“It’s weird, she was wearing a necklace I had never seen before. Actually,” he paused to remember, “It was a watch on a chain. An old looking watch, like an antique. I noticed because it was- it was glowing.”
Nancy’s face turned pale as a sheet and she stared at Allen. After a second she said, “A what? Did you say a watch? What kind of a watch?”
“Yes. It was a regular pocket watch kind of watch. You know, like people had before wrist watches. It was hard to see it clearly because it was glowing. I actually saw it, or actually a bright little spot of light, before I saw her.”
“Hold on! My watch, I mean, Sarah Elizabeth’s watch! It was in one of the shoes that Bill cut up! Let me call him!” She got up and crossed the room to call him.
Allen sat back in the chair trying to remember anything else. While Nancy was talking excitedly to Bill, totally forgetting her irritation from before, the Protectors were leaning on walls watching like it was a television show unfolding before them. They all jumped in surprise when a loud ripping sound was heard. It was the same sound Marie heard back at her parents. A blinding white line appeared in the air in front of them and the ripping noise grew louder as the light parted into two lines with a black emptiness in between.
While Allen sat there oblivious to anything out of the ordinary, Nancy chattered away on the phone giving Bill directions to look in different places, the Protectors jumped up and readied themselves for whatever this might be. It was definitely another rift opening. The white line separated into two lines to form an ellipse which continued to widen until, as they gasped in horror, Hester appeared inside the opening and then fell into the room. Henry came through behind her as though washed by a tidal wave. They both landed on the ground and the rift sealed and disappeared with a sound not unlike water being sucked down a drain.
The stunned Protectors were both thrilled to see Henry and horrified to see Hester again. Tom reached for Henry’s hand and pulled him up and behind him. Hester took a moment to collect herself and understand where she was. Marie, who had at least felt safe when she thought Hester was gone forever, would have fainted if she breathed air.
Hester, now on her feet and started laughing at the absurdity of it all. “Thought I was a gone-er, huh? Guess I’m not getting any deader!” She looked at Allen in the chair and walked over to him, mockingly caressing his cheek. She sat back in his lap, occupying the same space.
“Get away from him!” Marie yelled with authority.
“Oh, now. I’ll take good care of pretty boy. He’ll be so happy to see me, or you that is, when I have your body! Maybe we should just get right down to business.” Hester stood up and moved away from Allen, taking a step toward Marie. “With your soul gone, your carcass over there will be free for the taking and guess who wants a do-over?”
“You’re crazy. Oh my god. He’ll never love you! Isn’t that what you really want? Do you really think he won’t know it’s not me? He’ll never love you!”
“Good grief, no! Men are all the same! Bunch of slugs after one thing. He doesn’t care about your soul. He just wants something to squeeze at night.” Hester spat. “Stop being such a ninny little girl!” Hester’s crazy red hair flew around her face as she jerked her head from Marie to Allen and back.
Marie could see in her eyes, deep behind the evil, there was a little girl who’d been terribly abused and whose dreams of love had been torn to shreds by the evil of others. Just for a minute, Marie felt pity, wishing she could go back in time and rescue that little red-headed freckled girl with sad green eyes.
But, it was too late for Hester. Choices had been made too many times taking her farther and farther from the innocent girl she had been on that auction block, sold as an indentured servant to a man who also had made too many wrong choices.
In a controlled tone, “You’re wrong, Hester. I wish things had been different for you, but you can’t have Allen. Your time is done! And you can’t have me, either! I love him and he loves me. No one will keep us apart.” Marie stood her ground. Tom and Jenny appeared with Lorenzo behind her.
Tom smiled and said, “Sarah Elizabeth would be proud!”
Lorenzo stepped forward, “Hester, please let me help you.”
“You?” She looked him up and down as though it had been a long time since she had seen him. “And where were you all this time? Where were you when I was little? Where were you when no one wanted me? I have no use for you.” Hester spat.
