Soul Protector (26 page)

“What have you got in mind?”
she asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m not
going anywhere near her house.” I had to figure out a plan. The
worst thing I could do was to keep her away from Graham all day,
only for her to rush back to him once I switched again. I didn’t
want to make things worse for her.”

“What about Mum?” said
‘Gracie.’ “She might be able to help.”

“That’s a great idea.”

I tried to squash down my own
anxiety. I felt a little overwhelmed at what I had taken on, and
really hoped I was able to help Emily at least a little. One thing
I was grateful for was leaving my own problems behind for a while.
I was so focussed on Emily, it was the first time in ages I didn’t
feel sorry for myself.

Outside the supermarket, I
tried to let Emily’s mind come to the forefront so she would walk
to her car. I closed my eyes again and concentrated. I managed to
pick up more chatter than interference this time. Now I knew the
pitch I was listening for, it was clearer. It reminded me of
looking at those magic eye pictures. The first time you tried to
see, it was virtually impossible, just a mass of coloured dots and
shapes. But once you knew how to focus your eyes, the picture
jumped out at you and you wondered why you found it so hard
before.

We walked towards a red mini.
‘Gracie’ and I got in and, after I fumbled with the key and the
gears, we managed to get to my Corsa on the other side of the car
park.

“Right, you follow me to
Mum’s,” ‘Gracie’ winked, climbing out of Emily’s car and getting
into mine.

I felt confusion in Emily’s
mind, but I carried on regardless.

I knew Mum was going to be
surprised to see me turn up with a stranger, but once ‘Gracie’ had
a quick word with her, she would understand, and hopefully work her
magic.

~

Just a short while later,
‘Gracie’ and I were standing on the familiar doorstep of Mum’s
semi. I knocked on the door, rather than just letting myself in. It
didn’t seem right when Mum had never met Emily.

Mum opened the door, and her
face fell into a beam.

“Hello darling,” she said,
giving ‘Gracie’ a quick embrace.

“And who’s this?” She was
looking in my direction.

‘Gracie’ grinned at me.

“Mum, meet Emily.”

“Hello Miss Reynolds,” I said
dutifully.

“Hi Emily, it’s nice to meet
you. Come on in out of the cold,” she said, “and please, call me
Anne.”

‘Gracie’ and I looked at each
other, and I had to bite my lip.

“Thank you,” I said, managing
to hold onto my composure.

We walked into the living room
and Mum offered us drinks.

“Make yourself at home,” said
‘Gracie,’ “I’m just going to give Mum a hand in the kitchen.”

As she walked off she turned
back and gave me another sly wink.

“Okay, I’ll be fine,” I said,
settling back into the sofa. I knew I needed to give ‘Gracie’ time
to explain to Mum that Emily was in need of some tactful
counselling. I just knew if anyone could help her, it would be
Mum.

Mum and ‘Gracie’ came out of
the kitchen, and I was handed my coffee – white with no sugar.
After taking a sip - I like my coffee very hot - I nearly spat it
out. It tasted awful. I realised Emily probably had sugar in hers.
I was tasting through her taste buds after all.

We relaxed into some gentle
banter about how cold the weather was getting, and before we knew
it Christmas would be here and so on. I was just wondering how Mum
was going to make her move, when she directed the conversation
around to boyfriends.

“Are you seeing anyone Emily?”
she asked, smiling.

I had to force my thoughts to
become submissive and let Emily’s mind take over. It wasn’t easy,
if someone tells you to empty your mind, you can’t can you? I ran
my fingers through my hair, noticing how different Emily’s short
locks felt to mine.

I drew in a deep breath and
closed my eyes. As I did this, I captured the flavour of her mood
again. I could tell she was still anxious. She didn’t answer for a
while, and the silence felt awkward. Then slowly, she nodded.

“Oh, sorry love, I’ve made you
feel uncomfortable. I can change the subject,” Mum soothed.

Again, I had to resist filling
in the gaps and wait until Emily was ready to speak.

“No, it’s okay. It’s just...
things are a bit awkward, at the moment.” She spoke in a whisper,
and I could see Mum and ‘Gracie’ straining to hear her.

