Demon

Jonathan

After school we all walk up to the front of the school together. We go over to the car where Natalie and Gabe’s parents are waiting.

Natalie gives me a hug. Ah. Every time, still, I get a little wave of warmth when she touches me. She doesn’t do it hardly as much any more, since she says that my soul seems fine now. But it still feels nice. “Have a nice break, Jonathan,” she tells me.

I sigh. “I’ll try. Have a good trip.”

Gabe punches me in the arm and laughs. I grin at him and watch as he climbs in the car. At least that hasn’t changed.

Natalie touches Timothy’s shoulder, and tells him. “I’ve got my notebook. I’m all ready!”

He nods. “Goodbye,” he tells her.

She gets in the car behind Gabe. They all start laughing about something, and then they all wave at us as the car pulls away.

Timothy and I look at each other and shrug.

Okay then.

Brenda

As Natalie gets in, I glance back and see something on her wrist. “Are you wearing a watch?” I ask her, surprised.

“Yeah, Timothy is loaning it to me so that I can keep track of the time on our flight.”

Ron glances into the back to see it, then he and I look at each other and chuckle softly as he starts the car. It looks pretty goofy, that huge black digital watch on her delicate little wrist.

I straighten my face and say, “That’s nice, honey.”

Before Ron starts to pull away, he performs the trip ritual. We’re back to doing this silly thing whenever we go any distance, quoting from the Blues Brothers. We watched that movie together with the kids on New Year’s Eve.

“It’s six hundred miles to Albuquerque, we’ve got a full tank of gas and our airplane tickets, no cigarettes, and I’m wearing sunglasses,” he says, looking into the rearview mirror with a grin.

“Hit it!” we all shout, and drive away from the school laughing.

Natalie’s

The family eagerly anticipates an enjoyable trip. Natalie’s only twinge of regret is that she is leaving Jonathan behind, and will be apart from him for the first time in months, unable to maintain any contact for a week. His rehabilitation, conducted through her deliberate efforts, is essentially complete. His soul appears normal. It is nowhere near as vibrant as it had been while Demon was still here, but Natalie has managed to infuse it with all the energy it needs to be equivalent to the souls of other humans.

Demon has still not returned. Only one time was I sure that he was nearby, months ago when Natalie was beginning her efforts to aid Jonathan in recovering. That time there was a brief flash of awareness, just the barest glimmer of the presence of Jonathan’s Guardian. Then he quickly vanished again, and has shown no signs of reappearing.

I begin to believe that Jonathan might be right, and Demon will simply stay away. The child’s soul is functional, his level of activity restored, his mind clear and his friendships strong. He is functioning just fine without a Guardian. It is remarkable to behold. As far as I know he is the first human in tens of thousands of years to walk the Earth unaccompanied by a Guardian. Perhaps this is a new development in human evolution.

The main drawback of Demon’s absence at this point is that I am unable to provide information to Natalie about Jonathan’s status when we are not in proximity to him. The old limit of distance applies, as he has no Guardian with whom I can use our new technique to converse. Although, at any rate, I had never attempted this with Demon.

She is confident that Jonathan is doing well enough to go through this week without her supervision, although she does wish that she was able to track him.

In the meantime, she is focused on the newest iteration of Timothy’s experiment. This will be interesting, and we Guardians all look forward to learning whether our communication technique will be sufficient over a distance of several hundred miles.

She is pleased to be wearing Timothy’s watch, and keeps checking the time by looking down at her wrist. Her parents are correct, of course, the watch is ludicrously large for a child, and even looks too big when Timothy wears it. On Natalie’s slender wrist it is overwhelming. She does not notice, and is very happy to have this reminder of her best friend with her on the journey.

Of course, I could tell her the time, and she knows this, but his offer of the watch was very touching and she would not dream of rejecting it.

The airport process unfolds smoothly. Ron parks the car in the long-term parking lot, and the family makes their way into the terminal. They go through the security line, the parents realizing that since the September 11 incidents last year the process has become substantially more cumbersome. They eat a light meal while waiting for their flight, and are able to board the aircraft without difficulty.

Once they are settled into their seats, Ron looks at Brenda with a smile. “So far so good!” he says. The children are seated in the row in front of them.

Natalie immediately extracts her notebook from her carry-on bag. She has brought the notebook, her bible, and her old little Beanie Baby angel, which she has endearingly been thinking of frequently since I reminded her to transport it to her new residence.

Gabe immerses himself in a new game which his father provided for the Gameboy device.

“Ok,” Natalie thinks to me. “You talking to Guardian?”

“Of course, darling, we are all quite eager to participate in the newest experiment.”

She eagerly awaits the moment that the plane lifts off into the sky. When it does, I begin a narration, intending to continue updating her throughout the journey. The other Guardians, Aaron and Lady and Knight, join me in maintaining communication with Guardian.