She turned to Allen again and put her arm mockingly around his shoulders. Allen felt a chill and convulsed spontaneously. That was it for Marie. She felt the power rise in her. The white ethereal glow of love surrounded her whole being. The watch began to shine like a lighthouse in the fog. Allen saw a twinkle of golden light again.
“There Nancy! Do you see it?” Allen jumped up. He would he dropped Hester to the floor if she had actually been on his lap. Nancy did see it. She dropped the phone. Bill’s voice could be heard in garbled indistinguishable words. She was overcome with joy. She believed Allen, that it truly was Marie. All of the fear in both their hearts turned to joy and hope as they looked at the golden spot in the air. They choked on the emotion and tears filled their eyes. Marie was surely alive and fighting.
They could not see it, but their love for Marie channeled into the watch as well. The Protectors could see two ribbons of light course from them, through the air and into the watch. The ringing was intense and the golden glow was even brighter than before. Soon ribbons of light poured out of all of them in the room, except Hester, and into the watch. At the moment when the object could no longer contain such a build-up of power, a sonic burst lit up the room and washed over everyone. Hester was pushed back and pinned to the ground.
Marie stepped forward and put her foot squarely on Hester’s chest. “You are done terrifying my family! Tom never loved you. End of story! You’re endless antagonizing is over. You will never hurt anyone I love again, as long as I exist!”
Lorenzo knelt down next to Hester. “Hester, I know the sweet girl you used to be so long ago. I never left your side. Tom was not meant for you. There was another I’d planned for you, but you never met him because you wouldn’t let go of Tom. You chose to follow your own path without me. That’s all so long ago. There is still time though, if you will let go and turn from your wicked plans.”
Hester looked at him astonished. For just a second, she considered the possibility of a second chance. Then her eyes tightened and her mouth pursed. “You lie! It’s all lies. I will have my revenge!” She squirmed, but the force of Marie’s power would not let her get up.
As crowded as it was, a flash of light showed ten souls appearing around Hester. Young men and women, all Protectors in plain white clothes.
“Who are you!” she lay frozen and afraid.
One young woman looked around the other nine and calmly said, “We are your children, Hester. You’ve met us. Each one of us you killed with your bare hands as we gasped for our first breath. Some you killed even before then, before we ever left the womb, but you saw our broken bodies delivered later. That was a long time ago. We have moved on and now we catch the babies whose time comes much too early. We love them and carry them on.” She looked at Ben lovingly.
She continued, “Your choices have brought you to a place where you can’t return. Your spell is just witchcraft, bending time and space for a moment, and has no real power as you found out. Your real power is your heart and you have chosen destruction time and time again, and now it’s time for destruction to visit you.”
Lorenzo sadly looked down. A tear fell from his eye. “I have always loved you. Hester. I have always been there waiting for you to come to me. I’m so sad for you.”
The ten children of Hester’s faces turned grim as they swooped in and carried Hester away in a cloud of dark smoky shadow. Her screams faded away until the room was silent.
Marie looked up at Lorenzo, “Is she gone forever?”
His downcast eyes turned u
p and rested on her. “Yes. The spell she thought she could inflict on others was false. Just parlor tricks. The only way a soul can be obliterated is by its own choices.”
Marie was both relieved and saddened. She had seen that Hester had once been full of life and love, a long, long time ago, but that person had become twisted and lost.
“I must go,” said Lorenzo as he smiled at Marie. “You have grown so much. I’m so proud of you. You have been given a rare gift to see what most must learn by faith.” He looked at Allen who was still searching the air for any sign of Marie. “You have also got through to others who now have great faith in what they do not see. You will find a way back. I believe in you.” A brilliant white ring of light appeared around him and consumed him and then he was gone.
Tom and Jenny breathed a huge sigh of relief as they each grabbed one of Henry’s arms and hugged him.
“What happened in there, when you were inside the rift? Did you see Hester with you?” Tom asked.
