Mara Louis; Girl of Mystery

by Timothy Paterson

“It was good to be home,” thought Mara.

  Time is Running Out

  When Mara returned from Mississippi, she was more popular than ever, at school. Most of the students had seen Mara on the news, when she had saved that boy in Missouri, and they saw her again on the news when she was the Governor’s press conference in Mississippi.

  Mara always downplayed her good deeds. She looked upon her psychic gift, as a gift from God, and she never took full credit for anything she did.

  Mara was a sophomore in high school and was very active. Besides running on the track team, she had also started playing the flute in the high school band, was on the newspaper staff, and belonged to a few clubs as well. Her grades were usually all A’s and B’s. At her church, she was active in the high school youth group, and helped with elementary grades of Sunday school as the need arose.

  In November, Mara saw on the news that Governor Lynch was reelected in Mississippi. Mara saw Mr. Johnson congratulating the governor and offering his full support.

  At school, Mara joined a group of students who tutored middle school students after school. The first time that Mara went to a tutoring session, she had such a good time that she wished she had started a long time ago. Mara saw how those young boys and girls looked up to her. They were very impressionable. They worked harder, when Mara praised their efforts. It was at that point, that Mara considered a career in helping children, either in a teaching position, or as a counselor. Mara saw that working with children could be very rewarding.

  Mara was so busy with school, church and tutoring, that she had not realized that she had not experienced any dreams or visions for the entire month of November.

  In mid-December, the dreams were back. Mara had a dream that was very troubling. Mara had the feeling that someone was in serious danger. The clues that flashed before Mara in her dream were very disturbing. When Mara woke up, she wrote down everything in her notebook. She remembered a dark, late model automobile, a fishhook, the letters BF& EH, a man pouring salt into a pond, and a pile of potatoes in a farmer’s field. Then, there were the disturbing clues; some rope and tape, guns and knives.

  Usually, Mara was able to get some idea what the dream was trying to tell her, within a day or two. However, three days later, she was no closer to solving the mystery.

  Then, on the twentieth of December, Mara’s life got a whole lot more complicated. It was the last day of school before winter break. When Mara got home from school, she retrieved the mail from the mailbox, as she did every day. As she flipped through the bills and junk mail, she found a letter addressed to her, with no return address. She sat down at the kitchen table and opened the letter.

  As Mara read the letter, she got a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  “Dear Mara,

  You do not know me, but I have read a lot about you over the past few years. I know that you have psychic abilities and that is why I am writing to you. I need your help with something. I have been writing to a guy that I met in a chat room. He has asked me to meet him in person.

  A friend of mine says that it is too dangerous. She thinks that the guy may be a creep and that I should not meet with him. Therefore, I have decided to let you tell me if you get any bad vibes. If you think that I should not meet with him, then I will not. If I do not hear from you, I will assume that the guy is okay and I will plan to meet him.

  Since you are psychic, I am not including my name or address in this letter. All I will say is that I am sixteen and the guy is eighteen. EH will pick me up in his car on December 20th, and take me to meet his family. If I do not hear from you by then, I will meet with him as planned.

  Sincerely,

  BF”

  Mara noticed that the letter was written on December 12. It had taken eight days to reach her. Mara felt terror fill her body. She knew that something was wrong.She knew that the girl, who wrote the letter, was in serious danger. Mara ran to her room and grabbed her dream notebook. The initials that she saw in her dream were the same two sets of initials in the letter. Mara realized that the dream was about the girl who had written the letter.

  Mara held the letter in her hands and closed her eyes. She concentrated as hard as she could. Suddenly, the name; Bailey Fuller popped into her head. Mara quickly wrote the name down. Mara noticed that the letter was postmarked Salt Lake City, Utah. As Mara read the notes from her dream, he realized that the man pouring salt in the pond meant Salt Lake City. Suddenly, Mara knew that the potatoes in the field, represented Idaho, and Boise, Idaho popped into her mind. She suddenly knew that the initials EH and the fishhook, meant Eddie Hook, the guy who Bailey was planning to meet.

