Cat Dubois' Odyssey to Enchantment

by BoJenn

  “You lead the way dear.” Eleanor said. She was not huffing and puffing. At her age, she was tough and a slight elevation or walk seemed only to strengthen her. No doubt, Eleanor was physically stronger than when she had arrived. The first walk they had taken together, up the road from the Jeep’s crash site, Eleanor was quite short of breath, but she had transformed, becoming more powerful, seemingly younger than her years.

  Cat watched Eleanor at times. She saw an extraordinarily unique woman. Eleanor was unlike anyone she had ever met. She was game for any task, and it was surprising that the accident could’ve set the woman back. Eleanor was robust with energy. For this reason, Cat was sure that Eleanor must be someone from out of this world.

  Cat pointed to a large bolder in the sun. “Look there; let’s sit on it and take a rest.”

  “Very well.” Eleanor never disagreed and was truthfully supportive. They climbed up on the rock.

  “It’s like a hot rock,” Cat laughed. “We’ll be like amphibians and warm up on it. Here, give me Lovey.” Cat had already gotten her perch on the rock. Eleanor lifted him up for Cat, then she climbed up beside her without hesitation. They sat there and looked at the scenery.

  “So, you are my fairy godmother?”, Cat asked. She laughed at the silliness of the comment, but she meant it.

  “Yes. Yes, I am.” Eleanor was warmly sincere. Her skin appeared not human, as it glowed with the same amber aura as before.

  “Then, tell me something, what is your take on my life? What does all of it mean?” Cat needed to know the direction in which she was headed. “What’s next?”

  “Well, first, I don’t know the end,” Eleanor said. “Secondly, I’m here to direct. But, you must finish that dream. You must learn who you were before, settle all the disappointments—by making peace with them. Know that whatever evil came on you, you will, then, be able to put it out of your mind. You will not forget the wickedness or those who delivered it, but you will no longer allow them the power to control you. You are going to set yourself free. They are going to be behind you, and you will then open the door for the best of life to enter.

  “Will I marry, ever?” Cat smiled hugely and inquisitively.

  “If that’s what you want.” Eleanor went on to say, “And, when you walk through that door, you will create your brand new world.”

  “Will you tell me the end of the story of when Thomas and I were on the beach?” Catherine wanted the information from Eleanor. She didn’t want to go to the place in her memories where, internally, she knew there was great sadness. Perhaps she could choose not to relive whatever occurred to Thomas.

  “No. Because, you won’t believe the story, unless you know it on your own. If you see it on your own, then you will not doubt. If I tell you, then you will forever question and not believe wholly. Besides that, I don’t know the whole story. I know he is a ghost, and he lives in your home now. He stays by your side all the time. And, to elaborate, he is frightened of something here in your home.”

  Cat felt a shiver up run up her spine. “That’s creeping me out. Do you see him?”

  “I didn’t until this morning. When you started talking about him, he came next to you and held your hand. He was trying to tell you something,” Eleanor explained.

  “What? What does he want? Why is he frightened? Of what?”, Cat asked worriedly. “What’s there to fear, here?” Cat raised a brow to her own questions.

  “I’m not sure. But, I do know he is Thomas. He wants you to remember. I think your memory will bring peace to him. So, why don’t you ask him yourself?” If Eleanor was ever so down to Earth in her guidance, it was then.

  “Doesn’t he have an angel, fairy godmother, like you, who could have helped him? Cat wondered why she was more blessed.

  “I’m certain he does, or did. But, they are separated. I can’t be certain why she left him or where she is. He is alone in your house. He doesn’t know why you don’t acknowledge him.” Eleanor had her eyes closed as she talked with Catherine. She was channeling his thoughts to her.

  Cat saw Eleanor’s face change shapes as she spoke. She took on the image of a boy.

  “Why don’t you pay attention to me?”, the boy said, through Eleanor. Then, Eleanor came out of that trance-like state. Cat was dumbfounded.

  “Then, we must finish the dream tonight,” Catherine determined. “I must meet Thomas, again, and know his story.”

