Perception

XXVIII

They got into the car together, both of them sunken into a silence that was heavy with all the words they had heard. Sarah started the car and turned to drive back towards Amsterdam.
There must have been at least ten minutes of quietude in the little Volkswagen when Anna suddenly sat up in alarm.
"Shit! Sarah! I never showed her the beads!"
Sarah glanced sideways at her.
"Well, you did have one or two things to discuss with her today. Not a great mystery how one could have been missed, no?"
Anna smiled.
"I'm glad you can still see the humour in the situation."
"Well, don't you worry, I'm royally freaked out too, if it helps."
Anna was quiet for a moment as she looked out at the sleepy green fields next to the motorway and the wind turbines, turning lazily in the breeze in the distance.
"Me too. Maybe I should write everything she said down, actually, so I don't forget it all."
Sarah nodded.
"Yeah, sure, good idea. There's a note book and pencil in my bag on the back seat."

Anna turned around as far as she could and dug blindly into Sarah's bag until she found the little book with the pencil attached. Then she sat for a while, scribbling as much of what Barbara had said as she could remember onto the paper.

"She was nice, though, no?" Sarah said then, her voice quite far away. Clearly she was just as pensive.
"Yeah, she was real nice. Really cared, it seemed to me. But I have to say... I may have gotten a some answers, but I got a whole lot more questions too."
Sarah nodded. "Yeah. I can see that. Like... my grandmother is protecting you?"
"I know." Anna said. "And then she wondered what Eli's powers were...  I mean... what the hey?"
Sarah looked at her briefly, and then she focused back on the road.
"Well, to be honest I wasn't that surprised about that. My enthusiasm about your love life aside, anyone can see there's something special going on with the two of you."
"What, you mean to say that you don't get strange electric shocks every time you meet someone you fancy?" Anna smiled, her tongue literally in her cheek.
Sarah grinned. "Not right at the beginning, anyway."

The heavy silence fell over them again then, and it lasted all the way back to the ring around Amsterdam.
"I guess my biggest question is..." Anna said then, "Who am I protected by?"
Sarah nodded. "You mean the second person, right? The one she couldn't see?"
"Yeah. I wonder if that has anything to do with those beads."
Sarah looked right again, her eyes more serious than Anna had ever seen them.
"Well, you're the one with the powers... maybe you could ask?"
Anna shook her head in amazement for a moment.
You're the one with the powers.
Last week she was just Anna, just a psychology major who liked to look out over the garden and sip green tea. Now she had powers?
"I'll try that, I guess." she said then.
"Look." Sarah answered, a hesitation in her tone. "I know it's none of my business and all, but I do wonder if you should talk to Eli about this. He's clearly involved, and he may be able to shed a lot more light on stuff."
"Well, I'd say that all of this is your business too, by now, for which I'm eternally grateful." Anna started. "But I just don't know if..."
She looked down at her legs. "I just don't know if I can trust him yet."

Sarah eyed her soberly. "Well, maybe you should ask that question too. My grandmother used to get dreams, I remember it well. She'd ask for a certain thing before bed, she'd really focus on it, and she'd usually have a dream to give her the answers she was looking for."
Anna put her hand on Sarah's shoulder and gave it a little squeeze.
"Thanks, Sarah. I'll try that tonight. And hey, just... thank you so much for coming with me, hey?"
"Of course. I got you."

Suddenly Anna's phone jingled harshly, and she dug around her own bag now to find it. Her heart skipped erratically when she saw who the message was from. She slid her finger over the screen quickly to find out what it said. 

     'Hey there gals, wanna hang out tonight? Me and James are going out.'