by Ingrid Fry
‘The thing weighs a bloody ton,’ he said. ‘But it can’t be that heavy.’ He jammed his feet against the wall and pushed.
I moved to one side. ‘Careful, it might fly out and hit something!’
Slowly the crowbar did its job and out slid the crystal. Except it didn’t look like the crystal anymore, just a lump of rock—white-grey, dull and pock marked. I couldn’t see any light—all the iridescence had vanished.
‘Is it the same thing?’
‘I think so,’ he said. ‘It’s the same size.’
I gingerly extended a finger to touch it.
‘Careful!’
My finger hovered millimetres away from contact when the doorbell rang.
We jumped out of our skin.
Ding Dong! Ding Dong! Ding Dong!
‘Who the hell’s that?’ Jason asked.
‘It can’t be the Dark Force; it wouldn’t bother knocking.’ What other danger lurked at our doorway?
[7]
Chapter 8: An Unexpected Visitor
I recognised the familiar silhouette through the stained-glass panels on the front door.
‘It’s Ashley,’ I whispered. ‘What do we do? Let him in?’
Even though Ashley was one of our best friends, I wasn’t sure I was ready to speak to another human just yet.
‘We have to,’ Jason said. ‘He would’ve come all the way from the bush, probably Alice Springs.’
‘Do we say anything?’
Again the look. ‘Of course not!’
Struggling up from my knees, with one foot well and truly asleep, I shouted, ‘Cover the stuff with the blanket. I’ll get the door. Coming! Hang on!’
I opened the door, and familiar brown eyes stared out from a rugged tanned face and met my gaze. Brown hair fell across Ashley’s lined forehead, and a short beard and mustache set off his strong jaw. He was six foot three of solid muscle.
A smile split his larrikin face and revealed teeth in urgent need of dental attention. ‘Hey! Magster! Long time no see!’ he said, his voice deep and raspy.
Ashley looked like he’d encountered more paranormal events than us. However, his were purely terrestrial in origin, events such as an overdose of sun, smoking, booze and drugs. He stepped inside and enfolded me in warm, welcoming arms.
I loved a full body hug, and Ashley could give one of the best. It was pure, innocent affection from a not so innocent man.
‘Jace! Good to see ya, man!’ he said. ‘Can I smell coffee?’
‘No. But I’ll make you some,’ Jason said.
They gave each other a bear hug punctuated with slaps on the back.
‘What’s with the crowbar?’ Ashley asked, looking over Jason’s shoulder.
‘Testing for termites.’
‘With a crowbar?’
‘I’m only tapping lightly.’
‘Oh.’
Ashley seemed satisfied with the most ridiculous explanation I’d ever heard. We made our way to the kitchen and Jason fired up the coffee machine.
Ashley pulled out a chair and sat at our refectory table, running his hands over the weathered timber. ‘I love this wood,’ he said, caressing the grain. His strong, tanned hands moved rhythmically across the tabletop, mesmerising me with their action. The sensual movements took me back to the time when we were together, and an unexpected flush of heat bloomed in my body.
‘Wake up, Maggie!’ I jumped visibly as Jason plonked a mug of coffee in front of Ashley.
I gasped. ‘You startled me!’
‘Talk about jumpy,’ Jason said. ‘It’s been ages, Ash. Hope you like the coffee.’
‘Black, extra strong, extra hot?’
‘Yep. Exactly how you like it, and how any self-respecting coffee drinker wouldn’t,’ Jason said with a grin.
‘Bloody coffee snobs.’
‘What brings you here?’ I asked.
‘Gold.’
‘Gold?’
‘Yep. Thought I’d dust off the detector and poke around the Golden Triangle a bit. I’ve gotta feeling. Reckon I could find a bit of colour.’
Jason and I knew a bit about prospecting through my dad. It was one of his favourite hobbies. We’d shared many a weekend at the Lerderderg Gorge panning for gold.
I glanced across at the small glass bottle glinting in the sunlight on a shelf nearby. It was filled with gold flakes, a nugget the size of a shotgun pellet, and a pinhead sized ruby. Our entire Lerderderg Gorge bounty.
Ashley followed my gaze. ‘Any news about your dad?’
‘No, not a thing.’
