Jennifer nodded. “I think so. It seems like an age. I mean, so much has happened in my life.”
“You’re telling me?”
They reached a bank of elevators, and Eileen pressed the down button. “It’s set to start in five minutes,” she said. “Kathy and Habasha are is never late.”
“Who is she, he or it?” Jennifer asked, really confused now.
“He’s prehistoric. A Cro-Magnon man.”
“What!” Jennifer exclaimed, backing off.
Eileen laughed. “I know, I know. It all sounds silly and strange, but really it isn’t. Just wait! Keep an open mind. I was the same way until I heard Kathy Dart speak. You’ll see.”
When the elevator door opened, they stepped out into the lower lobby of the hotel. Through a set of open doors, Jennifer saw a crowd of people already gathered on at least a hundred metal folding chairs. It looked like any other hotel conference session she had ever attended.
But at the far end of the room was a winged green satin armchair placed upon a small platform. The chair was surrounded with flowers, bouquets of bright spring blossoms, and Jennifer was struck by how incongruous it all seemed. Directly behind the armchair, a beautiful crystal pyramid was suspended from the ceiling, though it seemed to hang in midair like a halo. Of course, she thought, remembering now some of the things she had read about the New Age movement. Quartz crystals were considered a source of psychic energy.
“They’re all women,” Jennifer said, scanning the crowd.
“Well, yes, mostly. I really hadn’t noticed,” Eileen answered as they stepped into an aisle and sat down in two of the folding chairs.
Jennifer saw that the majority of women were like her. They were mostly in their late twenties, well dressed, and many were wearing business suits and carrying briefcases, as if they had just come from the office. The few men in the audience were similarly well dressed and well groomed. This was not, she realized, a way-out group of people.
“One reason I feel comfortable going to one of these conferences,” Eileen whispered to Jennifer, “everyone looks like me. See, we can’t all be crazy.” She smiled at Jennifer. “Oh, I’m so glad I ran into you. It’s so exciting.” Before Jennifer could respond, Eileen said quickly, “There she is.”
Jennifer turned toward the door. Kathy Dart had appeared at the entrance, and the roomful of people immediately fell silent. Jennifer looked away for a moment and suppressed a smile. It would be impolite to laugh, she knew, but the flowers, the small throne, and all the pomp and circumstance were embarrassing. And now around her, Jennifer saw, people were smiling, and some had tears in their eyes as Kathy Dart entered the room.
The channeler came up the center aisle and smiled down at her audience. The palms of her hands were turned up, and as she moved toward the stage, she reached out to caress the cheek of one woman, to touch another’s hand, to make physical contact with her followers.
She was beautiful, Jennifer saw. Beautiful in a delicate and fragile way. Very tall and thin, with sloping shoulders that concealed her height. She wore no makeup, and her very long and straight black hair set off her pure white skin. She looked like a woman who needed to be protected, who was too fragile for the world. Yet when she stepped into the room, she immediately overwhelmed it with her presence.
As Kathy Dart passed their chairs, her eyes swept down the row and then caught Jennifer’s face, and she stopped walking. For a moment, her eyes were riveted on Jennifer, and the sweet smile slipped from her angelic face. Kathy Dart looked startled, as if she had been found out in some way. And Jennifer, at that moment, felt a surge of heat and pain sweep through her body, leaving her flesh aflame.
Kathy Dart broke off her gaze and turned abruptly away to find another face. She smiled warmly at the next person, as if she were trying to quickly reestablish herself with the crowd. Jennifer fell back into her chair, trembling from the silent exchange.
“She’s almost thirty-three,” Eileen whispered. “Don’t you think that’s interesting? You know, the same age as Jesus Christ?”
Jennifer could not catch her breath. The eye contact with Kathy Dart had surprised her, and seeing the disturbed look on the woman’s face had frightened her. She turned to ask Eileen if she had seen the way Kathy Dart looked at her, but at that moment there emerged from the assemblage a soft humming. It swept across the crowded room, as if dozens of mothers were gently humming their infants to sleep.
Kathy Dart had reached the flower-decked platform, and the humming increased to a rushing crescendo. Kathy Dart faced the audience with uplifted arms. She was dressed in a long white gown trimmed in light blue. Around her neck she wore a gold chain that held a small quartz crystal.
The room lights dimmed and a small spotlight focused on Kathy Dart. She lifted her right hand, and as she slowly lowered it, the humming faded away.
“Thank you,” she whispered, “for giving us some of your present time, for welcoming us into your life.” She spoke slowly, smiling constantly at the audience, her bright blue eyes flashing in the spotlight.
It’s going to be one of those talks, Jennifer realized at once. She was always uneasy around people who gushed with deeply felt emotions. Jennifer glanced at her watch. It was now 2:20. She had hoped to be through with her afternoon jog before Tom returned to the hotel. She would give this another twenty minutes, she decided, and then she’d leave.
“I’m sure you all know something—a little something perhaps— of channeling, of who I am, and of how this new man came into my life,” Kathy Dart began, and the audience laughed.
She certainly had a nice easy delivery, Jennifer noted, coolly appraising her.
“My Old Man, I call him. God knows he’s old enough,” she said quickly, raising her voice in mock seriousness. “He’s at least twenty-three million years old, give or take a few hundred years. Of course, I think he might be telling a few white lies about that age of his,” she added, raising her eyebrows. Then she threw up both hands. “But who’s counting!” The audience broke into quick applause.
Beside her, Eileen beamed up at Kathy Dart.
“Many of you, however, don’t know about Habasha, and that is why I have these little talks early in the weekend, to give you and your friends a chance to meet my lover, my mentor, my best friend. I am sure some of you know that Habasha was once my warrior lover; in another time we were both pirates off the Barbary Coast, and in yet another time and another place he was my son. That is the wonderful nature of reincarnation. The wonderful nature of our spirits, ourselves, our souls. With the help of Habasha, I have regressed to my distant past, have tracked all my previous lives.”
She paused and looked around the room, taking in the audience. Her large, shiny, saucer blue eyes caught and held everyone’s attention.
“Reincarnation is such a wonderful, strange, and also beautiful aspect of our existence. It is a basic tenet of many religions. We are reincarnated! I know. And you know in your heart of hearts, too, that somehow, someway, you have lived before, have been another person, suffered perhaps and died, and then lived again.”
“We know this from the religions of our childhood. I myself was raised a Roman Catholic, and within the teachings of my very first catechism, I learned how the saints of the early Christian faith came back from death to tell us about heaven as well as hell. I learned that all of us someday will join our Maker in eternity.”
She had softened her voice, Jennifer realized, to draw people closer, to force them to be more attentive. Even she was leaning forward and paying more attention to Kathy Dart.