Veiled (39 page)

Meanwhile, Alex and I
floated above the willow, my head resting on his lap, and my hair
spread over his legs. We were silent for a long while, enjoying
this rare break.

“
Will you marry me?”
he asked while he ran his fingers through my
hair.

“
I will,”
I responded with a mental laugh.

“
Why do you
laugh?”

“
Because, you’ll forget all
about this question as soon as we are born. You have a perfect
alibi.”

“
I’ll remember the moment I
see you. Besides, you can still promise.”

“
I promise.”

“
Just like that, you don’t
need to think about it?”

As I started to laugh,
Russell, Nancy and Valerie laughed too, bringing back memories of
our previous gatherings—when we were all spirits and spent many
moments such as these.

That evening Valerie felt
better than she had since her suicide attempt. She participated in
her group session for the first time since she was admitted, and
felt confident in the love her parents had for her. This got her
thinking of home and how nice it would be to be back in her room,
with her things and her parents. When the horrible realization of
life back among her peers hit her with full force.

She started pacing again
and the itch came back. She rubbed her fingers over and over again
until the freshly healed-over scars started to bleed.

Everyone and their dog will
know what I did. They’ll know that I’ve been committed to the loony
bin. What will they think of me? Will they be scared of me? Will
the parents think I’m weird and bad company? Oh, what have I done?
What have I done?”
she agonized, and
started to hyperventilate.

One of the nurses saw her
bloody hands and called the doctor.

“
Valerie. Valerie? Can you
hear me?” the doctor inquired.

Valerie startled once she
realized he was there, with two husky nurses standing right behind
him. She was struck with panic as she looked down on her hands and
realized they were bleeding once more.

“
I…I’m sorry. I didn’t
realize…It won’t happen again, I swear,” she promised. But the
doctor kept coming closer to her and the nurses blocked her escape
on either side of him. They looked menacing as they tried to corner
Valerie. She became more and more agitated. She didn’t know what
they wanted with her, and why they were coming so close to
her.

Alex rushed to her side and
quietly whispered. “Val, it’s OK. They just want to give you some
medicine.”

But Valerie wasn’t
listening to her Guardian Angel. She screamed, putting her bloody
hands to her face. This horrified her even more and she screamed
even louder.

The nurses had her pinned
in one corner and grabbed her by the arms trying to steady her,
while the doctor injected her with a tranquilizer.

Moments later, Valerie’s
legs gave out from under her. She mumbled something incoherent and
was soon passed out on her bedroom floor.

“
She should be out all
night,” the Doctor said as he glanced at Valerie’s still form on
the floor.

The nurses picked her up
and put her on her bed. They changed her into her night clothes,
washed her hands, and applied thick bandages to her
fingers.

Alex was beside
himself.
“I feel so powerless. What is
there to do?”

I thought about it. There
had to be something we could do to help her. We are Angels! We were
sent for moments such as these.

“
There is something you can
do.”
The clear thought that ran through
our connected minds was not our own.

“
She is sleeping now, give
her a dream. We will extend your abilities, Tess, so you can link
with her. Think of the time she volunteered for a special mission.
She will see it as you saw it, through your eyes.”
The Eternals gave us the instructions and
disconnected. As soon as this was done, I saw in my mind how the
link worked. It was so simple, like a puzzle where the pieces fit,
and were not just a random fluke. I had been holding a few pieces
of that puzzle, which allowed me to connect with Alex, but now I
had them all!

I went to her bedside and
was easily able to add her consciousness to ours. I was mesmerized
by the simplicity of it. I nodded to Alex, signaling to him that
the link was made. Right then, Valerie reached REM, and we
began.

“
Valerie,”
Alex whispered softly.
“I
would like to show you something.”

“
Who said that?”
Valerie’s voice responded. Her mind was blank, so
an idea occurred to me. Since I was linking Alex and Valerie in a
dream—and I was to show Valerie from my memory what happened during
special missions class—I would give her dream some
context.

First I added light, soft
sun-like light, like rays that filter through clouds. I was told
not to disclose too much, so I placed Alex’s form right underneath
one of the rays as if a spotlight was on him. Besides this I added
nothing else, so all Valerie could see was Alex and
sunshine.

“
Who are you?”
Valerie asked as soon as she saw Alex’s form in
her dream.

“
I’m an Angel,”
Alex answered.

“
Am I dead?”

“
No,”
he said, laughing slightly.
“You are
having a vision.”

“
Like a dream?”

“
Yes, a vision in a dream.
You are still at the institution.”

“
Man…those drugs are
strong!”

“
It’s not the drugs, you
are sleeping, and this vision is real. I exist,”
Alex assured her.

“
What am I doing
here?”

“
I would like to show you
something.”

That was my cue to make a
memory appear in the scenario I had created. So I placed a door, a
ways off in the distance.

Alex saw it and
turned.
“Here, follow me.”

“
What is this
place?”

“
Heaven,”
Alex said plainly. Of course it wasn’t but there
was no other way to explain this to her, so he kept it simple. She
was, in essence, about to see a memory from heaven. So I guess, for
all intents and purposes, it was.

Alex opened the door and
asked her to look inside.

