Awakenings (Intertwined Souls Series Book 4)

by Mary D. Brooks

  Irene rushed into the kitchen.

  “Katarina, stop and put her down,” Irene said. “I think you may want to let her go; she can’t breathe.”

  Katarina let go of Eva, and Eva sank down onto a chair. She heard footsteps bounding down the steps. Zoe ran into the kitchen, a towel wrapped around her and dripping wet.

  “What the hell.” Zoe stopped in front of Irene.

  Eva had her hand on her heart in obvious distress.

  Zoe went down on her knees in front of her. “Hey, I’m here.”

  Eva nodded. “I’m o…okay.” She took a deep breath. “I’m okay.”

  “You don’t look okay to me.” Zoe tilted Eva’s head and looked into her eyes. “You got startled.”

  “This is getting embarrassing. At least this time I didn’t slip.”

  “That’s a good thing because I don’t see any vases lying about, and she’s a lot bigger than Tommy.” Zoe brushed Eva’s hair from her eyes.

  Eva sat straight in the chair and smiled weakly at Zoe, whose towel had opened. “That’s one way to resuscitate me,” she whispered.

  Zoe stuck her tongue out and closed her towel. “Are you going to be okay so I can go and start my bath?”

  “Yes, Mother, I don’t need hand holding.”

  “Alright then.” Zoe stood and looked down at Eva, who was gazing up at her. She kissed her tenderly then walked past Irene without saying a word. Katarina followed her out of the kitchen.

  “Dear god, I have to stop reacting like a scared child,” Eva muttered, and blew out the breath she was holding. With her shaky hands, she took out her cigarette case and removed a cigarette.

  Irene held out the lighter and lit her cigarette. Eva looked at her surprised.

  “Take a couple of puffs. It will settle your nerves,” Irene said quietly. She picked up the cigarette case, took a cigarette for herself, and lit it.

  “Do you smoke?”

  “Indeed. It’s one of my many vices.” Irene chuckled. She took a drag of the cigarette. “Has your heart stopped racing?”

  Eva nodded. She felt embarrassed that she had been taken by surprise and by her reaction.

  “You don’t need to be embarrassed. When you suffer from shellshock that is what happens. It’s very common to get startled by even the slightest of things.”

  Eva gazed at Irene for a long moment. “Did Aunt Tessa tell you?”

  “No, you just did by the way you reacted. I’ve worked with soldiers who suffered from shellshock, and that is one of the signs,” Irene said. “There is a great deal we need to discuss, Eva. When you are ready…”

  “I’m ready,” Eva replied. “I keep getting told that the story with my aunt Tessa will be revealed, and I hear little bits and pieces, but I don’t get the full story.”

  “I’ll tell you the full story once I explain why my maid went a little crazy. The house was robbed recently and Katarina caught the men looking for whatever they were looking for. She saw you, and you are not exactly petite, so she thought you were robbing the place.”

  “I was standing in front of the refrigerator. Do robbers steal food?”

  “As I said, she went a little crazy.” Irene put Eva’s cigarette in her mouth. “Smoke it. You need to calm your nerves.”

  Eva puffed on the cigarette and exhaled. “You are not like any nun I’ve ever met.”

  “Good. I wouldn’t want to be like any nun I’ve ever met, and I’ve met quite a few.” Irene chuckled.

  Katarina walked back into the kitchen a little hesitantly. She was taller than Eva, a rotund woman in her late fifties. Her hair was up in a bun and she wore a dark blue uniform and a white apron.

  “I’m so sorry, Fraulein.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Katarina. I’m a little jumpy.”

  “You’re a little jumpy, I’m a little jumpy; it makes for a very interesting morning,” Katarina said, and smiled shyly. “What would you like me to make you for breakfast? A big girl like you would probably like some bauerfruhstuck?”

  Eva grinned at her favorite breakfast.

  Katarina laughed. “I think I have my answer. I will call you when it’s ready.”

  Eva stood up along with Irene and they walked out of the kitchen and into a small study. Irene shut the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “So, why don’t you finish your cigarette and tell me about Zoe?”