He leant across and took my hand. Tears pricked in my eyes. I blinked them back and quickly brushed an escapee tear from my cheek. Damn it. A simple gesture of concern was enough to set me off. I’d thought I was doing fine. I squeezed Ashley’s hand and withdrew from his rough warm grasp. The wall holding back my emotions started to crumble—random acts of kindness could seriously undermine its foundations.
Don’t cry! I pinched my leg hard. If the wall gave way, it would be an avalanche of epic proportions. I wasn’t ready. Not now.
‘Maggie? Magster?’
‘Huh? Oh, sorry, Ashley. Off with the fairies. I’m back now.’
Jason’s mouth was in thin serious mode. I looked away from his gaze.
‘So, Ash, will you be around for a bit, or are you heading off?’ Jason asked.
‘Gonna head off. Got the truck outside loaded with everything I need for a few weeks out bush. Wanted to stop by and say hi before I left.’
Booze hound and stoner aside, Ashley had turned his hand to many pursuits over the years. A motor mechanic who loved to race cars and dirt bikes, a soldier in Iraq, a landscape gardener, sheep shearer, cook, miner, postman and also a paramedic with Jason for a while—until he ended up more stoned out than the people he was trying to save.
Half of me wished he’d stay. I knew he would, if we asked, but I also knew we couldn’t afford to have a dam buster around right now.
Ashley stood, stretched, and gazed down at me with soft eyes. He knew something was up. His pickled boozehound brain still managed to run a perfectly working, finely tuned, bullshit detector.
‘Thanks for the coffee. I can always count on you two for a good brew.’
He ambled towards the front door, but paused by the crowbar and blanket. Jason and I exchanged glances.
‘Funny way to termite hunt, you guys.’ He nudged the lump under the blanket with the toe of his Blundstone boot. ‘What’s that?’
‘A rock to keep the blanket in place,’ Jason said.
Don’t say rock! I screamed in my mind at Jason. Ashley loved rocks.
‘What sort?’ He flipped the blanket back with his boot.
Oh hell. We were screwed. He was screwed.
Before we could move, he’d bent over and scooped up the ‘rock.’ We winced in anticipation as he tossed it in the air a couple of times.
‘Hmmm, this ain’t no rock.’ He peered closely at its pock marked surface.
‘It … it isn’t?’ Jason stammered.
‘What is it then?’ I said, feeling somewhat more relaxed now Ashley hadn’t vaporised or shown any other obvious signs of paranormal weirdness.
‘It’s a meteor.’
‘A meteor?’ Jason and I echoed.
‘Yep. Got one exactly like it in the truck. I mean exactly like it. Same shape, colour, weight an’ all. Too weird!’ His big hand rubbed circles in his hair.
‘Found it near Big Bell Ghost Town in Western Australia. I’ve collected a pile of meteors, but I thought my Big Bell find was unique. Huh. Now it’s got a sister. Amazing! Whereja find this?’
‘Um, Boo brought it in from the back yard,’ I said. It wasn’t a lie.
Jason seemed relieved.
‘Dead set?’ Ashley said. ‘It’s a big ‘un to pick up and carry in. Must be five kilos I reckon.’
Boo had a number of hobbies, one of which was rock collecting. In our back yard was a creek fringed with river pebbles. Every week
or so she’d select a rock and bring it into the house. She’d flip onto her back, legs in the air, and roll the rock around in her mouth. The expression on her face was always one of pure joy. Boo would then drop the rock at our feet and wait for us to ceremoniously add it to her collection, contained in a wooden bowl on the coffee table.
Ashley glanced at the bowl. ‘This is the doozey of the lot,’ he said.
‘Yep, we’re always worried she’ll crack a tooth or get a rock stuck in her throat, but no problems so far,’ I said.
‘That rock has to be way heavier than five kilos,’ Jason said, obviously concerned the after-effects of ‘The Event’ had turned him into a ninety-pound weakling.
‘Nah. I’m a human digital scale. Definitely five. Here, catch!’
Ashley tossed the rock to Jason and a number of things occurred in rapid succession.
Jason’s face turned white, his hands shot forward in ‘catch’ mode and he bent his knees, bracing his legs like a weight lifter ready to hoist 150 kilos.
