The Empath Cycle: 2010 Carpe Diem - Book 2

"I suppose." Ann grumbled.

They both had tears in their eyes when Anne-Marie finally managed to shoo her out of the house.

"You realize she's going to drive up here every night." She told Patricia once they were alone.

"Of course she will, dear. We will arrange for someone to drive her so she can rest during the commute."

"You don't know her too well. Even if she agrees to it, she'll bring work with her. It's better if she drives herself."

Patricia laughed. "I've been married to her counterpart for nine years, dear. We know how to manage an overachiever."

"Oh, I forgot all the stories about Sylvie at work." Anne-Marie grinned. "I won't let Ann work that hard if I can. Already it takes all I have to distract her at home. When we met she was set on doing at least an MBA. Now, I'm not certain she will even bother. She'll get a Bachelor for appearances' sake, but that's it, I'm sure. She's not really interested by diplomas. She... She just doesn't attach as much importance to them as most people do."

Patricia could see Anne-Marie's agitation as she almost revealed more than she wanted to. So she changed the subject by suggesting they go wash up. She surprised Anne-Marie when she installed the bath support Sylvie had built when Ryanna broke her leg skiing years earlier.

Projecting all the motherly love she could with her meager talent, she proceeded to wash the younger woman. She took her time, giving her a scalp massage as she washed her hair and a deep tissue massage on the rest of her body.

When she was done, she wrapped Anne-Marie in a fluffy bath towel, then jumped in the shower, talking to Anne-Marie all the time about inconsequential subjects. Turning off the water, she saw that her charge was nodding in her wheelchair so she installed her in the large bed and joined her, snuggling as close as she could.

She floated weightlessly in a strange place. She was at peace. In every fiber of her being, she knew was in security as she had never been before.

She was there for an eternity. Swaddled in a cocoon of love. Gradually a presence manifested itself. At first, it was vague, formless. She became aware of a rhythmic vibration, reassuring by its regularity. Then, other noises intruded in the quietude. One in particular. It was soft, gentle. It became familiar, a part of her environment. She felt like she should know it, like she knew it. Intimately.

The transition from one environment to the other was smooth. She went from softness to harshness gradually. Sensations invaded her peace, forcing her to acknowledge an exterior world for the first time. By the same token, she became aware of her body. Body? Somehow she knew it was the source of those sensations.

What was happening? This was too much. She started to cry.

Immediately, she was enveloped in a warm... blanket. She trashed against the restriction, whining in panic, only to be embraced tenderly. The familiar noise was there again. She calmed, reassured by the loving... voice? The sounds, they were... words. She knew words. They served to communicate better than the feelings she had only known until then. They had meaning. How did she know that?

"You are safe, little one. You are loved." The Voice said.

The words had no real meaning for her. She only knew they were positive by their gentle tone. She trusted the Voice. It was the only reference point she knew. The only thing she remembered. Try as she might, she couldn't make sense of them. She whined in frustration.

Something warm and soft was put against her lips. Instinct took over and she nursed. It didn't nourish her body, only her soul. The natural gesture, the rhythm of a beating heart and the soft voice talking to her...

"It's all right, baby. You're doing fine. We have all the time in the world. You are not alone. Mommy loves you."

She heard the words as separate noises. She knew they meant something, not what that meaning was, though. She took solace in the love surrounding her. Enlightenment would come in its own time.

Anne-Marie woke at peace, her own breathing in sync with that of the soft body she was curled on, time measured by the heartbeat under her ear, comforted by the arms embracing her, by the nipple between her lips, by the hand stroking her hair.

She smiled when her stomach growled. Her support trembled in soft laughter.

"It's too bad I can't give you sustenance, little one, but that ship has sailed ages ago."

"I hope you don't mind... mommy. I don't know how I ended up like this."

"That's all right, baby. When you started trashing, I pulled you on me and it calmed you right away. Did you sleep well?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. I had this strange dream. I can't remember the details, but it was nice. I think you were in it. You were... my... hum... my mother. You told me so and that you loved me."

