Saturday morning, Jackie and Rose got up early once again and rode up to Northern Horizons.
"Mummy, are you okay?" Rose asked before Jackie prepared to go inside to get Christine.
"Of course I am, sweetheart," Jackie answered. "It's just that it's going to take some time for me to get used to all this."
"You mean my powers?"
"Yes. It's not like I can ask any professional out there for advice, or go around telling what few friends I have left for support," Jackie replied, sounding as if she was talking more to herself than to her daughter.
But Rose fully understood what she meant. She would never be able to tell someone like Hannah Lewis or Mia anything about her powers. John Smith had always strongly demanded that her powers remain a secret, and she had no doubt that if he knew what was going on now, that he would…
Your mother's right, Rose, came his voice just as she was thinking about this. It's never certain whom you can trust on such matters, even if such people appear to be so understanding and accepting. On some occasions, those who appear to be the most supportive of you are the first to reject you when they find out there's something different about you.
Rose turned to see if her mother was still there, and noticed that she had left. That was good. Seeing how stressed she'd appeared since yesterday, it was probably better if she didn't get caught in a conversation with John Smith.
Do you know what happened yesterday, John Smith? Rose asked curiously.
Well, I was slightly aware of the more interesting bits of your appointment with Harry Sullivan. Glad to see that the old chap has been doing something useful over the last couple of years, although there's really no way he could have done it all without my influence, or that of Sarah's, for that matter. He was certainly amusing company, and very kind and loyal towards me and Sarah, but he was a little thoughtless sometimes.
I don't think Dr. Sullivan is thoughtless, John Smith. He seemed to understand what was going on with me when our appointment was just beginning, and he could explain things like how feelings affect our health pretty well. But he did get so excited when I talked about you that he seemed to forget about everything else he had to do to test my powers, and he just started asking me questions about you to see how much I knew.
That's Harry, all right. Show him something amazing, and he'll babble on about it for ages, which was literally the case during his first trip in the TARDIS after being so astonished over discovering a time machine that he decided to test out the gear in the console room, resulting in us landing in an ark full of frozen humans some million years into the future. Although when he did take things seriously, he was capable of making major breakthroughs, or at least being a useful assistant. Perhaps asking questions about you really did help him realize the full extent of your powers.
So was I reading your mind when I responded to his questions?
I was certainly recalling that nice little game of jump rope from after my third regeneration, in case you were wondering. I was also thinking back to the spunkiness of some of my old friends when you recited that long list of names, but other than that…
Rose could now see her mother walking back from the entrance, with a tired-looking Christine holding her hand.
She's back, John Smith.
All right, Rose. I'll try to keep my mental vocal cords shut and just observe how this other little psychic girl is like.
Jackie had to hold the car door open for Christine to enter, while also maintaining a hold on her hand so she wouldn't lose her balance. Rose immediately saw why when Christine was finally seated, since she leaned her head on the small pink pillow which Jackie always kept in the backseat in case Rose got tired during long car rides and kept blinking, as if she were trying to fall asleep but couldn't. Her hair was all rumpled up, and she was wearing an old Miami Beach t-shirt and blue jeans, which were both heavily wrinkled, as if she'd either slept in those clothes or didn't have time to pick anything better to wear. When her eyes were open, Rose noticed that she had heavy eyelids which she hadn't had yesterday.
"Hey, Rose," Christine managed to say in a sleep voice.
"What's wrong, Christine?" Rose asked anxiously.
Christine gave a small yawn, and then said, "I'll tell you later. Right now, I'm just… too tired,'' and then she closed her eyes again.
Jackie turned around to see them and sighed. "She was in such bad shape when I went to get her, and Dr. Sullivan looked just as bad, if not worse. He barely managed to say anything to me before I left, and it got me worried about whether he'd be able to drive to wherever it is he's headed all on his own. But when I offered him a ride, he straight out refused, insisting that all he needed was some rest before he took off."
"What about Clara?" Rose asked.
