by P. Z. Walker
The trip up the hill was difficult for Sheila. She slipped, sand got in her sandals and scratched the soles of her feet, and more than once Mike had to grab her arm to keep her from tripping. "Take off your shoes," he advised her, "it's all soft sand up to the Five, you'll walk much easier." Sheila however persisted. She would go there as she was, after all she was here for Josy, not to take anything off. The experience in the woods, where people had almost found her naked, still clung to her mind, and she didn't want to repeat that.
As they made their way up, Mike started talking about his guru at the point where he'd left off earlier. "I'm into meditation and visualisation, you know. Clean mind, clean spirit, transcending what this earthly plain has to offer and seeing more, deeper. Stuff most people shake their head at and won't even try to understand." He sounded very different all of a sudden, as if he really knew what he was talking about. "Did you know that most of the great gurus and Buddhas often meditated naked because that way they were free of earthly bounds?"
"Uhm..." Sheila wasn't certain, but gurus and Buddha were not her area of interest nor expertise. "No idea. I'm a modern witch sort of person." Gods, she felt silly all of a sudden, talking spiritual things while she was in a forest with a nude man she'd never met before in her whole life! And yet...
"Well, they did. And I do. Out here in the forest. It's clean energy, you know. Wait up." As Sheila stood still, Mike made her feel very uneasy as he stared at her. She fought her will-power to only look at his face, the rest of him wasn't something to look at. "What happened to your head?" he suddenly asked.
"Head?" Another point for stupid, Sheila, she thought. "Oh! I bumped my head against a low branch in the woods last Saturday."
"Your vibes told me, you see," he smiled. "No bad effects?"
"No bad ones, thanks."
He stared at her a moment longer, then pointed at the trail again that by now was leveling out. "We're almost there." The last quarter of a mile was very easy to walk, although Sheila had to kick sand from her sandals a lot. A bit of sweat trickled down her back as they progressed, and she praised being smart to only put on a tank top. The spot they were going to was unmistakable. In a bit of a clearing, five mighty oaks stood in a circle around a patch of grass that looked entirely out of place.
"What is that place?" Sheila asked as she wondered about taking her sandals off after all.
"Five Oaks," Mike said. He turned towards her and stared again. "And what did you mean with no bad ones?"
"What? No bad ones?" His question took her by surprise, when she recalled mentioning the effects of the bump. "Oh. I think I had a bit of a concussion. For a few days I saw strange colours around things at times."
"Not any more?"
She wondered what that was to him. "Nope. All fine again."
Mike just smiled. "So this is Five Oaks." He walked to one of the huge trees. "And that's where we found her bag. You know, the trippy one." He then remained silent as Sheila looked around, walked among the trees for a while and then, next to the trail, took the crystal on a chain. "Pretty," Mike then commented.
"I use it to divine," she explained. "It's my pendulum."
Mike nodded and stepped back to where her bag rested on the ground. "Don't want to disturb the energy," he explained as she looked at him.
For the first time Sheila felt confident giving him a real smile. He really seemed to understand this. "Thank you." Slowly she walked along the outside of the oaks, the crystal hanging from its chain. She halted at times to see if the crystal would move, but after completing the round nothing had happened. That often was the case, though.
"Nothing?" Mike really sounded worried. "We have to get her back, you know."
"I know, but I'm not doing this for a living, remember? I wonder where she can be," Sheila said, looking at the man. "She can't have evaporated into thin air. Not even skinny Josy." She looked around once more, but nothing showed any presence of another person. At that point it hit her that the last few minutes she hadn't noticed Mike's lack of clothes at all!
"People don't do that," Mike agreed as he sat down. "I doubt she did either. Something happened here. I didn't tell the cops, they'd have taken me in."
"What happened then?" Sheila asked.
"Dunno, just know something did. Some energy thing. That's why I called you. Got any more tricks in your purse?"
"Just my cards and some feathers." Sheila swallowed as she walked to the small bag. Mike sat almost on top of it. Still she walked over, kneeled down and dug out the cards. As she took them from the pouch, one fell on the ground. It was Death. She gasped.
"What's the matter, little sister?" Mike left the card where it was.
"This is a weird card." Sheila quickly picked it up and tucked it back into the deck. "I pulled that just before I hit my head, and now it appears again. That's strange. And thank you for not touching my card."
"Sure," he said as he scratched his beard.
Chapter 4.
"This card means change," she explained to Mike as she held up the Death card. "It was also the card for Sunday, but nothing changed on Sunday."
"Something did, remember? Josems disappeared."
His words made Sheila freeze. She hadn't even connected those two things, and he pointed out the obvious. "You're right!"
"And you changed as well, with the colours you see," he continued.
"No, that stopped," she countered, looking at him. "And that was Saturday."
"Did it really? Or are you repressing it? Seeing the colours of life around things is special, Sheils, so if you have the gift, use it. The old natives around here valued it. Maybe you see something the cops didn't." He made it sound too simple, as if it was something she could switch on and off.
"It's gone, really. I haven't seen colours in a while." As she spoke, she wondered what old natives he meant.
