I Remember (Remembrance Series) (36 page)

“How long will a rush order take?”

Gregory laughed. “Glad to know I‘m not the only one who is impatient with this. He said the process normally takes several weeks, but he could try to have some preliminary results to us within a week.”

I was elated at the idea. “When can we get him a sample?”

“I can drop it by his laboratory tomorrow morning on the way to work. His company is just right down the road from Teleco.”

Then he continued, changing the subject. “So, how is your day going? Will you be late tonight?”

“Today is quite busy, but I shouldn’t be too late tonight. I’m hoping to swing by your place around 7 PM to pick up my things, before heading back to Mom’s. Do you think you’ll be there by then?”

He laughed. “I will take any opportunity I can to spend more time with my fiancé. Have you told anyone we are engaged, yet?”

I looked down at my empty finger. I had decided to keep it a secret for a little while, having stowed the ring away in my purse. I swallowed hard, knowing he would be upset if he knew. “Only Mom knows so far. I wanted to keep it a secret until we have figured out what is going on with these crazy dreams. What if there really is an evil darkness out there trying to destroy us?” A shiver ran up the length of my spine.

“I want to shout it from the rooftops that you have agreed to be my wife. But, I agree, maybe we should play it safe and keep it just between the families, for now. At least until we know what all this craziness is about.

“I hate to do this to you, but I am being called back into another meeting. Can you let me know when you are leaving work?”

“Okay. Bye, Gregory.”

“Bye, Jordan…oh, and by the way…I love you!” His voice was filled with emotion.

“I love you, too!”

The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur.

The one bright spot was mom calling to let me know she had made it home. I explained that I would be a little late tonight, having overslept this morning. She told me not to worry, since she had to run to the grocery store.

“Where do you think you are going?” A snarky voice came from behind.

“I’m done for the day and headed home, Pamela.”

“Have a wonderful evening,” I replied with a forced smile and turned toward the door.

She huffed and I could hear her footsteps retreating from me, toward her office. I was thankful she wasn’t going to push a confrontation with me. I was still baffled by her bi-polar attitude that ranged from friendliness to downright rudeness.

As I stepped into the parking garage, suddenly, all the cars disappeared and there was nothing there but me and a man dressed in all white. I racked my brain trying to remember why this scene looked so familiar. Then it all came flooding back. “Ramiel?”

“Hello, Jordan. You’re starting to remember,” he said with a warm and gentle smile.

“Why are you here?”

“I’m happy to state that you and Gregory are uncovering everything you need to know, in order to right your path. It was time for you to remember our conversation from a week ago and to start utilizing the tools I gave you to help you figure things out along the way.”

My mouth twisted as I tried to recall the tools he was referring to, suddenly, the memory of him handing me a package flashed through my mind. It dawned on me that the magnifying glass and code key was from him. “How are those tools going to help me?”

“Your powers are just starting to come in. Use the magnifying glass to see where the shadows are. The code is the key in knowing who to trust and who to keep at arms length, by means of their auras.” He was about to say more, when he glanced over his shoulder at a bright sparkling light headed towards us. Then he disappeared.

I was back in the garage full of cars, standing at my door with my key in hand. I shook my head, wondering if my mind was playing tricks on me, again. That’s when I saw a white feather strategically placed into the edge of the car door, along with a note.

Unnerved, I quickly started the car and headed for Gregory’s; desperately needing to talk to him about what I discovered at the library and what just happened in the garage. I wasn’t sure who Ramiel was, why we needed to right our path, or why he was helping us; but somehow, I felt I could trust him.

Gregory was waiting for me outside his townhome when I drove up. As I got out of the car, he quickly grabbed me into a full hug and planted an urgent kiss on my lips.

“What’s wrong?”

He held me close to his chest and planted another on my forehead, breathing in my scent. “Sorry, it has been such a long day and with what happened to your arm this weekend and with the dreams, I just feel that I need to hold you closer for some reason.”

When we walked inside, I noticed his coffee table loaded down with take-out food. I was about to object to the Chinese food, when his arms wrapped around me from behind, and said, “I already cleared this with your mom. She isn’t expecting you until around 10:00. That gives us some time to eat, talk about what we learned today and finalize a wedding date.”

“Why do we have to finalize the wedding date?” I asked, turning to face him.

“My mom is already telling all of the family about our engagement and everyone is already wanting to ‘Save the date’ on their calendars.”

“I thought we were going to wait.”

He grabbed both my arms. “Believe me; I’m not happy about it. But, it makes her happy, so what can I do?” He sighed deeply, “Why don’t we eat, before the food gets cold?”

I sat down, on the pillows surrounding the coffee table and he started undoing all the containers, revealing wonderful delicacies.

Do you want to go ahead and see what your fortune is?” He asked, holding up two cookies.

I usually held off until the end of the meal, but decided to go for it. “Sure, why not?!”

He let me choose one and then began opening the other. I noticed his smile fade.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, what does your fortune say?”

