So Much for Smudging, PART 2

PART 2 of 3, If you have not read Part 1, please use the link below before reading.

Missed Part 1? Go Here: PART 1

As I listened to my guide speak what felt like an unexplainable truth, my hand found the pendant around my neck—the Egyptian ankh my mother-in-law had given me decades earlier. Harry had insisted we wear something for protection that day. Although I knew little about the ankh’s traditional symbolism, I had always associated mine with motherhood and all the love that comes with being a parent.

And what I was feeling in that moment required a good dose of such love.

That’s why I was here.

I knew it now.

I belonged here.

Harry began beating his drum again as we turned, strolling up the steep slope toward the back of their property. Three acres is a lot of land to cover, and without a yellow-brick road to guide me, I simply followed the team.

By this time the couple who owned the property decided to go back inside. The winds were picking up, and the clouds were growing even darker. Only the adult son remained with us.

“I feel a lot of souls here too,” Hermione confessed, confirming what I had felt minutes ago. She was looking at the trees standing about thirty yards from where we were. She turned to Ron and asked, “Do you see that dark figure on the hill over there?”

“I saw a shadow in the trees earlier, but I don’t see it now,” he confessed.

The adult son who had been walking with us overheard Hermione’s question, pulled out his cellphone, and asked, “What did the figure look like?”

“It was weird looking—it was really tall and had a bird-like head,” she replied.

“Did it look like this?” he said as he turned his cellphone around to show Hermione the picture he had drawn. “I told my mom about this dream I had, and she asked me to draw the creature I saw because she had seen the same thing in a dream too.”

“Oh my god, that’s exactly what I saw,” Hermione replied.

Harry didn’t skip a beat. “Get the tuning forks out.”

Ron reached in his pocket and pulled out a trio of very small tuning forks and began to strike them. Hermione grabbed another set and followed his lead. They walked along the edge of the trees. The high-pitched sound bounced off the trees that bordered the property and swallowed the air.

“Ohhhh, that pissed it off,” Hermione said, “it moved in that direction.” She pointed to the spot where the son had indicated earlier—the center of where it dwelled up over the hill.

As the team began to walk toward the spot, a drizzling rain ensued.

The team continued toward the hill, the beating drum and chiming forks echoed in the rain. I put on my coat and glanced back toward the center of the yard. Dumbledoris was sitting under the tree moving her hands as if she were doing Reiki in the air.    

Then I felt an extraordinary urge to stop. My feet simply would not move—not from fear, but from something I couldn't explain.

I closed my eyes.

I took a deep breath.

On the exhale, I could feel the children around me.

Without thinking, I knelt down—the way I had thousands of times as a teacher, lowering myself to meet a kindergartener at eye level.

The words came instinctively.

“It’s okay, Sweetpeas. You’re safe now.”

What I experienced next still makes no sense to my analytical mind.

With my eyes still closed, I saw a field of soft green bubbles—and somehow knew each one was a child. There were dozens of bubbles.

“If you see or sense souls, do your best to guide them to the light,” Harry had said in the van. Now, somehow, I knew exactly what I needed to do.

Find the light, kids. It’s time to go home.

The request was silent, but just then, a brilliant column of light appeared to come down from the sky.

I quickly opened my eyes.

My ego emerged. Did the sun come out?

No sun.

I closed my eyes.

The brilliant light was still there and now seemed to inhale the green bubbles around me.

And as quickly as it came, the light and the bubbles were gone.

I opened my eyes.

The clouds were still dark, the rain had picked up, and Dumbledoris was still under the maple tree.

Oh my god. What just happened?

Tears streamed down my face.

And yet, beneath the disbelief, there was a knowing.

I knew why I was there.

I looked toward the hill.

It was time to join the others.

Because the team needed me too.

To be continued…

The finale—Part 3 PART 3 CLICK HERE