The Unsacred Gift (A Young Adult Paranormal Novel)

by C. S. Dorsey

  I moved on to trances.When someone falls into a trance they are suspended for a moment. They are not unconscious, but are not aware of what is going on because they are in the spirit.

  I was getting warmer.

  When I got a vision, I always went into a trance…but I wasn’t sure it is spiritual. In my visions, the people there are already dead. So was this “in the spirit”? Things were starting to clear up a little, but I still wasn’t sure, so I decided to move on.

  The last one was open visions. Open visions were the highest type of visions; they occurred when one’s physical senses are not suspended. So they are not in a trance; they are fully aware of their surroundings, yet they hear and see in the spirit.

  While I was excited to be getting more info about the type of visions I had, I still didn’t know why I had them. Angel came in the room to meow and rub up against my leg. I guessed he was hungry—why else would he try and be my friend?

  “You hungry, furball?” I asked, as he continued to meow. I closed the Web browser and shut down the computer. I need to get dress and feed the furball.

  “Let’s get you something to eat.” He galloped like he was leaping for joy, but I knew he was running to the bowl before I could get there. He and Kim chi would have a ball together when I moved back. A pain struck my stomach at the thought of giving up my apartment, but I said, “Sicily Monroe, this is for your own good.” I was having an intervention with myself.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “My mom is so animated. I didn’t know she was this fun to be with.”

  After I fed Angel, I went into my room to find something to wear. The weather wasn’t too hot, so I decided to put on some blue jeans that had a slight flare at the legs, and a navy blue cotton jersey shirt, with short sleeves and a V-neck. I decided to wear my navy blue flip-flops, to let my feet enjoy the sun before I went back to chilly Seattle. I took a cool shower, dried myself off, and put on my clothes, relaxed and refreshed.

  By this time my stomach was growling. I was a little scared to eat because of my episode the night before, but the growling began to annoy me, so I went in the kitchen and grabbed some crackers, then headed into the living room.

  Angel hopped on the couch next to me. I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels, stopping when I saw that The Notebook was on. My all-time favorite romance movie. I guess the reason I love it so much is because Noah never left Ally’s side, even though she had Alzheimer’s and didn’t know who he was. He didn’t care.

  Angel was curled up, sleeping like a newborn baby. I was comfortable, with my legs curled under me on the couch.

  Thirty minutes into the movie, my mom pulled up. She walked into the house with a bright smile on her face. She wore a cream-colored suit with matching shoes and stockings.

  “Well, don’t you look dashing today,” I said, surprised. I had never seen my mother dressed in such elegant attire.

  “Thank you, honey,” she said confidently, like she knew she looked good. “You want to go out, Sissy? Are you feeling up to it?”

  “Yeah, let’s go shopping. I need the fresh air.”

  “OK, honey, let me change.”

  Angel and I sat there on the couch finishing The Notebook.Then my mom came out of her room, dressed in comfortable clothes, and she grabbed her purse and keys and we headed off.

  We pulled into the parking lot at the local shopping mall. I was shocked to see so many people there. The parking lot was full. The only way anyone was going to get a parking spot was if they parked across the street, or in the residential area.

  “Ma, this is crazy. You would think that the whole mall was giving out free merchandise.”

  “I know. I’m going to circle around again.” She circled the parking lot again and found an elderly couple walking to their car.

  “Ma, follow them.”

  “I don’t want to scare them,” she said as she drove slowly behind them. The woman kept looking behind her shoulder while her husband tried to walk a little faster.

  “Just pull up next to them and ask them where they parked,” I suggested. Before my mom could even roll the window down the older gentleman said, “We are just a few cars down,” and pointed toward his car.

  “OK,” my mom and I said in unison. She rolled up the window, and we started laughing. We followed them to their car and waited until they pulled out, then drove into their space.

