Veiled (41 page)

“
What’s wrong?” Nancy
inquired, with a sweet southern drawl.

Valerie handed her mom the
portrait. “I met him today,” she said matter-of-fact.

Nancy raised her eyebrows
with astonishment. “Him? Who is he?”

“
His name is Dane, he is
moving here from Massachusetts.”

“
But you drew this in high
school!”

“
I know.”

Nancy looked at her
daughter, mystified.

“
Remember that dream I had
while I was at that…hospital?”

“
Yes…” Nancy mused. “You
said it changed your life. You saw an Angel.”

Valerie nodded.

“
Is this the
Angel?”

“
No.”

“
Then who is
he?”

“
That is exactly my
question.”

“
What did you show her,
Tess?” Alex asked with alarm.

“
She must have seen him
sitting next to her at the special mission’s class,” I explained.
“I just showed her my memories of that class. I remember that
clearly because Valerie had been acting strangely during that
class. So when the teacher asked us who wanted to volunteer, I made
a point to look over at Valerie to see what she did. That’s why my
memory of the event was so clear. I just gave her that same memory
back.”

“
Wow…she could have seen
all of us,” Katie said in awe.

“
Well, I don’t think it
would do any harm. If anything, it will help her realize that Dane
is important,” I said in my defense.

“
He was sitting next to me
in a room that was filled with…spirits,” Valerie said, and looked
at her mother’s reaction.

“
Spirits?” Nancy
clarified.

“
I know…it was a dream,”
Valerie said, as if that was a good excuse.

“
Vision,” Alex clarified
as he floated above her.

“
Yet here he is in Texas!”
Nancy looked back at the picture.

“
And taking me out to
dinner tonight.”

Nancy looked back at
Valerie with a wide grin. “And taking you out to dinner? Well…there
are lots of things that are hard to explain in this life. I will
take this as one of them. In the meantime, what are you going to
wear?”

Dane was received warmly
at Valerie’s home.
Too warmly,
Valerie thought.
T
hey will scare the guy away with how
welcoming they are.

“
So what is your last
name, Dane?” Valerie asked as they ate their dinner.

“
Preston,” he said as she
swallowed a bite of salad.

Valerie squinted. She had
heard that name before, many, many times before. It was usually
followed by a cuss word out of her father’s lips.

“
As in…Senator Dane
Preston?” she asked.

Dane’s face turned red.
“The second,” he corrected dryly.

Valerie nodded, but didn’t
say anything else.

Dane knew his father was
well hated by most conservatives, especially Veterans, and he
himself disagreed with his father on every point. “Don’t worry,” he
said between bites. “I was almost disowned when I registered as an
Independent.”

Valerie laughed.

“
And I am pretty sure I
will be disowned for good, the moment I tell my father that I just
enrolled in a Texas Med School.”

“
Yeah?” Valerie said
sarcastically. “I would be too!”

Dane grinned. “I was
looking for a school as far away from Boston as I could find. I was
thinking California, but it’s too much of a destination. They would
have come to visit too often—and I couldn’t have that. Texas
now…well I think my dad is allergic to Texas. He might even get
mugged if he came here,” he said, then they laughed some
more.

Dane wanted to know all
about Valerie and her family, her art and her career dreams. The
conversation went on smoothly all through dinner. Then they decided
to skip dessert and went for a walk. We followed them as they
strolled along through the well lit streets. It wasn’t until they
entered a little coffee shop that disaster struck.

They were making their way
back to a secluded corner of the coffee shop with steaming cups in
their hands. Valerie tripped over somebody’s purse that had fallen
to the floor, and the hot liquid spilled on her left hand. She
yelped and Dane hurriedly grabbed her cup from her hands. As he did
so the thick bracelet that she wore to cover up her scar slipped a
little up her arm. She saw Dane’s expression, and she would have
cried right then and there if she could.

Dane saw the previously
well-hidden scar on Valerie’s wrist and he felt a thick lump in his
throat. In one instant he realized that this beautiful girl had
suffered more than he could ever imagine and he wanted whatever
pain she felt to be forever banished. But he couldn’t find a
tactful way to say this.

He finally settled on
trying to avoid the subject all together, but this proved to be
even more disastrous. Valerie hardly said two words to him for the
rest of the evening, and when he pulled up to her driveway she was
opening her screen door before he was even out of the car. All he
could do was wave lamely as she closed the door and turned the
porch light off.

He cursed under his breath.
“Well!” Katie said, indignant. “I have never heard him swear. What
has come over him?” She flew around him in a circle trying to take
stock of this new creature. “You are in the company of Angels,
Dane. Watch your tongue!”

Alex chuckled, “Poor guy,
he got one of the bossiest Angels around.”

“
She’s not that bad. Can
you imagine having Celeste as your Guardian Angel? I feel pity for
whoever gets her,” I said, suddenly remembering the pinky
promise.

Alex burst out laughing,
“Yeah, poor soul. And the funny thing is, it might just be you who
gets her!”

I groaned in
reply.

We watched as Katie got in
the car with Dane. I waved at her and she waved back. She was
talking as Dane pulled away and I felt sorry for the guy. It was a
good thing that he wasn’t Clairaudient like me. Then I panicked—I
was! If I got Celeste I would be able to hear her constant chatter!
How would that affect me? She’s going to drive me nuts!

For some reason I thought
of my pendant and looked down at it. It wasn’t glowing, but I had a
weird feeling.

“
What’s wrong?” Alex
asked. He had forgotten that I was not assigned to be
here.