She hesitated.
“But heaven is for dead people. Will I die if I
look inside?”

“
No, you will not die. This
is the heaven we all come from. The heaven were we lived before we
were born.”

Valerie poked her head in
the door and I displayed the room where the special mission’s class
had taken place. I showed her the seats filled with spirits, as
they quietly interacted with each other. Then I focused on the row
where Valerie was sitting, and showed her the image of her sitting
there, attentively listening—her face slightly more mature looking
than her teenage face was now. Her eyes were riveted on the teacher
as he explained the different types of infirmities that we might
willingly take on in mortality. Then the fateful moment, when the
teacher asked who of us would willingly volunteer to take on one of
these infirmities.

Valerie watched herself
lift her hand with a determined look on her face.

“
I chose this?”
she asked, aghast.

“
Yes, you did,”
Alex asserted.

“
So, you are telling me
that I willingly chose to take on this freaky mental
illness?”

“
I am.”

“
Why?”

“
I don’t know that, but I
do know that no one is allowed to take on more than they can
handle. You are strong, Valerie. Stronger than you think you are.
You knew it then, I am here to remind you of it now.”

I faded the room and placed
them back at the bright open area with nothing else to see but
Alex’s form.

“
You don’t have
wings,”
she noted.

Alex smiled.
“I don’t.”

“
What’s your name?”
she asked incredulously.

“
Alex,”
he blurted out before he even thought about it. Then it was
too late.

“
I like that
name.”

“
You must return
now.”

“
But I want to see
more,”
Valerie
protested
. “I feel so good
here.”

“
I was sent to remind you
of this one choice only. You need to remember that it is within you
to cope with this illness.”

“
Cope? I will not be
healed?”

“
You will not.”
Alex’s voice was husky, I could tell that he
would want nothing better than to take this burden away from her,
but she chose it, and she must endure it.

“
Valerie, you are strong
enough to deal with this and live a happy life. Summon that
strength that you know lies dormant in you,”
he said sternly, yet lovingly.

I slowly started to fade
the vision.

“
Wait, don’t go! Will I
ever see you again?”
Valerie
asked.

Alex wanted to tell her so
much…but couldn’t.

“
You will,”
he added, much against his better
judgment.

“
When?”

“
When you give birth to
me.”

The borrowed knowledge from
the Eternals faded from me, and Valerie’s dream ended.

“
You said too much,”
I told him.

Alex looked straight into
my eyes with a determined look.
“Right now
she needs a reason to live, and without her I will never
be.”

* * * * *

Chapter 34

After the dream, Valerie’s
life seemed to take a turn for the better. The next day she spoke
to her psychiatrist for the first time, and later on she joined an
Art class that was being offered there. Much to her and our
amazement, she was very talented. She was quickly able to learn the
techniques that she was being taught and mastered them in about a
week’s time.

She now filled her days
drawing and painting, in a group or alone, in her room or out on
the grounds. Her doctor wasted no time in using this to his
advantage and quickly developed a treatment for her through
art.

Meanwhile, Alex and I were
called away to class, and we left her with the knowledge that she
was on a path to recovery.

“
Mmm…’Creativity.’ that
sounds like an interesting class,” I mused.

“
It sounds boring to me,”
Alex complained, and then he frowned. “Wow, it’s weird having to
talk again.”

I shook my head. “Why would
you think that it’ll be a boring class? It sounds perfectly…Robyn!”
I halted, with the sudden realization that I had forgotten all
about her.

“
What?” Alex asked and
looked all around for signs of trouble. “What is it?”

“
Robyn…I left her alone
during the investigation!” I said, and then I tapped my calling
stone and tried reaching her. “Robyn? This is Tess,” I whispered,
not wanting to disturb her if she was busy. “Robyn, can you hear
me?” I said a little louder, and still no response.

I looked at Alex with
worry, but he didn’t seem worried at all. “She’s probably
undercover and can’t talk,” he soothed as he wrapped his arm around
me. Technically I was where the pendant was telling me to be, but I
still worried that I had done something wrong in leaving her all
alone.

“
Alex!” Katie’s voice
startled Alex out of the stupor that the “Creativity” class had him
under.

“
Shh…Katie, not so loud!
I’m in class,” Alex whispered as he hurried out of the classroom,
with me at his heels.

“
Sorry,” Katie replied. “I
just…you have to come! Dane is going to Texas right now. We have to
make sure he meets Valerie! Or she’ll kill me in the next life,”
she said with agitation.

“
Texas is a big place,
Katie. What makes you think we can even pull this off?” Alex
replied.

“
He is going to check out
Baylor’s Med. School. Isn’t that where Valerie is going to school?”
Katie said, straining her voice.

“
I have no idea where she
is going to school. She was in high school last time I checked,”
Alex replied as we flew toward the Archives room and through
Heaven’s door.

“
Not anymore, I heard
through another spirit who was up that way, that she was going to
Baylor,” Katie said amid a loud engine sound.

“
What’s that noise Katie?”
I asked.

“
Oh…that, well…I am
hitching a ride on top of Dane’s plane.”

Alex and I looked at each
other and exchanged puzzled looks.

“
Any particular reason for
riding on top?” Alex asked bemused.