Between Time

by Bond, Carolyn

  Jacob approached a group near the edge and asked, “Have you seen Tom? Thomas Helm?”

  A young woman said, “Yes, he’s there talking to Henry.” She pointed to a group about 20 feet away.

  “Thanks!” Jacob said as he turned that way. He walked over to Tom and Henry. “Hey, guys! You all got a minute? We have a situation and I need to ask your advice. Can you both come with me to Marie and Allen’s for a minute?”

  “Sure thing!” Tom said and nodded at Henry. Henry nodded. They all three flashed away and appeared in Allen’s dorm living room.

  “So what’s going on?” said Tom.

  “Hold on,” Jacob said. He went over to bedroom doorway and motioned for Ben to come in. “Henry, do you know Ben?”

  “No. I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure,” Henry said as he held out his hand to Ben. Ben noticed that Henry had the sweetest smile. He was truly open and friendly in his manner. His strawberry blond hair was cut in close curls around his face. He had freckles across his nose and cheeks. He wasn’t a large man but definitely had a presence in the group. He had a gentle confidence and looked as if at any moment he’d find something to laugh about.

  Tom said, “Ben, this is Henry, my son that I told you about. He has been a special agent Protector for a long time.

  “Ach! Pa!” Henry said and looked at Ben. “He makes it sound like I’m better than anyone else. You guys do the hard work, year in and year out, 24/7. I just bounce around and help out.”

  Tom went on, “Henry died when he was just a little boy. He went to get water from the stream. Natives scalped him. When he didn’t come back, I went looking for him. Sweet child that he was, he wouldn’t hurt a flea. It nearly killed me right then to find him bleeding on the side of the creek. My anger for the savages nearly consumed me. Henry had barely survived infancy. His mother and I had a soft spot for the child. We found out much later how he had tried to comfort us after he passed. He stayed, refusing to go to the Gathering right away. His mentor got special permission from Lorenzo for Henry to be able to stay. He was inconsolable because he was so worried about us.

  “After we learned all this years later, it made sense. Jenny and I were ready to leave Kentucky, to pack it up and forget it. We’d lost so much. We both became useless and bitter. The other children suffered for it. They, poor things, were grieving Henry, too, and now they had lost their parents, as well.

  “But we swore we could feel Henry’s presence. We’d would hear his soft laughter on the wind and feel his little fingers on our arm. We started to realize that even though we couldn’t see him, his spirit lived on, surely. We remembered how much he loved with his whole heart and tried to honor that by loving each other, being kind to each other. Without Henry insisting to stay around us, I’m not sure what would have happened. His spirit and memory gave me strength. Others joined us in Elizabethtown and a town grew. We forged a community in a wilderness and helped each other. It’s amazing how much power for good is in one person who chooses to love. The effects ripple to everyone around them for generations.”

  Henry turned to Ben, “Take note, young fella, at how love can change people. I know you weren’t long in this world before you joined us so you haven’t seen much. I was with the team that caught you, though. You saw your mother and dad. And you showed love by wanting to help them like I wanted to help my ma and pa. It’s in you. That’s what you use to fight the shadows.”

  “So what’s going on here, Jacob?” said Tom. “What do you need to discuss?”

  Jacob motioned for them to sit down at the table. “It’s Marie. After you left she had a little incident and nearly drowned in a reservoir. But it wasn’t just an accident, of course. The shadows taunted her. They were hell bent on getting her. Ben did great at beating them back and getting help. Even at the hospital they kept after her in the room, trying to slow her heart and keep her from waking up.”

  “After that,” Jacob went on, “She started seeing more and more protectors. It was like she could see all of us. But the final straw was today. A woman was killed right in front of Marie and the woman turned away from her Protector even with the last chance. The shadows came for her like they do and took her away.” Jacob grimaced and frowned.

  “Well, we are pretty sure Marie saw them, too. Not just the shadows, but the souls that have gone to evil!” Jacob cried.

