The Crystal Circle: A Paranormal Romance Novel

by L. Rosenman

  While Raz’el spoke with pathos and looked at the group and the ceiling, Michal took a pencil out of one pocket and a small yellow pad of sticky notes from the other and hurriedly wrote behind Dave’s back so that Raz’el wouldn’t notice: “Dave is in mortal danger! Brown trailer. The trailer park. Saul and Gidi. M16 – Murderers. Underworld. Urgent. Michal Rafael.”

  She copied the note and put one in her right pocket and one note in her left. Raz’el noticed the note she had put in her left pocket. He interrupted his speech and looked at her for a long time.

  Not a muscle moved in his face, and then he continued. “So we have to forget what has been said here. Because to truly challenge is to do so without prior knowledge... that is the only challenge that will lift you higher and higher. You will be purified by the challenge, deal with it, and rise above it. You are allowed to keep in your hearts the feelings of love and appreciation that we feel for you. I believe in you, precious souls. I love you, and each member of the Crystal Circle will also always love you. Forever.”

  When the group turned toward the white corridor, Raz’el sent a stern stare to Michal. She felt a tingling, a burning electric current in her left hip. The note had been destroyed. Raz’el didn’t know there was another note, still intact, in her right pocket.

  “Michal, wait a minute.” She heard his soft voice. She turned. Never before had she been in the presence of Raz’el by herself. The situation was strange. She blushed and felt guilty. “Why did you do that? It’s against the rules.”

  “I couldn’t tolerate this bloodshed. If it occurred, Raz’el,” she whispered, “I couldn’t bear to live, bear the fact that I knew and let it happen, and it really doesn’t matter which of them dies.”

  “The rules are thousands of years old,” said Raz’el, and his eyes drilled into her pupils. “They were created only for your benefit, to make you better. That’s what you want. I’m just standing guard and acting as your guide, available here for you.”

  “But, surely, not every round has to result in death every time. Can’t people be better without suffering the pain of the death of a loved one?”

  Raz’el smiled at her and the wrinkles around his eyes deepened. He looked older than his thousands of years. He put his hand on her shoulder and said, “You’re a young soul, Michal, and you need an additional challenge. Here.” He put a crystal ball in her hands, whirled, and disappeared. She stared at the darkening sphere for a while and turned toward the exit.

  Michal had forgotten, as if she had never known about it, that in her right pocket was a tiny note. She sighed and got up from the little pond. An hour later the lights went out in the small trailer.

  07/06/2013 – Twenty-first day of disappearance

  After two successful meetings in trailers closer to the eastern side of the Uprooted Camp, Lynn and Saul sat down to count their plunder for that night. Gidi was waiting for them with the takings from the stalls in Eilat.

  “Gidi, could you fetch a couple of six-packs of beer and some burgers from the store? It’s getting dry in here. This place is pretty much nowhere, anyways. Everything’s on me. We’ll have a serious meal, okay?” Gidi took in Saul’s overly kind smile and Lynn’s cleavage, and then he left, slamming the door so hard that the trailer shook. They both smiled and silence permeated like liquor in their veins.

  “You don’t eat a healthy diet at all, Saul. Have you always eaten like that?”

  He thought about her question. What if he did? And the matter of his identity? The disappearance of his entire life in a cloud of amnesia bothered him more than he cared to admit. He wanted desperately to make the big hit and leave everything behind, to start with a clean slate in the Bahamas. A truly clean slate. The question was whether his past, the one hidden inside his mind, would come after him. Before leaving, he had to sort out matters with Dave. He knew that if he stole Dave’s girl and killed him, tranquility will be his. It was beyond reason. This was the only unresolved issue, the urge was irresistible. He sighed and stared at her.

  “Let’s forget about me, Lynn. Let’s talk a little about you. You’re a heavenly creature, you know? A true swan. I don’t know if I’ll stay here much longer, but I’d love to take you with me. Look at how you’ve handled the sales. You swim comfortably in this economic environment and... and you’re mesmerizing. Forget about this Dave. What is he to you, anyway?”

