Date: Fri, 9 Sep 1994 19:15:28 +0100 Reply-To: Highlander TV show stories Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: John Markor Subject: Immortal Unawares 2 of 4 --========================_11459090==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Here is Part Two, I hope..... --========================_11459090==_ Content-Type: text/plain; name="Immortal_Unawares_-_Part_2"; charset="us-ascii" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Immortal_Unawares_-_Part_2" Their route took them west past Tehachapi on the road that leads travelers down into the San Joaquin Valley city of Bakersfield. They turned off the main road, down into a valley and through a hamlet called Caliente. The road climbed up into the mountains once again past the ghost town of Havilah. Maria directed Liz to turn off onto a well-kept dirt road and about a mile later Liz saw the cabin. Bounding out of the car like a little girl, she breathed in the cool, clean mountain air and marveled at the brilliant blue sky. The cabin was quite old, but well cared for. Telephone and electrical lines provided the cabin with modern amenities. An electrical water pump and evaporative air-conditioning snuggled up against one side of the cabin. Martin opened the door. "Go in. We know you'll love it." Liz entered while Martin and Maria remained outside. Maria looked gravely at Martin. "How has she avoided joining us for so long? " "Her gifts are strong. Perhaps she has known and resisted." he replied. "No one has ever known before hand. No one." Maria turned to her brother, "You say the White Wolf is wakening. Will the White Wolf bring her to us?" Martin closed his eyes and concentrated. He took his sister's hands and chanted slowly, "When the White Wolf awakens she will not resist and she will become one of us. The Brown Warrior will show her way. The Brown Warrior was there for her before. She resisted." "She knew, then. Her gifts are stronger than we could have ever imagined. We must prepare for her arrival." Maria took her brother's hand and they sat on a bench under an ancient oak tree. Liz explored the cabin and loved what she saw; a large stone fireplace in the center of the sitting room caught her attention. An old, but clean sofa sat in front of the fireplace. Next to it was a cane rocking chair. Bookshelves stood empty, begging for books to reside on them. She next explored the kitchen. Liz was pleasantly surprised to see a dishwasher under the counter by the sink. The fridge and stove were reasonably modern as well. An oak table and four chairs sat to the side of the kitchen. On the back porch she found a washer and dryer. Her next stop was the large bedroom. The fireplace, she noted with approval also opened onto the bedroom. The queen sized bed was covered with a patchwork quilt. She gave it a test, very comfortable. A large walk-in closet opened into the far wall and next to it was the bathroom. As she exited the bedroom she glanced up to high log-beamed ceiling. Log beams criss-crossed the entire span of the ceiling in both the bedroom and living room. She recalled hearing that high ceilings make for cooler living quarters. Maria was right. This was the perfect place for her. Feelings of comfort, safety, and sanctuary wrapped themselves around her like a cozy old blanket. Maria and Martin turned as she closed the door of the cabin behind her. "I love it, it's perfect, but I'm afraid it's too far from the studio." Maria took Liz's hand and gazed into her eyes, "We don't rent this property to anyone. This land is special to our people, it is sacred to us. You have within your soul what is needed to take care of the land, and it in turn will take care of you. Here, no harm can come to you. Yours is a special destiny Elizabeth, and your destiny is here." Elizabeth drove back "down below" feeling refreshed and more alive since her move to Southern California a month earlier. Over the next few weeks everything fell into place. Her agent arranged for her to telecommute, she only had to go "down below" for meetings once or twice a week and the rest of her work and communication could be done via fax or modem from the cabin. By early November she returned to the cabin where she was to meet with Maria and Martin to sign the lease. Liz rang up Joe to share with him the good news as soon as she was settled in, "I wish you could be here with me now....This place is magical....I swear it's magic. The old Indian woman was right. This place is perfect for me. You too my love." "Liz, you sound so much happier now that you're out of LA. I've made my reservations for January, you know. I feel like a kid, marking days on the calendar. " Joe picked up a photo of Liz he kept in a frame on his desk and touched her face. Although Joe was "headblind"-a nontelepath, the close bond of love and friendship he shared with Liz enabled him to communicate and reach out over the miles to Liz in the same ways she communicated with him. He projected his feelings for Liz into the photo as he touched her face in the image once again. I love you Liz. Over a thousand miles to the south, Liz