“
I don’t know…I don’t want
to leave…but I left Robyn all alone up there.”

“
You’d be called if you
were needed. Besides we sort of need you right now,” Alex
rationalized, and I went along with him because I really didn’t
want to leave.

“
You don’t need me, but
thanks for saying that anyway,” I told him, and decided to tag
along.

Back in her room, Valerie
held the sketch of Dane and let out a sigh.

“
What’s she thinking?”
Alex asked as she stared at the profile of Dane in spirit
form.

“
She’s wondering who he
is. Why she saw him in that dream, what he is to her, if
anything.”

“
See…I told you we needed
you,” Alex smiled back at me while he approached Valerie and spoke
softly in her ear. “He is your destiny. He will love you. He is for
you, mom.”

“
I wonder what happens
if…” I was going to say “…if they don’t get married.” but didn’t
want to finish.

Alex shrugged, knowing what
I meant. “I don’t know…but I want them as my parents and I want
Russell for a grandfather, so it’ll have to work out. What’s she
thinking now?”

I concentrated, this was
obviously very important for him. “It’s weird…” I started and
watched as Valerie’s eyes were tearing up.

“
What! Tess, what is she
thinking?” Alex demanded.

“
I think she just heard
what you said, and is wondering if she really just heard that or if
she made it up.”

Alex turned back to her.
“It’s true Val, you—” He started, but then stopped abruptly. “Come
on, Tess. Let’s go to Boston to see what Katie is up
to.”

“
What happened?” I asked,
bewildered by his sudden change.

“
I said too much,” he said
curtly.

“
Are you in trouble with
the Eternals?”

“
Not yet, but I will be if
I don’t leave her alone for a while. She needs to make her own
decisions.”

Once we got to Dane’s
apartment we found him with Alicia—his nanny and mother for all
intents and purposes—busy at work. There were boxes and store bags
strewn all over the place, and they had several boxes all lined up
in a row and in each box they were putting one item.

“
OK, the perishables go
first. But not all, I don’t want her to think that I did it like
this, all at once,” Dane ordered the little woman, who looked a bit
overwhelmed.

“
I agree,” Alicia said
with a thick Spanish accent.

Katie was in the balcony
cooing at the pigeons.

“
Hey Katie!” Alex called.
“What’s this all about?”

“
It was his idea, I swear!
And it might just work!” she said. “He has finals for the next
three weeks, so he can’t go back to Texas, but he’s going to send
her a package every day for the next three weeks, so she won’t
forget him. Oh, but get this!” she added with enthusiasm. “There’s
a theme!”

“
A theme?” I
asked

“
Everything he sends her
is violet like her eyes.”

Alex sniggered and shook
his head, but I knew he was pleased with Dane’s
persistence.

“
Well, with any luck this
will help Valerie get over her insecurities,” I said with
hope.

When the first package was
sent, we followed it all the way to Valerie’s front door. We wanted
to make sure it didn’t get lost or ruined in any way.

It sat on the Wilson’s
kitchen table all afternoon, Nancy, giving it mysterious looks now
and then. As soon as Valerie walked through the front door, she was
handed the package and told to open it right away, because they
were tired of guessing what it could be.

Valerie gave the package a
half-hearted effort, but got it opened at last. It was a Jimmy
Hendrix record, “Purple Haze”. Inside the box was a note that
read:

I couldn’t stop thinking of
your eyes; so I did a little shopping. I hope you don’t
mind.

Dane.

“
Oh!” Nancy exclaimed,
“The dear boy!”

Valerie contorted her face
and Russell laughed.

“
I have feeling that this
won’t be the last present you’ll get from him. He seems like the
determined type to me,” Russell stated, then walked to his easy
chair and settled there for the evening.

Russell was right of
course, Valerie got a new package every day that week and the next.
They even started a little game, where all three would try to guess
what would be inside this time. Valerie found herself rushing home
from school every day, just to see what she would get
next.

Nancy was disappointed when
the mailman left that Friday, without leaving them a package. She
feared this kid had finally given up on Valerie, who had not
written back at all, not even to thank him for three weeks worth of
gifts.

She couldn’t tell why she
was so upset over the loss of this boyfriend. Valerie was an
attractive girl, but guys her age were put off by her stern
demeanor. This kid however, had been able to see past that, and see
past the scar and see past the last three weeks of
indifference—maybe. But it was more than that… there was that
picture of him. That was the real problem. Valerie had seen him in
a dream, she felt compelled to draw him, and here he was in the
flesh, suddenly materialized. It had to mean something. So the lack
of package today was a very sad thing indeed.

Valerie felt disappointed
too, when she saw that the packages had stopped.

“
Well…he got the point,”
she said, and stormed off to her room. She went straight for the
profile of Dane, she studied it and tried to reach with her mind
for those mysterious thoughts she had sometimes. Those whisper like
thoughts of…another world, another time or realm. She searched for
that feeling that she had a few weeks back, the sudden validation
that the dream had been real, and that an Angel was watching over
her and wanted her to meet Dane! As strange as that sounded—even to
her.

That dream was definitely
real,
she assured herself.
It changed my life…and got better because of it.
This picture is proof that the dream was real. Dane is proof that
the dream was real! And the feeling I had a few weeks back…that had
been real too!”
Valerie mused.

Her eyes filled with tears
and they spilled over freely. Then she remembered something she had
forgotten. She stood up, and grabbed all her painting gear. She
changed into her scrubby paint-stained t-shirt and jeans, and
headed for her favorite art studio—the garden.