"I do love you, little one. If you want me to, I'll be your mother. I was told, a long time ago, that I would be. I didn't understand it then, but now I do. We have been linked through time and now we are in fact. Don't frown like that. I'll explain it all to you. It's not as complicated as you might think... as long as you keep an open mind. First, though, I need to go to the bathroom."

Patricia moved the young woman gently from the nest of pillows she has set between her legs to support her cast, then picked her up and sat her on the toilet. When they were done, they washed up and Patricia brought her downstairs.

She had thought they would eat a light lunch, but Anne-Marie had a different agenda. Patricia smiled as she watched her engulf a thick steak with oven fries and a huge portion of green beans.

"Wherever do you put all that away?"

"I don't know, really. It's like I haven't eaten in months. Is that apple pie I see on the counter?"

"Finish your plate and I'll warm it for you. It'll be great with ice cream."

"Yummy! I definitely want to adopt you. I suppose I'll have to start training too or I'll grow fat."

When she was replete, Patricia brought Anne-Marie to the couch where she asked if she could sit on her lap. Using the pile of pillows she had left there, Patricia arranged her leg safely.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while as Anne-Marie nursed on Patricia's nipple. It had seemed like a natural gesture when she lifted the breast to her lips and sighed in contentment as she suckled.

Patricia recounted the story of the visit by the 'ghosts' of the mammies and the prophecy she had been given.

"I had a feeling last evening, just as I was falling asleep." Anne-Marie told her. "I thought it was the house 'talking' to me again, telling me I was exactly where I needed to be."

"In a way, it was, I suppose. I too had a 'visitation'. I think it was Juliette telling me I too was where I had always meant to be. Most of us have had a similar experience over the years."

"Does this mean that we are to be your wives too?"

"No, dear. You already have a wife. I think I am meant to be your mother-figure, not your wife."

"But we... make love with Ryanna and Julia. It's..."

"Don't worry, about that. We don't mind. We can all feel there is a special connection between you four. Do you feel sexually attracted to me? To Sylvie or Jade or Karlie? Is it a sexual gesture when you suckle on my breast? I didn't think so. Something must have happened to you and you need a maternal connection."

Anne-Marie started crying deep sobs as she clung to her surrogate mother. Patricia held her and let the past pain purge itself. When the woman, emotionally exhausted, fell asleep in her arms, she held her breast to Anne-Marie's lips so she could still have that reassuring contact. She didn't let herself become angry at the monster who had abused this beautiful child, but concentrated on the love she felt for her.

In the following hours, Anne-Marie haltingly told her how she never really had a mother. How she had been shuffled from nanny to nanny. How she had been trained to repress her emotions. How she had been isolated in her teenage years and drilled in the social manners befitting her status.

Patricia was hard pressed to remain calm when Anne-Marie told her of the betrayal by the woman who had first seduced her and the resulting hellish years after her 'mother' discovered her perversion.

What nearly undid her was the story of the following years where she fell prey to an unscrupulous pimp who used her vulnerability against her and abused her physically and emotionally.

Patricia was crying softly, a sleeping Anne-Marie in her arms, when the others arrived.

Karlie and Jade were chopping vegetables for supper while Ryanna and Julia tried to calm Ann down as she paced from one end of the kitchen to the other.

"She's going to be fine, Ann." Ryanna told her yet again. "She needed to do this. Now she can move forward without her past holding her back."

"She was doing fine." Ann hissed. "We were working through it."

"Trust us. You were shoring her. She was stronger for it, but she was still repressing everything."

"She was talking to you. Before that, she told me the story. How is that repressing?"

"She was repressing her emotions about all those years. She was talking about it and it worked, as far as it went. She couldn't let go of the hurt and it all festered. Someday, it would have come to the surface with consequences impossible to predict. She needed a solid foundation. Often, we'll use a close family member. In her case, it's an integral part of the problem. We were trying to find a strong mother-figure in her life. We were hopeful when she spoke with Patricia for hours some weeks ago. They connected on a personal level. It opened a door for this. We couldn't be happier for the both of them."

"Speaking of Patricia. Where is she?" Ann asked.