  “I’m just renting his room. He’s like a brother. A cute guy.”

  “Cuuuute!” Saul twisted his mouth.

  “Look, Saul...” Lynn dared to say. She looked into the endless gray of his eyes and peeked at his hands, which weren’t as calloused or rough as Dave’s. “I don’t know why you devote yourself to dishonest, problematic, illegal ways.”

  “Me?” Saul said innocently. “We help people who understand nothing about business to increase their capital gain without having to use the services of exploitive banks.”

  “Well, you sure said it enough times!” Lynn giggled, she ignored the insinuation folded into the word ‘we.’ “You’ll surely flee to the edge of the world as soon as you have enough money... Look, I don’t know what you did in Tel Aviv before you got here, and you never told me. You say you don’t remember...” She was silent then breathed a lot of air into her lungs, “but look at the empire you’ve created in just a couple of weeks! You’ve kicked the fat guy and the skinny guy out of the boardwalk stalls... Yeah, I noticed. I’m not stupid! You’ve created a network of investors, a paid informant network. You have a loyal deputy, Gidi, who does everything you command him to, and you have me...” she hesitated, “and you’re an expert, a real high flier in investments and stocks, and you have tables and charts and methods of persuasion and systematic training conversations and... you’re really talented, and you could have been the manager of a great empire. Maybe you have been.”

  “Maybe.” He looked at her and motioned with his hand for her to continue.

  “You shouldn’t get so dirty. You have great skills, and I know you also have a great soul. I saw how you look at the sea, how fond you are of the children here in the camp. You just choose to surround yourself in all this...” She pursed her lips and then fired off, “this... this filth.” She saw his eyes grow larger. He came closer to her and laid a heavy hand on her shoulder.

  “Lynn,” he whispered, “what are you trying to do?” She shuddered. Hidden in his trailer, his large body between her and the weapons, she didn’t stand much of a chance.

  “I feel that if you still have a choice, Saul, you must choose another way. That you have a kernel of good inside you, you have a talent and people follow you. I don’t want you to get caught. I don’t want everything to collapse on you. Drop it. Before it’s too late.”

  He moved closer until she could see his capillaries and the pores of his skin, and then whispered directly into her mouth, “Who are you, Lynn? Whose side are you playing for?” She stood up and brushed her curls, which had begun to grow again.

  “I’m on your side, Saul, always.”

  Saul stood up. A gap of a mere twenty centimeters remained between the top of his head and the ceiling, and into that gap drained dreams and despair, desire and hope and hesitation mixed with the smell of the sea and nicotine. He grabbed her chin and looked deep into her eyes, wondering if there was anything he didn’t see - fear, despair, surrender, threat? But all he saw was love and perhaps even affection. Pity... something in the tough layer he put on when he left the hotel in Tel Aviv cracked. His eyes were covered with a thin layer of...

  “Go to your Dave!” he shouted. “Quickly!” She looked at him a moment longer, snatched up her purse, and the door closed behind her.

  Dave had gotten home an hour earlier. He went inside the trailer and whistled to Tom the Cat. He searched the house, turned over the covers, and looked behind the trailer. Tom was gone! After a long while, he remained sitting on the steps of the trailer, staring into the darkness and biting his nails. Something bad had happened. He’s wandered off, explo
ring, said the optimistic voice in his head. But... no, not Tom, the coward would never leave the house. He identified Lynn’s swift footsteps from afar.

  He stood up and smiled. “Hey!”

  “Hey,” Lynn said with a smile. “What are you doing sitting here? Enjoying the moon?”

  “Not exactly,” he replied, and his brows shrunk. He bit his lip and said quietly, “Lynn, Tom’s disappeared.”

  “Tom? Where would he go?”

  “I don’t know. I searched everywhere. You didn’t take him with you, by any chance, right?” She looked at him in surprise and shook her head. After an hour of searching the house and outside, they entered the trailer.

