The Skye in June (27 page)

Sister told June how potent telepathic communication could be when learned and used properly.
“To gain strength in it, you must still your mind to send or receive clear messages. Your intention must be good. That is most important.”

June thought about how Mrs.
G had already taught her the importance of quieting the mind to hear and see beyond the physical world.

“Can I learn to talk with someone in my mind like regular talking?” she inquired.

“You already do with your angel and Helen.”

“
Not dead people and angels. Live ones. Like maybe my sister, Mary.” June told Sister about their problem. She had been pining for her sister’s lost friendship.

“
You are a very gifted intuitive. When you knew about Meise, how did the information come to you?” the nun asked.

“
I saw a picture in my mind of you playing with a dog,” June said.

“
Why did you say I would fly to Africa someday?”

“I think my angel told me
and I just repeated it. Yes, that was it,” June said.

Sister Noel looked for
a moment at the girl. “I think it is time to teach you more about your psychic talents. Seeing something when you don’t have prior knowledge of it is called clairvoyance. That means clear sight. When you hear intuitive messages, it is called clairaudio, or clear hearing,” Sister explained. 

“
Was the holy lady Hildegard a clear seeing and hearing person?” June asked.

“
Yes, Hildegard would most likely have been clairvoyant as well as clairaudio. That is how she would have seen her visions, as well as heard her heavenly messages. After all, she did compose beautiful music. Let’s talk about Mary and how you can intuitively send her a message. First, try to understand how she feels in order to send a stronger message. You will connect with her more easily when you have a sense of how she feels. In other words, put yourself in her place. If she is angry, send calming images. If she is sad, send a loving image. As best you can, don’t send any sad or angry feelings or pictures in your mind. Let’s try. How do you think Mary feels?”

June thought of how Mary acted mean and tough. With her eyes squeezed closed, she envisioned red flames encircling her sister
’s mouth.

“
She’s angry because Daddy and Maggie make fun of her,” June said. She paused to feel how Mary felt. She thought of how deeply Mary was hurt when their father said mean things about her. “I see Granda B holding her. He liked her a lot. But he’s dead.” She stopped, her eyelids twitching and said, sadly, “Now she feels all alone without him.”

Tears spilled from
the corners of June’s eyes as she felt her sister’s sadness. The warmth of Sister Noel’s gentle touch wiping the tears from her cheeks comforted her.

“
Don’t become her. Only observe her,” Sister said kindly. “Let’s send Mary a happy picture of you, her, and Granda B. I will tap into your picture and send it also. That will strengthen it.”

“
Like a novena when we pray together? It’s stronger, huh?” June asked.

“
Yes, like that. One clear picture. Don’t sway from it.”

June closed her eyes.
“Okay.” 

“
Now say a simple word or two to describe it,” Sister said.

The girl
’s eyes opened. “Clairaudio. Sound,” she said more to herself than to the nun. Her eyes roamed around the classroom searching through the numerous words written on large pieces of paper pinned on the walls. It was the picture of the blue sky above Sister’s desk that brought the image of her angel. 

“
Happy together!” she exclaimed.

“
Excellent. Now you shall use another intuitive skill, clairsentience, which means clear feelings. How does ‘Happy together’ feel in your body?”

Breathing deeply, June closed her eyes once ag
ain, turned her palms upward and sat in quiet repose. Like when the sun breaks free of a dark cloud, she became clear with her feeling. Finally, she spoke, “My body feels good, like when Mommy hugs me.”

“
Good.” A quiet moment passed before Sister continued. “See Mary being hugged by Granda B. As you mentally say a word message, feel your body being hugged.”

Through Sister Noel
’s guidance, June developed a clearer understanding of her psychic abilities.

Off in the distance, the voices of children playing could be heard faintly through the open windows. June felt a light tap on her wrist.

“Go home now. All is well,” Sister whispered. 

After several days went by
, June became disappointed an immediate resolution didn’t occur. But the determined girl repeated the exercise daily. On the seventh day she found her tarot cards sitting on her bed.

* * * * *

Chapter 26

MAY DAY
1960

THE WARM SPRING DAY of the first of May
1960, would certainly prove to be an unforgettable day for the entire family, in one way or another.

The entire month of May, which is dedicated to honor Our Lady, the Blessed Mother of God, commences with a festive Mass on
the first Sunday of the month. It is one of the most beautiful and joyful celebrations in Catholicism and was June’s favorite religious event. As part of the Mass, an eighth grade girl, chosen by her peers, crowns the statue of Our Lady. The honor went to Maggie. Her sisters agreed that, after all her heavy campaigning, she deserved it. Only the day started badly for the MacDonalds.

At first waking, Cathy assigned duties to her daughters before tackling her own. Her biggest project was starching the girls’ dresses to smooth perfection. Satisfied with the outcome, she had only just laid down the iron when loud shrieks erupted upstairs. She was certain something terrible must have happened. She scampered from the kitchen to dash up the stairs, declaring loudly, “Mother of God!”

“
Big, fat, lying sinner!” June screeched while pummeling Maggie’s midriff with her balled fists. Screeching obscenities, Maggie had her little sister’s red curls wrapped tightly in her hands.

“
Cut it out! We’re going to be late,” Annie demanded as she struggled to untangle the duo.

Mary only contributed to the bedlam by jumping up and down on the bed and frantically yelling,
“Out of my room, Maggie!”

The bedroom door banged opened, announcing the arrival of their mother. The fighters broke apart and cried out their grievances against the other, each guilty before being judged. Surmising that a tragedy had not happened, Cathy hollered gruffly,
“What’s the bloody screaming all about?”