They all laughed. "She's doing what she always does when she's upset." Sylvie told her. "She's at the Community Center chopping wood. The family owns a wood land. We exploit it responsibly. We replant every tree we cut. We leave the wood there for a year to season, then, at the beginning of summer, we bring what we will need for the next winter over here and everyone has a go at splitting it in logs."

"The way she was swinging the ax when she left, there's going to be more kindling than logs this year." Jade laughed.

Ann stopped pacing. "Do you have a second ax? I could use some exercise too."

"Sure. We often do it as a family activity. We are the ones who initiated the project years ago."

Sylvie joined Ann and they walked to the Community Center.

Chapter 11

Anne-Marie stopped cutting vegetables and looked up to see Ann in the living room. She could never get enough of watching her in unguarded moments. She shivered at the sight of Ann's fluid movements. She could well imagine her as a huntress on the trail of prey, her feline grace and power as, without thinking, she lifted the end of the couch with her left hand and used the right to vacuum under it.

She was familiar with that strength... intimately familiar.

"You're staring again."

"How do you do that? Your back is turned."

"Some people call it a sixth sense. I don't know if there's anything to it. In my case, it's something I learned from an old Inuit hunter. Plus I always know when you're near me."

"I know what you mean. It's the same for me. It can be really distracting at work when you walk by my office."

"I'm almost done here. What about you?"

"Everything is ready to be put on the stove. Patricia said to wait for her so she can teach me a couple of tricks in the final preparation."

"They really take their Thai food seriously."

"You have no idea. She told me it dates to their early days together. It's their favorite food for special occasions."

"And this is certainly a special occasion."

"It sure is. So, hurry up, we have to shower and get dressed before they arrive."

The women had meant to take advantage of the Labor Day long week-end to drive to Sept-Iles and share their good news with Ann's parents, but her mother insisted they fly to Montreal instead.

They had arrived on Thursday afternoon, but dismissed the idea of using the women's guest room and settled in the Pointe-Claire Quality Inn so they could be close.

"It's a vacation for us." Angéline had said. "We're going to go out for the evening like we used to when we were young and we want our privacy when we return to the hotel."

Ann hadn't been too happy when Anne-Marie took Friday afternoon off to to join her mother in a shopping spree, but she was mollified by the invitation for supper in a classy restaurant.

They had invited Anne-Marie's surrogate mother and her family for supper on Saturday to meet Ann's parents.

To everyone's surprise, Ann had bought a classic white tie tux. Anne-Marie had touched up the highlights in her hair and had opted for minimal make-up. Anne-Marie had gone for a pale pink silk strapless evening dress flaring in the bottom to mask her walking cast. Her hair was done in a retro over-the-shoulder style and her make-up perfectly accented her features.

Both families got along famously. Patricia, Karlie and Angéline joined Anne-Marie in the kitchen where they exchanged culinary tips and techniques while the other women, much to Ann's chagrin, had a great time asking Robert for stories from her youth.

A couple of weeks earlier, on one of their frequent visits to St-Jovite, Ann had surrendered to Ryanna and Julia's assurances that it was perfectly safe and that she wouldn't be ridiculed. She sat down with Sylvie's family, Anne-Marie by her side, holding her hand, and had confessed her secret.

"I apologize for my erratic behavior since you've known me, but I've been hiding what Anne-Marie calls my 'talent' for so long that I couldn't believe it was all right to 'come out' with it. You see, I'm a freak."

Ann stopped, looking at the women anxiously, waiting for the expected derogatory comments. When she only saw support and wonder at what she meant, she went on.

"I suppose you could say I'm a 'sponge' for knowledge and I not only learn things unnaturally quickly, I understand what I learn and can apply it. I could always do it, but it only became obvious when my older brothers learned trades and, because they always let me tag along, I learned them at the same time. My family recognized my 'talent' early on and encouraged me. So, you see, among many others, I could have a licence as an Industrial Mechanic or a Master Electrician like two of my brothers or be a certified auto and motorcycle Mechanic which I learned on my own. In fact, I could probably have a practical engineering degree since I went much further than those certifications would require because of my interest in the trades."

"That explains why lots of people at work think you have a scientific formation." Sylvie said. "Why didn't you ever get degrees or at least mention it in your résumé?"