“We are climbing in altitude, my dear, and so far this has not diminished our contact with Guardian. We are already further away in distance than during the experiment with your parents’ desert camping trip, and we continue to hear Guardian with perfect clarity.”

She smiles and notates this, her tongue poking out between her lips in concentration. “How is Timothy doing?” she asks. “Is he able to hear Guardian well enough to know what is going on?”

“As is typical during waking hours, he can detect that Guardian is nearby, and senses that Guardian’s thoughts are positive. He can surmise from this that the experiment is going well so far. He plans to attempt a more tangible level of communication with Guardian tonight when he is falling asleep.”

She sighs and nods.

Timothy’s progress with Guardian is astounding, but it seems to have plateaued. It is likely that this is the level at which their discourse will continue. Timothy’s awareness of Guardian is generally steady, as he has become so accomplished with the ability to keep his mind open throughout the day that it is second nature to him now. When he does so, the feelings of Guardian come through, if not any exact words. If Guardian needs to transmit a more tangible message, he increases the level of energy that he uses, and Timothy is more likely to understand. However, in order to truly hear Guardian, Timothy must be completely relaxed and nearing sleep. It is only as his consciousness has almost faded away, that a true dialogue can take place. It is always very brief, just a few words, perhaps a sentence of two can be exchanged. This is necessarily the case, because it appears to be impossible to maintain this state deliberately. Either the effort wakes him up, or he drifts all the way into sleep. He treasures the moments where a bit of conversation with his Guardian is possible, if only for a few seconds.

Natalie is staring fixedly at Timothy’s watch, and after ten minutes have passed she asks me for an update.

“We continue to maintain contact, which is undiminished despite the distance.”

“All of you?”

“Yes, myself, Knight, Lady and Aaron can all hear Guardian just fine.”

She checks off boxes in the chart prepared by Timothy. Gabe looks up from his Gameboy and observes. “How’s the experiment?” he asks.

“Good,” she says softly. She does not wish other passengers, including her parents, to overhear. “They can all hear Guardian just fine. Angel says that going up high in the air isn’t changing anything, and neither is the distance we are away already.”

“Cool,” he responds, and is just resuming his game when the fasten seatbelts sign goes off with a chime. He unbuckles, kneels up backwards on his seat, and faces his parents. “Do you guys have any snacks?”

His father laughs, and pulls out a bag of cookies from his backpack. “How about this?”

“Woot!” Gabe grabs the bag. “Thanks!”

The children settle down and share their cookies as they each pursue their pastimes.

Natalie

The experiment worked out just great! Angel said that they never stopped hearing Guardian, no matter how high or far away we got. So I think that they will always be able to hear each other no matter what. Maybe someday one of us will go to Japan or Africa or someplace super far away to check, but I’m pretty sure it won’t matter. It’s nice to know that our guardians can always hear each other no matter where we are.

“How much do you think Timothy knows about how it turned out?” I ask Angel after the plane lands, and is driving up to the airport.

“He is aware that Guardian is pleased with the result, and he interprets that as success. Tonight as he is falling asleep he will attempt more specific confirmation.”

Good. I’m glad that he’ll know, and not wonder all week how it went.

“When do you think they’ll be able to just talk to each other all the time?”

“My dear, I suspect that their ability to communicate will remain at the current level. Timothy has achieved far more than any other human, but even he cannot overcome the difficulty posed by needing to access his subconscious mind in order to truly hear Guardian’s words. He has discovered how to do this while nearly asleep, but it is unlikely to be possible during most other times.”

“He has heard Guardian while he’s awake, though.”

“Yes, a few times, but usually only when Guardian is exerting a great deal of energy, and there is high emotion involved. Under ordinary circumstances, any specific message is unlikely to be received.

“What about when we were doing our words at 8 o’clock?”

“When you were writing down a word each evening so that Guardian could attempt to transmit it, Timothy was able to receive it by attempting to approach the sleeping state. It being close to his bedtime, he was more likely to achieve success than if he attempted this during the day.”

“Well, I think he’ll figure it out.”

“He certainly intends to try, and regularly experiments with ways to make his mind receptive. I am sure that if there is any way to make regular communication with Guardian possible, Timothy is the one human who will find it. I suggest patience, though. Please remember that this has only been going on for a few months, and Timothy is still quite young. With more education, he might obtain insights on how to proceed further with the effort.”

“Okay.”

The airplane has stopped and parked at the gate, and everybody is standing up, getting their carry-on bags, and waiting for their turn to get off the plane. Gabe and I are just standing next to our seats.

Finally it’s our turn, and Mom and Dad come into the aisle behind us. When we finally get out, Mom goes to the counter to rent a car and Dad goes to the baggage claim to get our suitcases. We go with Dad to help him find them going around on the luggage carousel. Gabe says, “Think I could take a ride on this thing?”

“Definitely not,” Dad says, grabbing the hood of his sweatshirt just in case. It makes me giggle.