Paranormal Summer (Indigo Moon Rising) (3 page)

Yes there was, and she was just beginning to unravel her perceived reality.

The next afternoon Jillian was leaning against an old cherry tree in her aunt's meadow, thinking about what happened last night at the cabin. She certainly should have been more on guard. Agreeing to meet people on an old dirt road in the middle of nowhere for the first time is what makes the headlines in the news. If her mom and dad or Aunt Jana knew what she had done she would have been grounded for life. Her cell phone worked at home, that was about 150 miles away, but it didn't work here in this little podunk country town. A 911 call would be lost in cyberspace. She didn't know anyone last week when she moved to her aunt's house for the summer. And when she changed the status of where she lived, someone named Ryan wanted to be her friend. She thought
what could it hurt?
They chatted back and forth a few times; he seemed genuinely friendly, but kind of secret. It was exciting to believe that he wanted to meet her. But at what cost? Maybe it wasn't such a brilliant plan to meet him and a friend. No, it wasn't a fantastic idea, what was she thinking? How ridiculous that was. Maybe just downright stupid. She was lucky nothing happened. Nothing more than the connecting to a sorrow filled spirit and hurting her ankle.

Uh oh
, Jillian thought as she watched Sonya approaching her, not sure how she felt. Was this going to lead to a confrontation after what happened last night? It seemed like Sonya was almost denying that she was interested in the paranormal. But then, everything about her demeanor changed when she hurt her ankle.

"Hey, your aunt said I would find you here. Is it okay, am I interrupting anything?" Sonya said walking towards her. Then, like a bolt of lightning; a cat ran up from behind, almost tripping her. "Lucky!" She yelled as she caught herself from falling. "Stupid cat."

"Aaahhhh he's beautiful." Jillian said as she outstretched her arms to the running feline, noticing it was missing a back leg. "Oh, what happened to you? Jillian asked as she picked him up and held him.

"Squirrel ran, he followed. Thought he could avoid a car and the car won." Sonya said. "I saw the whole thing. How it only got one leg is beyond me. It was so horrible; the vet thought it was best for him if we put him down. I looked in his eyes. All of a sudden it seemed like nothing else in the world mattered except that he would be all right. He would be okay with three legs; I couldn't stand to live without him. He had to get better. The vet said that they would do everything that they could. So they amputated what was left of his leg. He was sedated with extremely strong meds, and he was as limp as a noodle. They didn't want him to feel anything. I spent two days and nights at the vet's office. They said he had a remarkably quick recovery. I just kept focusing on all the fun we had, and what more we would be doing together. I had to volunteer at the clinic for about 6 months to help pay Grandma Hilde pay for the bills. But it was worth it."

"He liked that you held him, and sang to him when nobody was around. And you told jokes about a stupid Dalmatian you had when you were younger." Jillian said scratching him under the chin.

"What?" Sonya said swallowing hard and backing up.

Jillian shook her head, "I dunno. Didn't you sing to him?"

Sonya's jaw dropped, and took Lucky from Jillian's arms. "Ya, how did you know that?"

"Uh not sure." Jillian said as she looked at Lucky and Sonya like she actually didn't know what was going on...Again.

"So, you heard from Ryan?" Sonya asked as she sat down under the tree with Lucky. "I texted him this morning about 11:00 and I haven't gotten a response yet. But the service is useless here. Almost nonexistent. Sometimes I will get a message or voice mail two days later. The only tower around must be on the south side of the Smokey's. I asked him what he thought about last night."

"I haven't heard from him either. He's lucky he lives so close to the cabin. He probably knows all about it. Maybe it was too much drama. Maybe he's scared to be seen with me. All morning long I was going over it in my head. It was so weird. I swear I did not fake anything...I just felt so horrible."

"You were talking about someone not understanding and finding
her
." Sonya replied.

"Ya I know I said something, but I don't know who or what I was talking about." Jillian said shaking her head.

"Did you hear Ryan say he found a book in the house? What do you think it was?" Sonya asked as Lucky crawled on her shoulder and laid down on her neck like a fur stole.

"I don't know. All I remember was that we were following you out to the front door. It was open and hanging crooked like the top hinge was busted. Then there was a table and one chair, some herbs hanging with cob webs, and a pot in the fireplace. There was a hole in the wall and roof. I didn't see anything else like a book." Jillian said smiling at Lucky. She hobbled over to him and began to pet his sleek black fur.

"How does your ankle feel?" Sonya watched as Jillian tried to sit down and make it comfortable.

"It's swollen, and it hurts," Jillian said as she rolled up her pant leg. "It's okay if I don't walk on it, or think about it, and it's great when it stops throbbing."

Lucky got up and positioned himself next to Jillian's calf and ankle, then laid down. He looked up at Jillian, yawned and stretched out along her calf, his paws turned in touching her. Jillian giggled, "I wish you could fix me up like you did him." She said.

"What the hell," Sonya said as she scooted closer to the pair. She took a deep breath and placed both of her hands inches above the swollen ankle. She closed her eyes. Jillian smiled and closed her eyes. Immediately she saw a picture in her mind. It was as if she could see waves, like when you're driving down the road, and the pavement ahead of you is hot. She could see this between Sonya's hands and her ankle. It began to feel warm, really warm. She was about to say something, but she had better say it right because she didn't know how Sonya was going to react. And then it stopped. She opened her eyes, and Sonya was leaning over petting Lucky now, and there was remarkably little pain. She wiggled her toes and rotated her ankle. It was just a little sore, but certainly much better!