“No,” said Henry. “It was just darkness and silence. I felt very alone. Then, it seemed like no time had passed and it threw me out onto the floor here.”
“Very strange. It must have been a sort of worm hole in space. Well, we thought we had lost you, again.” He hugged Henry again and started tearing up. “We love you very much, son.”
Marie thought how strange the scene looked since they were all the same age in appearance. She noticed Allen was inspecting the area where she was standing. His arm passed through her as he felt the air. His face twisted in frustration.
Marie turned back to the others and said, “I have to figure out how to get back in my body!” She walked over to the bed and tried to mesh the two parts of her, but nothing changed. Her soul was no longer stuck to her body. “Whatever Hester did, I have to undo it. But how can I find out what she did?”
Jacob spoke up, “Marie, I heard the woman at the incense shop tell Allen that Hester had somehow taken the body of a woman before and lived at the shop for a while. That was the other case of a person being forcefully pushed to the other world while their body still lived. Maybe there we would find clues? Maybe her Protector at the incense shop knows something.”
“Hm.” Marie recalled briefly seeing the shopkeeper’s Protector. “I suppose it’s a start. Ben, are you up for a mystery to solve?”
“Any time, sweet girl. Let’s go!” Marie put an invisible kiss on Allen’s cheek and took Ben’s hand. The bright light flashed and they were gone.
Nancy and Allen looked at each other. “Allen, I really have the feeling we are not alone here.”
“I know. I never would have believed it before.” Lucinda, Jacob, Tom, Jenny and Henry chuckled.
CHAPTER 31 – ON THE SCENT OF AN ANSWER
Peaceful quiet filled the incense shop as completely as the sweet scent of sandalwood can fill every corner of a room with pleasant fragrance. Jasmina’s hands moved in rhythmic undulation as she crocheted brown yarn into a long chain. Marie wondered how the store stayed in business because neither time that she had been there were any customers. She wondered if the storekeeper got lonely. There didn’t seem to be anyone else living there.
Marie slowly moved along a display table with shelves devised from wooden milk crates. In the open side of the crate, display stands held necklaces and earrings made from beads that looked like little stones. Perhaps they were stones from the nearby creeks. Hats fashioned from wool that had been shaped into feminine, graceful slopes and curves sat on short hat stands on top of the crates. The hats had ribbons of grosgrain or lace around them. They had a slightly homemade, natural look. Marie thought they must have been dyed using plants or natural materials.
She continued to the corner of the shop by the bookcase where she had seen the Protector before, browsing as she went as though she had a real body and might even be a customer. As she passed the glass counter where Jasmina sat perched on a stool, she noticed that Jasmina was wholly unaware of her presence. Marie remembered Jasmina said she could only see her Protector and decided this must be true. Ben found a chair near the window and plopped down.
The little bell on the door jingled and Marie jumped at the unexpected noise. She turned to see a young woman in a tank top and long flowing pants over sandals come in. She had a wide smile for no apparent reason. The customer walked over the counter, passing right through Marie, and began a conversation about a new store in town that sold yarn. The two of them chit-chatted like two birds without any notion Marie was nearby.
The back of Marie’s scalp had that odd sensation of contracting, making the hair stand up and causing a slightly tickling sensation. Someone was watching her. She turned back to the ladies who were oblivious to anything going on around them. Marie casually scanned the room until she noticed a screen with four hinged panels, about five feet tall, sitting in a corner. Various scarves and shawls had been draped over it causing a chaotic mixing of colors and patterns. As Marie investigated closer, tip-toeing around a table, she saw a face peering at her from the side.
“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.” Marie sensed the girl was afraid. “I’m Marie.”
“I know who you are, or, at least who you say you are.” The voice had a slightly Italian dialect.
“I just want to talk to you. I need help.”
“I have nothing to say to you. Now leave.” The firmness of those last two words made Marie feel like she was about to argue with her wise grandmother.
