Friday, April 29, 2005

Marilyn Monroe in the Afterlife

Feel free to click on:

http://www.stpetersabbey.ca/critical_mass/sister_aphrodita.html

Some background:

The story "Sister Aphrodita" came to me after watching the 1996 film "Norma Jean and Marilyn", then doing some background research on my own, and discovering how bogus it was. So I thought, what would it be like to be Marilyn Monroe--knocked off by a combination of Sam Giancana and the Kennedy boys--to wake up in the 'wrong' afterlife?
By 'wrong' I mean for a Hollywood star to find herself in the Hawaiian afterworld of Kanehunamoku, under the rule of Huna masters. Why you ask? Because of the true story of Marilyn co-designing a new house on Maui with none other than Frank Lloyd Wright himself, and then dieing before construction began.
This of course is a common afterlife theme: seeing the things you began in this life completed in the next. In this world, a Huna master has recreated the north-west tip of Maui in an attempt to help a Hawaiian girl--Leilani--and Marilyn combined.
Leilani died at age 26 in 1888, during the height of the leprosy plague that scourged Hawaii. In my story, leprosy is even more horrible in a spiritual body than it was in the physical. Leilani cycles endlessly between the beginning of her infection at age 12 and her death at age 26, unable to bear the pain of it and jumping off Cliff Rock near Slaughterhouse Beach ( a real beach, by the way) on the recreation of Maui.
The Huna Master -- Blue Dolphin King(BDK)--sizes up Marilyn's potential and decides she is the solution to Leilani's problem. ("Strong in mana she is"). He is temperamental and gruff, a Hawaiian Yoda, who likes to appear as a Nai'a, or blue spinner dolphin.
Marilyn, in true Luke Skywalker fashion, doesn't believe a word of it. She can't be convinced she's dead for quite some time, or rather, she believes that something has happened, but the afterlife explanation is bogus.
Leilani begins to train her according to BDK's wishes, not really holding much hope for Marilyn saving her from her cycle of suffering. But Marilyn's a natural, and starts to get the hang of using her powers. Along the way, she meets and confronts three of the most important men in her life: Joe DiMaggio, who represents the first challenge of accepting her new state of life; Arthur Miller, who represents the fruition of her creative powers, and Jack Kennedy, who is the slave of Giancana( who actually quite enjoys the sea-monster form he takes in the afterlife), and who is forced to tempt Marilyn to her doom.
Marilyn rises above it all in triumph, using her new creative powers to transfer bodies with Leilani, and fully experience the horrors of death by leprosy in the Spirit World.
She awakens to find Leilani healthy and whole, attended by BDK, who now takes the form of a handsome young Hawaiian warrior (who of course professes his love for Leilani). And off they go to the true Paradise Islands, leaving Marilyn behind after BDK has given her a new name.
Why? She's renegotiated her contract. The last scene has her up on Cliff Rock accompanied by Jimi Hendrix, fishing for lost souls for who meant well. The story ends when they reel in Jim Morrison, who was starting to really dig being swallowed and regurgitated by sea monsters.
Morrison takes a moment to recognize the new, much more athletic Marilyn, and asks if he should call her Norma Jean or Marilyn. "Neither," she says. "I've got a title now. Call me Sister Aphrodita."