The Cait Lennox Box Set

by Roderick Donald

  “I need to think about it. May be a good idea, but I don’t know if she’s up to it yet. Cait needs us around her as a crutch.”

  “Jools, I know you don’t like to be rushed, but you know me . . .”

  “That I do,” replied Jools cynically.

  “I can get Caitie on a flight to Bangkok, with a connection to Vientiane, next Tuesday. I’ve already spoken to Dec and he can meet her there and pick her up at the airport when she arrives. They’d spend a few days chilling in Laos and then jump on a bus to Angkor Wat. A week or so traveling, then the two of them would come home together. Dec’s finished his school-building bit, so he’s a free agent.”

  G turned his head and looked at Jools expectantly.

  “Jesus G, that’s a bit of a lay down misere. When did you two concoct this plan?”

  “Dec and I were on WhatsApp and spoke about it yesterday. I gave him a heads-up about Caitie and he actually suggested it. You know how those two are thick as thieves. Dec said he’d Facebook her about it. She obviously hasn’t said anything to you today?”

  “Well obviously no.”

  “So, your thoughts? If this is going to happen I need to get on it straightaway because it’s not only the flights that have to be booked. Caitie will need a visa for both Laos and Cambodia, which should only take a few days to get.”

  “Let’s talk to Cait about it. She’s the one who has to say yea or nay on this.” Jools was still skeptical, and she needed time to work G’s off-the-wall suggestion through.

  But just maybe G’s right on this one. A total change of scenery and a short immersion in another culture may help reset Cait’s clock here and kick-start her recovery. She does need to stop spiraling inward.

  “So you’re in agreeance then?”

  “Ah no, I didn’t say that, but the idea may have legs, especially as Dec will be there as a backstop. I’d be totally against the idea if Dec wasn’t around. But we really do need to talk to Cait about it.”

  “Sure. Tonight.”

  “Cait, before you go to Laos we need to have a bit of a chat.” Jools had put her mentoring cap back on.

  “Yes Mum, what now?” Cait said almost despondently. She currently had another point of focus in her life other than the mind map and the events surrounding her kidnapping, and she was mentally preparing herself for next week’s trip to Vientiane. Seeing Dec was the best bit, of course. The bond between the two of them was as strong as if they were joined at the hip.

  Cait’s “induction” into the Otherworld was incomplete and Jools knew that it was important before Cait left for her trip that her daughter be more able to fully understand and comprehend the path in front of her and the powers that The Gift was trying to deliver. Once this had been explained, it was then totally up to Cait what she did with this connection. In the worst-case scenario Cait could even walk away from it as Jools had done when her own mother had a similar talk with her some thirty-five years ago. The Gift had then always been with Jools, following her all her life like a second shadow, guiding her, helping her, warning her, but it was always a background thing that she’d never fully taken on board.

  Of course, Jools was well known today for her uncanny insight into people and events, and her almost supernatural healing powers in her healthcare clinic were legendary, but she’d never harnessed the full powers that The Gift had made available to her and she didn’t want Cait suffering the same fate.

  And now, as part of the unwritten obligation that Jools owed to her long line of maternal ancestors, it was Cait’s turn to be introduced by her mother to the Otherworld, to The Gift, and for her to then either accept or reject the knowledge.

  The last thing that Jools wanted was for what she was about to tell her daughter seem like a lecture. Rather, she hoped to couch it more as an explanation of her rite of passage into the Otherworld, with the hope that Cait would embrace what she was going to hear, instead of filing it away in the too-hard, mumbo-jumbo trash basket in her head.

  “Cait, let’s sit at the kitchen bench and have a coffee.

  “Please, just listen to what I’m going to tell you, then let it sit and percolate in your head for a while. Think about it on the plane, or whenever you have some downtime. It’s totally up to you how you take this on board, but still, you need to hear it.”

  “Mum, I know about the birds and bees stuff. Like, it’s a bit late for that.” Cait was making light of the moment, just for laughs.

  “Cait, we need to talk about your visions.”