  Lynn said, “He’ll show up,” and gave Dave a long hug. She knew how much he cared for Tom. He breathed her intoxicating scent and buried his face in her curls.

  Finally, he detached from her and said, “I wonder what role you play, Lynn, in all of this?”

  “I’m on your side. You have to believe me.” She looked deep into his eyes. He felt her sincerity in his heart, but his mind refused to believe.

  “You hang around all day with those friends of yours, these new people, getting the whole camp to invest their money in those two crooks. You’ll go on your way and I - who live with these people here – won’t be able to show my face, from shame.”

  “I’m there to reveal what’s behind them. There’s something dangerous in them. I’m not afraid of them, and I have nothing to lose. If there’s something criminal going on, I’ll turn them over to the police. Bear with me, Dave. Bear with me.”

  He blinked, but didn’t answer.

  “You don’t have to join in. Here, take this.” She gave him all the money Saul had given her. “Put this in the joint business account. Tomorrow, I’ll find out a little more. I think I’m onto something, and then I’ll give everything to the police. No one cares about mere suspicions... I don’t think there’s enough yet for an arrest. And Tom? Who can prove anything? This is a warning. You’re standing in their way. But they have a proposal. They want you to join them, Dave! Saul asked that you meet with him.”

  He looked at her bright eyes, and a small smile emerged on his face. He guffawed and patted his knees. “And what did you say, Lynn? What did you tell him about that?”

  “I said I’d speak to you.” A small smile glowed on her face. “So I’ve spoken to you!”

  “I’ll consult with my lawyers. Tell him...”

  They both burst out laughing, and the trailer shook. Dave lowered his head and thought. He went back to look at her with a slumped head, and after swallowing a deep breath, he nodded slightly and said, “So, you want a Coke?” And so ended the conversation.

  Hovering on the wings of sleep, Lynn began to float in space and reached a small town that was disturbingly familiar. It was morning, early autumn, and in the dream she was a child, seven years old.

  She jumped, leaping in front of the mirror at the entrance - two braids, a girl named Michal, dressed in school uniform: a light green sweater and a skirt. She’d recently started first grade and was very proud of it. Her Hebrew was already much better than her parents’. When they’d arrived from the United States a year earlier, her parents knew a bit of the language, but she had none. Since then, she’d become proficient in Hebrew. She loved to draw and to write, but the nickname her classmates gave her, ‘Giraffe’, she didn’t love as much. It was, of course, due to her being tall. She tried to hide her height by bending over as she walked down the street.

  That morning, she had a very important mission. She had to take her younger brother, David, who was only two years old, to his nursery, located just a few blocks from home. Usually her mother would take David, but Michal was already going to school by herself. Her parents trusted her. That day, her mother had to stay home because someone had to come over... with papers... to sign. Michal didn’t understand much of it, but she knew it was related to the shouting and upset that prevailed at home, and the fact that her father still didn’t have a job and that her mother wanted to go out to work. So she’d come home alone and collect her little brother on the way and make sandwiches for them... but that would happen only when her mother went out to work. That day was a try-out: she was to walk little David and be solely responsible for him.

  Sweet little David had already started saying all kinds of inexplicable words and syllables. Sometimes it annoyed her when he called her ‘Ee-ra-fh’ because he’d heard her crying to her mother about the kids calling her ‘giraffe’ in class. Michal and David walked along the sidewalk, hopping along happily, holding hands, and Michal told her brother a funny story about Bugs Bunny. Their schoolbags danced on their backs. When they arrived at the crossing, David suddenly escaped her grip and shouted with all his might, “Ee-ra-fh, Ee-ra-fh!” He dashed into the road, and as he looked back at his sister, he didn’t notice the huge white car approaching from the right. The vehicle hit him and threw him into the air. He landed on the sidewalk across the street. He didn’t move. Michal was standing across the street from him, terrified. She didn’t understand what was happening.

  “Stand up, David. Get up quickly!” she screamed, but didn’t dare cross the street. The little lunch bag and its contents were scattered far away, and he laid there, blood on his clothes, groaning and moving his head, but he didn’t get up. He was covered in blood! She looked at him, wide-eyed, and tried to cross the street, screaming, “David, David, David! Get up, quickly!”