"How did you do that?" Jillian almost yelled.

"I don't know, but I do it to Grandma Hilde. She is in a much better mood when she doesn't hurt. She jokes that I must have been a healer in another life."

"Do you think you were?"

"I don't know. I never actually thought about it. When I use my hands on Grandma, the energy, I don't know where it comes from. Sometimes it wears me out, like helping some of Grandma's friends. It can backfire, sometimes I make their pain go away, and I get it myself. It's not worth it. Do you believe in past lives? Do you think you have lived before?" Sonya asked Jillian.

"Yah, I believe it's real. Reincarnation, that's how I was brought up. My aunt Jana has an enormous library of books. I've read some of them. One was about a girl named Bridey who lived another life in Ireland. There was another one in Egypt and she came back, and her name was Om Sety. They were written as documentaries, so they have to be true. But I don't know what I have been. Seems irrelevant unless I was having problems and needed to look into it." Jillian said, shaking her head because it sounded like what one of the adults would have said.

"My Grandma Hilde talks about a guy that helped her after she and Grandpa got married. She ached terribly and sometimes couldn't even get out of bed. The doctor in town couldn't tell her what was wrong. As a last resort they sent a letter to this guy named Edgar. He was able to see what was wrong with people, wherever they were in the world. So I guess he checked her body over, and wrote down the instructions on how she could heal herself. They followed his directions, and she was as good as new."

"Do you think you could have been a healer before?" Jillian asked, really, really intrigued.

"I don't have any memories, aren't I supposed to have scars too? I have scars, but I know the stories behind all of them." Sonya said pointing to a few of them.

"Do you want to try a past life regression? We can do it right now. All you have to do is relax." Jillian said. "I have read a lot about how to do it!"

Somewhat hesitant, Sonya laid down under the shade of the tree, and Lucky curled up around her head. Jillian felt that they both genuinely wanted this to work, but she felt that Sonya had enormous trust issues, with everyone.
She doesn't know me if she thinks I would ever do anything to hurt her
. S
o maybe I need to prove myself to her
she thought.

"Okay. I want you to know that you are safe here with me. I would never do anything to hurt you. All I want from this is to get some answers for both of us. Answers about life and death. Who we were and who we are. So, please I ask you to trust me and relax. Breathe in...Breathe out, breathe in deeper, and breathe out. I want you to tighten and then stretch every muscle in your body. Start with tightening your arms all the way down to your fingertips until the muscles shake, then relax them. Good. Tighten your stomach muscles and hold as long as you can, then let them relax. That's good. Feel the warmth. Tighten your butt as hard as you can, then relax. Okay. Stretch and flex your legs all the way down to your toes. Now hold them tight and let them drop and feel how warm and relaxed they are. Very good. Tighten your neck and face. Hold, and relax. Rotate your neck around a little and bring it back to center. Everything should feel warm and loose and as light as a feather.

Now I want you to imagine a fluffy white cloud floating down from the sky and landing in front of you. I want to you imagine using your toes to feel how soft and springy it is. Now walk onto it and lay down. You are now as light as a feather, and the cloud is going to start floating upward in the breezy blue skies. Feel yourself weightless as the cloud floats higher and higher. And you will begin to hear a beautiful sound. It is like a note played on a harp, a high note, but very gentle, very attracting and you want to hear more. Focus on the sound. Now ask in your head -
please let me see what is necessary for me to know about myself right now.
I will trust the impressions I am given, and I will not have any fear, for it is the past and cannot hurt me in any way, but can help me to better understand myself today."

Sonya was totally relaxed and following right along with what Jillian was asking her to do. "Now the cloud will land in the perfect place to give you the information you need. Feel the cloud lowering itself slowly and landing. Sit up and look around. Look to your right, and to your left, and look up. Where are you? Is it day or night? What is the landscape? Stand up and step off the cloud. I want you to look down at your feet. Are you wearing anything? Look higher to your calves and thighs, your stomach, your hands and arms. Notice your skin color and what you are wearing. Now look up, look all around in a panoramic view from where you stand. Are you inside or out? What do you see around you? Now I want you to see and know what you are doing for a living. Are you alone or are there more of you? What about your family? Why is it useful for you to remember this particular lifetime?" Jillian became silent. Her eyes were closed too.

After a few minutes she sighed deeply and smiled. Her head nodded slightly as if in agreement. "Very good, now I want you to see the cloud that took you there returning, because you now have the answers you need. Step back onto the cloud. Lie down and relax. Good. Enjoy the feeling. You will be brought back here, to this place and time. When you are ready, you can open your eyes."

A few minutes passed. Sonya and Lucky opened their eyes at the same time. Now she began to shake her head in disbelief and blink. "I didn't know I had such a vivid imagination" she said shaking her head. "I know I have strange dreams, but they never seem to be about me. They are like I am watching through someone else's eyes. But, this time, and I know it was me. I could feel it. That was...Wild" she said slowly.