  The mall was so crowded we could barely walk next to each other. This is crazy, I thought to myself. Then I realized that the new school year was just weeks away. “Back-to-school shoppers, Ma. That’s why it’s so crowded.”

  It was so hard buying you new clothes, because you liked your old ones so much. Just for once, I would have liked to have bought you new sneakers like all of the other kids wore. You were never into fashion, I guess.” She shrugged her shoulders.

  “Being like everyone else was just not my thing, Mom. Besides, I didn’t want to put that type of stress on you. I wanted it to be as painless as possible.”

  “Sissy, you were never a pain to me—honey, half the time it didn’t feel like I had a teenager. I was waiting for you to get to that age. You know, the ‘no one understands me’ stage. But you just skipped right over that like it was nothing.” That’s because I had other stuff to deal with, bigger than that teenage crap, I said to myself.

  We headed toward the Macy’s entrance. “Well, Ma, I’m sorry for not being a terrible teenager…like Heaven and Halo.”

  My mother cringed when I said their names. “Heaven and Halo have something going on inside them that not even an exorcism could cure,” she said, and we both laughed. “Those two need a lot of help. Their father had something wrong with him mentally.”

  Really?” I said. “How so?”

  “He was always whispering to himself and shaking his head—like he was trying to shake something out of it.” She shivered. I think the thought of it gave her the creeps.

  We walked into Macy’s and started looking around.

  “Why did he leave Auntie Tiy? I mean, I know he had issues, but didn’t he want to be there for Heaven and Halo?” My mom picked up a blouse on the rack, then turned slowly to face me. “He said they were the ones whispering to him in his head. They were only a year old and barely talking. He just had a lot of things going on inside, that’s all. Like this color?” She held up the blouse and held it against me to see if it would fit.

  It took a minute for me to process what she just said, and then I remembered what Heaven had said the night before. “We hear things…whispers.” It freaked me out a little when I connected the two. Not only did they hear whispers, but he did, too. All of this was giving me the creeps.

  “No wonder the poor girls are so…hollow.”

  “Sissy, they know what they’re doing. They plot and plan all the time about how to make everyone else’s lives miserable. They did it to their mom, and now they are trying to find someone else they can suck the life out of. Honey, you don’t know how much I pray for them.”

  Listening to what my mom was saying, I felt sort of sorry for them. I thought, Maybe they are crying out for help. Maybe they are going through the same thing I am, but in a different way.

  “Oh, Sissy, these pants would look good on you. Try these on.”My mom handed me some jeans, which snapped me out of my trance. I held them up to get a better look. They were faded, with a crease going down each leg. I pulled on the fabric.

  “They’re stretchy jeans, Sissy. I know you like your clothes to be comfortable—I don’t blame you. The pants that young girls wear today, I’m surprised that they are still alive. You know, those jeans that are so tight they can stop the circulation in your legs? I tell you, these young girls.” I couldn’t help but laugh. My mom is so animated. I didn’t know she was this fun to be with.

  After my mom bought me new cholthes, five shirts and seven pairs of jeans, we headed for the food court to get something to eat. We stop at the Chinese food station, and I ordered chicken fried
rice and broccoli and chicken. My mom ordered vegetable chow mein and sweet and sour chicken.

  We sat down to eat our food.

  “Sissy, I just want to say that I am enjoying your company. I missed you so much. I wish you didn’t have to leave tomorrow.” She looked down at her plate. She was holding back tears.

  “Ma, I will be back in four months. That’s in no time.”

  “I know, but—having you here I felt relieved. I worry so much about you, and it bothers me. I know you wanted to get away and explore on your own, but I kind of wish you could have done it at home.”

  She was killing me. I had to go away; I had to go somewhere far away from my past. But I saw the pain she was going through with her only child being gone.

  “Ma…I…have….these…um….” Just when I was trying to get the words out, her phone rang.

  “Oh, hold on one moment, honey.” She held up her finger. I was actually relieved—I really didn’t want to ruin this day, it was going so well. Maybe I would tell her another day about my ability to see dead corpses, blood, and broken bones.

