The Ethereal Vision

by Liam Donnelly

CHAPTER 4 — PALAVER

  The light in the room had died down somewhat since Nora had begun recounting her difficult and unusual past to Jack. He was sitting forward in the armchair opposite her in the other corner of the room, and he had his hands clasped in front of him. He rubbed one over the other gently. He was staring at her from glassy eyes that reflected the remaining embers of fire.

  “I know you had a serious accident, Nora. I never imagined the exact circumstances were so extraordinary.”

  Nora went to speak, though the words didn’t come at first; her lips moved and nothing came out. “I’m sorry I wasn’t specific before—I never have been with anyone.”

  He was silent for a moment; his lips quivered for a second before he continued. “So your memory stops when the car jerked the second time?” he asked.

  “Yes. I don’t know what happened after that; I lost consciousness. All I know is Jane…somehow…she managed to get us back up onto the road.”

  Jack exhaled. “Is there a chance Jane has been carrying some kind of trauma with her all these years?” he asked.

  Nora sighed. “She knows what happened. She knows she lifted the car. But she doesn’t remember many of the details. Tom was drifting from us fast then. He was gone three months later. We divorced a couple of years after that—as you know.”

  Jack looked down at the ground for a moment, then brought his gaze back up to meet hers. “So did they come?” he asked after a moment.

  “Yes.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, I saw the car coming down the street and I knew it was them.” She and Jack had made tea and Nora sipped it now. “I didn’t even tell Tom what Jane had said. I just thought that would complicate things further. He was at work when they came. The first man who came to the door said he was a member of an international committee that had been assembled in response to the emergence of people with psionic abilities. I couldn’t stop him; he walked right into the house.”

  “What happened?”

  “He tried to trick her, Jack.”

  “How?”

  “Well, he had a cup of hot coffee with him, and he tried to set her up. He told her it was boiling hot and he knocked it off the table right in front of her to see if she would react.”

  “Did she?”

  “No. She was prepared. I know I’ve told you some…odd things tonight, Jack. Probably the strangest is the dream she had about Max, the presence who warned her they were coming. Do you accept that?”

  He looked to the side and seemed to consider this deeply. “Yes,” he replied after a moment, nodding his head. “About that though—I have to ask—do you think that was something she herself created or…something else?”

  “I knew you’d ask that. It’s something I’ve thought a lot about over the years, obviously. Honestly, I don’t know, but I’m leaning towards the latter.”

  “You mean, you think he was real? Like some kind of…”

  “Apparition?” she said, then paused for a moment, her eyes glancing towards the remaining firelight. “Yes.”

  “That’s fascinating.”

  “Well, that’s the closest word I’ve ever really come to describing it. The reality of what that man represented is—in actuality—probably far beyond my understanding.”

  He nodded at her in agreement.

  “Well, whatever it was, or whoever he was, he explained to her what to do to avoid being detected.”

  “What happened then?”

  “Well, after they asked Jane their questions, he asked me to join him in the kitchen, and then he started asking me invasive questions without any remorse at all. He asked, ‘Did your daughter use psychokinetic force to levitate your car?’ I looked him dead in the eye and said, ‘No.’”

  Jack stared at her, his brow furrowed upward in astonishment.

  “You know, I actually got angry with him,” she continued, “but he wouldn’t let up. He asked, ‘Did she break the passenger window with said force? Did your husband accidentally misjudge a turn and drive your car straight over the edge of a cliff, a fall from which your daughter then protected you?’”

  She stopped and took a sip of her tea. “He fired questions at me for another five minutes. I swear I nearly broke, but I didn’t. I stood there, facing him, and lied about everything.”

  “Did he believe you?”

  “I didn’t care then. It got him out of my life. The impression I get is that he answered to somebody. I think he needed some kind of solid evidence, and he had none. So he did the only thing he could; he left, disappointed.” She sipped her tea, and they both fell once again into silence. Nora felt a long-awaited elation at being able to share these secrets with someone close to her. It felt like giant chains were unwrapping from her body.

  “The last thing he said to me before he left was, ‘I’m sure you’re aware at this point that we have the ability to detect psionic activity, Mrs. Connor. We have a file now with your name on it. If anything shows up again, we will be coming back.’” Nora took a deep breath and exhaled. She ran her hands through her hair to comfort herself.

  “So what are you planning to do in the future?” Jack asked after a moment of silence punctuated only by the quiet sounds of crackling from the fire.

  She considered this. “Stay hidden, I guess. Let the world evolve around us in whatever way it wants. We’ll just stay out of it.”

  “Are you sure that’s going to work?’ he asked, the doubt in his face obvious.

  She glared back at him and shrugged her shoulders. She had no answer.

  Jack took a deep breath. “You know, Nora, I wouldn’t have thought for a second that the rumours about these places—the facilities—were true. But with everything you’ve told me tonight, I’d say it’s actually quite likely.” He paused and looked up at her with solemn, firelit eyes. “And there’s the guy who wrote that book, First Something…” he trailed off, thinking.

  Nora looked at the copy of the book on her coffee table. Jack did not know it was sitting next to him. “First Visions,” she said placidly.

  “Right. That’s it. I didn’t read all of the book. Honestly, it scared me a bit. But the kid he spent time with could see across countries, look over shoulders into computer systems, and even into people’s minds. At the end of it, before I stopped reading it…he said he was talking to some kind of…well, he called them ‘entities.’”

  Nora had read that passage too. She recalled making the connection between that and her daughter’s visitation from the man she called Max.

  “So these people…whoever they are…what is it you think they want?” she asked.

  “Power, control, maybe something else entirely, who knows? Nothing would surprise me,” he said, then paused, seeming reluctant to continue. “And whatever this energy is…I mean, if Jane can levitate cars with her thoughts…”

  “I’m not so sure about that, Jack. It could have been a fluke. I don’t think any human mind was built to channel that kind of power.”

  He stared back at her in the dim light and nodded. “Right,” he said, the doubt in his voice palpable. “But what are you going to do if things get bad? I mean really bad, Nora?”

  Nora thought about this and then replied simply, “Run.”

  The warmth of the fire faded slowly as their conversation came to an end.