Corva skidded past Barla and rushed over to the kitchen sink. She splashed the water furiously all over her hands, arms, and then face. She grabbed the towel to dry off just as Ahn entered the kitchen. “Hi, Dad!” she mumbled through the cloth of the towel as she wiped her face.
The three of them sat down and had their prayer of thanks before Ahn filled his plate with several glawlets. He would sample everything else only after he had gotten his fill of the rare delicacy.
Barla and Corva exchanged knowing grins as they chose other dishes until he became less protective of the glawlets plate. They ate silently since they were all very hungry after having been busy right up until dinnertime. When Ahn went back for second helpings, Barla said, “I received a call from Nena today. She wants us to meet with her and a few other people tomorrow afternoon at the Pantano Residence. I told her we’d be there, so I hope you can clear your schedule.”
Ahn looked at her with a puzzled expression since it was unlike Barla to make plans for them without consulting him first. When he saw her tip her head and raise her eyebrow to indicate this was not optional, he answered, “I’ll make the time.”
Barla nodded and resumed eating. She did not want to concern Corva with what they were getting involved in, but she wanted to make sure Ahn knew what was coming before she somehow forgot about it. She knew Ahn would want to discuss the issue further, but he had taken her hint about it being a private matter. Being married for so long had the benefit of being able to read each other very well indeed.
The evening remained quiet as the three of them sat in the living room around the fireplace. Corva sat off to the side at the small desk and worked on her homework. Ahn talked about some of the more bizarre happenings down at the dock. One piece of news stood out more than any other.
“Someone reported Petre sailing south of here, supposedly heading out of our area.”
“It seems rather coincidental that he would leave at the same time Vinia left, don’t you think?”
“Rather,” Ahn agreed. “I wonder how he found out.”
“The man who’s been sleeping down the road is gone, too. Do you think maybe that was Petre?” Corva asked innocently.
“What? What man, Corva? How come you never said anything about him before?” Ahn stood up in his agitation. To think that Petre may have been spying on their house made him furious. “Did you ever get a good look at his face? Could you identify him if you saw a plasfilm of him?”
“Ahn, slow down. Can’t you see you’re scaring Corva?” Barla grabbed her husband’s arm and pulled him back down into his seat. She turned to their daughter and asked, “Could you identify him, Corva?”
“I think so,” she answered softly. She hated it when she disappointed Ahn, and clearly, she had done something bad to get him so upset with her. Unbidden, tears began to drop down her cheeks.
Barla saw it and rushed over to comfort her. “Corva, please don’t cry. Dad isn’t mad at you. He really doesn’t like Petre, and he’s upset thinking he’s been hanging around our house.” She pulled her daughter into her arms and rubbed her back to sooth her until she stopped crying. “That’s better. Can you remember the first time you saw the man sleeping?”
“He’d been there for weeks. He tried to hide whenever we went out to play, but he wasn’t very good at it. I haven’t seen him since Senin morning when I went to school.”
“Can you show us where he was?” Ahn asked softly, trying not to make Corva cry again.
Corva nodded, and the three of them left the house together. The walked down the road a short distance and then Corva pointed to the area. “He was right over there by the tree.”
Ahn stomped across the road and investigated all around the area. He went up to the nearest house and knocked on the door. When the woman answered, he asked, “Have you seen a man hanging around that tree?”
She nodded and said, “I’m relieved he finally left. He refused to talk to me whenever I asked him what he was doing. I assumed he didn’t know how to talk.”
“Thanks. If you see him again, will you let me know?”
The woman nodded again and closed her door.
Ahn returned to his wife and daughter. He put his arm around Corva and said, “You did really well. Thank you for telling us. I’m going to get a plasfilm of Petre so you can tell me for certain if it’s who we suspect it is.” He squeezed her shoulder as they walked back to their house.
When they returned to the living room, Corva gathered up her schoolbooks and declared, “I’m heading up to bed now. Goodnight.” She rushed out of their presence, eager to get to the sanctuary of her room.
Ahn frowned at how poorly he had handled the situation. She was such a sensitive child. He was going to have to find a way to make it up to Corva. Finally, he sighed and turned his attention back to his wife.
“What’s going on tomorrow that you didn’t want to discuss in front of Corva?”
“Amanda has requested a meeting of everyone who was present at Jehoban’s meeting. I think something significant has happened, but I can’t be sure.”
“You’ve certainly spent enough time with her lately, how come you don’t know for sure?”
“I’ve spent most of my time with Diane, actually. Amanda has been busy with the people from Roanoke, not to mention the scare of almost losing Juila in the telepod incident. That must have been absolutely terrifying for her, for all of them really.” Barla shivered at the idea of it all.
“How is it being with your sister again?”
“Bittersweet, actually,” Barla began and tried to find the right words to describe what she really meant. “I tell her about my life here, and I know she can never come to visit. She’ll never be able to share friends with me or see the things I’ve seen. Do you know what I mean?”
