“How did you cope?”
“I didn’t. It was overwhelming, and the pain was beyond what I thought I could endure. They were so close to me, but that wasn’t what scared me.”
“What scared you?”
“I saw true evil, Zoe. For the first time in my life I knew the meaning of true evil and I could see it.”
Everyone in the room sent silent at Jana’s revelation. Zoe wasn’t even sure how to respond to that news or what question to ask. Zoe watched Jana with a sense that something far more profound was going to be revealed. “How is what you went through related to Evy? Please don’t tell me she is immortal and that’s why you took an interest in her.”
“No. Eva is not immortal.”
Zoe sat back and let out a very relieved sigh. “Well, at least I won’t have to worry about that.” She ran her hands through her hair in relief. “Oh, this does hurt,” she muttered. “I have so many other questions I’m not even sure what to ask. So, getting back to Eva, you were in on this whole fiasco and that’s why you wanted Eva to work with you?”
“I wanted to keep Eva with me, yes. I wanted to protect her and eventually help teach her about her gifts once the truth was revealed. She has Tessa, who is very capable, and now she has me as well. I’ve only ever been one other situation where I could help a gifted one and that was Daphne. I have the opportunity here to help Eva. Eva’s situation is very different to any other gifted ones.”
“So you were the one that warned Mama Daphne and Mama Saint…”
“Mama Saint?” Jana turned to Theresa with a puzzled expression on her face. With a slight shake of the head she turned back to Zoe.
“You were the level headed one who warned them that what they were going to do was wrong?”
“Yes, I warned them that this wouldn’t work. They were trying to stop something that they couldn’t control and didn’t have authority to stop.”
Zoe rested her hand on top of her head. “The three of you played with Eva’s life. You took a child that didn’t know anything and you all decided to rob her…” She walked behind the sofa where Eva was sleeping. “You decided to rob her of her gifts, rob her of the ability to protect herself, and rob her of the ability to deal with these gifts.” Her voice rose expediently. She had lost sight of Daphne as soon as she got off the floor and lost contact with Eva’s hand. “How in God’s name did you think you would get away with it?” She leaned over the sofa and screamed at them.
“Zoe…” Theresa put her hand up but was silenced by Jana, who shook her head.
“My best friend, my wife, can lose everything because the two of you…” Zoe pointed to Theresa and where she thought Daphne was standing. “You thought that you could interfere in God’s plans, whatever the hell those plans are, but you thought you could interfere! I don’t trust the big guy, but I’m not stupid enough to interfere in them. That’s what the hell you were doing. You,” she pointed to Theresa, “you told me that it was God’s plan, and who am I to tell God what to do? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO PLAY GOD WITH EVA’S LIFE?” She looked down at Eva, who was sleeping soundly despite Zoe’s yelling. “You have interfered in your descendants’ lives for so long that you don’t know how to stop. You want to pop into their lives whenever you wish. I don’t think it works that way!”
Zoe was exhausted. She had been exhausted for so many months, and now she was just mentally exhausted as well. She bowed her head and took a deep breath as she tried to keep herself calm. Her head ached from all the yelling. She was so angry she found her hands shaking. She grasped the sofa pillow and stared in the direction where Daphne was standing. “Aunty Tessa, can you please come here?”
Tessa got up off her chair and went over to Zoe. “Zoe, darling, getting angry is not going to make this better, but I share your feelings.”
“Tessa!” Daphne said.
“Dee, what you and Saint Theresa did was not just wrong, but it could have been catastrophic. It could have driven Eva insane and she would have ended up in that insane asylum that you were so scared of. I was used to my gifts from an early age, even though I didn’t know what they were. I could control them. You don’t realize is that Eva has accepted her gifts. She has accepted everything that’s happened to her with such maturity and grace. She didn’t know why or how, but she took it all in her stride. When something new happens, she takes a breath and deals with it.”
“I know. I’ve watched my daughter and I’m proud of the way she has handled herself.”
