“Come into my office, and we can discuss the strategy Amanda suggested,” she said as she stepped back and gestured for them to go into her office. She closed the door behind herself as she followed them in. “Please be seated over here on the couch so we can be a bit more informal at the moment.”
Neal sat down on the long couch with his mother right beside him. He watched as Dr. Medin seated herself directly in front of him. He noticed she wore an interesting tree pendant on a leather cord around her neck. Thinking it was a strange item for her to wear he wondered if there were a story behind it, possibly a gift from a loved one or maybe a boyfriend.
“First of all, I wanted to thank you for coming in today. I know it has to be scary to put yourself into the hands of another doctor after what you’ve already experienced. I want to say I’m sorry for what Dr. Gascon did to you under his care and I promise you will not have that type of experience here.”
“That’s a relief,” Neal replied, and he felt his shoulder muscles loosen as the tension began to flow out of his body.
“I will not be giving you any drugs either so you can experience your recovery on your own terms and not under chemical coercion,” Jasmine continued. She knew Dr. Gascon’s beliefs on keeping his patients practically comatose to make them more receptive to his own agenda.
“Good because I would have refused anything anyway. I’ve had quite enough of being incoherent. What is Amanda’s plan for my treatment?” Neal asked.
“She and I both agree that hypnosis will be the best course of action for your memories to be reactivated.”
“How does Amanda know you exactly?”
“She was my patient when she was in her coma. I’ve watched over her for eight years now, and I’m very pleased with her recovery. We’re both hoping you can experience the same type of results for yourself, that is if you’ll allow me,” she finished almost as a question.
“I agree Amanda seems to be doing great. I want the same thing for myself. I would love to have you treat me, Dr. Medin,” Neal agreed wholeheartedly.
Jessica stared at her son and was encouraged by his decisiveness. She turned her head back to Dr. Medin and smiled weakly.
“Are you okay with this as well, Mrs. Taivas?”
“What? Oh, yes. I want Neal to be comfortable with his choice, and I believe he is,” she agreed readily.
“Okay, well now that we’ve settled this then I guess we can begin right now. Mrs. Taivas, I’d like to have my sessions with Neal to be in private, if you don’t mind.”
Jessica’s fear returned, and she began to object.
“Mom, it’s okay. I think Dr. Medin is right. I’ll be able to relax better knowing I’m alone.”
“As long as you’re sure, Neal,” she said even as she wished he had objected and wanted her to stay. She got up from the couch, touching his shoulder, as he nodded for her to leave. At the door, she turned and looked at her son one last time, hoping he would change his mind before she opened the door and left the room.
Neal shifted his gaze from the closed door over to Dr. Medin. He was unsure what to expect, but he was willing to try. To bridge the awkward silence, he commented, “I like your necklace. It reminds me of something, but I can’t remember what right now.”
Dr. Medin’s hand went up to touch the tree-of-life pendant, and a small grin appeared on her face. Neal had provided her with the opening for which she was searching. “This was a gift from a very dear friend. She’s from a place far away called Tuala. Have you ever heard of it?”
Neal thought about it for a second. It seemed as though the name of the place should mean something to him, but the though proved elusive. Finally, he shook his head and answered, “No, I don’t think I have.”
“That’s okay; we’ll work on your memories. Have you been hypnotized before?”
“Yes, the counselor I met with before Dr. Gascon hypnotized me once.”
“Good, so you are familiar with how it works. It’ll be easier to go deeper into relaxation each time we do it. I want you to be able to recall everything from the past seven years. However, I’m going to ask you to write down your memories rather than discuss them with your family. I know your family means well, but they can keep you from realizing the whole truth based on their limited understanding of what you’ve been through. Can you agree to not talk to your parents about what you recall?”
“You mean ever? I don’t know.” Neal thought her request seemed slightly strange.
“No, I don’t mean you can never talk to them about what we discuss. I just want our sessions to be complete, and all your memories returned before you start to share with them. At the point we’re done, you will be free to say whatever you want to whomever you want. Can you agree to that?” Dr. Medin felt as though she were explaining this badly and wished she could clarify it better to keep Neal feeling comfortable with her.
He nodded slowly since Dr. Medin’s offer seemed to be his only option for help at this point. After all, he could always decide to talk to his parents on his own.
Jasmine could see he was thinking over his options and added, “I’m serious about this, Neal. I only want you to write down your thoughts and feelings and bring them back here to discuss. Do not include your parents in this until we are through. I can’t express how vitally important it will be for you to follow my instructions.”
Feeling guilty that she had somehow read his mind, he looked down at his hands and said, “Okay, I can agree.”
“If it’d make you feel better, then I’ll allow you to talk to Amanda about anything. She can be your confidant in this, if you feel you need one.”
Neal raised his eyebrows at this new concession. It did make him feel more comfortable with the doctor’s arrangement. This time he nodded more certainly and said, “Okay, I can agree with that.”
