“Do you see that man down there in front of
the store?” Rose asked. We nodded.
The man had a dark gray Aura around him, and
the shape of the energy around him almost looked normal.
“Now, you may think black would be a bad
color, but in truth it only means that he’s protecting himself; he
doesn’t want to be connected to anyone or anything. It could be
that he’s hiding something or that he’s afraid. Now, I can feel
him...can you two?” Rose asked.
We nodded. He wasn’t afraid, he was
angry.
“So, you can see he’s angry,” Rose said,
looking at Landen. “What is his intent?” she asked.
“Revenge,” Landen said in a low tone.
“Well, then, we can assume – and I mean
assume, but you can’t read his thoughts – that he’s angry at
someone and is protecting himself from the world and will seek
revenge. Now, we could watch him all day; if he does seek revenge -
or on a better note, makes peace inside himself - then his Aura
should change. An Aura is a mirror of the energy you put off,” Rose
explained.
“What about that older man? Why does he have
dark spots?” Landen asked.
Rose and I followed his stare. The man’s
Aura was close to him, and it was a muddy combination of several
dark colors. “I would say he’s sick; something inside his body is
not working properly. That’s usually what the dark spots mean. A
lot of the times, you can see the sickness before the person even
knows they’re sick,” Rose explained.
“Is he dying?” I asked, feeling sorry for
the man.
“The bodies we have now are all dying. He
can heal himself if he wants to, but I can feel his grief. If I
were to guess, I’d say he’s lost someone he loves and only wishes
to join them,” Rose said. I had a feeling she was right.
“Can we show them how it moves?” Preston
said, coming to the side of the roof. Landen cautiously held out
his hand to block Preston from coming any closer to the edge. Rose
nodded.
“Let’s go down,” she said, turning.
Brady lingered around Landen. “If I
meditate, will I be able to see the colors?” he asked Landen.
“I don’t know. We can try to teach you,”
Landen answered.
Libby turned around and smiled.
“Not yet,” she said, looking up at Brady.
She and Preston giggled a little, and we knew they’d seen something
in our future.
“Rose, can you see the light that connects
me and Landen?” I asked as we stepped out onto the street. She
smiled and nodded.
“Is it love?” I asked.
“It is the bond of true love, the bond that
soulmates have.”
“Why is ours so thick? Is it because our
love is so new?” Landen asked.
Rose grinned. “Your love is far from new. In
my opinion, it represents how well the two of you are connecting as
one, the reason your gifts have merged.”
“If there is something connecting the two of
you, maybe that’s why you can’t be apart,” Brady said, trying to
see it around us.
“There’s a line that connects you and
Felicity, and you’re away from her,” Landen argued.
I really didn’t care that it was painful for
me to be away from Landen; I knew that it meant he would always be
connected to me - with me.
We walked through the streets, watching all
the colors. Rose hesitated in front of a construction site. We
leaned against the wall and watched the men work. It was easy to
see who was in charge: a large man in a yellow hat. His Aura was
almost completely red; apparently, he wasn’t happy with the work
one of his workers was doing. He walked over to a smaller man who
was pouring cement and began to yell. I heard Preston and Libby
giggle. As the man yelled, his Aura seemed to dwindle, and his
energy was leaving him. I could feel the fear coming from the man
he was yelling at; his fear rose, and his green Aura seemed to
shrink.
“See? They give it away,” Preston said,
looking up at Landen.
“Preston is right. When we’re angry or
afraid, it depletes our energy, and we give away what belongs to
us,” Rose explained.
“Can you get it back?” I asked, concerned
that the people I wanted to help had no energy of their own.
“Love brings it back. A calm mind can, too,”
Rose said.
“Love is pretty,” Libby said.
Rose nodded, then we walked on through the
streets. We settled at an outside diner in the center of the town.
Preston and Libby played around a water fountain that was near the
edge of the sidewalk.
As couples walked by, I could see a white
line connecting them, connecting their children.
“You see, love is not just in our dimension.
