H.E.A.R.T. Saga: The Children

by Linna Drehmel

  As she had learned in school, she focused her mind on the energy within her. DraDonna gathered the energy to the center of her body, pushing it down her right arm to her wrist using the grain of HEART stone to intensify the energy. She then channeled the energy to her hand, then to her forefinger. Her hand looked as though she was wearing a glove made of blue light, the forefinger bright white.

  She bent close to her work pushing the energy that emanated from her finger into the soft grains of the wood, creating a delicate swirling design. She could feel the tingle of the energy in her chest continually run down her right arm into her hand. DraDonna focused the blue sparks on the fine details of the MDC cabinet, making sure that every exquisite detail was perfect.

  She was so involved in finishing the MDC with her energy reserves that she did not notice that the final tolling for the evening’s energy time had come and gone. When she had finally finished it was well after nightfall.

  DraDonna felt very drained from using up so much of the energy; she could hardly think straight as she made her way back to her house.

  When she entered through the front door her mind was so clouded with exhaustion that she walked past the HEART stone altar. Even though her body needed more energy, the only thought she had was to go to bed. She needed sleep more than anything.

  She stumbled to her bedroom and saw the soft and inviting bed was occupied by her sleeping husband. Without changing into her nightclothes, DraDonna carefully climbed into bed next to DraDevon and instantly fell asleep.

  Awake

  2

  All DraDonna knew was a black cloud of exhaustion. Her body may have settled nicely into the soft folds of the bed, but her mind was sinking into a deep abyss from which she felt she would never escape. Darkness swirled all around her. She felt like she was adrift in nothing. She had no body and her mind could not hold on to a single thought.

  The darkness then began to abate and she could see forms and shapes in it. The light grew little by little until she could see that the shapes were in fact the clouds that she had seen in the sky every day of her life. They moved around her, each little cloud having a life of its own and wanting to tell her about it. DraDonna’s gaze was drawn to one specific cloud. It was a little brighter than the rest. It sat on her shoulder for a moment and slid down her arm, landing on the ground.

  It was then that she noticed she was standing on a mountaintop. Frightened by this, she sat on a nearby boulder hoping to stop the dizziness that threatened to overwhelm her. The one bright cloud settled at her feet.

  She looked down at it and said, “What are you?”

  The cloud’s light pulsated as the form changed and grew. It was just a few seconds until it took on the form of a person. The form answered DraDonna’s question: “Not what, but who.”

  She gasped in surprise. She knew that voice. “Tatiana?” she asked. “Is that you?” Her voice shook with emotion.

  The form took its final shape: DraDonna’s lifelong friend Ambassador Tatiana. “Yes, Donna. It is I.”

  “How… why?” DraDonna stammered. Normally hearing someone calling her by her child name would have irritated her, but all she wanted to do was to stand up and hug her friend.

  Tatiana stopped the young woman’s embrace by backing up a bit and placing her transparent hands out in front of her. “I would love to embrace you child, but I can keep your mind here only so long and I am forbidden to touch you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I hope that you will. All of us need you to be awake. We need you to understand, but I am limited by my oath to the HEART in what I can tell you.”

  “But…” DraDonna started to interrupt, but Tatiana stopped her again with a wave of her hand.

  “I know you have questions, my dear, but we don’t have time for you to ask them. I have a pretty good idea of what you would ask, so I will do my best to explain what I can. I know that you have felt all your life that there is something wrong. Most people have tried to say that it is you who are wrong. Donna you are not wrong, but you are different. Special. It’s the world. It’s…” She stopped for a moment, and then continued. “The world is wrong. You are the only one who has the mind to do what must be done to save us all.”

  “Tatiana, this doesn’t make any sense. Save who?”

  “Do you see all the clouds?” The old soul gestured to all of the little clouds that were constantly moving around them. “They are not clouds. They are like me - souls that cannot move on. There are so many of us now that we block the sky.” She paused and pointed up. “Look DraDonna, I need you to see.”

  DraDonna turned her eyes up to the sky and was able to see past all the old souls that were trapped. She gasped sharply when she saw the countless number of precious little points of light. There were so many of them, and it looked as though they were trying with no success to get through the cloud-like souls. “What are they?” DraDonna finally breathed out.

  “Those are new souls my friend, the souls of babies. Think about it Donna. Have there been many babies born lately?” Tatiana paused for just a small moment and bowed her head in sorrow. “We don’t mean to block them out, but we can’t move on.”

  DraDonna’s head began to spin as she realized that this was why there had not been any live births lately.

  “That’s right, Donna.” The old soul confirmed. “We can’t move on and they can’t get past all of us.”

  “But what can I do?” DraDonna said. “Why show this to me now?”

  “DraDonna, I told you for all your life that you were special, that you were meant for something big. Well, this is it. We need you to free our souls so we can move on and the new souls can be born into the world.”

  “But what can I do? I’m only a finish carpenter, and not a very good one at that.”

  Tatiana sighed in frustration.

  DraDonna broke in with more questions. “I don’t understand how it is you are able to come to me tonight. I am not sure any of this is real. How do I know that this isn’t just the first stage of energy madness?”