“Good. Let’s begin right now then. Why don’t you go ahead and stretch out on the couch and get comfortable? I’ll grab a notepad to take notes and be right back.” She reached over and grabbed her paper and pen and adjusted herself to be at ease for the long session ahead. She would do her best to help Neal for Amanda’s sake.
Chapter Thirteen
WILLIAN ENTERED THE school building prepared for his first day. The paperwork was already turned in, and the receptionist was getting his schedule put together. He sat down in the office chair and tugged at his new clothing. He felt ridiculous in the outfit Shemalla ensured him was in style. As he waited, he looked out the window to see the other kids his age and had to agree his clothing did not look any different than theirs.
“Willian?” the receptionist called out.
He stood up and walked over to her with a smile.
“Here is your locker number and the combination,” she said as she handed him several slips of paper, “and here is your schedule. I’ll call a student to escort you around so you can find your way. Wait here one moment.”
He looked down on the paper and wondered what he would learn in these strange classes. His most pressing concern was to locate Jena and smooth things over with her. The fact that his father had insisted on the condition of him enrolling in school had seemed a bit much until he realized there was a lot to learn about what Jena had been experiencing.
He did not want her to have knowledge of this other world that he did not possess since it made him feel inferior to her knowledge. In almost every other facet of their lives, Jena was better at everything. He was tired of trying to demonstrate his superiority only to be showed up by her. Instantly he realized he had slipped into his old way of thinking and he chided himself for it. If he wanted to win Jena back, he needed to show her he had changed.
The girl he had met before walked into the office, and his attention was straightaway taken by her appearance. She went up to the receptionist, and they spoke for a few seconds before she turned and walked toward him. “Hi, I’m Sofia. I’m sorry we didn’t introduce ourselves yesterday. I’m going to give you a quick tour before classes begin and
get you settled in.”
Willian stood up as she began talking. Instantly, he noticed she had a different way of saying things than he was used to. He had never heard an accent before, and the rhythm and cadence of her words intrigued him. “Hi, I’m Willian. It’s nice to see you again. Thanks for helping me out.”
“We can talk while we walk or you’re going to be late for your first class. Let me see your locker number and schedule,” she said as she held out her hand.
Willian thrust the papers toward her as they walked out of the office. He tried to pay attention to where they were headed, but he soon lost track of the direction since he kept staring at Sofia instead of their surroundings. When they stopped walking, Willian wondered why since they were in the middle of the hall and not at any class.
“This is your locker,” she said as she pointed out the same number which was on his paper. He had no idea what the locker was for and simply smiled at her.
“Do you have anything you want to put in there?” she asked patiently.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. He even sounded dumb to himself and started to wish he had been able to figure this out on his own.
“Go ahead and try out the locker combination to make sure it works. Do you want me to show you how it works?” she asked as Willian seemed to hesitate. She was beginning to get a strange feeling about this boy. She leaned over and read the paper in his hand and then made an exaggerated effort at demonstrating how the dial worked as she said it all out loud for his benefit. She pulled up on the handle, and the locker opened.
Willian leaned over to see what was inside. He was even more confused when he saw a bunch of stuff in the metal box already. “What is this?” he asked.
“You share this locker with another student. This is their stuff in here. When you get books from your classes, you’ll want to keep them in here until right before your class. Otherwise, you’ll be lugging a lot of books around unnecessarily. Okay,” she said as she leaned over to see his class schedule, “let’s head over to the gym so you can get to the locker room to change.”
“What am I changing for?” he asked.
“You have PE first period so you would normally change into shorts and a tee shirt in the locker room. You’ll leave your school clothes in the locker in there until the class is over. I’ll show you the next couple of classes you’re going to be in since they are on the way to the gym anyway.”
She shut the locker and twisted the dial before she began leading Willian down the now-crowded hallway. They had only passed a couple of classroom doors before she pointed to the left and said, “This is your third-period Anatomy class.”
Willian peered through the door as they kept walking and saw rows of tall desks with two chairs at each one.
“This’s the room you’ll come back to for your fourth-period Psychology class. Right around this corner is where you’ll go to get to your Algebra class for second-period. You can see the class numbers outside the doorways in the hall. Just follow them until you find the right one for each class.
“I’m sorry I won’t be able to take you to each of your classes throughout the day, but your classes are nowhere near mine. Oh, wait! You and I have the same class for seventh-period English III. Your lunch is after your Pottery class in fifth-period.” She stopped walking and pointed down another long hallway and said, “Do you see that big open space down there at the end?”
“Yes.” Willian was starting to feel overwhelmed.
“That’s the cafeteria, we all call it ‘The Commons.’ You’ll go there to pick up a lunch to eat. Did you bring a lunch or are you going to buy one?”
Willian pulled out a wad of money which he still did not know how to differentiate and said, “I’ll be buying lunch, I guess.”
