Temporal Exploring 101 - Cultural Immersion

II.28 A gift or a curse

About half an hour later the three of us were having lunch together with Granny Morgan and Tom.

The old woman had prepared a traditional Welsh dish for us. I do not remember its name, but it featured many different vegetables and some excellent meat and it tasted quite delicious.

During the meal, I repeatedly caught Tom secretly eyeing Natty. Erin and Natty noticed it, too. When Natty returned his gaze with a tentative smile, he blushed bright red. I leaned over to her and whispered in her ear, "I think he fancies you". She angrily tossed her head, and I had to stifle a giggle.

After the meal, Tom excused himself. It turned out he had promised to help his father with the repairs of a barn that had been damaged in a recent storm. He left, casting Natty one final, regretful look. Leaving Erin, Natty and me to chat with Granny Morgan.

"So, how is school, Erin?" the old woman eventually asked, after we had discussed Erin's extended family and relatives, and how they were all faring, for a bit.

"School is fine, Granny. I really like St. Albert's and my classmates. Well, most of them, anyhow."

"That's good to hear. I remember that when I first suggested that you get enrolled there, you were more than a bit skeptical. As was your mum."

"Well, it is located pretty far from home, Grandma. You've got to admit that."

"True. But for a young girl it is important to see the world, to meet and get to know people who think and feel differently about things. Why, when I was your age, I had never been farther from home than Cardiff, and I never imagined that I ever"

Erin raised her right hand, laughing. "Enough already, Grandma. You have given me this particular speech about a million times already." She sobered. "You know, one reason I wanted to visit you is that I need to talk to you about ... something specific."

"I thought so." The old woman smiled at her. "Go ahead, shoot."

I blinked. I had never heard anybody use that phrase, 'shoot', in this context before.

"Well, it's about the séances and stuff. All that .. it is like, starting to scare me."

Her grandmother nodded. "Go on."

"See, when you first taught me how to conduct a séance and all that, it was just great fun. But I was little, then. And lately, the things I tell people in a séance more often than not frighten them. I mean, I never remember afterwards what I said while I was in a trance, so I can't control it or anything."

Granny Morgan frowned. "Could  you give me an example?"

"Well, a few weeks ago our class had kind of a late night party outside, at a lake, and the others convinced me to go into trance. So, it turns out I told Eunice ..."

"You mean the girl from Africa, the one that you told me about?" her grandma cut in. "Your roommate?"

"Yes, her. Anyhow, apparently I told her that if she ever returns to her home, she will die horribly." Erin shuddered. "Everybody was so shocked. Most of all Eunice herself, of course. I don't want to frighten people like that anymore."

"Maybe you are looking at this the wrong way, Erin. It sounds to me like what you told your friend was not a prediction but a warning. Perhaps it will turn out that by telling her to stay away from her home, you saved your friend's life."

"I don't know. I thought about that, of course. But what I tell a person while I am in a trance is not necessarily always a warning."

"Yes, like what you told me," Natty observed.

Erin frowned. "Remind me, what did I tell you?"

"You told me that I could be a game changer."

"Actually, she told you that you could be the game changer," I corrected her.

"The game changer, then. What is a 'game changer', anyhow?" Natty asked.

"Presumably, it's a person who changes the rules of the game," the old woman suggested.

"But what rules are we talking about here?" Natty asked. "And, for that matter, which game?"

None of us had an answer for that.

"Maybe the game of mathematics?" I proposed.

"Hm." Natty appeared to like that idea.

"Well, whatever." Erin shrugged. "Admittedly, what I told Natalie was pretty non-creepy, compared to what I told poor Eunice.  My point is that I don't want to be the one who tells other people creepy, frightening things, even if sometimes it may serve to warn them."

"You may not have much choice in that." The old woman regarded her granddaughter shrewdly, and with compassion. "Of course, you could quit doing séances. In fact that would probably be a good idea. But you will continue to have the dreams."

"What dreams?" I asked, instantly intrigued.

"Dreams that tell you about things you could not possibly know about," Granny Morgan explained. She turned towards Erin. "You do still have them, don't you, child?"

Erin blanched. "I do," she admitted. "But I kind of hoped that they would stop at some point in my life."

"I am afraid that is not going to happen, Erin. You have the gift, and you cannot simply reject it. It runs in our family. In certain other families as well, and always in the female line. The gift is passed on from a mother to her daughter. It can skip a generation, as in the case of your mum. But I have got it, and you have got it too."

"But I do not even want that gift. I never wanted it, or asked for it. It is more like a curse, if you ask me," Erin muttered glumly.

"That may be so," her grandmother admitted. "To be sure, it comes with a huge responsibility. It can destroy a person, if she is too weak to bear it. It has been known to destroy people that way, through the ages."

"But can you explain to us how it works?" Natty asked eagerly. "Like, can you and Erin read our minds or anything?"

During our séance it had appeared to Natty and me that at times when Erin had relayed a 'message from the spirits' to one of our classmates, she must have had knowledge of certain facts that only that girl herself could possibly have known. It was Natty's pet theory that while in trance Erin had access to the other girls' thoughts.

Granny Morgan smiled.

"No, we cannot read your minds," she told us. "At least, I can't. And I do not expect that you can do that either, Erin."

"No, thankfully I can't." Her granddaughter grinned. "That would be a truly awful experience, I think. Just imagine what it would be like to be aware of what Dorothy Barnett is thinking, all the time."

Natty laughed. "No, I'd rather pass on that one."

I was in total agreement with that. I also was glad that Erin appeared to be in a less gloomy mood again.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon on a walk through the neighborhood, with Granny Morgan pointing out the sights. At half past four Natty, Erin and I boarded the bus that took us back to the small village located close to our camp. After a brief climb we returned to the three blockhouses on top of the hill, in time and before six o'clock as promised.

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A / N : So Natty and Cathy learned a bit about that mysterious gift that supposedly has been running in Erin's family for generations. And that it runs in the female line of the family, and other families ...

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