Maya's Aura: The Awakening

by Smith, Skye

  "No," Maya said quickly, "neither of us are. She is a student at U.B.C., and I am up here visiting her from Frisco. Alicia, take a plate of sushi and go and watch the view or something. Like, you're being a turd."

  "How much time do you have left in Vancouver?" he asked.

  "Three days, then I have to help deliver a rental car back to Frisco airport."

  He was silent while he tried not to watch Alicia mush two rolls at once in her open mouth. He pulled at her sleeve. "Okay, a thousand dollars, but for three days and she has to stay in this house." He noticed that Maya was now looking at him in shock and her face was turning red.

  Alicia stopped chewing for a second, then spat sticky rice with her words. "For three days, fifteen hundred."

  "A thousand," he repeated.

  "Fifteen hundred but we'll both do you," Alicia spat out, then when she saw the look on his face she added, "don't worry, you'll get your money's worth."

  He wracked his brain for what to say, until he remembered an episode of Two and a Half Men. "A thousand, but I want the girlfriend experience, so you can't be here."

  Maya slid off the stool and grabbed her beach bag. "I'm out of here. Alicia," she fumed, angry with them both, " peddle your own ass. You are welcome to him." Her arm was grabbed by Erik who swung her around to face him.

  "I don't want to have sex with you. I just want..." he began softly.

  "No weird shit," interrupted Alicia, "none of that pervert homo stuff. Straight up safe sex and nothing else, or I'll, like, sic the cops on you."

  "Maya, please," he whispered to Maya as she shook her arm free, " I was just pissed with your friend. I really just want to explore your aura."

  She looked back at him. They were both trying to ignore Alicia who was saying something about cash up front. She looked around at the lovely house, and the fantastic view. It was so different from her dark, damp, shared basement suite in Frisco, and from Alicia's stark, tiny room at the university residence.

  "All right. I'll stay here with you." As she said it she closed her eyes to think. My god what was she doing? She would be at his mercy. What if he was a pervert, like Alicia said. She opened her eyes and looked into his. They were dark blue, calm, friendly. "I'll have to fetch my bag from Alicia's. We have to drop her off anyway. She has a term paper due."

  "Yeah, and where is your bank?" Alicia piped in. She reached for another handful of rolls thinking that the plastic sushi tray was about to disappear into the fridge.

  "Take your time. Eat slowly and enjoy each taste," he said as Alicia stuffed two into her mouth. "Let's take the tray onto the deck to finish it. Do you want beer or wine with it?"

  "Wine," they both replied immediately. California girls. "White with fish," they said looking at each other and giggling. Each looked at the other's flushed face. They had grown up together. They knew the flush. It was the flush of being naughty. What could be naughtier than the bargaining that they had just done?

  While Erik went to get wine and glasses, they carried the tray and the plates through the sliding doors at the other end of the dining area and out onto the deck. "Can you believe this house?" Alicia whispered. "Ohmigod, there's a hot tub." She put the plates down on the glass patio table and hauled the foam cover off the tub.

  Erik arrived with drinks just in time to see Alicia strip off her cutoffs and T-shirt and ease herself into the tub. She was what, barely twenty, and she already had a spreading ass and the start of saddlebags. She was a fake blonde, and her bikini tan lines showed that she did not suntan at Wreck Beach often enough.

  He put the wine down on the table and spun on his heel to fetch towels. Maya was standing by the table pouring the wine. She was in a light yellow halter sun dress. A style he had not seen since he had been her age. He hoped it was making a comeback. It was a good look. Much preferable to grunge jeans, short T-shirt, and bare midriff.

  She took a sip of the wine. It was bubbly, but just a bit. It was tart, but just a bit. It was very nice. She spun the bottle to read the label. Italian.

  "It's Prosecco," he said, putting the towels down on a bench beside the tub. "If we were sitting beside a canal in Venice, that's what we would be drinking."

  She beamed at him. "Take me to Venice."

  "Maya, I am a married man, and I am faithful."

