A Mystical Journey

by Jennifer Esposito

  Sam caught up with Annie. He hugged her.

  “We must be strong now Annie. I know it’s scary but we have to hold ourselves together. Right now, we have to find your parents.” he said as he wiped away her tears.

  Annie sniffed back her tears. Sam was right, crying wasn’t going to help right now. She needed to find her mom and dad. She wouldn’t feel better until she found them. She nodded her head to show Sam that she understood and agreed.

  “Zindle!” she demanded. “Find Mommy and Daddy!”

  Zindle gave a little whine and then began sniffing and searching. Sam and Annie also began to search through the remains of the building for James and Thelma.

  Again, time seemed to slow. They weren’t the only ones searching through the rubble. There were a lot of people who had been packed into that little storage room that were searching for friends and family. They heard emergency vehicles coming from many different directions. The sound of the emergency vehicles seemed to drive them to search even more frantically.

  Zindle began barking. John was closest to him and the first one to see what he had found.

  “Over here! Over here!” John cried out. Zindle had found Thelma. She was lying wedged partially under a large drink refrigerator. Sam, Ruth and Annie soon joined him at his mother’s side. She was awake but, very badly injured. Her breathing sounded harsh. She tried to speak. No words came out. Sam began trying to determine just how to free Thelma from under the large appliance. Ruth turned to Annie and John. Both had tears in their eyes.

  “Sam and I will take care of your mother. I need you two to keep looking for your father. Can you do that?” Ruth asked them.

  John and Annie shook their heads in agreement. It was hard to walk away from their mother but they both knew Sam and Ruth would take good care of her just as they had taken care of them during the storm. Zindle licked Annie’s hand. Zindle always seemed to understand what Annie needed him to do. John and Annie searched together with Zindle for their father. They didn’t have to search long. They found him not far from their mother.

  He was not awake. He was lying in a grassy area behind the store. There was a large gash across his forehead. Annie screamed for Ruth and Sam. John bent down to hug his father and felt that he was still alive, still breathing. Zindle licked James incessantly but, he would not wake.

  Ruth came running, out of breath. She began looking James over. John looked back at Sam and his mother. Ruth and Sam had managed to get the large refrigerator off of her. Sam seemed to be examining her and accessing her injuries. Sam called to John. John ran as fast as he could. He wanted to help.

  “John stay here with your mother I need to talk to Ruth.” he said in a stern tone.

  Sam ran to Ruth and James. John held his mother’s hand. She tried to talk again. This time she managed a whisper. John bent forward to hear her.

  “I love you and your sister very much. Take care of her.” she said in a raspy whisper.

  “Everything will be OK Mom.” John told her, tears streaming down his face.

  Despite the pain Thelma managed a smile for her son. John forced himself to smile in return, choking back his tears. John stroked his mother’s hair. He hated that he couldn’t do anything more to help her. He wished the ambulances he heard would hurry up. His mom needed to get to the hospital.

  Across the way Ruth and Sam were trying to revive James.

  “He needs a hospital Sam. He’s unconscious.” Ruth said with desperation in her voice.

  “I’m worried we won’t be able to get him there in time.” Sam admitted.

  “Do you think we can manage a strong enough echo?” Sam asked.

  “We can try!” Ruth replied with determination.

  Annie was listening to all this, hugging Zindle tight. She saw Sam pull a rolled-up bandage out of his pocket. He unrolled the bandage and laid it across her father. They both stopped and looked around to make sure no one was watching them. Annie looked too. Everyone was too busy helping other people or tending to their own injuries to notice they were doing anything strange. Ruth took a small round stone from her pocket and placed it on James’ head. They both stretched their hands out over her father and began to chant. This chant sounded very different than the one they had used during the storm.

