Different

by Tony Butler

  “I’ll take the girl out anyway,” Russell said. “Then we’ll know we’re safe.”

  Chapter Ten

  Shouts rang out behind her and Jay saw approaching headlights racing along both sides of the dual carriageway. She launched herself forward, her feet pounding the surface of the road, and then found herself scrambling up the embankment on the other side. Not one of the speeding vehicles had even come close to reaching her before she’d crossed. It was confusing, how was it possible? How fast had she run?

  The sound of Ben and Cassie calling her name snapped her out of her reverie. She could see them looking for her on the far side of the road, and it obviously had never occurred to them that she would have risked crossing the busy dual carriageway.

  She stepped behind a tree and, pulling out her mobile, rang her Grandmother. Jay had given Anna a mobile phone for her birthday.

  She answered on the third ring and Jay tried to sound calm. “It’s me, Grandma,” she said. “I’m Okay, but I need to get away. I need time to think things through.”

  “Yes, I’m fine and so is Tom, Ethel,” Anna said, letting Jay know that she couldn’t talk freely. Obviously, the reporters were still there. “You have yourself a nice holiday and don’t forget to send me a postcard. You take care of yourself and we’ll see you when you get back. Bye, Ethel.”

  Anna hung up and Jay put on her coat and checked to see that her purse was still in her pocket. It was. She had a little over fifteen pounds in cash, but she could draw some money out of the bank from a cash machine. The best thing, she decided, was to make her way to Colwyn Bay and get herself a room somewhere for the night. Tomorrow she could decide what to do. Still worrying about what was happening to her, she walked towards the town. I’m changing, yes, but into what? she wondered. She wasn’t religious like Mary, and she only went to church when she had to. Jay didn’t really buy into any of that stuff about heaven. She did not seem to have been walking very long but she was in Colwyn Bay’s town centre already and started looking for a bed and breakfast for the night. Jay became aware of a dog following her. It was big, black with white markings and scruffy looking and she had noticed it earlier, but then the dog had been on the opposite pavement, just standing looking at her. She hadn’t really taken much notice of it until she’d turned and saw it following about a hundred yards behind her. When she stopped walking, the dog stopped, but it never took its eyes off her. Weird, she thought, but she didn’t feel spooked or threatened by the dog, she was just aware of it. Jay stopped and the dog stopped and she grinned at it. “Well, come on if you’re coming,” she called. “C’mon doggy, good dog!” Its ears pricked up and it cocked its head, swished its tail, but remained where it was. She took a couple of steps towards it but the dog turned back the way they’d come and walked two steps away from her. Then it gave a bark and walked a few more steps away. Shrugging, Jay turned away from it. Crazy mutt, she thought, and started walking towards the suburbs in search of somewhere to stay.

  “Woof!” The dog was now about ten yards behind her. It looked directly at her before turning around and walking a few steps away. It stopped and, turning its head towards her, barked again. It wants me to follow it!

  The dog barked again as though in agreement, and she could have sworn it smiled at her.

  “Okay, dog, I’m coming,” she called. Incredibly the dog barked again, before it started walking back the way that she’d come.

  The dog trotted the length of the block and then it took a left turn and headed down the street, turning its head occasionally to make sure she was following. Somehow, she sensed that this was meant to be, and thought that someone or something was guiding her to them. The dog stopped at the mouth of a narrow alley and waited until she was right up to it. She reached out and stroked its head and it looked up at her. She could see the love in the dog’s eyes. This crazy dog’s in love with me, she thought and then the dog was walking down the passageway, which was narrow and dark. Menacing shadows gave way to even deeper, more threatening, shadows where moisture ran down the blackened brick walls like snot from a runny nose. The smell was the worst, though. It smelt worse than the unwashed jock straps hanging in a football team’s changing room, she thought. In the distance she could see a light, a warm welcoming light and it was there that the dog had stopped and it looked back at her, wagging its tail.

