Seer
Chapter 42

Laura

I’m glad that Ron and Brenda were able to keep Timothy all day, even after they came home early from Ron’s house. I had plans, and I’m really happy they worked out. Brenda assured me when she called that the tiff in the library with Jonathan didn’t seem to disturb Timothy too much, and that he wanted to keep playing with Natalie, so we didn’t need to come home. He seemed fine when I picked him up after we got back.

And we ended up having such a nice day. Poor Michael has not been himself since he got home from deployment. He has nightmares constantly. I don’t think he has had a single peaceful night of sleep. Every night at least once he jerks awake, often sitting bolt upright, sometimes yelling. A couple of times he has even actually jumped out of bed and stood there with his fists up like he is ready to fight somebody. Then he comes fully awake, and collapses back in bed, mumbling “sorry” to me for waking me up. It’s been really hard. He says that he doesn’t remember the dreams in the morning, but I think he must remember at least something. I think he just doesn’t want to talk about it.

So today I wanted to try something new, something to just help bring some peace to his mind. I was thinking about Brenda describing how wonderful their trip to the desert was last month, and how peaceful it was to be outdoors for a day. I thought maybe Michael could use something like that. Just a way for nature to bring him some healing.

We didn’t go all the way out to the desert, but there’s a nature park near here called Mission Trails, and we just headed out there and hiked around for a couple of hours. It was a nice day, with cool weather perfect for walking outdoors. I packed up a lunch, and we enjoyed it sitting on some big chunks of granite up on the hill we had climbed up. I’m not usually much for hiking, so it was a little hard for me, but it was wonderful to see Mike actually relax. He sat with his eyes closed for a while after finishing his sandwich, just absorbing the sunlight, feeling the breeze and listening to the birds chirping. I think it was really good for him.

I’m glad that he and Timothy have been fine with each other since he got home. They haven’t interacted much. To be honest, I think they are each too wrapped up in their own heads. But they are coexisting peacefully, and that’s about the best I can hope for.

When I go into Timothy’s room to kiss him goodnight, he is just stepping back from his window. “What were you doing, sweetie?” I ask him.

“Waving goodnight to Natalie and Gabe,” he says, climbing into bed.

“Oh, okay, that’s nice.” I smooth the covers over him and kiss his forehead. “Are you going to play with them again tomorrow?”

“Yes,” he says. “Goodnight, Mom.”

I chuckle. I guess I’m dismissed. I kind of miss when he used to like me to read him bedtime stories. Hardly any point now, since he devours books like he’s starving. “Don’t stay up too late reading,” I say, stroking his hair. “Goodnight, kiddo.”

Timothy

Even though I was keeping my mind open, waiting to hear anything about how Natalie was doing, I was surprised when Guardian told me to go wave out the window. I was really glad about it. It means that Gabe understands about Guardians, and that Natalie’s plan is working. I’m looking forward to hearing tomorrow about how the experiment went.

I hope that Gabe knowing is going to help Natalie stay safer. I don’t want to see Jonathan hurting her again. And I have a feeling that he will keep doing it, because Demon is so mad at her. If she keeps trying to help Jonathan, Demon is going to try even harder to stop her. It’s dangerous, and I want Gabe to understand that part. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to talk to him tomorrow, too. I don’t usually talk to Gabe very much. I don’t usually talk to anyone except Natalie, really. But now that he knows what’s going on I think I will.

I want to make sure that Gabe will keep trying to protect Natalie. I’m unhappy with myself for not doing it today. I just froze like a statue, which is what I normally do when I get stressed out. It was very unhelpful in the situation. I don’t want to be useless if Natalie needs me. I want to help, like that time when she was crying and Guardian made me see what to do.

“Guardian,” I whisper to him, “can you please help me know what to do next time? If Natalie needs me again, I want to make sure to do whatever I can. I don’t want to be useless.”

I feel him agreeing. I don’t really need to hear his exact words most of the time. I can just tell how he feels now, as long as I keep my mind open and still. It’s hard, because my mind is never normally still. I’m usually thinking about a lot of things, so I have to make myself stop to hear him. But I’ve been practicing all the time, and it’s getting easier to do. So it has been getting easier to hear Guardian.