  "I thought you were gay."

  "I am married to Karl. I don't cruise."

  "Then what were you doing in the gay section at the nude beach? Isn't that a prime cruising place?" She knew she had caught him out. He was blushing.

  "Same as you. Teasing men," he whispered. He heard Alicia splashing in the tub and calling for wine so he took her some. When he turned back to Maya she was nude and standing still, gazing out to sea. He took a moment to savour the view, as it framed her so artistically. She was middle height, about 5'6" he estimated, with tiny pert breasts, and long legs. He thought she looked almost anorexic, she was so slight. She looked as if she had yet more growing to do, unlike a lot of almost 20-yr olds who should already be paying attention to diet and fitness. She was a real blonde.

  "Take your clothes off and walk past me," she ordered. He did as she said. She felt it again. Oh, how delicious.

  "Did you notice that you felt it sooner, when we were further apart than on the beach?" he asked softly.

  "I, uh, why, uh, yes. I did. And it was stronger this time. And, like, it had the same instant effect on you."

  He looked down. He was swollen hard. He blushed and hid himself by scuttling over to the hottub and lowering himself in. Maya was smiling as she handed him his wine. Alicia, on the other hand, scowled down into the water and told him to keep it away from her unless he coughed up more money.

  "Does it work in the water?" Maya asked.

  "Get in and we'll find out," he replied.

  "Well, don't you know? In fifteen years you didn't try?" Maya asked skeptically.

  "Neither Karl nor I have an aura as strong as yours, or at least not recently. We have to be within inches to feel it. On the beach I felt you at about a foot. Just now, at almost two feet. Get in on the other side and then move towards me."

  "What are you guys talking about?" asked Alicia, suspiciously. "I don't get it. Are you guys talking kinky after all?"

  He put a finger to his lips to warn Maya not to explain it. "Almost nobody gets it. It's an in joke."

  Alicia complained that they had left the food and wine on the table, but they didn't seem to hear her. With an injured sigh she climbed out of the tub to drip across the deck and set herself up to lay out in the sunniest corner with the sushi tray and the bottle.

  "There," they both said at the same time. They were almost touching, but not quite. "Did it get you up again?" she asked.

  His hand disappeared under the water. "Yes. Hmm, that's a problem. I want to explore your aura, to feel it, its purity, but my sexual sensitivity keeps getting in the way."

  "Is that a line? The line?" Maya asked and sloshed away from him. He looked at her quizzically, then got it and turned beet red and laughed. She tilted her head toward Alicia who had just rolled over to dry her back in the summer sun. "Let's take her home so we can have some privacy."

  * * *

  Alicia's head was swimming. She had finished the bottle of Prosecco. They had left her in the car to bark at strangers while they went into the bank.

  In the bank, Maya stood with him in line or, what was the word in Canadian? Queue. When it was their turn, she stood back while he did his withdrawal. She was feeling mellow, and just enjoyed day-dreaming and looking at people. She had never heard so many "sorrys" and "excuse me's" as she had in Canada. He pulled her by the arm up to the teller's stall and told her to sign something. She looked down. There was a small stack of traveler's cheques. Hundred dollar US American Express traveler's cheques.

  She felt like running away. This was suddenly way too real. A thousand dollars. Sign them and she was beholden to this man. He owned her for three days. She was so nervous that she drop
ped the pen. He picked it up and put a hand on her back and stroked it to calm her. She signed and signed. She kept looking up at the teller. The teller knew, she was sure she knew. She could feel her face growing red in embarrassment.

  The first thing that Alicia said when she got back in the car was, "Give me the money. I'll keep it safe in case he tries something." Alicia actually got angry when she saw the traveler's cheques, and wouldn't speak to Maya, as if Maya had cheated her.

  They drove to Alicia's residence at U.B.C. and the two young women dashed away and into the front door. It occurred to him that they could have just done a dine and dash on him. The longer he waited, the more sure he was that he had just been screwed out of a thousand dollars. He had no recourse. He couldn't even claim that the cheques were stolen, because they were in her name.

