Sharla Winslowe

by Christy Lake and by Misty Dawn

 

Things have really changed since Christmas nursing of Andrew last year. After being afraid of people for seven months, Sharla is getting back into the swing of things and is learning a bit of "Magic" maybe, or maybe it is something else. Her part time project to help Kevin's Dad has turned into a major business, just with Mr. Caldwell's work, Others also want her help.

Chapter 8 Sunshine, Tools, and Herbs.

 

Naomi was going to be flying out to Denver Saturday morning to join her family at her Uncle's Tourist Ranch for the holidays. The night before she left, she and Sharla enjoyed their guys. David had managed to get the use of an apartment for their private party. Charlie took them all out to dinner. The girls bought the wine and provided warm entertainment. They called it their Christmas Party because Monday was Christmas Day.

Early on Christmas Eve Day, Bill from Turnbulls called. He wanted Sharla to work the big New Years Eve Dance and New Years Morning Breakfast. He'd spotted her and friends the night before, but by the time he could get free, they had departed. "I really do want you working the floor, Sharla." He had said. "Call me superstitious or whatever, but when you are on the floor, people seem to be a lot more relaxed and happy. This New Years Bash is probably the biggest thing I have ever done and I really do want you in the house."

"Bill, Andrea and I have dates for New Year's Eve, and…"

"Tell you what I'll do, Sharla, luv. If you'll agree to be floor supervisor, just be here to resolve problems for the staff, I'll throw in free tickets for your friends."

Who could resist such a deal. It was probably the biggest New Year's bash in the state, free, and get paid for having a good time! "Alright, Bill, I'll do it. On the condition I do not have to work in the Topless Room!"

"Drats!" he teased. "Foiled again! You're on, Hon. No topless…this time," he added with a chuckle.

*****

The declaration by Andrew of his intent to continue his life as Andrea, plus the Books of "La Caisse" suddenly becoming legible again, had Sharla a bit dumbfounded. Then, just before heading out the door wearing a skirt, "Andrea" had made a comment, "You know Sis, that feeling you were describing? It sounds sorta like the Empath on the Original Star Trek show," that had stunned her into thinking. Why hadn't I seen that?

Knowing Naomi's Uncle, White Running Bear had scheduled a training session with her for early that afternoon, Sharla decided to try a direct link with the powerful shaman. Just before seven, she locked herself into her room, stripped down and contacted Naomi via their mental link.

I want to try to Contact Running Bear directly, she explained to her curious friend. The deaf mute sensed there was more to the witch's desire to contact her uncle than she would ever understand, but promised the psionic she would do all she could to help.

At best White was very condescending when Naomi relayed the request. Sharla could actually feel the overtones of the man's thoughts. He felt slighted that this mere slip of a paleface girl actually thought that it was possible for her to establish a mind link with him, the strongest Shaman alive. She's a woman, and one not even of The People! Still, as a favor to his number one student and favorite niece, he, though with some reluctance, agreed to make himself as receptive as possible for the experiment.

Since Running Bear primarily was associated with the Natural Forces, Sharla formed a thread of Red Energy. She observed the distinct pattern imposed by communication and modified the thread accordingly before stretching it out to the Shaman. True to his word, he had made himself very receptive.

When the mental probe touched the calm pool he visualized, she threaded it through his time layers, back to his earliest recollection of this pool when, as a young boy, he had jumped in and tried to copy the graceful moves of the trout leaping for flies.

Immediately pulling back, she announced over the link, I am Sharla. I come, in search of the truth. I would speak with one known as Leaping Trout!" A flash flood of information rushed forth into Sharla's mind, the man's experiences, difficulties, triumphs, and aspirations. All of these were a garnish completing the sensual image of a powerful individual, of a calm being dedication wholly to good. Something resonated deep within her. He is now mine, and I will become his! She knew this man would complete her, and sensed her relationships with Kevin and David would soon dwindle and become pleasant memories of her past, simply learning experiences.

The calm clear announcement accompanied by this image from his childhood, clearer than he could remember it, angered the powerful Shaman. How did this paleface, this mere girl…how dare---. Suddenly it seemed that his every thought was gently wrapped individually in soft black fur. Private memories were sorted out, separated, held up to a critical light and then allowed to disappear into the warm blackness. He found himself questioning his very self and many of his easiest assumptions and attitudes, especially those of men towards women and the relations between them. All this within the space of a couple of heartbeats

White Running Bear, the Leaping Trout, you are a good person. Remember, in this we are all individuals, all seekers of knowledge. The woman's voice reverberated inside his mind, vibrated throughout his soul. He was free. He mentally pursued the source of this mind manifestation and met, not an individual, not an entity, but a pattern. A pattern so dense he perceived it as black on black. Once before, as a young soul traveling with his spirit guide, the White Grizzly, he had been shown this pattern. He had been informed that it would be important to him. This was the pattern of The Queen of Power, the Black Jaguar. He was seeing it again, the "Black Jaguar."

