Paranormal Summer (Indigo Moon Rising) (24 page)

"Well, you're not going to believe this. You know that stone my aunt gave me for my birthday? It originally belonged to my aunt. She died when she was 13. And she's been talking to me."

"Okay, your 13 year old dead aunt is talking to you. What else?" Sonya said, still studying the pictures.

"Somehow when I go to sleep I have dreams and I am with this horse that talks to me. She's kinda like a guide in all of these places we go. Her name is Illianna, and she introduces me to other talking animals. Oh, sometimes when she talks to me, it's telepathically," Jillian said, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

"So, you are talking to animals, and they are talking back to you? Okay, what else?" Sonya said, turning to look at her.

"I have been able to feel the emotions of a dead woman who lost her child. She was taking over my body and talking through me, and I sometimes I know what is going on, and at others, all I can remember are the feelings," Jillian said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Uh huh, dead woman using your body to talk. Got any more?" Sonya said putting her hands on her hips.

Jillian looked around in thought, "Nope, that's about it. This has been a pretty average summer vacation for me!"

"Well, I have a question for you," Sonya said, turning around to look at the pictures. "Is this Amanda?" she said, pointing to a photo.

"Yeah, that's her, that's my aunt. She is the one who has been talking to me. Come on." Jillian grabbed Sonya's arm and ran down the hall to the staircase and up the stairs. She slowly walked up to Amanda's bedroom door and turned the knob. The door swung open, and Sonya stood there in the hall. She nodded and sighed. Her eyes rolled up, and then they closed. She took a long, slow breath. Opening her eyes, she walked in and slowly looked around.

Jillian was waiting to hear something like, “I see her,” or “I hear her.” Instead Sonya said, "This is where she passed," as she sat down on the bed. "She was sick, but she kept such an attitude of peace. It wasn't like she was mad, wasn't gonna fight. It was just like getting on, just another step. But she didn't get older. She just finally felt like, it's time now, I can go. So she released her body and...," Sonya was trying to find the right words, using her hands, "like expanded, and dispersed, but then there was such an explosion. Love isn't the right word. Light isn't the right word. I can see it, but the words don't match the tremendous feelings," she said, turning to look at Jillian. "I think it means she returned to spirit." Tears welled up in her eyes.

"She said we made an agreement to be together, and she left early, so she is going to help me from the other side. That is possible, isn't it?" Jillian said, sitting down on the bed next to Sonya.

"I guess so. This week we've seen a lot, well, and you've felt a lot. It all seems so science fiction-ish. I'm sorry for what I said at the cabin the first night. I thought you and Ryan were playing me and I was gonna get hurt again. I don't know if I will ever get used to opening myself up and letting someone in. They have always ...had ulterior motives. And I get so excited, so happy, so high that somebody wants me, that somebody is there to truly get to know me and...I end up feeling used and thrown away like a wrapper on the street, rolling in the wind to get run over, into oblivion," Sonya said, finally trusting someone enough to expose her most heartfelt pain to. "So Amanda isn't your spirit guide, right? Aren't they the ones who have never been alive in a human body?" Sonya asked, taking a deep breath and refocusing.

"I think that's it. Maybe she's like Mrs. Baker. She is in spirit, had a body at one time, and passed, and is like a helper of sorts," Jillian said thinking out loud. “She said we had already planned this, the challenges I would face. Really, so far I wouldn't say I have had any challenges this summer, except to figure out what my gifts are and to learn how to use them."

"Well maybe Doreen can help us figure it all out. I did talk to her last night. The terrible news is, she said she doesn't know how to restrict Deryk from attending any classes, and she doesn't want any trouble from him. The fantastic news is that she would love to trade work for classes with you and Ryan!"

"All right!" Jillian squealed in delight! "But I am
not
going if Deryk is there."

"Don't worry; I might have a plan to keep him from getting in. I asked if you could continue to handle the lending library, getting email addresses for the newsletter, and put you in charge of the class roster. Now, if we can get the class filled up before he can get his name on the list, we won’t have to worry, right?" Sonya said smiling.

"A darned brilliant idea! You are sneaky, aren't you?" Jillian said with relief.

"You have to get creative sometimes," Sonya said.

"And, Doreen is going to expand the list of classes from what was on the first flyer. It looks like she is gonna add Reiki, Native American Rituals, EFT, Tai Chi, Law Of Attraction in Action, and some guy wants to give classes on the Paranormal Properties!" Sonya said, getting up and walking to the dresser where the photos were. She picked one up. "Now I need to ask you, how did Amanda die?"

'"Nobody told me. But in the dream I had last night, she had no eyebrows or eyelashes, and when she took off a pink sun hat,  she had a few tufts of hair on her head. So, I think it was cancer. Why, what can you tell, if anything, from that?" Jillian said, getting up and walking to her.

"Well, we need to go talk to Ryan about Lois," was all that Sonya said. Jillian's heart sank.