The meteor flew through the air. Boo burst in through the dog flap. Jason caught the rock with muscles primed to receive 150 kilos. Instead he only got five. His primed muscles propelled the meteor skywards at speed, and it smashed through the skylight and onto the roof where it thunked along the tiles like a crazy possum.
Ashley stood opened mouthed and wide eyed.
I guess the description fitted us all, Boo included. She’d reverted to silent mode, by the way. That was a good thing.
‘What the hell?’ Ashley said.
‘Oh bollocks!’ Jason said. ‘I’ve trashed the skylight!’
‘What the hell?’ Ashley said again, staring at Jason like he’d gone mad.
‘I thought it was heavier than it was, is all,’ Jason said, by way of explanation.
Ashley rolled his eyes. ‘No kidding. I’ll give you a hand to clean up.’
‘Nah, it’s all right. What a stupid, stupid idiot!’ Jason said, looking at the hole and rubbing his forehead.
The three of us surveyed the scene in silence, before we all fell about laughing.
Ashley convulsed silently, holding his stomach as tears ran down his face. I had a serious case of the snorts, which turned into a cough, and Jason’s glorious smile was in face splitting mode. Deep laughter roared from his belly. Boo ran anxiously from one of us to the other, obviously concerned for our wellbeing. This made us laugh all the more.
Still red in the face and wiping tears from our eyes, we ambled out to Ashley’s truck. He fished around in the back and pulled out his meteor.
‘Here it is. Told ya it was identical.’ He held it out to Jason. ‘Careful Jace!’ he said, which set everyone off again.
Composure regained, we examined his meteor, and it was indeed identical.
‘If you ever lose yours, you can have this one,’ Ashley said, giving me a farewell hug. Joyous from the after-effects of all the laughter, I surrendered into the warmth of his embrace. My sadness was once again locked safely away.
You would think, as a psychic, I could have anticipated what was coming. However, seeing my own future was off limits.
Who knew how short lived my joy would be.
[8]
Chapter 9: Contact
After Ashley left, the weather turned nasty and Jason hurried to tape up the hole in the skylight. It was too risky to climb on the roof to retrieve the crystal. I hoped it would be safe up there until the weather cleared.
Our sleep that night was restless—we were still in a state of high alert. When early morning came, I sat at the kitchen table watching the rain streaming over the glass roof of the deck outside.
There was a sense something could happen at any minute if we dropped our guard: something that involved a Dark Force entity that didn’t like dust or much else for that matter. Maybe if we could harness the dust destroying part, we could happily coincide, and make a fortune in the process.
On the other hand, we had the meteor—the crystal sphere which had now saved our bacon on two occasions, and appeared to have sacrificed itself in the process. It was completely dull and lifeless when Jason retrieved it from under the cabinet.
Between the dark thing and the light thing was—us. The question was why?
Where was the Dark Force? Could we go back to our normal lives? Should we be forever scared of dark shadows and always hire cleaners to clean under our cabinets? Who could we even tell about any of this? No one would believe us.
Well, actually, one person would. My dad.
Unfortunately, the Prof was no longer around and I still missed him. I wished I could get a sense of him.
Mum had strong psychic powers, but she couldn’t handle them. In the end, they drove her mad. She was gifted with all the ‘clairs’ as she used to call them— clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairaudience, clairolfactance, claircognisance and clairgustance. This meant she could acquire information through extra sensory perception, feelings, paranormal hearing, smell, intrinsic knowledge—she knew things without knowing how she knew them—and she could taste essences and substances from the ethereal realms.
I’d inherited all the ‘clairs’ too. It made my life a misery. When Mum committed suicide, I made the decision to stop using my abilities and to actively disengage from them. My efforts bore fruit, as some of them were now dormant.
At least I’d been able to grieve Mum’s death, but Dad was missing, so I had no closure.
‘Where the hell are you, Prof?’
I opened a drawer and took out the yellowing pages of a newspaper cutting headlined: “Leading Astrophysics Professor Vanishes”.
It’d been a year since he’d disappeared, and months since I’d tried to reach out to him. I stood and moved to the side of the table. I unfolded my mind like a flower reaching out to the sun. Opening my perception wide, I searched for a trace of his unique vibration.
