Between Time

by Bond, Carolyn

  Jasmina continued, “She used to say she could see shadows creeping around and would laugh about it. She would jump at Delilah and scare her. I was glad to see her gone, but also sad. She had such knowledge about so many things. It’s a pity.”

  “Yes.” Allen said, slightly shocked, “a pity. So, you were worried about Marie?”

  “Yes, other than Hester and myself, I never knew anyone that could see Delilah until Marie came along. She seemed so innocent. Like the girl in the photo in the paper. I don’t know everything, obviously but I know that Hester is bad and it was too much of a coincidence. Nothing is by chance you know. It might be in the wrong order of time, but it’s not by chance.”

  “Well,” Allen bolstered his confidence to say something he believed to be absolute hogwash, “what would you say if I thought that maybe Marie’s soul is not really in her body? I get an idea sometimes that she is near me when I’m at home.” He breathed a deep sigh of relief at having been able to say such a crazy thing.

  Jasmina looked at him sadly, “I would say you are probably right, friend. Not all comas are like that. But, I believe you can be knocked out of your body and the body is left in a coma-like state. It makes sense.

  Allen thought to himself, If you’re crazy, it does. “Well, if that were true, how could we help her get back into her body?”

  Jasmina sat back on her stool and rubbed her hand on her face in thought. She stopped and looked at them. They looked desperate. She could tell they loved Marie very much. She sighed. “I can only guess. I am certain there is another world around us. An in-between world, between life and the here-after. It’s not a permanent place, but I believe souls live there, for whatever reason, before moving on. Delilah lives there, half in and half out of our world. I don’t know why I can see her. But I do think that whatever the reason I can, is why Hester came to me. She was curious. I now think that Hester was very evil. I often wonder if she hurt the young girl from the farm for her own purposes. When I noticed Marie could see Delilah, I worried for her. Hester or some soul like her could try to get near her. I told Marie that day to remember love, it was the only thing that could save her. I still believe that. Love is the strongest energy in the spiritual universe. It’s an atom bomb,” she paused, “if you can figure out how to use it.”

  Allen was rolling all this in his mind. Ordinarily, he would write Jasmina off as a total nut job. Nancy was also trying very hard to listen without thinking logical thoughts. Logic really got in the way of hearing what was being said.

  “So,” Nancy stumbled, “Love? Love will help her?” Allen could tell Nancy was going to come unglued shortly. It sounded too pat, too hippyish. Free love and all that. They both knew they were going out on a limb with the whole soul out of a body concept, but this was no answer. It was beginning to grate on Allen.

  “What? What are you saying? We should just sit around and think love thoughts and Marie will be fine? Is that it?” He spat out the last sentence.

  Jasmina sighed and smiled again. It was obvious she was used to people thinking she was crazy. “I know it’s hard to believe. I can see that it took a great deal of courage for the two of you to come here and ask these questions.” She smiled really big now. “But you are stretching your minds in ways you never have. Just bear with me a minute.”

  “If you could put it in more practical terms, maybe it would be easier,” Allen was trying.

  “All right, Allen, way to try! Well, here’s the thing, the Shadows, the bad souls, try to undo anything love puts together. So if you are working to create something or cause something and you use love, they will take apart what you are trying to do. And vice-versa!” She smiled as though this made perfect sense.

  Allen looked at her trying to understand how something intangible could create anything tangible.

  She continued, “Think of it as a form of motivation. A person is motivated to do something by a feeling, like you coming here today. You came here, which you probably never would have done, because of the motivation to help Marie, right?”

  He nodded, “Yeah, but how can a motivation help Marie get back into her body.”

  Jasmina smiled, “Yes, we are only capable of doing certain things. You can come here, obviously. You can do lots of mortal things. But what can you do that will affect the spirit world?”

  Allen and Nancy looked at each other perplexed. Nancy started, “Can prayer help?”