  Eva sat down on a comfortable overstuffed chair. She picked up her cigarette from the ashtray and took a drag. She then stubbed it out, half-smoked.

  Irene smiled. “Or you could stub it out. Now where do I start?”

  “We can talk about Zoe as soon as you answer some of the thousand questions I have.”

  “Only a thousand?”

  “How was it possible for me to see you in Aiden?” Eva asked.

  “That’s going to be in the middle of the story. I’ll start at the beginning,” Irene said.

  Eva looked up at a gentle knock on the door. Zoe entered with a tray containing three mugs. Her hair was slightly damp, but she was fully clothed.

  “Katarina thought you might like some tea.” Zoe placed the tray on the nearby coffee table. She handed a cup to Irene and another to Eva. Then she dragged a chair next to Eva and sat down.

  “Sister Irene is about to answer some questions,” Eva said.

  “Ah, all right,” Zoe said.

  “I was born on January 10, 1880 to Rudolph Faber and Theresa Petra Frei, a German couple from Dahlem. My name is Irene Eva Faber. Actually, I was born in this room.” Irene smiled.

  “Can—” Eva started.

  Irene held up a hand.

  “You’re not Greek?” Zoe asked.

  “No, I’m German. My parents had three children. I was the oldest daughter. My sister was Eva Theresa, and Johan is my brother.”

  Eva stared at Irene as the words sunk in. “My grandmother was your sister?”

  “Yes.” Irene nodded. “Your grandmother was my sister, which makes me your Great Aunt.”

  Eva closed her eyes and exhaled. “This is a story within a story within a story… It never ends.”

  “Our family history has many layers, Eva. It is important to know how you are connected for this to make any sense.”

  “Johan? Is that Father Johan that Eva’s father befriended in Athens?” Zoe asked and glanced at Eva.

  “Yes. Johan and Panayiotis did strike up a friendship...”

  “You know my father?”

  “Do I know him? No. Have I met him? Yes,” Irene replied a little too cryptically.

  “So you used him?”

  “Who? My brother? Heavens, no. They became friends quite by accident.”

  “I’m coming to believe nothing in this family happens by accident.” Eva ran her hand through her hair.

  “Hey.” Zoe put her hand on Eva’s knee. “This is a good thing.”

  “Is it?” Eva asked, and turned to Zoe. “I go from having no family other than the Mullers to having an aunt who is very much alive, although I thought she was dead, a first cousin, an adopted aunt and cousin, a great aunt and a great uncle, and a husband.”

  “It’s going to be fine, love, it will.” Zoe turned to Eva. “There’s so much that’s happened to us since we’ve been back, but let’s hear what your great aunt has to say.”

  “Well, there isn’t much I can do other than listen.”

  “You know of Theresa’s gifts, is that right?” Irene’s blue eyes gazed into Eva’s eyes. Eva nodded. “Theresa is blessed with something that only God can give. All the women in our family line possess this ability, but sometimes it will jump a generation.”

  “What is it?”

  “Some have had the gift of prophecy, others possess the ability to project themselves to another time or place, and others will dream dreams and have visions and other gifts. I traced our family lineage to the day of our Lord.”

  “The Day of our Lord?”

  Irene turned around and found the Bible. She
opened it and flipped through several pages. She put on her glasses and looked over the rim at Eva. “Acts 2:15 says, ‘In those days Peter stood up among the believers.’ That was a group numbering about a hundred and twenty. In Acts 2:17, it reads: ‘And in the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my spirit upon every sort of flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.’”

  Eva stared at Irene in disbelief. “You are telling me that my ancestor was one of the women who received the Holy Spirit along with the disciples?”

  “Yes. A woman by the name of Theresa Eva was one of the first Christians to receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in 33 AD.”

  “Pentecost? We are talking about one of the most incredible miracles in Christianity.”

  “Well, next to bringing the dead back to life, yes, that’s the one.”

  “Eva Theresa…that’s your name,” Zoe explained. “Is the name significant?”

  “I don’t know, but over the centuries, the names of those that were gifted had either Eva or Theresa in them. There have been gifted ones named differently, but it was tradition to pass on those names.”

