Veiled (13 page)

“
Having a clear
understanding of what colors mean will give you an edge in the next
life. It will help you see hidden potential in people, and it will
aid you in forming relationships that you have already formed
here.” At this her mouth formed another thin line that was to be
the closest thing to a smile she would make. “That is how I formed
my relationship with Augusto, one of the instructors here. When I
met him in mortality, his aura looked familiar to me—his whole
person actually. Because he is a Discerner too, he had the same
experience and that was how we knew that we were soul
mates.”

A wave of pleased murmurs
filled the room.

“
Oh, brother!” Agatha
shifted uncomfortably in her seat and her displeasure gave me great
pleasure.

Irene and Leo didn’t say
much, but I did notice that Leo squeezed Irene’s hand, and she
looked pleased. Milah however, didn’t seem to approve of all the
little side conversations that had sprung, so she quickly put a
stop to them and began her explanations about colors and their
meanings.

After class I lingered in
the garden, attracted by the beautiful flowers that adorned it.
They were all carefully labeled, so I was committing the names of
the prettiest ones to memory. Then as I bent low to see the name of
a flower that was low to the ground, I overheard Agatha’s voice
coming through a window that was right above me.

“
I was wondering what you
meant by that look you gave me after I answered your question in
class,” Agatha said haughtily.

“
I don’t know what you
mean,” Milah answered flatly.

“
Don’t be coy with me. I
know a look when I see it.”

“
Then maybe you can tell
me what that look was. I am not aware of any specific look that I
gave you.” Milah’s voice was sharp but unmoved by
emotion.

“
OK then, perhaps I
misunderstood.” Agatha’s voice was insolent.

“
It looks that way. Can I
help you with anything else?”

There was silence, and then
Agatha answered. “Well, maybe one more thing.” A long pause
followed. “What color is my aura?”

There was another long
pause. “If you can’t see your own aura, I can’t tell you,” Milah
answered absentmindedly.

“
Why?” Agatha said
angrily.

“
Because that is one thing
I just can’t help you with. I would suggest, however, that you take
some time to do some soul searching and get to know yourself. Then
when you can see your own aura, come back to class.”

“
That is not fair!
Besides, I know who I am.”

“
Then you should be able
to see your own aura.”

Another long period of
silence followed. I was riveted to the spot and I could not bring
myself to move. This was good, but if Agatha knew I was
eavesdropping she would be furious! Good thing she didn’t know. I
took this time to look at the flower I had come to see, the tiny
plaque said it was called a Hyacinth.
Hmm,
pretty,
I thought.

“
So, you think that I
can’t see my own aura because I don’t know myself?” Agatha said
with renewed composure.

“
Yes, or you are having a
deep internal struggle. I don’t say it lightly when I tell you to
take some time to do some soul searching. You can’t be a good
Discerner if you can’t discern your own self. It’s that
simple.”

The conversation was either
over, or Agatha was still thinking, but I was worried that I might
get caught, so I got up and flew away, feeling extremely uneasy
about what Milah had said to Agatha just now. She mentioned that
you couldn’t be a good Discerner if you didn’t know yourself. I
looked down at my hands once more, just to make sure that I was
seeing things right. My outer aura color was a dark brownish
yellow—the color of someone who was stressed out. This was not
surprising, but when I tried to see what my inner aura color was…I
just couldn’t discern it. All I could see of my inner aura was a
constant churning of colors. At times it looked brownish green, at
other times it looked dark forest green, then it would shift into a
dark part blue part purple hue.

“
The Second Day of
creation will now begin,” the Eternals announced through the
link.

I automatically propelled
myself forward to the gathering place. I probably would have gotten
lost if it wasn’t for the large mass of spirits that were headed
that way. My thoughts were not on the miracles I was about to
behold, but on the murky swirls of my aura.

Much like the First Day,
the Eternals were there in the center, and all of the Cherubs and
Seraphs were in their places around the Eternals. The First One was
now occupying a spot next to them—as one of them. They began to
speak and a hush fell over the whole gathering of
Earthlings.

I watched but was not
paying much attention. The crowd, however, seemed to be quite
engaged in whatever was being said.

“
Let there be a firmament,
let it divide the waters from the waters.”

I turned to look at my
planet. A fog like substance formed out of the droplets that were
spinning along the mass. This fog looked light blue.

“
We will call the
firmament Heaven.” After a pause the Eternals looked back at us and
continued. “That is all for today. Please come back tomorrow for
the division of land mass and water.”

I wiggled my way out of
that spot, hoping to avoid running into any of my clan. I felt like
a fugitive, looking in all directions as I tried to make a break
back to my gifts class, the only source of interest for me
now.

“
For heaven’s sake, Tess,
where have you been?” Celeste said as she flew straight toward me,
shaking her head as she did. “It’s like…like you don’t even like us
anymore,” she said it teasingly but there was a little bit of a
question in it.

“
I went to my gifts
class,” I said, annoyed at having been caught.

“
Oh, was it
good?”

“
Yeah…learned a
lot.”

“
Good, listen…” She
grabbed my arm and started gliding toward the rest of the clan.
“We’ve been talking about taking a tour of the animal
enclosures.”

“
Super,” I said without
much enthusiasm as I avoided eye contact with Alex and
Katie.

“
Don’t you think it would
be nice to learn about all the creatures we will be sharing our
planet with?” Celeste batted her eyelashes pleadingly, and I rolled
my eyes. Next thing I knew I was with my clan going to see some
animals.