"I... It's..." She stammered.

"It's all right, my love. You can tell them. They will understand." Anne-Marie told her gently.

"I was what you would call a gifted child. A prodigy, I suppose. Because of me, the School Board created a class for the brightest elementary school children of the region. My mother spearheaded the project and rounded enough interested people to make it happen. Unfortunately, it became known that it came about because of me and I was made fun of and bullied by kids jealous of my intelligence until I learned to defend myself. Then it shifted to social bullying. I couldn't help being in the special class, but I learned to camouflage myself to fit in. I could only be myself with my family and a few friends from the class. I even hid much of what I could do from our teacher."

"Would you mind if I said something?" Karlie asked gently.

"Sure. Go ahead." Ann told her.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Karlie crowed. "I was right when you first talked to Sylvie and I about real estate. You are the fastest study I had ever met. And you simply said you had 'researched' the subject. Ah!"

Ann blushed. "I didn't want you to make fun of me. I was ashamed. Anne-Marie was the only one outside of my family who knew at the time."

She wasn't ready for the hilarity that ensued. The women looked at each other and burst out laughing even as they came to her and hugged her.

"Welcome to the club." Sylvie finally managed to say between gusts of laughter. "Haven't you listened to us when we told our personal histories?"

"Yes, but..."

"There are no 'buts' about it. If you are a freak, what does that make of us? We were visited by ghosts and we live in a house that 'talks' to us, for crying out loud. Ryanna and Julia are full on empaths and I have some small talent in that area thanks to one of those ghosts."

"Yes, but..."

"Have you ever heard of Mensa?" Karlie asked her.

"Of course. They are a high IQ society. You have to pass a test to be admitted. I read on them, but I wasn't interested because I don't agree with their definition of intelligence. I've known illiterate folks who could outthink many of those so-called intelligent people."

"You're very right." Ryanna agreed. "It's been a bone of contention in the scientific community for years. Unfortunately, the reins of power are still held by old fuddy-duddies who hold on to their prestige and influence tightly. Things are slowly changing though and we can only hope for the future."

"Amen to that." Julia cheered.

Patricia came back to the living room and handed Ann a VHS cassette of the first season the M.A.S.H. TV show. "Watch episode 18, dear. You will find it very instructive. It first aired on February 4^th, 1973. It's about a man who has your special talent and never bothered to get degrees either because school bored him. In this show, he's a first class surgeon and he's not found out because he's not good. You are not a freak, sweetheart. You have a special talent which you should cherish and be proud of."

"Thank you, Patricia. Thank you all. I don't know what to say."

"There's nothing else to say, dear. Now both of your families know it and it's time you stop hiding yourself. You are not a little girl anymore and you will be surprised by people if you give them half a chance. As for the morons who fear your Mother-given gift, feel free to ignore them." Patricia told her to everyone's cheers of agreement.

'Maybe I should have kept my big mouth shut.' Ann groaned as her father proudly told his grinning audience about the day when, at the age of six, she had helped him fix their milking machine pump.

It was no better when she shuffled to the kitchen. Her mother was telling her new friends how Ann was always so helpful around the house and the farm from a very young age.

Anne-Marie took pity on her and sat on her lap at the kitchen table.

"Why so glum, my love?" She asked softly. "You're the woman of the hour. Your parents can finally boast of their brilliant daughter."

"I know, but who wants to hear their parents talk about their childhood. Next they'll whip out pictures of their naked baby girl on a blanket and in the bassinet."

"Oh! I didn't know they had baby pictures of you. I have to ask your mother to email them to me."

"No you don't! I will never forgive her if she does. Any more than I want them to see picture of me naked as a grown-up."

Anne-Marie lowered her eyes as she grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, my love, but that ship has sailed."

"You didn't!" Ann exclaimed, mortified.

"I'm afraid I did. When I showed them around the house, I took them downstairs to see our office before I remembered the laminated kinbaku-bi posters of you. Your father did look a little embarrassed, but your mother thought it was tasteful and she agreed with me that you looked beautiful suspended from the tree branch."