Paige had been spending every day for the past couple of weeks with Mindy.
They would spend about two hours together, and just as it started to get
dark, Paige would walk the little girl home and wait to make sure she got
in all right. Over that time, Paige had learned a lot more about the girl.
Her last name was Carrington and she was in the fourth grade even though
she had just turned nine. When Paige pointed out the discrepancy between
Mindy's grade in school and her age, Mindy had giggled and explained that
she had skipped first grade. Paige figured that her being so young
contributed to the kids picking on her at school.
One thing that amazed Paige was how mature the little girl was. They spent much of their time just talking, and Paige never once felt like she was talking to a nine-year-old. She could easily have the same conversations she had with Mindy with a teenager. The girl had a wisdom in her eyes that went well beyond her years. Perhaps the combination of the little girl being so smart and her having to be so independent at home had caused her to grow up a lot faster than her peers. But out of everything Paige had learned, the one thing she couldn't figure out was what she was hiding. Try as she might, she couldn't get Mindy to talk about her secret.
"Okay, stick your hands out, palms down," Mindy instructed. She and Paige were settled under the same tree she had been leaning against the first day they met. As Paige did as she was told, Mindy grinned and placed her hands under Paige's. "Do you know this game?"
Paige nodded. "When I feel your hands move, I pull mine back. If you hit the back of my hand, you win." She giggled at the look on Mindy's face. Clearly, she hadn't been expecting Paige to know how to play. "I used to play this game when I was your age."
Just as they were starting, the same little boy that had teased Mindy before ran past them. He stopped and started laughing. "Ooh, look, Mindy's got a real friend! What'll happen when she finds out about the imaginary ones?" He ran off, still laughing.
Paige winced as Mindy pulled her hands away from Paige's and wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging her knees to her chest. She looked ashamed, scared, and embarrassed all at once. Jumping up, Paige ran over to the little boy. "You think that's funny? I bet you wouldn't think it was funny if all the other kids were making fun of you and throwing things at you all the time, would you?" The boy whirled around and gulped, almost as if he had just realized that he had said what he did in front of an adult. "I bet you wouldn't like to be in trouble with your parents, either, huh?" He quickly shook his head. "So, how about we make a deal. You leave her alone, and I won't tell your parents how you've been treating her, okay?"
He nodded and quickly ran off to join his friends. Paige started walking back to Mindy, snickering. She was always amazed at how seriously kids that age took the threat of going to their parents. As she sat down in front of Mindy again, the little girl looked up at her with a surprised expression. "No one's ever stood up for me before."
Paige gave the girl a kind smile and tousled her hair. "I don't know why not. You're very much worth standing up for. But I don't think I stopped him completely. I just don't think he'll bother you when you're with me." She held her hands out for another game and shifted uncomfortably. She wanted to ask Mindy what that boy had meant about the imaginary friends, but she wasn't sure if the little girl was ready to go into it. It seemed consistent with what Paige had observed when they first met, and she was just concerned about the girl. "Mindy, can I ask you something?"
"You want to know what he meant about the imaginary friends, don't you." It was more of a statement than a question. Mindy dropped her hands to her lap and averted her eyes.
"Yes, sweetie, I do." She crawled forward and settled next to Mindy, wrapping her arm lightly around the little girl's shoulders. "Maybe I can help."
"You won't believe me," she said, shaking her head.
"Yes, I will," Paige assured her. "There's not a lot I don't believe."
Mindy looked up at Paige with tears in her eyes, searching her face that signs that she was only trying to humor her. Once satisfied that Paige was sincere in her concern, she sighed, closing her eyes. "I can see things."
Paige wrinkled her brow. "What kinds of things?"
"Things other people can't." She shook her head, choking up. "Forget it. I shouldn't be telling you this. You'll just think I'm crazy like everyone else does."
"Oh, sweetie, no, I won't." Mindy just shook her head again. Paige sighed, trying think of something that would get Mindy to open up. After a moment, her eyes lit up. She couldn't, could she? Piper would kill her if she ever found out, but she didn't know what else to do. She took a deep breath before she spoke up, hoping that when push came to shove, Piper would understand. "Guess what. I have a secret, too. I can do something that other people can't."