  Damn, he had thought the traveler's cheques a perfect solution. Safe from theft for her trip back to Frisco, and safe from Alicia, who seemed to have the morals and the manners of an alley cat. He waved at some tech workers he knew, and slumped down into his seat, hoping the girls wouldn't appear at just that moment. How long should he wait? He looked at the Merc's clock. How long had it been? It seemed a long time. He would give her another fifteen minutes. And then what?

  A tap at the window woke him into the present with a start. "Open the trunk," Maya was saying and pointing to a cheap flight bag with two wheels, or at least one and a half. He pushed the trunk release and she went around back, and then he heard the thump of the lid closing. She opened the passenger door and peered in at him.

  "I am wearing my coat. Maybe with my coat on I won't be so distracting in the front seat." She slid across the leather seat showing a lot of leg. He was happy that she was still wearing her yellow sun dress. It was a happy garment. Oh Hell, he was just happy that he was going to have her company for three days.

  "She's pissed at me, so I brought everything," she said. "I think she got all horny at your house, and now feels rejected because you didn't do her. No, not that. I know. Rejected because, like, you didn't want to do her." She paused while putting on her seat belt. She touched his hand and looked him in the eyes. "If you want, I'll go back and get her. She is more experienced than me. A lot more."

  "Maya, love, you still don't get it. This isn't about sex. It has never been about sex," he said as he started the car.

  "So, like, if you don't do me, do I have to give the money back?" She felt a pang in her chest. She knew the feeling from her woeful time at high school trying to hang out with those bitchy cheerleaders. She was sharing a bit of Alicia's rejection. Rejection hurt. It made you want things that you didn't really want. Want things that you were better off without. Like the company of cheerleaders.

  "The money is yours, love. No one can take it away from you. If you feel guilty taking it, you can always give it back. Just sign the cheques over to me," he smiled at her, "but not today."

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  MAYA'S AURA - the Awakening by Skye Smith

  Chapter 4 - Three years earlier in Kitsilano, Vancouver

  Back at his house, he gave her the full tour. It was a narrow house on a skinny lot. Waterfront lots were expensive, so therefore not a great deal of square footage to play with. By the number of rooms it was not a big house but each of the rooms was spacious. The downstairs had the garage, the laundry, and then one big space of kitchen area that became dining area that then flowed into the living room, so that you could see the view from everywhere.

  Upstairs there were two bedroom suites, each with their own bathroom, and separated by a large common area, like an upstairs living room. "Noisy guests are no problem, because their suite is the other side of the common," he said as he put her gimped bag down on the floor of the guest room.

  "So, we aren't going to share a bed?" she asked.

  "Not without my mate Karl's permission," he replied. "He will be back tomorrow. You still don't get it do you? My interest in you is your aura. Not counting children, I have touched the auras of maybe ten other people in my entire life, and most of them because I was living in an ashram that specialized in auras.

  Umm, an ashram is kind of like bible camp but without the bible. None of those auras were as strong as yours. Not even close. Even after months of practice, not even close."

  "Oh," she said, feeling a little off-balance. As if she had been a bad girl and had been scolded, and then praised. "Where is Karl now?"

  "He's visiting his folks. I'm not welcome. They like me and everything. Really like me. But that was when they thought I was Karl's best friend, not his lover and mate. They blame me, completely blame me for not having grandchildren."

  "That's harsh."

  "Tit for tat. My folks feel the same about Karl. We are even talking about adopting or hiring a surrogate mother. I mean, now that it's legal for gays. Neither of our mothers particularly wants a daughter-in-law. They just want grandchildren."

  He walked over to the closet and pulled out a bath robe of lavender silk and handed it to her. "Here's your outfit for the next three days. Well, actually, just take your choice of robes. There are a few others, but that one is about your size and it is real silk."

  She dumped her cheap plastic rain coat on the bed and her carry bag on the floor beside it, and then reached for the robe. She pulled it up to her face and rubbed it on her cheek. "No, this will do. Oh, it is so, so, like, silky." It was not only of lavender silk, but it smelled slightly of lavender.