  Mara read the letter again, and this time, a phone number popped into her head. Mara wrote the number down and then grabbed the phone. She quickly dialed the number and when the phone stopped ringing, an answering machine turned on. The message told Mara that she had reached the Fuller residence. Mara left a message with her name and phone number and asked Mr. or Mrs. Fuller to call as soon as possible. “Please call me,” she said. “It‘s about Bailey”, and then Mara hung up the phone.

  At dinner, Mara just picked at her food. She was not hungry. When her mother asked her what was wrong, Mara just sat there, not hearing a word her mother had said. Her mind was elsewhere.

  The phone rang and Mara jumped up to answer it. It was Mrs. Fuller. She said that she was calling from Salt Lake City. Mara asked Mrs. Fuller if Bailey was there. Mrs. Fuller told Mara that when she got home from work, Bailey was not at home. When she called the school, she was told that Bailey never showed up at school.

  Mara calmly asked Mrs. Fuller to check Bailey’s computer for any emails that she may have received from a guy named Eddie Hook. Secretly, Mara was hoping that she was wrong, but Mrs. Fuller returned to the phone and said that there were several emails from Eddie Hook. Mara told Mrs. Fuller to call the police. She told Mrs. Fuller that she believed that Eddie Hook had taken her daughter somewhere in his car.

  When Mara hung up the phone, she saw the puzzled looks on her mom and dad’s faces. She quickly explained the situation.

  Mrs. Louis was very worried about Mara. She had never seen her so upset over her psychic dreams before. She suggested that Mara take a nice hot bath and try to relax. Mara was willing to try anything, to take her mind off Bailey. Mara soaked in the tub for a while and tried not to think about Bailey, but it did not work. After Mara got her pajamas on, she drank a cup of hot cocoa and went to bed.

  Mara tossed and turned for a long time before she finally fell asleep. It was not a very restful sleep, however. Mara had another dream about Bailey. This time, she saw a dark blue, late model Honda Civic, with license number VX374. Mara also saw a dark room located in a basement. She saw a girl tied up, with tape covering her mouth, and a look of terror in her eyes. Then, Mara saw a man about fifty years old, standing in the room, holding a knife.

  Mara woke up screaming. Her parents ran into her room to see what was wrong with Mara. Mara explained her dream and she insisted on calling the police department in Boise, Idaho, because she was now sure that was where Bailey was being held captive. Mara’s mother gave her permission to make the phone call.

  When Mara told the police officer that she was calling from Baltimore and the story of the abduction, the police officer told Mara that it was just a dream. Mara gave him the description of the car and the license plate number and the name of the man. The police officer told Mara to go back to sleep and hung up on her.

  As Mara hung up the phone, she had a vision of an address, 2735 Jackson Street. It was an old abandoned apartment building in a crime-ridden part of Boise. Once again, Mara called the Boise Police Department and gave the officer the additional information, and once again, the officer told Mara that it was just a dream and hung up on her again.

  By this t
ime, Mara was getting very angry. A girl’s life was in danger, and no one would take her seriously. She knew that she was too far away from Idaho to do anything herself. She had to talk to somebody in power. She knew that time was running out and that Bailey was in grave danger.

  Mara decided to go straight to the top. She called President Morgan on his private phone. At this point, she did not care that she woke him up. Mara told the president about her dream and about her phone call to Bailey’s mother and about the resistance that she was getting from the Boise Police Department. President Morgan told Mara that he would take care of the problem.

  After President Morgan hung up the phone, he called the governor of Idaho, who called the mayor of Boise, who called the Boise Police Department. Mara had set the wheels of justice in motion.

  Mara could not go back to sleep. She hated feeling helpless. All she could do was to wait, and hope that the police found Bailey before it was too late.

  It was times like this that Mara’s parents wished that Mara had never been given psychic abilities. Mara was already a sensitive and caring young lady, but when she knew that someone was hurting, or in trouble, she wanted to help them immediately. Mrs. Louis tried to comfort her daughter as best she could.

  Mara