The Awakening (12 page)

"That's awesome, and I'm sure they really appreciate it." I had no clue she spent time doing that and helping people. Here I thought she was just this kind of squirrelly lady with the New Age shop. There's a lot more to her, obviously. That was really ignorant of me to make such a snap judgment about her when I came in here before. "What's Reiki?"

"It's a Japanese technique for stress reduction that also encourages healing."

"Oh, okay." Sounds cool. Wonder if I can do that too? "So, the way I'm going to do something good is Celia and I've decided to hunt ghosts. Hopefully, I can help spirits out who are stuck here for one reason or another," I announce.

Loreen couldn't be happier. "You certainly picked the right town for it. The right county, even. The right part of the country. With all the Civil War history here, you'll have plenty to keep you busy."

I nibble at my bottom lip. "And you'll help me learn everything I need to know, won't you? 'Cause I can't do this alone, Loreen. I'm winging it as it is. I mean, I don't know why I'm hearing certain things or seeing visions or knowing who people are without being introduced or—"

She reaches over and pats my hand. "It's okay, Kendall. I'm here for you."

I let out the breath I've been holding and feel a bit of relief. Loreen understands everything and she's going to guide me through this awakening.

"Why don't you get a notebook and I'll answer some of your questions."

"Perfect," I say, diving for my book bag. Armed with pen and paper, I sit cross-legged on her couch, nearly salivating for information. "So, what
am
I exactly? I mean, I hear all these terms like
psychic, clairvoyant, sensitive, fortuneteller
...What's the right thing to call myself?"

Loreen nods and thinks for a moment. "It all depends on what abilities you hone. Myself, I'm an empathic psychic healer. I'm sensitive, can feel the pain of others, can see into other people's minds almost, and I use Reiki to heal. Those are the things I've worked on in my years. But, Kendall, you have to discover your powers and grow and develop your skills. Really, it's pretty much like multitasking."

"Well, I can do that."

"Tell me what you're experiencing, exactly."

I run through the list of Things That Have Happened to Kendall Since Awakening, and then sit quietly while Loreen lets the information churn.

"You display several psychic traits," Loreen says. I settle into the couch, pen poised over my notepad. This is so much better and more interesting than Mr. Kline's calculus class. "First there is claircognizant," she says. "It's where you become perceptive to things. You don't know who's telling you the information or where it's coming from, you just
know
certain things."

"Like how I knew all of that about Helen Pearlman and her husband's goiter."

"Exactly. Then there's clairvoyant, where it's almost like 'clear seeing.' It encompasses future events, past events, even connects in a way so you can use your mind and view remote locations. Everything is visual and you're literally seeing what's going on."

I lower my brows and ponder what she's said. "I don't think I've actually had that happen yet. Unless you count the Union soldiers I saw ... and that weird thing that happened when I saw my dad injured, like, in the future or something."

Loreen shifts in her seat. "Maybe. That leads to clairaudience, where a spirit speaks to you or you hear something. Sometimes the voice is in your head or maybe it's a whisper in your ear. That's very common with me and my spirit guides."

I think of the floaty lady in my room and how she spoke to me through the white-noise machine. I guess I've got clairaudient ability as well.

Continuing, Loreen goes on to explain about clairsentience, the ability to feel the vibrations of other people through touch or feeling. There's also clairalience, where someone gets their psychic knowledge from certain smells. It all makes sense to me. I mean, how many times have I heard a certain song on the radio or sniffed a familiar odor and then I'm taken back to a particular moment in time. Popcorn cooking makes me remember all the movies Marjorie and I saw together growing up. The aroma of sausage dogs puts me right outside the walls of Wrigley Field. Mandarin oranges make me remember when Maree Harris barfed on me in second grade and a whole slice came out of her nose (needless to say, I don't eat mandarin oranges to this day); Chanel perfume makes me think of Father Ludwig's wife, who directed the Episcopal Christmas pageant last year at church; and, of course, honeysuckle in any form takes me right back into the loving arms of my Grandma Ethel.

"It's starting to make more sense to me—no pun intended," I say.

"You'll learn as you go, Kendall," Loreen says with encouragement.

