“Of course, but what do you need me…”
“Nothing. You don’t have to do anything. Just let me hold your hand.” I smiled reassuringly and reached to take my mother’s hand in mine. I closed my eyes and felt the same rush of images as I did when I touched the dart, and again when I held Creed’s hand just a while before. But it was different with my mother. I already have such a strong bond with her, that instead of flashing images and corresponding emotions witnessed in my mind, I actually felt her fear and anger. When I opened my eyes and looked up at my mother, finished reading her, I was crying her tears. “Oh mom! I love you so much! Thank you for doing everything you could to take care of me and the family.” Without hesitation, I pulled my mom into a tight hug. She was smiling at me as though we had a secret we were about to share with the rest of the room.
I knew she would already understand what I was doing. Our connection was so tight she probably received some of my own emotions and didn’t just feed me hers. She knew me and she loved me.
With a reassuring nod, she handed me a tissue and let me proceed. And so it went for the next thirty minutes. I held the hands of each of my family one by one and let their memories become part of me. When it came time to hold my youngest brother’s hand, he smiled at me widely.
“Meg, we all knew you were going to be able to focus your empath abilities with practice, but that isn’t your newest gift, is it?” Evan kept smiling smugly at me.
“What do you mean, Evan? This is amazing! I’ve never been able to read people like this; to just touch their hand and know what they have felt. Not like this. The memory images are so crisp and precise. The emotions attached to the images are exact!” I was feeling frustrated with my brother, but I forced myself to swallow it down and give him a chance.
Instead of reaching his hand out to me he folded his arms across his chest.
“Why won’t you let her ‘read’ you, Evan?” Margo began.
“I will, mom; just not the way she ‘read’ you,” Evan winked at his mother and returned his gaze to me. “I know she can do this, but she needs to know it.”
“Here,” he said and handed me the thin stack of papers he was holding face-down. I went to flip the papers over to read them, but he stopped me. “No, Meg. Don’t read the words on the paper. Hold the paper and ‘read’ it like you ‘read’ their hands.”
“Evan, what are you talking about?” I asked feeling what little patience I had waning.
“Meg, think about it. When you first woke this evening, mom was trying to explain what happened to you; why you were so sick for the last week. But did she tell you everything you wanted to know?”
“She didn’t have to.” I said stubbornly. I was starting to feel tired. The excitement of being with my family again was wearing off and now, the fatigue this body felt still from the effects of the illness was undeniable.
“Why not?” Evan asked.
“Because, I already knew.”
“When?”
“When I held the dart,” I said exasperated.
“So you were able to ‘read’ the dart? That doesn’t make sense, Meg.” Evan was egging me on, and I was not happy about it. I was just sleepy.
He didn’t let up. “A dart is just a thing. It’s an object. It doesn’t have feelings for you to read. How is it that you already knew what happened to you after only touching the dart?”
“I don’t know how, Evan,” I said raising my voice a little. “All I know is that when I touched it, I felt everything—everything the others who had touched it felt—at least the way they felt right when they were holding it.”
Evan nodded his approval.
“Now, ‘read’ those papers and tell me what I have been feeling,” he encouraged.
I sighed deeply and squeezed my eyes shut concentrating on the papers in my hands and feeling a little stupid about it.
After a moment of blackness, there it was…my brother Evan feeling pride and excitement as he held the papers and hurried to meet us in the living room. Several images flashed including snapshot-like images of the words on the pages. These images were obviously captured by Evan’s memory. The emotions and the snippets of phrases I caught from my mental image of the document made me gasp happily.
“Evan! Oh my goodness! Is it true?” I beamed.
“I think you’re living proof of it!” He smiled back at his sister and finally allowed her to give him a big hug.
All the other faces in the room were looking confused.
“You two wanna tell us the good news?” Cole asked.
Evan grinned at me and said, “Why don’t you tell them, Meggie.”