Dae's Christmas Past

by Joyce Lavene

  The blue eyes like mine welled with tears. “She was so young. What happened?”

  I explained the situation. There wasn’t much to say. Each word was more painful than the last. “Every year I have a séance and try to call her back. I just want one last chance to make things right between us. Is that crazy?”

  “Not crazy, sweetheart. But if she had something to say, she would have said it.”

  “I’ve heard that.”

  “Tell me what you do. Do you have a young man in your life? How is your grandfather?”

  I told her everything I could think of from Gramps and his fishing business to Missing Pieces and Kevin. She nodded and sipped her tea. She reminded me so much of my mother.

  “I’ll bet Missing Pieces was Horace’s idea, wasn’t it? He was always the practical one. It sounds like you have a wonderful life, Dae. I’m glad you’re thinking about getting married, and hopefully having children one day.”

  “Thank you. Kevin is a great person. But what about learning to control these visions? You obviously have a way to do it that I don’t. What should I do?”

  “You have to take control of each vision. Before you touch someone or something, get your mind prepared. As soon as you find yourself wherever the vision takes you, make it yours. You have to dominate it. Be the vision, if you will. I know that sounds very Zen, but it’s the truth. My vision had brought me to that island where I found you and Rafe—I’ve run into him before. But I could make this reality from it when I knew we needed to get away.”

  “It would be great not to always fall down and pass out.” I grinned at her. “I’ll get it. Thank you.”

  “Just remember that you can’t go into the future, but you can go anywhere in the past. If you find yourself in a bad situation, like the horse in the cave that you described, just close your eyes and concentrate on where you want to be. You can do it, Dae. It’s part of your heritage, like the rest of your gift.”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “I’m afraid I have to leave. I need to get back. I’m sure we’ll meet again. I love you, sweetheart. Give my love to your grandfather, and your beau. If Kevin’s as sharp as you say, he’ll understand this right away.”

  I hated for her to leave me. There were so many things I wanted to ask. “Is there something I can say to Gramps to make him understand? Something only the two of you would know?”

  “There is.” She whispered a secret message. “Now I have to go! I love you, Dae.”

  Grandma Eleanor disappeared. The table and pleasant room went with her. I was left standing on a beach. It wasn’t the island where Rafe was. Just a beach that I couldn’t identify.

  The way she’d described going back to where I wanted to be reminded me of Dorothy and her ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz. I wished there were magic shoes that did the job, and that I was wearing them.

  But there were no magic shoes. I closed my eyes and imagined the courtyard in the hospital where I’d last been. I took a deep breath, and saw the space clearly, with me in it. Kevin was there too, with a nurse that I’d seen at the front desk.

  When I opened my eyes, I was there. It was exactly as I’d seen it. Kevin was sitting on the ground next to me, my head on his lap. The nurse was worriedly checking my pulse and urging him to get me inside.

  “I’m fine,” I quickly told her as I came back to myself.

  She jumped. “Are you prone to seizures or forms of epilepsy?”

  “No. Not at all. It’s difficult to explain.”

  “That’s what I was telling her.” Kevin got to his feet and helped me up. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. It was the man in the animal skins again. His name is Osisko. He put his hand on my head.”

  “So you were assaulted?” the nurse demanded.

  “No. I’m sorry. Is my grandfather back from having the cast put on his leg?”

  “I think you should have a complete workup with an MRI.” She gathered her medical bag. “People just don’t go around passing out for no reason.”

  “Thank you for your concern.” I shook her hand. “I’m really thirsty. Can we find something to drink?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  As I sipped my can of Coke, I told Kevin about the horse in the cave, Osisko, and the meeting with my relatives.

  “That’s incredible. Your grandmother is right about the control. I hope you were able to understand what she was telling you.”

  “It’s how I got back here. I think I can make it work for me in the future. Just think of it—my grandmother was dead before I was born, but because she was in the past looking for something, we were able to connect.”

  “I can’t imagine what that was like.”

  “It means that it’s possible that I could go back and see my mother. I don’t know how to do that right now, but I think it will come to me.”

  “What about the horses? Any ideas on the cult background or who killed Tom?”

  “Nothing right off hand. I know what the horse statue was used for, but I don’t understand how it relates to what’s happening today. Osisko thought his death would stop the demons from returning. I guess he was wrong.”

  A nurse glanced into the lunchroom. “Mr. O’Donnell is ready to go. You’ll need to check him out at the front desk.”

  Gramps was woozy from the sedative they’d given him to set his leg and put on the cast. Kevin and I got him into the pickup, but he couldn’t sit upright so I had to ride in the back again.

  I didn’t mind. It was chilly, but there was so much to think about. I’d never had a vision that had led to another vision—and actually meeting my grandmother . . . wait until I told Gramps. He’d be surprised.

  The drive back was slow, but we finally made it to the house and tucked Gramps into his recliner. He woke up for a moment, long enough to thank me and Kevin and then went back to sleep.

  I knew Kevin was busy with his guests and getting his Christmas decorations up, but I didn’t want to leave Gramps alone. I asked him to pick up Gramps’s prescription and Mary Catherine from Missing Pieces.

