Veiled

by Silvina Niccum

  “Now, let’s get to the reason for this assembly and do it as efficiently as possible. Those of you who cannot see auras please stand and follow Augusto and these other teachers through this door,” she said, pointing to her left. Reluctantly some of the spirits in the room stood up and glided over to where the spirit called Augusto was standing. When no one else stood up, she continued.

  “Very well, those of you who can see auras and discern thoughts follow Sonora out this door and the rest of you stay put.” Fewer spirits stood up and left the room following Sonora. Once all the spirits were where they should be, Milah turned her attention to those of us who were left.

  “Now then, you are here to prepare to discern thoughts. Once you can discern thoughts, you can move to Sonora’s class and there you will perfect that ability. So with business out of the way, let’s get to work. Who can tell me what an aura is?” She looked around the room for a while and when no one volunteered the answer, she called on a heavyset male spirit from the back of the room. He looked shocked at being called on and his frame shook violently as he answered.

  “An aura is an energy field that surrounds everything that has matter.”

  “Very good. I could see in your aura that you knew the answer,” she said as her lips formed a tight line that slightly curved upward. Then she added, “We will talk about colors in just a moment, but who can tell me why seeing auras is such an important part of our gift as Discerners?” Her countenance looked less severe now, as if she was warming up to us now, yet no one volunteered an answer.

  “You!” She pointed in my direction. I was startled for a moment, but to my surprise, Agatha was behind me and she took it upon herself to answer the question.

  “Auras help us determine in what frame of mind a spirit is,” she answered with derision, as if answering the question was beneath her. The troubling thing was that her aura and mine were still pretty close in color, although hers was still a bit darker.

  “Yes, in part,” Milah continued as she narrowed her eyes in Agatha’s direction. “But there is more. It’s not just your current state of mind that an aura explains. The inner core of the aura, the one closest to your frame, tells us who the person is. The outer part of the aura tells us what that person is feeling right now.

  “Again I ask: why is seeing and interpreting auras such a big part of our gift?”

  “As Discerners we are supposed to know how other spirits are feeling so we can help them better,” Irene volunteered.

  “In part, yes. What else?”

  “We can learn a lot about a spirit by reading their aura. We can see who they are and how they are feeling,” someone answered.

  “Good! What else can you tell me about auras?” Her eyes scanned the room looking for a new victim. A female spirit toward the front raised her hand in the air and waved it impatiently back and forth. For some reason, no one seemed to find this as unusual as I did. Milah nodded in her direction, acknowledging her unusual motion and the spirit proceeded to give her much anticipated answer.

  “Your aura can also react to other spirits’ auras. Auras can blend with each other or they can clash. Usually this means that there is either closeness and affinity or friction and aversion to that particular spirit.” Once finished, the eager female looked extremely pleased with herself and settled back into her chair.

  “Oh please…” Agatha sneered from behind me.

  “Yes, that about covers it,” Milah said, satisfied. “Now that we know what an aura is, let’s talk about colors. As I mentioned earlier, the inner color represents that person’s or spirit’s personality.”

  “If we see auras now, will we see auras as mortals too?” a spirit interrupted.

  Milah looked annoyed, but answered anyway. “It will be harder as a mortal to see auras, but certainly not impossible. You may not even realize that you see them, because if you familiarize yourselves well with auras now, it will be quite a natural thing to you there. The point of this class is to make it second nature for you to see auras and understand them, so this will become part of your mortal experience as much as breathing air will.” Milah started pacing as she spoke. One could tell that she felt very passionately about this subject.

  “Having a clear understanding of what colors mean will give you an edge in the next life. It will help you see hidden potential in people, and it will aid you in forming relationships that you have already formed here.” At this her mouth formed another thin line that was to be the closest thing to a smile she would make. “That is how I formed my relationship with Augusto, one of the instructors here. When I met him in mortality, his aura looked familiar to me—his whole person actually. Because he is a Discerner too, he had the same experience and that was how we knew that we were soul mates.”

  A wave of pleased murmurs filled the room.

  “Oh, brother!” Agatha shifted uncomfortably in her seat and her displeasure gave me great pleasure.

  Irene and Leo didn’t say much, but I did notice that Leo squeezed Irene’s hand, and she looked pleased. Milah however, didn’t seem to approve of all the little side conversations that had sprung, so she quickly put a stop to them and began her explanations about colors and their meanings.

  After class I lingered in the garden, attracted by the beautiful flowers that adorned it. They were all carefully labeled, so I was committing the names of the prettiest ones to memory. Then as I bent low to see the name of a flower that was low to the ground, I overheard Agatha’s voice coming through a window that was right above me.

  “I was wondering what you meant by that look you gave me after I answered your question in class,” Agatha said haughtily.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Milah answered flatly.

  “Don’t be coy with me. I know a look when I see it.”

  “Then maybe you can tell me what that look was. I am not aware of any specific look that I gave you.” Milah’s voice was sharp but unmoved by emotion.

