She went to the field once more before nighttime to get the feel of the place. She was only slightly disappointed that she didn’t run into any of her new friends. Maybe tonight!
It took Mira awhile to get to sleep; she was so excited about trying her first trip on her own. She had done the exercises and told herself 2:00 a.m. again, since that was the time everyone seemed to use. It was a good night for it. The moon was still coming out of full so there would be light, and the weather was good. Mira loved summer nights.
When she showed up at the Emergency Meeting Place, she found herself sitting on top of the hay bale she usually climbed on.
This is weird. I was successful on the place but only partially
. Instead of sitting cross-legged and feeling gravel on the little road nearby, she could feel the pieces of hay sticking on her and smell the hay bale in the field. The oaks above and the moon were still the same though.
Then she heard it. Someone was nearby, sniffling. No, outright crying. Mira hopped off the hay bale. She could see the outline of a girl on the gravel road. It was hazy at first but as she walked nearer, she could see it was Trina. Trina was sitting on the gravel, her head over her knees, crying.
“Trina!” said Mira, eyes wide open. “What’s wrong?”
Trina looked up. Mira saw she had surprised her. Trina probably hadn’t expected anyone to be here.
Or maybe she had a meeting with another friend, and I’m interfering
. Trina had looked surprised and then disappointed. As if Mira was the last person on earth she wanted to see. She had been crying too; her eyes were red, and her face was wet.
I’m going to be of no help at all
. She almost felt like she heard Trina calling out in her mind, but that couldn’t be. She watched Trina start to speak, then hesitate. Mira gave Trina time to compose herself. She didn’t want to interrupt if this was a private matter. “Just tell me, Trina, if you want me to go,” she said, speaking softly, “and I will.”
“Go?!” Trina started making a hysterical kind of laughing sound, in the middle of crying. Her voice got very raspy, and she coughed.
Mira stood helpless, not sure what to do.
Finally, Trina, still sounding traumatized, looked at Mira and said, “Mira, I know it’s not your fault, but you are the last person that would know how or where to go. Where are you going to go? Back to your home?” She started half-sobbing, half-laughing with that terrible, throaty sound again.
Mira assumed Trina was so upset she had lost her mind. Thus, she had to stay. Trina obviously was in no condition to be out by herself, especially astrally.
“Trina,” Mira said, trying to help, “did you come here to get away? Maybe this isn’t the best time to be out astrally. Maybe you should go back to bed, and you’ll feel better in the morning.”
Trina started her horrible, raspy, sob-laugh again. “Mira!” she said, still overcome. “Doesn’t it strike you as odd that I’m out here by myself without one of the High Five Gang? You don’t even know that rule, do you? And you’re the one who made it!”
Confused, Mira just stared at Trina with a blank look on her face.
But Trina was on a roll and nothing was going to stop everything terrible from spilling out. She was in a predicament that had no solution, and bitterness and anger consumed her. She wouldn’t have wanted to take it out on poor Mira if she had been in her right mind, but Mira had happened to wander along at exactly the wrong moment.
“Mira!” Trina almost yelled. “Your old self was the one who made that rule. Your old self—and you don’t even remember! Why am I here alone? Have you thought about that? Why would I be here crying?”
Mira’s face flushed.
What was Trina trying to say?
“Mira!” Trina really did yell this time. “I’m dead. I’m here alone and crying because I just died! I was killed! And I’m stuck here and don’t know what’s supposed to happen, and I don’t even think I’m supposed to be here. My life is over!”
Mira’s mouth flew wide open; she put her hand up to cover it and jumped back from the force of Trina’s proclamation.
“Wha-what do you mean?” she stammered. “Was there an accident and you’re stuck in the astral? Oh, Trina! What can I do to help? Do you want me to go get the others? I’m sure they would want to know and would come immediately. It doesn’t matter that it’s the middle of the night. I’ll travel back home and then run to the real McArthur house and get them!”
“You
can’t
get the others, you poor, ignorant—” Trina started sobbing again. She was done for and had nothing left to do but vent.