“I get the idea,” he agreed.
“I also wish I could go and see my mom and Saul. It’s great to know they are alive and well, yet I could never explain to them that I’ve been living in another dimension. They’d never believe it, and I doubt they’d forgive me for staying away, even if it were for love. Family means everything to them so I’m sure they’d say I’d turned my back on them which hurts to even think about.”
“So don’t think about that part,” Ahn advised simply.
“I try not to, but it seems to seep into my thoughts unbidden. Diane tells me the same thing. She seems to be very happy with her life. I doubt I’d be able to meet her other two daughters for the same reason, however. They both are married and live pretty far away so the chance would be unlikely anyhow. Do you know what’s really strange?”
“What’s that?”
“Neither Carrie nor Deanna has made any time to come and see Amanda since she got out of her coma. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
“Like you said, they’re both married and have children and lives of their own. Besides, maybe they weren’t that close anyway.”
“Still, if my sister woke up after seven anons, I think I’d find the time to tell her I was happy for her.” Barla sat back in her chair and wondered what had gone wrong among the three sisters to make them drift so far apart. Surely it could not have been as significant of a problem as Barla had experienced by being in a different dimension. There was simply no excuse for such selfish behavior.
“Leave it alone, Barla. It’s not your place to interfere in their business. I can see the wheels turning in your head.” He chuckled at the guilty expression on Barla’s face as he called her out.
“Sometimes I think you know me too well!” she accused. “Let’s head up to bed. We have a big day tomorrow, and we need to be well rested.”
“I can’t wait to hear what Amanda has for us next,” he said as he held Barla’s hand on the way up to their bedroom.
Chapter Forty-One
DR. GASCON OPENED the latest packet of pictures and notes from the private investigator. He inspected the pictures first and frowned at the number of people coming and going from the estate at
such odd hours of the day. One picture, in particular, was disturbing because it had a carload of women who could not be accounted for in the investigator’s report.
Once again, Dr. Gascon was faced with a strange scenario of having people leave the house without any evidence of them arriving in the first place. He did not care for mysteries, and it angered him that he had to stoop to such levels as hiring a private investigator when Amanda could have just told him what was going on. He threw the pictures down in disgust and shifted his attention to the written report on Neal’s movements.
His mood did not improve as he finally got to the end of the report and read that Dr. Jasmine Medin was now treating Neal. She had once been his employee before he had fired her for insubordination. She had been so upset with her rightful termination that she had caused a medical review board to examine his patient records to make sure he was providing legal care. It still galled him that he had had to endure the injustice of his peers questioning his methods.
“That bitch has a lot of nerve stealing my patient from me. She will regret taking him on!” He slammed the report down and began thinking furiously of how he could get even with her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alena fretted over having the kids ready to head over to Tana’s house next door so they would be able to get to the meeting on time. When she had told Bryon about it several days before, he had been concerned about getting some meetings rescheduled so he could be sure to attend. The original message they had received was the meeting was tentatively set and only found out the evening before that it had been finalized.
Finally, all three of her children were standing in front of her impatiently waiting to go. Alena gave each of them a hug, “Now you guys be on your best behavior for Tana. I know she likes spending time with all of you, but you do take advantage of her kindness sometimes.”
Justan looked down at the floor in embarrassment because he knew he was the worst culprit for his mother’s admonition. “We’ll be good, Mom. You’ll see.”
Alena kissed the top of his head and wondered again how he had gotten so tall. “Off you go now, Tana is waiting. You might end up spending the night since your father and I have something important to take care of, and we’re not sure how long it will take. I love you,” she called after them as they raced across the yard to get to the next-door neighbor’s house. She waved as she saw Tana step off of her porch to greet the exuberant children.
Bryon’s telepod popped into existence in front of their garage just as she turned to shut the door. Alena sighed with relief to know they would not be late now. She waited at the door for him to power down the telepod and get out. She gave him a quick hug and kiss in greeting and then said, “Hurry up and get changed so we can go.”
“I’m on it,” he answered even as he kept walking past her to get to their bedroom. Not bothering to be tidy about it, Bryon tossed his work clothes onto the bed and grabbed the outfit he had already selected from the chair. He returned to the front entry while he finished tucking in his shirt. “All set. Let’s go!”
Alena nodded approval of how he looked and then opened the door for him. They situated themselves in the small telepod and Alena fussed over the seatbelt until Bryon set the coordinates for the Pantano Residence. She had been afraid they were going to have to time it and that always scared her. Now they would be early for the meeting, just as she always liked to be.
“Ready?” Bryon asked suddenly.
“Yep!”
Blackness surrounded them for three seconds as they traveled between locations. Alena let out a breath of relief as the sunlight once again poured through the windows of the telepod. She looked below them to see if she could identify any other telepods to know who had arrived before them. There were only two telepods so they, indeed, were early.