  "Make yourself at home. I'll be in the common room waiting for sunset. Did you want more wine?"

  "Red this time. Just a little," she said as he closed the door behind him. She walked to the window and looked out at the view over the beach, and then held the robe up to her cheeks again and twirled about in a mock waltz. Her holiday in Vancouver was just getting better and better.

  * * *

  He was waiting for her on the balcony in front of the common room. Just sitting there on a rattan two-seater, sipping a very red wine and watching the sun inch north over the distant mountains of Vancouver Island. He was wearing a light blue silk robe. She idly wondered what his smelled of, and then giggled at the thought of bubble gum scent.

  She sat next to him and reached for the other glass. He told her it was their house wine. An Australian Shiraz that had been mispriced in the liquor store. Seven dollars a bottle for something that tasted rounder than a fifty dollar Napa Cabernet, and didn't leave that bitter after taste on the back of your tongue.

  As soon as she sat beside him they felt it. "Clothes weaken it," he said. "It may be that they shield it, and it may be that the clothes rubbing on your skin desensitize you to feeling it. I don't know which. It's one of the things I would like to find out." He looked down. "Damn, it's jumped to attention again. Do you have this effect on all men, or is it just me?"

  "Well, like, I haven't met all men yet, so I don't know. Besides, I thought older men enjoyed walking around with a stiffy. Like, uh, overcompensation, or like, uh fear of losing it." She smiled at him. "Well, you can understand where Alicia was coming from. Every time she saw you near me, you were ,like, excited to be near me."

  "Here," he passed her two manuscripts, "some light reading while I excuse myself to get him out of our way. I wrote them both for a liberal arts option course I was forced to take in order to get my Engineering degree." He stood and headed indoors to his bathroom.

  She looked down at the two plastic-coated manuscripts, and then the dramatic views from the deck. She realized it was too distracting outside to give the papers her full attention, so she went in and sat at a small table in the common. The first was entitled, 'Measuring the Existence of Animal Magnetism' and had a big red 'D' in crayon under the title. The second was 'Sensing Auras : A Short History' and was marked with a C minus.

  There was a bookmark halfway through the first report so she opened to that page. It was a list of observations about measuring the strength of animal magnetism.

  - there was no measura
ble magnetism, so it would be called aura in this document

  - it diminished in power in each square meter according to formulas for calculating surface area, and not volume.

  - there are those who sensed auras and those that generate auras.

  - all generators are sensors but not all sensors are generators

  - different generators generate with different strengths (ranges)

  - different sensors sense with different sensitivity (ranges)

  - clothing blocks or partially blocks both sensing and generating

  - fabrics that insulate such as wool and fur, block more fully than thinly-woven fabrics.

  - it is extremely uncommon to sense an aura further than two centimeters from your skin.

  - the sensing at closer range is too difficult to distinguish from feelings of touch of hair or heat, so further study is reliant on stronger sensings, preferably beyond five centimeters.

  - all pre-school children tested had the ability to sense.

  - less than two percent of young adults tested had retained the ability to sense.

  - repeating the sensitivity test increased the range from the previous test, sometimes doubling.

  She put that manuscript to one side and opened the other to its bookmark. It was a list of Sanskrit terms, and Vedic references to auras. She looked down the vocabulary. She knew most of them from attending the yoga classes her mother taught. The complex paragraph at the end seemed to say that in the Indian and Sanskrit cultures, there seemed to be complete acceptance that auras existed, and so they focused on methods of strengthening generation and sensation, and of focusing the generation.

  She heard a sexual moan from the master suite, followed by the flush of a toilet, and then Erik joined her. She looked at him and smiled. "All taken care of then?" She was pleased to see that he blushed. He had the Nordic look of her cousins back in Boston, from where her mother had fled to settle near Mendocino, CA. All of their family blushed easily.

  "Yes, all taken care of. How far did you get in my papers?"