Grave Promise

by David R Lewis

  “I will count from five to one,” she went on. “With each number you will descend even more deeply into your hypnotic sleep, as always, hearing only the sound of my voice. Five…deeper and deeper and deeper to sleep. Four…deeper and deeper and deeper to sleep. Three…”

  Three times Ruby repeated the series of numbers, then stopped, stood up, and yawned.

  “I need some water or something, and a rest room,” she said, walking toward the door. “Be right back. Feel free to stretch your legs and talk if you like. She won’t hear you.”

  For the five minutes or so that Ruby was gone, Ivy and Crockett sat frozen in their chairs, both of them afraid to do more than breathe for fear of screwing something up. When she came back in and saw them, Ruby laughed.

  “Relax, you two. Everything’s fine. Anything short of playing the trombone won’t hurt a thing.”

  “She is completely, ah, under?” asked Ivy.

  “Oh, yeah. She’s down in that black hole.”

  “Asleep?”

  “Sort of,” Ruby said. “I’m sorry it took so long but I wanted to go very slowly. Should we do this again, the process will be much faster.”

  She sat and turned her attention back to Marta.

  “You are now in a deep hypnotic trance,” Ruby said. “You can hear only the sound of my voice. Even though you are deeply asleep, you will have no difficulty in hearing my voice. You will also have no difficulty in responding to my questions. You are very loved and very protected. Speaking is easy for you. Your voice will flow without hesitation or effort. Do you understand, Marta?”

  “Yes.”

  Ivy and Crockett flinched.

  “Good,” Ruby said. “You are doing very well. Do you know where you are?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Ivy’s.”

  “Where at Ivy’s?”

  “In the library on the couch,” Marta said. Her voice was thin and scratchy.

  “Very good. How do you feel?”

  “Fine.”

  “So you are on the library couch in Ivy’s home and you feel fine, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “You are nowhere else and I will not allow you to be anywhere else. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “You are also very safe, very loved, and very protected. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, Marta. Very good. In the past few months you have been having a dream that upsets you, is that correct?”

  “Yes,” Marta replied, and Crockett could see the slightest shift in her body. A tiny tightening of her muscles.

  “Good,” Ruby said. “The dream is only a dream and not important. You are safe and protected, do you understand?”

  “Yes,” Marta said.

  Crockett watched the tenseness release and leave her.

  Ruby smiled. “After the dream,” she said, “you sometimes see a face that you believe you have seen before, is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does this face threaten you?”

  “No.”

  “Visualize that face now. Are you frightened or apprehensive?”

  “No.”

  “Is it a pretty face?”

  “Yes,” Marta replied, and a tiny smile brushed her lips.

  “Is it a young face?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you see it clearly?”

  “Yes.”

  “Now, Marta. With this face clearly available to you, with your attention focused only that young pretty face, tell me what it brings to your mind.”

  “Aunt Martha.”

  “Your Aunt Martha?”

  “Yes.”

  “Searching your memory now. Completely able to recall anything necessary, how is this face connected to your Aunt Martha?”

  “Funeral.”

  “Your Aunt’s funeral?”

  “Yes.”

  “You saw her at your Aunt’s funeral?”

  “No.”

  “When did you see her, Marta?”

  “After.”

  “After the funeral?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where did you see her?”

  “My little house.”

  “She came to your little house?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did she come to your little house?”

  “Reading.”

  “Do you remember reading for her, Marta?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you see her at that reading?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is she sitting at a table with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you recall talking with her?”

  “Yes.”

  Ruby stopped for a moment, taking a sip of her water and adjusting her position to lean toward the couch.

  “Very good, Marta. Let me remind you that you are free to recall everything about that reading, that you are safe and protected. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fine. Now, Marta, with this woman and her reading clearly in your mind, what was her name?”

  “Leona.”

  “Very good, Marta. Very good! What were her other names?”

  “Marie Walters.”

  “Leona Marie Walters. Is that her name?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very good. You have done really well, Marta. Remaining warm and comfortable, relaxed and at ease, you will hear only the sound of my voice. You will now rest. Leaving your deep hypnotic trance, you will fall into a warm and restful sleep. No dreams will disturb your rest and when you awaken you will feel refreshed. You will sleep as long as is comfortable for you and wake up only when you are well rested. When you do awaken, you will be able to remember Leona Marie Walters and the reading you did for her. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Rest well, Marta. You are completely protected and totally loved.”

  Ivy covered her with an afghan and the three of them left the room in search of lunch. Marta slept on the couch until early the next morning.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Crockett confused

  Lunch was a collection of finger foods and light salads served in the atrium. Crockett was more in the mood for a burger and fries. Ivy and Ruby seemed quite content with the fare.

  “That was truly amazing,” Ivy said. “Do you use hypnosis with your patients?”

  “Oh, no,” Ruby said. “That’s the first time I’ve hypnotized anyone since grad school. Actually, I need to clarify here. I can’t hypnotize anyone. I believe all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. Most times it’s a guided experience, as you saw this morning, but it’s still self-hypnosis.”

