by Dani Corlee
“Kidnapped? Kidnapped?” Was she the only one who thought Isidora had gone crazy? She frantically turned to look at Lucille in search of help. “What are you talking about? I thought I hit my head and had a sort of nightmare. You told me so.”
“Not exactly. You said so, and we told you that you had to rest and that we could talk about it later. Well, later is now,” Isidora finished.
“Oh my,” Kim mumbled, touching her forehead and smoothing back her hair.
Lucille passed her a glass of water and she slowly sipped it.
“I'm fine,” she told Lucille, who had put one hand on her arm to give her support.
Kim nodded toward Isidora and Odessa.
“I remember Lucille telling me you were going to explain everything when I was feeling better, but I thought she meant you were going to tell me the details of the accident.”
“Well, in reality there wasn’t an accident.”
“Eh?” Her face seemed to wilt. “Do you mean nothing happened? I remember I was climbing the stairs and Aurora's cat...” She stopped, looked at the dark shape, and continued, “Sorry, I mean Mr. Stevenson hit me.”
“You were climbing the stairs, and Mr. Stevenson tried to rescue you from a huge peril, but unfortunately he arrived one second too late...”
Kim looked at her with widened eyes. “What... what are you talking about? A huge peril?”
“What do you remember after Mr Stevenson jumping toward you?”
“Jumping on me, you mean!”
“He wanted to grab you.”
“Grab me? He made me fall!” She turned again to Mr. Stevenson and sent him a gaze full of reproach. “And I had a nightmare after that.”
“It wasn't a nightmare.”
“You’re right. It was worse.” Kim nodded bluntly.
“No, I mean it was real.” Isidora drew out a long breath. “You were kidnapped.”
“I don't understand. I wasn't kidnapped. I hit my head.”
“You were kidnapped and brought into another dimension.”
“Oh, please!” She wanted to keep on complaining about their lack of judgment, but then stopped, realizing that she had to start believing in magic and witches. In the last few months, nothing seemed to be impossible. Maybe this was possible too.
“You were brought into another dimension. From what you told us when you went back they created another world, populating it with things you wanted and couldn't get here, but deleting all the things that could make you remember your real life, so that you didn’t have the chance to remember and wish to be back. But they underestimated something.”
“You are scaring me. Is there really somebody who wants to harm me? Who are they and what did they underestimate?”
“They underestimated your love for Aurora. Which is something too big to hide from you.”
Kim nodded. “I thought so. During that dream I felt I was missing something. It felt odd. I knew there was a place I wanted to get back to. Now I know it was Aurora's hug. I love her more than my own life. I think I will never have any more joy than having her. I'm young and there are so many things I want to do. I feel I can achieve many great things. But even if I don't, I will be aware I did the greatest thing of all. I gave life to Aurora, and this to me is the greatest thing of all. I know it might sound like a cliché, but this is what I feel.”
“Yes, I understand. A mother's love can transcend everything. But, again, it wasn't a dream.”
“So, if it was true, who wanted to harm me?”
“You might have already guessed it... they are the exiled witches. Those who should still be confined on the other side of the moon.”
“Do you mean they were able to break the spell and escape their prison?”
“It wasn't a prison, but yes, it seems this is what happened. They must have found a way to get out or, more probably, to interact with us. Their powers might have increased terribly or they might have developed abilities we cannot even imagine.”
Kim shivered. “Are we in danger? Will they try to harm us again?” She moved uncomfortably in the chair.
“Aurora!” she suddenly exclaimed, jolting upright. Her tall shadow danced on the wall. “You made me leave her at Springsville; what if they try to kidnap her? I shouldn't have left her!”
“Don't worry.” Isidora gestured her to sit down again, and she obeyed without complaining, letting herself sink in the chair with no strength. “She is well protected and nothing can happen to her. But we don't know what those witches are up to, and we need to get prepared.”
“How,” Kim asked in a feeble voice.
“We are in front of the most powerful crystal ball in the world.” Kim turned and looked at the giant ball in front of her.
Colorful lightning was constantly flashing as if a rainbow storm was taking place inside, and there was a far-off buzz, a sound of electricity that accompanied each movement.
“This is the only crystal ball in the world capable of giving us a clear view of the future,” Isidora added.
Kim realized other people had reached them while she was staring at the ball. They were men and women, and Kim assumed they were other witches of Paris. Each one took his place in front of the chair, facing the ball. Isidora and Odessa stood up, followed by Lucille, while Mr. Stevenson reached his chair. Kim looked around and stood up too. Lucille whispered her to do everything she was doing, so when they all approached the ball, she advanced too. They all put their hands on the sphere and looked in front of it, like a kid looking through a window of a pastry shop.