  “OK then, perhaps I misunderstood.” Agatha’s voice was insolent.

  “It looks that way. Can I help you with anything else?”

  There was silence, and then Agatha answered. “Well, maybe one more thing.” A long pause followed. “What color is my aura?”

  There was another long pause. “If you can’t see your own aura, I can’t tell you,” Milah answered absentmindedly.

  “Why?” Agatha said angrily.

  “Because that is one thing I just can’t help you with. I would suggest, however, that you take some time to do some soul searching and get to know yourself. Then when you can see your own aura, come back to class.”

  “That is not fair! Besides, I know who I am.”

  “Then you should be able to see your own aura.”

  Another long period of silence followed. I was riveted to the spot and I could not bring myself to move. This was good, but if Agatha knew I was eavesdropping she would be furious! Good thing she didn’t know. I took this time to look at the flower I had come to see, the tiny plaque said it was called a Hyacinth. Hmm, pretty, I thought.

  “So, you think that I can’t see my own aura because I don’t know myself?” Agatha said with renewed composure.

  “Yes, or you are having a deep internal struggle. I don’t say it lightly when I tell you to take some time to do some soul searching. You can’t be a good Discerner if you can’t discern your own self. It’s that simple.”

  The conversation was either over, or Agatha was still thinking, but I was worried that I might get caught, so I got up and flew away, feeling extremely uneasy about what Milah had said to Agatha just now. She mentioned that you couldn’t be a good Discerner if you didn’t know yourself. I looked down at my hands once more, just to make sure that I was seeing things right. My outer aura color was a dark brownish yellow—the color of someone who was stressed out. This was not surprising, but when I tried to see what my inner aura color was…I just couldn’t discern it. All I could see of my inner aura was a constant churning of colors.
At times it looked brownish green, at other times it looked dark forest green, then it would shift into a dark part blue part purple hue.

  “The Second Day of creation will now begin,” the Eternals announced through the link.

  I automatically propelled myself forward to the gathering place. I probably would have gotten lost if it wasn’t for the large mass of spirits that were headed that way. My thoughts were not on the miracles I was about to behold, but on the murky swirls of my aura.

  Much like the First Day, the Eternals were there in the center, and all of the Cherubs and Seraphs were in their places around the Eternals. The First One was now occupying a spot next to them—as one of them. They began to speak and a hush fell over the whole gathering of Earthlings.

  I watched but was not paying much attention. The crowd, however, seemed to be quite engaged in whatever was being said.

  “Let there be a firmament, let it divide the waters from the waters.”

  I turned to look at my planet. A fog like substance formed out of the droplets that were spinning along the mass. This fog looked light blue.

  “We will call the firmament Heaven.” After a pause the Eternals looked back at us and continued. “That is all for today. Please come back tomorrow for the division of land mass and water.”

  I wiggled my way out of that spot, hoping to avoid running into any of my clan. I felt like a fugitive, looking in all directions as I tried to make a break back to my gifts class, the only source of interest for me now.

  “For heaven’s sake, Tess, where have you been?” Celeste said as she flew straight toward me, shaking her head as she did. “It’s like…like you don’t even like us anymore,” she said it teasingly but there was a little bit of a question in it.

  “I went to my gifts class,” I said, annoyed at having been caught.

  “Oh, was it good?”

  “Yeah…learned a lot.”

  “Good, listen…” She grabbed my arm and started gliding toward the rest of the clan. “We’ve been talking about taking a tour of the animal enclosures.”

  “Super,” I said without much enthusiasm as I avoided eye contact with Alex and Katie.

  “Don’t you think it would be nice to learn about all the creatures we will be sharing our planet with?” Celeste batted her eyelashes pleadingly, and I rolled my eyes. Next thing I knew I was with my clan going to see some animals.

  They all seemed happy and eager to learn about them, and I grew more and more exasperated. All I wanted to do was get away from them and hide somewhere. I didn’t care where, I just had to get away from them—especially Katie and Alex.

  “Alex and I went swimming with these wonderful creatures right before the Second Day. They are highly intelligent creatures,” Katie was explaining to the group. “In fact, they invited us to ride them.” She paused, aware of several puzzled looks that were fixed on her. I dared not look at Alex. The fact that they were now spending all their spare time together made my aura turn from green to red—still within the unhealthy realm of dark.

  “They…talked to you?” Valerie asked with skepticism.

  “Her gift is also the Gift of Tongues,” Max informed the group.

  “There are differences within that gift,” Katie explained. “I have the ability to understand what animals are trying to say…or convey.” She shrugged. “Most times I understand animals better than I do humans.” She said this looking down, but I could tell she was referring to me.

  “We just don’t know what to call those creatures,” Alex started to explain and every word he said brought new kinds of pain to me. On the outside I tried to remain as self composed as possible. The last thing I wanted was to let anyone know how stupid I was being.

  “We wanted to take a class about Earth’s creatures to see if we could find out more about them and some of the other creatures we encountered,” Alex said, and his voice sounded hollow to me.

