"Okay, now you've lost me," she said with more than a hint of frustration. "Are we talking about electricity or people?"
"Both." He stood up straight and stretched the muscles in his back for a few moments before resuming his work over the trough. "If you discharge love, for example, and you give off that electrical energy for the sake of love, the only way to get it back is through love."
All right… now this conversation was heading back in the right direction! "Okay…"
"If you discharge through anger, the only way to get it back is through anger. See? You discharge through sadness, the only way to get it back is through sadness. But most importantly, we have to realize that whatever we give out, or discharge, we can get back."
"That's kind of scary," she muttered, thinking of all the times she'd been angry in her life and sad… Well, she'd certainly had it returned to her, so the circuit was complete. "What about love? You get back what you give out and complete the circuit there too?" She envisioned the love and trust she had given in relationships and suddenly realized it really had been returned in proportion to what she'd discharged. She had always held back, waiting for the other person to show his cards or make a commitment. There was always fear too.
"Glad you brought up circuits. A circuit needs three things… a source of electrical energy, an output device, and a connection between the source and the device."
"You're losing me again," she said with a laugh. "Sesame Street, remember?"
He chuckled as he continued to work. "Okay, how about this? When you discharge, you're not just discharging out into space. There's usually an object for your discharge. When electricity is discharged, it causes something to happen somewhere."
"What about the emotional part, about humans?" She was far more interested in that than in abstract electricity.
"There are literally billions and trillions of electrical circuits out there between human beings. Discharge is not random; it's going to follow a circuit. The source and output device must be connected so that electrical current can flow from the source to the device and back again. The return part is necessary so that an electrical charge does not collect at any point in the circuit. A collected charge would oppose the flow and keep the circuit from functioning."
"What happens if there is opposition to the flow?"
"If you try to discharge more, everything will come to a standstill. Just stop. Nothing will happen. There has to be a place for it to go into and a place for it to come out of, or nothing will happen. Does that make sense?"
"Is this like when you're walking and suddenly you make eye contact with a person, a stranger, and you either smile or look away?"
"Exactly. If you smile and the connection through the eyes is made and the other person accepts your discharge and smiles back, how do you feel?"
She grinned. "I feel good."
"Energized?"
"Yes."
"We are all electrically connected as people, so the electricity will continue to flow from one person to another person to another person and so on. As soon as one person lets go of the connection, nothing happens, the electricity between them stops. Then sometimes we need something to break the current when it is too high."
"We do?"
"Certainly. We have them all the time. Why do we want to break it if it's too high? Well, if you're a lightbulb, you'd blow up if you got the main surge of electricity from the source, the power plant. If you're a human, you might have chaos… anger, sickness… you can go on overload. You can become too energized and things can happen to you. You can break down. It's intelligent to have a circuit breaker."
"You mean something to break the tension?"
"Yes. If you're a parent and you and your spouse are having a high-level energy discharge, the juices get going, charges are flowing, and both parties are amping up with negative energy. Then a child walks into the room and breaks the circuit."
She thought of that time when she was a child and had broken the circuit between her parents. It made sense.
"Humor is a great circuit breaker too."
"That's why you said it was an important tool for a human to have."
"You remember. Anything that lightens a situation works as a circuit breaker. All of a sudden all of the energy that was flowing, causing that problem, whatever it might have been, just stops. Circuit breakers are very important."
Sitting on the barrel, Casey thought back to when she was a teenager and had been making out with a boy in his car. They had been at a lake, a place where high school kids parked after a dance or a date, and things had started to get hot and heavy. Suddenly they'd heard a sharp rap on the window and it had scared them both. A policeman had been clearing all the kids out and it certainly had put a stop to any other thoughts. That had been a circuit breaker, for sure. "Okay, I think I've got circuit breakers and how important they can be."
"Good," he said, and turned around to face her. He grabbed his rag and wiped his hands. "Now we'll talk about potential energy, for it's the key to directing energy from one place to another."
Oh, she had some potential energy she wanted to direct, all right. From her to him… but she knew he was serious and so she merely nodded.
"It's nothing more than the difference between your positive energy and your negative energy. In a person it's like when someone exudes so much positive energy that it just goes out and goes through everybody else. Everyone has met someone like that, and everyone has a degree of this positive energy. Some people have a potential difference in the opposite direction and are in such need of positive energy, someone else's electricity, that they seem to suck all the energy out of that person and into them."
"I've met people like that. Both kinds."
"Most everyone has, Casey. It's nice to understand it, though, and how it can be directed. If you are an electrical source of energy yourself, isn't it time you understood how you and every other human being works?"
"I never knew all this. I mean it makes sense, just no one has ever talked to me like this." She paused for a moment. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I didn't give myself enough credit to understand and so I turned my attention elsewhere."
"But you understand now?"