Mindy gazed at Paige warily. "What can you do?"
"Well, we'll do a trade-off. I'll show you what I can do if you tell me what you can see."
The little girl hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Okay. You first."
Paige sat in front of Mindy once again and gazed from side to side, making sure there was no one watching them. Then she spotted a small pebble nestled in the grass between her and Mindy. "Okay, watch that rock." She opened her hand and quietly called for the rock. The stone disappeared in a flurry of little blue lights and quickly reappeared in her hand in the same manner. Then, she looked over at Mindy, trying to gauge her reaction.
Mindy's jaw dropped open in surprise. "How did you do that?"
"I have a special gift," Paige answered with a gentle smile. "Now it's your turn."
Mindy hesitated again. She really didn't want to tell Paige, simply because she didn't want to lose Paige's friendship. Her secret didn't really lend itself to keeping friends. But now that Paige had showed her her own special secret, she figured she had to hold up her part of the deal. "I can see ghosts. They're all over the place. I can talk to them, too. That's usually what I do with them, just talk, just like you and I do."
"And the kids at school know about them?"
"Kind of." Mindy lowered her voice as two older people walked past them. "When I was little, I didn't know that I was the only one who could see them. I would talk to them at recess and everything. The kids started making fun of me because since I'm younger than them, it looked like I was talking to myself, like I still had imaginary friends."
Paige smiled sympathetically. "What do you talk with them about?"
"Everything," Mindy said with a shrug. "What their life was like, what they liked, what they didn't like, what their family was like. Basically, I just keep them company until the light comes back for them."
"What light?" Paige asked, feeling herself getting more intrigued with each passing moment.
Mindy sighed again, obviously searching for an easy way to explain it. "Well, when you die, there's a really bright light and you're supposed to go into it. Some people don't, though, and they become ghosts. They have to wait here until the light comes back."
"How long does it take?"
"Depends on how long it takes the person to accept that they're dead. The light doesn't come back until the person is ready to go into it, when they can accept what happened to them. Sometimes, if they're really stubborn, I try to help them accept it."
"Why?"
"The light brings them peace," she said with another shrug.
Paige smiled and gripped the girl's hands comfortingly. "Is that who you were talking to when I first met you?"
Mindy nodded. "It's a woman who died about a year ago. I tried to get her to go into the light, but she says she's happy staying here and protecting me. She likes to look out for me. She's the one who told me it was okay to go with you."
"How'd she know?" Paige asked. She didn't know all that much about ghosts, and what she knew may not have been accurate. The ghosts she had encountered were vengeful and evil, not kind and gentle like the ghosts Mindy saw.
"I don't know. Hey, you really do believe me!" She grinned up at Paige, a combination of surprise and relief on her face.
"Yes, I do," Paige smiled. "And after I talk it over with my sisters, we might be able to find a way to help you."
"Thank you, Paige." She leaned forward and gave Paige a tight hug. "Thank you for everything."
After a quick moment or surprise, Paige returned the embrace. "You're welcome, sweetheart."
Mindy pulled away, grinning, and held her hands out, palms up, indicating that she was ready to play. Paige smiled and put her hands on top of Mindy's, trying to figure out how best to bring up Mindy's power with Piper and Phoebe.
**********
"So, what, you don't believe me?" Paige asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Piper cringed. Even though Paige sounded angry, Piper could tell that she was hurt. She glanced at Phoebe, asking her silently what she should say. Phoebe just shrugged and shook her head slightly. "Honey, it's not that we don't believe you--" Piper started.
"It's that you don't believe her," Paige said, cutting her off. "You guys, she's not lying to me. I've become pretty good at being able to tell when kids are lying, and I don't think she's making this up."
"Paige, witches can see ghosts," Phoebe said, calmly trying to explain. "If Mindy was really talking to ghosts, we would have been able to see them, too. It wouldn't have looked to you like she was talking to herself because you would have been able to see the ghost."
