Divine Mate (Book 1) *Read on Kindle*

Chapter 4: Naomi

Nana?

I turned to my left and right. Nothing but the pale blue skies greeted me. I ran feverishly through the blue palm trees towards the villages.

I begged one of the villagers, "Have you seen my grandmother?"

The woman shook her head in confusion. No. My heart sank to my toes. I couldn't speak their language. Without my Nana here with me I could feel my tears gathering and my nose burned. I wanted to go home.

Home. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I thought of the cool blue tiles in my mother's kitchen. I envisioned Nana reading me a bedtime story with my mom snuggled beside me. I felt the love we had for each other wrapping me in a warm hug. The sandy beach faded away and I was back in Chicago sitting on the floor of Nana's room.

I breathed a sigh of relief, then looked over at my granny. Her eyes had glazed over, a sickening gray tint discoloring her skin. I screamed into my hands, scooting away like I'd seen a ghost. I ran downstairs straight into my mother's arms.

"Nana! Mom, something is wrong with Nana!"

"What?!" I grabbed my mother's hand and together we flew up the stairs. Running through the hallway, we dashed into Nana's room. I hoped to see Nana coughing, moving around in some way but her body laid still on the floor.

My mother's eyes were bloodshot as she screamed into the phone, "WE NEED AN AMBULANCE!"

Through my sobs, I saw Nana's face. She had a look of fear carved into her skin, her mouth shaped unnaturally into the shape of an "O". Since that night, I'd astral-traveled to over twenty dimensions looking for her. Trying to understand why she never came back and where she went. My Nana's death hit my mother the hardest. She threw away the ceremonial candles in our home, tossed out the sages, burned all of their notes and stopped astral-traveling. She would've shut down the shop if it hadn't been such a large portion of our income. Mama wanted to forget everything that had happened, including any mention of my gifts.

After I graduated high school, I swore to never astral-travel again. I pledged to focus my attention on my school, work and living a normal existence. The only caveat was I couldn't control when my soul wanted to project. But I've never told her that. She'd only call me a liar. Just like she did when I told her where I'd gone and what I saw.

"You're saying the same bull-shit Nana said," My mom spat out. "If you keep at this, you're gonna end up just like her. Lost in a world you can't possibly understand. Dead to everyone you care about!"

I threw my hands in the air, "It would be better if I were dead than here with you. You can't even accept who you are let alone support me in who I am--who Nana believed I was."

Her voice rose an octave as she choked to get the words out, "And where's nana now! She's dead Naomi, because of you."

I felt sick. I gave my mother one last look of defeat before I left.

It was no longer a secret that she blamed me for Nana's death. I stood out in the icy rain, numb to the cold and irrevocably shattered.

                                                                                            ****

I repressed those memories, pushing them back into darkness. I never found out what I was. Or how I could travel to as many dimensions as I did. I wish Nana were here to help me but she wasn't and she hadn't been for a while.

"Naomi?" a voice called out to me from my thoughts. Daydreaming was a form of connecting to the fifth dimension.

"Hm, yes?"