  “I have seen prayer change things, so I would say yes. Prayer can affect the spirit world,” Jasmina answered, pleased with them.

  “Okay,” Allen said, “we need to think about this some. Thank you, Jasmina. You have been a great help.”

  “No problem, child. Oh, here,” she reached for the hat, “put this on her head. I thought of her a great deal as I made it. It must be hers.” Allen thanked her and took the hat. He and Nancy went to the car.

  “Well, that seemed useless,” Allen grumbled, wincing as he sat down. “How is any of that going to help her?”

  “I have an idea, but I’ll need your help. Are you motivated?” Nancy winked at Allen.

  CHAPTER 26 – MAKING PLANS

  They were sitting at the Gathering trying to figure out a plan to help Marie. Protectors were flashing in and out. There was a great deal of shouting and running. The Shadows were working overtime to wreak havoc. An uptick in car crashes everywhere caused Protectors to be on high alert. People were arguing on street corners. The police were busy with domestic disputes. The news stations were blaming it on the weather. It had been unseasonably warm throughout the country, so that must be it.

  Tom, Henry, Jenny, and Ben were sitting around a table off to one side when Henry noted, “We have not seen Marie in a while.”

  “Hester must be planning something and she’s got her hidden away. All this chaos has to be her rallying the Shadows to continue their work,” Jenny said. “What can we do to get Marie back?”

  Henry started half explaining and half figuring as he talked, “We need to find a way to combine our power- no, amplify it, when we come up against Hester again. As individuals, not one of us is a match for her. Even together, it was difficult to get Jenny out of there.”

  Henry paused to think and then continued, “I have seen an object used before as a focal point. An object imbued with energy from its owner. Something that had been worn for a long time, maybe even for generations, which could be used to collect and transmit a similar energy. It would actually amplify our collective energy.”

  “Wow! That sounds good. But what?” Said Ben.

  Tom thought a minute, “Sarah Elizabeth had a watch, a pocket watch, which Nancy now has. I have seen it. I saw her show it to Marie when she was little. I believe Nancy’s mother had it before her. If we could find it, then that might be the thing.”

  “That sounds perfect, Tom!” Jenny said excitedly, “I know that watch! It was a birthday gift from Sarah’s father. He cherished her and it broke his heart when she left and married. That gift had love surrounding it then. It was a tie between them that Sarah held onto even when her father seemed distant. She refused to sell it even when she was very poor, which further invested it with love. Then, passing it down, other generations have loved the memories it represents. It’s become a symbol of following your heart and loving with all you have, and never turning your back on your family. I think that might work.”

  “It will be a trick to get it. Moving items in the real world are not our forte. We will have to hope that its spiritual energy is high enough that we can attach it to ourselves and be able to move it.” Said Henry.

  Tom asked, “But how exactly does that work, using an object? I’ve never done that.”

  Henry answered, “Instead of focusing your strength on the Shadow, you concentrate on throwing it at the object. The object then reaches a maximum energy saturation and has to explode it out. Anything around the object in a proximal radius will be blasted with the wave. In this case it will be positive energy, so we are protected, bu
t anything, or anyone, with evil desires will be hit and neutralized. That’s what I have seen before. Use of objects is rare because generally we don’t need them. Also, it has to be deeply imbued as an energy receptacle. In Hester’s case, she is one mean devil. Anything that can help is good.”

  “What if Hester can do the same thing to us?” Jenny wondered. “What if she has an object imbued with hate?”

  “Always a possibility. We just have to hope we beat her to the idea.” Henry said.

  ***

  Marie felt lost in a fog. She couldn’t think straight. She couldn’t remember anything. She was laying on the floor of the rocky well in the dark. She tried to think of simple things, like saying the alphabet. She would get to the middle and forget what she was doing. Then she would try to remember the names of faces that would appear in her mind fleetingly. They seemed familiar but then she couldn’t remember who they were. After a time of this, she would give up and try to sleep, but sleep never came. Souls don’t sleep. It was an eternal hell.

