. "Then I 
flew to the memorial hospital and secretly cured everyone in 
immediate danger of dying." 
	"Wow! And how long did that take? Did you do any 
surgery? I wonder how much money the store lost on the 
cigarettes. " 
	"I converted the cigarettes to 'Helen's super 
nutritious chocolate covered peanut butter patties'. 
I also converted the cigarette display cases to accurate 
plastic representations of healthy and unhealthy lungs. The 
store didn't lose any money. I made enough of the peanut butter 
patties to exactly pay for the cigs I took away." 
	"Gee, Helen. Don't you know there's no such thing as 
super nutritious chocolate covered peanut butter patties?" 
	She grinned, "Not until I invented them. At the 
hospital, none of the serious patients were in need of surgery. 
Besides, with today's technology, if surgery were the answer, 
they wouldn't be in danger of dying. For most of the patients, 
I only needed to make minor improvements in their metabolism 
and give them the particular nutrients they needed. After 
taking a few minutes to cure the serious patients, I helped 
the other less serious patients." 
	Helen paused, then looked directly at Joe as tears 
began to form in her eyes. "Joe, I want to visit the hospital 
regularly from now on. Two of the patients would have died of 
emphysema. Cig smoking caused their emphysema. I don't want 
anyone else to die from emphysema like my uncle Ed did." 
	Joe stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Helen 
and held her until he felt her move to disengage. As they 
separated, Joe held her shoulders and looked her directly in 
the eyes. "You know, Helen, now that you can do just about 
anything, you can do something to stop people from smoking." 
	Helen's face lit up. "Thanks Joe. You are right! I will 
do something! But right now, I want to give you a present." 
	Helen held out her hands palm up. Joe watched in 
amazement as several tiny copies of musical instruments grew in 
her hands. After a few seconds, Helen handed them over to Joe. 
"I remembered your wishful look when we looked at instruments 
like these last month." 
	Joe smiled his biggest most sincere smile. "Thank you 
Helen. But please don't make a habit of granting my every wish. 
I could get spoiled that way." 
	Helen laughed. "Oops. Perhaps when my powers aren't 
such a novelty, I'll be more careful." 
	Joe grinned. "But since you do have these fantastic 
powers, I have an idea how we can use them to earn some petty 
cash." 
	Helen looked puzzled, and waited for Joe to continue. 
	"Since you can make these tiny instruments, you can 
repair real busted musical instruments and equipment. We can 
repair musical stuff at less than half the price of any 
competitor. How does that sound to you?" 
	Helen laughed. "So now you want me to make full sized 
musical instruments and equipment! Should I start with your 
sound equipment? I can make it a lot lighter now. Do you want 
me to advertise for you?" 
	"Ah, no. Not yet. And I don't need or want the whole 
world to know. I'll just tell a few of my friends on campus, 
and let them know they can tell others about us. I don't want 
this to be a big business. We can ask Bob if he wants in on it 
too. Oops, I'm supposed to call Bob right away." 
	When Joe made the call, Bob answered on the second ring. 
"Hey Joe. I'm sorry I didn't make it out to your place last 
night. I must have forgotten. Well . . . I didn't totally 
forget. I had one heck of a dream about being at your place!" 
	Joe echoed, "A dream?" 
	"Yah. I picked up on Helen's dream. I dreamed she had 
gained all sorts of super powers. Can you imagine? I never 
dreamed impossible things like that before." 
	Joe paused, wondering what he could say. "Eh Bob, did 
you know you left your guitar at my house?" 
	"I don't think so. I think its here."  He looked on the 
shelf where he usually put his guitar. "It's not here!" 
	"That's because it's here." 
	"Thanks for letting me know. Don't yet remember when I 
left it. Why else did you call me?" 
	"You aren't awake yet, are you? Today's our 
World Freedom holiday gig. Do you want to meet us over here, or 
should we come pick you up?" 
	"Might as well come pick me up. I'll be finished with 
breakfast by the time you get here." 
	"Okay. See you in about twenty minutes." 
	When Joe and Helen reached Bob's home, they saw him 
studying his guitar books and swinging on his front porch swing. 
Bob jumped up and gathered his books when he saw them. He then 
dashed out to the white camper truck. Helen opened the door for 
him, and he leaped into the cab. 
	"I've figured out some possible songs for us to do." Bob 
named his candidates and asked them their opinions about it. 
	"Well those are all good classical freedom songs. I like 
the lyrics of some of them. And I want to start off with a couple of songs I just wrote." She handed Bob some music 
sheets. "And here are the music sheets for them." 
	He took the sheets and put them in his folder while still 
looking at her. "Tell me how you came to write these songs." 
	"Remember, on the beach, when Angela felt insulted by 
Joe's comment about Victor's hair? Well, I thought about it, 
and decided to make up songs about insults and friendship and how
it relates to feeling free. 
	Bob looked at the songs she'd just handed him. He nodded 
in appreciation. "Yes. These are good. I'm surprised you didn't 
include some anti-cig songs." 
	Helen nodded her head. "Yes. I wanted to include some, 
but couldn't figure out how to fit them into the freedom theme." 
	"Yes. I see how that would be difficult. You 
said you liked the lyrics of some of the songs I chose. Does that 
mean you won't sing the ones you don't like?" 
	"Which would you rather I do: Change the lyrics of a 
song I don't like, or not sing it?" 
	"I would rather you not sing it of course. If you change 
the lyrics, then you should change the tune also. And of 
course you should sing your own songs first. Which of my songs do 
you like the lyrics to?" 
	"I like 'Designs in the sky', 'Whose birthday is it', 
'Our Country's Birthday", and 'Yankee Doodle'." 