"I'm beginning to."
"Good, because we're getting to the most important part. Types of current and magnetism."
She sighed and, looking into his eyes, smiled.
He seemed to catch her current and smiled back.
Casey felt a sizzle of electricity race through her body and settle in her solar plexus.
"See?" he asked. "You do it all the time. Now you know what is happening."
"Hmm…" Why was it she wished they would stop talking and amp up the voltage? "So what are you, Luke? A copper-top Duracell?"
He laughed. "More like an Energizer, I think."
"I must be an Eveready," she said with a laugh. "Loyal, constant… that's me."
He smiled and this time he was the one sending an electrical discharge, and it was warm and exciting. She didn't want it to end. He obviously thought it was enough, for his next words seemed to dissipate all her warm thoughts.
"There is, scientifically, direct or alternating current. DC, direct, always flows in the same direction. AC, alternating, flows back and forth. What do you think a person who is always angry, always depressed, is? AC or DC?"
"Ahh… I didn't know there was going to be a pop quiz," she said, and laughed. Here come the questions. "DC? Going in one direction?"
"Well done, Casey," Luke said with a grin. "The majority of people are AC, alternating current, always giving and receiving. What happens when one person is AC and he or she hooks up with someone operating in DC mode, only focused on one direction?"
"They blow a fuse?"
He laughed and she just loved the way his eyes seemed to sparkle with affection. "You can't have AC with DC without a rectifier. At some point in time both have to become AC or DC."
Rectifiers? What the heck were they? She wa
s getting confused with all these electrical terms, yet she was still attempting to get the gist of his conversation because she still felt like it was leading up to something. She'd go along for a while and watch it play out. "Well, I like AC, giving and receiving," Casey declared with a grin.
"Most women are AC, great givers and, sometimes, unaware receivers."
"Ahh, now I see we are back to unions and children and how women receive from men more than just the physical. It makes sense now why a lot of relationships just don't work out. People are operating on different currents."
"Yes, but the discharge of energy has taken place, the connection has been made, and remember I said the only way for it to return is through the same conduit. If a young girl opens herself to a male who is operating on DC, merely physical, and then he breaks the connection… she is going to have to get it back through something, or someone. She feels the loss and needs to get it back somehow."
He smiled a little sadly. "She can be self-destructive, enter into another relationship, or remain stagnant, in a state of loss. She has an open current. All she knows is that she discharged love and is waiting for it to be returned to her. If she stays like that, nothing happens."
"This doesn't sound very hopeful," Casey muttered.
"But it is," he assured her, turning back to his work, "when it's seen without the false images that are fed to men and women about sexuality. It's the mingling of the energy of the physical, and of something else that is beyond the physical, that for a glorious, timeless interlude takes us beyond our human existence into something… more. Some have merely forgotten the real power, the electrical charge, behind sexuality and treat it like a toy instead."
"Children having children…" She murmured her thought aloud.
"Yes."
"I want a child."
She said it because it was the truth and because the opportunity presented itself.
"I know you do."
She stared at his back, willing him to turn around and face her once more. "How do you know that? You reading my thoughts again, Luke?"
"No. I saw your face when you touched Angel after he was born. You will make a wonderful mother, Casey. Responsible and still playful."
"Well, I'm not having much luck in that area, Mr. d'Séraphin," she said with a laugh. "Care to assist me?" It was one of those moments when the setup was just too perfect not to go forward. She could always laugh it off later.
He turned around. "Marriage is not something I intend to enter. It wouldn't be fair to any woman."
She stared right back at him. "I wasn't asking you to marry me, Luke. I was asking for a little assistance in having a child. I'm thirty-one years old. I'm working through most of my issues and I feel I'm responsible for my actions and I was thinking about being a single mother right before I was zapped back here."
He looked like she'd picked up a piece of his wood and batted him on the head.
"You… you were thinking about what?"
"About wanting to have a child and yet not wanting to dive into the gene pool at a sperm bank. I know I could do it… raise a child, a happy child."
"And you were thinking this right before you were hit with lightning?"
"Well, right before my front tire blew and then I was hit with lightning. Why?"
He quickly turned back to the soaking wood and rested his hands on the edge of the trough. His shoulders slumped and he exhaled heavily. A long silence followed and Casey patiently waited, for she knew that somehow she had just shaken his world a bit. What could he be thinking?
"I think I should walk you back," he said in a shaken voice, as though answering her mental question. "Suddenly I'm tired and this diversion of wood isn't helping."
She slipped off the barrel. "What did I say?"
He walked over to the table and picked up the rag. Wiping his hands, he muttered, "It's getting late and you should return before someone discovers you're missing. You did sneak out from the wardrobe in your room, didn't you?"
Casey nodded. "But what did I say to upset you?" She didn't want to let it drop.