It makes me feel really good, knowing that I have Guardian here with me and helping me. I can tell it makes him feel good too.

I lay in bed with my book. I was going to be reading books about history tonight, to try to prove some bible stories for Natalie, but we didn’t get the chance to check out any books from the library today. We had to go after the fight. So I’ll just re-read one of these books about the subconscious again. I can get more books another time.

Gabe

I wake up early for some reason, with a feeling that something has changed. It’s not even really light outside yet. I have to think about what day it is to try to figure out what feels different. It’s Sunday. Why am I in my room at Mom’s house instead of at Dad’s house?

Oh. Yeah. That. It all comes rushing back to me. The fight with Jonathan, coming home early, playing soccer, then that super weird conversation with Natalie.

I do believe her, that’s for sure. There’s no way that she was tricking me. And I don’t think she would ever want to trick me anyway. She’s too nice for that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her playing any tricks. She was just telling me the truth.

It explains a lot. I’ve always known that Natalie knows more about what’s going on than I do. She has often seemed like she knows stuff is going to happen before it does. I never expected her to tell me that it’s because her guardian angel is telling her things, though.

I keep feeling like I should be completely creeped out by everything that she told me. Especially the part about Jonathan’s guardian angel making him do bad things. Even the part about everyone having one, always watching. I mean, I guess that means that there is one here watching me right now. That seems weird. But it doesn’t feel scary for some reason. I feel okay with it.

Well, I don’t hear anybody else up yet, but I’m wide awake. I guess I’ll just wait before I get up. I grab my Gameboy and start playing where I left off when Natalie came in last night.

Gabe’s

It is staggering to hear my beloved contemplate my presence. It still seems very intangible to him. But I know that he is sensing my affirmations, my whispers of love and support and togetherness. He realizes that he would normally feel alarmed by the information he learned, but doesn’t realize his sense of acceptance is due in large part to my diligent efforts in transmitting calm and contentment to him.

It is also because he learned this lesson from the Seer. In addition to being his beloved little sister, her empathic abilities helped him to adjust to the new reality without panic. By coordinating with Angel, she was able to instruct Gabe in just the right way to guide him towards acceptance without fear.

It was marvelous to behold.

Natalie

I open my eyes and look for Angel. He is smiling at me, sitting at the foot of my bed, just like always. But I know that today is different. Today Gabe knows, too.

“How is Gabe?” I ask Angel.

“He is very well, my dear. You explained things last night in just the right way. He never really had the chance to grow frightened over the strange new information he was receiving. Everything you said was perfect for him. Today he accepts the truth of everything you told him. He has been awake for some time, playing with his Gameboy and contemplating the nature of Guardians.”

He’s already awake? I jump up and get dressed in a hurry. I want to see for myself how he’s doing. He must have more questions. Also, I know that Timothy will want to hear about everything. Maybe Gabe can hang around with us for a while today, so we can all talk together.

When I open my door, Gabe is heading out of his room too. “I heard you get up,” he says. Then he gets a gleam in his eyes, and with a big smile, says, “What am I thinking?” He waits delightedly.

I laugh and wait for Angel to tell me. It’s about the Gameboy game he was just playing. “Um, apparently about Mario throwing Koopa shells at Bowser?”

“Ha! Yes!” he laughs. I am very happy that he is enjoying this so much. That will make everything else so much easier.

“Timothy is coming over after breakfast,” I tell him. “Can all three of us talk for a while? Before you go play with your other friends?”

“Well, duh, yes, obviously.”

Angel tells me, “Gabe is extremely eager to talk to Timothy too. His new awareness has sparked a great deal of curiosity about everything having to do with Guardians.”

I smile and hold Gabe’s hand. “Let’s go eat breakfast.”

We head downstairs, and find Mom and Dad in the kitchen already. Soon, we are eating cereal. Gabe, like always, splashes a bunch of milk on his Cheerios and slurps it enthusiastically with a spoon. It makes me giggle while I am eating my cereal dry. We’ve often debated about which way is better, but today we are going to have much more interesting things to talk about.

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