"She wasn't there anymore when I arrived. According to what Dr. Sullivan was saying, either her parents or a friend of theirs must have somehow gotten in and taken her when both he and Christine had managed to get what little sleep they got last night. He's planning on calling them later in the day, but it looked like he doubted whether he'd be able to reach them at all."
"That sounds a little weird, doesn't it, Mummy?"
"It sure does, sweetie, but somehow, it doesn't surprise me at all."
"I think I understand why." That hotel did seem like such a scary place, after all. Rose couldn't understand why her mother was so determined to get a job there. With all the scary things she had to face in the past, what made her think she could handle staying in some place like Northern Horizons?
And then, as if for once Jackie had read her daughter's mind instead of it being the other way around, she responded, "If I lost one job due to whatever strange horrors are out there, I'm not going to permit them to let me down this time around. And now that I know the full extent of your abilities, Rose, I think we'll be able to face a little scare or two if we have to. What do you say to that, love? Think you can handle a little adventure?"
"Maybe we can, if we do it together," Rose answered, hoping that they really could, but knowing that even with all her powers, she wouldn't be sure about it until it all began.
When they made it to the Marsh's place, Jackie only managed to give the two girls a wave before having to drive away. Christine, looking as if the small rest in the car had done her a lot of good, managed to get up without anyone having to help her, and followed Rose along towards the entryway.
It wasn't long before Violet Marsh showed up to greet them. Due to the much colder weather, she'd managed to switch from miniskirts to a pair of white, skintight trousers, along with a yellow sweater and brown boots. She was still wearing her nose ring, though, and Rose could see a tattoo of a heart around a bare part of her shoulder which she hadn't noticed before.
"Looks like we've got company again, Tom," Violet called out to her husband in that cheerful yet somewhat assertive tone of hers. "It's Rose and one of her friends."
"Yes, I know, Violet. Jackie rang me up about it yesterday," came Tom's voice from inside.
"Hi, Violet," Rose said. And looking towards Christine, she added, "And this is my friend, Christine Green."
"How do you do, ma'am?" Christine said in a slightly shy voice, looking as if she didn't know what to expect from these people, who lived in such a nice house yet acted quite differently from the few wealthy folks she knew back home.
Violet smiled upon hearing her. "And I'm Violet Marsh, but you can just call me Violet. It doesn't seem like you're from old Britain, is that right, sweetheart? Are you from the states?" she said as she started escorting them inside.
"I am. I'm from Florida, but my grandma was from Puerto Rico, so I'm part Hispanic as well. My full name is actually Christine Mariana Green."
"That sounds interesting," Violet responded. "About fifteen years ago, Tom and I managed to tour around both Puerto Rico and Florida along with our band. Probably one of the most beautiful places we've ever visited."
"You were in a band?" Christine asked, her interest suddenly going up.
"Yes, and we actually still are. It's called the Vagabonds and Ultraviolet. We became famous after having two top-ten hits back in the early seventies. We never made it to the top of the charts thanks to British favorites like T-Rex and Slade, nor did we get that many hits afterwards, but we're still quite well-known, and we manage to attract many fans with our concerts. Nowadays, we run our own production company, with both Tom and me having regular contact with some of the most famous artists in the world."
Tom, who'd been in the kitchen preparing breakfast a while before, came up to greet Rose and Christine in the same manner as Violet had just done. "It's so great to have everyone together during a visit for once. Violet and I don't have to work today, and all three of the kids are here now, since Maureen is home for the weekend from university, and neither Eric nor Heather had any other plans for today. Even Sarah got back from visiting her sister yesterday, so you two might want to pay her a visit later."
Christine smiled. "That sounds great, sir…"
"Just call him Tom, honey. We're not one of those bloody stiffs who insist on being called by proper titles all the time," Violet complained, meaning to sound laid-back with her response, but coming off more as annoyed, as seen by how Christine started looking uneasy once again, wondering if she'd said something wrong.
Thankfully, Tom stepped up, laughing and saying, "Go easy on her, Violet. We've traveled to the states enough to know American courtesy when we see it. Christine's just trying to make a good impression."