As Emily closed her eyes an
image of Graham burst into her mind. His face was red and angry,
his eyes were bulging and he looked full of hate. He had his hand
raised, ready to strike. I found it hard to deal with. It was just
like seeing my Dad all those years ago.

I opened my eyes and looked
around. I was safe. Emily was safe too, for now. God, this session
with Mum had to work or I would have just made things a whole lot
worse for her, sending her home late to her monster of a
boyfriend.

Mum nodded gently. I noticed
she was looking at the bruise on Emily’s cheek.

“Do you want to talk about it?”
she asked.

Emily didn’t hesitate this
time. Her level of anxiety had increased and she was sure of her
next statement.

“No, I can’t, I’m late. I need
to get home.”

‘Gracie’ shot me a look.
“Surely you can stay and chat a little bit longer,” she said, her
brow creasing. “Go on, force yourself.”

Mum looked up at her alarmed,
but I knew what she was trying to tell me. It was time for me to
take over. I thought back to my training session. How you could
influence someone else’s thoughts by pushing through your own.

I focussed on willing Emily to
stay. I tried to let her see that Mum could help. I felt her
resistance, but each time her negative voice tried to seep through
I pushed it away. After a few moments I felt the resistance stop,
and she relaxed a little.

“Alright then. But only for a
little while.”

I could hardly believe it had
been that easy.

“My husband used to hit me,”
Mum said, watching for Emily’s reaction. “I loved him, and stayed
with him for eleven years, and for most of that time I was scared
to death.”

I felt Emily recoil, so I
focussed hard. I needed her to be willing to listen.

‘So I do understand. And I can
help you, but I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do,”
she finished off.

Emily’s anxiety levels were
rising again, but I took some deep breaths and managed to relax her
a little. I supervised her thoughts, ready to jump in if she
started to become reluctant. I was surprised as, tears rolling down
her cheeks, she nodded.

Mum looked over at ‘Gracie.’
“I’m sorry darling, would you mind letting us have a little time on
our own? You can go and watch telly upstairs or something?”

‘Gracie’ stood up, smiling.
“Listen, I need to get home, but I’m going to give you my mobile
number, Emily. I want you to call me soon and let me know how
you’re getting on, okay?”

She scribbled down the number I
knew so well and handed it to me. I quickly tucked it in Emily’s
handbag. She mouthed ‘thanks’ to Mum and gave her a kiss, before
disappearing out the door.

Mum sat and chatted with Emily
for ages. A creature of habit, I knew she normally liked to start
preparing dinner around five, but at no time did she indicate to
Emily that she had things to do. I took a backseat as Emily opened
up. She started off by saying it wasn’t Graham’s fault, that he was
stressed at work and she was a bit dizzy and would aggravate him by
doing silly things.

“He’s a good person deep down.
He looks after me really well, and we do everything together. It’s
just that… he gets a bit jealous sometimes… it’s only because he
loves me so much.”

“And when he gets jealous, what
does he do?”

She paused before whispering,
“He hits me.”

Mum’s face remained blank. She
didn’t judge, she just said the right words to encourage Emily to
open up. And after Emily had opened up, Mum worked her magic. It
took a little under an hour for her to make Emily see that Graham
was completely out of order, and that no matter how hard Emily
tried to tiptoe through the minefield that was his temper, she
would always end up being in the wrong.

I knew it usually took much,
much longer than this to change someone’s perception, but every
time I felt denial seeping through Emily’s thoughts, I forced a
positive spin on things. Gradually, I began to feel strength flood
through her as she reflected how unjust Graham had been in making
her feel like the guilty party. Her thoughts were peppered with
anger, but I could sense relief too.

All the time, Mum gently
encouraged her without taking over and telling her what to do.

While we were chatting, I heard
the front door click open.

“Oh, that’ll just be Terry, my
boyfriend,” said Mum, smiling.

Emily flinched and Mum noticed
it too.

“Don’t worry,” she soothed,
“he’s a lovely man. Stay where you are, I’ll be back in a
minute.”

