"But his wife, she was here to get help. They wanted a baby so badly. They couldn't do it on their own. I gave her herbs to help them conceive. Pliney Howard tried to kill me?" She started screaming "Elizabeth.....Mommy’s here. Please, where are you??" The recording was so loud and frenzied, peaking the audio waves and distorting them. What made it even more chilling was that they knew that this was not Jillian's voice. The three sat fixated on the screen, eyes wide and jaws dropped in disbelief.
"Thank you Emmy, I think that is all we can do tonight." Sonya said.
Ryan said, "Did you hear that? I heard laughing, a child's laugh from there. Elizabeth, is that you? "And again you could hear the camera shutter. The following photos were of something moving across the doorway, and moving out towards the pond, and it was small. But after further inspection they decided it was a moth. A Luna Moth. Jillian didn't say a word. That can't be Twila - that was just a dream. The video was over.
"What do you think?" Ryan asked the girls.
"Oh my God, that's incredible. It almost doesn't even seem real." Sonya said.
"I can't imagine anyone debunking this." Jillian said. "Mists in photos, the evp's, the emf meter peaking and temperature dropping."
"What about the book and our personal experiences?" Ryan said, then pointing to the papers he had spread out. "Now here is something else exciting. See this; it is the original 800 acres AC had. Well, from some of these documents I can see where some of the acreage was handed down to family members, and some was sold off to other farmers. But see this." Now he was pointing to a current map. "This is GG's. Their land butts right up to it! How cool is that? So tonight I am going to try and ask whose land it is without giving anything away. I don't think they would approve of me being there."
Ryan was still looking down at the papers and said, "Are you needed in the house, Sonya?"
Jillian was still looking at the map and tried to focus outside of herself. She felt a 'presence.’ "Oh, I know someone is there. Is that Mrs. Baker? She feels...kind of stern, everything has its place, an order, kinda OCD?"
"You pegged her," Sonya said, thinking she had been the only one that could feel that from her. "I guess I had better get in," she said as Ryan put the copies from the library on the living room table and grabbed his laptop and jacket. Lucky jumped from the couch onto the table, making himself comfortable, sprawled out on the papers. Ryan and Jillian showed themselves out and he walked to the street. Here they had to go opposite directions.
"So now what do we do?” Jillian said looking down, thinking about the next few hours. Maybe they could go for a walk or get something to eat at his friend’s restaurant.
"I know we have to find Elizabeth so she and Emmy can cross to...wherever it is they need to go. I know it's up to the three of us to do this and the sooner the better. I don't know why they haven't found each other. Does that mean she's lost somewhere else? Let's plan on meeting up tomorrow and put a plan together. I'll talk to you later,” he said, turning his back and walking away.
"K, see ya," Jillian said, feeling an emptiness. Well, now that didn't go as I would have planned. Sighing deeply she thought, Ah, maybe I will have time to look for Amanda before it gets dark.
As she walked up to the house, she started thinking about what it must have been like growing up here, with six kids. Noisy probably, she thought. But what about family picnics, or Halloween? Christmas in the enormous living room... They probably cut down a 10 foot tree every year and the kids got to do all of the decorating. Sledding down Cemetery Hill or skating on the pond in winter. The meadow was probably beautiful then, and they had horses and goats and chickens. Not a working farm like where dad grew up, but it must have been great.
Grampa Seymour was a pharmacist and Gramma Adeline was an herbalist. What a perfect combination, she thought. She could remember gramma in a red and white checkered dress, red lipstick and red hair; she was wearing a white sweater and white sandals dancing with grampa a few years before they passed away. Grampa Seymour always wore a bow tie, any color in the rainbow, but never black. And one of those pocket protectors. My grampa, the hippie geek, she thought! They used to sit in white rocking chairs on the wrap around porch for hours drinking sassafras tea. They would allow the grandkids to run wild, knowing that they would all be going home soon.
Jillian walked in the back door. Silence. She realized no one was home. That's okay, she thought. It's getting dark, and I wanted to check out Amanda's room tonight anyway. She walked through the house and stood at the bottom of the beautiful wooden banister, looking up the stairs. She started climbing and stopped at the first floor. She looked down the hallway to the right, knowing that her aunt and uncle’s bedroom was down that way. These hallways were also lined with frames. Sighing, she headed up to the second floor, not remembering if she had ever been up there before. At the top of the landing, she looked both directions and had to decide which direction to go. As she stood there, out of the blue she thought she heard piano music, but not from the library this time. It was from down the hall to the right.
As she looked into the first room she came to, she found it filled with furniture covered with sheets, kinda ghostly like, maybe another suitable place to investigate later, so she closed the door. As her fingertips touched the next doorknob it seemed to open on its own. Here was a young girl's bedroom! Oh yes, Jillian felt it. It had a single bed with a white crocheted coverlet on it. Hanging in the windows were white lace curtains and a window seat with pillows. One of the walls housed a beautiful built-in bookshelf, full of books and small knick-knacks. There was a small table with three chairs, and it looked like a tea party was about to begin. On the floor was a large, blank canvas, and there were hand painted pictures on the wall. One was a close up of a sunflower. Another had the ocean and its crashing waves on the right, and a girl with a white horse on a cliff on the left.