'You have a point, Tom," Violet agreed. Then, turning to Christine, she said, "Just ignore me, Christine. I have strong opinions, but I don't always know the right time to express them."
"That's okay. I just don't know how to act when meeting new people sometimes," Christine responded, still feeling a little embarrassed. Rose was surprised by how she was acting, since she seemed a lot more confident when she'd greeted her and her mother yesterday.
Tom then asked the girls, "Have you two had breakfast yet?"
"I only had a muffin and some tea back at the hotel," Christine replied.
"I had cereal, but I'd sure like something else," Rose answered.
"All right, then. I prepared pancakes for everyone, making sure there was enough for seven people. As you might think, I've been in the kitchen since seven o'clock making sure I got everything done." And then, turning to Violet with a sly smile, declared, "With no help from you, of course."
"Now Tom, you know I had to work on our financial documents until midnight. Otherwise, I would had to stay in the bloody office all weekend and would not have been able to spend time with you and the kids. You may have not remembered this because you'd been asleep on the couch since six o'clock, which was when I left."
"Of course. Thanks for the reminder, Vi," Tom joked, already starting to set up the table. "Can you give me a helping hand right now, though?"
"It would be my pleasure," Violet replied, and immediately began filling up a black pitcher with coffee.
"Can we help?" Rose asked.
"Go ahead, girls," Tom said cheerfully. "Although when Maureen and the others come along, you might have to settle with selecting our morning music."
Christine wanted to ask what he meant by that, but decided that it was better to just go along with their task instead of making herself seem more silly by asking pointless questions, and started getting out the silverware from drawers. To her surprise, all the dishes and kitchen equipment didn't seem so different from what her mom, who didn't always make much money, had at home. No fancy tea sets or glossy,breakable decorations appeared to be anywhere in sight.
Within a couple of seconds, she heard this telepathic message from Rose: Did you want to start talking about what happened now, Christine?
It's going to be a bit hard to explain, but I'll do it.
Okay.
Violet had now set up two plates of pancakes on the table, and motioned to the girls to excuse them from their small task. They took seats next to each other and started eating. However, unlike what they did with their breakfast at the hotel, they now ate rather slowly, taking their time to finish up because their minds were heavily occupied.
So, Christine began, When I tried going to sleep at around nine o'clock, I started hearing this awful noise coming from outside, even though the window was fully shut.
Couldn't it have just been the wind? I sometimes hear it get really scary at night, and it makes it hard to fall asleep.
I thought that was it for a while, so it didn't scare me too much at first. But after about an hour, the noise just kept getting louder and even creepier. When it started, the sound was more like a whistle, or a wolf howling. But later on, the howling continued, but there was another sound which seemed to be mingling in as well. It sounded like a person who was both screaming and crying at the same time. The louder the howling got, the louder the crying was. And then, I could hear a voice yelling for help, and it kept repeating the same two words over and over again.
And what were those two words?
I may not have heard them correctly, but it came out sounding like "dab flow".
Dab flow? Those were the two words Rose remembered seeing on the wall during the telekinetic breakdown. Did this mean that they had some bigger meaning after all? Was it some kind of warning, or from what Christine was saying, a cry for help?
Somehow, perhaps because she was recalling her own deep fear from the night before, Christine didn't seem to sense these thoughts of hers, and she went on. I tried everything to make the noise go away. I buried my head in my pillow, wrapped myself tightly with my Bugs Bunny blanket, said my prayers, and even tried closing the curtains to make the room fully dark, but none of it worked. The howls and the cries just kept going on.
Rose started shivering. Even with all the scary visions she'd had, she could never recall going through something as frightening as Christine was describing when she was in a "normal" state. From what she could sense about Christine, her abilities appeared to be limited to mind-reading, but how could she know that for sure? It wasn't every day that Rose was able to move objects just by blinking. Perhaps Christine experienced similar powers, but she just wasn't aware of it yet.
So then what happened? She asked.