  Henry and Tom looked shocked. Ben looked from face to face for an explanation.

  “This never happens!” said Tom.

  “I’ve seen it once before,” said Henry. “It didn’t go well. There was a young woman. Similar story. She had had a farm accident of sorts and then began to see more clearly what was around her. It got dicey as the shadows figured out what was going on. They snatched her. Her Protector had left her for short period and they just snatched her. Funny thing was there was no body until sometime later. Lorenzo knows but he said it wasn’t our concern. Of course, he knows where every soul is.

  “We need to act fast. Ben and Jacob, you both stay with Marie and Allen 24/7. Tom and I are going to seek counsel at the Gathering and we will return. This is very serious. You were right to come get us, Jacob. Good work.”

  Henry and Tom flashed out. Ben and Jacob looked at each and both got up at the same time and headed to the bedroom to watch over Marie and Allen.

  ***

  The shadows kept trying all night. They would creep around the edges of the room. They would linger around the corners of the window. Ben and Jacob were vigilant.

  The alarm went off at 7:00 and Marie and Allen stirred, stretching and yawning. They pulled on their clothes, grabbed their backpacks and headed down to campus for class. They grabbed a coffee and a pack of mini donuts at the commissary on the way. Students were plodding in all directions like sleep-walking zombies. Allen and Marie filed into the classroom and sat down on the far side. Ben and Jacob sat on their desks and looked around the room. It appeared word had gotten out that something was going on. Every Protector was with their assignee. Instead of 30 students and a professor in the room, there were 62 souls. It was very crowded.

  Marie started to wake up thanks to the effects of the coffee. She looked around the room and her eyes got very wide. Jacob was watching her. He could tell she could see all that he could. For some reason, she didn’t see him or Ben though. Marie closed her eyes and tried to breathe slowly. It was all becoming too much. She wanted to bolt. She wondered what she could do to get away. Maybe the library would be better. One thing was for certain, she could not possibly stay there with 62 people in a tiny classroom.

  She turned to Allen and, as calmly as possible, like nothing was wrong, said, “I need to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

  “Ok,” he said and opened his notebook. Marie got up and walked to the door. Jacob motioned for Ben to go with her.

  Outside in the open air, she felt a little better. She headed toward the library. After a short walk, she opened the door into the quiet sanctuary. There were only a few people sitting around, a lady behind the reference desk counter, and a janitor cleaning the glass of a display case full of gold rush artifacts. Marie found an empty corral by a window in a corner. She sat down and took a big deep breath. From hear, she could see the little lake in the center of campus. The pathways were busy with students, backpacks slung over their shoulders, heading somewhere with purpose. She realized only half the people had back packs. She looked closely and sure enough, it was not just overly busy, there were twice as many people walking around as usual and half of them were not students. They didn’t carry the first book. Half the people seemed to just be following the others around.

  She had to come to grips with whatever was going on. She looked around the side of the corral. The woman at the reference desk was busily writing something. There was a man standing behind her, just standing there looking around. He looked like some sort of body guard. She noticed that the pairs sitting around the room were not study partners. In every pair, one of them was just l
ooking around. They weren’t studying. One girl was asleep in her chair and her study partner was just standing guard.

  What on earth? She thought back. It had been about 3 weeks since the drowning. It was right after that when she first started to realize Allen didn’t see everything she did. Even in the hospital, who were the two guys there when she woke up that seemed to disappear? The shopkeepers, “friend.” The pair with the older couple.

  The others seemed to be friendly “guardians.” That was all right, she supposed. Maybe she could see guardian angels now. Well that would be okay. Sort of like a special power. She thought about that a minute as she looked out over the crowds on the sidewalks.

