“Well, Nathan, Of course…” she stopped in midsentence. Char must be shook-up because she almost always finishes her thoughts. “Nathan, I thought they could only embrace if you were touching daddy?”
“Oh, sorry, you two. I got a little carried away, holding my wife there. Wait. What?” John realized he was still holding Marlene even though he and I were not touching.
“Well, this is an interesting turn of events,” I said while mentally scratching my head.
“Nathan, what is going on? I don’t understand.” Charlene stated.
“All of these changes are enough to make my head swim,” John exclaimed.
Marlene broke out with, “Don’t go in the deep end, John, you never were a strong swimmer!” John gave his wife a look as if he was about to try to give as good as he got but thought better of it. Charlene started to snicker as she covered her mouth.
“You all look to me to explain all this, but I’m in the dark about it myself. Trial and error are my only teachers. It is not very scientific, I know, but they have taught me a few things. I need to sleep on this new twist. Maybe an answer will come to me. I am tired and hungry, and a man can’t bring the full force of his mental power in such a state. Forgive me.”
“Nathan, you’re right. A man can’t do his best when the hunger is rolling around in his gut. I will say goodnight to all here and leave,” John once again hugged his wife. It lasted a bit too long, considering the company in this room. He released his wife with the tip of one finger breaking away agonizingly slow. A ghost tear rolled down Marlene’s cheek as John turned to give Char a kiss on the cheek. As he walked to the front door, he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his eyes. Before he left, he put a hand on the door jam and said, “Bless this house and all who dwell here.” The front door closed behind him as he turned to walk to his car. It was the first time he used the word “dwell” instead of “live” in his blessings.
Marlene and Charlene embraced after John left for the evening. Once they were done, Marlene said, “Nathan, I will say goodnight to you in the only way that seems appropriate,” Marlene walked over to me and gave me a hug for the ages. She whispered in my ear, “Thank you for the gift of feeling my family again.” As I was about to say you’re welcome, Marlene faded from our home.
“I am going to bed, Nathan. Will you lock up?” Char asked but didn’t wait for an answer as she went to our bedroom.
Before I made my usual rounds, I raided the pantry, which at times is more enjoyable than a panty raid. I fixed a quick peanut-butter sandwich and glass of milk. With the sandwich hanging out of my mouth and glass of milk in one hand, I check the doors, the windows, turned out the lights. My bed was calling. Already under the covers, Charlene was sitting up in bed reading. The book had a cover over it, so I couldn’t see the title. “What are you reading?” I asked with a mouthful of sandwich.
“A book,” Char replied without answering the question. I asked what the title was, and all she said was, “Uh-huh.”
“Alright, keep your secrets. I'm going to sleep.” After I finished the sandwich, I chugged the whole glass of milk. Milk is delicious. I used to drink so much growing up, I would spill a quart every day just pouring.
After I snuggled in under the covers, Charlene put down her book and turned off her light. “Goodnight, Nathan.”
“Goodnight, Charlene,” I rolled over to give her a kiss, but she rolled away before my lips could make contact. Sitting in the dark for a moment, I stewed. “Charlene, do you still love me?” The question hung there for far too long a time.
“Of course, I still love you. What a foolish question.”
“Char, are we ever going to make love again?”
No answer was forthcoming. After a few minutes, I was about to ask again when Char said, “I don’t know.” She rolled over and started to cry softly to herself.
I rolled over the other way and pretended I didn’t hear her.
Chapter Nineteen
“Nathan, get up,” Lizzy said as she pulled at me. The sensation was similar to how Mr. Shadowman pulled me out of my body.
Floating up, I saw Lizzy at the foot of my bed all see-through and fuzzy. “So, that’s what it feels like when I lift someone up to the astral plane.” Looking at the clock, I saw it had only been a few hours since I went to sleep. “What can I do you for, Lizzy? I am glad you’re here, though. I have some questions.”
“They’re not important right now. What is important is I had a vivid vision about you. It’s not a happy one!” Lizzy shared urgently.
