Fury

by John Coyne

  Kathy paused at the entrance to the hallway. “Of course, Jennifer. But I should mention that one of our objectives here on the farm is to separate you from all worldly, everyday concerns. I’ve found—Habasha has found—that the channeling sessions go much more smoothly if you can concentrate on what is happening here, rather than thinking about outside problems. I’m sure you understand.”

  “Yes, of course,” Jennifer said quickly, embarrassed.

  Kathy kept smiling, and added, “When Simon comes in with the luggage, I’ll have him show you to my office.”

  “Simon?” Jennifer asked. “Does he work for you?” She felt Eileen nudge her in the small of her back.

  Kathy laughed. “Oh, I don’t know if any of us work for each other. Although there are days, as I tell Habasha, when I think I spend my whole life in slave labor for him. No, Simon doesn’t work for me.” She opened the door leading to the east wing of the barn, where their rooms were located. “We’re twin-souls and have been together in previous lifetimes. Now, I guess you’d say we’re lovers.”

  Jennifer’s room had a view of the shallow valley that stretched away from the farm. The sun was setting, and its northern light softened the harsh landscape with an orange glow. She stood very still, concentrating on the lovely winter scene.

  And then she heard a soft knock on her bedroom door. Without turning her eyes from the scene, she said, “Come in.”

  “Your luggage,” a man’s voice replied. Jennifer turned. The man standing in the doorway was silhouetted by the hallway light. She could not see his face, but she knew that he must be Simon.

  “Thank you.”

  He set the bags aside and came to her, pulling off his leather gloves as he approached. His presence filled the room, and she found herself unaccountably giving way to him.

  “I’m Simon,” he said, “Simon McCloud.”

  “Yes, I know,” she said. “Kathy’s friend.”

  He smiled.

  “Don’t I know you?” Jennifer asked, staring up at him.

  “I don’t know. Do you?” He was still smiling.

  “I mean, your face is so familiar.” He looked like a lumberjack, with a full beard, dark brows, and thick hair that curled out from under a wool cap.

  “That’s what they all say,” he teased, slowly stuffing his gloves into the pockets of his jacket. “And you’re

  who?” he asked politely.

  “Jennifer. Jennifer Winters.” She could feel her face flush with embarrassment, but still she couldn’t take her eyes from him. “I’m sorry I’m staring,” she apologized, “but I keep thinking I’m going to remember. Did you go to school in Chicago?” She tried to imagine him on campus.

  He laughed then, and his blue eyes sparkled. Jennifer laughed, too. He was so unlike a New Yorker, she thought, immediately friendly and open. So this was the Midwest. No one had a hostile edge.

  “I’ve never been to Chicago. I’ve never been anywhere, really, except Duluth and St. Paul.” He shrugged good-naturedly.

  “Well, you just look so familiar,” Jennifer replied. Finally able to break her gaze, she glanced out the window. “I was just enjoying the sunset,” she explained.

  The orange glow had disappeared from the hillside, and now in the fading light, Minnesota’s winter landscape looked threatening. Simon came over and stood beside her, staring out at the disappearing day. She was acutely conscious of him near her, of his warmth, and as she watched his breath fog the windowpane, she realized how much he was affecting her.

  He broke the stillness. “It does look bleak, doesn’t it? Not a night to be outside. But later, after dinner, the moon will come up and the whole valley will be lit. We usually go skating by the lake, build a fire there on the bank, and make hot chocolate and hot buttered rum. Do you skate?” he asked.

  “Well, I try.”

  “Good! I’ll help. All of us Minnesotans are born with either skates or skis on our feet.” He tapped the glass with his fingernails, making a sharp click. “It’s going to be a cold one.” Then he grinned and moved away. “I better deliver Eileen’s luggage. Kathy said you had a long trip and you need to rest.” At the doorway he paused and turned to her. Jennifer had not left the window. “Welcome to the farm, Jennifer. It’s your first visit?”

  Jennifer nodded. She was searching frantically for something to say that would keep Simon with her.