  Hester was near. Marie could hear her talking to herself and grumbling. She seemed focused on something and rarely talked to Marie. Hester had assigned Shadows to stay with Marie and continue to cover her with their depression-inducing hypnosis. Hester was saying some kind of strange words and Marie would hear someone else shriek and scream. She decided Hester must be experimenting on one of the Shadows.

  Marie tried to sit up, propped on one elbow, and peer into the darkness. It was nearly pitch dark in the cave. She could see a green glow coming from around a corner of rock.

  The Shadows were not strong enough to hold her still, but followed her, sucking the life out of her. She pulled herself upright and felt along the wall to keep from tripping over rocks on the ground. As she peered around the corner, she could see Hester dancing around a stone table. A strange window of light, oval-shaped, and brightest around the edges floated over the table. She was saying a sing-song chorus of words that was unclear to Marie. The words sounded French. At the end she jumped and shouted, “Sempiternal Ruination!” The unexpected loudness made Marie jump a little.

  Marie could see in the window of light, a man was lying on a bed and he would cry out when Hester said her words. The place in the window of light looked very different. It looked open and alive. The colors were vivid. She could see the flowers on the table and the blue and green plaid of his blanket. He seemed whole and alive.

  Then Marie realized, it was not Shadows she was practicing on, they were real living people. They probably had no idea what was wrong with them. Marie’s head hurt. She knew what Hester was doing was wrong, but she didn’t have the strength of mind to fight her. She knew she was lost here and if she fought, someone else would be hurt, someone she really loved. It was all confusing since she couldn’t recall exactly who that was, but she knew, it was true. She went back to her spot and sat down. She really didn’t have enough energy to care about the man in the window. There was nothing she could do for him anyway.

  Then she heard Hester shriek with glee. Marie got up and looked again at the window of light. The man had stopped moving. She saw Shadows overcome him and grab at his spirit before he could get away, just like that woman in the street that had been hit by the truck. With a flash of light, the man’s soul appeared near Hester with the Shadows holding him. The man was terrified. Marie watched with a morbid curiosity. She watched as Hester said her sing-song poem again. Again she ended with “Sempiternal Ruination!” This time even louder. A wind seemed to engulf the man’s soul like a small tornado. It ripped at the edges of him, shredding and blurring him. The man started to disappear from the outer edges inward until only a small point of light was visible. Then it vanished and was gone. Hester was giddy, jumping and shrieking.

  It appeared that Hester had managed to kill the man’s body and then obliterate his soul. Marie gasped at the horror of this. Although, she had never gone to church much or studied its teachings, she thought that surely this was not possible. If Hester had found a way to not only kill, which she was more than capable of, but also to obliterate souls, then who could stop her? She could destroy anyone permanently who tried to cross her.

  “I’ve done it! He’s gone! Koe was right, that sorry twit. He only speculated that it could be done. He never knew for certain, but I know!” Hester yelled out, slapping her thighs. The Shadows were looking around for the man’s soul. They didn’t realize what had happened. Marie tried to concentrate about what to do about this, but she was so dazed that it was just a passing thought. It made her head hurt to think about it. The fog in her mind was numbing. She went back to the floor of stone where she had been for days and sat down.

  One of the Shadows stepped up to Hester and timidly asked, “Madam Hester, do you need the girl now? Now that you have this power? It’s tiring fighting her natural repulsively joyful nature. Why don’t you just be done with her, blast her to bits?”

  “You idiot! Don’t you see? Her body is still alive! I will blast her to bits but not until I’m ready to take her body and have my chance again. I will have my chance! Tom and Jenny stole my dreams away, but now they and all their offspring will pay for my pain. And through their sweet Marie, I will have the life they stole. Imagine what I can do! I have over 200 years of experiences to draw on, including my powers, but I will do it with the life and body of a 19 year old! I’ll take the world by storm.”

