Mara Louis; Girl of Mystery

by Timothy Paterson

Mrs. Wilson if Scott had an aunt living in the area. Mrs. Wilson looked at Mara oddly and replied that neither she nor Mr. Wilson had any siblings. At that moment, they all walked into Scott’s room where the doctor was writing in Scott’s chart. Suddenly, Scott began to have a violent seizure.

  Mara thought of the Auntie in her vision who had been moving like a robot and the jar of moldy pennies and suddenly, the answer came to her. “Scott’s having an allergic reaction to the medicine,” Mara told the doctor. “Doctor, was Scott given any penicillin?” When the doctor said that Scott had been given penicillin, Mara said, “I think that Scott is severely allergic to it.” The doctor quickly gave Scott another medication to counteract the penicillin and the seizures stopped.

  “Mara” he said, “I think you are right. He did have an allergic reaction. How in the world did you know?”

  “When Betsy and I were in the chapel, I had another vision,” said Mara. “In the vision, a lady who said she was Scott’s auntie was walking like a robot was giving Scott a jar of moldy pennies and as she got closer to him, he got weaker. When Scott’s mom said that he had no aunts, I realized that it was a clue for me. Auntie and robotic put together meant antibiotic. The pennies referred to penicillin and penicillin was originally discovered from mold.”

  The doctor, who by this time, looked worn out, shook Mara’s hand and said; “Well Mara, Scott is truly lucky to have you for a friend. You have saved his life three times in one day”. After the doctor left the room, everybody hugged Mara and thanked her repeatedly.

  After Scott was resting comfortably, everybody went home to get some sleep.

  The next morning, when Mara and Betsy went into Scott’s room, he was awake and sitting up. Mara and Betsy both gave him a hug and told him that they were glad he was okay. Sitting next to Scott on the bed was an old teddy bear. Scott tried to hide it under the covers, but Mara grabbed it out of his hand. “Oh, what a cute teddy bear” she said. “What’s his name?”

  “His name is JoJo”, said Scott. “I’ve had him since I was three. I named him after my special friend.” Then, Scott’s face got very serious. “As I got older, I realized that Joseph was an ‘imaginary friend’, but after last night, I’m not so sure any more. I had a dream, where I saw Joseph again and he looked exactly as I remember him when I was three”.

  “I saw him in my dream also, Scott. He is the one who told me that you needed help. I think that Joseph is your guardian angel.”

  Scott looked at Mara and for a second, it looked like he was going to cry. “My parents told me that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. Thank you for saving my life.”

  “I’d do anything for a friend” said Mara, “and you, Betsy and Tony are my best friends in the entire world. I know that you would do the same for me or Betsy, like you did for Betsy already.” Then, Mara giggled and added; “I’m sorry that I didn’t have any underwear for you to borrow.”

  Scott looked over at Betsy with a frown on his face. Betsy started laughing, which made Mara start laughing as well. Then, Scott started laughing also. “Stop making me laugh,” he said, “It hurts too much to laugh”, which made Mara and Betsy laugh even more.

  As Mara, Betsy and Scott looked at each other, they were all thinking the same thing. They realized that, years later, they would look back and realize that they were the best years of their lives. They realized how lucky they were to have such great friends.

  Over the next few days, Scott had many friends visit him in the hospital, but none of them meant as much to Scott as Mara and Betsy did.

  Mara had sent a message to all of their friends around the country via Facebook, telling them about Scott and he received many emails and get-well messages, which cheered him up immensely.

  After Scott returned home from the hospital, Mara decided to let him rest for a couple of days before visiting him again. Mara also needed to just relax and get some rest. As much stress and excitement her special gift caused her sometimes, this was one time that Mara felt truly blessed, because she was able to save the life of a good friend. Life was good; no, make that great.

  The Mystery of the One Room School House

  Scott returned to school the next week and life for Mara returned to normal. For a while, that is. A week later, Mara woke up in the middle of the night, terrified. She had dreamed ‘the dream’ again. Luckily, she always woke up before the ceiling collapsed. Mara still had not told her parents about the dream, because it would just cause them to worry more. The only people who knew about the dream were Scott and Betsy and they were sworn to secrecy.

