The Scryer ✔️

~The Party~

The next spring, Jimmy had secured a storage unit in Berks County, just outside of Reading. He had continued to use his car and had been taking things that we would need to set up a household all during the winter. A lot of it was electronics and automotive tools and of course, the bed that he had designed and constructed; a four-post bed with a canopy, unfinished and still in pieces and crated up; I still had yet to see it. Of course, I had no idea how any these things worked, but he insisted that I was a fast learner. Truth was, I was terrified at having to go there and retrieve our things and I prayed over and over that I wouldn't have to go alone.

During the first six months of marriage, we had two pregnancy scares, both false alarms and it hurt him; he wanted a little family, he had said. Since we weren't going to live on a farm, we didn't need a large family and if we were going to live our lives like the English, we should only try for one or two. He had talked to some of the younger married men at school and he learned that children are expensive!

Well, I could have told him that...

He told me that we had been invited to party at the end of his first semester and was specifically requested to bring me along so that everyone could meet me...there were a few married couples that he knew and we both thought that it would be good for me to have some friends. I changed my clothes in the backseat on the way and crawled over the bucket seats and took my place in the passenger seat.

He parked the car and turned off the engine. Turning his head, he grinned at me. "Ready to make your debut, Gabby?"

I breathed in deeply and winced and he pulled he closer to him and tenderly kissed me.

"You can do this," he said.

"Do they know we're Amish," I had asked him.

"Yes and everyone's cool with it."

"Cool with you, you mean? You seem to know everything and I know nothing," I told him.

"You know how to deal with people and a whole lot more than I ever will, Babe," he said. "But I expect that we'll be a bit of an enigma at first, but then I think they'll see that we're just like them."

I looked deeply into his eyes, thankful that the sun was still in the sky and that it shone in those beautiful eyes of his. "But we're not," I said.

I looked up at the large old Victorian house and seeing a little boy standing at the attic window, I smiled up at him. He merely stared, but then, he too smiled and then he waved and I waved back. I reached down onto the floorboard for my purse and watched him disappear into thin air. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply and Jimmy opened the door for me to leave the car. I had instantly broke out into a cold sweat and was shaking like a leaf...Papa warned me that I might see things that were foreign to me...and to try not to be afraid of them...most of the time, he said, the spirits are only confused. But he had also told me that things are not always how they appear to be and to be wary, but not afraid.

"Gabby, baby? Are you okay," he asked as he knelt down by the car and took my hand in his.

"There is a spirit in that house."

"Oh? Okay, well, your Papa talked to you about them, yes?" He was beaming.

I nodded my head and continued to try calm my breathing and my nerves.

"I tell you what? The head of the psychology department is supposed to be here as well. He's the uncle of my friend. If I'm not mistaken, what you can do falls into his field, I think anyway. Perhaps you can talk to him and get a professional's opinion? I do know that there are several students who are waist deep in the parapsychology sub-department. They're actually very excited to be meeting you."