"Well, maybe we only see the bad ones," Paige argued, sitting down at the kitchen table, "or maybe we only see the ones we're meant to see. If she was really making all this up, how would she know so much about the light?"
Piper sat down at the table with her sister, wrinkling her brow. "What light?"
Paige recounted what Mindy had told her about the light. "And call me crazy," she said when she was finished, "but I don't think they teach that kind of spirituality in the fourth grade."
Phoebe sighed, sitting down as well. She had to admit, Paige had a point. How could Mindy possibly know about all that? Phoebe herself hadn't even been aware of some of those details. There were two options: either the girl really did see the ghosts or she was taking bits and pieces from movies and stories and making up her own theories, including everything about the light. "Maybe she just has a fertile imagination--"
"I told you, she's not making this up!" Paige exclaimed. She ran her hand over her face in sheer frustration. "You know what?" she said a little more quietly. "Just forget it. Forget I said anything."
As Paige went to stand up and leave the room, Piper grabbed her hand. "Paige, wait. There's an easy way to see if you're on the right track. Let's ask Leo. He'll be able to tell you if what Mindy told you is true, okay?" Paige nodded, let out her breath, and smiled slightly. "Leo!" Piper called, her eyes aimed at the ceiling. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the familiar blue lights of her husband orbing in fall from the ceiling. After a moment, the lights collected and disappeared, leaving Leo in their place. "Hi, honey."
He grinned and leaned in to Piper, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. "Hi. Not that I don't appreciate the chance to give you a kiss, but I was kind of in the middle of something with another charge."
"This'll only take a minute," Phoebe promised. "We just want to ask, is it possible for a little kid to be able to see and talk to ghosts or is that just something out of The Sixth Sense?"
"No, it's possible," he answered, his eyes darting from one sister to another. "Why?"
"What about a little girl who talks to them to keep them company?" Piper asked.
"That's very rare." He leaned back against the center island, preparing to do quite a bit of explaining. "They're called Counselors, and they're basically clairvoyants with a kick. Their job is to help the ghosts come to terms with their fate--"
"So the light comes back for them," Paige said quietly.
"Right," Leo said with a nod, slightly amazed that Paige knew that. "Their redemption is in that light and their souls will never be at peace without going into it. The Counselors essentially lead the way to salvation."
"Is this power passed down through the bloodline?" Piper asked. She was intrigued by the entire concept of the Counselors and even more excited at the possibility of a nine-year-old girl being the one to lead people to their redemption.
"The clairvoyance is, but what separates a Counselor from a regular clairvoyant is a certain personality type. That's why it's so rare. A Counselor is generally very mature, very intelligent, not easily frightened, and rather independent."
"That's Mindy to a T!" Paige exclaimed.
"Mindy, the little girl you met a couple weeks ago?" Leo asked.
Paige nodded with a large smile. Piper grinned at her sister's excitement, knowing full well that part of what was making Paige so happy was a sense of vindication. Leo had just proved to them that Paige knew what she was talking about after all. "Looks like you were right, Paige," she said, smiling.
"I'm sorry," Phoebe said. "I just--"
"Don't worry about it, Phoebe," Paige said, shrugging. "You just wanted to make sure we knew what we were dealing with." She stood up and poured herself a glass of water. "Oh, I can't wait to talk to her tomorrow! I'm going to tell her everything I know, and I'm going to help her see that her powers make her special in a good way, not just a way that makes the kids make fun of her."
Piper giggled, smiling at Paige's enthusiasm. "She certainly is lucky that you became her friend, Paige. You do whatever you have to do to help her."
Paige turned around, set her glass on the counter, and looked at Piper in surprise. "You really mean that?"
She stood up and walked over to Paige, putting her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Yeah, I do."
Paige smiled, touched that Piper was giving her so much freedom to handle this on her own. "Thank you," she said softly.