  The stone began to glow. The glow spread to the bandages. There seemed to be a rushing of air toward James. Ruth and Sam stopped chanting. James opened his eyes for a moment. They didn’t stay open long before his eyelids fell shut again. Annie noticed that though they had stopped chanting the air still seemed to be rushing towards her father, though a little more slowly now. Ruth looked at Sam.

  “It’s not working. We’re not strong enough. There are too few echoes close enough for us to use.” Ruth cried in desperation.

  “There’s still a chance. Look! The spell is still working, still reaching for echoes.” Sam tried to console her.

  “It’s just too little too late and what about Thelma?” Ruth sobbed.

  Sam put a hand on Ruth’s shoulder and sat with his head bowed. Annie looked at her brother holding their mother’s hand. She felt very alone and scared. Her mommy and daddy just had to be OK. She buried her head in Zindle’s neck and cried.

  She heard Sam jump up. She lifted her head wiping back her tears.

  “I’ve got an idea!” Sam announced. He turned and ran back over to John and Thelma. John was thankful to see Sam running towards him. His mother wasn’t doing very well and he was scared. In just a few moments Sam was standing next to John.

  “John, you have to help me move your mother next to you father.” he puffed while trying to catch his breath. “Thelma this is probably going to hurt but, we have to move you.” Sam explained to John’s injured mother.

  Sam and John pulled Thelma onto a large piece of metal, a remnant of the store roof. Then they began to drag the sheet of metal with Thelma lying on it across the ground to the spot where James lay. Thelma groaned with pain. John closed his eyes and pulled as hard as he could as fast as he could. He just wanted it to all be over. It was hard to see his mom in so much pain.

  When they reached James they carefully set Thelma down beside him. Sam again pulled bandages from his pockets. He laid the bandages over Thelma much in the same way he had laid them over James. Then he turned to Ruth.

  “I’ll need a stone.” he said to Ruth.

  “A stone? But Sam it won’t do any good. We’ve used up all the echoes we could hope to reach. Look, the mysticism we used on James is still reaching for echoes to power it. There’s just no way we’ll be able to summon any to help Thelma.” Ruth tried to reason with Sam.

  “Just do it! It’s a long shot but, I have an idea that might work.” Sam explained.

  Ruth shook her head in disagreement but, she did as Sam requested. John watched as she pulled a shiny stone from her pocket. He saw that there was a similar stone resting on his father’s forehead. Ruth placed this stone on his mother’s forehead. Sam grabbed Ruth’s hand and began a kind of chant. Ruth joined him in the chant, though a little reluctantly. John felt a little breeze and the two stopped chanting.

  Annie watched all this silently clutching to Zindle. She looked around again to see if anyone had noticed these strange events. She saw that some ambulances had arrived. The paramedics were trying to help people. There were a lot more people that needed help than paramedics to help them. As a result, it seemed that Sam and Ruth’s odd behavior had gone unnoticed.

  “Now John we’re going to need your help.” Sam said sternly. Both John and Ruth looked very surprised.

  “We need more echoes, more mystical energy. There is only one place where there will be enough for our weak little enchantment to heal them both. The other world. The mystical world.” Sam finished.

  Ruth began to protest. Sam cut her off. “John has the power and I think I have a spell that can send them there. It’s a cleansing spell. To put things, the original spell missed, into the mystical sphere where they will be safe. Will
you help us John?” Sam looked to John for his answer.

  Annie looked at her brother. He was just standing there looking stunned. She didn’t know what Sam and Ruth were talking about but her brother had to say yes. He had to do what he could to help their parents. Annie knew she had to help too. She knew Sam and Ruth would need all the help they could get. Annie grabbed her brother’s arm.

  “Tell them you’ll do it. You need to help Mommy and Daddy if you can.” Annie pleaded with her brother.

  John had been taken aback by what Sam had asked him. He wanted to help but he wasn’t sure he could. Everyone seemed to think he was this great powerful person. What if he wasn’t? Or what if he would be some day but, isn’t now? After all, he was just a kid. He was standing there feeling scared with all these thoughts of doubt running through his head when he felt a tug on his arm. That along with his little sister’s voice brought him back to reality. He had to at least try and help his parents. He couldn’t not try.

