Outview (28 page)

Once I finished the books, we went for a
walk. Tanya lived in a rented cramped two-room guesthouse on a pretty piece of
land overlooking the Rogue River. She led us carefully down a path to the
river. We followed her, single file, as it wound down the very steep grade through
a series of switchbacks.

The trail widened a bit along the water. It
was a rugged and scenic section of the famed river. Amber had never been on the
Rogue. Tanya explained to her that its source was near Crater Lake where it
begins a 215-mile dash to the Pacific Ocean, ending at Gold Beach, just north
of Brookings, like a thread weaving through my own spiritual journey.

At Amber’s request, I moved stones from
around the banks and dropped them in the river using Gogen. I told them it was
good practice, but in truth I was just showing off. It turned into a little
freak show as they all started naming things for me to levitate and move. Only
Linh didn’t play. Instead she wrote in her journal among some wildflowers, the
rest of us were laughing and joking.

“What
are
we going to do?” Tanya
suddenly blurted out. Everyone turned to her. “While we’re screwing around here,
Rose needs us.”

“We just needed to let go of some of this
tension,” Kyle said.

“Someone has to find Rose. And since we
can’t go to the police, the only hope we have is Nate being able to see her
somehow.”

“I’ve been trying, Tanya,” I said.

“Not while your wasting your powers playing
in the river with your girlfriend.”

“Wait a minute, Tanya, you were telling him
to Gogen stuff, too, and--” Amber started.

“It’s okay,” I said, quieting her. “Tanya,
I know you’re worried about Rose. We all are. But I can’t look every minute. I
barely know what I’m doing. Spencer and Rose are the two who have been helping
me. There’s no way to get ahold of Spencer until he contacts me, and obviously
Rose can’t help right now, so I’m kind of out here winging it. Monday we’re
going to talk to a top attorney who is great at these kind of cases. . . .
We’ll get her back.”

“He’s not a machine,” Kyle said, biting
down on an unlit cigarette.

“It’s just . . . ” Tanya said, beginning to
cry, “if I hadn’t taken Nate to Brookings yesterday, I would have been with
Rose at the movies. We go every Friday afternoon and then to dinner.”

Linh put her arm around Tanya. “The truth
is we’re all in danger.”

“True,” Kyle said. “But they could have
picked us up already. They’ve only taken people with psychic abilities: Dustin,
Rose, and they’ve tried for Nate.”

“Maybe,” I said, “but let’s not get any
false sense of security.”

“No chance of that,” Amber said. “I think
we’re all scared senseless.”

“Let’s go back. My mom’s coming soon to try
to convince me to go to the FBI,” I said.

We made our way up the trail in silence.

“I’m going to take this, it’s Bridgette.”
Amber flipped her phone open. She stayed outside as the rest of us went in.

A few minutes later, my mom came in with
Amber.

“Hope you guys are hungry,” she said
unpacking a spread from the Station. Amber had an Adele, Kyle a Bob Dylan, Linh
took half a Fleet Foxes, Tanya grabbed the Tracy Chapman, and I had a Ray
LaMontagne with no mustard.

“Rose phoned me just after lunch on Friday.
You know we had a rocky relationship,” Mom said to everyone. “Rose said how
sorry she was about all our misunderstandings, and since both of us loved the
same three people more than anything, we should have been best of friends. It
was like she knew something was going to happen. That’s possible, isn’t it,
Nate?”

“Yeah.”

“I mean she went on to say that we should
work hard at being friends in the future and help Nate through all this. But it
was just the timing, you know, after what happened.”

“If she’d known she was going to get taken,
she would have hidden somewhere, left town or something. She would have called
me,” Tanya said.

We were all quiet for a while, eating and
thinking. Mom brought out a few large containers. “Strawberry Secrets, Fudge
Crumble Invasion and Marshmallow Dream Moose Cake for dessert.” Even Tanya
applauded. Once everyone was stuffed and the conversation found another lull,
Mom was ready to exit.

“Nate, walk me to my car. I’ll see you all
soon,” she said to the others amid unanimous thank-yous for the food. She
tossed her purse in the front seat. “Nate, I’ve been talking to Josh about all
this, and he agrees with me that we can’t just let you run around waiting for
these agents to get you. They have Dustin and Rose. We have to go to the FBI or
CNN or something.”

“Why do we keep having this conversation?
Give me a couple of days.”

“Surely, you don’t think the whole
government’s corrupt and all the media outlets, too?”

“No, but I don’t know which ones aren’t. It’s
too risky. This is about so much more than Dustin, Dad, and Rose.”

“Well, of course it is, but all I care
about is keeping my family safe. I’ve made a lot of mistakes with you boys since
Dad died, and I don’t want this to be another one. What am I supposed to do if
you go missing tomorrow? Do you think I won’t go to the FBI then?”

“Mom, follow me.”

Once we were above the river, I made a Lusan
and handed it to her.

“Oh, that’s incredible!” she said.

I nodded and held out my hands. She gently
placed it back in them. I threw it into the river producing a large geyser that
lasted almost a full minute. Mom’s mouth fell open.

“You have to understand I’m not a kid
anymore. I can do amazing things. A week ago I was in a French village with Dad
during World War II. I can see the past in incredible detail, speak three
languages fluently, and can recite the laws of quantum physics to you.”

“Its hard for me, Nate. I’m astounded and
impressed but terrified all at the same time. It’s tough enough for me to think
of you graduating next year. You saw your father?”

“No one really dies.”

“In spite of all the horrible aspects of
this mess, that’s really a beautiful thought.”

“It’s breathtaking, Mom. Trust me, okay?”

