For all my teachers: those on Earth

and those in other places.

Acknowledgements:

My everlasting thanks and gratitude to the Northstar Novelists critique group: Karen Beltz, Barbara Deese and Wally Roers, author of The Pact; Charlottle Juaire, freelance proofreader and editor extraordinaire; and Jeffrey Hundstad of the Mankato Area Radio Club for providing me with visual material and explanations of the mysteries of ham radio.

Thanks and kudos to graphic designers Scott Kaser and Garrett Lofgren for producing the best book cover ever! My thanks also to Dr. Catherine James and Marcel for providing encouragement and certain information difficult to obtain through normal channels. I am eternally grateful as well to my Midnight Writers Club, providing inspiration, enlightenment and exact words and phrases I needed in the wee dark hours when the physical world is still. You know who you are.

A word here about Pablo Amaringo, the shaman and artist whose book Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (with Luis Eduardo Luna) provided great inspiration and information through his vibrant, colorful artwork depicting many of his own shamanic visions. Pablo passed over the bridge to the next world on November 16, 2009. He was 66 years old.

CHARACTERS

RAFAEL’S FAMILY

Dr. Roberto Ramon Santiago Ramirez, Chief surgeon, Merida Hospital