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I was swimming in the Aegean Sea with Jacqueline Kennedy. Aristotle Onassis’ mammoth yacht, Christina, was nearby and we swam directly for it. As we boarded the ship, a steward handed us towels which we wrapped around ourselves and sat down to drinks on the deck. Garbo was there and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. And so was Elizabeth Taylor. Mrs. Kennedy was positively bubbly.
"Is there anything more wonderful than a good swim?" she said, giggling. "It really is the bee’s knees!"
Mrs. Kennedy’s sister, Lee, came over, drink in hand, and sat down next to Jackie, and the two shared a secret which Lee whispered into Jackie’s ear. The two women burst into uncontrollable laughter. Mrs. Kennedy looked at me.
"Lee was just saying how fabulous the party was last night," Jackie explained. "It was so much fun. I remember once years ago when Jack and I were on the yacht for a party when Ari was in Monte Carlo, Churchill was there and Jack tried to talk with him and never was able to and I suggested perhaps it was because of Jack’s white, dinner jacket, that Churchill thought Jack was a waiter. Jack was not amused at all. He can be very sullen when he wants to. He is really terribly spoiled and so used to having things his way that when they don’t go his way he really gets terribly miffed about it. And the fact I thought it was amusing did not help the situation at all. He went to his cabin and sulked all day. He can be such a child! But then all men are really boys, aren’t they?"
I replayed the dream in my mind as I walked to the trail head to meet Tom, who, like me, was always on time and we began our walk toward downtown Walnut Creek. There was a main intersection which could take you to Heather Farm Park, which was fun to do because of the lake and ducks there, but it also could be crowded, something that neither Tom nor I particularly liked. So we stayed on the southbound trail which was bordered by a wide ban of open space that the county kept clear of brush year round, but it still was too soft to walk on, although there was a bit of a hardened trail directly adjacent to the asphalt that constituted the main trail. Tom was thinking deeply about the story which I was becoming aware of, how he would become quiet and his brow would crinkle up in thought.
"Everything changed after that vision Mark had at the Y," he began. "Mark changed. I changed. Everything changed. We became very insular, really separating ourselves from the world even more dramatically than we had in the past. We were true monks now, spending a great deal of time alone, Mark in his room, I in mine. We also took a vow of silence which meant that we only talked when absolutely necessary. We had our meals together, but we never talked then either. We prayed together in the morning and the evening, usually reading the psalms aloud. I did the rosary privately. The one thing we did together outside were our daily trips to the Mormon Temple which was in the Oakland hills about fifteen minutes away. It was a wonderful place for prayer and meditation, with fabulous gardens that were unlike anything we had ever seen before. There were thousands of blooming plants, a sea of them everywhere you looked, and a hidden upper garden built on the roof of the Temple that offered a spectacular view of the bay where you could see all five bridges on a clear day. We spent hours there roaming the vast gardens separately and together. Each of us found a favorite prayer spot. Mine was by the Temple Keystone that was emblazoned in gold with the year - 1963 - ironically, the year President Kennedy was killed. I also noticed the number of steps leading to the upper terrace were thirty-six, the same number as the Capitol Building in Washington where JFK lay in state in the Rotunda. And I realized that the road to the Temple, Thirty-Fifth Avenue, was another "sign" that pointed to President Kennedy since he was number thirty-five. I found it all very odd that JFK "signs" seemed to be everywhere and I wondered what they meant. Then one night at the Temple when the lights of the Bay Area blazed below us in every direction, and Mark and I were standing together on the upper terrace, enjoying the incredible view, Mark let out a small gasp."
‘What is it?" I asked.
‘I can’t believe it,’ Mark replied. "Another vision of Christ, standing in a small, green boat, absolutely crystal clear, right over there in the sky near those clouds.’
‘Are you sure?’ I said.
‘Without a doubt,’ Mark said. ‘It was incredible. There was a blazing light around him and he was nearly three-dimensional. And the color was very bright, especially of the boat which was a stunning green.’
"Mark and I shook our heads as we left the Temple and wondered why the vision occurred and what it meant."
‘Why at the Mormon Temple, of all places?’ I said.
‘It must be all the prayer we’re doing,’ Mark replied.
"Whether it was prayer or not, I found an item in the paper some weeks later about the discovery of a small boat at the Sea of Galilee which scholars believed may have been used by Christ. Mark and I were floored by the discovery and we began to think that perhaps we were involved in something much bigger than we thought, yet nothing prepared us for Mark’s next vision which took place in the Oakland Hills when Mark was on his daily run. The day was clear and bright when out of nowhere a huge, black cloud appeared and centered itself directly over Mark. Then without any warning whatsoever, it began to rain from the solitary cloud prompting Mark to turn around so he could go back to his truck which was parked at the trail head. Then, Christ descended from the cloud and hovered over the running trail about ten feet in the air, some thirty feet away from Mark. Again there was a blazing light around Christ and this time the rushing wind was so strong it nearly knocked Mark over. He panicked and bolted in the opposite direction to get away from the vision. But Mark wasn’t running away from Christ that day, for again Christ descended from the cloud and blocked Mark’s path, the wind and light so forceful that Mark was beside himself, petrified at what was going to happen. And without any forethought whatever, a single word entered Mark’s mind - ‘When?’ - and Christ responded ‘Soon.’ Then the vision disappeared and Mark turned around and ran back to his truck and headed for home where he locked himself in his room and did not come out until the following day when he told me what happened."