  “Well, we’ll have to share our planet with them. We might as well get to know them,” Russell said as he pulled Nancy in close to him.

  Celeste had been eyeing me for a while and finally decided that I needed a scolding. “You know, Tess, this is getting ridiculous,” she said as she grabbed my arm and held me back, letting the rest of the clan pass us by.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You know very well what I’m talking about. You need to talk to him and make things right.”

  “I will not! There’s nothing to say. He clearly prefers Katie’s company to mine, not that I blame him. She is everything I’m not—fun, happy, interesting.”

  “But she is not you.”

  “Exactly, and he is with her. He made himself very clear to me, and there is nothing more to say.”

  “You are so stubborn, Tess,” Celeste said shaking her head. “When are you going to be honest with your own feelings?”

  “I didn’t realize I wasn’t being honest.”

  “You are jealous, and you are trying to pretend like you are not. I know you, Tess, you can’t fool me.”

  “Jealous!” I stopped and looked at her. I was surprised at my own anger and Celeste was startled by it. “Why is this all of a sudden my problem? I’m not the one who changed! You are, and him.” I pointed to Alex who was in deep conversation with Dorian and Luz. “You all changed, in fact! And I’m the only one who is still the same.”

  Celeste stared at me with a mixture of horror and worry on her face. “How did we change, Tess?”

  “You and Max, Alex and Katie—whoever she is, Dorian and Luz, even Henry is now being followed by Estelle and he seems to like it!”

  “You can’t blame me for loving Max,” Celeste said as her temper started to bubble.

  “No, I can’t. But everything has changed, and now I realize that…that life won’t be what I thought it would be. If things are different now, just think how much different they will be when we are mortals and no longer remember each other. I’m scared, Celeste. I have it on good authority that my life will not be pleasant. And I have not one but two sworn enemies already, and no one that I can count on!”

  “That is not true! You can always count on me, on all of us. Alex would give…”

  “Don’t even go there, Celeste. He has made it very clear that he wants nothing more to do with me.”

  Celeste shook her head emphatically.

  “Look, Celeste, I appreciate you trying to understand my burden here, but while all of you go happily to your classes and to witness each new day of creation, I dread going because I know that each new day brings me one day closer to my inevitable life that is doomed to misery and failure. I didn’t sign up for this…and somehow I got it!”

  Celeste looked at me with that same frozen look of worry and shock.

  “I know you want to help me,” I said more calmly after a moment. “But this burden is mine and I need to learn to bear it alone.”

  “You are wrong,” she said with more composure. “You don’t have to bear it alone, that’s what we are here for.”

  We were now at the entrance of a large park like place with several different structures inside. Some of them were buildings and others were open enclosures that housed a large variety of animals.

  “This looks like fun!” Nancy said excitedly in the distance. I looked at Celeste with an ironic look. She understood and took my hand and pulled me aside, so the rest wouldn’t hear.

  “I won’t pretend to know what you are going through right now, but I do know that you have two different problems—and one of them I can definitely help you with. You love him, Tess, and you need to tell him, or you will lose him.” She released my arm and calmly glided over to Max’s side, who was only too glad to wrap his arms around her shoulder.

  Why did everything always come down to this? Alex already knew how I felt about him. My love for him was never in question. He had mentioned that he wanted a different kind of love, the kind that Nancy and Russell had, that Celeste and Max now had too—in short the kind of love that e
veryone felt but me. Why was I so deficient in this particular kind of love? Where was it? Where could I go to find it? I would do anything if it meant bringing everything back to normal.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 11

  All the classes that were geared to the learning of all living creatures that would inhabit Earth were located in the west coast of the northern continent. The southern area was largely devoted to the study of animal life in all its forms. The northern area was dedicated to plant life and fungus. It took us a long time just to go through one section of the park labeled BOREAL FOREST ANIMALS. Each enclosure held several pairs of that particular species.

  Katie was clearly fascinated and tried to strike up a conversation with all of them—the animals that is. Sometimes she looked quite ridiculous as she translated what the animals were saying to her, yet I seemed to be the only one who was particularly annoyed by her.

  Everyone kept instinctively out of my way and in part I liked it. I didn’t feel like being social and only stayed out of duty. But as soon as the Third Day of creation was announced and my whole clan turned excitedly toward space to watch. I took off in a different direction.

  I gave one last look at the retreating forms of my clan members as they flew together, and only one lonely figure stood looking back at me.

  So…he still knows I exist! I thought with contempt.

  He only lingered for a moment before he turned and glided back to Dane, Valerie, and yes…Katie’s side.

  Forget this! I thought and flew due west to the coast. I passed the whole area where all the animals were and I found the ocean. Even from above it looked enormous. I lowered myself down so as to be level with the water. I wonder what it would feel like to be under it, I thought. Then I willed myself down. It was hard going down feet first, so I turned and dug my way down head first. There was an actual resistance in this, and it was the closest thing to feeling something other than emotional feelings.