  “You are not energy-mad Donna.” Tatiana said with exasperation in her voice. “I was able to come to you tonight because your mind was free of the HEART’s energy. In the beginning the energy was used to do good and simple things. Now it clouds the mind and suppresses a person’s natural personality traits. I need your mind to remain awake. I need you to know that you are not just a finish carpenter, but also a scientist. If you will look for it, you can find what will set us free. I should also warn you: you must avoid taking energy if you can. There may be times you want or need energy for healing or travel, so you need to start eating a plant called Traveler’s Joy.” Tatiana leaned over and gestured to a nearby tree with a vine growing around the base of it. “That vine with the white and purple flowers is what you must eat.”

  DraDonna, desperately trying to keep up with what she was being told said, “I don’t understand. Why I would need to eat it?”

  Tatiana again sighed, “Traveler’s Joy will keep your mind from being affected by the HEART’s energy.”

  “Why do none of those in the communities know about this plant, but you do?” DraDonna asked.

  “There are many secrets that an Ambassador needs to keep.” The old soul looked desperate. “I need you to not forget your gift of science, so you must eat this plant. We all need you to figure this out, for the good of all souls past, present, and future.”

  DraDonna felt like she was going to cry. It seemed like such a great responsibility, and she didn’t even know where to start. “Tatiana,” she addressed the old soul, “how am I supposed to know where I should start? I don’t know what to do.”

  Then another thought came to DraDonna that caused the cold grip of fear to wrap around her soul. “Isn’t science forbidden by the HEART? If I start poking around and someone finds out, I’ll get mind wiped with negative energy. You know the Ambassadors don’t like me; they think I’m bad for the community. I know that even Ambass
ador Symon doesn’t like me. I am sure to be discovered and…” With a shiver she let the sentence drop.

  “Child,” Tatiana said. “Science was only forbidden because in… in…” she stammered and stopped for a moment, a look of pain crossing her ghostly face. “In times past, science has led to much trouble. But I am forbidden to speak of any of that.”

  “I just don’t know how I can hide something like this from everyone.” DraDonna said, feeling fear take over. “Didn’t you tell me a story once about a man who was mind wiped just for calling the blood muscle in his chest a heart?”

  “That was more a case of blasphemy than forbidden science. I know you have a clever mind and that you will find a way to keep others from finding out.” She continued quickly, “I am running out of time, DraDonna, and there is still so much to tell you. I need you to look closely into my eyes. You may not understand at first, but I will need you to remember everything I show you.”

  DraDonna stood on shaky legs and faced her closest friend. It was an odd thing to look into her eyes. Tatiana was mostly transparent, yet DraDonna could still see the color of her lovely dark brown eyes.

  “Hold very still, DraDonna. This is forbidden but I am out of time,” Tatiana said. Holding the younger woman’s gaze, she placed one hand on either side of her head.

  DraDonna felt a warm soft sensation pass from the older woman’s hands into her mind, and she began to see an image. It was odd at first, and she didn’t understand. She could see the ground as if she were flying just a few feet above it. She could hear Tatiana say, “See child, see! What you are looking for is in the ground. See!”

  The landscape that she saw changed from the Ambassador’s community to the First Councilor’s community, to the Second Councilor’s community— but they all looked the same; the communities, the lakes, and the mountains all looked so much alike. The vision flashed by quickly. Tatiana showed her odd-looking animals, strange beasts that she never knew existed.

  “What are they?” she asked in astonishment. But her questions were only met with silence.

  In the vision she also flew slowly by one of the old solace cabins. This must, she thought, have been an image of the past because the cabin looked new. The vision settled so DraDonna could look in the window. She saw a woman about her age with long, dark blonde hair looking through some kind of tool or instrument. “What is that?” DraDonna exclaimed.

  “It is a science tool used to look at things so small that one cannot see them with the eye alone.” Tatiana said, her voice sounding weak. “She is using it to see the soil.” Then the image began to fade along with Tatiana’s face. Before the vision completely faded, she heard her old friend whisper, “See!” one last time.

  After seeing her friend’s soul diminish, DraDonna found that she was standing again on the mountain. It was quiet and she was alone. There weren’t even any of the old cloud-like souls left. She began to shiver uncontrollably as tears streamed down her face. “I just don’t understand,” she sobbed to herself, suddenly struck by a wave of dizziness. She tried to sit back down on the boulder but felt the ground rocking beneath her feet, and she fell. She did not hit the rocky ground of the mountainside like she thought she would; instead she was again falling through the blackness of the abyss.

  DraDonna feared she was going to be doomed to fall disembodied through blackness for eternity, when the jarring feeling of landing caused her to sit up and open her eyes. With tears on her face she looked around the room. “I’m home!” She sobbed.

  “DraDonna,” a sleepy voice said. “What’s wrong, my love?”

  “DraDevon, it was a dream. But it was real!” she said with tears still running from her eyes. “I saw so many things, but I don’t understand.”

  DraDevon sat up in bed next to her. He put his arm around her shoulders in an effort to comfort his hysterical wife. “It was just a dream. A dream that was brought on by the fact that you missed the evening’s energy.”