  “Ah, thought as much. They're still there, Mum, if that’s what you’re asking, but I’m sort of learning to control . . . no, no, not control . . . accept them.”

  “Cait, you need to open your mind to other perceptions of reality; to look through—look past and beyond—what appears normal, as nothing is as it seems. Your visions are more than the aftereffects of Rishi’s death and the kidnapping. They’re The Gift trying to show you the way forward.”

  Jools continued, speaking rhythmically, seemingly half chanting, half singing a Gaelic bricht as she wove a captivating spell that seemed to both calm and draw Cait in at the same time. Cait became fixated on her mother, listening to and absorbing every word that she muttered as the world around her seemingly took a step backward.

  “Listen to me, Cait. Concentrate on my words. Let them flow around you, envelop you. Ride the wave of what you hear. Become aware of everything and of nothing at the same time . . .”

  G opened the front door, arriving home from work a bit earlier than usual, and dropping his car keys on the side table, heard noises from the back of the house so he walked down the hallway toward the kitchen-living area.

  “Hi, I’m home,” he meant to say, but nothing came out. He was suddenly mute and stopped dead in his tracks, seemingly glued to the spot. In front of him were Jools and Cait sitting at the kitchen bench and his wife appeared to be casting a mystical incantation over their daughter that was invisible to the naked eye, but was there nonetheless. It was almost as if there was a gossamerlike shimmer in the air surrounding both of them as Jools continued her almost numinous chant. Well, to him that was what it sounded like. He always knew that Jools and her mother had some kind of almost supernatural side to them, but what was occurring in front of him went far and beyond what he ever expected to see.

  “There’s the physical and there’s the metaphysical, and at the moment you are betwixt and between, straddling both, but accepting only one as the source of all truth and denying the other. Cait, the ordinary and the magical are so close together that they can shift places in a heartbeat. You’re on the cusp of both worlds. All you need to do is open your mind—and your heart—and The Gift will reveal its true wonder.

  “It’s chosen you, darling—it’s knocking on the door of your subconscious. You know it deep down, don’t you?” Jools’s lilting voice emphasized the “don’t you.”

  Jools paused to let the gravity of what she had just revealed about Cait’s DNA, her link back to her maternal line of healers, to the Druids, sink into her view of reality. After all, it’s not every day that you have your known, comfortable world of twenty-four years turned upside down and a new version of reality implanted into the space that’s always been logical, tangible, explainable, and totally rational.

  “Cait, what you need to realize is that there’s more to life than what the physical eye can see. There’s also the Otherworld, an all-knowing and sacred place, where trees, rocks, rivers, animals . . . they all have a spirit. They’re all gateways.

  “There’s a spirit in everything around us, unknown and unseen by all but the gifted, a place in time that exists alongside what most people who walk this earth perceive as being normal.”

  Cait momentarily snapped out of her almost trancelike focus and blankly looked at her mother, thinking, WTF? Like, what planet are you coming from?

  Jools continued her rhythmical incantation, as she knew that Cait was now at the crossroads—that this was a pivotal moment in Cait�
�s induction into the Otherworld—and she couldn’t let it slip to the keeper as if nothing had happened.

  “There’s a hidden but open gateway to a different dimension being offered to you by The Gift, and I’m here to help you identify that pathway. Cait, you’ve been conditioned your whole life to see the world through set parameters, but if you shift your awareness beyond the ordinary mind, which keeps repeating those same restrictive parameters, you’ll see the world as you know it in a totally different light.”

  G continued to observe as an outsider, seemingly part, but not part, of his wife’s spell. He was, in a word, flabbergasted.

  “Cait, The Gift is calling you. If you keep denying it, you’ll be haunted forever and a day until you submit. Or go crazy. I’m serious.”

  “Mum, I know I’m different. I’ve always felt it. But really, now you’re being a bit melodramatic.” Cait lifted her head to look up at her mother, gave an “enough is enough” look, then flicked a few recalcitrant locks of her strawberry blonde hair back off her face. She was now back to reality and instinctively knew that this wasn’t the end of her mother’s homily.