"My guru told me that the human mind can do much more than we think, if only we don't take so much to be impossible. Do you think it's possible you can see those colours?" Mike looked up at her as he patted on the ground next to him, inviting her to sit down.
"Of course I can. When I bump my head again, like last Saturday. And I'd rather not as it knocked me out cold for a while." She turned her face away for a moment as she blushed. Maybe he would ask why that happened and she didn't want to tell him about taking her clothes of.
"Come. Sit down here, Sheila." As there was no harm in that, she sat down, keeping a safe distance between them, because of personal space and that. "Good. Now close your eyes. Don't be scared, I'm not going to hurt my little sister."
Sheila looked him in the eye. Then she closed her eyes, not long, but long enough for Mike to tap her on her head. "Hey!"
"So, you bumped your head again today. Can you see colours?" was his only response.
Sheila opened her eyes. There were no colours. "No."
"Too bad. Next time I'll hit you harder," the naked man laughed.
His laughter was infectious so Sheila grinned along with him. She blinked a few times and - "Oh my god..." The colours were back.
Mike's laughter was gone immediately. "What's up, little sister?" As she didn't say anything, but just stared at her outstretched hand, he said: "You see them, don't you?" In near shock she just nodded. "Isn't that just the trip."
Sheila wasn't so sure of that. Everything she saw now had the extra colours, in a range and multitude that almost confused her. She closed her eyes and held her hands over them to block out all light. The shadows of the colours were there for a while longer, but faded soon. She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"You okay, Sheila?" Mike sounded very worried, it surprised her how tender his voice and touch were.
"I hope so. It's so much," she whispered from beneath her hands. "How did you know?"
"Lucky guess. Never worked before," he grinned as his hand gently rubbed her shoulder. "Take your time, but don't fight the colours. My guru used to say that it takes someone pretty damn special to see the col
ours of life."
Sheila had to grin. "Did he really say pretty damn special?"
"Nah, the pretty damn is my own addition, but I think you're pretty damn special for it."
As he lifted his hand, she dropped hers in her lap and slowly opened her eyes to look at him. The colours were still there, but now she was at least a little prepared for them. "I still see them."
"That's trippy," he nodded. He pointed at the Five Oaks. "What do you see there?"
Her eyes followed the direction of his finger and as she saw the trees she gasped. Between the five oak trees there was a faint blue shimmer, flickering rapidly like the blue part of a flame. That was the only way she could describe it to herself. Sheila rose and slowly approached the dancing blue, that spread from tree to tree from the ground to a height of almost four feet.
"Sheils?"
Mike followed her, she knew. She heard his soft footsteps. She started to tell him what she saw and he listened without asking. The blue thing, whatever it was, emitted heat. There was quite a lot of it too; she noticed how sweat ran down her forehead and her back. It also appeared on her wrists. Carefully she reached out to the dancing, blue shades and as her fingers touched it there was a sensation as if she touched solid ice, so contradicting the sensation of being in one hundred degree heat that she experienced. Suddenly two hands grabbed her by the arms and calmly pulled her backwards.
"Come along, Sheila, come with me," said Mike.
"Wait, wait, it's so weird," she shook her head, but Mike didn't let go. Only as a hand, his hand, covered her eyes and the colours faded, she noticed how hot she was. Her tank top and her shorts were nearly drenched with her sweat, and then she shivered.
"Close your mind off from it, little sister," his low voice said close to her ear. "You were almost burning up there. It's not something simple, whatever you saw. We need to get you back down and make you drink lots of water."
Sheila nodded and leaned into him. Only as she felt his naked skin she yelped and jumped away, realising again that he wasn't dressed. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
"Hey, it's all cool, girl, if you need some support then take it. I'm strong enough." He stood there before her, hands spread out.
She nodded and would love to have him help her down, but she wouldn't allow herself to let a naked man hold her. It was just wrong. Mike then offered to carry her bag, and all the way down he stayed close to her, always a hand ready to help her if she wasn't stable on her legs. They made it down the slope and out of the forest. As they walked along the path near the grassland, the amount of naked people had more than doubled, or so it looked to her. "Mike, I feel as if these people are all staring at me," she whispered.
"They're not staring," he assured her, "just wondering why you're wearing all your stuff while you're sweating the way you do."
"All my stuff? It's almost nothing," she argued a bit as her strength was returning and the strange experience near the oaks was fading into the background.
"Compared to them it's a lot, but don't worry about it." Mike guided her into the low building again, sat her down at the first available table and rushed off to get her three large mugs of water. "Drink. All of them," he ordered.
At least the first one went down without any hesitation. The lady behind the counter came rushing over to ask what was wrong, and Mike told her that Sheila had gotten a bit overwhelmed by the climb and the warm weather. "Oh dear, no wonder with all that," the lady said. "Oh, I'm Jennifer, just call me Jenny. You should get out of that wet stuff, you'll catch something."
"No, no, I'll be fine. I can take the water outside and let the sun dry me up," Sheila said as she started to pick up the two remaining mugs.
"Oh no you don't," Mike said, "I'll carry those for you."