  After she hung up the phone, she had a smile on her face that lit her up like a Christmas tree. “Who was that?” I asked, already knowing the answer to that question. There was only one person that could make my mother smile like that and that was Mr. Mark.

  “It was Mark. He just wanted to know if it was OK to come by later today. That’s all.” For a moment I saw a shiny sparkle in her eyes. I wasn’t sure if it was leftover tears from the previous conversation or not.

  “I like him, Ma. He’s great for you. If I was choosing someone for you, it would be him.” I wanted to give her reassurance before I left; I didn’t want to leave on a negative note. My mother’s happiness was more important to me than my own.

  “Thank you, honey, it means so much to me that you approve. Mark and I were talking outside the day you got back. We were going to put the wedding off for a while because I saw how it was hurting you.” She shook her head. “You are the only thing in my life that matters, and if you’re not happy then I’m not happy.”

  I felt like a selfish brat, for how I acted the whole weekend. “Ma, I want to apologize for everything I said and did this weekend. Yeah, I moved far away and left you here by yourself, so why wouldn’t I expect you to date or be with someone. It just caught me off guard, that’s all.” I sipped on my Sprite, pushing back tears and forcing the lump down my throat. Not today. No tears today, Sissy, I thought to myself. She reached over and grabbed my hand.

  “Honey, I accept your apology. Please accept mine for having kept my relationship with Mark a secret from you.”

  I laughed. “Apology accepted.”

  We stared at each other and smiled. It felt like a gray cloud that had been hovering over us lifted. I knew she didn’t know that the cloud was there, but I saw it, only because I’d created it. The sun was starting to shine again on our mother-daughter relationship. It felt like a new day, a new beginning. Despite the bad dreams, gruesome visions, and the fact I wanted to strangle my cousins, I needed to come back home. I needed to restore and repair our relationship, and to better understand that I have no control over things that happen.

  We walked around a little more and then headed for the car. I needed to get back to the house and pack. Tomorrow, it was back to reality for me.

  Back at home, Mr. Mark was sitting on the porch, waiting for us. He didn’t fool me, I knew he had a key to the house.

  “Ma, why doesn’t Mark just use his key?” I said as I opened the door.

  My mom turned and looked at me like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “How do you know he has a key?” she asked in a suspicious tone.

  “It’s obvious, Ma. I know Mark spends the night with you. I wasn’t born yesterday.” We got out of the car and walked around to the trunk to get the bags.

  “Well, if you must know, he does have a key, and no, he does not spend the night. I have to draw the line somewhere. That line will be crossed when we get married, but until then we have boundaries.” I guess that answered my question.

  “A key, huh? Wow, I don’t even have a key. Now I know just how special he really is to you.” I raised my eyebrows up and down with a smile on my face.

  My mom smiled and said, “Girl you’re so bad. I don’t know if I am ready for you to come back. You are too much.” She laughed and nudged me on my arm.

  She shook her head and walked toward Mark; he jumped and raced over to help her with her bags. It was like he was trying to save her from a moving vehicle. He would be a good stunt man for the movies. I had never seen anything like it before.

  While he was getting her bags, I waited to see if he was going to grab mine. They were heavy, too, but no luck. It was like they completely forgot about me. The way he looked at her, it was like he could not breathe without her. Their eyes locked together, and they were making love without the physical contact. I almost threw up again, but instead I forced myself to smile.

  I followed behind them into the house. “Oh, Sissy, I’m sorry, let me get those for you.” Mr. Mark came to my side to get my bags.

  “Thank you, Mark,” I said. And as I walked in the house, it hit me that I was happy. Not the blessed-out feeling I’d gotten when Chris and I had the make-out session the night before, but more of a satisfied feeling. I could get used to this. I thought about what Granny said, that life was what I made of it. After this weekend, I was ready for whatever came. I felt like I could embrace anything and not let life knock me down.