Blood from a red scratch on Maggie
’s cheek trickled onto her pure white slip.

“
Oh no! Your slip is ruined,” exclaimed Cathy.

A high-pitched shrill
, like a siren, diverted Cathy’s focus.

“
Maggie’s a sinner!” June choked out. “She says she’s a better goddess than Our Lady ‘cuz she’s more beautiful. That’s a sin for her to say that, huh?”

More concerned about Maggie
’s injury than the moral issue at hand, her mother ignored June, which didn’t stop the agitated girl.

“
She committed a sin of vanity and Mommy, tell her it’s true that Our Lady is the goddess of Scotland,” June demanded.

“
Och, all this talk about sinners! Stop going on about that damn pagan stuff,” Cathy stormed at her youngest as she grabbed her arm and shook her roughly. “Look at your sister’s slip. See what your bad temper did? You’re just like your father.”

The girls knew their mother was very angry because her Scottish accent was stronger when she was upset. They shut their mouths. Annie tried to creep away.

“Annie! Bring the dresses from the kitchen up here,” Cathy ordered. She spit on a finger and started to rub at the bloodstain on the slip just above Maggie’s slightly budding breast. Caught off guard, she observed that her tall, skinny daughter was becoming a young woman.

“
Go get ready, hen, or you’ll miss your cue,” Cathy said, tenderly brushing back Maggie’s strawberry blonde hair.

She then turned her attention to Mary, dressed only in a tee shirt, panties and a wreath of tiny purple flowers wrapped around her head.
“Mary, put on that trainer brassiere. You’re too big there for only a tee-shirt.”

The twelve-
year-old gasped and covered her chest with both hands and cussed under her breath at having to wear a bra.

To June
she barked, “And you, Miss Know-It-All, the great goddess of Scotland is Calleach. Downstairs. Ten minutes.” She closed the door sharply.

Cathy stood in the hallway with her hand still on the doorknob, shaking from her altercation with June. She hated reprimanding June so unsympathetically. The effort over the years to squash her daughter
’s curiosity had become nerve wracking. She felt a sickening uncertainty. She doubted she was a good mother. A sorrowful fear any of her daughters would think she rejected them gripped her heart. Do they know how much I fight Jimmy for their privileges? she wondered sadly. Because of her, they were sometimes allowed night visits to the library and hamburgers after the movies on Saturdays.

A throbbing headache began in her temples. In an effort to soothe the growing pain, she pushed aside her whitening hair to rub her forehead. Indecisive about whether she did the right thing by telling
June about Calleach, her mind swam back and forth. She doesn’t understand what she’s saying, she decided. Jimmy’s right. I’ve got to make her stop this pagan malarkey for her own good.

When June was younger, the stories about her angel and Helen and Baby Kit looking down from the clouds had comforted Cathy
’s heart. At times she would play along with June and watch the clouds forming images in the sky. June had told her if she watched the clouds and pretended to see Helen and Baby Kit looking down at her from Heaven, then she could believe they were still with her.

But it was the eerily clear details in June
’s dreams and visions of Cathy that upset her. Why can’t I tell her the truth? Cathy thought guiltily. She knew why.

Her troubled thoughts were jarred by Jimmy
’s forceful shout from downstairs that he was going to start the car. Wearily, she went on to the tasks at hand.

Lost in deep thought, June finished interlacing the yellow daisies on her wreath. She wondered why her mother had never mentioned her knowledge of goddesses, especially a Scottish one. On more than one occasion June had enthusiastically shared with Cathy what she had learned about them from Sister Noel. Her mother would mostly say, “That’s nice,” except for the time when June had told her about how people used to pray to the gods and goddesses. Her mother said gruffly, “What about math? That’s what that nun needs to be teaching you.” Afraid Sister Noel would get in trouble for teaching pagan history, June said no more about school. Now she wondered why her mother hadn’t told her what she knew about this Scottish goddess. Rolling
Calleach
around on her tongue, saying it with a Scottish emphasis as her mother had, June decided to ask Sister Noel about the goddess.

In the early dawn of May Day, Sister Noel awoke to the silence in the Holy Savior’s convent. She had struggled to escape a nightmare, enfolding herself in her twisted bedding. Perspiration soaked her white cotton nightgown. Her dream was of a terrified gazelle encircled by a pride of hungry lions, licking their lips, ready to enjoy their prey. The gazelle, exhausted from running, gracefully lowered herself onto the soft grass, accepting her fate. A spray of hot blood enveloped the young nun’s mental screen.

She moaned as she came out of her dream state. The day would be long, she thought as she untangled the sheets from around her slender body.

Two long honks of the car horn blasted through the otherwise quiet morning on Liberty Street, aler
ting the MacDonald females Jimmy was ready to leave for church.

“
Hurry up. Don’t keep him waiting,” said Cathy, shooing all the girls but Maggie out the front door.

Stepping into three-inch heels so she could stand face
-to-face with her tall, fourteen-year-old, she began to pat make-up onto Maggie’s scratch in hopes of diminishing the redness.

“
I look so ugly!” Maggie whined pitifully. Cathy pressed down lightly to smooth out the make-up as Maggie winced. “Ouch! Watch out for the scar!” she cried out.

Fed up with the
dramatics, Cathy suggested the injured girl do what their religion taught her to do; when suffering, offer up the pain for the poor souls in purgatory.

Maggie looked in the hall mirror and pouted out her lips.
“Doesn’t matter how much powder you put on, she ruined me.”

June poked her head in the door and warned them to hurry up.
“Daddy said come now or walk to church.” She stuck out her tongue at her vain sister.