  “Besides,” she continued, “I need Marie’s power for just a few more things until I am mortal again. Now, I’ve got some obliterating to do. Let’s start with Marie’s father.”

  “Oh Marie, dear?” Hester rang out. “Marie? Come dear, we have work to do!” She came around the corner and grabbed Marie by the arm and flashed out.

  The Shadow watched them go and then turned to the Shadow next to him, “Do you think anyone will notice the change in Marie’s joyful personality when Hester does all that? I mean, Hester is not a barrel of monkeys and she would be the last person to notice a pretty sunset.” The other Shadow just shrugged.

  ***

  Ben, Henry, Jenny and Tom flashed to Bill and Nancy’s house in Southern California. They stood in the living room of the ocean front beach house. It was a two-story home over a garage. The living room had one wall that was all glass overlooking the ocean. It opened onto a wide balcony with chairs and a table. The door was open and the screen door wavered in wind as it blew in off the water. The rushing white noise of breaking waves filled their ears. Bill was asleep in a brown leather chair by the window, a cream-colored wool blanket with wide stripes was draped over his lap. His Protector, a woman in a Victorian blouse and long floor-length skirt stood beside him watching at the intruders. Her soft brown hair was pulled up in a loose bun on the top of her head. She was very beautiful with porcelain skin and delicate features.

  “Good day,” she nodded as she spoke with a slight German accent.

  Tom, ever the Captain, strode forward and took her hand and kissed the top of it. “Good day, my dear Marguerite. So good to see you again. We are looking for a gold watch that belongs to Nancy.”

  “As you please, Captain Helm. You won’t trouble me.”

  “Would you happen to know of its whereabouts?” Tom asked.

  “Nein. The lady moves it frequently. I can’t keep up. Perhaps Lucinda would know, but, alas, they are not here.”

  “No problem. We’ll just be about our business. Thank you.” Tom bowed slightly and turned toward Henry. Marguerite turned her gaze toward the ocean waves.

  “Okay,” said Henry, “we need to find the watch. Jenny, you go the bedroom and look through Nancy’s things. Tom you search in here. Ben and I will go through closets.”

  They split up and used their ability to pass through physical objects to search without touching anything. Tom passed his head through a book case and could look inside every book for one with a false inside compartment. He searched through cabinets the same way.

  Jenny walked inside the chest of drawers and peered into
them. Due to the density of the contents, it took some time to search every nook and cranny.

  Henry went into the walk-in closet. There were several boxes and packages stacked neatly on the shelves. Clothing hung on a rod on the other side of the closet. A shelf for hats and purses was above the clothes and was full of items. He located a large wood jewelry box that was inlaid with wood pieces of various colors. He plunged his head into the space inside the box to look. There were several jewelry pieces, but he did not see the watch. He continued to search.

  They all searched for quite a while and could find nothing. They wandered out onto the balcony feeling dejected.

  “I can’t imagine where else it could be. We searched everywhere,” said Ben.

  Jenny added, “Maybe Nancy is wearing it?”

  “I could flash to Nancy and ask Lucinda. That’s all I can figure.” Suggested Henry.

  “Okay, Henry. Do that. We will wait here.” Said Tom. A bright light consumed Henry and he was gone. In just a minute or two, the reverse happened. A bright light appeared and seemed to expel Henry.

  “Lucinda said the last time she saw it, Nancy hid it in a shoe. A ladies dress shoe.” They all headed for the walk-in closet and walked right through the walls. There were several shoe boxes stacked neatly on a shelf. There were shoes in a plastic hanging shoe keeper with pockets where shoes were tucked. Then there were several pairs of shoes on the floor at the end of the closet that looked as though they had been tried on and cast aside.

  They split up and started searching shoes by looking into them, passing their heads through boxes and shoes alike. They stopped when they heard a noise in the living room. A scream. It was Marguerite! She was screaming.

  CHAPTER 27 – SARAH ELIZABETH’S WATCH