  “Damn. Eva was given both names. What does that mean?” Zoe exclaimed. She looked apologetically at Irene. “Sorry.”

  “It’s alright. You should have heard your aunt Theresa when I told her. We are getting to that part.”

  “I…I… wow.” Eva took a cigarette from its case, lit it, and took a drag. “I think I need something stronger than tea, Zo.”

  “For many generations this gift has been a blessing and a curse. Among many of those hundred and twenty that were originally given the Holy Spirit, it only lasted until they passed away or soon after as its influence on their descendants waned. For others it got passed down from generation to generation.”

  “Only the women in the family get it?”

  “Yes,” Irene explained.

  “Are you gifted as well?”

  “Yes. I had always been an inquisitive child, and ever since I could remember, I saw visions. I told no one about this, thinking they would think me mad. I had heard family stories of aunts who had been sent to lunatic asylums—far too many down the generations to really be an accident,” Irene said with a wry smile. “One lunatic aunt was feasible, but not in every generation going back hundreds of years.”

  “I need something to drink,” Eva got up and walked to the liquor cabinet. She opened the nearest bottle of alcohol she could find and poured herself a drink. She turned and leaned against the cabinet. She shook her head and took a drink of the whiskey. “What do you think?” she asked.

  “I plan on getting us both drunk tonight. That’s the only way we’re going to go to sleep,” Zoe replied.

  “It’s evening in Sydney,” Eva said with a half-smile, and filled her glass, shook her head, and drank the entire glass in one gulp. “All right, please continue.”

  “I never told anyone about my gifts. I really didn’t want to end up in a lunatic asylum. I chose to go where miracles are considered acts of God.”

  “You joined a convent?”

  “I did. It was also a way to help the poor, which appealed to me, and I could use my gifts without arousing suspicions.”

  “That’s clever.”

  “Yes, but I’m not that clever.” Irene chuckled. “My great aunt Erika Theresa told me about my gifts because she had them.”

  “How did she know you had them?”

  “I went to visit her in the lunatic asylum,” Irene replied with a sad smile. “She was an incredible woman; she could see the future. I remember she said to me that I wouldn’t have children, not because I couldn’t, but because I’d choose not to.”

  “That’s not shocking.”

  “It was to me, so I asked her why. She looked at me with a smile and she said, ‘You know why, Irene, you have the gift of prophecy. Don’t deny it, you do. I know you do and so does our Lord. I can feel that you have the gifts.’”

  “You became a nun to hide the gifts?” Eva asked.

  “Yes, I did. My sister didn’t know, but I suspect my mother did and chose not to say anything. When my sister was pregnant with Theresa, I knew that Theresa was the one that would have that gift.”

  “Why didn’t you tell them? Why didn’t you stop them from sending her to the lunatic asylum?”

  Irene closed her eyes for a long moment. “When Theresa’s visions began I was struck down by polio and was very ill. It was touch and go if I lived. When I finally regained my strength, I was told that Theresa had been killed in a fire at the asylum.”

  “Oh, wow.”

  “I was devastated that my beautiful niece was gone and I grieved for her. A few months after that terrible news, I began to have visions of Theresa. I dismissed them thinking that was because I was grieving.” Irene took a cigarette from Eva’s case and lit it up.

  “A nun who smokes?” Zoe turned to Eva with a bemused expression on her face. “What kind of family have I married into?”

  Eva smiled for the first time since they had gone into the study.

  “I was asked to help where there was a need in Thessalonica. They had had some polio deaths and needed some extra hands to help in the hospice. While I was there, a young woman walked into the church.” Irene took a drag of her cigarette. “She was sitting alone in the pew and I was drawn to her.”

  “Aunty Stella.”

  “Yes. I sat down to talk to her because she looked like she could use some company. We started talking about what she was doing and about the war. It was then that she started to tell me about her work at Saint Gregori and her experiences there.”

  “Oh, wow.”

  “Yes, indeed. What was more remarkable for me was that right in the middle of her telling me about her work, I saw my niece’s image in my head. Clear as day, and it wasn’t a vision of her as a teenager but as a grown woman. I took a big risk, but God was sending me a message.”