  “It changed my life, coming here,” he said. He paused. “I owe my life to Kathy.” He looked over at Jennifer and smiled that warm, honest smile. “She’ll save you, too. I know.” And then he closed the bedroom door and disappeared.

  Jennifer did not move. She held her breath in an effort to hold on to his presence, to hold the intimacy of their shared moment. Gradually, she returned to the present, heard distant sounds from the huge old building, heard footsteps and muffled sounds, and took a deep breath, all at once exhausted from the long trip and from the week of tensions. She sat down on the edge of the single bed and pulled off her boots. Then, standing again, she slid off her wool skirt, unhooked her bra, and still in sweater and panties, slid under the heavy blankets and surrendered herself to sleep.

  Jennifer felt a hand on her shoulder. Not yet fully awake, she reached out and grabbed the intruder’s wrist.

  “Jenny, it’s me!” Eileen cried. “Ouch!” She fell against the bed. “Wake up, Jenny. Wake up. You’re okay. Everything is fine.”

  Jennifer let go and pulled herself up. “I’m sorry. I was so… “

  “I know. I knocked, but you didn’t answer. I’m sorry I had to disturb you.”

  “What time is it?” Jennifer asked, rubbing her eyes.

  “Around six. You’ve been asleep for two hours.”

  “Oh God, I could sleep for a week.” Jennifer fell back on her pillow. “It’s pitch black out!” she said, staring out of the window.

  “It’s the country, Jenny. That’s what it’s like.” Eileen moved from her perch on the bed and turned on the desk lamp. “Better?”

  “Yes,” Jennifer agreed. She sat up. “I guess I’ll get dressed. After a shower, I’m sure I’ll be okay. Where are the showers, anyway?”

  “Down the hall. They’re communal.”

  “Oh, great!” Jennifer yawned. “I won’t take a shower at my health club, let alone here.”

  Eileen shrugged. “Oh, it’s not that bad. There are private stalls, if you need them, but Kathy believes we’re too culturally bound. This is one way to break down our inhibitions.”

  “Taking showers with strangers should do it.”

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind taking a shower with Simon McCloud.” Eileen smiled.

  “Why? What do you mean?”

  “Oh, I saw that he took his time to drop off your bags.”

  “Eileen, come on.” Jennifer tossed back the blankets and stood. She picked her wool skirt off the back of the chair and stepped into it.

  “Well, what were you doing in here?”

  “We were watching the sunset,” Jennifer replied curtly.

  “He’s incredible, isn’t he?”

  “Incredible, how?” Jennifer waited, curious to know what Eileen thought of Simon.

  Eileen shrugged. “I don’t know. Incredibly ‘country,’ don’t you think? I find it odd that Kathy, who’s so sophisticated, would be involved with him. Don’t you?”

  Jennifer concentrated on unpacking. She pulled a terry-cloth robe from her suitcase.

  “Don’t you?” Eileen persisted.

  “Getting involved with anyone that gorgeous can’t be considered too odd,” said Jennifer decisively, folding the robe over her arm. She knew she couldn’t lie to Eileen about feeling an attraction. Better just to acknowledge it and forget it. “But I also know that he’s involved with Kathy Dart, just like I’m involved with Tom. I’m not going to jump the poor guy in some dark corner. Or the shower.” Eileen laughed as she walked out, heading for the bathroom.

  The showers were empty. Jennifer sighed, thankful for small fav
ors. She remembered how she and Tom had made love in the steamy bathroom back in Brooklyn, and the memory aroused her. To cool down, she turned on the faucet and doused herself with water.

  When she came out of the shower room ten minutes later, she was wrapped in towels. She stood in the doorway of the bathroom and glanced down toward the living room to see if the coast was clear.

  The door was open at the end of the hall and a shaft of light from the living room filled the entrance. She could hear voices from farther away in the house. There were several people talking and laughing among themselves. Perhaps it was the skaters having a drink before dinner.

  Jennifer turned toward her room and saw a figure step into the hallway, coming from the living room. She stopped at once, startled by the sudden sight of the man, and took a deep breath. She wasn’t driving herself crazy, she thought, and started to say hello when she realized it wasn’t another guest.