  “Self-hypnosis or not,” Ivy said, “you were the instrument of deliverance for poor Marta. She restfully sleeps for the first time in months, Child. I salute you. I felt in my heart that you would be a great benefit to her. I do so love being right.”

  Ruby slumped in her chair and sighed. “I’m just glad it worked out,” she said. “Things like that are always a crap shoot. There’s no way to predict how they’ll go. She may or may not be free of the dream. Time will tell. You’ve got to be so careful because there is always the possibility of unintended consequences.”

  “Unintended consequences?” Ivy said.

  “Example. During grad school a friend of mine became wrapped up in hypnosis. It was so simple, so easy. The answer for everything. His girlfriend wanted to quit smoking. He hypnotized her several times to that end, telling her, in essence, that when she felt a desire to smoke, all she need do was tug lightly on her left earlobe and the desire for a cigarette would be satisfied. He did not address the reason she smoked, the dynamic behind that reason, the effect it had on her emotionally, the solution it offered, or any other of the underlying causes of the problem. The result was an overwhelming desire for nicotine, a badly infected and distended earlobe, and a nervous habit she still had trouble with two years later.”

  “O
h, my.”

  “That’s why I was so gentle and undemanding with Marta. If you recall, I dismissed the dream as unimportant. Had I used my friend’s method, I might have told her that if she wanted to be free of the dream, all she need do was to flip her pillow over three times before she lay down to sleep and the dream would not come to her. It might have worked. It might also have resulted in a frightened distraught woman who could not sleep, but just sat in bed flipping her pillow over and over all night long.”

  There was a pillow in the empty chair next to Crockett. He flipped it over three times, pulled on his earlobe, and grinned at Ivy.

  “I’m covered,” he said.

  “I get the feeling that you give all this less than complete credence,” Ivy said.

  “Hey, the best color horse is the one that gets you where you need to go.”

  Ruby looked at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “The oxen is slow, but the earth is patient,” Crockett replied in an East Indian accent, folding his hands gently in his lap.

  “What?”

  “In my Father’s house there are many mansions,” he continued, “but the hallways can be a real bitch.”

  Ruby looked at Ivy. “See what I have to put up with?” she said. “Crockett’s about as enlightened as a stump.”

  “It’s just that all this Twilight Zone crap is, ah–”

  “Scary?” Ivy offered, smiling.

  “Well, yeah,” Crockett said. “A little. Look. One minute I’m on the couch in my nice little orderly world. That night I have the first nightmare I’ve had in years. The next morning, some little bitty woman tells me she’s being haunted by a handless corpse lifted from the trunk of a car. That same woman lays a bit of information on me about my life that she had no possible way of knowing. I spend an hour or two listening to Ruby put her deeper and deeper and deeper to sleep, and then, the two of you treat all this like it happens everyday! Well, it doesn’t happen every day in my tiny world. I have a problem just blindly accepting all of this. Gimme a break, willya? I’m a virgin!”

  “We’ll be gentle,” Ivy smiled, patting his arm.

  Crockett took Ivy’s hand in his. “Thank you,” he said. “I would expect you to be. I don’t know about the Italian broad.”

  Ruby blew him an air kiss.

  “Marta was the defining reason I contacted you and Ruby after Rachael’s death,” Ivy said. “She did a reading on you, Crockett, and convinced me you would ultimately prevail over the murderers Morrison.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” he moaned, playing the role.

  Ivy’s eyes sparkled. “Maybe you should put yourself in Ruby’s hands, as it were,” she said. “Perhaps some hypnosis?”

  “You will hear only the sound of my voice,” Ruby intoned.

  “What else is old?” Crockett said.

  That afternoon Crockett drove to Downers Grove to let Leo Vitali look at his stump and do a slight adjustment to his leg. He returned to the house about dinnertime. With Ivy resting, Marta still deeply asleep, and Cletus not in evidence, Ruby and he went out for a mediocre dinner at an Olive Garden and turned in early. He spent the night dream free.

  Breakfast the next morning was Columbian coffee with chicory, thin-sliced pork loin fried crisp on the edges, biscuits and gravy, cottage fries, and stewed apples. Crockett beat Ruby downstairs by about ten minutes.

  Ruby walked in and eyeballed his plate.

  “No fruit?” she said.

  “Great gravy.”

  “No melon?”

  “Eat a biscuit. Put hair on your chest.”

  Ruby sneered at him. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you,” she said.

  Crockett grinned. “Some of your other close friends might.”

  “You gonna start the day gay bashing, Crockett?”

  “Not me. I’m just gonna enjoy one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in a long time. A meal fit for me, King of the Wild Frontier. A man’s breakfast for manly men and manly women. Want me to see if they got any rice cakes or hummus, Mary?”

  Ruby kissed the back of his neck on the way to her chair.

  “Shut up and pass the gravy,” she said. “Marta up?”

  As if on cue, Ivy and Marta entered the room.

  Ivy beamed. “Good morning,” she said. “The sleeper has awakened.”

  Ruby and Crockett rose to their feet.