Sitting on the bed was a stuffed rabbit. Jillian picked it up to read the engraved heart shaped pendant around its neck, "Mirabella." On the antique white and gold trimmed dresser were ribbons and awards. There was a picture of Amanda in a beautiful white dress sitting at a shiny, black piano, her feet dangling, unable to touch the floor. There was also a cassette player sitting there. Jillian pushed Play and a beautiful piano ballad began. As Jillian stood there taking this all in, she noticed a journal on the bookshelf. The spine was dark red with gold lettering. MY STORY, the same as what Jillian's mother gave her for her secret birthday gift, the one she was using to record her dreams in. She picked it up and opened to the first page. In amazement she turned a few pages and read. Turned a few more pages and read. Her jaw dropped. She began to wrinkle her brow and shake her head. She swallowed hard and said “But….what…how?”
"Oh there you are!" a voice said that startled the bejeezus out of her. Uncle Tim was standing in the doorway "We brought home dinner... you get to be a guinea pig. The What Not Shop gave us some samples of their snacks tonight."
Holding her chest and catching her breath, Jillian nodded. "Okay, okay I'll be down in a minute," she said turning to shut off the cassette player.
“You okay?” Uncle Tim asked, not knowing if it were funny or not.
“Oh yeah, it’s all good!” she said as she stuck the journal in the back of her pants and followed her uncle down the stairs a minute or two later. She stopped at her room and put the journal under her pillow, picked up Tiffany Marie and took her to dinner.
Later on she crawled into bed. Boy, I wonder what all that organic and healthy stuff is gonna do to my dreams. Oh, Amanda's journal! she thought and pulled it out from under her pillow. "Tiffany, do you want to talk about my day, or do you want me to read to you?" she asked.
"Meow," Tiffany said.
"Oh, we should talk? Okay. Now, tell me why, when I dream, I perceive the animals talk in... human?” she asked, staring at the tiny kitten. Tiffany stared at her and began to purr.
“Aahh, you are still a kitten, and the only language you know is happines
s, how to purr! That explains it all! Well, something else I learned today, a piece of useful information, actually from three people, or ghosts...I need to treat them with respect because they were once people, too. They still have feelings, even though they don't have bodies. It seems like some might have a purpose with us that are still living, to help us. Some might want to teach us or share. But they can hurt as much if not more than we do. It must be awful to die and have unfinished business. Emmy has been agonizing over the loss of her daughter for who knows how long? A hundred years? Has Elizabeth been roaming around looking for her mother all these years, too? I know we will help them find each other." As Jillian said these words, Tiffany Marie took her respective position on her chest and began to purr loudly. Jillian smiled. This right here is my heaven, she thought, not knowing where her next adventure might take her.
As she opened her eyes, she realized that this somewhere else was hot and wet. The air was alive with the sounds of birds. The sunlight filtered through the canopy above.
“Oh, wow!” Jillian whispered loudly. The landscape took her breath away. They were surrounded by tall trees, and foliage everywhere. Huge tropical flowers wound their way up tree trunks. The songs of birds echoing up high could be heard. “What do you think we're doing here?” Jillian asked.
Illianna shook her head, “This is your quest. What do you think?"
Jillian took the pouch from around her neck and loosened the cord. With anticipation she looked inside. It was dark. Then she saw flashes of fluorescent colors in the darkness. She took a deep breath and relaxed. Just to 'be'. The lights dashed and flashed again and then came together to create a pattern. The pattern would seem to be horizontal, and then float up vertical. When it was vertical the pattern changed to another and the first would disappear. Jillian looked around.
“Am I supposed to find the pattern?” she asked Illianna.
"Is that what you feel you need to do?" Illianna asked her, smiling.
"Yes, that feels right," Jillian said as she began to walk around, looking at the lush green vegetation.
“When I was born I was very tiny, and ugly,” a voice said. “I had so many feet. I had to climb everywhere. I had a hunger and ate and ate and ate. And I grew so fat that it was like I was exploding out of my skin. I became gigantic and heavy and clumsy. It wasn't easy at all.”
Jillian listened as she walked around, trying to find where the voice was hidden.
“But I had faith. I, somehow, from deep down inside I knew, I knew that one day soon it would happen. I focused on what I had to do and forgot the rest of what was going on. I followed my instincts. Whenever doubt entered my mind, I brushed it aside and did what my gut told me. Then finally one day I went for a walk. I walked until I was exhausted. Then it got kinda foggy, but I do remember making myself a little pillow and took a nap. I had the most glorious dreams!! And when I woke up, I had to stretch and stretch. It felt so right, like nothing else ever had. And as I looked around things were the same, but different, and then I realized it was me. The real me! "I am magnificent!" I thought, and the next thing I knew I was in the air floating and dancing in the breeze!