  In late March, Mara began having very strange dreams, that is, even stranger than usual. It seemed that a lot of names and places and random words filled her dreams. Each morning, Mara wrote down as much as she could remember. After a few of these dreams, Mara was no closer to learning what they meant.

  As Mara looked at the list of names that she had seen in her dreams, she was very confused. “What did Jesse, Samuel, Mark, Jedidiah, Ezra, Henry, Rachel, Edwin, Sylvester, Daniel, and James, have in common?” wondered Mara. The list of last names was just as puzzling. That list included ‘Carter, Bradford, Higgins, Johnson, Brady, Long, Jones, Pickford, Rogers and Ford’.

  At least the list of cities was shorter. The cities mentioned in her dreams included ‘Vincennes, Chicago, Detroit and Hannibal’. Then, there was the list of items that Mara had seen in her dreams. The list included such random words as coins, school, bank, church, auto, garage, vault, to name just a few.

  Mara began to think that her psychic visions were going haywire. She was having the strange dreams at least once a week and it frustrated her that she could not make heads or tails of them. Mara decided that she should focus on the cities. Since they were all in the Midwest, she decided to talk to her parents.

  So, one evening at dinner, Mara asked her parents; “Could we take a two week road trip this summer, when school gets out?”

  “Where would you like to go?” asked her mother.

  “I don’t know. How about the Midwest, maybe Vincennes, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan and Hannibal, Missouri?” asked Mara.

  Mrs. Louis looked at her daughter rather strangely and asked; “This trip wouldn’t have anything to do with your visions, now would it?”

  “Yes Mom, I have had the same really strange dreams over and over again for the past couple of months. I cannot explain it, but I know that I need to go to each of these cities and the visions will become clearer to me. I only have these visions when there are people who need my help. I have to use my gift to help people when I can.”

  Mara’s parents looked at each other and in their hearts; they knew that Mara was right. “Okay” said her father. “Maybe, along the way, we can stop in Cincinnati and visit the Jackson family and also visit the new museum. I am interested in seeing your latest discovery.”Mara thanked her parents many times and hugged both of them.

  On the first Saturday in June, the Louis family loaded up their car and started driving to Ohio. They arrived in Cincinnati on Tuesday morning. When they pulled into the driveway of the Jackson home, Kenny and Brenda came running out of the house to greet them.

  When Mara walked into the house, she was delighted to find that all five generations of the family were there for the visit. Mara introduced her parents to the Jackson family and they all visited for a while. Then, they all got into their cars and drove to the Cincinnati Museum of Photographic History. Both of Mara’s parents were interested in seeing the museum. Mrs. Louis was an amateur photographer and Mr. Louis was fascinated with history. They were very impressed with the thousands of historical photos, as well as the antiques, uniforms and old clothing.

  There was so much to see, that by the time they finished the tour, it was almost five thirty p.m. Kyle Jackson insisted that Mara and her family spend the night at the Jackson est
ate. Before either of Mara’s parents could reply, Mara accepted his invitation.

  After dinner, Mara spent the evening with Kenny and Brenda, while her parents visited with the rest of the Jackson family. That night, Mara had a dream that was clearer than the ones she had been having over the past several weeks.

  In the dream, an older gentleman named Jedidiah was standing outside an old building that looked like the school on the “Little House on the Prairie” television show. It was as if Mara could read the man’s mind. She knew that he wanted her to help him save the school from being torn down. She also saw the names; Bradford, Brady and Rogers, as well as the names; Rachel, Chantel, Helen, Angela, Elizabeth, Linda, Rhonda and Tom. Mara knew that the building was in Vincennes, Indiana. When Mara woke up, she wrote down everything in her notebook.

  After breakfast, Mara and her parents said goodbye to the Jackson family and then they headed towards Vincennes. As they were driving, Mara’s mother asked her if she had any idea where in Vincennes they were going. “Actually, I do” said Mara. “Last night, I had a dream vision. It told me that we need to find a very old school that the city wants to tear down.”

  They arrived in Vincennes by 2 o’clock that afternoon and after making inquiries at the