  “Your stories,” Eleanor corrected her. Cat looked, fearfully, at Eleanor. “Don’t be frightened, dear. The truth sets us free. You’ve been tormented for years by half-truths and outright lies. It is time for your deliverance, as well as that of Thomas.” He’s been locked out for a long time. Let’s set him free to go to his peace, shall we?” Eleanor was doing her best to give easy instructions, and not frighten her out of her mind.

  “Why would someone lie to me?’ Cat spoke her mind.

  “Protection, basically. Perhaps, they thought the truth would be too hard to bear—for you, or themselves? I’m not certain of the whys, like I said; I just don’t know the totality of any situation. I know bits and pieces. It’s like a puzzle that has to be put together, one piece at a time.”

  “Well, we will continue tonight. Is Thomas here now?”, Cat asked as she looked around trying to see him.

  “I don’t think so. He’s preoccupied.” Eleanor realized she had said the wrong thing.

  “But, he spoke through you a minute ago?” Cat wondered where he went.

  “Yes, but he can send telepathic messages across space, if he is strong enough, mentally, that is. He is frightened to leave the surroundings. He is timid; but he is emotionally attached to you, wherever you go and whatever you do,” Eleanor explained. “He hasn’t had any direction while he’s been here in your home. You’re the closest to comfort as he wanders, caught between two worlds.” Eleanor paused, and took a breath before she asked the next question.

  “Catherine, this seems out of place, but I must tell you now. This is a good place and spot to say something. This won’t be an easy ordeal—asking them to leave you. And, you will be frightened at times, but I will be there with you. I’ve called for back-up supporters. Hopefully, they will be here soon,” Eleanor said, informing Cat of her expected extent of the problems to come, and to make sure she knew that there would be other benevolent forces there to help. “You’ll hear and see things that might be alarming. The supernatural will awaken and will want a fight.”

  “When will this start?”, Cat asked. “And, where are these spirits now? Can they hear us?”

  “I’m not sure when, but it will begin soon—real soon. Eleanor rubbed her hands together trying to get the sand from the rock off her hands. “Get all the rest and peace you can get. And, while we’re in your home, yes, they do watch and try to listen. However, they don’t hear as well as we do. What they hear is often misconstrued.”

  “They really aren’t smart,” Eleanor continued. “That’s because they are extremely self- serving. They only know their plights; they don’t consider yours, or anyone else’s, circumstances or needs. They are most selfish. That renders them deaf and dumb; but, know that they do very much manipulate, using guilt and emotional warfare to fight. They excel at using these methods. Don’t ever let your guard down. They will use your insecurities to impart evil upon you. They watched you over many years. They have the advantage, because they know you better than you know them. After all, you just learned about them today. You don’t know or understand their capabilities. While you have been doing your sad living—being isolated, drinking, reading books or watching television to escape from your despair, they have studied you.” Eleanor watched for Catherine’s facial expression to see if she was comprehending.

  They had been sitting on the warmed boulder for a quite a spell, and taking in the heat offered from the sun which had altered the rock’s temperature with good vibrational waves. The open air and the comfort of that boulder eased their discussion—away from the manor home. Eleanor knew t
he best place to tell Catherine about the evil forces would be outside the home. The manor had the ears and eyes of the spirits in question.

  They sat in silence for a few more moments, when Eleanor spoke again. “Up, dear; we’ve absorbed all we can from this rock. We will use the warm energy it’s given us to recharge—some of the simplest, easiest tools for living that help us to share goodness. We are revitalized by the energy of Ra. The sun god has nourished us well.” Then, Eleanor laughed.

  “Really, are those myths real?”, innocently, Cat asked her.

  “Well, there are truths in every myth.” Eleanor smiled back. “Knowledge is always good. Take what’s important and apply it. It is often the wisdom that is most obscure.” She smiled again. “Now, learn: He has given us the beneficial offerings of warmth and regeneration. We will use those gifts wisely and to accomplish that which is good.”

  “Okay, whatever you say, I believe—even though most of the time I’m clueless.” Cat piped in as they slid down the boulder’s slippery side.

  Cat got down first, taking Lovey, then offering Eleanor an arm to stabilize her slide down.

  “Oh, thank you,” Eleanor said. She straightened up her clothes and took note of the change in temperature. It was beginning to get colder as Ra was setting in the east, to the right. “Let’s head back.”