  I was going to take this new mental freedom back with me. I finally felt…normal.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Going home helped me realize that I don’t have to be scared anymore.”

  After I packed, I went into the living room with my mom and Mr. Mark. They were watching some movie on Lifetime, though I don’t think that they were actually watching it. My mother had her head tucked so close to Mark’s neck I thought she was kissing him. Ew! I was going to be sick again. “You two need a room, and not a room under this roof while I’m staying here,” I said as I plopped on the couch. Angel followed behind me and lay next to me.

  My mom straightened up on the couch. She threw a pillow at me, and I caught it before it hit the floor.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “I wasn’t throwing it to you, I was throwing it at you.”

  “You have a bad arm. Your pitching skills are off.”She took the remote and threw it at me. This time it caught me off-guard and hit me right on the forehead.

  “Ow! That hurt.” I touched my head, making sure I didn’t have a lump.

  “Strike One.”

  “No fair, Ma, that’s Ball One.” She threw another remote at me so fast I almost didn’t see it, but I caught it with one hand. I wondered how many remote controls she had over there.

  “You’re out again.”

  “I was actually throwing that one to you.”

  “Yeah. Sure.” We both laughed. Mark just smiled at us. He didn’t say much when I was around. I think he knew that time with me meant a lot to my mom, so he didn’t interrupt.

  I started to get comfortable on the couch, watching whatever movie was on.

  Twenty minutes later, I dozed off to sleep.

  I was still in the water, swimming as fast as I could to get away from the dead child’s body. It felt like hours before I reached the shore of the lake. I finally climbed out of the water and dropped down on my knees to catch my breath. I could feel myself shaking uncontrollably, yet it was not cold. The air was still thick with mist. I looked back to see if the corpse was still in the water.

  It was gone.

  I got up and started walking. I realized that I was in the same forest as before. The trees were still tall, the leaves were still reddish-brown, and the ground still had broken pieces of branches lying around.

  I continued to walk.

  There was a halting silence, and then all of a sudden I heard laughter. The children playing
again, I said to myself. The laughter was coming nearer to me. It was like the sound of the Tickle Me Elmo toy that little children love so much. It was creeping me out. I didn’t know what to do, so I panicked.

  There was a thick shadow. I began to run. I ran because I didn’t know what was in the thick shadows. After the corpse in the lake, I didn’t want to take my chances. I ran so fast my feet barely touched the ground. That’s because I wasn’t going anywhere—I was running in one spot. The shadow was coming toward me, and I stopped. I stood there frightened and petrified, not knowing what to do. The shadow grew as it come closer and closer to me.

  I felt something shaking my arm and then I woke up.

  “Sissy, Sissy, honey.” I opened my eyes quickly and felt a jolt of electricity in my heart, like a mini heart attack.

  “Oh, honey, I didn’t mean to startle you,” my mother said. But I didn’t jump because of her waking me; I jumped because I feared the unknown in my dream. This dream in particular was haunting me this weekend. It was daunting and kept recurring every night. I didn’t understand what it meant but it was leading up to something.

  “It’s OK,” I said. I got off the couch and walked sluggishly to my room.

  I didn’t even bother to get under the covers, just lay on the bed and drifted off to sleep again. The dream didn’t continue. This time, I dreamt of nothing.

  “Sissy, wake up, you’re going to be late for your flight.” I didn’t want to get up. The sun was shining in the room. The bright, beautiful light would have been wonderful if the room was not ninety degrees. I looked at the clock: 10:30 a.m. She’s right, if I don’t get up now I’m going to miss my flight. I thought to myself, What if I don’t want to go? What I if I could finish my last semester at UC Berkeley or UC San Francisco? It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get up, it was because I was finally comfortable with my past and present. Going home helped me realize that I don’t have to be scared anymore. I don’t want to hide like a hermit.