"You're very welcome," Piper answered, just as softly. She gave her sister a smile. Paige blushed, grabbed her water, and sat back down at the table, sipping from the glass. Piper took a deep breath and let it out slowly, happy that she had made Paige so confident. Let's just hope that Paige can make Mindy that confident, she thought as she joined her sisters at the table.
One thing that amazed Paige was how mature the little girl was. They spent much of their time just talking, and Paige never once felt like she was talking to a nine-year-old. She could easily have the same conversations she had with Mindy with a teenager. The girl had a wisdom in her eyes that went well beyond her years. Perhaps the combination of the little girl being so smart and her having to be so independent at home had caused her to grow up a lot faster than her peers. But out of everything Paige had learned, the one thing she couldn't figure out was what she was hiding. Try as she might, she couldn't get Mindy to talk about her secret.
"Okay, stick your hands out, palms down," Mindy instructed. She and Paige were settled under the same tree she had been leaning against the first day they met. As Paige did as she was told, Mindy grinned and placed her hands under Paige's. "Do you know this game?"
Paige nodded. "When I feel your hands move, I pull mine back. If you hit the back of my hand, you win." She giggled at the look on Mindy's face. Clearly, she hadn't been expecting Paige to know how to play. "I used to play this game when I was your age."
Just as they were starting, the same little boy that had teased Mindy before ran past them. He stopped and started laughing. "Ooh, look, Mindy's got a real friend! What'll happen when she finds out about the imaginary ones?" He ran off, still laughing.
Paige winced as Mindy pulled her hands away from Paige's and wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging her knees to her chest. She looked ashamed, scared, and embarrassed all at once. Jumping up, Paige ran over to the little boy. "You think that's funny? I bet you wouldn't think it was funny if all the other kids were making fun of you and throwing things at you all the time, would you?" The boy whirled around and gulped, almost as if he had just realized that he had said what he did in front of an adult. "I bet you wouldn't like to be in trouble with your parents, either, huh?" He quickly shook his head. "So, how about we make a deal. You leave her alone, and I won't tell your parents how you've been treating her, okay?"
He nodded and quickly ran off to join his friends. Paige started walking back to Mindy, snickering. She was always amazed at how seriously kids that age took the threat of going to their parents. As she sat down in front of Mindy again, the little girl looked up at her with a surprised expression. "No one's ever stood up for me before."
Paige gave the girl a kind smile and tousled her hair. "I don't know why not. You're very much worth standing up for. But I don't think I stopped him completely. I just don't think he'll bother you when you're with me." She held her hands out for another game and shifted uncomfortably. She wanted to ask Mindy what that boy had meant about the imaginary friends, but she wasn't sure if the little girl was ready to go into it. It seemed consistent with what Paige had observed when they first met, and she was just concerned about the girl. "Mindy, can I ask you something?"
"You want to know what he meant about the imaginary friends, don't you." It was more of a statement than a question. Mindy dropped her hands to her lap and averted her eyes.
"Yes, sweetie, I do." She crawled forward and settled next to Mindy, wrapping her arm lightly around the little girl's shoulders. "Maybe I can help."
"You won't believe me," she said, shaking her head.
"Yes, I will," Paige assured her. "There's not a lot I don't believe."
Mindy looked up at Paige with tears in her eyes, searching her face that signs that she was only trying to humor her. Once satisfied that Paige was sincere in her concern, she sighed, closing her eyes. "I can see things."
Paige wrinkled her brow. "What kinds of things?"
"Things other people can't." She shook her head, choking up. "Forget it. I shouldn't be telling you this. You'll just think I'm crazy like everyone else does."
"Oh, sweetie, no, I won't." Mindy just shook her head again. Paige sighed, trying think of something that would get Mindy to open up. After a moment, her eyes lit up. She couldn't, could she? Piper would kill her if she ever found out, but she didn't know what else to do. She took a deep breath before she spoke up, hoping that when push came to shove, Piper would understand. "Guess what. I have a secret, too. I can do something that other people can't."
Mindy gazed at Paige warily. "What can you do?"
