Piercing the Darkness (48 page)

“Were you aware of the infraction for which Amber was spanked?”

Lucy thought for a moment. “I think she was being disruptive in class.”

Corrigan didn’t want to go into the next subject, but he had to. “Do you recall the nature of the disruption? Do you remember Mr. Harris describing it to you?”

Lucy stumbled with an answer. “She was . . . being noisy, um, playing at her desk . . .”

Corrigan dove in. “Well, let’s just go ahead and talk about Amethyst.”

Lucy brightened with recollection. “Oh . . .”

“Do you recall now that Amber was spanked because she was portraying Amethyst in the classroom and disturbing the class, and not heeding Mr. Harris’s orders to stop that behavior?”

“Yes.”

“Mrs. Brandon, we’ve heard a lot of opinions about who or what Amethyst really is. Who or what is Amethyst in your opinion?”

Lucy looked down at the table, thought about the question, even laughed just a little, and then shook her head. “I’m not sure. I guess she’s just a character that Amber made up, but . . . Well, Dr. Mandanhi said it’s possibly an alternate personality, but I don’t know . . .”

“Are you affiliated in any way with a fellowship group in the Bacon’s Corner area called LifeCircle?”

“Uh . . . yes.”

“Isn’t it true that that group holds to a belief in channeling and spirit-guides?”

She laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. “Well, we embrace a lot
of different beliefs; we all have our opinions about channeling. I guess ultimately we don’t question it, we just experience it.”

“Would you say that Amber was channeling Amethyst?”

“Oh, she could be channeling, or she could be pretending she’s channeling, or . . . I don’t know. There are many different views. It’s really something to be experienced for what good can be derived from it; it’s not to be questioned.”

“Have you ever considered that Amethyst could be a spirit?”

The term seemed to shock her. “A spirit?”

“Yes, a spirit-guide, or an ascended master, or a disembodied entity from the astral plane. Those are familiar terms to you, aren’t they?”

She smiled, impressed. “You know a lot about this sort of thing, don’t you?”

Corrigan smiled back pleasantly. “Well, I try to do my homework. But do you think Amethyst could be a spirit-guide? Is that possible?”

She furrowed her brow and looked down at the table, struggling with such a thought. “Some believe that. I still don’t know what to think.”

Corrigan scribbled in his notepad. “At any rate, on March 28th, Mr. Harris and Amethyst had a confrontation. Do you recall hearing about that?”

“Yes. Mr. Harris called me at the Post Office. It sounded serious, so I came over.”

“Did he tell you what happened?”

“Yes. He said that Amber had been . . . Oh, I can’t remember how he put it, but he basically told me that they thought she had a demon and tried to cast it out of her. I was outraged. I’d never heard of such a thing.”

“You’ve never heard of casting out demons?”

She answered bitterly, “That’s strictly a Christian idea, an invention of organized religion, and I resent that it was imposed upon my daughter! Channeling is a gift, a special ability; it has nothing to do with religion!”

“But you do understand that the Bible teaches otherwise?”

Lucy was angry and hurt. “Mr. Corrigan, she’s just a
child
, a child with a special gift! She doesn’t have to explain her gift to me, or defend what she’s experiencing. I’ve never singled her out or harassed
her; I’ve just loved her, accepted her, and just let her have her gift for whatever good it can do for her and for the rest of us. She’s just a child, not a theologian or a scholar or a priest or a lawyer, and what power does a ten-year-old child have to stand up against—” she hesitated, but then spewed out the words “—against hard-nosed, prejudiced, religious adults in that school who abuse their power and their size, who have no tolerance and no understanding, who just . . . attack her, pounce on her, scream at her, and accuse her of being possessed . . .”

She buried her face in her hands for a moment. Corrigan was just about to call for a recess, but then she recovered and finished her statement. “They just had no right to treat my daughter that way, to single her out and persecute her just for being different.”

Corrigan figured it was time to go on to the next question. “When you came to the school, what did you find? How was Amber?”