I let out a contented sigh, the first in a long time. "Celia asked me if I could channel. I Googled the term, and it was saying that channeling is letting a spirit into your body? I don't know about that, Loreen. Do you do that?"

"I have," she admitted. "Trance mediumship is interpreting and relaying energies that are around you. You let them go through you, inside you, and let them talk using your body."

"Is that safe?"

She laughs. "What in life is foolproof? As I've told you before, you just have to protect yourself and pray before allowing the spirit to enter you.
You
set the ground rules, Kendall, not the spirits."

I stop making notes as my hand shakes. The thought of something inside of me, making me do and say things, kind of skeeves me out. Maybe I won't be developing that skill too soon.

Loreen's eyes shine in what almost seems a sense of pride. "So you see, Kendall, you just have to be patient with yourself and see what skills develop for you."

Pen down, I say, "I definitely have a lot of that going so far. It's just, sometimes I hear something or I know it and I don't know whether to speak up or not. Like when Okra Carmickle came into class and I felt the pain in his broken leg like it was mine. Man! If I had said something, the school nurse would have taken me to a padded cell or something." My fingers slip into my hair and I rub at my skull. "It's like, these thoughts are driving me crazy sometimes. Just knowing stuff. I want someone to knock the information out of my head and let it be out there for others to interpret."

I can feel Loreen's warm and comforting smile emanating toward me. I know from our talk that she's sending her own positive energy to me for courage. We spend the next half hour chatting about my and Celia's plans and how we've got Taylor on board to be our photographer for ghost hunting.

Loreen snaps her fingers as if she's had a revelation. "Ooo, one of the things you'll want to use in your investigations is the dowsing pendulum I gave you."

"Really?" I haven't had the opportunity to play around with it or study up on it with all that's been going on.

"Absolutely. Do you have it with you?" Loreen asks.

I pull the tiny black velvet bag that I put the pendulum in from the front pocket of my jeans. The small pink quartz pendant tumbles out into the palm of my hand. Ironically, the stone feels cold, even though it's been in my pocket, so I warm it in my fist.

"That's good," Loreen instructs, "you really have to bond with your pendulum."

"Bond?"

"Yes. It will react to your energies differently than it will to anyone else's."

"That's pretty cool," I say as I play with the chain. "So, I don't understand how this is going to help me ghost hunt. Don't you use this to find water?"

Loreen pulls a book off one of the shelves and turns to a page that has the history of dowsing. I don't feel like reading all of it, so I hope she'll just summarize. I have enough schoolwork to read when I get home.

"Okay, Miss Smarty-Pants," she says with a grin. "Historically, dowsing is known for locating water, gold, oil, and minerals, but you can use it in relation to issues of life and death."

I feel my brow raise in question. "How's that?"

"Oh, doctors in Europe have used pendulums to find cancer and detect allergies. In the Caribbean, women use them to determine the sex of an unborn baby. I even read a story once where Marines in Vietnam used pendulums to locate buried mines."

"Whoa! That's amazing. So it's not some satanic conjuring tool?"

Loreen laughs so hard she has to dab her eyes. "Dear Lord, no. There's nothing satanic about it at all. In fact, I pray before, during, and after I use my pendulum. It's a very spiritual experience. God is always with me, watching over me and protecting me with his angels."

Yeah, tell my mom that. She would freak if she knew what I was doing. Best she not know then, eh?

I wiggle around on the couch, ready to try this out. "How do I do it?"

"Hold the pendulum by the bob at the end with your thumb and index finger, and let the chain dangle over the finger. Don't move it; it'll move itself."

I follow her instruction and sit perfectly still with my elbow pressed against my side. The pink quartz hangs there, pointing down, but vibrating slightly.

Loreen takes out her own crystal dowsing pendulum and copies what I'm doing. "Now, Kendall, you have to figure out what constitutes a
yes, no,
and
maybe
for you. Ask, either in your head or out loud, 'When I ask a question, what is a
yes
answer?'"

"Oh, okay." I concentrate on the lovely pink stone hanging at the end of the silver chain. "Hi there," I say, trying to respect my pendulum. "Could you please show me what a
yes
answer is when I ask a question?"