"Well, we'll do a trade-off. I'll show you what I can do if you tell me what you can see."
The little girl hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Okay. You first."
Paige sat in front of Mindy once again and gazed from side to side, making sure there was no one watching them. Then she spotted a small pebble nestled in the grass between her and Mindy. "Okay, watch that rock." She opened her hand and quietly called for the rock. The stone disappeared in a flurry of little blue lights and quickly reappeared in her hand in the same manner. Then, she looked over at Mindy, trying to gauge her reaction.
Mindy's jaw dropped open in surprise. "How did you do that?"
"I have a special gift," Paige answered with a gentle smile. "Now it's your turn."
Mindy hesitated again. She really didn't want to tell Paige, simply because she didn't want to lose Paige's friendship. Her secret didn't really lend itself to keeping friends. But now that Paige had showed her her own special secret, she figured she had to hold up her part of the deal. "I can see ghosts. They're all over the place. I can talk to them, too. That's usually what I do with them, just talk, just like you and I do."
"And the kids at school know about them?"
"Kind of." Mindy lowered her voice as two older people walked past them. "When I was little, I didn't know that I was the only one who could see them. I would talk to them at recess and everything. The kids started making fun of me because since I'm younger than them, it looked like I was talking to myself, like I still had imaginary friends."
Paige smiled sympathetically. "What do you talk with them about?"
"Everything," Mindy said with a shrug. "What their life was like, what they liked, what they didn't like, what their family was like. Basically, I just keep them company until the light comes back for them."
"What light?" Paige asked, feeling herself getting more intrigued with each passing moment.
Mindy sighed again, obviously searching for an easy way to explain it. "Well, when you die, there's a really bright light and you're supposed to go into it. Some people don't, though, and they become ghosts. They have to wait here until the light comes back."
"How long does it take?"
"Depends on how long it takes the person to accept that they're dead. The light doesn't come back until the person is ready to go into it, when they can accept what happened to them. Sometimes, if they're really stubborn, I try to help them accept it."
"Why?"
"The light brings them peace," she said with another shrug.
Paige smiled and gripped the girl's hands comfortingly. "Is that who you were talking to when I first met you?"
Mindy nodded. "It's a woman who died about a year ago. I tried to get her to go into the light, but she says she's happy staying here and protecting me. She likes to look out for me. She's the one who told me it was okay to go with you."
"How'd she know?" Paige asked. She didn't know all that much about ghosts, and what she knew may not have been accurate. The ghosts she had encountered were vengeful and evil, not kind and gentle like the ghosts Mindy saw.
"I don't know. Hey, you really do believe me!" She grinned up at Paige, a combination of surprise and relief on her face.
"Yes, I do," Paige smiled. "And after I talk it over with my sisters, we might be able to find a way to help you."
"Thank you, Paige." She leaned forward and gave Paige a tight hug. "Thank you for everything."
After a quick moment or surprise, Paige returned the embrace. "You're welcome, sweetheart."
Mindy pulled away, grinning, and held her hands out, palms up, indicating that she was ready to play. Paige smiled and put her hands on top of Mindy's, trying to figure out how best to bring up Mindy's power with Piper and Phoebe.
**********
"So, what, you don't believe me?" Paige asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Piper cringed. Even though Paige sounded angry, Piper could tell that she was hurt. She glanced at Phoebe, asking her silently what she should say. Phoebe just shrugged and shook her head slightly. "Honey, it's not that we don't believe you--" Piper started.
"It's that you don't believe her," Paige said, cutting her off. "You guys, she's not lying to me. I've become pretty good at being able to tell when kids are lying, and I don't think she's making this up."
"Paige, witches can see ghosts," Phoebe said, calmly trying to explain. "If Mindy was really talking to ghosts, we would have been able to see them, too. It wouldn't have looked to you like she was talking to herself because you would have been able to see the ghost."
"Well, maybe we only see the bad ones," Paige argued, sitting down at the kitchen table, "or maybe we only see the ones we're meant to see. If she was really making all this up, how would she know so much about the light?"