  As she drew nearer, she could see that the source of the light was an old-fashioned paraffin lamp that hung from the wall of an out-of-place log cabin. What on earth was a log cabin doing in the heart of Colwyn Bay? That only troubled her for an instant after everything that had happened. Something disturbed the air around her and a huge shadow blotted out the cabin. For an instant, she saw the unmistakable shadow of out-stretched wings. Jay threw up her arms to protect herself, half-expecting to be confronted by a blood-sucking vampire. Instead, she found herself looking into the unblinking eyes of a golden eagle.

  ‘Jay,’ a voice sounded inside her head. ‘I am Silver Fox of the Cherokee Nation! Hear me.’ It sounded like the voice of an old man but more powerful than any voice she’d ever heard. ‘I have been chosen to show you the way but we have very little time. You must come to me quickly, Jay!’

  “How? Where are you?”

  ‘That is of no importance. Wind Rider, our feathered brother, will lead your spirit to me! You must enter the cabin and remove your clothes and then use the oil and water that stands on the table beside the bed to seal the seven openings of your body. This will prevent evil from entering your body while your spirit comes to me. The dog will protect you from any physical threat and keep you safe. But you must hurry for time is your greatest enemy. You must hurry and come to me.’

  The interior of the cabin could have come straight from a movie script. There was a pot-bellied, wood-burning stove in the centre of the floor and a white scrubbed pine table next to it. Over an old white sink was a hand operated cast iron water pump and in the other end of the room was a bed. Standing on a bench seat that was next to the bed was a decanter filled with water and a small bottle filled with some kind of oil.

  ‘You will know what to do,’ Silver Fox’s voice said in her head and suddenly she did. She stripped and, taking the bottle of oil, she tipped a drop onto her forefinger and inserted it in her left nostril. “Let no other spirit but mine enter here,” she said aloud. She repeated the procedure with her other nostril, ears, mouth, vagina and anus. Finished, she re-dressed and lay down on the bed and then drank deeply from the decanter. The taste of the water reminded her of every pebble-strewn stream that she’d ever seen and she closed her eyes.

  The dog stretched out alongside the bed where she lay and it took a few seconds before she realised that she was looking down at her own body.

  So, this is an out of body experience, she thought and, looking up, she saw the eagle waiting for her. It was perched above her on a rafter and she willed herself to rise up to it. Set in the apex of the cabin’s roof was a small open window and when the eagle sailed through it, Jay followed. Below her, the city quickly diminished in size as she rose higher, following Wind Rider up into the clouds until they burst through into bright sunlight. The bird stopped climbing and opened its massive wings to full stretch. It rode the air currents that carried them west. Time seemed to have no meaning and she was oblivious to heat and cold and there was no sense of effort in travelling like this. After a while Jay became aware of a faint drumming sound, like that of a heartbeat or pulse and it was getting louder. Then she realised that Wind Rider was heading towards it and soon she was able to hear another sound accompanying the drum beat, for she’d worked out what it was now, it was the voice of someone chanting – the voice of Silver Fox.

  Even as she became aware of this, Wind Rider tucked in his wings and plummeted down through the clouds. She went after him and, despite the lack of physical sensation, was exhilarated until she hit an outcrop of rock, head on.

  She screamed and then she realised that she was actually passing
through the outcrop as though it didn’t exist. She emerged below it. Beneath her, an ancient looking Native American, his long silver hair reflected in the flames of the fire by which he sat, banging a drum and chanting. Then, as though sensing her presence, he stopped and looked up at her. His lined face broke into a smile and he laughed. “That Wind Rider sure has a crazy sense of humour for an eagle, letting you dive head on into that outcrop like that. Come and join me, we have much to talk about, you and I.”

  Jay went down and stood beside him and realised that she could feel the warmth of the fire on her face and his welcoming embrace. She smelt the fringed and ornately beaded buckskin that he wore and tasted the pungent wood smoke on her tongue.

  “How is it that I can feel, taste and smell?”