Leading her to the living room. “Have a seat.” Lizzy took a seat in the recliner, and I sat on the couch. “Do you normally have visions?”
“Not like this one.” If she had a physical body instead of this astral one, I would say she was sweating. She is a little jumpy too, with her eyes darting about and her constant fussing with her clothes.
“Tell me about your vision.”
“When it starts, you are on a boat on the ocean. The weather is a little breezy and overcast. The boat is pitching up and down. You are far from land. With a splash, cold blackness surrounds you. The taste of salt is in your mouth as you gasp for one last breath but get a mouth full of the ocean instead. You can’t breathe. Your body is sinking further and further in the cold blackness. The pressure is squeezing your body. Screaming, your lungs beg to breathe. Slowly, your vision dims, then goes dark. That is what I saw, and when I woke up from the vision, I was gasping for breath, and my heart was pounding out of my chest.” I noticed her chest was heaving like she had run a marathon.
“Calm down, it was only a terrible nightmare, Lizzy, but I don’t think it is prophetic about me. I hate the beach, and I have never been on the ocean.”
“No, Nathan, it wasn’t a dream or nightmare. I walked the paths of time and saw your future. I would stake my reputation as a soothsayer on it. I have never experienced a vision so strong before.” Lizzy licked her lips, swallowed hard and said, “It scared me.” She began to shake.
I moved to Lizzy and tried to comfort her. It is a strange sensation touching someone in the astral plane. “There, there, it was my death you saw not yours, and since you told me, it can’t happen.” She pushed away from me to look at me with a confused expression. “I know the how of my death now, I will avoid any scenario which takes me out on the ocean.”
“It doesn’t work like that. You can’t avoid Destiny.”
“Let me guess. The whole Kung Fu Panda thing ‘A person often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.’”
“You are not taking this seriously.”
“I am sorry, Lizzy. It was sweet of you to come here and warn me,” I said, trying to console her.
“I have never seen someone die in one of my viewings before. I don’t like it! It feels like a part of me died too.” She shivered nervously. Something caught her eye. “Nathan, what happened to you?” She reached up and touched the spot on my forehead, where Mr. Shadowman put the tip of its nasty tentacle. She shivered again.
I returned to my place on the couch. “Mr. Shadowman touched me there. Why?”
“A Shadowman did not give you this wound. They don’t attack people, and they’re not evil per se. They mostly like to watch us. You can usually find them in haunted places. Where did, whatever it is, attack you?”
I explained everything that has happened with Mr. Shadowman, especially the attack. “It touched me other places too.” Lizzy urged me to show her the other wounds. I took off my astral pajama top. “I have some wounds on my legs too, but I’m not taking my bottoms off! I’ve had too many women looking at my butt as it is.”
“The wounds on your chest and arms are huge.”
I looked at them. They looked far worse than Lar’s injuries. Where his wounds were burns, my are large gaping holes. Pieces of my astral body had chunks eaten away. The wounds oozed in small rivulets.
Lizzy stretched out her hand and touched one of the wounds. Dull pain spread up from my ast
ral hurt as her fingers touched it. A look of disgust found her face. For a moment, I thought she would spew astral vomit on my carpet. “My God, Nathan, it wasn’t a Shadowman that attacked you! It was a creature from a lower plane. By your description, it feeds on fear, but you stood up to it. You angered it. It is out for blood, so to speak. This creature has tasted your essence. It will keep attacking you again and again until you are dead. How do you get yourself mixed up in all these things?”
I half-laughed, “Lucky, I guess.”
“I’m sorry, Nathan.” We sat there in silence for a few moments. As each of those moments dragged on, fear built in me. It is the second strongest fear I have ever felt. When Da’von stalked me, I was afraid, but it wasn’t paralyzing fear. To protect my family, I resigned myself to my death. As I thought more about what I face now, my hands started to tremble. Lizzy brought me to the here and now, “You said you have some questions. I will try to answer them.”
“Thanks. Yes, questions…” my brain fogged for a moment, then cleared. “I have found a cursed object. Can I destroy it by going all Cuisinart on its ass?”