“All right, Nate. I want to, but it’s
already been three and a half days. I know he’s supposed to be in federal
custody, but we really aren’t sure. I’ll give this until the end of the day 
Monday.” She wiped a tear. “You stay in touch and don’t be a hero. There are
good people who can help us when the time comes.”

“You got it.” I handed her a sheet of
paper. “That’s the address where they have Dustin, and some other details about
the place and guards that I noted. Nothing’s going to happen. I just don’t want
to take any chances with Dustin’s safety.”

“I have to stop thinking now. I want to
leave with images of that beautiful ball and geyser in my head.” She fumbled in
her purse and handed me two hundred dollar bills out the window.

“Thanks, Mom.” I still had some cash from
selling photos and my savings were untouched, but the money would help with all
the extra gas and food.

Amber came out before I made it back
inside. “I just promised my mom everything would be fine, but I’m not really
sure.”

“It will be. This isn’t happening by
accident.”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I can’t screw it
up somehow. What if Rose is dead?”

“Do you think she is?”

“I don’t understand why I can see Dustin
almost effortlessly, but not a trace of Rose comes through even with prophecy.”

“You just told us that you hardly know what
you’re doing. Give yourself a break. There are so many possible reasons why
you’re not getting anything from her--you’re still learning.”

“I just think she’d be trying to get a
message to me . . . even if she were dead.”

“I’ve read plenty of famous cases where it
can take months or years for someone to get word from the other side.”

I shook my head. “It’s so frustrating. I’ve
learned more this past week than in my entire life, and I still can’t--”

“Here’s a little more.” She pulled a book
from the backseat of Kyle’s car.
Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical
Powers of Creatures Great & Small
by Ted Andrews. “It’s my favorite
book on understanding the meanings of animals. Remember the moose?”

“Our first date, how could I forget?”

“It wasn’t a date,” she said with a laugh.

“Tanya seems to think you’re my girlfriend.”
I smiled.

She put her arm around me. “We’ll see about
that.”

“Why is everyone still giving me books to
read?” I joked. “Thanks.” I handed it back to her as we went into the house.

“You already memorized it?”

“Want to test me?”

“I believe you. And, I certainly don’t want
to start that circus up again.”

“All right everyone, I’m not saying you
have to leave, but you can’t stay here.” I announced.

“What?” Kyle asked.

“I don’t want anyone staying where I am.
It’s not safe.”

They all protested.

“Nate, if you think I’m going to leave,”
Tanya said, “then you aren’t the great psychic everyone thinks you are.”

“Tanya can stay because, well . . . it’s
her house, but the rest of you can’t. I mean it.”

They reluctantly agreed and decided Amber
would stay at Kyle’s and Linh’s. I would have preferred them in a safe hotel
somewhere but lost that debate. Linh handed me a folded sheet of paper. “It’s
something I wrote for you. You can read it later.”

I stuffed it in the back pocket of my jeans
and pulled her close. She was soft and warm. “It’s not your fault,” I
whispered.

Once they were gone I spent more time
searching for Rose on the astral and in my pan of water with no success. I
asked Tanya if she would allow me to read her life. “It might help me find
Rose. And even if it doesn’t, I could really use the practice.”

She was fascinated by the prospect. “Can
you see my childhood, like when I was three?”

“Vising can even let me see your past lives
if you want.”

“Oh my God. I do. I want to know
everything.”

“You may think you do. But believe me, our
past lives aren’t always what we’d like.”

I held her, and Tanya’s life showed itself
to me. Mostly mundane, but the wonderful parts centered around Rose; they
adored each other. Tanya’s father had been strict and abusive when she was
young. Nothing worse than beatings, but some were severe. He’d belittled her,
too, and there weren’t many friends. Her mother didn’t wake up one day after
taking a mixture of pills. Tanya was about three years old and lay with her
dead mother all day until her father came home and found them. No one ever told
Tanya it was suicide. I sure wasn’t going to break that news.

I pulled away and looked at her. She was
the first person I’d read, and it was so personal I could barely handle it. I’d
seen all the laughter and tears, anger and fear. The emotions were still
flowing through me even after the images stopped.

She smiled at me sweetly.

“You’ve done really well,” was all I could
think to say.

“Did you see my past lives?”

“No, but we can.”

She nodded.

I held her again, quickly flying through
her life. It was just as Spencer had described, a few seconds of darkness and
then lifetime after lifetime unfolded. We talked for more than an hour, as
Tanya asked an unending stream of questions about those previous incarnations.
Nothing was too exciting, but she had once been a princess; she liked that. And
we both thought it was cool that in one life she was a sailor on the Pinta, one
of Columbus’s ships in 1492. I didn’t say anything about her three other
current
incarnations; one actually lived in Los Angeles. I wasn’t sure how she would
take that information, and I was too tired to find out.

“I’m wiped out but wired at the same time,”
she said. “I’m sure I’ll never get to sleep.”

“I think I can help with that. Spencer
taught me a way to calm people or put them to sleep. Well, technically he
didn’t teach me, but he reminded . . . never mind.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Of course not. Very gentle.”

Twenty minutes later she appeared wearing
sweats and a T-shirt. Once in bed I looked at her for a few moments, closed my
eyes, and pictured her having a deep peaceful sleep.

“Did it work?” I whispered.

When there was no answer I went though the
dark house, stretched out on the couch, fully clothed, and read Linh’s poem by
flashlight. Reading in the dark was possible but not pleasant.

Its beautiful music

This war of the worlds,

Of the time, the dimension

You think you are the body

That holds these wings

You think you are the message