When you see people connected in a dimension, you can consider them
blessed. It’s not easy to find a pure love. If we couldn’t travel,
our dimension wouldn’t exist by now,” Rose said, watching a young
couple pass by us.
“How come there’s a glow that connects Brady
and Felicity to Allie, but not one that connects us to our
parents?” Landen asked.
Brady looked up, surprised by what he
heard.
“As Allie grows into an adult, that line
will lessen as she comes into her own. If you look really close,
you’ll still be able to see a very faint line that connects you to
the people that you hold the closest to your heart,” Rose said.
My eyes fell across Landen and Brady, and I
could see the faintest of lines joining them. Rose followed my
stare.
“They are the only ones you can still see it
around without having to really focus,” Rose said to me. Landen and
Brady looked at us curiously.
“You guys have one around you,” I said to
Landen.
Landen’s eyes looked all around him and
Brady. “I don’t see it,” he said, a little disappointed.
“Good. I don’t want to be connected to you;
it’s bad enough people call me Landen,” Brady said, teasing
Landen.
“Watch,” Rose said, reaching for my arm.
I looked up, and across the street I saw a
couple talking. Between them, I could see a faint red glow; it
seemed to spread through them, and their Auras grew. “That’s love,”
Rose said. I could feel them, and she was right; they were falling
in love.
“Love...kindness…it builds you. The more you
give, the more you receive. The bad emotions take energy from
you.”
“Libby!” Landen screamed.
I looked up. As if in slow motion, I saw
Libby stumble as she circled the stone fountain - falling directly
into the path of moving cars. Landen stood and reached his hand
out. I don’t know how he did it, but he grasped her energy and
pulled her back. Her body suspended in mid-air, then in a flash she
was in Landen’s arms and he was sitting again. It happened so fast,
no one around us even noticed. Our hearts were racing. As calm as
he could, Preston came over to Libby and took her hand. They then
sat down at the table next to us. Even Rose was covered in
shock.
“How did you do that?! How did you do
that?!” Brady asked over and over again, trying to get an answer
from Landen, but he didn’t know; he was scared and in shock.
Preston and Libby were giggling to
themselves. Preston then looked up at Landen and said, “All you did
was pull her energy. It’s easy to do; Drake does it all the
time.”
I felt the air leave me and my stomach fall
to the ground. Landen felt my fear and reached over to pull my
chair closer to him. Preston had never said Drake’s name around us;
we simply tried to forget that they were brothers.
“That’s how he did what he did,” Brady said,
referring to when Drake had thrown Livingston against the wall
without even touching him. We had thought he’d used the power of
the star...I guess we were wrong.
Landen stood quickly. “Let’s go home,” he
said, reaching over to pick up Libby. I reached for Preston’s hand
and gave Rose a weary look. She smiled, but I could feel her
concern. It was becoming clear that the path before us was broader
than we’d ever imagined. For the first time, I was afraid of what I
was capable of, of what purpose our new insights would have. Landen
reached for my hand, and with his touch I felt a peace course
through me. He was so strong; it amazed me how easily he could put
the emotions of others before himself.
“Preston, what color is Drake?” Brady asked
when we stepped into the passage.
Landen looked back, interested in Preston’s
answer.
“Everyone at my old house was either gray or
black,” Preston answered, a little sad.
“Everyone?” Rose questioned, thinking of
Beth.
“Well, Mommy’s would change when Daddy came
to see her, but besides that, there was no color,” Preston
said.
Brady reached down, picked Preston up, and
carried him the rest of the way home.
When we stepped through the passage to our
home, we saw Marc leaning against our jeep. Landen looked back at
Brady, telling him to keep quiet; he wasn’t ready to tell Marc what
he could do.
I could feel Marc’s jealously; he was trying
to hide it. “I woke up this morning, and everyone was gone,” he
said, raising his hands and smiling.
Brady sat Preston down and let him run to
Marc.
Marc looked at Brady. “So, they have you
mediating and stepping into other people’s bodies, too?” he
said.
Brady looked at Landen. “Stepping into
bodies?” he repeated in shock.
Preston and Libby belted into laughter.