“What you all don’t know,” Zoe said, interrupting Tessa and Daphne, “is that she can’t continue to breathe and deal with it. She just can’t. It’s too much for her and it’s unfair to ask her to constantly go from one crisis to another and expect her to deal with it.” She shook her head at the absurdity of it all. She knew Eva’s state of mind better than anyone in the room. She also knew her resilience, but there was a limit to how much you can push someone before they break. “It’s hurting her and it’s hurting me. We can’t continue like this. At some point life has to give us some respite from the constant bricks it keeps throwing at us. Whether that’s God or these mystical fates or Happy the Clown. I don’t care who it is, but I want it stopped!”
“We understand.” Theresa nodded.
“No, I don’t think you understand. You never went through the mental and physical anguish she went through. Yes, you were crucified, but that didn’t last months on end. Nor did it hurt getting eaten by animals or torn asunder. It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t hurt you. You couldn’t feel it anyway—you were dead,” Zoe said getting her second wind. “You didn’t have to face each day feeling battered by everyone and everything. You don’t understand. You may think you do, but you don’t. I don’t even fully understand it.”
“We will fix this.”
“You have to fix this. Eva can’t deal with these gifts on her own. She just can’t.”
“I give you my word.” Theresa took a step towards Zoe. She reached out and placed her hand on Zoe’s shoulder. “We will fix it.”
“Eva is not going to believe this in the morning. I don’t believe it and I’m listening to it.”
“That’s alright. We’ll be here in the morning. I know it’s a lot to take in. You have me, Stella, and Tessa with you and Eva on this journey,” Jana said.
“What about Mama Daphne and Mama Saint?”
“Daphne can’t interfere in human affairs, and—”
“Yes, she can’t and hasn’t, but you have interfered.”
“I’m going to have to answer for my interfering, so I won’t be able to help after Eva has some control over her gifts...”
“So you’re leaving this mess for us to deal with?”
Theresa shook her head. “No. Not yet. Until I’m forced to leave, we will be teaching Eva how to use her gifts and how to control them.”
CHAPTER 40
June 1, 1951
“DAMMIT!”
Zoe looked up from the book she was attempting to read. She had been asked to get out of the Journey room because of Eva’s uncontrollable telekinesis—the last thing they needed was for Zoe to get hurt. She was in the living room, which was as far as she was willing to go and still be able to listen in on what everyone was doing. She was lying on the sofa when she heard Eva’s expletive coming from the Journey room. Eva was getting extremely annoyed and frustrated with herself. Tessa and Jana had set up the room as a training room for Eva, and Zoe was sure at some point one of the murals would need to be repainted due to things smashing into the walls.
Zoe went back to her book when things quietened down, and there was silence for a little while. What transpired next was something she was not expecting. She was engrossed in her romantic novel when she felt a gust of wind against her bare arms. The light emanating from the floor lamp had gone out. She looked up at the lamp and her heart almost stopped.
Hovering inches above her head was their floor lamp, its solid brass base so close to her head that she could read the ma
nufacturer’s logo under the base. It was suspended in the air, or so she thought. It took a moment for her to realize that Theresa was also standing above her and she was holding the lamp from falling on her head. Zoe gasped and rolled off the sofa and onto her knees.
She didn’t have time to think about what might have been for too long because the top shelf of their bookcase came crashing down. The twenty-four volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica were now sprawled over the floor, and other books continued to rain down.
Zoe wasn’t sure what to look at first as Tessa ran into the room and stopped when she saw the books on the floor. She glanced at Zoe and then at the lamp. Her eyes widened in surprise. Theresa waved her hand and placed the floor lamp back in its place. The books remained on the floor.
Zoe felt a shiver run up her spine at what might have happened. She knew how much that lamp weighed. It was very heavy, and had it hit her on the head, it would have ended her life and those of her babies. It would also have ended Eva’s life, because she knew Eva would never be able to live with herself knowing she had caused their deaths. Zoe tried to calm the rising anxiety and fear of these supposed gifts.