“Good. Go down there to The Commons after your pottery class gets out. Lunch lasts fifty minutes so don’t take too long about getting your food and finding a place to sit down to eat. After lunch is over, you only have two more classes.”
“Will I see you at lunch then?” Willian asked hopefully. He thought it would be nice to see at least one familiar face in the crowd.
“I’m sorry, I have first lunch which gets over just when yours begins. I will see you in English class.” She resumed walking until they reached the boy’s locker room. She pointed to it and said, “I’m not allowed to go in there with you since this is the boys’ side. This is the place where you will normally change into gym clothes before you go out the door on the other side which leads into the gymnasium. Your teacher will let you know what you’ll need to bring on Monday so you’ll be able to participate.”
“Thank you for showing me around. I really appreciate it,” Willian said as he watched several boys enter the locker room. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around.”
“Good luck,” Sofia called over her shoulder as she jogged away to get to her writing class before the second bell rang. She could not believe the bad luck of being called to assist a new student today of all days.
She had planned on finding Jon and asking him how his meeting had gone with his mother the afternoon before. Thinking he would have called her yesterday to let her know all about it, she had been disappointed when she went to bed without hearing anything. His meeting could have gone very well, or very badly and she was desperate to know which. Now she was going to have to wait until lunch before she learned anything and that was possibly the most agonizing wait of all.
Chapter Fourteen
JENA AND LUKE walked down the school hallway hand-in-hand. Their movie date had brought them closer together ever since Jena had decided she needed to discover how a relationship should be. Her thoughts of Willian’s treatment of her in the past were becoming something she refused to bring forward into her present.
Luke imitated one of the lines from the movie which made Jena laugh at how silly he could be. She realized Willian had never done or said anything purposely which had made her laugh. Willian was always so serious about his position in society, so much so that he refused to participate in anything which might be construed as inappropriate or beneath his dignity.
She looked up at Luke and realized he was everything which Willian was not. He made her feel special and cared about. He wanted to spend time with her, getting to know her, wanting to hear her talk about anything including nonsense. It was a refreshing break from the reality of her betrothal, and she was beginning to think the betrothal had been doomed from the beginning. She and Willian were an ill-fitting combination.
“What are you thinking about, Jena? You’re frowning so I can only assume it’s something unpleasant.” Luke asked.
“I was remembering someone from my past.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really, he’s a million miles away anyway.”
“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
“I know. Thank you for being such a good friend and listener. I really feel free when I’m with you, and it’s so nice. I had a really good time last night, even though the movie sucked!” She chuckled as she recalled how ridiculous the movie plot had been. They were expecting a romantic comedy, yet it had turned out to be so poorly acted and predictable that they had made fun of the actors rather than actually watching it.
“I agree. I think we need to go to another movie to make up for how bad that one was,” he said with a grin. “How about tomorrow night?”
“Sure,” she agreed. They had reached her American Government classroom, and she felt a pang of regret for having to go their separate ways again. She felt a thrill of delight when Luke leaned down and kissed her cheek before he turned and walked away. Her fingers touched the spot on her cheek where his lips had made contact with hers, and she imagined she could feel electricity tingling.
Luke had a spring in his step at daring to kiss Jena in public. He had wondered how she would react to him being so forward, but the time had felt right. She had seemed so sad while she was thinking about her past
and he wanted to remind her that he would be a part of her future. In his ruminations, he was not paying attention to where he was going, and he ran into another student.
“Excuse me,” he said to a boy he had never seen before. “I’m sorry.”
“It was probably my fault,” Willian replied as he looked back down onto his class schedule in confusion. “Hey, do you know where room 36 is?”
“Sure, it’s back this way. I have to go by it to get to my next class; you can walk with me.” He waited until the other student turned around and they walked together. “Are you new here?”
“Yes, today’s my first day. Is it always this crowded?” Willian asked peevishly.
“Yep, but usually it’s a little calmer. I think everyone’s getting antsy for Christmas break, so they’re a little more wound up than usual. I’m Luke Thompson; what’s your name?”
He looked at him strangely for a second before he answered, “Willian Potts.” Hearing a boy’s name without an honorable ‘n’ at the end threw him momentarily until he recalled that rule did not apply here on Earth.
“Here’s your class. I’ll probably see you around,” Luke said with a jaunty wave as he kept walking to reach his own class before the second bell rang.
“Yeah, see you around,” he replied as he watched the boy leave and wished he could have spent more time talking with him. So far he had been the nicest person he had met with the exception of his morning guide, Sofia. Everyone in the school seemed to be too preoccupied with their own friends even to bother talking with Willian. He felt rather lonely and out of place and he did not much like it.
All of his classes had been very confusing. He found himself reading the minds of everyone around him, including the teacher, just so he would not be caught out not knowing the answers. He really wished this school piece had not been one of his father’s conditions for coming to Earth. It would have been much easier to confront Jena at her home and left this mess out of the equation.
Ascension Vision- The Levels of Ascension Box Set Page 8