"You didn't upset me. You surprised me." He returned to his staircase and pulled the long cloth over it. Picking up his clean shirt and the dark trousers, he added, "The pattern is becoming clearer, but I can't explain it right now. Let's get back before Doña Isabela finds out you're gone."
He blew out the lantern and took her hand. "Be careful. Follow me."
Grateful for his hand, Casey clutched it as she walked slightly behind him. Why was he in such a hurry now, after their discussion about electricity? Whatever she'd said, she'd rattled him for sure. All her progress and now… what? One remark about time traveling and children ruins it all?
She was going to have to think about this one when she was alone.
Still, it had turned out far better than she could have hoped. He was interested. He wanted her. And now she was holding his hand… Yeah, far better.
He led her through the noisy streets, determined to see her back in her room and far away from him. It was bad enough that he'd almost kissed her last night after Rosa's recital, so strong was the attraction, but now she had confirmed his worse fear. Casey O'Reilly, this wild, wonderful, incredible woman who was capturing his mind and his heart, had been thinking about finding a father for her child right before she had time-traveled, and he had made the choice to come and assist her! This pattern was unfolding in such a way that his normally peaceful state was altered into one of confusion. Choices… He knew it was all about choices and responsibility for them, and now he was being challenged by one of the biggest he had ever faced in his life. It was obvious she had chosen him.
Thirteen
The preparations for the quinceñera took up the next few days, and Casey pitched in as much as she could; however, the staff seemed to have everything under control and she found herself with time on her hands to think. Lots of time. Still, the house was bustling with activity. Deliveries were made all day long. Relatives, aunts, uncles, numerous cousins, and family friends began arriving to pay their respects. Marguerita, Rosa's older sister, showed up encinta, three months pregnant, and the d'Montoya household was brimming with joy.
Casey liked the shy Marguerita and could see the young woman's eyes almost shine with an inner light. There were too many other relatives to remember all the names. Most were staying at the hotel in town, yet every night the house was filled with people and music and laughter. Casey excused herself early each night so everyone could be more comfortable and speak in Spanish, plus she wanted to return to her room. Luke stayed away more than before. She had only seen him twice since the night they were alone at the workshop, and now there were so many people around they hadn't had a chance to talk privately. She knew she could always sneak out again and visit him, but something held her back. It was obvious he was avoiding her.
What had she said?
She must have gone over their conversation ten times, and the only thing she could come up with was that he'd seemed startled when she'd told him she had been thinking about being a single parent and the possibility of going to a sperm bank right before she was taken back in time. Now, he could be shocked at her thoughts or… he could be following the pattern, as he so loved to say, and watching as it unfolded before him. He just never expected it to unfold like this.
He also mentioned there was a purpose to everything, it all happens for a reason… What if the purpose of this whole time travel for them both was so Luke could father her child? It was a plausible theory for what was unfolding…
That was the way he thought, that one thing leads to another and one should just be aware of what is unfolding. Wasn't that what he kept saying to her? Why was it so shocking to him now, unless he was struggling with his own desires?
Snuggled in bed, she listened to the guitar music the others were enjoying in the courtyard and stared at the beautiful gown Doña Isabela had given her to wear tomorrow night. It was a gorgeous creation of pale yellow silk, off the
shoulders, with white silk flowers attached to the scooped neckline. When she'd first tried it on, she had felt like a fairy princess. A silly thought coming from a thirty-one-year-old woman, and yet that was how she had felt…beautiful and unearthly, and she couldn't wait to see Luke's reaction when he saw her in it.
The night in the workshop had taught her many things. He was not only attracted to her, he wanted her and he stayed away from the house at night to stop himself from having her. He had said he was more concerned for her, and yet even that drew her to him. It was like they were on this course, and for once, she could see more of it than he. He was trying to stop the electrical connection, just like he'd stopped the lesson on electricity before they got to magnetism. Well, now that she knew this was definitely AC current, going both ways, she was not about to allow anything foolish to break it. She no longer needed to pursue him. She had stated her case. Now it was up to him.
So she could wait, allowing him his space. It wouldn't be long. The party was tomorrow and he couldn't avoid her there without appearing rude. And Luke d'Séraphin was anything but rude. A smile played at her lips and she blew out the lantern. Lying in bed, listening to the flamenco music, Casey hugged the light coverlet to her breast and looked into the moonlit bedroom. Yes, tomorrow she wasn't going to plan anything. She was just going to allow the day to unfold and be aware of everything around her. She would create memories, but more than that… she would create some magic. Her wish was out there now, waiting to be fulfilled. And the great part was, she realized she didn't have to do a thing… only be herself.
Sometimes she just loved being a woman.
Suddenly she heard a noise in her wardrobe, and tensed as she waited to see if it was a rodent or—
"Rosa!"
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