  “Sure.” He kissed me quickly and asked if I needed anything else. Then he was gone and I sat on the sofa, trying to absorb everything that I’d seen and heard.

  I’d thought from the beginning that the horse cult was nothing to fool around with. It seemed that there was a good reason the stone horses were buried. The people who’d put them there never meant for them to be out in the light again.

  The ancient horse demons that Osisko had first summoned flashed through my mind. Someone knew about them and was actively summoning them back into the world. It had to be one of the workers at the excavation. Anyone else would be too noticeable.

  But had that person also killed Tom?

  “Dae?” Gramps yawned and stretched a little before yelping in pain. “That’s right. Broken leg. I thought when I gave up being sheriff I wouldn’t have to worry about that kind of thing again.”

  I carefully hugged him. “You’ll be up and taking charters again in no time. Want some coffee?”

  “Yes, thanks. And if you could scrounge up something to eat, I’d be grateful. Wasn’t Kevin with us? I thought I remembered seeing him.”

  “He went to get your prescription, and Mary Catherine. She stayed at Missing Pieces to keep it open for me.”

  “She’s really something, isn’t she?” He grinned. “I never really thought I’d see her again. I knew she’d kept the shop, but her goodbye was pretty final when she left. I’ve never met another woman I could compare to your grandmother besides MC.”

  I started the coffee and took out some eggs. He was going to need something in his stomach to take those pain killers. “Speaking of Grandma Eleanore, I finally got to meet her.”

  He did a comical double take. “What? Have I finally lost it—or have you?”

  “Neither. I had a vision, and she was in it.”

  “That’s not the same thing, Dae. You see all kinds of strange things in your visions.”


  “And Grandma Eleanore explained how to control them instead of letting them control me. We talked about you, and Mom, and Kevin. She told me to tell you that she loves you.”

  “It’s not real, Dae. I know you understand that.” He was beginning to look worried and uncomfortable.

  “It’s no less real than anything else I’ve seen. She gave me some helpful advice.”

  I scrambled the eggs, and poured some coffee in a cup. I could tell he didn’t know what to think about me seeing my grandmother. Like she’d said, it was difficult for people without a gift to completely understand. I found an old TV tray, and put his eggs and coffee on it so he could eat in the recliner.

  “I’m not saying you don’t see real things when you have visions,” he corrected. “All I’m saying is that you see what you want to see sometimes. I remember that with her.”

  “She said you’d say that. She gave me proof for you since you’re so practical.”

  He smiled as he sipped his coffee. “She always said that. But it was your grandmother who got us through on a deputy sheriff’s pay for many years.”

  “That’s not my proof,” I told him. “She told me about the sapphire brooch that belonged to your mother. You found it in a junk box and were going to throw it away. She stopped you by grabbing it so she could tell you where it came from.”

  “That’s right.” He nodded. “I remember.”

  “That was the night you proposed to her. You thought she fainted, and when she came to, she told you about the brooch.”

  “She told you that? I’m not sure if your mother even knew about it.”

  “She wanted you to believe that I’d seen her in my vision. Do you believe?”

  He stared at me with tears in his eyes. “If I say no, will she come and haunt me every night?”

  I got up and knelt beside his chair. “We can try. I love you, Gramps. I never realized from the pictures how much I look like Grandma Eleanore.”

  He smoothed back my hair with his rough hand. “I realize it every day. And I’m glad for it. You’re a comfort to me just like she was.”

  Kevin and Mary Catherine got back. They’d brought take-out from the Curbside Bar and Grill. Cole and Molly had called Kevin and insisted that he should take food to us after Gramps’s accident.

  Gramps wasn’t hungry, but the three of us were starving. We ate the fried chicken and potato salad while Mary Catherine entertained us with stories about her day at Missing Pieces. She’d brought Treasure and Baylor back with her. They were eating too—from separate bowls of course.

  “It was fascinating being there today,” Mary Catherine said. “I can only imagine what it must be like to know the story of everything you have on your shelves.”

  “Except for the bad things,” Kevin said. “Speaking of which, did your experiences today convince you that the man in the animal skins is real, Dae?”

  “Yes. Osisko is real. I think he has a gift too, and that’s why I keep seeing him here in the present. He’s definitely not a ghost. I’m sure of that.”

  “I’d feel better if you weren’t the only one seeing him.” Kevin took a sip of his sweet tea.

  “The crow saw him too,” Mary Catherine remarked. “They are very truthful creatures.”

  Gramps held his head. “I don’t know. Talking to crows might be crossing the line for me.”

  Mary Catherine laughed. “Well we’re all back safely from our travels today anyway. Maybe tomorrow there will be some answers that everyone can understand.”

  Kevin kissed me goodbye before he left. “You know I only want to make sure that you’re safe. It’s not good for someone who has visions to imagine little green men.”

  “Not green—dark and covered with animal skins.” I smiled even as he continued to scowl. “Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll figure it out. With demon horses running around Duck, I don’t think Osisko is so bad.”

  “Just be careful. I’m glad you met your grandmother. I know spirit guides can be helpful. I’m not so sure about the little man.”

