Seer
Chapter 1

October 2001

Jonathan’s

I am Jonathan’s. Jonathan, my beloved, my shining boy, my master. I am privileged to be the Guardian of this extraordinary human. Never in all my lives of Guarding have I been a part of such an intensely burning soul. Jonathan, although still only a child, is developing a might that astonishes. The other humans around him do not suspect his increasing potency. He has the power to persuade all around him that he is delightful, obedient, loving. Much of the time, this is true. Yet he also harbors a delicious malice that he unleashes when he knows that he will not be detected. His little tricks are targeted to inflict harm on children and creatures smaller than him, beings helpless against his strength. He delights in the ability to control those around him, adults and children alike. And I delight in the flaming brightness of his soul, the soul I am here to Guard, as his brilliance grows through each of his actions, whether good or bad. I support him in all he does. I am his.

I eagerly await his exploits today, on a day that he will play with the neighbor children. How will his soul expand today? I anticipate his every move, support his every whim, revel in his every emotion. He is mine.

Stefanie

“Honey, can we talk?”

Brad looks up from kicking his shoes off in the entryway, having just dropped Jonathan off at his friend Gabe’s house. Jonathan has been so excited the past couple of weekends to have Gabe living there at his dad’s house again, rather than over at his mom’s. Ever since September 11, Brenda and Ron seem to have called off their separation, and are living together again, usually at her house, but on weekends lately they’ve been over here. It’s been really nice for our son to have his friend back in the neighborhood.

“Sure, babe, what’s up?” Brad comes into the kitchen and sits with me at the table. He grabs an apple out of the bowl, but just as he’s about to take a bite he takes a look at me, and hesitates. “Is something wrong?” He puts the apple down.

I nervously bite my lip before responding.

“Are you all right, Stef? I thought you were seeming like you didn’t feel well earlier. Are you getting sick maybe?”

“Um, no, not exactly.”

“What then?” He’s worried now, and he leans over and takes my hand. His chocolate brown eyes peer at me, full of love and concern.

I wasn’t planning to just blurt it out, but I haven’t worked out a good way to say it, so here it comes. “I’m pregnant.”

His face transforms, his eyes and mouth opening wide. Quickly his shocked expression becomes joyous. “Really? Oh, wow! Oh my god! That’s great!” He leans in and kisses me enthusiastically, then breaks off after a second. He peers down at me and tilts his head. “I mean, it’s great, right? I think it is, but I thought we weren’t going to….”

I have to laugh a little, the poor guy looks like he isn’t sure whether he is supposed to be happy or not. I was afraid he wouldn’t be, since this wasn’t planned. I didn’t want a repeat of the unplanned pregnancy situation we had with Jonathan eight years ago. But of course, things are really different now. I was in high school then. Now I’m almost done with college, we’re married and settled and happy. This isn’t bad news, just not expected.

“Yeah, we weren’t. I didn’t plan to have any more, or at least not until after I was finished with school. But I think this happened because I skipped my pills a couple of times last month. I just forgot to take them for a few days after September 11, when everything was so crazy and we were all so distracted. It’s my fault, I couldn’t believe that I forgot, but I figured a couple of days wouldn’t matter. Apparently it did. I’m sorry.”

But when I look into his eyes, I see only love. I shouldn’t have been worried about his reaction. Good grief, why would I still feel insecure about us? He pulls me in for a hug. “Sorry? No, Stef, this is so exciting! When did you find out? Have you seen a doctor? When will it come?”

My anxiety melts away. I hadn’t even let myself get excited yet. I was worried about Brad’s reaction, and worried about this interfering with my plans, and worried about apparently all the wrong stuff. “I just found out a couple of days ago when I took a home test. I’ve scheduled the first appointment in a couple of weeks. As far as I can figure, I think it’ll come right around the end of the school year next year.

He sits back up in his chair, but he doesn’t let go of my hand. “So, what do you think will happen with school?”

“Well, this is supposed to be my last year. I’m hoping to just carry on as I planned, and still graduate next May if everything works out. I’d hate to change my plans. After that we’ll just have to play it by ear.”

He smiles and wraps me up in his arms again. “Another baby! Oh man, I wonder what Jonathan will say?”

I laugh. “Who knows? He’s such a character. We have to wait to tell him at least until after I see the doctor, and let a couple of months go by just to make sure everything is fine. K?

“Mmmm, k,” he murmurs into my hair.

I relax against him. “I love you.”

