An eight year old little boy lost his grandfather after a long illness. The family came together and did the family things, the viewing, the church service and the burial. But our little boy didn�t sleep well the night of the funeral. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his grandpa�s gravesite and thought of his grandpa laying there in the cold, hard ground.

The next morning, he asked his mother, �Mama, where�s Grandpa now?� Now mom loved her son, but this was a conversation she wasn�t prepared to have just yet, but she wanted to help so she sent him to the priest who conducted the funeral.

The little boy went to see Father Cross and asked where his grandfather was now. The priest went on about St. Peter and Judgement and whether grandfather had been to Confession and been absolved of his sins and had he been given Last Rites followed by talk of heaven, purgatory and hell. What seemed like hours later, the priest finally stopped talking and the little boy left, more confused than when he walked in. The only thing he could remember were the words, Heaven and Hell, but nothing else made too much sense and he still wasn�t exactly sure where his grandfather was.

That night, he again didn�t sleep too well, and the same images haunted his dreams.

He continued to think about this the next morning while flipping channels looking for the morning cartoons when he happened upon the local televangelist. Our 8 year old little boy saw the phone number flashing across the bottom of the screen (1-800/be-saved) and decided to call Reverend Entre P. Neur and ask him where his grandfather might be now. When they put him on the air, he asked the Rev., �My grandfather died, where is he now?�

Reverend Neuer went on about the fires of Hell being the destiny of all men unless they take Jesus into their hearts or give an annual tax deductible contribution to his College, Lincoln Continental Polytechnic, which ever was easier. The boy really didn�t like hearing that everyone was destined for Hell, his grandfather was always so nice, surely he didn�t deserve that? And what does money have to do with Heaven?

That night, his dreams and his sleep were even worse than the night before.

The next day our 8 year old little boy remembered the old lady that lived in the neighborhood. The kids all said that she was a witch, maybe she knew something about where his grandfather was now? He walked up to her house, rang the doorbell, and asked the old lady when she came to the door, �My friends say you are a witch, is that true?� And the old lady could hear the sincerity in the question so she smiled and replied, �In a way yes, I am the High Priestess of a Pagan group. Why do you ask?� And the little boy went on to tell her about his grandfather and how he was trying to figure out where his grandfather was now.

The Priestess told the little boy about the Summerlands where all souls go when the body can no longer continue on this plane of existence. She told him how the souls would stay there to review the life just lived until it time to come back and live again. And the little boy thought about the name Summerlands and how it must be a land of eternal summer, �We live in TX, sounds just like Hell to me.�

He was just about ready to give up when he saw a sign announcing the local storyteller�s appearance at the library. He liked to hear her stories, tales of princes, princesses and dragons were so much fun. And the stories always ended...maybe not happily, but right. Maybe she knew what happened when life came to an end.

After she was done weaving her spell among the children gathered around her, our eight year old little boy asked her about his grandfather. The storyteller looked at the little boy and could see the trouble and the pain this question was causing him, and pulled this answer out of her bag of stories:

�Your grandfather is right where he wants to be. If you think of your grandfather�s favorite place in the whole entire world, I�ll bet that�s where he�s at right now. Just like we will all go to our favorite place when we die.�

The little boy thought about her answer and a big smile spread across his face. He could imagine his grandfather at the horse track, racing form in hand, and betting slips sticking out of his shirt pocket.