Jennifer pulled her head from Kathy’s embrace, leaned back against the wall, and closed her eyes. She felt Kathy reach out and wipe away her tears. For a moment Jennifer let herself be comforted.
“In the next few days, Jennifer,” Kathy said softly, “we will answer these questions and straighten out all the mystery. You are at the edge of great possibilities.”
“I’m at the edge of an abyss.”
“It is when we look into that abyss that we discover the truth. You are so close, Jennifer.”
Jennifer looked up at Kathy Dart. Her eyes gleamed. Her smile emanated confidence and enthusiasm. Jennifer nodded. She would try. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Give yourself a chance,” Kathy continued, “to become the great person that is your destiny. I believe there is someone seeking to use your body as a medium into this world. Someone wants to channel through you. Someone wants to ‘get out,’ and I find that terribly exciting.”
“It has only been terrifying for me,” Jennifer answered, pulling herself off the hallway floor. She needed another shower.
“I went through this myself, Jennifer,” Kathy said calmly. “Habasha wasn’t just someone I met by chance in an aisle at the A and P.”
“I was happy the way I was,” Jennifer answered.
“You only thought you were,” Kathy Dart answered back.
“I would rather have been left alone.”
“But don’t you understand,” Kathy said quietly, “this person who wishes to be channeled won’t let you be your old self.” And then, smiling, she leaned forward and kissed Jennifer softly on her cheek.
“When you’re dressed, come into the living room, and we’ll talk. There’s so much to tell you.” Then Kathy Dart nodded good-bye and walked back to the living room, blocking out the light at the end of the hallway as she disappeared from sight
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
“HI, HOW ‘YA DOING?” Simon McCloud was suddenly at her side in the living room. “How ‘bout a cup of tea?” he asked solicitously.
“Fine. I’m just fine,” Jennifer answered, accepting the warm cup. Kathy Dart must have told him what happened in the hallway. “I think I’m finally adjusting to the frozen north,” she added. She nodded toward the blazing fire. “That helps a lot. It looks so warm and inviting.”
“It’s actually a waste of energy.” Simon shrugged. “We’d do better closing it down and putting in a wood stove, but Kathy’s a great believer in the illusion of the fireplace
everyone sitting cozily around it.” He smiled, as if amused by the deception.
“Well, I think it’s lovely, illusion or not,” Jennifer answered back. “Isn’t there room for illusions in your life, Simon?” As she sipped her tea, she scanned the room for Eileen.
“Do you want to meet any of these people?” Simon asked, ignoring her question.
“No,” Jennifer said truthfully, glancing around at the dozen other guests who were milling around the room. Many of them looked flushed, as if they had just come in from the cold. “Who are they?”
“International consultants. They work with Third World countries, telling their citizens how to act, teaching them to eat with knives and forks, and how to get along with Americans.” He shrugged dismissively, then added coolly, “To tell you the truth, I don’t pay that much attention to most of the people who come through here. There’s a different group nearly every week. This place is like a bus station sometimes. I just stand at the front door, punch tickets, and take money.” He reached over and set his cup of tea on an end table.
Jennifer was startled by his candor. “Is that how you consider me
and Eileen?”
“No, of course not,” he replied. “You’re not like these people. You’re one of us.”
“Us? What do you mean?”
“Us
you know.” He shrugged. “You and Eileen, and Kathy, of course, and me. I mean, the four of us are linked. Hasn’t Kathy told you about all of this?” Suddenly Simon looked worried, as if he had said too much.
Jennifer shook her head and kept her eyes on him.
“Kathy explained what happened to you,” he went on. “She told me before you came that we
you and I
had this
connection. She said I’d have an emotional pull toward you.” He was staring down at her, and Jennifer returned his gaze. She felt as if she could lose herself in his deep blue eyes.
“What exactly are you saying, Simon?” she found herself asking calmly, though she knew exactly.
They were both sitting now on the window seat at the far end of the room. Jennifer felt as if she and Simon were completely alone. Her heart was pounding.
“Kathy told me how you and I, and she, too, were all once—maybe more than once—connected in another life.” He suddenly seemed embarrassed and he looked away.
“Why are you saying this, Simon? What are you suggesting?”
“I’m saying that the moment I saw you I knew I wanted you.”
“I don’t think Kathy would appreciate hearing that,” Jennifer said.
“But she knows,” Simon explained. “And she understands. Habasha told her. In a previous life, you and I were living in an Idaho mining town. You were Chinese and married to an old man. I was killed—”
Jennifer stood up. “I don’t know anything about that,” she said. She knew that she had to get away from Simon. Her desire for him was dizzying. She made an effort to move, but he seized her by the wrist. Jennifer felt faint.
Just then, she spotted Eileen approaching from the other end of the room. “Stop, Simon,” she whispered. “Please.”
He let go of her wrist.
“There you are! You didn’t come and get me after your shower. Hello, Simon.” Eileen’s eyes took in Jennifer’s guilty look, and she smiled.
“I’m sorry, Eileen. I forgot. After my shower, I ran into Kathy.”
“It’s my fault, Eileen,” Simon interrupted. “We got to talking about our shared past lives.”
Jennifer took a deep breath and stared into the blazing fire. Simon was smiling at Eileen, enveloping her with his charm. As he explained that he and Jennifer once lived together in an Idaho mining town, he slipped his arm around her in a brief embrace.
Jennifer felt her knees weaken, but she forced herself to recover, to pull away from Simon’s embrace. This was crazy. Her emotions were totally out of control.
“And what about me?” Eileen made a face at Simon, fretting about her exclusion.
“Yes, you were with us. Kathy has told you that, hasn’t she?” Simon cocked his head.
“Of course she has. I was just teasing.” Eileen reached to touch Simon’s arm.
But she wasn’t teasing, Jennifer realized. Something was wrong. Eileen was upset. But before Jennifer could question her, Simon interrupted, nodding toward the center of the room.
“I think we’re ready.”
Jennifer turned to see Kathy Dart standing in front of the blazing fire. Many of the other guests had already settled into the leather chairs. Kathy looked up and smiled over to where they stood, and immediately Jennifer stepped away from Eileen and Simon and walked into the circle of chairs. Now she needed distance from everyone.
She squeezed herself between the others on the brown leather couch and turned her full attention to Kathy Dart.
“We have several new people with us this evening,” Kathy began, as she introduced Jennifer and Eileen. “As some of you know,” she went on, “I like to spend a few minutes each evening before dinner talking about various aspects of parapsychology. To remind everyone again, this is a relatively new discipline that studies extrasensory perception, or ESP; psychokinesis, or PK; and survival phenomena, which include channeling, reincarnation, afterlife evidence—you name it, the list goes on.” She paused to smile at the group. “I know that many of you have questions about us and what we are all doing here at the farm. So, let’s take a few minutes to answer some of your questions.”