  We walked to his truck through the chilly night air. “I’ll see you tomorrow. You be careful too. I wouldn’t want you to get run over by a herd of invisible horses.”

  Gramps and Mary Catherine went to bed early. I couldn’t sleep, so I sat in my room and looked at town documents that Chris had posted on the town administration site for the meeting. It was all new ordinances that were going to be introduced tomorrow night and information about speakers that had requested time at the council meeting.

  One of them was the corporation that wanted to put in a gambling ship that would use Duck as its home port. The town would have to pass several new ordinances to allow the ship to dock on the Atlantic side, close to the Blue Whale.

  There was also an ordinance to allow the ship to have gambling even though they couldn’t use it until they were twelve miles out. I still didn’t understand why the town had to pass that ordinance since it was regulated by the state and the Coast Guard. But if Chris said it was something we needed to do, we needed to do it.

  Shops in town had been very vocal about allowing the gambling ship to dock here. Everyone thought it would be good for business before and after tourists left the ship. Some people were still old fashioned about it, and felt like nothing good could come from gambling. They believed it would attract a bad element to Duck and wanted us to vote against it.

  I stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, thinking about the upcoming controversy. I’d already received emails from the only two council members still on the board. Both of them wanted to hold the vote tomorrow night.

  But I was against that idea. The gambling ship investors wanted us to give final approval for the project as quickly as possible. I thought we should appoint our two new members for the council and then hold a special meeting the week after so they had enough time to review the information. Five heads were better than three. It was easy to say yes to something, but difficult to get rid of it once it was in place.

  I heard a sound outside on the road and immediately, my heart started pounding. Treasure meowed sleepily and put his head back down. The sound continued to grow, like thunder coming from a storm at sea. I ran up the stairs to the widow’s walk, and looked down on the town.

  From that vantage point everything looked calm and serene. But the sound grew louder, becoming a roar coming toward me from Corolla. I cowered behind the wrought iron railing, peeking between the scrollwork.

  I still couldn’t see anything on the road, and yet trees were swaying, wind chimes loudly ringing out. The wind grew stronger, pushing against the house. The noise became more distinguishable—the clatter of horses hooves on the pavement below me. As the sound grew closer and more abrasive, I could see bushes being trampled alongside the road. Snapping sounds—like pottery breaking and glass shattering—accompanied the turmoil. It was like a hurricane rushing by us, destroying everything as it went.

  Was I the only one who could hear the snorts and other screams related to a large herd of horses?

  And there was Osisko again, standing under a streetlight, watching as the ghost horses blew by him, a cloud of sand and dust flying in the air as they passed.

  Even though I was behind the rail, the man on the ground looked right up at me, his eyes fixing on my face. I admit to being cowardly and sneaking down from the widow’s walk. I didn’t want to see him or talk to him that night. I was still recovering from our meeting in the cave.

  I turned off the light and the laptop in my room, and held Treasure tight against me. He wasn’t happy with the extra cuddling while he was trying to sleep, but he put up with it and finally settled down.

  There was a knock on the bedroom door. I was terrified that Osisko had come into the house, but it was only Mary Catherine. “Are you awake, Dae? May I come in for a moment?”

  I was glad to have her company. I didn’t want to wake Gramps after the day he’d had. Mary Catherine sat on the bed beside me, holding Baylor.

  “I
know you heard that,” she said. “Whatever it sounded like—it wasn’t horses—at least not the living kind that I can connect with. I pushed out my awareness to try to communicate with them. I thought there might be something left of the animals they once were. But there was nothing, but blackness. Those things have never been real horses. I don’t believe they come from a place animals could exist. They’re only taking their shapes to terrify people as they always have.”

  My hands that were buried in Treasure’s fur were shaking. “I saw Osisko down on the street again. I was too scared to face him.”

  “As well you should be. These are not forces to be trifled with. They are stronger and more deadly than the elements. You should stay away from that man, Dae. I don’t like to think what could happen to you if he has a chance to touch you again.”

  “I don’t know what to do. I can’t think of any way to help Duck. I think the excavation is what’s causing this, but I don’t see what I can do to stop it.”

  “I think we should plan our trip to Corolla tomorrow, don’t you? I’d like to spend some time with the wild horses. I think they might be able to help us better understand what’s going on. I’m willing to bet that they relate to us more than they do to those things out there.”

  I nodded, hoping it would be light soon. “We could go over to the excavation site. I have a standing invitation from Dr. Sheffield to visit. I don’t want to touch anything else out there, but there might be something to be gained by a visit.”

  So we agreed to try to go back to sleep and be ready tomorrow for our early morning trip. Corolla wasn’t that far from Duck, but I needed to have Missing Pieces open and begin putting up Christmas decorations. I really wanted to check on Jake too. I hoped sure I could accomplish all that in one day.

  I finally fell into a restless sleep that was haunted by Osisko and the tomb where he’d died. My dreams of him in a time long past were vivid and scary. I was up early, eager to get away from those nightmares, and the feeling that he was still out there waiting for me.

  Chapter Fourteen