  “Did you come out and ask her about Tessa?”

  “I did. To say Stella was shocked would not have been a lie. She was scared, but when I proved to her who I was, she invited me to her home. Imagine my surprise not only seeing my beautiful niece, who was exactly as I had seen in my vision, but that gorgeous young boy as well.”

  “Oh,” Eva exclaimed.

  “I know this is a lot to take in, darling.” Irene put her hand on Eva’s knee. “If you want to stop, we can take it up tonight—”

  “No. I want to know.”

  “When I visited Theresa and we talked about her gifts and how to deal with them, she showed me some drawings. I believe you’ve seen them?”

  “Oh, yes, we saw them,” Zoe replied as she rested her hand on Eva’s thigh.

  “I had a panic attack after seeing those pieces.”

  “Darling, when I saw those drawings I was disturbed, so I don’t blame you. They are very realistic. Tessa has an extraordinary artistic gift that the artwork appears so lifelike. You lived it, so seeing them again made you relive it. I would have been worried if you hadn’t reacted.”

  “That’s not much of a gift…um.” Zoe paused.

  “Call me Irene. Not all of Theresa’s artwork is so gruesome. The art is not part of her inherited gift from God, but another gift which is quite common. She is a very talented artist. She combines these two gifts.”

  “This sounds more like a curse than a blessing,” Eva said quietly.

  Irene smiled cryptically. “Do you really think so?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, it could seem like a curse because of the pain and anguish your aunt went through knowing her niece was going to suffer so much, but there is the knowledge that you can do something to help,” Irene said. “She had the power to help you.”

  “She sent Tommy.”

  “Yes, that dear boy. One day he will find the right soul for him.”

  “What kind of soul?”

  “Zoe,” Eva warned and shoo
k her head. “Stay out of it.”

  Irene laughed lightly. “Yes, he will find the right man.”

  “You know about that?”

  Irene laughed. “Oh, goodness, I knew long before he did. I’m sure Tommy would not like us to be discussing him in this way, but he will find that special man.”

  “Oh, boy.” Eva shook her head in disbelief. She pinched herself and winced. “Ow, yes, I am awake.” She poured herself another drink.

  “How was I able to see you in Aiden?”

  “You were able to see me because you are gifted, Eva.”

  “I... I… what?”

  “It was you and I. We both shared that vision.”

  “How is that even possible?”

  Irene looked at Eva and for a moment hesitated. “You have inherited these gifts.”

  “I… I… what?” Eva repeated and looked at Zoe, who looked stunned. “Did you hear what Irene just said? I’m not the only one hearing this, right?”

  “Yes, Irene said you have these inherited gifts,” Zoe said.

  “Fuck me dead,” Eva cursed, not caring if her great aunt would be outraged by the expletive. Zoe’s eyes widened. She looked up at the ceiling. “Fuck.”

  “That’s an expletive I heard a few times from your Aunt Theresa when I told her about her gifts. It must be the curse of choice.”

  “S…sorry,” Eva apologized as she stared at the whisky bottle.

  “It’s quite alright. You allowed me into your mind, and that’s how you were able to see me.”

  “But I didn’t know…”

  “No, you didn’t, but somehow you trusted me even though you didn’t know who I was, and allowed me to do what I did.”

  “What about on the ship? Was that you on the ship?”

  “Yes.” Irene smiled. “That was me.”

  “Wow.”

  “So what are Eva’s gifts?” Zoe asked as she leaned forward.

  Irene looked at Zoe for a long moment. “My dear girl, I think you may need to have a drink yourself shortly.”

  “I would do it now, Zo.”

  “No, I’m fine,” Zoe replied as she turned to Eva. “Are you alright?”

  “No, but I will be.”

  “Eva’s gifts are not as strong as I thought they would be. I don’t get the sense they are as powerful as they should be. I’m not sure why, but Eva does possess them. I want to take you both back to Larissa, back to that field,” Irene said. “I know it’s going to be hard, but this is important.”