  “Your spirit has been invited here on the sacred ground of my people. You are possessed with great powers, Jay. You are the daughter of the chosen-ones.”

  “I don’t understand, and am I really in America?”

  “You sure are. You’re in the state of Montana, and that’s the Bitterfoot Forest you can see down below us.” He poked the fire with a stick until sparks rose into the night sky before speaking again.

  “Your parents were special, Jay. A British scientist, who was trying to enable them to regenerate missing limbs, genetically modified them. What he didn’t figure on doing was triggering the next stage in human evolution and increasing their intelligence so that it disappeared right off the scale. But that’s what happened. Ben and Eve, your parents, were unique. Adam, the third and youngest child, was the most powerful of the three, and you have powers as great as his. Your healing power is the least of your abilities, though, but of course you’re not aware of them because some of your memories have been suppressed.”

  Jay was confused, but at the same time she was excited and wanted to know more about her parents, Ben and Eve. Then she remembered what Grandma Anna had said. “Grandma said that there was a girl who had lain and egg and she was shot by an American. Was she my mother, Eve? Am I some kind of freak that came out of an egg that she laid?”

  Silver Fox smiled at her and shook his head. “That was Eve, your mother alright, but you were born just the same as every other child has been born since time began. The egg and the embryo inside it were a subterfuge, artificial. The idea was to keep you a secret from the doctor and the others and to let them take the egg instead.”

  “But they would have known it wasn’t real—”

  “No, they wouldn’t. People who’re many stages further up the evolution ladder than even you, made the egg. The egg and the embryo were designed to self destruct, but in a natural looking way, after being exposed to prolonged periods of bright light.”

  “Are you like me? Is that why you’re involved in all this?”

  “I guess so, but I’ve not evolved to your level. I never met Eve, or Ben, but Adam and I became good friends before he disappeared.” He must have seen her puzzled look and explained. “Adam used to visit me just like you are here with me now. It was an out of body experience, but he thought of our visits as a dream. Well, I suppose that as he was only eight-years-old when he first came to see me, dreaming was a logical explanation for him. Later, it seemed that he was always here, and the last time he came, he’d just turned seventeen, he told me about you, Jay—Eve and Ben’s baby girl—and asked me to look out for you. I picked up on your distress tonight as clear as a wolf howling in the woods.”

  “He called me Jay? He knew me? I’m all mixed up, Silver Fox. I didn’t ask to be different and I’m not sure that I want to be, either.”

  “I know. I sometimes wonder if it’s a gift that’s been laid upon our shoulders because we weren’t quick enough, or too stupid to move out of the way.” He sighed. “I was about your age when I found out about my own powers, an awesome thing for a teenager—power. Like you, I too was confused and wanted to run away. That’s why I sent the dog and the eagle to guide you to me. My own teacher sent me a silver fox and an owl. That’s how I got my Shaman’s name. I don’t suppose you want to be called Dog? No, I didn’t think you’d go for that. Okay, let’s get down to business.”

  “I’m scared, Silver Fox. I mean what can I do? Why can’t whoever picked me pick someone else? I just want to go home and be normal, you know.”

  “I know. Believe me, Jay. I know.” He sounded sad for her and yet his eyes twinkled with amusement.

  “What’s funny?” she asked.

  “Well, you sounded just like me when I was a kid and you haven’t realised yet.”

  “Realised what?”

  “Well, here you are thousands of miles from home and talking to me while your body’s back home lying on a bed. How’d you like to see your folks?”

  “My grandparents? But how can I—?”

  “Put this on, Jay. It will protect you from any spirits that might ambush you while you’re using your Astral body.” He handed her a leather band and hanging from it was a silver and jade miniature shield. It was a beautifully worked pendant and she fastened it around her neck so that the shield hung from her throat.

  “Thanks, Silver Fox. Now how do I get to see my grandparents?”