  She saw Lydia walking toward the building with another girl. They were talking quietly as they walked and smiling as though they were making secret plans. Marie’s face flushed and she clenched her fists. “Hussy!” she thought to herself. Then she saw a shadow behind Lydia as they passed by the library. The shadow clung close to her. It was a smoky figure as tall as she was. Its hands were on her shoulders and it appeared to be whispering in her ear. After it had leaned in close as though to say something, Lydia smiled like she had just had a great idea and began whispering to her friend. Marie wasn’t sure what to feel. On the one hand she would like to push Lydia off a cliff and on the other hand she felt sorry for her if she was in the clutches of something sinister.

  After they passed by, Marie noticed a young man sitting alone on a bench out of the way. He was alone. Where was his guardian angel? He looked sad, hunched over with his elbows on his knees. His hands propping up his chin. Something was bothering him. He was deep in thought. Then she saw a movement behind him. A shadow of the bush moved. It was creeping up closer to him. She watched it slowly uncurl onto the ground of dirt and pine needles behind the bench. It grew larger and taller. Slowly it became about the same size as the young man.

  Without realizing it, Marie stood up and put her hands on the window. Her mouth fell open as she watched the shadow take a near human shape of dark smoke. Arms like tentacles pulled out, long branch-like fingers extended and seemed to wrap around his body and head. It was pulling at him. It wanted him to get up. It came around the front of him and started pulling at him. Marie realized it was trying to pull him toward the water. She wished she could scream loud enough that he could hear, but she was too far away and inside the library. He wouldn’t hear her.

  Looking at that thing, she suddenly saw it! In the water! When she was drowning! The thing she had kept trying to remember and seemed to slip away was what she saw just before she passed out. It wasn’t oxygen deprivation making her imagine things! She saw that, that thing that was trying to pull at the young man. In the water at the bottom of the lake, the shadows turned into horrible demons that wanted her to die!

  The terrifying truth made her legs go out from under her. She fell back into the chair of the corral and closed her eyes. She cried silently. Ben put his arm around her and said soothing words in her ear. He had seen the shadow on the young man and knew she had, too. It was clear that she saw all that he did, but she had no one to explain it to her. It must be so confusing and terrifying. All he could do was hug her.

  Marie could see now that there is more to the world that what we can see. There are spirits who help us and spirits who, for whatever reason, want to harm us.

  CHAPTER 10 - A LAST DAY TOGETHER

  A whole new world was visible to Marie. It had always been there and she knew that deep inside, but now she could see it with her own eyes. She looked at the Protectors full in the face. She could see the shadows around people. It was both intriguing and terrifying. She couldn’t tell anyone, not even Allen. They would call the nut house who would promptly arrive in a little van with a straight jacket and carry her away. Seeing things that aren’t really there must be a sign of schizophrenia. She knew they were there, though. She could see that they affected what people did.

  Kay decided she should quit smoking one day. Then a few days later she got a phone call from her mother that was stressful. Her mother told her she had no business going to college. She wasn’t smart enough and should come home and be sensible. It was more than Kay’s resolve could handle and she reached for the pack hidden on top of the refrigerator. Marie watched unnoticed from the couch in Kay’s dorm. The young man that followed Kay around was in high gear. He jumped up and covered Kay’s hand with his and told her, “You’re strong, Kay. This is your mom’s issue. She is the one who felt like she wasn’t smart enough. You are not her. You are passing your classes. You don’t need those nasty cigarettes. You can do this!”

  Kay stopped abruptly, listening. A tear formed in the corner of her eye. Almost inaudibly, Marie heard Kay say to herself, “No, mother! I will do this! And I’ll take care of you, too.” Kay grabbed the pack of cigarettes and threw them in the trash.

  Marie knew that without the young man’s encouragement, it might have been very different. He leaned back on the counter and looked at Marie. Marie smiled at him.

  The shadows were another story. Marie didn’t see them as often. They would sneak around the edges of life. Places you would naturally avoid seemed to grow them. Those instincts you have that make you think, “No, don’t go in there,” seemed to be right on target. Abandoned houses, dark alleys, stores that never seemed to do any business but somehow stayed open, these were places where Marie saw more shadows than anywhere.