felt a gentle touch on her face. Tears of joy fell from her eyes, and without speaking into the phone she replied in kind, reached her right hand to the north, cupping his unseen face in her hand and they shared an invisible kiss. Joe shuddered, this much intimacy at over a thousand miles distance, what would it be like when they could be together, and did he dare think it, lest Liz pick up on it, what would it be like when they could finally share the same bed? "My love, you are learning so fast." she said into the telephone, "I think it's time we took things a bit farther. Tonight at ten......" By ten that night Liz was rocking gently in the cane rocking chair in front of a briskly burning fire in the cabin's fireplace. Farther to the north Joe relaxed in his recliner. To help him focus his feelings and thoughts, he picked up Liz's photo for a moment. He cleared all other thoughts from his mind. He placed the photo back on the table and stared into the fire. What was it that she told him? Let his mind move south....that his soul would gently separate and she would meet him halfway....His breathing became slower and deeper as he watched the flames flicker. His eyes fell shut and a floating sensation overcame him. It was intoxicating mixture of feelings, his love for Liz drawing him south, exhilaration of watching his mind and body separate....connected by a silvery chord. As he looked around he realized he was naked and a feeling of joy overtook him as he glanced downward. For the first time in over twenty years his legs extended beyond where his knees used to be. In this form, his body was whole again. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up into the eyes of his beloved Liz. She too was naked, trailed by a silvery chord. "My love....." She embraced him and his arms were soon around her body. "We have so little time. Joe, my love, darling...It's up to you...We can take this moment even closer." Joe felt like he could explode with joy as his soul overflowed with love for Liz. How could this moment become any more intimate? Joe held Liz closer and tighter and he felt her arms close in around him even tighter. They joyfully merged and shared one and other. Where did Joe leave off and Liz begin? It didn't matter. They became one. They had become lovers without physically touching. Their commitment to each other was sealed although they were over a thousand miles apart. Maria and Martin would visit Liz from time to time, and feed her cat; Kelson and her large Newfoundland dog Jack when she would have to spend more than a day "down below". "Healers are healers, it doesn't matter how we do our work, does it?" asked Martin. "I guess I'm very ignorant, but I thought a healer in the context of a folk culture meant one who chanted, burned scented wood, and used herbs." Maria broke out laughing, "We do that too. We take the best from all worlds. We also reach out beyond the physical and draw out the hurt in one's soul...." "Telepaths." muttered Liz to no one in particular. "We are the first you've met since your Ian died so many years ago, right?" Maria took her hand for a moment. Liz gave a startled look at Maria, "Yes...I didn't know I was projecting so loudly...." Liz remembered the dream she and Ian and Joe shared and how it came so close to coming true. She blinked back tears as she recalled the horrible night near Medford, Oregon when the drunk driver slammed his truck in the car she, Ian and Joe were riding in. Swallowing hard, she shoved the old dream turned nightmare into a dark corner of her memory. Tears began to flood her eyes. Maria still had her hand lightly touching hers. Liz pulled her hand away, not wanting to share the old pain that returned to haunt an otherwise pleasant afternoon with friends. "I'm sorry, I won't pry." said Maria a bit sheepishly. Liz gazed at Maria, formed the question carefully, blocking her apprehension over what she might hear and then spoke. "When I first met you and Martin you said I had a special destiny. What do you mean?" Martin rested his hand on hers and replied with his own question. "What do you remember about your great-grandmother?" A rush of memory overwhelmed her. She was twelve years old again and sitting next to her dying great-grandmother. She could feel the emotions of everyone in the house. The grief, the sadness, everybody's feeling of impending death and loss was too much for Liz. She wanted to shut it all out and be alone with her own grief and sadness. With a weak voice the old woman asked everyone to leave her room. Everyone but young Liz was to leave. A younger woman protested,"Mother! You can't expect Liz to stay here with you! You'll just fill her head with your foolishness. " She turned to Liz, "Come here. Let your great -grandmother rest." "But grandma! She wants me to stay. I want to stay!" Liz protested to her grandmother. "Elizabeth will stay with me." The old woman's voice was wispy but there was an authority and strength in it. She took Liz's hand and held it tight. "We won't be long." The younger woman knew her mother had won. The grandmother left Liz and