  “I know it was a dream, but we’re not supposed to remember our dreams. And she told me I have so much to do!”

  “You finished the MDC. You don’t need to worry about it anymore,” he said, misunderstanding her.

  “It was so real,” she sobbed. “I saw her and there is just so much for me to do. I don’t know where to start.”

  “DraDonna,” he said in a firm and gentle voice, “you need to lay back down and go back to sleep. After daybreak you need to take extra energy.”

  Still feeling the weight of exhaustion pressing down on her, she allowed her husband to pull her back onto the soft mattress. She snuggled close to him and fell asleep again.

  This time it was dreamless.

  Change

  3

  DraDonna woke up but felt as if someone had used wood glue on her eyes, because she was having a hard time opening them. When she did manage to get her eyes open, she wished she hadn’t. The morning light assaulted her eyes and a pounding began in her head.

  She looked over to DraDevon’s side of the bed and found it empty. DraDonna knew that he had already left to do one last check on the MDC and then deliver and install it in the Sol home.

  She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. DraDonna felt a little shaky, but she understood why. Her mind and body craved the HEART’s energy. She sat back down on the bed for a moment to try to think. But the foggy headache that throbbed in her skull was making it hard.

  “Was it real?” she asked the empty room. “Dare I…?” DraDonna went over everything in her mind. It was all so bizarre. She thought the clouds in the sky are old souls? That couldn’t be. Old souls died and were welcomed into the HEART.

  DraDonna sat and began to talk herself out of everything that she had seen and heard in the dream. She didn’t need this in her life. She didn’t want things to change. “Besides, science is forbidden,” she said.

  She stood up once more and walked over to the HEART stone altar. She was going to take in an extra dose of the clean refreshing energy. She wanted it; she needed it. She wanted to be rid of the pain in her head.

  With a sigh of relief, DraDonna knelt at the HEART stone altar and placed her hands on the cool white stone. Just the thought of the little blue sparks making their way through her mind and body made her feel a little better.

  “Stupid dream,” she said to the empty house. “Who remembers dreams anyway?”

  She knew the HEART blocked their minds from remembering dreams. Dreams weren’t good for anyone to remember, so the HEART’s energy removed the memories. People didn’t remember their dreams. But she remembered this one. It would just be more proof that she wasn’t good for the community if word ever got out that she had remembered a dream.

  Yet there was something that Tatiana had said to her about her mind being clear of the energy so that she could contact her. The logic of this did not escape DraDonna. Her body had been drained of the energy last night by working on the MDC.

  DraDonna closed her eyes tight in a futile attempt to block out the memories of the dream, but could not. All she could see was those trapped souls and the little points of light not able to get in.

  DraDonna wanted more than anything to block the very painful memory. Not too long ago her sister had given birth to a stillborn baby. The sorrow was still so fresh, and unwanted tears streamed down her face again. They weren’t just for her sister. DraDonna had a feeling that if her sister couldn’t have a baby, then there was the possibility that she wouldn’t be able to have a baby either. She knew that DraDevon was hoping, in the next few years, that the HEART would allow them to have a baby and that it would have her copper colored hair.

  She took her hands off the stone and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to shut out the pain of her sister’s loss. She wanted to shut out blaring fears of her own as well. “It’s true,” she sobbed as she sat there at the HEART stone altar. Rocking back and forth, she let the pain out along with her tears.

  She took several deep breaths to calm herself
before standing up. She wiped the tears from her eyes and face with the back of her hand. She walked into the bathroom on shaky legs with the thought that a shower would help her feel a little better.

  After she removed the rumpled clothing that she had worn for over a day, DraDonna stepped into the stream of hot water and sighed with relief. Thinking only of the hot water, she was able to block out any thoughts of dreams and feelings of loss. As she cleaned her work-soiled body, she felt some of the stress wash away, taking with it her raw emotion.

  After her shower, she walked to her room with the towel wrapped modestly around her body. She opened the drawers to the dresser that she had made and chose her clothes for the day: a long tan skirt, white linen shirt, and long brown vest. She pulled her work boots on over white linen socks feeling slightly rebellious.

  “Let people call me unladylike, I’m going to protect my feet!” she said. As she walked out of her house she decided to set aside all that she had seen in the dream.

  DraDonna was determined to make it in time to help DraDevon with the Sol family’s MDC, but she had only taken a few steps down the path to the road when she noticed the trees in her yard. Wrapped around the base of the trees were the vines Tatiana had shown her in the dream, the ones with the white and purple flowers.

  With trepidation in her step, she walked over and bent down to smell one of the light purple blossoms. It had a clean sharp smell that eased some of the foggy headache she’d had from the time she woke up.

  She plucked a piece of the vine with several flowers attached to it. The vine itself was medium green with clusters of six leaves that were slightly darker in hue.

  DraDonna took a look around her and made a mental note that the plant was growing everywhere. Some of the blossoms were purple and some were white, but she could tell that they were all the same plant. She mused to herself why she never noticed these lovely little flowers before.