“No. All you would do is free the spirit inside. It would find something else to inhabit. Your best course of action is to contain it. Trap it in a circle of protection and pray nobody breaks the circle.”
“You have got to be kidding me. Magic circles, really? First, you tell me salt works on evil things; next, you are talking about magic circles.”
“Mock all you want. In the end, you must use unconventional means to deal with other-worldly threats. What does this item do?”
“For some blood, drawn with rose thorns, it gives its owner added artistic talent. The wounds fester, and they don’t heal.”
“Blood magic, not good! If you don’t break the bond between it and its owner, eventually it will kill the owner and seek someone else to start the cycle again. They can be nasty boogers those cursed items. Do you know what you are going to do?”
Would my plan to contain Da’von work with Headache Barbie?, I wondered. “I have an idea, but before I tried it, I wanted to touch base with you.”
“Do you have any other questions?” She asked.
“So, how do I kill this creature from a lower plane, or send it back, or trap it?”
“The first thing you should do is never go back to where you encountered it. Somewhere there is a breach in the barrier between the planes. This creature can’t travel far from the opening. You’ll be safe in a manner of speaking.”
“I don’t understand. You said it can’t travel far from the hole between planes. It came here and ran me through a ringer of a nightmare.”
“I’m not sure. Did you see it here in your home?”
I shook my head, “Only in my dream.”
“Maybe it planted the seed of a nightmare, and it grew to fruition here in your home. I don’t know. You’re dealing with things beyond my knowledge or experience. Best to leave it be. If you don’t go back to wherever you encountered it, the connection between you should fade.”
“I can’t call this thing Mr. Shadowman anymore. How about Mr. Squidman?” Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Okay. After I kill Mr. Squidman, how do I reseal the breach between this plane and its?”
“Nathan, you can’t kill this thing, at least not the way you’re thinking. If you are the luckiest son-of-bitch I ever met, maybe you can disperse it, but for the life of me, I don’t see how. If you try to fight this thing, it could kill you!”
If Mr. Squidman kills me on the astral plane, will Da’von be trapped on that plane also? Maybe there is a plus side to dying at the hands of Mr. Squidman, I speculated. “Thank you for the information and pep-talk, but I need to go back to sleep and ruminate on all this.”
“Of course, but first, let me say this. Don’t be afraid to call on me. I will help you with your journey where I can. Whatever you decide to do, please don’t try to take-on Mr. Squidman. Something to think on, Nathan, you call it mister, how do you know it’s male?” Lizzy gave me a puckish grin, then said, “You are going to try to kill it, aren’t you?”
“I screwed up by challenging Mr. Squidman. I can’t let it hurt anyone else. I have to try.”
Lizzy stood and placed a hand on my cheek, “Goodbye, Nathan, try not to die. I kind of like you,” with that said, Lizzy faded.
Returning to my body and bed, fear and doubt started to grow inside me. Sitting up in bed once my astral form returned to my body, I stood and made my way to the kitchen for a little snack. The clock showed hours had passed, but I was only mildly hungry. One day I’ll get a handle on all this, that is, if I don’t die first. I started to dwell again on the thought I might not survive my next encounter with Mr. Squidman. Fear began taking me.
Shaking Charlene’s sleeping form, “Char, get up, I need to talk to you. I need to talk to my wife.”
“We can talk in the morning, Husband Mine.”
“Charlene, please!” I don’t know what it was that changed her mind. It could have been the fact I asked a second time; it could have been she was already awake, or it could have been the way I begged “Please.” Whatever the reason, she sat-up and looked at me. “Charlene, I am scared.”
To her credit, she reached out and took my hand. “What are you scared about? Did you have another nightmare?”
“You remember I told you about Mr. Shadowman?” She nodded. “It attacked me!” Charlene’s face crinkled in puzzlement. “Astrally. It pulled me to the astral plane and assaulted me.”
“Are you hurt?” I nodded. “How bad? Show me.”