Lucy thought for a while, recalling it. “She was . . . she was sitting in the school office, and she looked awful. She was very tired, and I remember she was wet with perspiration and her hair was all uncombed. She was upset . . . moody. When I took her home, I found that her body was bruised in several places like she’d been in a terrible wrestling match. I was just shocked.” Lucy’s emotions began to rise. “I couldn’t believe such a thing could happen to my daughter, and at a Christian school where . . . Well, I once believed that a Christian school, of all places, would be a good place for Amber, a safe place. I didn’t think that Christians would stoop to such behavior. But they did.”

Corrigan spoke gently to her. “Mrs. Brandon, was it Amber as Amber who remembered the incident? Could she tell you what happened?”

Lucy was still composing herself. “I don’t think she’s ever been able to talk to me directly about it. She has to be Amethyst to talk about it.”

“So it was Amethyst who told you what happened?”

“Amber pretending to be Amethyst, or channeling Amethyst, yes.”

Corrigan thought for a moment. “Mrs. Brandon, whenever Amber becomes Amethyst, after she stops being Amethyst, does she remember anything that Amethyst said or did?”

Lucy smiled a little sheepishly. “Well . . . she says she doesn’t.”

“All right. At any rate, that incident occurred on March 28th, but you didn’t take Amber out of the school until April 20th. Can you explain
why, after such an outrageous incident, and such selective, prejudicial behavior toward Amber, you still kept your child enrolled at the school?”

“I . . .”

“Obviously you consulted a lawyer during the interim?”

“Yes.”

Corrigan produced a photocopied, handwritten record. “Part of the discovery materials included this photocopy of a journal you kept. Do you recognize it?”

“Yes.”

“So, between March 28th and April 20th, you kept detailed records on the school . . .” Corrigan leafed through the many photocopied pages. “You kept track of all the lessons, the Bible verses for each day, the discipline problems, the Bible projects . . . quite a detailed account.”

“Yes.”

“So isn’t it true that you kept this record all this time, with Amber still enrolled, because you fully intended to bring this lawsuit against the school?”

Jefferson jumped on that. “I object, counselor. That’s a matter of speculation and conjecture; there’s a total lack of foundation.”

“So let’s get some foundation. Mrs. Brandon, some time after March 28th, didn’t you consult a friend at LifeCircle for legal advice regarding these matters?”

Lucy even shrugged a little. “Yes.”

“Was it Claire Johanson, legal assistant to Mr. Ames and Mr. Jefferson?”

“Yes.”

“And what was the result of that conversation?”

“The result?”

“Didn’t you decide at that time to pursue a lawsuit against the school?”

“I think so.”

“You think so?”

“Well, yes, I did.”

“And in preparation for the lawsuit, you began keeping this detailed record of everything happening at the school, correct?”

Lucy was chagrined. “Yes.”

“All right. Now, having established that, let me ask this question: Since you kept Amber enrolled at the school despite the outrageous behavior demonstrated against her, is it possible that gaining more material for your lawsuit was more important to you than your own daughter’s well-being?”

“I’ll definitely object to that!” said Jefferson.

“And I’ll drop the question,” said Corrigan, unruffled. He looked at his notes. “Does Amber still become Amethyst from time to time?”

Lucy smiled as she reluctantly admitted, “Yes, she still does.”

“Was she displaying this kind of behavior even before she enrolled at the Christian school?”

“Yes.”

“Is it true that she learned to . . . create or visualize Amethyst in her fourth-grade class at the Bacon’s Corner Elementary School, a class taught by a Miss Brewer?”

“Yes. Miss Brewer is a wonderful teacher.”

Corrigan paused. “Then why did you transfer Amber to the Christian school?”

Lucy seemed a little embarrassed. “Oh . . . I thought her time in the elementary school had served its purpose. Amber was fulfilling her potential and discovering herself, yes, but . . . she wasn’t learning much else.”

“A little weak in academics?”

“A little. I thought some balance would be good for her; a wider realm of experience.”

“I understand.” Corrigan went to another matter. “Do you recall an incident at the Post Office several weeks ago when Amber, as Amethyst, had a confrontation with a patron in the lobby?”

Lucy was visibly disturbed by that question. “How did you find out about that?”

“Do you recall it?”

“Yes.”

“Does Amber recall it?”

“No. She was . . . Well, she was Amethyst at the time, and now she doesn’t remember any of it.”

“She doesn’t remember it?”

“No.”

“Is it true that Amber, as Amethyst, became very aggressive toward the patron?”