I’d contacted many souls using my skills, and never was afraid in doing so. My energy was always in sync with the higher levels of vibration, and as such I attracted only positive energy.
My senses opened fully and I sifted through the energetic worlds surrounding us. As fast and lethal as a shark hurtling towards its prey, darkness struck my mind. Gasping, I rocked back on my feet as it slammed into me. It gained easy purchase on the open tendrils of my mind, its tentacles feeling robotic, mechanical, as it sliced, diced and dissected my brain, probing ever deeper into my atomic structure. It savoured the essence of my atoms and molecules. I sensed it found them delicious.
Boo barked somewhere in the distance. My mind burned, disintegrating with a pain worse than a million migraines. Caught in a spider’s web of psychic energy, it was impossible to break free.
A gunshot exploded in my head, atoms shook with internal vibrations, heart jolted and I slipped out of my body and away from the agony. Floating to the ceiling, I had a bird’s eye view of myself standing catatonic in the middle of the room. Eyes wide, mouth stretched open, I clutched frantically at my head.
Boo blasted through the dog door and launched herself at me with an ear-splitting howl. Flying through the air, with teeth bared and fangs gleaming, she knocked me to the ground.
* * * * *
‘Maggie! What happened? Jeez, I leave the room for one minute. Boo, get off her!’ Jason pushed Boo from my chest and helped me stand.
His face was a mix of horror and concern. ‘Fuck! You’ve got blood running from your eyes and nose. And your ears! What happened?’
‘My brain’s on fire.’
It was as if all the nerves had been stripped bare and each thought generated took an excruciating journey along them.
‘I’m taking you to hospital.’
Collapsing back to the floor, I curled into a fetal position. ‘They can’t help me.’ I held my head. I was going to die.
Rocking back and forth trying to cope with the pain, I made a weak attempt to call angels. I couldn’t take one more second of it—not one.
A soft vibration tickl
ed my ears. An indescribably beautiful sound echoed through my body, soothing it with celestial tones. A soft blue light, calming, iridescent and divine enfolded my body. The light spoke to me beyond my senses, beyond pain. It was my guardian angel and it wanted to use Jason as a conduit to the physical realm.
‘Jason, hold my head.’
Without question or hesitation, he took my head in his hands and closed his eyes. He jolted as the healing energy flooded through him into me, restoring my mind with its radiance.
The energy faded and the pain vanished. I opened my eyes to find Jason knelt on the floor behind me, his hands still on my head. Surrounding him was an angel. Powerful, sublime, shining with blue and gold light, its outstretched dazzling silver wings encompassed the room. The feathers shone in radiant glory as the wings retracted, the energy receded, and it rose like an eagle and disappeared.
Jason opened his eyes. His face was peaceful; it was as though he’d just stepped out of a sixty-hour float tank session.
‘Incredible,’ he said softly. ‘Are you okay now, Maggie?’
‘Yes.’ Tears of relief flowed over my face, mingled with the blood, and dripped rose coloured drops onto the floor.
‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘I’m not sure. I … I can’t remember.’
Boo trotted over and licked me. Her big brown eyes were almost black, and she stared at me with an unsettling intensity.
I staggered to my feet. ‘What, Boo? Jason, is she saying something? Can you hear anything?’
‘Nup. Nothing. Sure looks like she’s trying to say something though.’
Boo jumped up and pushed against me with her front legs. Then she did it again and again.
A surge of annoyance flared. ‘Stop it, Boo!’
She kept at it, jumping against me, pushing me.
A tiny black seed, smaller than an atom, quivered in the deepest recesses of my mind.
‘Stop it, Boo! Get down. What’s got into you? Stupid animal! Knocking me over. You could’ve killed me!’
Pure anger, fuelled by a distilled essence of hate, arose inside me. My arms and legs began to shake—stiff, rapid, jerking movements. Jason’s mouth moved but I couldn’t hear the words. Sound was muffled. Every tiny thing was in exquisite detail. My chest heaved as I panted like a rabid dog. An image of old leather bellows flashed into my brain as the air sucked in and out of my lungs. In, out, in out, in out, faster and faster. My heart beat was so rapid I felt the blood pulse in my neck.