  Along their way back to the manor, Eleanor found bunches of greenery on the edge of the forest where the sun reached it. She bent over and picked some up and declared, “Oh, wonderful! It’s Calea zacatechichi, the “Leaf of God” herb. It had been used by the Chontal Indians for thousands of years. It promotes lucid dreaming. Good we need this.”

  “Do you know what to do with it?”, Cat responded, wanting to learn as much as she could about herbs and healing.

  “Of, course!” Eleanor smelled it. “The consistency and chemical makeup of this type makes it inedible. So, we will boil this tonight and make an aromatic brew to use in incense.”

  “You know this, just by smelling the plant’s leaves, after bending a leaf so the juice of life weeps out a little?” Cat questioned the how to and why.

  “For certain.” Eleanor grinned. They finished their walk back to the house with Lovey in Cat’s arms, as he had grown tired, and the pads on his feet were sore from the stones on the path.

  They entered the manor through the mudroom, stopping to remove wet clothing. Cat noticed three large towels set to the side. “Eleanor, you planned wisely. They are warmed. Now, how did you do that?”, Cat asked.

  Eleanor smiled. “Magic.”

  Cat: “Hmm. You are amazing.”

  They wrapped up in the towels—Lovey, too—before Eleanor put the tea on, and got a smelly pot for the Calea. She poured the hot boiling water into the smelly pot, adding the herb, and a few more she had up her sleeve. She put cinnamon sticks into the hot tea and stirred the cups with a stick for each.

  “Hmm, what a nice aroma. Anything special?” Cat sniffed the humid air coming from the tea pot. “English Earl Grey and simple cinnamon sticks. Good for a cold day. Warms a soul.” Eleanor added, “It’s one of my favorites.”

  They entered the den and the fire was blazing. “Amazing how you’re able to multitask like this.” Cat looked around the den. Not only was the fire blazing, but the room was clean and tidy.

  “Well, not quite. I’m not an organizer,” Eleanor chuckled.

  “Oh? If you’re not, then who is? Who cleaned the den?” Cat responded, with her mouth open in amazement at the sparkle coming from the opened shades that let the sunlight in, just enough to show off the den, all spick and span.

  Eleanor knew it was the perfect time for her to introduce Tadhg to Catherine. She began, “Well… I have help. An old friend always assists me. He does the investigation and sets up reservations and so forth. He cleans, mops, puts wood on the fire…and is my confidant. He is who actually found the boy ghost in your home—Thomas. So, Catherine, I’m not alone in my work, here. My friend’s name is Tadhg.”

  “So is Tadhg the one you talk to?”, Cat asked. “Is he your friendly ghost who does all this?” Cat pointed to the fireplace and the shimmering clean room.

  Eleanor chuckled, “Yes, I couldn’t do anything without his help.”

  Cat looks around the room trying to see Tadhg. “Is Thomas here with me, now? Is your friend with us now?”

  “I’m most certain they are both here. As I mentioned, Thomas stays beside you most all the time now, and my friend is usually close by.” Eleanor sighed as she didn’t see Tadhg anywhere.

  Just then, the fireplace suddenly glowed as if a burst of light wind caused it to ignite more, and embers began to fly. “I guess Thomas is here. Good job young man. We know you’re here,” Eleanor laughed. She turned to Catherine to assure her, “It’s Thomas, dear. He’s here.”

  Cat sipped her tea, really not grasping the full story. “After all, it is all pretty nutty,” she thought.

  Eleanor still chuckling, amused by the fireplace fire stunt, relayed to Catherine, “Dear, Thomas said that Tadhg told him to tell us that he is on a golf course, somewhere.”

  “Tadhg? He’s golfing?”, Cat replied, figuring she had just entered into “The Twilight Zone” for good, now. “Oh well, she thought to herself, “at least my recently visiting company is good, and they keep a lively conversation going—sort of—seeing as she hadn’t been privy to most of it. Never a dull moment,” she concluded.

  “That’s right, dear.” Eleanor gave a hearty laugh as she read Cat’s thoughts. “Welcome to our family. We are constantly entertained, enlightened and on the go!” Eleanor retrieved the boiled down liquid from the Calea from the smelly pot. It was amber water, and bitter. “Never drink this.”