Jillian was walking back and forth, looking high and low for the voice until she had it narrowed down to a small area.
“99% of you is invisible, too, unless you learn to look beyond what your eyes see.”
“What do you mean, it's invisible?” Jillian asked as she looked closely at one tree trunk. Illianna was smiling as the scene unfolded before her.
“Did you know your heart makes its own electricity to make it beat?”
“Nooo!” Jillian said in surprise.
“It does this in perfect harmony with all of the rest of your body so you don't have to worry about it. Do you see your heart? Do you have to remind it to beat? How about blinking, swallowing? There are thousands of things your body is doing for you every moment, and you don't see it or think about any of it at all. Healing, growing, and adapting. You have trillions of cells all working in harmony!”
“I never thought about that.” Jillian said with amazement.
“See, it's the 99%. Think about how you would feel if you had no family. No friends. No home to keep you warm and safe. No food to eat. No clothing or even a bathroom. And you don’t know if and when things will ever change. How do those thoughts make you feel?”
Jillian paused and lowered her head at the thought of having less than she had now. No mom and dad, no aunts and uncles, no cousins, no friends. No place to live, no bedroom, no bed, no food to eat, no clothing. She could see herself on the street. People either rushed past her, or they stared at her, almost in disgust. Some were even scared of her, some pointed and laughed. Her heart sank to the lowest pit. She felt so alone and empty, it echoed. It hurt so badly. She felt like curling up into a ball and crying. She felt like she couldn't even move, much less answer.
“I...I don't want to think about it. It feels terrible,” Jillian said looking up, her eyes filled with tears.
“Perfect!” The voice said enthusiastically. “Now think of something that made you happy, something that made you feel really good.”
Jillian stood there looking amongst the lush vegetation, thinking. I am on a quest to find the answer to the secret of the stone. I have made all kinds of friends. I have a mom and dad that truly love me, my aunts and uncles and cousins. I have a place to live, my own room, food to eat, more clothes than I want to take care of, and Tiffany Marie! She broke into a smile. The party, the cake, the ice cream, the oils, the boxes, her cousins, and riding Illianna! Jillian was again in tears. She could feel her heart expand so big, like it had no edges. It was immense, and it felt warm and full.
“Wow, that feels so good!” she said, smiling at Illianna with tears in her eyes.
Illianna was staring at the pouch that held the stone. Jillian looked down. There was a soft, pink, light glowing from within the pouch. She took it off of her neck and took the stone out. She held it in her palm and the glowing grew and grew. The pink glow started changing colors as it started to grow beyond Jillian and move outward, surrounding her in brilliant lights. The plants and animals all seemed to glow with electricity. Everything was so bright and beautiful.
“My thoughts… create my feelings!” Jillian said looking around for the voice.
“How would you like to feel that kind of happiness all the time?” it said.
Jillian started to laugh and wipe the tears from her eyes, “Is that possible?”
“That's up to you, Jillian!”
“Yes, I want to keep this feeling,” she said as she laid her cheek on Illianna's massive neck, stroking her mane.
“Then live in harmony! See yourself doing just that. You have decided what you want. That was step 1. You can feel gratitude for what you do have. That was step 2. You are feeling it. You know that it's real. Live it! That is step 3. Remember, who you are now is what you thought of yourself in the past. You must have known how magnificent you are!”
“But what about when I get sad, or mad?” Jillian said looking up at the light filtering through the canopy.
“Don't give those thoughts any energy. Don't feed them. Feed only the finest thoughts! See, feel and acknowledge only the happiness and marvelous things in your life. This will uplift you and open your eyes to even more than you imagined! Use the words ‘I Am’ carefully, because that is what you will be.”
As those words were spoken, Jillian saw the first pattern on the trunk of a tree. She moved closer, studying it. Suddenly, large black wings lifted up from the trunk and began to flutter through the air around her head.
“I am Elora,” the butterfly said, suspended in midair, looking into Jillian's eyes.
As she closed her wings, Jillian saw the second pattern. The patterns she saw in the bag were of Elora's outer wings. “You can only see one side at a time,” Jillian exclaimed.
“But they were always there!” Illianna said, nodding her head.
“Awesome!” Jillia
n exclaimed. “But you are so beautiful, what did you mean about being ugly?”
“I was born a caterpillar. I had to have faith, faith from my gut telling me that I was exceptional; I just had to wait for my metamorphosis! Now look at me, I AM a beautiful butterfly.”
“I AM amazing, too,” said another voice, with a Spanish accent.
Jillian looked around and didn't see anyone or anything.
“I AM da bomb!” this voice said again. “I, too, have been metamorpasized!” the voice laughed.
“Focus on what it is you are seeking,” Elora said, landing on Jillian's shoulder as Jillian began looking for the voice in a nearby tree. She could see ants, a spider, a few beetles, a moth and a slug on the bark.
Paranormal Summer (Indigo Moon Rising) Page 10