chapter six

Hannah stared at her sister Lindsay.
What Lindsay was telling Hannah had so shocked
the younger girl - that Hannah's tears which had been flowing
copiously stopped as suddenly as they had begun..

Hannah's brown eyes were focused on Lindsay's mouth and the words she was speaking.

The young 11 year old squinted her eyes and watched the sentences as they fell from Lindsay's lips.
The words  were foreign.  And Hannah realized that her sister was speaking another language,
but yet she Hannah at some level understood her.

Hannah felt something in the recesses of her mind nudging her.
She instinctively knew somehow that what Lindsay was saying was true.
It was startling for the younger girl to know that she could sense the truth of Lindsy's words
somewhere in her deepest being.

Her mind just didn't understand the words.

Her older sister's words were striking Hannah on another level. 

Hannah realized with a jolt  that it It was that second voice in Hannah's head that was picking up what Lindsay was saying.  The voice that had been quiet for most of the year.

Hannah was remembering something in the recesses of her mind..  She just couldn't quite tune into it.
It was within the recesses of her mind but Hannah couldn't put a grasp on what it was.

Her mind nudged her, a memory unfolded.  She held it in the palm of her hand when she was a child.

With a jolt she remembered  it was somehow connected to the magic rock.  
The rock held  many happy  memories and was a truth she held in the palm of her hand but
discarded  when she was about eight.  Why had she done that, Hannah thought.  She couldn't
even remember what had brought her to put away the magic rock.
Yet, she had put it aside and done so with only a slight hesitation.

There was something else too.
It had to do with the voices in her head.

She was remembering that the voices were so strong at times that she had felt like two
different people.
.
They were with her for a long time.  She grew up with them.  She didn't tell her family about them.
She didn't tell any of her friends about them either.  Even at an early age she knew what it was
to be different and she didn't want to appear strange.  She wanted to fit in.

Hannah didn't have any imaginary friends and no extra plates were ever set at the table for
the big white bunny.

No, her voices were real.  One was distant and the other one was who she was comfortable being.    

She repeated what Lindsay was saying, and the words seemed disjointed and stuttered off Hannah's
tongue as she repeated  what her older sister said.     "I am a child of the Light,"

Hannah looked at Lindsay hard.   She felt nautious and the younger girl's stomach was
churning so much that she felt that she might throw up.

When she spoke Hannah's voice was calm and she almost seemed to pull off what she was
saying in a grown up voice,

"What r u saying Lindsay?  Why r u doing this?"

A look of utter panic and fright was etched on Hannah's face. 
Lindsay realized Hannah was trying to process the day's events as calmly as an 11 year old could.

Lindsay felt so sorry for Hannah, but this had to be done.

"What language r u speaking?"  uttered Hannah.

And finally she wailed in her 11 year old voice. "You are scaring me.
Where is dad.  What r we doing on this sailboat?"

Hannah's mind was a hodgepodge of thoughts.

Lindsay kept speaking.  There seemed to be no stopping her thought Hannah.

Her sister just wouldn't stop talking.

"Why are you doing this?" she blurted out.

Now, Lindsay was talking about someone named Monica.

Hannah's breathing increased and she seemed to be taking in extra breaths.
  
Had her sister Lindsay lost her mind.

Hannah was concerned about her dad and Lindsay was telling her some story about a woman
named Monica who was her birth mother and had come from another star kingdom.

All Hannah could think of was that her sister Lindsay, her 17 year old sister had lost her mind?

Hannah felt she was losing her grip on reality.  

Lindsay meanwhile took in her sister's appearance.  She noted that Hannah's brown eyes were
as wide as saucers.

Fear was etched on her face.  Hannah was scared.  Lindsay could see that.

Hannah tightened her fist and  rapped her knuckles hard on the table two times.
She breathed.  She could feel the hardness of the table and it calmed her.
 
She remembered in the past that when she heard the voices and they got to be too much for her
she would  bang her knuckles hard against the tablet or she would turn around and slap slap the palm
of her hand hard against the kitchen wall until she felt the sting of pain on the inside of her hand.

That brought her back to reality and she would say out out loud, "Now, that's what I call reality.  Not those voices in my head."

   
Lindsay saw that Hannah was scared and for a moment she saw Hannah lose her breath.

Lindsay had to make a decision.  Did she continue on with what she had to do or did she stop.

Hannah saw the look of concern that her sister was directing at her.  And she breathed slowly.

Lindsay continued,

"Hannah, I know this is a lot to take in, but there are some things that have to be told."

Hannah breathed.  It was too much.  Finally she wailed.

"Are you kidding me," said Hannah.  "This is 2015.   Not some dark vadar
movie.  This is America.  And u r talking about some light child. "

Hannah's voice had started out calm.  But now with each word it was becoming a roaring scream.

Hannah could hear herself talking.  Her voice had been soft and low.  Like she was some other person.
But her mind, oh her mind was screaming.  

And then finally Hannah got her 11 year old senses back and she wailed uncontrollably, tears and
screaming, "What about dad? That's who you should be talking about.  Our dad."

Lindsay put her hand to her eyes.  Her eyes were so tired.  She closed her lids and she
could feel her eyes burning.

Okay,  said Lindsay,  breathe,   That's it .  Breathe in.  Breathe out.

Lindsay continued.

Dad and I had a conversation that if this life and death scenario actually came to
be he left me instructions as to what I was to do.

Lindsay tried to assure Hannah that dad would be all right.

"But how is that possible?" said the younger girl.  " I saw him .  He was lying on the kitchen floor.
He wasn't moving."
.
Lindsay continued,  Dad said, "That if this situation ever occurred we were to come to the pier
and board the sailboat Midnight.  They keys would be in the flowerpot on the deck."

Lindsay said, "dad told me to tell u to specifically trust in the present moment, to look inside for
a specific presence and that she Hannah would come in contact with her inner strength.

Dad told me he would be okay.

That you can't always believe what you see and sooner or later he would find his girls".

Lindsay wanted to tell Hannah about Dayton and what part he was playing in Hannah's life,

She breathed.  There were parts of Dayton's life that he wasn't even aware of yet and Lindsay
herself didn't entirely understand but she knew that it wasn't her place to figure out. .  

Lindsay knew that Dayton was more than Hannah's father.  That he had been specifically
chosen by Madison to be Hannah's father.  And that his time on this planet was
coming to an end but  it would not be until he saw a certain chapter in Hannah's life
completed and he got to see Madison one more time. 

Lindsay had stopped talking and Hannah glanced down at her multicolored socks
that she had put on earlier that day before school started and tiny sobs shook her shoulders.

Hannah stared at Lindsay and said mournfully, I want my childhood back,"
I want my life back."

Lindsay and Hannah locked glances.   Lindsay opened her arms.
The two sisters both knew from that moment on there was no going back.
There lives were forever changed.

They heard voices outside and the stamping of feet on the deck.
The younger sister snuggled into the circle of Lindsay's protective arms.

Lindsay cradled Hannah's head against her chest.  She knew that whoever came
through the cabin door of the sailboat was going to impact her and Hannah's lives
in a very serious way.