“Why? Are you afraid of me?” The Protector just stood there un-answering. “I just wondered if you could help me, help me get back in my body. I’m not supposed to be here, see?”
The young woman stood motionless at first and then shifted her weight nervously. “I know who you are! You are that devil Hester! Now get out, I say!” She raised her arms as if to push Marie out of the store, stepping closer to her.
Marie’s breathing quickened. “Wait! I’m not Hester! Hester is gone, for good.” Marie paused. “She somehow separated me from my body and I want to go back. I’m still alive. I just thought you might know how Hester did that and maybe I could undo it.”
The girl must have believed Marie because she lowered her arms and looked at Marie more closely. As if wanting to believe Marie. Her mouth was a firm line but her eyes showed concern. She seemed to argue in her own head with herself. Finally, she said, “I am Ana.”
“Nice to meet you, Ana. Can you help me?”
“That, I do not know. No one is supposed to be here in the other world with a body still living. The soul is what gives the body life. So what keeps your body alive now?” Ana peered at her daring her to contradict what she knew to be true.
“Um, I don’t know.”
“Let me explain.” She had a European accent that Marie couldn’t place. At first it seemed like Italian, but now it seemed a little like Russian. It was nothing like Marie had ever heard. “I was very old when I crossed over. I had lived a long, beautiful life. Of course, you see me at my prime, but I lived to be over 90 years old, which was remarkable in the 1600s. Ah, I don’t know. I only ate what I could grow from the soil. No meats. Maybe that was it.
“I had a wonderful husband.” Her eyes shifted to the floor and then slowly back, “He was my life and I was his. We made many beautiful babies.” She winked at Marie and smiled. “Ooch! Was he a lover!” Then she laughed, but quickly the smile faded. “He was older than me by four years. And one day, when his body finally was too old, he took a nap and didn’t wake up.”
She continued, “Life without him was not life. Even though I had a big family with children and grandchildren and even their children, he was my life. We shared the same life chord with the fates, I suppose. My heart went with him when he died. He was all I thought about. I wondered where he could be. Surely someone as full of life as my Dimitry was not gone forever. I could feel my life seeping away as my heart yearned for him. For all intents, my soul had left my body to search for him. And, I died. It was just a month after him. My body ceased
living and released me so I could find him.”
“Did you? Did you find him?”
“She beamed with delight, “Oh, yes! He was there with me all along. He took my hand as I stepped out of life and into the other world. We were together a long time, centuries! Now, Jasmina is the last of our family. She has no children. I chose to stay with her as her Protector. Dimitry, he is so handsome again, he handles special assignments for Lorenzo. I see him often. When Jasmina has lived her life, together we will go on to paradise. So, you see? Without the soul, the body wilts away. But not yours, is this so?”
Marie answered, “No. My body is in a coma. I just can’t get back in it. I don’t stick to it.”
“Hm. Very odd. It must have been powerful energy that took you out. I always say, ‘You get out what you put in.’ Maybe you need powerful energy to fix it.”
“So, what happened to the other girl that Hester did this to?”
“Oh, child! Hester is very bad. She sent that girl’s soul on and turned right around and planted herself in that girl’s body. Then she came here and acted kindly to my Jasmina. Jasmina would trust the big bad wolf, I tell you. I tried to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen. Hester knew Jasmina could see me. She figured that Jasmina must be a powerful soul that could help her. I managed to get the newspaper open one day to an article about that poor girl. Her name was Beth. Jasmina saw the picture and the stories didn’t match any more than the names. When Jasmina asked Hester about it, Hester flew out of here. Her cover was blown. She threw herself over a bridge and released herself. I was never so glad to see her gone.”
“So you never saw how she did it to the girl in the first place?”
“No. No I didn’t. It was too late for Beth for it be fixed, what with Hester running around in her skin. But you, you have a chance.”
“Yeah, if I only knew how.”
As Marie thought about this, the sound of Jasmina and the customer’s voices caught her attention.
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