“Eva! I can tell you one thing: the only volume still standing is ‘A,’” Tessa shouted. Zoe could tell Tessa was also affected by the near catastrophe.
“God dammit!” Eva yelled out. “Let me see what I’ve done this time. I think Mount Ossa is going to need a new top of the mountain, Zo…I smashed a vase against it.”
Zoe heard Eva’s frustrated voice and the sound of the wheelchair as Eva tried to head into the living room. Tessa mouthed ‘are you alright?’ to Zoe. She turned quickly when Zoe nodded and left the room to stop Eva from entering.
“Alright then, speedy, the books are happy on the floor; let’s get back to this.” Tessa’s voice filtered back into the living room.
Zoe was still on the floor and she buried her head in her hands. She had been very close to losing her life. She felt Theresa’s arms around her.
“I think you need some fresh air.”
Zoe didn’t say a word. She tried to get up from the floor, but she couldn’t hold herself up, and she lost her balance. Theresa lifted her up into her arms and walked out of the living room. Once on the veranda, she put Zoe down in the sofa.
“The shock will wear off soon.” Theresa produced a glass of Retsina out of nowhere. “I think you may need this.”
Zoe hated Retsina, but she took the glass. She didn’t care what type of alcohol it was. With shaking hands she took a gulp of the beverage. “That was…”
“That is what happens when a gifted one is not given a chance to develop properly,” Theresa said in disgust and shook her head.
“Don’t tell Evy. It will devastate her, and that’s the last thing she needs right now.”
“I don’t plan on doing that, and neither is Tessa.”
Zoe bowed her head and looked into the amber liquid in her glass. She lifted it and took another sip. She swished it around her mouth feeling the burn. “This isn’t going well,” she said after she had swallowed.
“No, it’s not.” Theresa produced another glass of Retsina and took a sip of it herself.
“Are you allowed to drink alcohol?”
“Yes, I can drink alcohol but it doesn’t affect me like it does mortals. There are times I wished I could get drunk, but I can’t.”
“I really want to get drunk,” Zoe muttered. “Evy is getting so angry with herself. She is the most patient person I know, but she can’t focus. It’s making her so upset she hasn’t got control.”
“Yes, you are right. Control is very important to Eva, and control will come.”
Zoe nodded. “She is healing, but slowly. Aunty Stella says that Eva’s injury is problematic, and that it’s going to take a while.”
“If Eva hadn’t had the accident, this would still have been difficult.”
“Stella says Eva is still recovering from the bomb blast in Paris, and from what they did to her in Aiden.”
“Yes.” Theresa put her arm around Zoe, who rested her head on her shoulder. They both sighed. “I have to do something about this, Zoe.”
“I thought you were already doing that. You’re getting Eva help in learning how to master those gifts. What else can you do?”
Theresa was silent for a long moment, her head bowed and her eyes closed. Zoe wasn’t sure if she was praying, so she decided to stay quiet.
Theresa opened her eyes and looked heavenward. She nodded. “Prayer works, Zoe.”
“Is that what you were doing? Getting a message from above on the holy telephone?”
Theresa looked at Zoe and laughed. “I just adore you,” she said, and kissed the top of Zoe’s head. “I was asking permission.”
“For what?”
“Angels and saints have a code, and that code says we are not allowed to interfere in human affairs unless we are directed to do so,” Theresa explained only to have Zoe snicker in response. “It’s not often I ask permission.”
“I never do,” Zoe replied, and smiled wryly.
“Hm, yes, but you don’t have to answer to the Chief Saint.”
“So what did the Chief say?”
“If I do what I’m planning on doing, it’s going to cost me.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“No, but it’s going to be worth it.” Theresa took a deep breath and produced a lit cigarette, much to Zoe’s amusement. “Want a drag of this?”