Sure enough, the pendulum starts moving. For a moment, I think it's just my jittery nerves. However, I'm not moving a muscle. The pendulum swings clockwise, spinning around and around.

"This is the coolest thing ever! How does it do it?"

Loreen takes her eyes from her pendulum and looks at mine. "Well, you know how radios pick up information from invisible radio waves?" I nod, still trying not to move. "The pendulum acts like an antenna and reacts to the vibrations and energy waves emitted by people, places, thoughts, and things. It also connects the logical and intuitive parts of the brain."

"That's freaky amazing! Look at it spin."

"Ask it what a
no
answer is."

I follow her instructions and watch the pendulum stop spinning and then swing from right to left. When I ask what my
maybe
answer is, the pendulum points straight to the ground and begins quivering.

"Too bad I can't use this for my calculus exam," I say. Hmm, could it tell me what it means about a certain polynomial when the fifteen derivative is a nonzero constant? Probably not. Mr. Kline barely allows graphing calculators; I'm sure a pendulum would be out of the question.

I keep concentrating as I'm dowsing and practicing, but after a while, the pendulum sort of loses its turgor pressure and stops spinning. "Did I break it?"

"Not at all," Loreen explains, "you just have to get used to each other. Let me give you a jump start."

"A what?" I'm not interested in jumper cables being attached anywhere to my extremities.

"It's sort of a psychic-energy jump start," Loreen clarifies. She stands and rubs her hands together and then places them on my shoulders. "I'm helping you tap into your sixth sense to connect you to your pendulum."

"Oh, I get it." My pendulum starts moving as I ask, "Are there spirits in Radisson?"

Suddenly, the chain starts spinning so fast I can barely make out the shape. Behind me, Loreen gasps. She hastily pulls her hands from my shoulders and steps away. I see her rub her hands as if they've been stung. "What's wrong?"

Her hands fly to her face, and her cheeks turn a fiery red.

"Loreen? Are you okay? Are you having some sort of psychic hot flash?"

Without a word, she takes my hand and smiles so warmly at me. "Oh, Kendall. Now I know why you were meant to be here with me. We're kindred spirits."

"Right. We're both psychic, intuitive, and all those
clair-
words."

"There's more to it than that. We were meant to meet each other. Of course, I saw visions of you in my dreams, but I had no idea what a connection we truly have. We're both only children who lost their mothers in childbirth." A tear trickles from her eye at that moment.

But it's soooooo not accurate in the least.

"Ummm, Loreen. I think you need to get your psychic batteries checked."

"No, Kendall. I saw it. So clearly. I'm sure of it. I'm meant to mentor you because you're without a mother ... without a family."

I return my pendulum to the velvet bag and restash it in my jeans pocket. "No, Loreen. Not only do I have a little sister named Kaitlin, but my mom is very much a part of my life."

"You must be adopted," she says quickly, so sure of herself.

Like you can fake the pictures of Mom and me in the hospital together? "No!" Honestly, the nerve! "You're just wrong, okay?"

Loreen's horrified and turns white as a sheet. "I'm so sorry, Kendall. I-I-I swear it's what I saw. I felt the energy so clearly. I totally sensed a mother figure passing."

"Maybe it was my grandma you saw?"

Although Loreen shakes her head in a negative way, she says, "Perhaps that was it."

I give her a halfhearted smile, feeling like she's hiding something from me. "Psychics aren't always right."

Hanging her head, she says, "Sure, sure, of course we're not."

She seems genuinely upset. Aside from the fact that she just attempted to disenfranchise me from my family, I kind of feel bad for her. She's pacing around, fanning herself. Poor Loreen. She needs a boyfriend.

Geez. Just when I start to think she's kind of cool and can help me, she goes all crazy on my ass.

"It must have been crossed energies," Loreen says finally. "Crossed energies. You'll see. It'll happen to you one day and you'll understand."

"Okay. Sure."

Tamping down my agitation about the odd reading of my parentage, I gather my things because I need to get home. One day I'll understand, she says, huh? All I understand is that if Loreen really is a Froot Loop, then I'm going to need some
serious
psychotherapy.