Waking Elizabeth (4 page)

“She’s
here and I’m afraid she’s not going to be pushed into the corner.”

I
was becoming a little afraid, “Should I be worried?
 
You act like this person, whoever she is, is
scary.”

Mona
leaned forward and took my hand, “No, no, my dear, that’s not what I meant at
all.
 
Besides, she’s already here,” she
tapped my chest lightly, “She’s a part of you, she always has been.
 
She’s as fiercely protective of you as you
are of yourself.”

I
was becoming overwhelmed with what Mona was telling me and she could instantly
sense it as well.
 
In the distance I saw
Jess and Phoebe walking towards us.

“My
friends are back,” I smiled hesitantly and rose from my chair.
 
I wanted to sprint towards them and I had to
physically restrain myself from running away.

“Ellie,”
Mona smiled and stood from her chair, the bracelets on her arm clattering as
she reached out for me, “It was an honor to visit with you tonight.
 
I would dare say it was worth coming out of
retirement for.”
 
She winked at me, her
gray eyes twinkling in the dim light of the porch.

“Thanks,”
I replied, unsure of what to say after the conversation we had just had.
 
I turned to step off the porch when she
called to me again.

“Ellie,”
Mona called out, causing me to stop and turn towards her, “Some people find
that they are simple farmers or laymen or scullery maids in a past life.”

I
grinned, “Oh yeah?”

Mona’s
smile faded and the look in her eyes was sobering, “But some people don’t.”

Her
words caused me to shudder where I stood on her small porch.
 
It took me a moment to gather my thoughts and
turn towards my friends.

“Goodbye
Mona,” I waived cautiously to her from over my shoulder.

“Goodbye
… for now, Ellie.”

Chapter
4

I
could see Phoebe
crying before I reached her.
 
I was instantly
angry that this trip was suppose to be a fun and amusing getaway and now Phoebe
had done something to upset herself.

“What
in the world?” I said as I reached them, gathering Phoebe in my arms.
 

“Oh,
I’m fine.
 
Dad was just telling me how
much he loved me and how well he thought I was doing without anyone,” Phoebe
blew her nose into a tissue.
 
I looked at
Jess over the top of Phoebe’s head just in time to see her give one of her
famous eye rolls.
 

“Phoebe,”
I said, squeezing her to me, “I don’t like you upset.
 
Maybe this was a bad idea.”

“No,
no, it was good to talk to him again, through the medium Charlotte of course,
but I know it was him.”

Jess
had a hard time suppressing her sigh.
 
She then turned her attention to me, “What about you?
 
Did you end up getting a reading?”

I
wanted to tell her the truth about what happened but I didn’t dare with Phoebe
in the condition she was in, “She’s retired, I was just visiting with her to
pass the time.”

Jess
knew me well.
 
Her dark eyes narrowed
towards mine which told me that she could tell I was lying.
 

“Come
on.
 
Let’s find Blair and go back to our
room.”

When
we returned to the little cottage where Blair had peeled off from the rest of
us we approached the door slowly, still hearing her voice inside.
 
Jess went in first and gasped when she saw at
least 3 hundred dollar bills on the table between Blair and the medium.

“Blair
Blakley,” Jess said, storming inside, “You have spent over $300 since we’ve
been gone!”

Blair’s
attempt to ignore Jess was futile, “This is good stuff.
 
She’s telling me exactly what I need to do
and what I should avoid in the next few months.”

Jess’s
patience was gone, evidenced by her march towards the table where she hauled
Blair up by her arm, “She’s done, no more.
 
We’re out.”

I laughed
as I watched the woman’s eyes dive toward the money on the table.

“You
can keep that, but you’re not getting a dime more,” Jess warned her and the
woman didn’t dare utter a word.

“Thanks
for everything Ruby, you’ve probably saved my life,” the sound of Blair’s heels
on the wooden floor clicked as Jess hauled her towards the door.

“Yes,
thank you Ruby,” Jess threw over her shoulder sarcastically.
 

Phoebe
and I smothered our laughter as we watched Jess haul Blair down the street
toward the Angel House Inn.
 