her great-grandmother alone. "And shut the door Martha!" Dutifully Martha obeyed her mother's orders and shut the door behind her. "Move the chair closer to me and sit down child. I have so much to tell you and my time is almost over......" Liz quickly moved the chair next to her great-grandmother's bed and sat down. Her great-grandmother took her hand once more and this time Liz felt a warm glowing sensation pass from the old woman into her. "Liz, my dear little one, you look so much like your mother, yet you are so different from all of us. You have the gifts, so much stronger than I could have imagined. I must tell you about your mother....." "I know, my mother died when I was born." Liz felt her great- grandmother's sadness. "There is so much more you don't know. Even I don't know all that happened. What I know, you must know. Before you were born your mother became very sick and had to go to the hospital. You almost died inside her womb. Your mother prayed. She prayed to the saints, the gods of our Lakota ancestors, and the gods of the Northern Houses. I was there. I saw them in my vision." Liz could see her great-grandmother's memory as if it was her own. The images flowed through the old woman into her through the old woman's tight grasp on Liz's hand. Liz gasped as she saw her own mother lying weak and sick in the sterile hospital room. "There were other entities there as she prayed. An entity stronger than the others nodded in agreement that the child within my granddaughter had to live. But the other's feared the child was beyond even their intervention. The stranger said he could save the unborn child. But there would be a price. The child would one day become one of his." The old woman stopped for a moment and gazed deep into her great-granddaughter's eyes. Her grip on Liz's hand grew stronger. "Your mother agreed to the price . Yours would not be an ordinary destiny. " Liz stared at her great-grandmother and understood just what price her mother had paid. Liz began to cry. She understood the price her mother had paid to give her life. "Yes Liz, she died giving you life." The old woman was weeping by now. "And she gave you all her gifts in her dying moments. You have within you her gifts as well as yours." "Is that my special destiny, great-grand mother?" "No, my dear little one, your destiny is special, but I cannot even pretend to know. I don't know. But your gifts, your mother's gifts, and mine will serve you well......in what ever your destiny is to be. " "I don't understand. You've always known things. What about your vision?" "There will be one from the Northern House of Leot's son, the Brown Warrior, of Sky and Man.....He will show you your destiny." Liz was puzzled. Her great-grandmother had suddenly spoken in a riddle. a riddle that left her hurt and confused. "What does that mean?" The old woman smiled and squeezed her hand even harder. The warm glowing feeling grew stronger and Liz felt an electrical jolt. "My gifts are yours. See with my eyes my child." In front of her eyes Liz saw the wild prairie of the Dakotas unfold. She could smell the tall grasses blooming in springtime, and she could feel warm damp earth under her feet.....and stars overhead twinkled down to earth unimpeded by smog or city lights, a coyote cried and insects sang. A family gathered around a newly completed barn. She felt her great-grandmother's youthful joy at this gathering. Liz saw faces she had only known from old faded photographs.....The Willett brothers, their MacWhorter cousins, all alive and vibrant, laughing, singing, celebrating. Liz felt like an intruder on this century old memory. Yet she watched with fascination. One of those fair haired MacWhorter boys would grow up to become her very own great- grandfather. Her great-grandmother's memories were becoming her own. Soon Liz felt as if she were falling and taking the precious memories with her. The vise like grasp on her hand weakened and let go. The pictures faded from her vision. She returned to her great-grand mother's room. The old woman lay very still in her bed, a wistful smile on her face. Liz leaned over the old woman and listened. Liz heard and felt calm. The old woman was gone. Liz returned to the present, to her cottage high in the Tehachapi Mountains. She found herself alone, her face wet with tears. Looking around, she realized her guests were gone. Liz found a note on the coffee table, under a vase filled with wildflowers, a vase that wasn't there earlier that afternoon. She reached down for the note and read it: "You are closer to understanding your destiny. Your great-grandmother was a wonderful, wise woman. Your gifts will serve you well. They already do." It was signed by Martin and Maria. --========================_11459090==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" *************************************************** * John and/or Lydia - Can there be only one? * * sundari@halcyon.com * *************************************************** --========================_11459090==_-- =========================================================================