She couldn’t believe she was dead. She had tried to go back to her body but couldn’t. She had seen the policemen trying to resuscitate her with her own eyes. Her life was over. And Lu—poor Lu. All because of a little tagging.
Mira understood that Trina was upset and was taking it out on her.
Dead!
Tears streamed down her face. She sat down and put her arm around Trina.
“Don’t touch me!” cried Trina, but it was too late. Mira recoiled. Trina’s body felt
…different
…but she put that down to the fact that Trina was dead.
All the secrets came tumbling out. Trina wasn’t maliciously trying to hurt Mira. She just couldn’t help herself. She might as well tell her anyway, since Mira had experienced the difference between them when they touched. “See!” she yelled. “Do you get it? I’m dead, and you’re lost! Your whole family? You created them! This town? You created it! The hay fields are here because we all created them years ago when we were young, but you don’t remember that. You’re lost, Mira; only part of you is here! I’m dead, and you’re still stuck in the astral. What you think is the real world is the astral. The gang has been trying to save you, but you haven’t caught on.”
Mira became very silent when Trina mentioned her family. Uneasy, she listened to Trina rant, only half taking it in, but tried to comprehend. She was in the astral already? Even when home?
“Bu-but,” she stammered again, trying to understand, forgetting Trina’s dire situation for a moment. “What do you mean? How can I be in the astral when I’m in real life? What do you mean about my family?”
By this time, Trina had calmed down a slight bit, enough to realize she was saying too much, and it was going to hurt people. She thought about it and forgot about her own situation for a second. She had a decision to make. Now that Mira knew half the story, would it be better to leave her guessing or tell her everything?
Trina, who had never been one for half-truths or lying, opted for the latter.
“Mira,” she said, her voice much lower and gentle, “I’m sorry. But you’ve created all this. When you think you’re in the real world, you are in the astral still.”
Mira’s heart started pounding. “And my family?” she asked. Her small body was shaking.
“Mira, your family is alive and well in the real world, except—” Trina’s voice caught.
“Except what?!” Mira’s voice became louder. On the verge of becoming hysterical, she tried to comprehend. Everything she thought was real, wasn’t? Her family was somewhere else?
“Mira, I’m so sorry. I am out of my head because of what’s just happened to me, and I shouldn’t have told you, but you have a right to know… Mira,” continued Trina softly, “Paul died when you were four.”
The world started to implode, spinning around Mira. She vaguely heard Trina call out “Mira!” but the landscape around her began to recede. Then a haziness took over the atmosphere. . Trina became smaller in her eyesight. The moon and the oak trees disappeared. Last was the sky.
From Trina’s point of view, the landscape that Mira had been holding up started collapsing. Luckily, the part they were on was permanent from the years of use by the High Five Gang, but it was still dangerous to have the rest of the astral fall apart. She looked up at the moon. It was gone, and the area was pitch black.
Chapter Twelve
The Dark Forest
Trina concentrated, and, yes, even though she was dead to the real world, she had some power here, and the moon and oak trees came back. She concentrated on making the hay bales and the pond reappear. When the moonlight came back, she finally saw Mira again and gasped. In front of her stood not Mira from before but a four-year-old little girl. She wondered if Mira understood that she had changed.
“Mira?” asked Trina, heart pounding. “Is that you?”
Trina had not known Mira as a child, and it was dark, but what other explanation was there? She knew that people traveled here at the age of their core self. Her news about Paul must have literally shocked Mira beyond recognition. Trina was at a loss. Here she was dead, and Mira was standing in front of her, only four years old.
***
Four-year-old Mira was having none of it, however. All she remembered of Trina was as someone yelling at her. With a trembling lower lip, she turned around.
“Mira!” shouted Trina, but that was the wrong thing to do.
Mira ran. She ran so fast Trina barely stood up before she saw the landscape change beyond the Emergency Meeting Place. Mira was running and was too young to control her environment. In place of what had been the town and Mira’s family’s farm was a dark forest. The sky over the forest was starless, and there was no moon. And Mira ran directly into it. Trina had always heard that Mira was a prodigy and her presence powerful. Now she saw Mira’s effect in real time. Even the McArthur house, which the gang themselves had created a just a few days ago, disappeared.