Safely
absconded in our room Jess was still ranting about how Blair had dropped a
ridiculous amount of money.
 
“She told
her not to drive for a month … a month!
 
Who on earth believes shit like that and then lays down another hundred
dollar bill?” Jess was frantically scrubbing the make-up off her face in the
tiny bathroom.
 

“A
hundred dollars is nothing to Blair, Jess.
 
She is typically the kind of person that these women prey upon,” I tried
to calm her but I could see it was useless, “Blair has certainly spent a lot
more money on more ridiculous things, don’t you think?”

“I
don’t know, Ellie, this might take the cake,” Jess threw the cotton ball in the
trash and reached for her glasses, “Although there was the time she paid a few
hundred to have that wack-job at the massage place hypnotize her fat away.”

I
laughed out loud at the memory.
 
Good ole
Blair, there was never a dull moment, “At least we got Phoebe calmed down.
 
Did she buy into all that talk from her dead
dad?”

Jess
sat on her twin bed and brushed out her hair, “It was kinda convincing. She did
say things that only he would know.
 
I
don’t know what to think about all of it but I wouldn’t change my life based on
what they said.”

Her
answer brought back my own memories of my conversation with Mona.
 
Jess instantly detected my silence and asked,
“Okay, spill it.
 
What did your witch
doctor say?
 
I know something went down,
I could tell by the look on your face.
 
I
know you too well Ellie Regan!”

I sighed,
not sure if I wanted to go into detail, “It’s nothing really.”

“Okay,
it’s nothing.
 
So tell me.”
 
I knew that Jess would never let it go.

I
shrugged in an effort to belittle its importance, “I was walking towards Blair
when I noticed she was watching me.
 
She
called out to me, said something like, ‘you’re a dancer’ which obviously caught
my attention.
 
She asked me to come sit
with her and I told her I wasn’t really down with the whole psychic thing and
she told me she was retired.”

“Retired?
 
Do these people have some sort of pension or
something I don’t know about?” Jess asked, pulling back the covers of her bed.

“I
figured it was harmless so I sat down with her and she decided to do a
reading,” my heartbeat was picking up pace as I said the words.
 
Somehow by relating this story it was making
it all the more real.

“So
she came out of retirement for little ole you?” Jess winked.

“Seriously,
she didn’t charge me a dime,” I defended her.

“So,
what’s your fortune?
 
I hope it involved
a gorgeous man, and that he has a friend.”

“Well,”
I took a deep breath, realizing that now was the moment it was going to get a
little strange, “She didn’t read a fortune … so to speak.”

“Well,
what the hell did she do?”

“I
didn’t know what she was doing at first.
 
She just asked me to close my eyes and concentrate.
 
So I did, and suddenly she asked me what I
saw … or where I was … and then the strangest thing happened.”

“What?”
Jess sat up in bed, now fully engrossed in my story.

“I
had a vision, or something.
 
It was so
clear in my mind, I can still see it.
 
I
was able to answer every question she asked me.
 
I could tell her where I was and what I was doing, tell her every detail
surrounding me.”

“Where
were you?” Jess urged.

“I
was in a field,” even as I said the words now I could clearly see the rolling
green hills surrounding me, “I was under a tree, wearing a blue dress.
 
There was a book in my lap.
 
I could feel the wind on my cheeks and smell
the air.
 
She asked me if there was
anyone around and at first my answer was no but then there were men there, on
horseback … in armor … riding toward me.”

“Armor?”
Jess asked in surprise.

“Yes,”
I closed my eyes as the vision took hold of me again, “and then the men
dismounted and started to walk towards me.”

“What
did they do?”

“I
don’t remember,” I answered, “But then Mona said some words I had never heard
before, and halfway through them … I began speaking with her, saying
exactly
what she was saying.
 
We repeated the same words simultaneously.”

“What
the hell?” Jess said in shock, “How the hell did she do that?”

I
laughed at her expression.
 
She was never
at a loss for words and yet I had managed to make her speechless, “Mona, the
lady, told me that I was experiencing some sort of past life thing.
 
She said that whoever I was in a past life
was strong and powerful and was tired of being dormant.”