She got up and wandered through
the lounge door into the hall to greet him. I smiled to myself. It
really seemed to be working. Mum was doing all the hard work, and I
was glad to have contributed. Emily really hadn’t wanted to stay,
but now she had bared her soul and was ready for change.

I leant across to the shelf
next to me and picked up a picture of Mum with Michelle and me when
we were younger. It was taken soon after Dad had been locked up,
and I could see how happy Mum looked. This photo marked the change
in her misfortune. I was so pleased how life had turned out for her
and I really hoped this would be the turning-point for Emily
too.

Out in the hall, I could hear
Mum and Terry talking in hushed voices, Mum was telling him she had
a visitor.

“I’ll pop in and say a quick
hello,” I heard Terry say, “just let me get rid of this lot
first.”

I knew without looking he would
be putting his briefcase full of energy supply leaflets and
contracts into the cupboard under the stairs. He was such a tidy
man he couldn’t bear for anything to be out of place. I put the
photo down and glanced in the direction of their voices. Terry had
his back to me as he leant forward carefully sliding his briefcase
into its usual slot. He backed up from the cupboard, and as I
watched him my heart started to pound in my chest. I’d never
noticed it before, but I couldn’t have, could I? My hand flew up to
cover my mouth. Practically screaming out at me from above Terry’s
head was a deep red aura.

I broke out in a cold sweat and
shrank back into the sofa, trying to make myself small. I needed to
think straight. I knew I couldn’t let him see me. If he saw me in
Emily’s body, he would see my orange aura and know I was on to him.
This can’t be happening.
I had to get out of there,
fast.

Quietly, so as not to draw
attention to myself, I stood up from the sofa. My legs felt wobbly
and I hoped they wouldn’t let me down. I managed to sneak through
the other door which led into the kitchen.

I heard Mum’s voice as she
walked back into the lounge. “Oh, she’s not here. Emily love, are
you okay?” she called.

I opened the back door as
softly as I could and slipped out into the fresh air. I ran up the
side of the house, crouching low as I passed the living room
window. My legs began working properly and I raced up the drive,
ducking round the other side of Emily’s car. I was aware a couple
of the neighbourhood kids across the road had stopped kicking their
football and were stood watching me. God knows what they thought I
was doing, but I had more important things to worry about than them
calling the police right then.

I fumbled around in Emily’s
handbag until I found her bunch of keys, all the time trying to
take deep breaths to calm myself down. With shaky fingers, I
located the right one for her Mini, and quickly unlocked the car. I
jumped into the driver’s seat; sitting up straight so my aura
wouldn’t be visible should Terry look out the window. Again, I
struggled to get the keys in the ignition. When the engine finally
roared into life, I drove up the road without looking back, praying
he hadn’t seen me.

~~~

CHAPTER 21

.

Corrupt Soul Protectors

.

There was only one place I
wanted to go, and I had memorised the address after peering at his
business card so many times. I drove in that direction, my heart in
my mouth all the way.

After taking two wrong turns, I
was relieved to finally find his street name, and pull up outside
his house. I was surprised it was just an ordinary semi in an
ordinary street. I had imagined it to be more like Lydia’s.

There was no time for
apprehension. I knocked on the door impatiently. When no one
appeared, I tried knocking louder. This time I saw a shadow
approaching beyond the frosted glass. As the door opened, Dan stood
in front of me in a pair of jersey shorts. I recognised the subtle
differences between him and Tom, even in the high state of anxiety.
Dan’s an inch shorter than Tom, and his eyes are a warmer shade of
brown.

He was yawning and his hair was
all messed up. My heart sank when I noticed the yellow aura
shimmering above him.

“Tom?”

“Might be… Who are you?” His
eyes had rested just above my head.

“It’s me, Gracie. I’m switched
into a girl called Emily.” I felt the blood pumping through my
veins as I tried to catch my breath.

His eyed widened. “Gracie,
what’s wrong?"

“Tom, you’ve got to help me.”
The afternoon’s events came tumbling out, and as they did Tom’s
face screwed up.

“Okay, Gracie, slow down and
start again. You’re not making any sense.”

I drew in some deep shaky
breaths, trying to get my thoughts in order.