  The man’s size alarmed her. He was immense, larger, it seemed, than the doorway itself, and he was moving slowly toward her, coming at her from the only exit. She backed off, terrified. She was immediately assailed by the odor of sweat and urine.

  “Hello,” she said, needing to hear her voice, and peered into the dark hallway, hoping to see his face. But his features were hidden in the rags he used to keep out the cold. Then she realized who it was. This was the man she had killed outside of the museum.

  He was not dead. He had come to get her, and now he had her cornered in the hallway. She backed away from him and the lighted living room, but he kept coming toward her. His body filled the narrow hallway, squeezed out the light from the living room, plugged up the exit as if he were a stopper. She was trapped.

  “No,” she whispered, clutching a towel to her breast. She tried to scream, but no sound escaped her throat. She waited for the inhuman rage to take over her body and turn her into a beast, but this time there was no transformation. She felt no cold draft of air, no pumping of her muscles. No rage.

  Jennifer stumbled against the wall. She reached the end of the hallway, glanced around for a door, but there was just a window, sealed against the cold, and beyond it, the darkness of the rural night. She slid sobbing to the carpet and waited for him to kill her.

  “Jennifer, are you all right?” Kathy Dart’s voice broke into her consciousness. She was curled up, shivering in the corner, and barely felt Kathy Dart’s comforting hands stroke her hair. “It’s all right, Jenny,” Kathy whispered. “I am with you. Something frightened you, that’s all. You’re safe.”

  “I thought I saw something,” she tried to explain, not looking at Kathy Dart. Jennifer realized then that she had wet herself, and humiliated, she struggled to a sitting position. She felt like a child.

  “Yes?” Kathy waited patiently for an explanation. She knelt beside Jennifer on the carpet. “Tell me. You saw someone from your past? Was it Margit?”

  Jennifer shook her head. “It was no one I knew. I mean, it looked like a homeless man. Someone I

  ” She tried to concentrate. “It was weird. I thought it was the man

  ” Jennifer shook her head, then began to sob. Kathy Dart pulled Jennifer into a gentle embrace.

  “I’m going crazy,” Jennifer whispered. “I kill people. I have conversations with dead people in my apartment. I hallucinate. Oh, dear God, help me.”

  Jennifer pulled her head from Kathy’s embrace, leaned back against the wall, and closed her eyes. She felt Kathy reach out and wipe away her tears. For a moment Jennifer let herself be comforted.

  “In the next few days, Jennifer,” Kathy said softly, “we will answer these questions and straighten out all the mystery. You are at the edge of great possibilities.”

  “I’m at the edge of an abyss.”

  “It is when we look into that abyss that we discover the truth. You are so close, Jennifer.”

  Jennifer looked up at Kathy Dart. Her eyes gleamed. Her smile emanated confidence and enthusiasm. Jennifer nodded. She would try. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “Give yourself a chance,” Kathy continued, “to become the great person that is your destiny. I believe there is someone seeking to use your body as a medium into this world. Someone wants to channel through you. Someone wants to ‘get out,’ and I find that terribly exciting.”

  “It has only been terrifying for me,” Jennifer answered, pulling herself off the hallway floor. She needed another shower.

  “I went through this myself, Jennifer,” Kathy said calmly. “Habasha wasn’t just someone I met by chance in an aisle at the A and P.”

  “I was happy the way I was,” Jennifer answered.

  “You only thought you were,” Kathy Dart answered back.

  “I would rather have been left alone.”

  “But don’t you understand,” Kathy said quietly, “this person who wishes to be channeled won’t let you be your old self.” And then, smiling, she leaned forward and kissed Jennifer softly on her cheek.

  “When you’re dressed, come into the living room, and we’ll talk. There’s so much to tell you.” Then Kathy Dart nodded good-bye and walked back to the living room, blocking out the light at the end of the hallway as she disappeared from sight

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  “HI, HOW ‘YA DOING?” Simon McCloud was suddenly at her side in the living room. “How ‘bout a cup of tea?” he asked solicitously.