  Marie remembered seeing Lydia and decided to ask Kay about it. “What is going on with Lydia and her obsession with Allen?

  “Oh, yeah, she’s crazy, Marie. Just forget it. Allen is nuts for you.”

  “Yeah, I know. But I don’t care for her bumping into him all the time. She is so obvious, she should just make a sign, ‘I have the hots for Allen!’” They both laughed and Kay snorted. Then they laughed harder.

  “She has issues, Marie. I think her home life was screwed up. Her mom is divorced and her mom’s boyfriends hit on her and then she and her mom argue. It’s a mess. You know what they say, ‘Hurting people hurt people.’”

  “Well, I feel bad for her but if she doesn’t leave Allen alone, I’m gonna hurt her!”

  ***

  It was a Thursday afternoon in April. The semester was winding down. Research papers and projects were on everyone’s minds. Marie and Allen had been hanging out in the dorm all afternoon studying and putting together their leaf projects for dendrology. That was their favorite and only class together. But by now, they were both tired of school and books and flattened leaves stuffed in paper towels, smashed flat in heavy books.

  Allen sat at the table typing labels for leaf samples. Marie got up and came around behind him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and started kissing his neck and nibbling his ear. He smiled.

  “Um. That’s very distracting,” he said as he tried to keep typing, the click, click, clicking getting slower.

  “I should hope I’m more interesting than that old typewriter!” Marie laughed as she ran her fingers through his hair. He stopped typing and reached his arms up to catch her face, bringing her around and down in his lap to kiss her.

  He paused briefly to breathe in the scent of her perfume, her hair, even her soft breath. He loved every part of her being. Then he kissed her cheeks, her forehead and then her mouth. Soft, loving kisses.

  She got up and pulled him with her to the couch where they snuggled side by side, hugging and pulling each other closer until no space was between them. Their combined warmth and the closeness made Marie relax into a state of bliss. If only she could live in this bubble forever.

  “I love you, Marie,” said Allen. “I want you in my life forever. I’m so glad you’re coming with me back to Kentucky when school is out.”

  “Me, too! And I love you, too. I don’t know how I would have made it after the accident in February. You have helped me so much.” She said.

  Allen sighed. “Well, I’m just glad all that is past us. We have all our future to look forward to.” Marie
snuggled in and tried to block out the other things in her world now. Now, as though it was new, but she knew it had been there all along and only now she could see it.

  She thought about a woman she had talked to a long time ago. She was waiting for a doctor’s appointment and the woman next to her in the waiting room looked at her and smiled. Marie looked at her and said, “Um, why are you smiling at me?”

  The woman laughed a hearty, but quiet laugh. “Because, darlin’, you have a beautiful aura. Do you have the gift?”

  Marie looked at her in confusion, “Gift?”

  “You know, baby. Do they talk to you? I would swear you could hear them, too.” The woman looked deeply at Marie making her a little nervous.

  “Uh, no. I’m pretty sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Marie.

  “Well, maybe one day you will hear them. But when you do, remember, the more open you are to them, the more they will seek you out. Guard yourself or they’ll consume you,” the woman advised.

  “Ohhhh. Okay,” Marie said, thinking surely this woman had spent too long under the influence of something. Thankfully, the door opened and the nurse called her name at just that moment.

  Was that what was going on now? Where they talking to her? Would they try to consume her? That sounded crazy. Except that they had tried, hadn’t they? They lured her over the edge of that lake and then tried to pull her to the bottom. Her head started to hurt and she let it go. It was too much to think about. She missed the days of blind bliss.

  She nestled into Allen’s shoulder and hugged him tighter.

  ***

  The sun was just setting when Marie’s eyes opened. She yawned and tried to stretch but there was no room with them both on the couch. Allen awoke from the movement and rolled away from her onto his back. After a minute of letting the sleep go from their minds, they decided they were hungry.