	Bob moved those songs to just below her music sheets. 
After he did this, he asked, "Joe, do you agree with her about 
the choice of songs." 
	"Sure do. I agree with almost everything Helen does of 
course." He smiled at both of them. 
	As Bob closed his folder of music sheets he looked out 
the window. "Here we are at the park already. I wonder if the 
stage will be out by the lake like last year." 
	Joe turned onto the one lane driveway that entered the 
park. "We'll know in a couple of minutes." They followed the 
driveway down and around the park until they reached the parking 
lot by the lake. "Well, look at that! They didn't put the stage 
by the lake, but on the lake! How are we supposed to get out to 
it?" Joe didn't answer his rhetorical question. The arrival of 
a busload of park service employees to the lake dock answered 
his question for him. 
	Joe shook his head once in a "come this way" gesture, 
and led the way down to the dock. 
	As they came to the dock, the park service employees 
prepared a ferryboat for use. After about fifteen minutes, one 
man started the ferryboat's engine, and all but six of the 
employees left the dock to prepare the rest of the park for 
the holiday programs. The remaining six employees stepped onto 
the ferry, and found seats for themselves. One of them took the 
pilot's seat. Immediately after boarding Bob moved to the back 
of the ferryboat where, by standing up, he could get a good 
view of the ferryboat's forward direction. He remained standing 
and supported himself by one of the metal bars connecting floor 
and ceiling. He stared in the direction of the floating stage 
in the middle of the lake. 
	"Hey Bob, are you in a hurry to get to the stage. We 
are early you know. Besides, nothing will happen until we get 
there." 
	Bob replied, but Joe could not hear his reply. 
He Turned to Helen. "I can't hear him. Is it because he's in 
the back of the boat?" 
	"Yes. He said that he's looking at the stage." Let's 
go to him." 
	Bob turned to watch his two friends walk up to him. "I'm 
just thinking about their set up." He pointed to the stage. "It 
looks as if they set up the sound equipment yesterday. One 
advantage of a big gig like this is we don't have to bring any 
of our own sound equipment. Of course the disadvantage of a 
big gig like this is we aren't allowed to use our own more 
familiar sound equipment." Bob grinned. 
	"Maybe I should personally inspect their sound 
equipment to make sure it is up to par." 
	"Helen, We will have plenty of time to do that. We are 
scheduled to begin in about 40 minutes. Although I suspect we 
should just stay out of the way while the park guys run the 
sound checks." 
	"Bet they won't do it as well as you and Helen." 
	"Why Bob, you actually made a compliment." 
	Bob traded glances with Joe. "Oh, you noticed. Actually 
I made it accidentally. Did you like it? If you did, then after 
the concert, I can figure out lots more." 
	"Bob! You surprise me. Are you taking silliness lessons 
from Joe? But you can flatter me some other time. After last
night, I'm sure you will find lots of things to flatter me 
about."
	Bob looked strangely at her, but said nothing. His 
face showed the conflict in his mind. Did Helen really have 
super powers? No, of course not. That's a silly dream! 
	Joe also noticed Bob's discomfort. "Hey Bob, what's 
bothering you?" 
	Bob shook his head, started to say something, then 
shook his head again. He looked toward them and saw that both 
were looking expectantly in his direction. After a few moments, 
Bob said, "Helen, are you . . ." His voice trailed off as he 
found it impossible to continue. 
	"Bob, you didn't just dream about Sparky giving me 
superpowers. Sparky really does exist." 
	Bob shook his head negatively. "That's impossible!" 
	Helen smiled, and pulled her friends into a three-way 
hug. "Let me show you Sparky's story." 
	An image formed in both Joe's and Bob's mind at the 
same time. Musical food in the form of light and motion 
swirled all around them. Helen's silent voice-over carried the 
information they needed to interpret the images. Both Bob and 
Joe feel they are Sparky. They feel the feelings Sparky felt. 
It's as if they are the ones living in the neutron star. 
They live in the neutron star of Sparky's original home. But 
the star will soon collapse into a black hole. It's necessary to 
leave. The neutron star is so close to collapse that to escape, 
everyone must fly directly upward away from the center of 
gravity. It's lucky that we discovered contra-gravity fields 
before final collapse. 
	It's time to leave. One of Sparky's friends tries to 
follow their path. As they fly away from their star, the 
friend is lost from view. 
	The image shifts. Suddenly the neutron star is no 
longer visible, and stars are whizzing by. A dim star appears 
directly in front. They plunge directly into it. The food 
isn't as rich here as at home, but it will do. They slowly 
travel all the way through the star. As they exit the star, 
they hear a music that reminds them of their home star. This 
is impossible. Nothing lives in this section of the galaxy. 
They follow the music trail. There is a slightly thicker 
cloud of matter at its source. Helen's thought explains that 
they are looking at the Earth. They plunge into the cloud 
that contains the source. It's just ahead of us. The music 
stops. No matter, we've located the source. Now to absorb it 
so we can examine it. The images faded from Bob and Joe's mind. 
Helen smiled at them as they looked groggily at her. "Sparky 
thought she traced the source of the music to me. The music 
that Sparky heard came from the Earth itself." 
	Bob studied Helen carefully. "You look the same as 
always. This is still so incredible. Are you sure you haven't 
changed?" 
	She returned the smile. "I've changed a lot, but 
basically I'm still the same person. The only difference is 
that now I can do anything I can imagine. I refused to believe 
it myself until you and Joe proved Sparky to me. Then I had to 
believe. Now I understand. I am Sparky. Sparky is me. Now I feel
that I can do anything I can imagine. Do you or Joe wish to
fly home to your parents for the weekend?  Do you wish to
tour the world?  Just name it.  We can do it."