They all seemed happy and
eager to learn about them, and I grew more and more exasperated.
All I wanted to do was get away from them and hide somewhere. I
didn’t care where, I just had to get away from them—especially
Katie and Alex.

“
Alex and I went swimming
with these wonderful creatures right before the Second Day. They
are highly intelligent creatures,” Katie was explaining to the
group. “In fact, they invited us to ride them.” She paused, aware
of several puzzled looks that were fixed on her. I dared not look
at Alex. The fact that they were now spending all their spare time
together made my aura turn from green to red—still within the
unhealthy realm of dark.

“
They…talked to you?”
Valerie asked with skepticism.

“
Her gift is also the Gift
of Tongues,” Max informed the group.

“
There are differences
within that gift,” Katie explained. “I have the ability to
understand what animals are trying to say…or convey.” She shrugged.
“Most times I understand animals better than I do humans.” She said
this looking down, but I could tell she was referring to
me.

“
We just don’t know what
to call those creatures,” Alex started to explain and every word he
said brought new kinds of pain to me. On the outside I tried to
remain as self composed as possible. The last thing I wanted was to
let anyone know how stupid I was being.

“
We wanted to take a class
about Earth’s creatures to see if we could find out more about them
and some of the other creatures we encountered,” Alex said, and his
voice sounded hollow to me.

“
Well, we’ll have to share
our planet with them. We might as well get to know them,” Russell
said as he pulled Nancy in close to him.

Celeste had been eyeing me
for a while and finally decided that I needed a scolding. “You
know, Tess, this is getting ridiculous,” she said as she grabbed my
arm and held me back, letting the rest of the clan pass us
by.

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
You know very well what
I’m talking about. You need to talk to him and make things
right.”

“
I will not! There’s
nothing to say. He clearly prefers Katie’s company to mine, not
that I blame him. She is everything I’m not—fun, happy,
interesting.”

“
But she is not
you.”

“
Exactly, and he is with
her. He made himself very clear to me, and there is nothing more to
say.”

“
You are so stubborn,
Tess,” Celeste said shaking her head. “When are you going to be
honest with your own feelings?”

“
I didn’t realize I wasn’t
being honest.”

“
You are jealous, and you
are trying to pretend like you are not. I know you, Tess, you can’t
fool me.”

“
Jealous!” I stopped and
looked at her. I was surprised at my own anger and Celeste was
startled by it. “Why is this all of a sudden my problem? I’m not
the one who changed! You are, and him.” I pointed to Alex who was
in deep conversation with Dorian and Luz. “You all changed, in
fact! And I’m the only one who is still the same.”

Celeste stared at me with a
mixture of horror and worry on her face. “How did we change,
Tess?”

“
You and Max, Alex and
Katie—whoever she is, Dorian and Luz, even Henry is now being
followed by Estelle and he seems to like it!”

“
You can’t blame me for
loving Max,” Celeste said as her temper started to
bubble.

“
No, I can’t. But
everything has changed, and now I realize that…that life won’t be
what I thought it would be. If things are different now, just think
how much different they will be when we are mortals and no longer
remember each other. I’m scared, Celeste. I have it on good
authority that my life will not be pleasant. And I have not one but
two sworn enemies already, and no one that I can count
on!”

“
That is not true! You can
always count on me, on all of us. Alex would give…”

“
Don’t even go there,
Celeste. He has made it very clear that he wants nothing more to do
with me.”

Celeste shook her head
emphatically.

“
Look, Celeste, I
appreciate you trying to understand my burden here, but while all
of you go happily to your classes and to witness each new day of
creation, I dread going because I know that each new day brings me
one day closer to my inevitable life that is doomed to misery and
failure. I didn’t sign up for this…and somehow I got
it!”

Celeste looked at me with
that same frozen look of worry and shock.

“
I know you want to help
me,” I said more calmly after a moment. “But this burden is mine
and I need to learn to bear it alone.”

“
You are wrong,” she said
with more composure. “You don’t have to bear it alone, that’s what
we are here for.”

We were now at the entrance
of a large park like place with several different structures
inside. Some of them were buildings and others were open enclosures
that housed a large variety of animals.

“
This looks like fun!”
Nancy said excitedly in the distance. I looked at Celeste with an
ironic look. She understood and took my hand and pulled me aside,
so the rest wouldn’t hear.

“
I won’t pretend to know
what you are going through right now, but I do know that you have
two different problems—and one of them I can definitely help you
with. You love him, Tess, and you need to tell him, or you will
lose him.” She released my arm and calmly glided over to Max’s
side, who was only too glad to wrap his arms around her
shoulder.

Why did everything always
come down to this? Alex already knew how I felt about him. My love
for him was never in question. He had mentioned that he wanted a
different kind of love, the kind that Nancy and Russell had, that
Celeste and Max now had too—in short the kind of love that everyone
felt but me. Why was I so deficient in this particular kind of
love? Where was it? Where could I go to find it? I would do
anything if it meant bringing everything back to normal.

* * * * *

Chapter 11

All the classes that were
geared to the learning of all living creatures that would inhabit
Earth were located in the west coast of the northern continent. The
southern area was largely devoted to the study of animal life in
all its forms. The northern area was dedicated to plant life and
fungus. It took us a long time just to go through one section of
the park labeled BOREAL FOREST ANIMALS. Each enclosure held several
pairs of that particular species.