  “What do I need to do?” John asked Sam.

  “Just hold my hand, I think that will be enough, and we’ll do the rest.” Sam reassured John forcing a smile.

  Just as they were about to start Sam confided something else. “Annie. John. I need you to know this is a one-way enchantment. Your parents will be transported in to the mystical world where the healing spell will complete. They be whole again but, trapped in the mystical world until the worlds are united again.”

  Annie and John nodded to show they understood. Truly they did not understand. Until the Worlds were united again? What did they mean? Neither of them had a clue. At that time, all that mattered was saving their parent.

  Sam took John’s hand. Annie clung tightly to John’s other arm. Ruth held Sam’s other hand and again he began to whisper a spell. This time he said it alone. Annie closed her eyes. She concentrated with all her might on every word Sam said while tears streamed down her face. John was also concentrating as hard as he could to lend all this strength to Sam.

  A warm bluish-purple glow surrounded the children’s parents. It grew brighter and brighter until you could no longer see James and Thelma through the hazy glow. Then very suddenly the light seemed to collapse in upon itself. There was a flash of white light and they were gone.

  “It worked!” John exclaimed with joy and then with hesitation “At least I think it did?” His parents had disappeared but, how did he know they ended up in the right place?

  Annie opened her eyes. Her parents were gone. At first, she felt overjoyed to think that they had been transported to a place where they would be healed. A place where they would be safe and wouldn’t hurt. Then she became sad when she thought how far away they must be. She didn’t know when or if she would see them again. She was just a kid and she needed her mommy and daddy. It seemed the world was spinning and then suddenly everything went black.

  John’s little sister had been so scared she had been holding on to his arm this whole time. He noticed she was pulling harder on his arm. He looked over to see Annie collapse on the ground.

  “Annie!” he screamed.

  Annie awoke to Zindle licking her face. She was lying across the back seat of a van but, it was not the van they had been traveling in. Her head was on Ruth’s lap. Ruth had a worried look on her face. She heard Ruth explaining to a worried John his sister would be OK. She had just passed out from the shock of seeing their parents disappear before her eyes. She heard Sam saying how lucky they were that the High Coterie was able to arrange for a new van to be brought to them.

  Ruth noticed Annie looking up at her. The worried expression across her face turned into a smile at seeing Annie was awake. “You had us worried.” she told Annie.

  Ruth carefully helped Annie sit up. Then Annie saw her brother peeking around the seat in front of her. He was smiling with relief to see that his sister was OK. John handed his sister an apple juice. Annie suddenly realized she was feeling very hungry and thirsty. She was thankful for the apple juice her brother offered her. She took it and drank it greedily.

  It made John feel better to see his sister awake. He studied her carefully. He was relieved to see that she looked healthy and completely normal. For a little while John had been scared that he was losing his whole family. First his parents and then his sister, but Annie was OK.

  John was staring so hard at Annie with a great toothy grin across his face that it was beginning to make her uncomfortable. So, she stuck her tongue out at her brother and laughed. John laughed too. “What happened?” Annie asked.

  Sam turned around and gave Ruth a solemn look. John’s face sank and he looked down at his feet. “There was a tornado…” started Ruth speaking very slowly in a sickeningly sweet tone Annie had never heard her use before.

  “I remember the tornado.” Annie interrupted. “I mean what happened to Mommy and Daddy? Are they okay?” She clarified.

  Ruth and Sam seemed to relax a bit after hearing this. John kept his head bent staring at his feet. He didn’t want his sister to see how worried and scared he was because right now they didn’t know for sure if the mystical enchantment had worked. His parents had disappeared. They didn’t know for sure where they had disappeared to.