The dancing lights started to move rapidly, forming shapes that looked solid, while a soft, ancient music resounded from afar. Kim blinked, not being able to bear the light, but she didn't dare to look to Lucille for help.
She closed her eyes and suddenly felt the glass melting against her hands. She found herself slowly fluctuating inside the ball while a strong wind was hitting her body and making her hair blow in the air. She could barely hear the music now, maybe she was just imagining it, while the sound of the wind grew louder and louder, making her feel totally confused. Cautiously, she opened her eyes and couldn't quite understand what she was looking at, the shapes moving too quickly and the light being too bright for her. She looked at her side but there was no sign of the other witches, yet she could sense they were there. She kept on fluctuating slowly, her hair dancing in front of her, partially hiding the scene, when she saw a big shape in the distance, like a tall animal, quickly approaching and going beyond her on the other side, till it was out of sight. After a while the scene repeated, and she recognized other vague shapes among the colorful lightning following the first, bigger figure. Then two small balls of lights appeared, grew bigger and stood one in front of the other, sending each other swirls of thin, colorful lightning till they embraced one another in a shape which looked like a wonderful flower with delicate colors. The scenes were totally obscure to her, but the last image was so beautiful she thought it couldn't mean anything bad.
The movements inside the ball slowly decreased and the shapes again turned in thin swirls of pure light. The wind ceased while she felt herself again on a solid floor, outside the ball. All the witches detached their hand from the sphere while the music gently faded away, leaving the room in a total, distressing silence.
Still shaken by the experience, Kim turned toward Lucille next to her.
“So,” she asked, confused. “I suppose I didn't understand what I saw.”
Lucille shook her head. “No,” she replied softly. “Nobody could see much. I don't know what's going on.”
They headed toward Isidora, while all the other witches were moving away from the ball and were gathering near the two sisters.
“Well,” Isidora said while wiping the sweat from her forehead with a lace handkerchief. “It must be worse than we thought! The giant ball has never showed such a blurred image. It was unclear. They must have gained a huge power to have blocked its spell.”
She suddenly turned
to Kim, as if she had remembered something.
“Did you see anything in particular? Maybe the vision was for you only.”
“No!” Kim blurted out, shaking her head vehemently, embarrassed once again to be the center of the attention and to have nothing to offer to her hopeful friends.
“As I imagined,” Isidora replied and nodded thoughtfully.
The journey back was quiet and the atmosphere rather gloomy. The distance was too big to teleport in one giant leap, so they had to make a few jumps. Paris–Madrid, Madrid–Lisbon, Lisbon–Azores, Azores–Bermuda, and finally home. Kim would have wanted to stop at least a little at each place, but Isidora wanted to be back as soon as possible. She explained to her that they could be more vulnerable during the leaps. Kim wanted to ask for more details about their weaknesses during the teleporting, but both Isidora and Lucille looked too focused on the problem to be able to fill her in on their worries.
CHAPTER 3
Kim looked at the mirror while fetching her car keys. She hadn't wanted to change her hairstyle, but the cut had refreshed her look. Hanna, the girl at the salon, had been so good that she had thought she must be a witch, and afterwards she had asked Lucille, who told her she wasn't.
“Don't we have a sign, a word, a gesture to realize the other person is a witch?”
Lucille had laughed. “You will learn to recognize other witches. You will ‘sense’ them. I suppose it isn't difficult. But I was born with this ability. I'm sure you will develop it too.”
The time at the salon had been a good opportunity to relax and think about more frivolous things, yet the feeling of being in danger hadn't totally abandoned her.
Aurora had been very proud to have her hair done too, and was eager to show everybody her fresh cut.
They had decided to go to the horse stables in the afternoon, and Aurora was full of anticipation.
“Here you are!” James greeted them.
“Were you expecting us? We decided to come here only this morning and didn't call you.” Kim looked puzzled.
“I knew you were arriving.”
“How did you know?” For a fraction of a second Kim feared he was going to confess he was a witch too.
“Hugo. And Horatio Confetti. They behave strangely when you are coming. I suppose they can feel you are near. Animals can be very sensitive toward people if they have strong feelings for them.”
“Oh, good!” Kim replied, unable to contain a sigh of relief.
“I think I want to learn to ride,” she exclaimed soon after.
James stepped back. “What?” He looked at her, surprised. Smiling and looking into her eyes, he added, “I thought you didn't like to take any risks at all.”
She sighed and looked far off at the horizon. “Yes, but I think am ready to take some risks now.” She nodded. “Yes, I'm ready.”
“I'm glad you want to try. I'm sure you will discover a whole new world!”
“Not a new one, please!” Kim teased James, who took for granted she meant the new town.