Lucy was sickened by the memory, and perhaps by the question. “Yes.”

“She circled the patron, struck her several times?”

“I . . . I did see her hit the lady, yes.”

“Did Amber, as Amethyst, make loud, screaming accusations against the lady?”

“Yes.”

“Would you say that Amber’s behavior was violent, uncontrolled?”

She didn’t want to admit it. “Yes.”

“So violent that the lady was forced to flee from the lobby?”

Lucy was getting upset; the memory was a painful, perplexing wound. “That’s what happened. I couldn’t get Amber to stop. I was just so embarrassed.”

“Did Amber know this woman?”

“No. I just don’t know how she could have.”

“And as far as you know, the woman did nothing to provoke this attack?”

“No.”

“Do you recall what Amethyst was screaming?”

Lucy’s eyes dropped to the table; she rested her forehead on her fingers. “She was saying . . . something about the woman’s baby . . . saying, ‘You killed your baby.’”

“Do you know who the woman was?”

“I don’t know . . . I think so.”

Corrigan took out a photograph and showed it to her. “Is this the woman?”

Jefferson jumped in. “Really, I don’t see what this has to do with anything!”

Corrigan just gave him a correcting look, and he remained quiet.

“Is this the woman?”

Lucy stared at the grainy photograph. Her face answered the question before she said it. “Yes.”

“Do you know who this woman is?”

She seemed to give in. “Her name is Sally Roe. She was a patron at
the Post Office. But that’s all I know about her.”

“And she committed suicide just a few weeks ago, isn’t that true?”

Lucy lashed back, “That wasn’t Amber’s fault!”

Corrigan paused just a little at that outburst, then said, “We’re not saying it was. Now, you heard Amethyst—Amber, whatever—accuse Sally Roe of killing her baby, correct?”

“Asked and answered,” said Jefferson.

“Just trying to be sure,” said Corrigan.

“Yes, I did,” said Lucy.

“Were you aware that Sally Roe had a criminal record?”

It was obviously news to Lucy Brandon. “No.”

Corrigan produced some documents. “This is a copy of her criminal record, and here are some news clippings. You’ll notice the highlighted areas: she was convicted of first-degree murder ten years ago. As you can see here, and here, and on this news story here, she was found guilty of the drowning death of her baby daughter.”

He waited for it all to sink in, and watched the blood drain from Lucy Brandon’s face.

“Obviously your daughter, as Amethyst, was correct in her accusations against Sally Roe in the lobby of the Post Office. To the best of your knowledge, was there any way that Amber could have known about Sally Roe’s past?”

Lucy could hardly speak. “No.
I
didn’t even know about it.”

“Can you explain, then, how
Amethyst
knew about it?”

Lucy took time to answer only because it was difficult. “No.” She tried to do better. “Psychic ability, maybe.”

“On whose part, Amber’s or Amethyst’s?”

Lucy shook her head, quite flustered. “I don’t know. I don’t understand these things. But it can happen in channeling.”

“So Amber was channeling?”

“Yes, I guess she was.”

“And apparently this special gift of hers has a rather violent side to it?”

“I don’t know . . .”

“You did have quite a wrestling match with Amethyst, didn’t you? It was several minutes before you could get your daughter under control?”

“Yes.”

“And when the incident was finally over, would you say your daughter was wet with perspiration, probably disheveled, tired, moody, maybe even bruised a little?”

Lucy was reluctant to answer that.

Corrigan pressed it. “Wasn’t that her general condition?”

“I suppose so.”

“And during the scuffle, didn’t you refer to your daughter as Amethyst?”

She looked puzzled.

Corrigan asked it another way. “Didn’t you wrestle with your daughter, and say words to the effect, ‘Amethyst, you stop this . . . Amethyst, calm down’?”

Lucy’s voice was barely audible. “I suppose I did.”

“Just who were you talking to?”

Lucy didn’t appreciate that question. “My daughter!”

“Which one?” Lucy hesitated, so Corrigan built on the question. “You’ve already stated that Amber has no recollection of the incident, and normally does not remember anything that Amethyst says or does. You have admitted that Amber was channeling. Would it be correct to say that it was Amethyst, and not Amber, who was displaying all this aggressive behavior?”