THE AFFAIR (13 page)

I fell back against my chair. Chance’s arm was there. I could feel him rubbing my back as I fought for breath. What the heck had just happened? I sucked in the now electrified air and brought my head back up in time to see the electrical current retreat into the speaker’s body.

I watched as he stumbled and fell halfway to the floor, bent over, writhing as though in pain. He lifted his face and looked around the immense room. I saw the same look of fear reflected in his eyes that was radiating through my bones.

“Chance, what was that?” I whispered hoarsely, feeling an unknown panic building within me. I wanted to run from the room, but this mysterious voice inside my head urged me to stay, to listen.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Chance whispered back. His eyes had darkened to a stormy blue with concern. “Are you all right? Do you want to leave?” he asked.

“Did you see the current, did you feel it? You had to, it hit you first.” I could tell he had no idea what I was talking about.

I looked around the room. The only two people who seemed to be aware that something out of the ordinary had happened were the speaker and me.

The speaker was standing upright now. He scanned the room quickly, muttered an apology, stating he needed a drink of water, and left the stage.

If I wanted to leave, now was the time. I was holding Chance’s hand so tightly that when I loosened my grip I saw the print of my sharp nails in his flesh. “I’m sorry,” I offered.

He kissed my hand. “What got you spooked? What happened?”

“I’m not sure. There was this energy that came from the speaker. It looked sort of like lightning. It hit you, then me.”

I put my hand out to show him how it had moved, and my hand hit an invisible force field. I touched the seemingly empty air, feeling a strange yet intense energy.

It was completely surrounding the two chairs where Chance and I sat. That much I knew. I got up and walked around first to the back, then to the front, putting my hand out along the way feeling for this energy.

Chance was watching me, a worried expression on his face. The other people in the room smiled at my odd behavior, making me wonder if we’d all been hypnotized. I went back to my seat beside Chance. “Pinch me,” I begged.

“What?”

“Pinch me, damn it, pinch me now!” My voice was loud, too loud, people were starting to turn and stare at me. I didn’t care. This was the moment I had known my entire life would one day come. I had gone completely insane.

He pinched me harder. I felt it. I put my hand in front of me, praying that the force field had moved away. It hadn’t. I felt the tears coursing down my cheeks. I took Chance’s hand in mine and placed it at the barrier.

“Don’t you feel that?” I cried. “You have to feel it.”

He was rising to leave. “Michelle, let’s go. I don’t know what happened, but I think we should leave.”

“We can’t,” I said, convinced now that I had to stay.
Oh Lord, what has happened to my reasoning
? All these people only minutes before I had written off as being insane, thinking they would make the perfect cult followers, and now here I was acting the craziest of all.

The speaker came back out after a few minutes. I watched as he looked out into the audience. I knew he was searching for me. He closed his eyes, shook his head and began again going from person to person telling each about their deceased loved one.

I could feel the rapid pounding of my heart slow with each tale he wove. I now felt safe. This was hooey. I didn’t know what had happened before, but I was no longer buying his act.

One after the other, the audience members cried out as he told them snippets of information.
Nothing important
, I thought. I would want to know where the treasure is buried, what the winning number to the million dollar lottery is, something that could help me.

I breathed a sigh of relief before turning to Chance. “It’s okay, it must have been my imagination. This guy’s a fake,” I whispered in his ear.

Blaine MaDia turned from the person he was talking to and glared directly at me.

“Do you really believe that?”

Oh God, they must have hidden microphones all over the place. That had to be it. That’s how he knew.

“There are no hidden microphones.”

Blaine was answering a question I had not asked. I clutched Chance’s hand tightly. “Let’s go,” I cried out, ignoring the voices telling me to stay. The speaker was now walking toward me.

The place became filled with noise as the audience attempted to adjust to what was happening. Chance was attempting to place his body between Blaine and me, trying to block off his contact with me, when he was thrown back by an unknown force.

“Don’t call me that.” He gripped my arm as we both fell to our knees. I leaned into him for support. He opened his hand to me and I clasped it, not wanting to.

Immediately I was thrust into another realm. I was lying on the floor, my body covered in rags. I saw blood, bright red as it poured from my body. My hands were covered in it. I grimaced at the sticky feel of it on my thighs as it pooled around me. A burst of pain shot through my abdomen, then traveled the length of my spine, going to the top of my head and reversing until it went all the way to the tips of my toes.

I was reaching a bloody hand for more rags, shoving them between my legs. I could barely mutter the words, “Jeremy, save the baby.”

It was only then that I noticed a man working frantically over my body. His sobs were so loud I don’t know how I had missed him. “I want to save you,” he moaned over and over, lifting my legs slightly, rubbing them. He was screaming for someone to get the mystic.

“It’s too late for the healer,” I wanted to tell him. “It’s no longer any use.” I could feel my spirit preparing to leave my body.