“But first, I want to show you something. Aurora, would you like to see our new piglets? They were born a few days ago!”
“Yeees!” Aurora shouted with enthusiasm and started hopping toward the farmstead.
“Wait. Wait!” Kim shouted. “Too late,” she added when she saw Aurora throwing herself down on her knees in front of the pigs’ pen.
James laughed. “Regardless of what people usually think, pigs are very clean. They only roll over in the mud when they feel hot and want to refresh themselves.”
Kim gave him an uncertain gaze, then she put her hands in her hair. “My goodness,” she whispered. The autumn morning was mild, and surely the pigs weren't rolling themselves in the mud. “There must be excrement, though,” she said carelessly sniffing the air.
“Oh well,” James smiled, “must be.”
“She will need a shower after the ride in any case...” Kim said to herself while looking out of the corner of her eye at a dog chasing a honking goose in an useless attempt to strike up a friendship.
Unaware of the dirt, Aurora entered the pen, talked to the pig mom, who greeted her with a loud honk, and hugged and played with the piglets, who seemed to appreciate the new companion.
Kim rolled her eyes. “What shall I do with her?”
“She has a great gift, really a rare talent. I meet people of all ages who come here, to ride and to hang out with the animals, but I've never seen anyone getting along so well with animals at first sight. Often we have teachers who come here to show their classes the farm life and our animals. We also offer pet therapy in conjunction with a few centers that serve children with psycho-social disabilities. Believe me, but,”
“Really?” Kim didn't let him finish, too surprised about all the activities James was involved in.
“What?”
“I’ve heard about pet therapy. Especially with dolphins. I didn't know you were involved in such a project.”
James bent his head on one side and looked at her with a serious expression. “You don't know many things about me.” He held the gaze for a few seconds, then smiled while Kim felt a slight flush on her cheeks.
“Aurora, leave the poor piglets and let's go ride.”
“May I see the lambs first? And I need to greet the rabbits. They are waiting for me.”
“Are they? Let's go, then. We don't want them to wait any longer.”
“Mom, Mom, come and greet the lamb with me. He's so cute. Look.” Aurora ran ahead of her mom and James, hopping and chuckling with happiness. Kim watched her daughter approaching the animals and talking to them. Once again, Kim thought about Aurora's strange ability to interact with all animals, something she must have developed only recently because Kim couldn't recall anything like that when they were living in a big city. In reality, Kim realized, they hadn't any particular chance to meet animals, apart from dogs in the park.
Kim inhaled the smell of the freshly cut grass. “I'm glad we now live in a place where nature doesn't seem distant. There were times when I really felt I was living my life in a plastic box. I love the birds singing when I get up. I love seeing trees and green hills from my windows. But most of all, I love Aurora enjoying the companionship of animals and the countryside. She loves when we come here. I suppose we should come more often.”
“I couldn't ask for anything better!” James replied. “Let's go now.” He smiled at Kim and approached Aurora. “Come on,” he told her, rubbing her head, and led them back to the stalls.
“I have the right horse for you, Kim,” James said as Kim's phone started ringing. She looked at the screen and rolled her eyes. “Excuse me for a second,” she whispered to James, and moved a little further away, answering the call.
CHAPTER 4
Kim?
Yes, Lucille, how are you?
Fine! A quick chewing followed while Lucille appeared in front of her. “I heard you are doing great as a therapist at the hospital.”
“Did you? I'm glad. Who told you so?”
“A non-witch friend of mine. Her sister had a problem after a bad fall, but it seems you resolved her problem very quickly. She had been told by her doctor she would have to undergo a long course of therapy, and she was very enthusiastic about your help. Only a few sessions and she was able to walk and run like a kid!”
Kim listened with a smile, wrapping a curl around her finger. “I know I'm quite good at my work because I've always been able to see the problems very easily which sometimes aren't only what radiography shows. But I must say that after my...” Kim stopped to look for the right word, “ehm, my turning into a witch, I improved a lot. Now I can clearly see my patients. I mean, I can see their auras and immediately spot where the problem lies. Again, it isn't always where the exams show. Often there is much more. Often curing the injured part isn't enough because that part got injured due to a problem somewhere else in the body, and auras can show it.”
“Hmm. Interesting. I never thought of it. I guess
we should think about our body as a whole. We are more complex than we think, aren't we?”
Kim sighted. “Yes, we are. My seeing the auras really gave me a totally new and different perspective toward life. I mean, I've always thought there's something after, but now I think I can see it. Auras aren't physical, are they? Now I have the proof that something beyond the physical exists, and it's like... I don't know how to express it. It's like I suddenly have the proof that souls exist. That there's something else compared to what we usually see. And this really is affecting all my being. I mean, this is something big!”