Back at the Emergency Meeting Place, Trina was distraught. Not only had she lost her own life, but also the emotional impact of what she had told Mira had resulted in a dramatic regression. Trina had no way to get help, and she guessed her whole gang sat back in the real-world living their normal lives. Trina plopped down again on the gravel, put her face to her knees, wrapped her arms around them, and began to cry.
***
Mira ran from the girl who had yelled, but as she ran, she found the landscape changing in front of her. What had been a pleasant night with a gentle breeze turned into a dark and moonless sky before her eyes. Still she ran. Deeper and deeper into the woods, she ran as if running for her life. She no longer remembered why she was running, or whether there might be a place to run to. Mira finally stopped at one of the large trees in the forest out of exhaustion. The breeze had turned to a cold chill, and she could barely see the sky beyond the thick undergrowth. She was lost. She didn’t even know how old she was or where home might be. All around her were dark and cold things. Mira sat on the ground and started crying.
***
Michael sat up in bed with a start. At first he was disoriented. Mira wasn’t there. They hadn’t slept apart in over ten years. He was used to her stealing the covers and the feel of her feet on his legs. The emptiness on her side of the bed threw him.
Then he sensed a change in his heart area. Something had happened with her. Something beyond her previous situation. That was why he had woken up. He could no longer wait until morning; he had to take action immediately. As he was thinking about Mira, the sickening realization about Trina came slowly back to him. For one second he hadn’t remembered she was gone. He slumped over, head in his hands. Then he heard a soft tapping on his bedroom door.
It was his mother and Madison. Madison was crying. “Something’s happened to Mom,” she sobbed. “Please keep her safe, Dad.”
Mrs. Ross stroked Madison’s hair and said, looking at Michael, “Your dad felt it too, honey.” And then, to Michael, “Madison dreamt about her mom vividly.” She stroked her granddaughter’s hair again and said with pride, “She’s growing up to be quite a young lady.”
This was the first Michael had heard that Madison had any awareness of the astral. Considering the turmoil in motion right now, he would just as soon that she didn’t. But this was not what his mother had come to debate.
“You need to call Stu and Jon,” she said to Michael. She was in no mood for discussion or disagreement, not that he had any mind to. Those two had been his first thought as well.
Then to Madison Mrs. Ross said, “Don’t worry, honey, this is nothing like Trina. Your mother is okay; she’s just had a shock.”
Madison never knew what to make of it when Grandma spoke this way, though she knew Morgan took her words as gospel. Still, more often than not, her grandmother turned out to be right.
“Come with me to the study,” said Mrs. Ross to Michael finally. “We need to talk.” Michael raised his eyebrows. Since when did his mother want to talk about the other world? She barely spoke to Jonathan because he still traveled. She had tolerated it when the High Five Gang had traveled for some reason, but she had never really approved.
Without thinking, Michael palmed a locket of Mira’s on the bureau. He put it in his pocket and kept his hand tight around it.
***
Madison was aware that the study conversation was not going to include her. There was nothing she could do anyway. As her grandmother and father left to go to the study, Madison sank on top of the covers on her mother’s side of the bed. It was comforting to smell her mother’s perfume still lingering on the pillow. She drifted into a deep sleep.
***
In the study, Mrs. Ross was careful to close the door. Michael looked up expectantly. He hoped this wouldn’t take long, as he knew for sure Mira needed help. Thank God it was nothing like Trina. He knew this to be true as well. He was sure his body would react had something like that happened to Mira. As it was, he determined a significant change happened in the other world. Fear emanated from Mira. He needed to get to the Emergency Meeting Place as soon as possible.
Mrs. Ross already knew what was on his mind. “I know you want to get going, but there is an important conversation we need to have. I wouldn’t keep you if this weren’t in direct relation to the predicament Mira is in and your efforts to help her.”
Michael had no choice but to sit down and listen.
Mrs. Ross took a seat at the roll top desk. Then she opened the palm of her right hand. In it was a key. “Do you know what this is?” she asked Michael.