They found a spot in the sun where they sat down on a bench. Sheila noticed he had his shorts with him and sat on them. She drank another mug of water and kept her eyes to the ground in front of her. Here there were no shadows that concealed most of Mike's nakedness, nor that of the many other naturists or nudists. She grinned.
"Having fun again, little sister? That's good."
"I had to think of naturists and nudists and labels that go into clothes," she said. "That was funny."
"It's also true," Mike nodded as he handed her the last mug.
She didn't manage to drink all of that, but thanked him as she felt a lot better again now. "I really appreciate what you've done for me, Mike. I'm still shaking a bit about what happened, it was so strange and unreal. Maybe I should go home now and think about things."
"Will you come back tomorrow?"
Sheila shook her head. "No, I have to work tomorrow. And I want to ask around a bit if people I know have seen something like this before, and what it is."
"I understand." For a moment he was silent, so she turned her head to look in his eyes. "Can you let me know what you find, Sheila? I'm big worried about Josems. She has to come back, you know."
"I know, Mike. I want her back too. She's my friend as well. And I'll let you know. Your number is still on my phone." She handed back the half-empty mug and collected her bag from inside the building.
"Want me to go with you and open the gate?" Mike offered.
"Yes. Please." She was convinced that once she sat in her car, she would feel better soon.
"How's the colours? Are you safe to drive?"
"They're gone. They somehow disappeared as we came down, and now they're gone." She appreciated how he thought of that. From the corner of her eye she saw him slip the shorts on, and then they walked to her car. It didn't take long to get to and out of the gate. Mike waved a goodbye, she smiled quickly, and pulled out into the road.
*
After coming home Sheila first took a long shower and changed into fresh clothes, as her mind raced madly in circles. Josy disappearing, her visit to the one place she'd never wanted to go, being at the police station, and the experience at the Five Oaks, they all came back in no particular order. "Maybe I need a massive drink," she told herself, voicing over the rain of thoughts. She didn't. All she had was a coke with which she lay down on the couch. There she stored Mike's number on her phone and tried to think of someone she could ask about her vision and the colours. Unfortunately, no name came up, no matter how hard she tried.
It was close to getting dark when she woke up with a growling stomach. The coke had gone warm, so she tossed that away while she made dinner. After that she spent some time at her computer, trying to get some answers on-line, but that didn't help much either, so in the end she sent an e-mail to some of her friends in the witches' group, telling them some of the things of that day (but not the where), and then went to bed. As she had expected, even her dreams were full of strange colours and a wall of hot and cold, blue fire...
Feeling like a wet rag that had been in a corner long, Sheila woke up and went through the motions to start her day. At least the colours of her dreams were gone in the daylight, making the world a less unnerving place. She knew she had to act on what she'd seen near the Five Oaks, which inevitably meant going back to the naked people camp, but as long as she could keep her clothes on that would be okay. Ish. The bigger problem, she pondered as she drove to work, was that she might have to ask a few people from the witches' circle to come along. If they would do an energy ritual there and bring up some power, that might help her stay strong against the strange, blue, cold fire. But how would she make them feel okay in going there? She could name at least two who would be 110% against the idea, even if they could keep their clothes on!
The day went by mercifully fast, although many people kept making references to Josy's disappearance. That made Sheila feel bad as some of them joked about Josy running off in the nude with a few people to do god knows what. Relieved she headed home and as she ate dinner she thought of how to go on from here. It was clear she couldn't do that alone. Good thing Mike was her ally in that, even though she wasn't certain how far she could rely on him. He was an odd-ball pers
on, but in a good way. He hadn't laughed at her mentioning the aura colours, he'd even made some remarks that made a kind of sense.
With a wave of forced resolve she fired up her computer and checked her e-mail. Almost everyone had responded to her questions, and suggested to come together to talk about this in person, making it easier and faster to communicate. Jeremy had suggested the following evening, at his place. Jeremy was one of the two male witches in the group, and very serious about that. She confirmed she'd be there. At least that was good. Her friends would understand her.
Chapter 5.
At the meeting of her coven, Sheila had explained everything she'd experienced, seen and heard to the group around her, after she had made them promise not to interrupt her while she spoke. She told about Josy going missing at the Mighty Oaks, about Mike's call and how she'd gone there. She also explained about the bump on her head she'd gotten, and how that had triggered her to see the colours. The colours hadn't come back since the previous day, and many asked if she could switch them on and off.
"Nope. No can do. I hope I can control it soon because it's pretty shocking when it suddenly happens," she admitted.
"And you're sure we're believing all this?" Wendy asked, one of the most sceptic witches in the coven. "I mean, come on, Sheila. You bump your head and you see auras? I'd like to bump my head for that too!" Her words brought out the odd cheer, but Sheila shrugged.
"I can't help it if you don't believe me."
Jeremy poured more coffee and tea, and handed round a box with chocolate cookies. "Sounds hard to believe, but I believe her, guys. Sheila's not the kind to brag, and she's clearly very worried about her friend when she even dares to go to a nudy place to look for something." That in turn brought up questions on how she'd handled being there, around so many naked people. Almost none of her answers and responses were really believed, but that too was something she could only shrug at.