“I haven’t stepped into anyone - yet,”
Landen said, winking at me. I knew he wanted to try it; frankly,
the thought of it scared me.
“Look man,” Brady said, drawing an invisible
box around him. “I don’t care what line connects us, you are not
stepping in here - this is my own personal Brady space,” he said,
trying to lighten the mood.
“I’ll show you how,” Preston said to
Marc.
Marc smiled a crooked smile. “Why don’t we
do something simpler, like playing ball or fishing?” he said
cautiously. Preston nodded.
“Come, Libby. We’ll find some girl things to
do,” Rose said, reaching for her.
Landen was still holding her tightly; it was
like he was afraid she would get hurt if he let her go. He kissed
her cheek, then Libby wrapped her arms around his neck and
whispered, “I was only trying to teach you; you wouldn’t have
believed me if I told you.”
“Next time, try telling me first,” Landen
said, smiling a little and hugging her tighter before he sat her
down. Preston climbed into Marc’s jeep, and Rose and Libby walked
off through the field.
“So...um...I say we go to your house and see
if you’re strong enough to throw me,” Brady said, looking at
Landen. We both looked at him like he was crazy. “Hey, that may
come in handy - it sure would have last time,” he said, climbing
into the back of Landen’s jeep.
Landen reached back, wrapped his arm around
me, and kissed the top of my head, then he led me to my side of the
jeep and opened the door for me to climb in.
Back at our house, we walked to the side
yard, away from the view of any other houses. “Alright, let’s see
what you got,” Brady said with a boyish grin as he stood a few feet
away from Landen.
Landen took a deep breath and reached out
for Brady’s energy; his hand moved trough it as if it were thin
air. He tried over and over again, but nothing happened. Brady
laughed out loud as he watched Landen try, and something inside me
boiled to the surface. I knew Brady meant no harm, but when it came
to my family - to Landen - I had a low tolerance. I reached my hand
out and pushed Brady’s energy away from us, and he fell flat on his
bottom. Landen’s eyes widened just before he belted into laughter.
Brady stood up gradually, dazed. I slowly looked at my hand. I had
used my right hand; the rings we wore, the rings of protection,
were on our left hands.
“How did you do that? “ Brady asked me,
blushing.
I shrugged my shoulders, confused.
Landen tried to control his laughter. “You
made her mad when you were teasing me,” Landen said through broken
laughs.
Brady looked at me and shook his head
slowly. “So now we have a Scorpio - the one sign that you should
never cross - with the power to throw a grown man down when she’s
mad...you better be careful, man,” he said, moving his eyes to
Landen.
The same defensive emotion that I felt
inside me rose in Landen. He raised his hand, grabbed Brady, and
pulled him up, suspending him ten feet in the air. I felt Brady’s
emotion turn to pure pride. He started to laugh.
“What are you laughing at?” Landen said as
he raised Brady up and down, then spun him slowly around.
“Because I’m a genius; I just taught you how
to use this power,” Brady screamed from the air.
“What?” Landen said as he lowered him down
slowly.
“Don’t you see? I had to strike at one of
you for you to figure it out. You used the power like a reflex. I
bet if you practiced, you wouldn’t have to be mad or afraid to use
it,” Brady said, adjusting his clothes. Landen looked at me with an
impish grin and picked up Brady again, taking him higher and
higher. “How heavy am I?” Brady yelled from the air.
“You’re as light as thin air,” Landen yelled
back at him.
Landen lowered him again. Brady smiled
widely. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we were playing football and you
just picked up everyone and threw them?” Brady said.
A mental picture of bodies being suspended
in thin air passed through my mind, and I couldn’t control my
laughter.
We practiced with Brady for the rest of the
day, then Landen lowered Brady as we felt Olivia and the others
pass through the opening of the string in front of our house. I
left Landen and Brady, and went to catch them; I wanted to
apologize in person for canceling on them today. Dane and Chrispin
passed me first.
Dane stopped, smiled, and hugged me. “Are
you alright?” he asked, looking me over. I nodded. “We need to
catch up; I feel like we’re growing apart,” he said