  “Oh, trust me, I won’t,” Cat said, backing off from the fumes as they came off the odiferous pot. She swiped her hand to get the direct vapors away from her nose. “That stinks.”

  “You’d be surprised how many who have tasted it never got their wits back, the poor souls.”

  Cat laughed at Eleanor when she thought that Eleanor couldn’t see that she was making facial jests at her and her quirky comments. She started to laugh, but held her hand to her mouth to cover it. Her eyes sparkled, holding the giggles from shining right through a guffaw of outburst.

  But, Eleanor could see Catherine making fun of her. “Mind you; you think it’s comical? It’s not. Many good angels get lost in weeds and apothecaries. Eleanor set the pot close to Cat’s sitting place. “Catherine, it’s better that you not have a full stomach. A few small whiffs is more conducive to dreaming and hypnosis, yet it can be a bit poisonous, if just a wee too much is ingested. Oh, and, pickles. Pickles are good to help cause dreaming, too.” Eleanor started back into the kitchen to look.

  “I don’t think I have any pickles,” Cat said getting up from the chair to go look in the refrigerator, but was stopped mid-step.

  “Yes, you do. On the back porch. In a jar, there.” So they both proceeded to the porch, where Eleanor reached up on the shelf, and handed Catherine the old jar.

  “I think my mother canned these thirty years ago. Do you think they’re still good? And, you want me to smell that stinky stuff, too, after you said people lose their wits or get poisoned?” Cat’s sarcasm arose.

  “We will pray over them. They will be fine. In fact, they will be better than fine. I’ve done this for centuries. All is well, dear.”

  “Are you sure?” Cat’s brow raised again.

  “Of course!”, Eleanor said, and spoke some “crazy words,” as perceived by Cat.

  “Hocus pocus?”, Cat teased.

  “Kind of.” Eleanor cleared her throat and mumbled some more, a little louder so Catherine could hear, “Hectus morpioio, Talisman Incas, Make me a bridge as fast as you think us.” Then, she directed Catherine, “Say these words after me, in rounds:

  ‘Hectus morpioio,

  Talisman Incas,

  Make me a bridge

  as fast as you think us.

  H
ectus morpioio,

  Talisman Incas,

  Make me a bridge as fast as you think us.

  Hectus morpioio,

  Talisman Incas,

  Make me a bridge

  as fast as you think us.”

  Cat repeated it with her, alternating stanzas. Then, they both laughed.

  Eleanor liked working with Catherine. “Oh, I do hope she will succeed and find peace,” she said to Tadhg.

  “What?”, Cat said.

  “What ‘what’?”, asked Eleanor.

  “Oh, I thought I heard you say, ‘I hope she succeeds.’ That’s what.” Cat smirked at Eleanor as if to say, “I got you this time.”

  Eleanor winked back. They were horsing around as they moved back into the den, laughing. Just then the fire roared again—only bigger and more determined.

  “Okay. We hear you. Don’t be impatient. You’ve waited this long. Just a little while longer. Capiche?”, Eleanor told Thomas.

  “Eleanor, why did you say, ‘I hope she succeeds?’” Catherine became worried that all of this sadness and the memories she was experiencing might not find closure—a positive end to them. Going through all of this would kill her if there wasn’t a win, or the door wasn’t shut to the tsunami of her emotions.

  “Because, I do. I hope you succeed,” Eleanor answered.

  “Is there a chance that I won’t?”, Cat asked warily.

  “Yes. The fight is yours. I am here, but you must choose victory, and choose to continue in your success after I’m gone.” Eleanor was more of her earthly self in reply.

  “Gone? You’ll be leaving me? You just got here. You can’t go.” Desperation made Cat’s voice shake. “Please, don’t go.”

  “A day ago, you wanted me to leave. Today, you never want me to go. What’s up with that? One day soon, I will go. I have to. The next person is also waiting for me. Or, hopefully, maybe it’s time for my retirement to Elysium. Either way, people have been waiting for me for a long, long, time. Just like you. But I can tell you that we will meet again.” Eleanor smiled. “For now,” she added, “you must relax and begin the night’s spiritual journey to meet Thomas.”