  “Fine. I’m just fine,” Jennifer answered, accepting the warm cup. Kathy Dart must have told him what happened in the hallway. “I think I’m finally adjusting to the frozen north,” she added. She nodded toward the blazing fire. “That helps a lot. It looks so warm and inviting.”

  “It’s actually a waste of energy.” Simon shrugged. “We’d do better closing it down and putting in a wood stove, but Kathy’s a great believer in the illusion of the fireplace

  everyone sitting cozily around it.” He smiled, as if amused by the deception.

  “Well, I think it’s lovely, illusion or not,” Jennifer answered back. “Isn’t there room for illusions in your life, Simon?” As she sipped her tea, she scanned the room for Eileen.

  “Do you want to meet any of these people?” Simon asked, ignoring her question.

  “No,” Jennifer said truthfully, glancing around at the dozen other guests who were milling around the room. Many of them looked flushed, as if they had just come in from the cold. “Who are they?”

  “International consultants. They work with Third World countries, telling their citizens how to act, teaching them to eat with knives and forks, and how to get along with Americans.” He shrugged dismissively, then added coolly, “To tell you the truth, I don’t pay that much attention to most of the people who come through here. There’s a different group nearly every week. This place is like a bus station sometimes. I just stand at the front door, punch tickets, and take money.” He reached over and set his cup of tea on an end table.

  Jennifer was startled by his candor. “Is that how you consider me

  and Eileen?”

  “No, of course not,” he replied. “You’re not like these people. You’re one of us.”

  “Us? What do you mean?”

  “Us

  you know.” He shrugged. “You and Eileen, and Kathy, of course, and me. I mean, the four of us are linked. Hasn’t Kathy told you about all of this?” Suddenly Simon looked worried, as if he had said too much.

  Jennifer shook her head and kept her eyes on him.

  “Kathy explained what happened to you,” he went on. “She told me before you came that we

  you and I

  had this

  connection. She said I’d have an emotional pull toward you.” He was staring down at her, and Jennifer returned his gaze. She felt as if she could lose herself in his deep blue eyes.

  “What exactly are you saying, Simon?” she found herself asking calmly, though she knew exactly.

  They were both sitting now on the window seat at the far end of the room. Jennifer felt as if she and Simo
n were completely alone. Her heart was pounding.

  “Kathy told me how you and I, and she, too, were all once—maybe more than once—connected in another life.” He suddenly seemed embarrassed and he looked away.

  “Why are you saying this, Simon? What are you suggesting?”

  “I’m saying that the moment I saw you I knew I wanted you.”

  “I don’t think Kathy would appreciate hearing that,” Jennifer said.

  “But she knows,” Simon explained. “And she understands. Habasha told her. In a previous life, you and I were living in an Idaho mining town. You were Chinese and married to an old man. I was killed—”

  Jennifer stood up. “I don’t know anything about that,” she said. She knew that she had to get away from Simon. Her desire for him was dizzying. She made an effort to move, but he seized her by the wrist. Jennifer felt faint.

  Just then, she spotted Eileen approaching from the other end of the room. “Stop, Simon,” she whispered. “Please.”

  He let go of her wrist.

  “There you are! You didn’t come and get me after your shower. Hello, Simon.” Eileen’s eyes took in Jennifer’s guilty look, and she smiled.

  “I’m sorry, Eileen. I forgot. After my shower, I ran into Kathy.”

  “It’s my fault, Eileen,” Simon interrupted. “We got to talking about our shared past lives.”

  Jennifer took a deep breath and stared into the blazing fire. Simon was smiling at Eileen, enveloping her with his charm. As he explained that he and Jennifer once lived together in an Idaho mining town, he slipped his arm around her in a brief embrace.

  Jennifer felt her knees weaken, but she forced herself to recover, to pull away from Simon’s embrace. This was crazy. Her emotions were totally out of control.

  “And what about me?” Eileen made a face at Simon, fretting about her exclusion.

  “Yes, you were with us. Kathy has told you that, hasn’t she?” Simon cocked his head.

  “Of course she has. I was just teasing.” Eileen reached to touch Simon’s arm.