Brad’s

My beloved’s joy is magnified in me. When he and Stefanie had their first child, he was young and scared and felt little enjoyment in the event. He quickly grew to love his son, but during the pregnancy and birth he was filled with anxiety. I can see that this time will be different. A man now, supporting his family, content with his roles as father and husband. He thrills to learn of this new development, and I revel in the inevitable growth in his soul.

“Yes, my darling, your love for your wife grows even deeper as you celebrate her wonderful news. Another child for your growing family, another person to know you and love you. We will delight in the new baby together, my dearest.”

Gabe

I’m on my bike, rolling it back and forth while I wait out in front of Jonathan’s house. I hear him holler to his parents “Gabe and me are riding our bikes to the park!” He slams the front door, jumps on his bike and comes speeding down the driveway. He gets out in front of me with a whoop, and I follow him down the street, zooming the couple of blocks to the park where we like to ride.

Heading towards the playground, I watch as Jonathan pedals past way too close to a couple of toddlers walking over to the slide. “Dude!” I laugh at him. Jonathan loves to take chances, it’s part of what makes him so fun to hang around with. He’s younger than me, but you’d never know it. He’s always pushing us to try new things, even stuff that is kinda hair-raising. I’d never do half the stuff we get into without him leading the way.

We head over to the cement ramps and start speeding up and down the little hills. There’s some skateboarders there too, trying to use the same skate park, but Jonathan and I don’t care. We were here first.

Natalie

“Mom, when is Timothy getting here?”

Mom looks up from the newspaper and checks her watch. “It’s only 8:30 honey, Timothy’s Mom said that she’d bring him over after breakfast. They should be here pretty soon.”

I slouch further down on the couch. Gabe already left to ride bikes with Jonathan, so it’s just me and Angel until my best friend gets here. I look over at Angel, who is smiling at me like always. I’m careful not to be too obvious when I look at him, so that my parents don’t notice. I still don’t want everyone to know that I can see my guardian. Nobody else can see theirs, and I don’t want everyone to think I’m crazy.

I ask Angel in my head if Timothy is getting here yet. “Not yet darling, I still can’t hear him. He needs to be closer before I can detect his presence.”

Hmm. I wonder how close he needs to be? Hey! Maybe I can conduct a scientific experiment! Timothy would be excited if I have a new experiment to tell him about. “Angel,” I think to him, “I want to figure out how close he has to be for you to hear him. Can we do this?”

“Certainly, my dear. His home is about 5 miles from here. I will listen carefully, and tell you as soon as he is close enough for me to hear.”

Great! Now I’m not bored any more. I want to be able to provide some scientific data to my friend when he arrives. Well, Timothy always makes notes for his experiments - I should totally do that!

“OK Mom,” I tell her as I get off the couch and head up to my room, “I’ll wait for him upstairs.” I give her a little hug as I pass by.

She smooches my head. “Ok, Sweetie.”

I run up the stairs and grab my notebook out of my backpack. I already put everything away last night since I finished up all my second grade weekend homework as soon as we got home. I get a pencil and start writing: “Experiment: how close can Angel hear someone.” I think about what else I should write, and put down the date and time. Then I add that 5 miles away is too far.

Angel watches me take these notes and nods at me with a smile. “Are you listening hard, Angel?” I whisper to him. I don’t want my parents to hear me talking to him, but I like to talk out loud when we’re alone. So I always make sure to talk very quietly if nobody else is in the room with us.

“Of course, my dear.”

I can’t think of anything else to write, so I just sit and stare at Angel with my pencil touching the next line of the notebook. I can tell he is listening, because he isn’t looking straight at me like he usually does.

After a couple of minutes he smiles. “All right, my darling, I can hear Timothy’s Guardian. He must be close. But I cannot detect Timothy’s presence yet.”

“Really?” I ask him. “You can hear Guardian before you can hear Timothy?” That’s interesting, so I write it down in my notebook. “Can you tell how far away they are yet?”

“Not yet. When they get close enough, I will be able to hear Timothy’s mother also, and I can tell where the car is that she is driving. One moment….”

I wait, tapping the pencil on the page.

Angel smiles. “All right, my dear, I can hear Timothy and his mother now. Their car is about two miles away.”

“How can you tell?”

“I can simply look for the street signs that Timothy’s mother sees along the way as she drives the car.”

“All right, what did the street sign say right when you first could hear them?”

“They were near the corner of Mast Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue.” He watches me write down this information. He smiles when I pause for a second. “Boulevard is spelled B-O-U-L-E-V-A-R-D.”

“Thanks.” I finish writing everything down so that Timothy can check it when he arrives. It should just be a couple of minutes now!

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