ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine April 2015 | Page 24

life. He had a beautiful wife, Lilly. She had the
blackest hair I’ve ever seen. They were a handsome
couple and their children.” She paused for a moment.
“If this is too difficult, we don’t have to continue.”
Her lips curled into a slight smile and she went on.
“It’s been nearly twenty one years a go. Where was I?
Oh yeah. They had the most adorable children and
their little girl, she was rescued. Somehow the storm
had spared her life, such a little thing. Her brown
ringlets stuck to her face and she cried. A stranger had
found her and picked her up from the rubbage. I held
her in my arms and brought her to the medics. It was
amazing she hadn’t a scratch on her and was in
perfect
health,
with
the
exception
of
undernourishment, but a few good meals took care of
that. Her aunt and uncle collected her and I haven’t
seen her since.”
“That’s a beautiful story. Do you remember the
young girl’s name?”
“I’ll never be able to forget it, Eilida, Eilida Tate.”
Goosebumps shot across my body and my heartbeat
quickened. Is Eilida Riley Eilida Tate?
She placed her elbows on the table and leaned her
torso forward in my direction. “Sweetie, I’ve spent
many years as a police officer and I’ve worked with a
lot of reporters and you, darling, are no reporter, so
why the interest in Hurricane Chloe?”
A cold sweat beaded up on my forehead. How did I
think I could fool a hard-nosed detective like her?
Should I spill my guts? She had given me a
cornucopia of information. I wasn’t yet sure how it
tied me and Eilida together or even if it did, but my
twin, parapsychology, repressed memory theory
wasn’t something I was going to elaborate on with
her. In the end, I decided to play it cool and naive.
“You’re right. I’m what you would call ‘Wet around
the collar.’ Several weeks ago, a young woman
suffered a tragic accident and my heart went out to
her. The entire community of Lyden went out to her,
pulling resources together and eventually assisting in
identifying her. As a chance of fate, I ended up being
the person who went to her home town, and working
with a detective there we broke the case open, the
cause for her tragedy anyways. The experience
sparked my interest in the business and now I’m
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trying to learn more about her. Her name is Eilida
Riley. Do you think she is Eilida Tate?”
EXCERPT 2
At work, I called Dr. Reisen’s office. Her secretary
was kind enough to schedule me an appointment for
the following afternoon. Mentally, I worked out what
questions I would ask her. I also considered, within
reason, what I would be willing to accept. I had
always thought of psychic stuff as loony.
Jerry came by after work and I felt it was time to fill
him in on some of the gaps. I waited until we had
prepared dinner and ate. I knew what I had to say
made me sound like a lunatic and I didn’t want him to
choke or slice his hand while preparing food.
I approached with caution, “Jerry, I love you,” my
eyes pleaded for his understanding, “I need your
opinion on something.” I searched his face for
understanding. “Recently, I have seen this image, a
person; she even knocked me over one day. At first, I
didn’t pay attention. Then, I thought maybe I had a
brain tumor. I even contemplated that I was seeing a
ghost.”
Jerry firmly replied, “I think, honey, that you have
been working too hard. You spent last week in
Chesterville where you met some strange characters
and found out some disturbing news about a horrible
murder. You were a reporter for a couple days and
chose not to write up what you had. You gave that to
Joe.” He searched my eyes. “You’ve been on the
computer trying to find information haven’t you?” He
asked.
“Yes, I have...” I chose to be somewhat honest,
hoping for his support.
Without allowing me to finish he interjected, “There
is a lot of false information out there. It’s most likely a
coincidence that you keep seeing this person. The
story about Eilida Riley has been boggling your mind
since the day you heard about it. Maybe your mind is
looking for her so you notice her now when before
you never did; like if I told you I want a red sports
car, you would probably start seeing them
everywhere, right?”