  A man grabbed her arm gently and said, “Is this your little brother?”

  She nodded, her eyes wet with tears. She shivered and felt guilty. Mom said she was responsible for him!

  “Come with me. Good people will take care of him.” He pointed to a group of people who had run to help David. Someone ran to the payphone to call an ambulance.

  “You can’t go over there, child. What’s your name?”

  She couldn’t answer, only sobbed, unable to speak.

  “You know where you live?” She nodded. “Can you take me there, and I’ll tell your mom and dad?”

  Michal looked at David lying on the sidewalk. Why wasn’t he standing up? The man said softly, “Sorry, sweetheart, but you can’t help him. But don’t worry. They’ll help him. Can you take me to your home?”

  She nodded and began to run. The man came panting after her, and after two blocks arrived at the little house at the end of the miserable tenement building. When Miriam opened the door and saw her daughter sobbing and the panting man, she realized something dreadful had happened. The man explained to her about the accident. He didn’t see the accident. Only the girl had seen it. Her father ran back with the man, and her mother stayed home. She hugged Michal, tears streaming down her face, and said a prayer.

  07/07/2013 – Twenty-second day of disappearance

  The morning started very early with loud shouts, “Tom, Tom!” and searching. When Dave tired, he went downtown to get supplies for the restaurant. When he returned, he and Lynn dragged the bags to the refrigerators behind the trailer. Lynn opened the refrigerator and screamed. She kept screaming until Dave came running. There, in the freezer, between the frozen cutlets and peas, lay Tom, curled up and frozen.

  Dave took him out and sat on the stairs, rubbing Tom’s fur to thaw him out, and wept. He wept as hard as he had when his mother died. Lynn sat in shock, also frozen, and her mind raced feverishly. It could be a prank, of course, one of the children, or some neighbor, but... the kids and the neighbors loved Dave. They wouldn’t want to hurt him like that. Only someone whose business was damaged due to the adverse campaign Dave was running in the camp, only one person... or maybe two.

  While they sat there, the dead cat in their hands, there were shouts from some neighbors. “Police, police!”

  Lynn rushed to put the four restaurant tables inside the trailer. Dave also came in and put Tom between the blankets. He was still burning with a childish hope that maybe the heat would bring him back to life. He digested the fact that a person, or perso
ns, was behind that terrible act, and perhaps it had to do with the fact that he’d asked Lynn to inform Saul and Gidi that he had no intention of getting together with them for a meeting.

  Dave heard loud noises outside. A large number of police officers, detectives from Eilat, were flooding into the camp, opening doors and interrogating people. They intentionally came after eight in the morning, when the children had already left for their kindergartens and schools. Some residents of the camp were in various stages of preparation to leave for work in the city or the sea, or lying around idly on the shore, but most of them were still in their homes.

  The questions they were asked by the officers were very similar: “Have you seen a tall, big man around here, offering opportunities to invest in his bank and earn a lot of money? He’s wanted by the police.”

  “Is there a Saul living or hanging around here? He’s with a friend and they’re raising money.”

  Most people who were questioned knew Saul, of course. The detectives explained that this was a man who had squeezed and threatened the merchants in Eilat, who was dangerous to the public, but no one would admit that Saul lived in the camp. After all, Saul owed them all a lot of money. Each man had his own personal account, and they’d lose everything if the police took Saul in. Besides, Saul seemed decent, like a real banker or accountant, he spoke well, and he gave the impression of being something of an expert on the economy, really not the kind of bastard the cops would be after. They looked at the pictures the policemen showed them and shook their heads. Lynn saw the composite sketch and was not surprised, but her face was impassive when she told the police she didn’t know this person. When she looked at the faces of the rest of the missing persons on the policemen’s tablet -laughing children, women and men the public had lost hope of finding – she saw her own picture, laughing and joyful, as she’d looked when she came to Eilat.