Piper sat down at the table with her sister, wrinkling her brow. "What light?"
Paige recounted what Mindy had told her about the light. "And call me crazy," she said when she was finished, "but I don't think they teach that kind of spirituality in the fourth grade."
Phoebe sighed, sitting down as well. She had to admit, Paige had a point. How could Mindy possibly know about all that? Phoebe herself hadn't even been aware of some of those details. There were two options: either the girl really did see the ghosts or she was taking bits and pieces from movies and stories and making up her own theories, including everything about the light. "Maybe she just has a fertile imagination--"
"I told you, she's not making this up!" Paige exclaimed. She ran her hand over her face in sheer frustration. "You know what?" she said a little more quietly. "Just forget it. Forget I said anything."
As Paige went to stand up and leave the room, Piper grabbed her hand. "Paige, wait. There's an easy way to see if you're on the right track. Let's ask Leo. He'll be able to tell you if what Mindy told you is true, okay?" Paige nodded, let out her breath, and smiled slightly. "Leo!" Piper called, her eyes aimed at the ceiling. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the familiar blue lights of her husband orbing in fall from the ceiling. After a moment, the lights collected and disappeared, leaving Leo in their place. "Hi, honey."
He grinned and leaned in to Piper, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. "Hi. Not that I don't appreciate the chance to give you a kiss, but I was kind of in the middle of something with another charge."
"This'll only take a minute," Phoebe promised. "We just want to ask, is it possible for a little kid to be able to see and talk to ghosts or is that just something out of The Sixth Sense?"
"No, it's possible," he answered, his eyes darting from one sister to another. "Why?"
"What about a little girl who talks to them to keep them company?" Piper asked.
"That's very rare." He leaned back against the center island, preparing to do quite a bit of explaining. "They're called Counselors, and they're basically clairvoyants with a kick. Their job is to help the ghosts come to terms with their fate--"
"So the light comes back for them," Paige said quietly.
"Right," Leo said with a nod, slightly amazed that Paige knew that. "Their redemption is in that light and their souls will never be at peace without going into it. The Counselors essentially lead the way to salvation."
"Is this power passed down through the bloodline?" Piper asked. She was intrigued by the entire concept of the Counselors and even more excited at the possibility of a nine-year-old girl being the one to lead people to their redemption.
"The clairvoyance is, but what separates a Counselor from a regular clairvoyant is a certain personality type. That's why it's so rare. A Counselor is generally very mature, very intelligent, not easily frightened, and rather independent."
"That's Mindy to a T!" Paige exclaimed.
"Mindy, the little girl you met a couple weeks ago?" Leo asked.
Paige nodded with a large smile. Piper grinned at her sister's excitement, knowing full well that part of what was making Paige so happy was a sense of vindication. Leo had just proved to them that Paige knew what she was talking about after all. "Looks like you were right, Paige," she said, smiling.
"I'm sorry," Phoebe said. "I just--"
"Don't worry about it, Phoebe," Paige said, shrugging. "You just wanted to make sure we knew what we were dealing with." She stood up and poured herself a glass of water. "Oh, I can't wait to talk to her tomorrow! I'm going to tell her everything I know, and I'm going to help her see that her powers make her special in a good way, not just a way that makes the kids make fun of her."
Piper giggled, smiling at Paige's enthusiasm. "She certainly is lucky that you became her friend, Paige. You do whatever you have to do to help her."
Paige turned around, set her glass on the counter, and looked at Piper in surprise. "You really mean that?"
She stood up and walked over to Paige, putting her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Yeah, I do."
Paige smiled, touched that Piper was giving her so much freedom to handle this on her own. "Thank you," she said softly.
"You're very welcome," Piper answered, just as softly. She gave her sister a smile. Paige blushed, grabbed her water, and sat back down at the table, sipping from the glass. Piper took a deep breath and let it out slowly, happy that she had made Paige so confident. Let's just hope that Paige can make Mindy that confident, she thought as she joined her sisters at the table.