Jeremy was shaking me, only it was Chance’s face I saw. I was confused. This man was known as Jeremy to me. He was my husband. He was shaking me, trying by the sheer force of his will to get me to stay.

“Dimitra, don’t leave me, don’t leave, oh dear God! I can’t live without you. Please don’t leave me. I love you.”

“Hush, my love,” I whispered to him, not able to speak more loudly. “What God has joined together, death will not put asunder. I’ll wait for you in the next life. I promise.”

“I don’t want to find you in the next life. I want you here with me now. Don’t leave me, Dimitra.”

“Jeremy, I have no choice. Take care of our son.”

“I can’t, Dimi. How can I look at him? How can I love him? It’s his fault that you’re dying.” He looked down at his bloody hands. “Oh my God, it’s my fault that you’re dying.”

“Jeremy, don’t blame yourself, I wanted with all my heart to give you a son and I have. Don’t blame the baby. Promise me you won’t blame the baby, promise me you’ll love and take care of him until we’re together again.”

I felt the pain begin to leave my body. I knew I didn’t have much time, but with my dying breath I wanted to extract promises from the husband I was leaving behind.

I felt coldness such as I’d never known. I shivered and Jeremy gathered me into his arms, rocking me gently against his chest, crying, covered with my blood. He was in agony. I wished with all my heart I could relieve his suffering, but it wasn’t up to me.

I smiled weakly at him then. “Tell our son I love him.” With my last strong breath I whispered, “I love you, Jeremy. I’ll love you throughout eternity and I’ll wait for you. I promise.”

Then my cold lips closed over those of my newborn son and I breathed my last breath, into him, praying he would know how much I loved him, giving him his birthright, my gifts.

The moment I felt my spirit leave my body, I blinked. I looked into Chance’s face and saw Jeremy. He was holding Blaine by the collar, shoving him away from me. His fist was thrust out, getting ready to strike him.

“No, Chance. Don’t hit him.” I looked at Blaine MaDia and though I pushed my body away from him, I could not tear my eyes from his face. There was so much sorrow in his gaze. He glanced at Chance, then back at me.

“You kept your promises. You’ve found each other again.”

For a long moment I looked from him to Chance, not believing what had happened. Surely it had to be a trick. This couldn’t mean what it seemed to. I thought about my own dreams of a man with Chance’s face. I couldn’t take any more.

“Chance, let’s go.”

“Don’t go,” Blaine pleaded with me. “I’m sorry for what I did. We need to talk, please. I’ve been hoping this would happen, but I never believed it would. I know who you are. You’re my mother. I’m your son, the baby you just remembered. I know you know what I’m saying is the truth.”

Blaine glanced at Chance and smiled. “He’s my father. Mother, I can’t believe we’ve found each other. Please wait until the program is over.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t.” He attempted to reach for me. “No,” I screamed, panicked at the thought of him touching me again.

I nearly ran out of the room, ignoring Blaine’s calls for me to stay. My life as I knew it would never be the same. With every fiber of my being I knew this and I was terrified.

“Michelle, what happened back there?”

We were in the car. Chance was holding me in his arms trying to coax me to talk. My chest was filled to overflowing with grief which rocked me to my very soul. All I could do was hold on to Chance and sob.

I don’t know how long we stayed in the car locked together in sorrow and confusion. I was sick to my stomach. The pounding that had begun in my head when I was hit by the bolt of energy continued. Only now it was worse.

“Tell me what happened.”

Chance tilted my face toward him. I saw worry for me etched across his face. I didn’t want to tell him what had happened. I worried he wouldn’t believe me.

I gathered my courage at last. “When MaDia held on to my hand, I thought I saw something. I’m not sure.” I looked down, away from Chance’s eyes. I felt a bubble of hysteria trying to take over my thoughts. I fought to remain sane. Maybe if I said the words, if I told Chance, it would make sense.

He began kissing me, crying, the salt from his tears falling onto my parted lips. My body started trembling. Nothing I did stopped it.

“What did he do to me, Chance? Why did I see those things?”

“I’m not sure. It sounds like it could have been a regression.”

“I didn’t ask him to regress me. Besides, I thought you told me it’s usually done through deep meditation, or even sleep induced. I was doing neither. He just touched me. How could that happen?”

“I don’t know.” He pulled away slightly. “I’m not even sure that’s what happened. It just sounds like it. I’m as much in the dark as you are on this one. What else did you see?”

“There was a baby. A boy, but I don’t know for sure if he was alive. No one was helping him, he wasn’t crying.” My tears joined Chance’s then as a monumental stab of pain pierced my heart.

“He said he’s our son. I heard him. Do you think Blaine MaDia is…do you think he’s our…?” Chance’s voice held hope and his eyes were filled with love and longing.

“Don’t, Chance. I don’t want to think about this anymore or talk about it. The whole thing is too strange. Why me, Chance? Why didn’t he do this with anyone else in the room? Why only me?”

“You know why.”