I went over to wake up Harry, but it turned out that he had been awake the entire time. He told me that he'd seen me tossing and turning, but he wasn't sure if I'd been awake until he'd seen me getting up to close the curtains just a while before. He asked me if something was wrong, and I told him about how I kept hearing the wind howling so loudly that it was scaring me. He said that he could hear it too, and that it really did sound disturbing. But when I asked him if he heard all that screaming and crying, he looked confused and shook his head. He asked if it wasn't possible that I had fallen asleep and heard those noises in a nightmare, and I said no, that I'd been wide awake the entire time. I think that must have scared him a little, but he just patted my shoulder and told me in that cheerful way of his that there was probably nothing to worry about. He was used to hearing such sounds in the night, and he went on telling one of his stories about how when he was in the Navy, it was so hard to sleep sometimes because you not only heard the strong winds, but also the constant crashing of the waves. That problem, he said, could easily be solved by having a good pair of earplugs, and then he handed me the exact same ones he said had belonged to him back in the Navy and in some of the adventures he'd had afterwards. If I put those on, I'd be asleep the moment my head hit the pillow, he tried reassuring me.
So I put them on just as he said, and can you guess what happened?
The noise still wouldn't go away.
Worse. The moment I had placed them on both my ears, I heard the loudest scream I'd ever heard in my life. I started to panic and shake uncontrollably, but when I tried to pull off the earplugs, they stayed where they were and refused to come off. I cried to Harry for help, and it didn't take long for him to start pulling them out of my ears. Although it took a while, he finally managed to yank them out and throw them across the room. For a while, he just hugged me and let me cry. It wasn't until I'd calmed down a little that he asked me what happened, and when I told him, he seemed so determined to see for himself what was going on. Despite how much I begged him not to do it, he placed the earplugs around his own ears. I think you can guess what happened next.
Now she had really managed to frighten Rose. She could almost hear for herself the terrifying screams which had come from the earplugs, and she looked away from Christine for a while in an attempt to settle her own fear.
Should I stop now, Rose? You look like you're getting too scared, Christine asked with concern.
No, go on. Was it as bad for Dr. Sullivan as it was for you?
He fell unto the bed, and his body was shaking for a while. However, he was able to pull off the earplugs without any help from me. After that, he just sat there looking really scared. Then, he went downstairs to buy this herbal tea which was supposed to help you fall asleep. We both drank some of it, and then he let me put my head in his lap for a while and wrapped me up in my blanket, saying that he would stay beside me until I fell asleep, because he didn't think he'd be capable of dozing off for even a second after that scare we'd both had. I think we stayed like that almost all night.
Mummy said Clara was gone in the morning. Do you have any idea what happened?
I don't know. It must have happened during the time when Harry and I finally got some sleep, because when we woke up, Harry found a note by the bed saying that Clara was being brought home and that we didn't have to worry about her being gone because she was a lot safer now. Harry says the only clue he had as to what might have happened was that when he went downstairs, he saw a woman dressed in black and white sitting in the lobby, looking at him rather curiously. She asked if he had two girls staying with him in the hotel, and he said he did and then asked her how she knew that. She just looked at him strangely for a while, but then she said…
But before Christine could go on, they were interrupted when Tom, who had been watching quietly them for a while, asked, "Rose? Christine? Are you guys okay? You were both looking a little pale and still for a while."
"We're okay," Rose answered. "We're just a little tired." But she could already tell that Tom was starting to suspect something.
Tom nodded rather hesitantly, but then walked up to Violet with as much concern as before.
"What's going on, Tom?" Violet asked, noticing the worried look on her husband's face.
"It's the girls, Violet," Tom whispered back, not wanting the girls to hear too much. "When I walked in on them, they were staring at each other and looking very scared and pale. It looked as if they were communicating in some manner without using words.
Violet frowned, thinking about it, and then said, "Is it similar to what goes on when Sarah gets…"
"Yeah," Tom replied. "It's almost exactly similar to the way Sarah would sometimes communicate with her grandmother: having full conversations just by looking at each other, not once having to open their mouths."
"Oh, God," Violet said, shaking her head. "Do you think that might be the reason why Sarah has been seeing Rose, because she might be trying to do something to help her deal with her powers while she's still young?"