I opened the cookie, hoping for the usual upbeat message, only to find,
“Major changes are coming your way. Life as you know it will cease to exist.”

My fingers felt like they were on fire. I quickly released the paper and watched it float to the ground.

Gregory picked it up, reading it slowly, before turning to me. “Are you going to be all right? You know these things are bogus and made up.”

I knew something was up, when he still didn’t share what was on his fortune. “Please tell me what was on your fortune.”

He took a deep breath in, finally opening up his palm. I grabbed the fortune and read it, as my eyes widening in horror,
“Be prepared. A battle of epic proportions comes your way.”

I took both of our fortunes and threw them on the table. I dismissed them as nothing but a prank. “I think the person who wrote these must have gotten bored one night.” However, internally, I had a, feeling these fortunes where a warning of things to come.

Placing a hand on Gregory’s forearm, I looked into his eyes, “Let’s just forget about all this and enjoy a nice dinner. We can either discuss things over the meal or wait until another day. I’m just happy to be spending more time with my fiancé.”

He laid his hand a top of mine. “You literally took the words out of my mouth,” he said, before leaning in for a quick kiss on the lips.

Dinner was incredible. When I asked where he got the food from, it turned out that we had frequented the same Chinese takeout, Dragon Palace, which I used to go to, just down the street.

Gregory told me how he knew Davis. He was an old friend of his eldest brother, Philip, and Gregory had recently helped set him up a wireless system inside his house. As a result, he was now calling in a small favor regarding the DNA.

I got up from the floor and grabbed some of the empty containers, placing them into the bag, and took them towards the kitchen to dispose of them. I noticed the crumbled up fortunes and decided to take another look.

“What on earth?” The papers had been sitting in some water drops that had splashed on the counter and, as the water seeped into the paper, the writing changed before my eyes

I took in a sharp breath.

“Is everything okay in there?” Gregory questioned.

Were my eyes deceiving me?
I picked the fortunes back up and noticed the wording was entirely different than we had previously seen.

Could these be another set of fortunes from a different meal?

Mine now read,
“Love is a journey of hope and discovery to both past and present.”
His now read,
“Your destiny, your love, is right before your eyes with both you can conquer anything.”

I took care of the food and the plates before returning to the living area with the new fortunes.

“Why are you bringing those horrid things back out here?”

“I know this is going to sound strange, but take a look at them, again, and tell me what you see.”

He reached for them hesitantly; then looked at me in shock. “Where did our original fortunes go?”

“These are the original fortunes. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.” I shook my head, trying to understand it myself, before explaining what had happened in the kitchen.

Gregory’s arms drew me close to his side, as he landed the most intense hug I had ever felt. “I don’t understand what we’re involved in or why, but we need to figure out this mess quickly and put an end to it.”

I nodded in agreement and reached over to my satchel, pulling out the information I’d printed at the library. We split the information in half and began to quickly try and figure out if there was any connection to either one of our families.

“Both of my parents’ families were from the Richmond, Virginia area,” he stated with some hope.

I replied. “I will check with Mom to see if she knows anything about our extended family. Maybe that is the connection to Daniel and Angeline, that we are their descendents?”

My phone began to ring and as I reached for it, the contents of my purse spilled out onto the paperwork on the floor, along with the white feather I found in my door.

I answered the phone and mouthed,
“It’s my mom.”

He continued to peruse the papers he had, as I let mom know I would be on the road within the hour.

As I was putting my phone away and picking up the contents of my purse, he reached over and grabbed the feather. “Where did you get this?” His face had a puzzled look about it.

I began to explain my strange encounter, suddenly realizing that Ramiel was the one who had sent us the package to his parent’s house. I explained how I somehow blocked the first couple of meetings from my mind, but suddenly remembered him today and found the feather after our talk.

He leaned over to the side of the chair, pulling a box from beside it. “I received this before heading home from work, today. It was addressed from Davis, but was delivered by a guy named Ray.”

My mouth fell open at the statement. I listened intently as he described Ray’s features, in detail. When he finished, I had to admit that he had described Ramiel to a T.

“When I opened the box, I found instructions on how to collect and label the DNA samples of hair, along with this feather.” He held up a matching long, white feather.

In one sense, I was relieved to know that Ray had visited others, and not just me; but in another, I was scared at what this meant.

I leaned back over to collect the rest of my items, among them the magnifying glass Ray had given me. When I reached for it, I noticed it was resting atop a printed photo. All of the subjects had glowing auras of white or yellow, except one; that had hints of red. I quickly grabbed the key code and realized that red meant danger.

Gregory leaned over me. “Whose picture is that?”

“Are you seeing what I am through the magnifying glass?”

He had a questionable look on his face, so I rephrased the question. “What do you see?”

He picked up the photo and the magnifying glass, examining both carefully. “The photo appears to be of Daniel’s family, The Whitfield’s. The magnifying glass just seems to enlarge the detail about each member and…” He stopped suddenly, and then continued. “These people look a lot like my family.”