  Marta was wearing a maroon fleece robe over gray lounging pajamas. Her hair was carefully brushed and she even sported lipstick and a little eye shadow. Ivy, as usual, was impeccable.

  “Doesn’t she look wonderful?” Ivy said.

  “I woke up on the couch at about five this morning,” Marta said. “That’s more sleep than I’ve had in the past three weeks. Later I am going to take a nap. I no longer fear the dream. It is gone.”

  “You have color in your face,” Ruby said, taking the tiny woman’s hand.

  “With more to come, no small effort from you, Ruby,” Marta said. “I can’t thank you enough. You broke through the barrier of memory. I recall the pretty young woman and her visit as if it were yesterday, instead of clear back in 1965. Amazing. And you, David. Thank you for everything, too.”

  “I’m pleased to see you feeling so much better, Marta,” Crockett said, “but I did nothing. No, that’s not true. I insulted you and then did nothing.”

  Marta smiled. “You gave me your strength,” she said. “And you did it so freely and without condition that you really weren’t aware of it were you?”

  “Ah, no, I guess not,” Crockett stammered.

  Marta glanced at the tabletop. “Well,” she said, “I’m famished. I have not been truly hungry for months and I am not going to let this opportunity pass me by. I will eat a ridiculous breakfast that I shall later regret, and then, Ruby and David, I will lay down some cards.”

  Later, in the library, Marta shuffled an oversized deck. Ruby and Crockett sat across a card table from her. Ivy relaxed in a nearby armchair.

  Marta looked at Crockett. “This is Cartouche,” she said. “It is a system of divination based on ancient Egyptian symbology. While the symbols are very old, the system is relatively new. For years I read the Tarot. About thirty years ago I converted to Cartouche. I find it allows me more personal freedom in the reading.”

  She finished shuffling the cards and cut them into three stacks.

  “David,” she said, “If you will point to one of the groups of cards please, but don’t touch it.”

  Crockett chose a stack and Marta laid it on top of the other two.

  “This reading applies to you and Ruby in your relationship.”

  She laid out five cards and peered at them.

  “The Twins, Crook and Flail, Isis, Osiris, and Lotus,” Marta smiled. “Very nice. Here are you two, the Twins. Next to the Twins the Crook and Flail, the Egyptian symbols of power. One to save, the other to deliver justice. This suggests to me than there is a very solid and equitable balance between the two of you. A real combination of power and compassion. Next is Isis followed by Osiris. These cards would represent Ruby and you. The highest ranking female and male symbols in the deck. Finally is Lotus, beauty and strength combined. See?”

  Crockett looked at the cards with their simple drawings and basic colors. They weren’t Egyptian. They were Greek.

  “Ah,” he said. Ruby nodded.

  Marta smiled at him. “So what we have here is the fact that when you and Ruby are combined, finding yourselves in a circumstance of cooperation, the two of you have the collective ability to see all sides of the situation, assess it from a position of concerned involvement as well as impartial judgment, and deal with it in a caring and compassionate manner. Between the two of you, you two are like the lotus. On the surface, the lotus seems to be very delicate and fragile. Below what is exposed there is a very strong stem and elaborate root system that secures it deeply into the soil at the bottom of the pond. I see this as what the two of you do for each other. Either of you can afford to be deli
cate and fragile when you need to, because the other provides a strong and secure anchor. You offer each other emotional security deep beneath the surface, allowing both of you to put your best face on for the world. What a wonderful thing to be able to do for each other. How marvelous it must be to be able to count on one another in such a way. Without a doubt, the two of you together are much greater than the sum of your parts.”

  “He’s a pain in the ass,” complained Ruby.

  “She’s a thorn in my side,” Crockett said.

  Marta smiled. “And you love each other totally.”

  “Yes, they do,” Ivy said.

  Marta laid out five more cards.

  “Now,” she said, “to look into your near future. Here we have Ptah, the origin of the Mason’s symbol, Ankh, relating to family, Horus, the all seeing eye and the card of emotional healing, Set, the symbol of obstruction and difficulty, and Anubis, protection during journeys.”

  She sat completely still for a moment looking at the spread before her, then her head began to tremble a bit. She raised her gaze from the cards and fixed it between Ruby and Crockett on something in the near distance.

  “Soon,” she said, “a situation is coming to you. It will involve family, but I don’t feel that it is either of your families. Rather it will be a family connection among people with whom you have yet to become involved. From this event, or series of events, there will be a need for emotional balance and alignment. Again, I don’t feel this comes from either of you. There will be significant restriction regarding the resolution of this situation. Obstruction will be strong. The two of you have considerable protection available to you during these upcoming events.”

  She stopped and stared at the table again for some time.

  “It has started here,” Marta went on, glancing between the two of them.

  “It has started here and now the two of you are part of it. You and I have not come together by accident. There is a connection from the past that leads into the future. Just remember that you have protection and that you can rely on each other. Please understand that it is not my desire to frighten you. I am simply telling you what I see. If it seems mysterious that is only because we do not have all the information we need to understand it all. Feel free to contact me at any time. You have done so much for me, I will do anything I can for the two of you.”