  Ruth took a deep breath and began to explain to Annie what they had already explained to John. Only the most powerful elders of the High Coterie would know for sure if the enchantment had been successful. Annie felt a lump in her throat as her eyes began to swell with tears. Her parents just had to be OK. She sniffed back her tears.

  “Can’t we call them then?” Annie asked Ruth.

  John couldn’t look at his sister. He knew she was feeling everything he had felt just a short time ago. It was awful not to know if their parents were ok or if they would ever see them again. He hated having to hear it all over again. John wished he could just run away.

  Ruth’s eyes looked sad as she reached for Annie’s hand and held it tight.

  “Honey we cannot risk doing that right now. It is too important a thing to discuss on a phone call. We have to stick to our original plan. We are going to continue on to your grandmother’s. The High Coterie has been setting up a place where you will be able to meet with them close by.

  The next two days were almost unbearable. Ruth and Sam had not slept much. They took turns driving straight through the night. A few times, after stopping to eat, one of them would seem a little refreshed and try to cheer up John and Annie with a joke or song. It never worked very well. John and Annie didn’t feel like singing or laughing. It was at least, John thought, a welcome change from the silence that filled the van the rest of the time. It felt like everyone was holding their breath waiting to find out if his parents were OK.

  John was also very worried about his little sister. She had seemed all right when she first woke up after her shock but, now? Now, she barely spoke and she looked sickly pale. She wasn’t eating much either.

  Annie didn’t feel well at all. She was worried. Where had her parents gone? What if they were hurt somewhere with no help? The worst part was that it might be all her fault. When Sam and Ruth were saying the enchantment to save her mommy and daddy she had held tightly to John’s arm. Ruth and Sam weren’t counting on that. They didn’t know what she could do. What if she messed everything up?

  Her stomach made a little noise. Thinking about it all was really upsetting her tummy. She hoped they would get to Grandma’s soon so they could find out for sure if the mystical enchantment had worked. She also really wanted to be with Grandma.

  John tried not to look at his little sister. Instead he looked out the window to watch the world go by as they drove. John wasn’t sure if it was the hum of the van’s engine or being hypnotized by the dotted lines on the road but, his eye lids seemed to be very heavy. It wasn’t long before he had drifted off to sleep.

  Annie too had tried to stay focused on the road rather than talk to anyone in the van. Talking to Sam, Ruth or John just reminded her that Mommy and Daddy were gone. Annie soon found that her eyes ha
d also grown heavy, and though it took a bit longer than it had for John, she eventually drifted off to sleep too.

  Chapter 9

  John woke up to Sam gently shaking him. He saw that Ruth was doing the same to wake Annie. “We’re there.” Sam whispered to John.

  John nearly jumped out of his seat at hearing these words. Out of the van window he saw the outline of his grandmother’s house. It was dark now and the front porch light was on. The front door opened and out stepped an older lady with graying blondish hair. She wore oval shaped glasses and a blue polka dotted bathrobe. Behind her glasses John could see her eyes. They were the same as his fathers. She looked a bit older than when he had last seen her, but there was no mistaking his grandma’s kind face even with a few extra wrinkles.

  John sprang out of his seat only to find his seat belt was still buckled holding him firmly in place. He franticly fumbled to release his seatbelt. Sam gave John an annoyed glare that made him freeze for a moment. A moment, that was just long enough for Sam to reach down and release John’s seat belt. It only took a moment more for John to jump out of his seat, nearly knocking Sam over. In seconds, he had bounded out of the van and had nearly made it to the front porch of Grandma’s house.

  Annie was awake now too. She was struggling to get out of the car and catch up with her brother. She couldn’t wait to throw herself into her grandmother’s loving arms. Without warning her seat belt flew open nearly hitting Ruth in the face. Before you could say lickety-split Annie was out of the van and running toward her grandmother. Annie had never run so fast in her entire life. She caught up to her big brother and they both reached their grandma at the same time.