I laid back down, still holding Char’s hand, I lifted us both to the astral plane. I removed my PJ top and showed her. Char became panicked at the sight of my wounds.
“My God! Nathan, there are huge pieces of you missing! Are you in pain? Are you dying? How… What… Maybe…” Her reaction surprised me. Charlene has never been one to panic.
“I am doing okay. There is a little pain.”
“I know you, Nathan Alexander Embers, do not play the stoic man to me! How bad are you hurting?”
“Compared to my migraines, the wounds are no more than a mild annoyance. It’s not physical pain. It is hard to explain. They feel like bruises on my soul.” Shrugging my shoulders, “I don’t know. Maybe they’ll heal with time.”
“What about this scar?” Char put her hand on the scar from my battle with that creature on the highway.
“Do you remember Sarah?”
“Of course, I do. Oh, that fight. Why didn’t you tell me?” I looked away from Char. “I am getting sick and tired of the men in my life treating me like I am a southern bell who will get the vapors at the least little provocation!” Charlene blew a breath out and calmed a bit. “Do you think that thing will seek you out again?”
“Most assuredly. I kind of pissed it off, and after its attack on me, it has a craving for my sweet and tasty soul.”
“I hate it when you joke about serious stuff. Can it find you here?” I shook my head. “Good, then you are not leaving this house until it is no longer a threat.”
“Char, I didn’t wake you for a lecture. If I wanted a lecture, I would fold the laundry wrong.” She smiled despite all of this craziness. She smiled because she remembers giving me that lecture a time or two. “I woke you because I am scared, and I need my wife to bolster me. Can you do that, please.”
“Nathan, don’t go back. Live and let live.”
“I can’t walk away. People are depending on me. If I don’t go back, dozens of people will be out of work. No, I must go back and face Mr. Squidman no matter the outcome. Not to mention, I don’t like the idea of leaving it free to harm someone else.”
“What are you doing that’s more important than your own life?”
“Charlene, I had lots of time to think about my life when the creature in my head was stalking me.” I sighed. “I did not like the lion’s share of what I saw. Without going into details, which I have never shared with anyone, including you, I did some evil
things. Maybe all this is the method the universe is using to balance the scales, or it could be a way to punish me. Kind of poetic, don’t you think? One evil eliminating another.” Depression began weighing down my thoughts. I can’t let these thoughts cloud what must be done. I need a happy moment, but which one of the few?
“Nathan, I can’t believe you did anything that needs to be balanced. You’re a decent man.”
“I know my own sins, and to some, they are unforgivable.” I put Char back in her body and settled down in mine. We laid there in the dark and quiet of our room, still holding hands.
Charlene gave my hand a squeeze and said, “Whatever it was you did, I forgive you,” she rolled over to me and gently kissed my cheek.
“Thank you, Char, it means a lot to me.” My fear lessened. Still despondent, I searched for a memory to lift me up.
I found one.
The ending credits started on Moiraine’s favorite Disney movie, Bednobs and Broomsticks. She was fast asleep on the couch and leaning on me. This was her nighttime routine. She refused to go to sleep unless we let her watch her favorite movie. I hoped she would grow out of this phase soon. If I have to sing along to Substitutiary Locomotion one more time, I will go mad.
“Well, she’s out. I’ll get her bed ready, and you carry her to it,” Char the mother of my only child said.
I stood and stretched. Moiraine was an easy burden as I reached down and picked her up. She was a few days older than fourteen months and already showing her unique personality. As I cradled her with her head in the nook between my neck and shoulder, Moiraine lifted her head and said, “I love you, Daddy.” She put her head back down on my shoulder. My knees wobbled a bit, and my heart felt like it was breaking and swelling at the same time. The first full sentence I heard my daughter say, and it was, “I love you, Daddy.”
Pausing for but a moment in our trek to her room and bed, “I love you too, Moiraine.” She nuzzled into my neck and shoulder. With my child in my arms, I entered Mo’s room. Placing her in her bed and seeing her safe, I was amazed, once more, a part of me made her. I hope it was the best part.
The Calling Page 20