  Cait took her gaze off her mother and looked up. “Hi Dad,” she said, a warm, welcoming smile crossing her face.

  But Jools continued as if nothing had happened. “Cait, this is in your bloodline, your DNA. You’re one of us, Cait. You’re a Druid. A shaman. A white witch. And you have powers: healing powers, powers that can do good, powers that can help this world, powers that can ease suffering, powers that, if you can tap into, will amaze you.”

  Cait let her mind drift somewhat as her mother continued, half hearing Jools’s words, drifting, extrapolating, allowing ridiculous thoughts of an all-powerful superwoman healing the world. She knew from past experience that when Jools was on a roll, she may as well just give in and listen, because there was no stopping her; sort of like G when he was on one of his philosophical rants.

  “Remember that time a few weeks ago when The Gift took over? You know, when Steve showed you those photos of that bikie’s arm with the cobra tattoo.

  “Cait, you crossed over to the Otherworld, experienced the edges of it, and now you need to embrace it, go with it, learn to use it. It’s more than a gift; it’s a privilege, a right that you can’t ignore, a right you can’t waste. You have to seek it out, befriend it, use it.”

  “Cait, you’re an amazing person with a power that is far surpassing mine. I ignored The Gift’s calling when it was shown to me by my mother, and I have regretted it ever since. I don’t want you to feel the same way when you’re my age.”

  Jools slowed her speech down, softened her voice.

  “Cait, I believe that you’re the one. The prodigy. I can only point you in the right direction. It’s up to you to ride on the back of the dragon, to find your powers, develop them, use them. But to find The Gift you have to believe. When you accept this you’ll realize that there’s really no separation between the physical and the metaphysical aspects of life. It’s just a different view of the same reality.”

  Jools stopped and looked over at G, who at this stage was looking less like her husband and more like one of those strange street performer statues that slowly move their body in acknowledgement when you drop a gold coin into their collection box.

  “G, for God’s sake! Don’t just stand there. Come and sit down. We won’t bite. This isn’t a witch’s coven, you know. It’s just a mother and daughter chat. Well, sort of.

  “Cait, that’s all I’m really going to say at this stage. I just wanted you to know about your heritage; about the long line of maternal healers and Shapeshifters who are in your bloodline. Your ancestry goes back thousands of years, and this is how the knowledge—the eolas—has always been passed on for time immemorial: from mother to daughter.”

  Jools paused, comfortable in the fact that she had done her best to introduce Cait to her ancestors, and to The Gift of course.

  “Now it’s over to you to make your own mind up as to where you go from here. You can just ride with the knowledge of the Otherworld and put it to one side like I did, or you can embrace it. The choice is yours. But whatever you decide it will always be a part of you now.”

  G recognized that whatever had just transpired was somehow done and dusted and the air needed to be cleared. Besides, he had good news about Cait’s visas to Laos and Cambodia: he had Cait’s stamped passport in his pocket. She was off to see Dec in four days’ time.

  “Caitie, I’ve got good news. Your visas are all through and you’re ready to go and see Dec,” said G in an upbeat tone.

  As Cait’s plane taxied toward the terminal she excitedly—expectantly—peered through the portside window at the airport and memories of her time backpacking around Asia a few years ago with her girlfriend Liz flooded back to greet her. She was devouring the Third World Asian vista and preparing herself for the onslaught that she knew from past experience was about to assault her senses: humidity, humanity, and hubbub, all rolled into one giant experiential cocktail she would throw down in one huge gulp the moment she stepped onto terra firma.

  Cait took in the pagodalike red tiled roof covering a mixture of old and new terminal buildings and observed four Airbus A320 planes with the Lao Airlines royal blue tails already lined up like ducks in a row at a circus sideshow jutting out from the international arm, waiting to be fed their cargo of passengers, baggage, and provisions before they took off to places far and wide. And of course there was the ubiquitous Laotian Air Force stable, the local military always ever present at any Asian airport, looking primed and poised, ready to take off to protect their borders from invasion . . . NOT: a Russian Antonov An-24 military transport aircraft, three serious-looking Russian Kamov Ka-27 general purpose attack helicopters, and a Chinese Harbin Z-9 military version helicopter.