The girls walked over to Ryan's since he didn't return their text messages. Lois invited them into the house and asked if they wanted anything to drink. "Yes please, for both of us." Sonya said. Lois went into the kitchen, leaving the girls in the living room. Sonya sat down next to the photo album that she had looked at the day of the picnic. She started flipping through the pages and found a few of Ryan. Pointing to him she asked, "Do you notice anything different? Look at his eyes." She said.

Jillian looked at the color photograph taken when he was probably 11 or so sitting on the tire swing. "Yeah, what color are his eyes? Don't they look blue? Oh my God, they look like Emmy and Elizabeth's. L
light blue rimmed in sapphire. What do you think that means? I wonder if that has anything to do with what Emmy said. That he knew the truth, and something about his lying eyes?"

Lois walked back into the living room with two tall glasses of lemonade and set them on coasters in front of the girls on the

table. "It's so lovely to see that Ryan has visitors. Would you like to stay for dinner? We always have plenty," she said with a sweet smile and a twinkle in her eye. How could anyone resist?

"Thank you, we would love to," Sonya said, taking a sip of her lemonade.

Just then Ryan came down the steps, and walked past the living room. He stopped and turned around, surprised that anyone was in there. He shyly waved hi.

"Oh Ryan, your friends are going to stay for dinner, isn't that nice?" Lois announced, getting up and heading to the kitchen.

"So, girls, what's up?" Ryan said nervously as he sat down.

"We need to talk," Sonya said

"I know, I know. I was going to explain everything, but I guess I was trying to rehearse it so I didn't mess it up in the delivery," he said. "I didn't know how mad you were going to be, so I was trying to prepare my speech."

Jillian squinted her eyes looking at him, and acting as if she had a clue what he was talking about said, "Busted. So, what's your story?"

"I made a copy of the investigation, you know the one I put together and we watched at your house. Then I added the audio where we crossed Emmy over and burnt them onto a CD. I had called Eli Harold and asked if he could review the evidence, to make sure we weren't missing anything, or that we weren't crazy. I was going to give it to him after class the other night. But we rushed out of there so fast, and we went to your house. I actually forgot about it. Sooo, he called me this morning and asked if I had posted it to You Tube, because there was a new video that had a Ryan, Jillian and Sonya in it. I said, “Hell no,” but when I did a search for it, there it was. All I can think of was that it must have fallen out of my backpack at class and Deryk found it. I am so sorry." Ryan said shaking his head.

"Oh, that, well. There weren't any pictures of us, were there?" Sonia asked.

"No." Ryan said. "I don't know what to do now. Eli said it was excellent evidence, the kind he wants to use for his internet show that will be broadcast on WGGT, a Gatlinburg TV station in the fall."

"Well, I am okay with it. How about you?" Sonya asked Jillian.

"Yeah, as long as no one can see me," Jillian said, trying to hide the excitement she was feeling about it.

"Really, I thought you guys would be extremely mad. We     didn't do it for publicity; we did it because we could help Emmy," Ryan said, quite surprised he was in the clear.

"Ryan, not to change the subject, but I have something to share with you," Sonya started saying. "I want to clarify something. We have these guests at the B&B, the Sonderson family, and they came to visit their oldest daughter who just had a baby. They brought along their dog, a little terrier. His name is Big Ben. This morning they were giving him some meds in his food and I asked what was wrong. Even without the meds I could tell something wasn't right. They said he had been diagnosed with cancer, and the meds helped him feel better for now.

A little while ago, when I was at Jillian's, I was looking at some family photos and one caught my eye. It was of Jillian's Aunt Amanda. She passed away at 13 from cancer. I could see this; I mean, see it with my eyes, that something was wrong. To me it looks like a smoky, inky black mist in her body, just like Big Ben." Sonya sat and waited.

"Didn't you see that here, too, the other day?" Ryan asked.

"Yes." Sonya answered.

"But when we were looking out the window, you saw it beside GG, but Lois was there."

"That's what's strange, I didn't see Lois. But I saw the black stuff," Sonya said putting her hand up to her mouth.

Ryan's body language changed. He swallowed hard and      nodded. "Excuse me," he said and walked out of the room.

"Oh my God. Is that why we needed to come here?” Jillian said in disbelief. "Do you think she has cancer?"

"I don't know. I am just telling you guys what I saw. It looks the same in all three. If two have it, then I would imagine the third is the same," Sonya said, her heart aching to have had to tell Ryan what she saw.

The girls went back to the photo album and looked at Ryan's family history. Jillian started to cry. "I don't want to cry, but I can't stop." She said. She got up and went down the hall to look for a bathroom. At the end of the hall she could see Ryan holding Lois in his arms. She ducked into the bathroom and looked at her red eyes and pink nose in the mirror
. “Amanda, where are you? Can't you help me understand this? If this is true, then you know what she is going through,”
Jillian cried. She kept herself locked in the bathroom until she was calmer.

When she came out, there was no one standing in the kitchen. She walked into the living room and Lois, GG, and Ryan were sitting with Sonya.