Bryon expertly set the telepod down on the landing field. He powered down the craft and opened the side door for them to get out. Alena unbuckled and left the craft first with Bryon immediately behind her. He palmed the control to shut the cabin door and then took Alena’s hand as they walked across the expansive lawn to get to the Residence’s stairs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
They could see all of the other telepods already in the yard. Amanda felt terrible that they were the last ones to arrive when it was a meeting for which they had asked. She glanced over at Riccan with an ‘I told you so’ look.
Riccan laughed and replied, “They just got here early. I promise you we are not late!” He did, however, rush through the landing and shut-down procedures to appease his wife. Once the four of them were on their way across the grass, Riccan used his remote to cloak his telepod.
Amanda looked back in amazement and asked, “Do you really think that’s necessary?”
“I don’t want to take any chances after what happened before.”
Amanda nodded and readjusted the bag’s strap on her shoulder. The samaras were bulky to transport when they were all together. She had wrapped them each in their own hand towel so they would not rub together or damage one another.
They marched up the stairs, across the patio, and through the great room where all of them had enjoyed spending time in the past. Nobody was looking for this to be a leisurely visit, however, so they continued down the hall to the largest conference room in the Residence.
As soon as they entered the room, Amanda could see the people were milling around and getting reacquainted with one another in a friendly fashion. Nobody seemed disturbed by what she would deem a late arrival, so she calmed herself down and smiled at Nena who came over to greet them.
“You are right on time,” she said as she pulled Amanda down to give her a kiss on the cheek. She then looked her deeply in the eyes and remarked, “You look wonderful. Married life is good for you.” She smiled warmly as she patted Amanda’s cheek and then she left her to go greet her two granddaughters.
Amanda watched as Nena greeted each person in her family with warmth and realized she had done just the right thing to ease their tension. Obviously, Nena was used to having gatherings of varying cordiality at the Residence, and she was an expert at making everyone feel welcome. This was just another aspect of being married to an Elder which Amanda would have to learn someday when Riccan finally stepped up to fill his father’s position.
Apparently, things were working out in favor of this meeting because everyone asked to come was here in the room, including Rasa who had only left their house the day before. Amanda was pleased to see Elder Debbon and Chelesa had been able to make the meeting. There had been some discussion about whether or not they would be able to get away for the time needed.
Thinking she did not want to delay the inevitable, Amanda clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. Several claps later, discussions around the room ended, and all eyes turned to Amanda. “I’d like to thank everyone for coming together today,” Amanda announced to the group. “Please be seated so we can begin.”
While everyone took their places around the table in front of her, Amanda removed the bag from her shoulder and placed it gently on the table. Riccan sat on her left side with their daughters next to him, while Daven sat on her right side with Nena next to him. Amanda realized her family represented over half of the attendees at this meeting whether by birth or by marriage.
A murmur of wonder sounded around the group as Amanda began to withdraw the samaras from her bag, unwrap them, and set them carefully on the table in front of her. “As you can see, I have brought several samaras with me, and they will need to be stored in the Residences of the Elders.”
The first one she pulled out belonged to Barla, then Bryon’s, and finally Nena’s. She watched the expressions of the people around the table at the placement of each stone. The owners of the crystal skulls knew when there’s had been exposed, and she still found it fascinating that they could have such a bond with them.
“For some of you, this will be the first time you have seen these crystals. They have been around for thousands of anons, s
o long, in fact, that they have become legends in your world instead of reality. I can assure you, as well as the owners of these crystals; these are definitely real and very powerful.
“There have been seven samaras which have been identified as belonging to people in this room. At this point, we believe it has become obvious that each person in here will eventually have their own samara. While we still don’t know the significance of this, we hope to be able to figure it all out as a group.” Amanda sat down and waited for the murmuring to stop. She hoped her final statement would have the people present begin to wonder how they were to get their own samaras.
Riccan watched the group carefully before he spoke. “There are several clues which have brought us to conclude what Amanda has just told you. First, the legend says there are thirteen samaras, and there are thirteen of us here at this meeting. Jehoban called the rest of you to a meeting to help Amanda after the three of us had already received our samaras, so we were not needed at His original meeting.
“Second, the Unity Song which says:
Crystal around the neck,
Follow the next step,
Changes today,
Changes tomorrow,
We all become one.
“This seems to imply changes must be made for us all to become one. There are still some questions as to how this will happen, but hopefully, it will be revealed to us as we delve into it further.
“Third, Amanda discovered a new prophecy—from her dream, no less—in an ancient text hidden in a secret location known only to me. I know each of you has received your own copy of the prophecy, however, I will speak it again as a refresher:
When the descendants of the Watchers bring these all together, then the gates between the worlds will be open for all to pass through without a loss.
“Those of us who have linked with our samaras can tell you with absolute certainty, the true owners of the samaras are descendants of the Watchers. Only a true owner can access the histories in the crystals, so we know we are the ancient offspring of the original Watchers.”
Ascension Vision- The Levels of Ascension Box Set Page 25