"It could be. Remember how she was always describing the way her grandmother had trained her on the correct use of ESP ever since she was young? I think she might have formed that connection of the mind with Rose when she first met her, and that she's now trying to take on the role of mentoring her, just as her grandmother had been all those years ago."
"Did Jackie Tyler tell you anything about it?"
"No. She was awfully distressed the first time I met her, so if she has any idea about it, I don't think she has been able to handle it on her own. That must be why Sarah decided to start helping her out."
"Do you think we should go over to her place and tell her?" Violet asked.
"Perhaps, but maybe we should let them be for a while. Sarah has always said that when two psychics are able to communicate telepathically and one of them isn't in one of those strange states, then it's usually a sign that they're doing well. If something does go wrong later on while they're with us, we'll let her know."
When they looked out the window though, there they saw Sarah Jane walking alongside Maureen, who was dressed in the hippie style that was such a signature part of her parents' style of dress when they were young musicians, with a dark peasant blouse and a brown ruffled skirt, and her strawberry blond hair cut into a bob, and Heather, who was simply wearing an oversized rock t-shirt and baggy grey sweatpants. As always, they were fully at ease with her, feeling free to talk with her over anything they wanted and making attempts (which were usually politely rejected by Sarah) to allow them to participate in one of her assignments. Maureen, who was studying Philosophy ( which had Tom's favorite subject next to music) in university, especially liked asking her for help with some of the many essays she had to write for class, something which Sarah never hesitated to do. Even though they didn't know about her psychic abilities, they understood that she had some sort of knowledge that other people lacked. Maureen believed it to be a strong intrapersonal intelligence, while Heather saw it as a high level of cleverness.
"There's Mum and Dad, Sarah," Maureen finally pointed out. "They're quite busy with the girls staying over."
"The girls?" Sarah asked with surprise. "Isn't it usually Rose and Mickey?"
"Not this time," Heather chimed in. "Apparently, Rose made a new friend not so long ago. Dad said that she's visiting England along with her tutor, although he didn't tell us where she was from."
"Well, I've always been good with welcoming in visitors to England," Sarah said with a smile. "Had a lot of experience with it at one point, as a matter of fact. Perhaps we should go in and see who it is?"
"Of course," Maureen agreed. "The more hospitable we are towards her, the more likely she'll be willing to come back someday."
"And the more friends Rose is able to find, the better," Heather pointed out, who still got really angry and sad when recalling what the kids in Rose's class had done to her on her birthday.
"That is certainly true," Sarah responded, and the three of them went inside the house. And to her surprise, Tom and Violet had not eagerly come up to her as they usually did. Whenever this happened, it was usually a sign that the two were either in some sort of trouble themselves or were trying to handle a troubling situation all on their own, usually with mixed results.
But when she walked into the dining room, she immediately understood what was going on. There she saw Rose seated very still, and looking into the eyes of a curvy, curly haired girl who looked a little older than she was. Not a word passed between them, yet there was this expression on both of their faces which showed that they were in deep thought, trying to communicate in a manner Sarah Jane had been familiar with throughout her whole life, and which she'd done with Rose not so long ago.
"What's going on, Sarah?" Heather asked, interrupting her thoughts.
And that was when Rose finally turned around and noticed who was by her side. The other girl looked up at the same time, giving Sarah Jane a curious glance, as if she was trying to make out who she probably was. Rose, however, immediately looked startled and said aloud, "Sarah Jane, when did you get here?"
And at the same time, she heard a very familiar, eccentric voice from her mind, saying rather cheerfully, Three psychic minds gathered together at the same place? We're certainly having a field day today, don't you think so, Rose?
I'm glad to say that I'm now on summer vacation, so I'll have a lot more time to update this story. You can now expect an update every week or two, depending on how my schedule is going. I also posted "Of Time and the Mind" a couple of weeks ago, so feel free to check that story out whenever you feel like. I'm planning on posting a story on Clara sometime next month, as well one for Amy if I have time. How often I'll update these stories has yet to be determined.
Thanks for the reviews and follows, and please continue on reading as we approach summer!