“Jesus,
that is some scary shit, Ellie,” Jess said, shaking her head, “So, she did some
sort of past life reading on you?”

I
shook my head, “That’s the thing.
 
She
didn’t say she was doing that at all.
 
She just sat me down and took my hands and told me to close my
eyes.
 
I did the rest, all she did was
ask me a few questions, all of which I was able to answer.
 
I remember the place in my vision and I can
tell you I’ve never been anywhere like it.”

“And
the men on horseback wearing armor?” Jess asked, “What about them?”

I
shrugged again, “I have no idea.
 
All she
could tell me was that some people had a more powerful connection to their past
life than others.”

“Did
she tell you who you were?”

I
shook my head, “Of course not, that would have been way too easy.
 
She just told me that some people were
farmers or maids or something … and that some people weren’t.”

“What
the hell does that mean?” Jess demanded.

“Who
knows,” I smiled, “Whatever, I’m not sure it’s worth even thinking about.”

“Wait,”
Jess got up and grabbed her phone that was charging on the other side of the
room, “Do you remember the words you said with her?”

“Umm,”
I thought back and then suddenly they were there, crystal clear in my mind,
“Actually yes, I do, it was ‘this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in
our eyes’.”

Jess
frantically typed the words in and hit search.
 
I relaxed in the bed and faced her, convinced that she wouldn’t find
anything and that we would both be asleep in a matter of minutes.
 
As I watched her, I saw Jess’s reaction as
she scanned her phone, she smiled at first and then her smile faded and the
color seemed to drain from her face.
 
Worried, I sat back up, “Jess, what is it?”

Jess
looked at me and blinked in shock, “Ellie, you find out your past life reading
tells you that you’re Queen Elizabeth the first and you wait two damn hours to
tell me?”

The
air was sucked out of me the second she said the words.
 
I felt as if I’d been hit in the stomach and
the room began to spin, “What are you talking about?” I managed through my
throat that was beginning to tighten.

Jess
stood and moved to sit next me on the bed, “Elizabeth was sitting under an oak
tree at Hatfield House when she learned her sister, Queen Mary had died and
that she had inherited the throne.
  
She
was informed by the royal courtiers who rode toward the princess and dismounted
and bowed before her.
 
After hearing the
news she stood and proclaimed, ‘This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in
our eyes’.”

I
looked down at the small screen to see the words for myself.
 
I was wordless, thoughtless and I was
instantly thankful that only Jess was in the room.
 
She sat silently beside me as if she could
feel me taking in this information and trying to dissect and assign
explanation.

“What
do you think?” she asked after several moments of silence.

“I
think I’m glad I didn’t pay to hear something so ridiculous,” I patted her on
the arm and rose from the bed.
 
I stood
still in order to give my shaking legs a minute to adjust, “Whatever,” I
dismissed it with a wave, “she must have tricked me somehow.”

“She
tricked you into saying words simultaneously with her that you have never heard
before in your life?” Jess argued.

“I
guess,” I said, rummaging through my purse to plug in my cell phone, “What
other explanation is there?”

Jess
didn’t answer, which actually scared me.
 
I was terrified to look at her, unsure of what I’d see.
 
After plugging in my phone I returned to the
bed.
 
Jess got up and went to her bed
which was a short two feet away.

“You
have red hair,” Jess’ voice was soft and pensive.

“So
do a million other people,” I laughed as I collapsed on the bed and pulled the
covers around me.

“You
have really, really brown eyes,” Jess ventured again.

“You
have got to be kidding me!
 
You are
buying into this?” I was shocked.
 
Out of
all the people who would believe this unbelievably farfetched theory, I
wouldn’t dream it would be her.

“I’m
not saying I believe it … I’m just wondering if we can rule it out.
 
I’m trying to be logical about it.
 
I’m not sure how to explain the fact that you
knew those words combined with the fact that your vision saw you under a tree
surrounded by grass with knights riding up to you in armor.”

“Goodnight
Jess!” I said, turning away from her and pulling the covers around my
shoulders.
 
I heard her switch off the
light and soon the eerie silence enveloped us.
 
After a few moments I heard Jess’ voice in the darkness.