  Welcome, Cait, to Southeast Asia, the vista seemed to be calling out to her . . . one more time. Welcome to Wattay International Airport, Vientiane, Laos.

  There’s one vacant spot left, reserved for our plane, Cait observed casually, as she watched the welcoming tarmac official waving his iridescent orange guidance candles to guide their plane into the safety of its parking bay. Cait almost waved back at his smiling face.

  Hey Asia, I’m back! she yelled, but for her ears only.

  “Hey sis, how goes it?” Dec surprised Cait as he was actually there to greet her as she walked out of immigration into the mayhem. Cait quickly glanced around and thought how Asian airports were all the same: hot and humid, people rushing everywhere, the smell of fried food wafting in from the street vendors outside, the faint smell of raw sewage in the air, noise and confusion everywhere, taxi drivers vying for your attention.

  Taxi, miss? You got place to stay? Take you to very good hotel. Very cheap.

  Cait was expecting to have to wait the mandatory ten to fifteen minutes for Dec to finally rush in, late as usual, with some weak but totally outrageous excuse about being hijacked by a death-wish tuk-tuk driver who was on a suicide mission to take down as many people as he could all at once, including his passenger, or similar.

  “Little bro, so great to see you!” Cait beamed, really meaning it. They were such good mates, even if he was her younger brother. “Thanks heaps for meeting me. And on time. Well done.

  “Hey, you’ve grown a beard, eh? Looking good.” Cait dropped her handheld bag at her feet and gave Dec the mandatory millennial hug, ending in an air-kiss. Dec was a bit more bro-y and gave his sister a full-on bear hug, his arms almost but not quite reaching right around her backpack.

  “Welcome to my world, sis. Well, for the last three weeks at least. Here you are again, back in Asia. How cool’s that?”

  Dec took a half step backward and eyed his sister up and down, looking for signs that she was suffering. After what G and Jools had told him of recent events over the past few weeks, he expected to see a blubbering, cowering mess in front of him. But instead all he saw was his sister—same head, same body, same smile.

 
; What are they talking about? he thought to himself. We’ll see.

  In fact, to Dec his sister looked as if she had been on the road for months. Cait wore her backpack with confidence and carried herself as if this was just another stop off on The Route that a thousand like her were currently traveling. Her patterned, light blue Uniqlo T-shirt, stretch denim capris, and Ecco sandals completed the picture, and she just fit in. Another person on the road. And as she had just caught three flights and been traveling for nearly fifteen hours now, she looked suitably disheveled and a bit travel weary.

  “So, let’s split. You want to freshen up a bit? We’ll grab a tuk-tuk back to the digs and you can do your bit there.”

  “Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks. Feel like I haven’t washed for a week. Where we going?”

  “I got us a room in the old part of town. Cool place on Chao Anou Road, down near the Mekong River. Own bathroom and even got a balcony. Think you’ll like it. But we’re sharing, okay?”

  Dec momentarily paused, then added, “Separate beds though!”

  “That’s cool. I just want to dump my stuff, have a shower, then let’s hit the road. You can show me around.”

  “Cool, sis. There’s plenty to see. For the rest of today I reckon we just chill though. You know, walk the streets, soak up the local vibe. Eat. Drink. The food here’s great, and the drinks are soooo cheap.”

  Dec pulled his sister’s backpack off her back, slung it over his right shoulder in a single, fluid movement, and proceeded to walk outside to the mayhem that was Asia.

  “Hey, follow me, sis. You’re on holidays now, so just get into traveling mode, kick back and enjoy, okay?”

  “Sounds good to me, little bro. After the crap that’s gone on in my life recently that’ll make a welcome relief.”

  “Yeah, sweet. Tomorrow I’ve booked us on a bike tour so you can get the feel of Vientiane. Should be a hoot. We’ll be seeing a shitload of wats and golden reclining Buddhas, that’s for sure. But the rest of today’s for chilling out.”