A Peculiar String of Bizarre Dreams

Chapter 10: Sachelle

Everything in the house looks as it did over a decade ago.

I sip from the glass of water my mother hands me. Dream or not, it tastes like water and it helps, I feel better.

"Mamma, if I've possessed the body of three year old me, doesn't that mean...in the future, my actual-age to physical-body-age ratio will be messed up?"

My mother's ever-present smile flickers a little. She takes my hands in her own and warms them.

"Breathe. Don't worry about such technicalities."

I breath in and out, like a docile child. Her hands are soft and they rub away the crazy from my own.

She looks into my eyes and smiles at me encouragingly.

"Jemmalyn...you can move in time, as you wish, whenever you will it. Did your father give you the locket?"

"Yes, he did, right before I found your scroll."

She nods to herself, contemplating something. Cautiously, she puts her thoughts to words,

"At some point at the age of eighteen, the women in our family develop the ability to travel in time." She pauses to make sure I'm paying attention.

Then she continues, "A long time ago, my grandmother attempted to explain the science behind this ability to me. She mentioned something along the lines of how the half moon triggers our genes to give rise to this ability. In due course, we are able to cross realms, fictitious as well as real. We can go into the past or the future. We can dive into inanimate realms and interact with whatever, whoever, and whenever. You see, inanimate can become animate. There's a science to that as well, but I am sure you can go to the library and find a book on it. And oh! Don't you have the internet now?"

I squint my eyes at her and then reply, "Yes, we have the internet now."

I sit down on the kitchen stool. I'm so small that my legs hang in the air. My mother sits on another stool on the other side of the kitchen counter.

I run her words over and over in my head. So, according to some magic science, I have inherited a gene that allows me to travel through realms, through time and also into the inanimate?

"What do you mean by 'inanimate realms'? I'm familiar with the time traveling bit, because umm I'm here, sitting across from you, in my past....hey hold on, I don't remember being a 3 year old and having this conversation with you, I mean I don't think I spoke as coherently when I was a child."

"That's because you're not in your past, remember. This is a realm of your own making. You can also cross into fictitious realms, this realm is a mix of your imagination and your reality. This encounter...me and you, here, right now? It didn't occur in the reality of three year old Jemmalyn."

"How did I do it? How did this happen?"

"I suppose you willed it. I do the same, I decide where I want to go in time, and it happens," she answers calmly.

Then suddenly, she jumps off her stool and goes into Dad's office. I experience a semi-déjà vu at this sight.

She returns with a little shiny bag and hands it to me.

"This is a jewel pouch that my mother gave me when I discovered my ability. You can have it now. It's a family favourite, this satchel."

I warily examine the pouch. It's maroon and bejeweled with diamontes. It has tassels with thick golden rings at their ends, one on each side of the bag for tightening.

And then, it speaks to me.

"Hello Jemmalyn, I might be a little satchel, but I prefer being called 'Sachelle'. I've heard tons about you from your grandmother, she truly adored you. She would've given her life for you, except she died of other unknown causes. It's family tradition to die of other unknown causes, you might die the same way."

I'm caught off guard and drop the talking bag instinctively.

Mamma chuckles. "That is how we dive into inanimate realms."

I stand gaping at her for a few seconds, before I manage a response.

"So...basically, we can talk to objects?"

She shrugs her shoulders like it was an ability as natural as breathing.

"You know it's rude to do that, considering it's the first time we've met. You certainly don't know how to make a good first impression."

I peer down at the maroon talking-object. Mamma watches me, amused. I bend down and scoop the bag in my hands, but quickly place it on the kitchen counter top.

"Sorry." I whisper to it.

"You may call me Sachelle, like I told you before. I forgive you, but handle me gingerly. We don't want any strangers catching a glimpse of our treasures."

To demonstrate, Mamma loosens the tassels and shows me its velvety inside.

"You can store gemstones in Sachelle. He guards them well. Only voyageurs de temps are able to see the treasures it holds, whereas to lay people, Sachelle appears empty on the inside and withered on the outside."

Just as she described it, the bag does seem to appear beautifully maroon and enchanting with its tassels loosened to reveal its even marooner interior. I then realize that there is no mouth-like orifice through which Sachelle speaks, even though it becomes animated when it interacts with us. But I assume to lay people, it stays as stoic and inanimated as any other non-living object.

"I don't have any gemstones, except the sapphire locket from the necklace Dad gave me," I say quietly.

Mamma smiles slyly at me and says. "You will have more some day."