“What are you going to do?” Zoe asked as she took the lit cigarette and took a drag.
Theresa paused for a long moment. “Heal Eva.”
Zoe stared at her, the cigarette forgotten. “W...what?”
“I’m going to heal Eva. She’s trying to learn how to control the gifts at an age when she should have mastered them. This has never happened before. If she wasn’t suffering from the head injury and the effects from Paris and Aiden, it wouldn’t be an issue, but she is. Her back problems would prevent her from fully being able to use the gifts as they were intended.”
“Could you have removed the block if the Paris bombing, Aiden, and the bucket hadn’t happened?”
“No. As I said at the meeting with everyone present, Eva needs to have some level of control before I remove the block. Her ability to concentrate and to control would not have been a problem if the bucket hadn’t hit her. The paint bucket compounded the damage caused in Aiden. Over time she would have learned how to control her gifts, especially the telekinesis.”
Zoe was puzzled about that particular gift. “That’s an odd gift to have. Why would God give her that? It doesn’t make sense.”
Theresa chuckled. “I don’t understand it either, but God gave it to her and I’m not about to question Him. I’m already in a lot of trouble.”
“That whole ‘no interfering rule’ you have is not working very well for you.”
“No, it’s not, smarty-pants.” Theresa tapped Zoe on the nose with her finger. “As I was saying, Eva could have mastered her gifts even with the damage done in Aiden, but with the head injury the block is slipping, and she doesn’t have the luxury of time to do so. I have to intervene.”
“You are going to heal her,” Zoe repeated, and for the first time since they found out about the block on Eva’s gifts, she felt hopeful. “This is going to be life changing for her.”
“It will be a huge change for her. She’s had chronic pain for twelve years and she knows how to deal with it. Now she will have to adjust to her body doing things differently.” Theresa smiled at Zoe and put her arm around her shoulders. “What this means for you is that you will get Eva whole again.”
“Does the Chief Saint like chocolates? Because if he or she does, then I plan on sending a ship container’s worth up to heaven,” Zoe said and looked up into a cloudless sky.
Theresa laughed. “I think that’s all the gratitude He needs. Now, are you feeling a little bit better?”
Zoe nodded. “I almost got killed.”
“You are going to heal Eva’s head injury and her back?”
“Yes. This will allow her to deal with the gifts much more easily.”
“Will you heal her scars as well and get rid of her horrible memories?”
Theresa paused for a long moment. “If I do that, it may create more problems that neither of you could explain. Her scars are not the cause of her pain. The cause of her pain is the muscle and bone that were damaged, and I will free her from that pain. I won’t remove the scars but the damage that is the source of her problems. I can’t erase memories, Zoe.”
“When can you do it? Can you do it now?” Zoe got up off the sofa and stood there, waiting for Theresa to move. “Can I watch?”
“You have to have some patience,” Theresa said and laughed along with Zoe. “In the morning, Eva will be healed.”
“Why not now? Surely, you don’t have a curfew on when you can do all these miracles, do you?”
“You really don’t have patience, do you?”
Zoe pursed her lips. “No.”
“Sit down and have some more Retsina. Let’s drink to the impending miracle.” Theresa chuckled and materialized a carafe of the Greek wine.
***
Zoe had been awake since midnight. It was a warm night, the window was open and the drapes from the window were pulled back to allow a light breeze to enter. Zoe was sitting on the rocking chair that was made by her brother. The lamp on the table beside her was subdued. Zoe sat on rocking chair with her sketchbook and waited for the miracle to occur. Eva lay on her side, away from Zoe. The soft light of the lamp touched Eva’s naked back and illuminated her scars. Zoe was certain the scars were less pronounced, but unless she turned on the bedroom light, she wouldn’t know for certain. Theresa told her Eva would be healed in the morning. It was now three in the morning. She wanted to wake Eva—her desire to find out warred with her desire to let Eva sleep.
[Intertwined Souls 05.0] No Good Deed Page 29