  “First off, you need to know some of your powers. We, too, can enter the bodies of other people, in fact most creatures. This can be useful if you need to perform a physical act sometimes. But if that body’s destroyed while we’re in there, then we’re destroyed, too, and our own bodies will die. It would be pretty damned stupid to enter the body of a mouse only to be eaten by the cat. Secondly, we can use the body to do pretty well as we like, but we must never abuse it or we risk damaging that body’s soul. It’s usually best to enter someone who’s sleeping and then leave before they wake up.’

  “You! You were inside Wind Rider!”

  “Yep! Well, I am an Indian and you’d better believe that we can be pretty damned sneaky sometimes. Now listen, I’m not going with you on this trip but I’ll be able to see and hear you although your folks won’t. To go to your folks, just picture them in your mind and, when you want to return here, just do the same. Go now.’

  Jay concentrated on her Grandma Anna. In her mind she saw Anna with her head cocked to one side in that peculiar way of hers, smiling at her.

  She was flying! She sped over the ocean and then over the man-made lights of the towns and cities below her. Then she was sweeping down and she recognised the Motel where they were staying. She saw the blue flashing lights of an ambulance and a police car. The police were keeping the reporters away from the ambulance parked outside the reception. The doors opened and two paramedics came out carrying a stretcher upon which, despite the oxygen mask clamped over her face, Jay recognised her grandma, Anna.

  Tom, his face ashen and etched in concern, hurried along beside the stretcher, holding Anna’s hand and talking to her. “You’ll be all right, love,” he said, over and over again, but Jay could hear the doubt in his voice.

  She tried calling to her grandfather to make her presence known, but Tom remained oblivious of her. He followed Anna into the ambulance and the rear doors slammed shut. Jay was about to join them when she heard Silver Fox’s voice inside her head.

  “You must return to your body and then go to them. Maybe you can use your healing power to help her.”

  His calming voice stilled her panic and she visualised her body lying on the cot. Immediately she was moving again, swooping over rooftops and then plunging down towards the cabin. She swept into her body and sat up. The dog licked her hand in welcome. Swinging her legs off the bed, she grabbed her bag.

  “Come on, dog,” she said. “We have to get to the hospital.”

  Jay rang the number on the card that Cassie had given her and the reporter answered almost immediately.

  “Where are you?” Cassie asked when she identified herself, and Jay told her where she was.

  “Stay there and I’ll get a taxi to pick you up and bring you to the hospital. It will be quicker than my coming to pick you up.”
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br />   “Is my grandmother going to be okay?” Jay asked and steeled herself for the answer.

  “She’s in intensive care,” Cassie said. “She’s had a massive heart attack. Your granddad is with her now. I’ll get that taxi organised and meet you by the main entrance.”

  When Cassie disconnected the call Jay suddenly felt very much alone.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jay was aware of the taxi driver studying her in his rear-view mirror. She had seen the recognition in his eyes when he’d picked her and the dog up. She shut him out of her mind and prayed that Anna would be alright. As though in sympathy, the dog licked her hand. The dog? She couldn’t just call it the dog. She needed to give it a name. He wore a collar, but there was nothing engraved on the small brass plate fixed to it. She knew, as she searched her imagination for a suitable name for the dog, that she was trying to divert her mind from worrying about her grandmother. He looked like a Labrador, she thought, like the one in the film version of The Odyssey.

  “Troy,” she said, and he wagged his tail in approval.

  They arrived at the hospital and the taxi pulled up outside the accident and emergency block. Cassie and Ben were waiting for her outside the main entrance.

  Jay flung open the door and Cassie came to meet her, while Ben paid the taxi driver. One look at Cassie’s face verified Jay’s deepest fear.

  “I’m sorry, Jay,” Cassie said. “Your grandmother passed away a few minutes ago.”

  “Oh, please no!” Jay cried. But through eyes suddenly stinging with tears, she saw the pain etched on Cassie’s face. Jay had to get to Anna. She had to get to her Grandma. Perhaps she could heal her, like she had healed David and Sophie. She tried to rush past Cassie but the older woman caught her in an embrace and touched Jay’s brow with her lips.