Suddenly the crystal clear tones of his niece jerked him from the spiritual world to the everyday. Uncle White, are you ok? Sharla said she made contact and then you 'went away'.

Yes, my Little Cougar, I'm fine. I've met your friend Sharla, the Black Jaguar. The man shuddered with obvious pleasure. Soon I will no longer journey alone.

Naomi was so excited by this information that she dropped both communication links. Just last Thanksgiving, the renowned university student and possibly exceptional spiritual student had been honored with a guided tour of the Spirit World. There she had found that Uncle had indeed named her correctly. A tawny Golden Cougar, a spirit of great strength and ability, had claimed her as its avatar. She had been told that her status had to remain hidden until the White Bear had identified the Essence of the Black Jaguar. If Sharla was truly the One, the Black Jaguar, she could share everything, not only with her mentor Uncle White, but also with her best friend. She had also been informed that she would soon meet the living embodiment of her own Totem, The Golden Cougar, and that this spirit would pass to her new strengths.

In response to her question about Empathic abilities, White promised her that during the holiday vacation, while Naomi would be with him, they would search the spirit world for anything they could learn that might benefit her. However there were certain "talisman factors" which she could assemble which would shield her spirit. He then went on to explain the legend and identified these factors.

As soon as the session was completed, Sharla assembled what looked like a watch fob and cord. She could see the ward it created; visualize the interplay of all three energies. With high spirit, she made a quick run to the grocery store, deliberately not wearing her "drabs," and discovered that the talisman did work. Excited she called Kevin to suggest a round of partying for New Year's Eve. Her explanation to Kevin was that she'd found a new "Medicine" that prevented the panic attacks. If Kevin refused this chance to once again jump her bones, she knew David wouldn't turn down the opportunity.

Sharla found it relatively easy to re-establish a three-way communication pattern, and then tried to show the other two what she had done with the amulet. Neither Naomi nor White Running Bear could understand how she could modify the energy patterns. Sharla left them with the impression that it was a by-product of the manufacture of the piece of jewelry.

Exhilarated from the success of the connection with White Running Bear, the joy of identifying with the Black Jaguar, and the success of the new talisman, Sharla determined to follow White Running Bear and Little Cougar on their journey into the spirit world the next time

The next morning, still pleasantly stuffed and in a good mood from the Christmas Dinner and Family party yesterday, Sharla secured her room, stripped to her thong, retrieving a couple of the volumes from "La Caisse", she settled into a Lotus position to study. She was trying to find the correlation between the Spirit World of the Shaman, and the Spiritual Plane described in The Books. The other thing she was searching for was a mention of Empathy or Aura.

Periodically, she would extend her remote perception to White Running Bear and Naomi, watch them going through their ritual purification in Colorado. When they took positions in the inner Medicine Room and placed the sacred mushrooms on the brazier, Sharla firmly reinforced the wards around both the main lodge and the inner lodge. Then without transition, she sat on a grey almost indistinct hillside watching a white bear and a tawny cougar meet true giants of their type.

All four made only the most casual acknowledgement of her presence, as if she was there in some form other than human. Sharla tagged along, as the Spirit Guides exposed her friends to new ideas and approaches. They were learning how to detect the presence of Red and Blue Energy and to experiencing the effects of this energy when linked with Sapphires and Rubies. All pretty basic, Sharla mused before withdrawing from them to resume studying the Thirteen Volume Grimoire.

About two hours later, a jubilant but clearly exhausted Naomi contacted Sharla via the red mental link. After checking the batteries under the hospital and discovering that they had a reasonable charge, Sharla guided a thread of Red Energy to revitalize her exhausted friend. "It was fantastic! We learned so much. You will need to come with us sometime soon. For the first part of the visit to the spirit world, the essence of the Black Jaguar was with us and then as we were studying some crystals, she vanished. I bet she was looking for you!"

**********

The Saturday morning past, Sharla had agreed to "Be present and help only with disturbances" at Turnbull's big New Year's Eve bash. Matching her regal role, Sharla selected a glistening white, full-length gown with a 'pencil' skirt slit nearly to the crotch, with a deep heart neckline, fitted bodice accenting the bust line her Valentine's corselet would provide. Wanting to match the dress with the correct accessories, she retrieved the Jewelry box she had found for the Valentines Dance last year. The only times she had touched it since Valentine's Day was to get a ring out for the guy who had attacked her, and then to move the chest from the dorm into the house.

When she remembered it, she realized the chest was on the bottom shelf of her closet next to the door. Carefully lifting it down, she then placed it on the slightly curved lid of "La Caisse" noting both boxes were the same shape and size. After she checking out some suitable jewelry, she would try to fit La Caisse on the Jewel Box. If it worked she would possibly have a small stool that would be just right for her meditations.

The, earrings, necklace, bracelet, and ring—she'd known they would be in the chest—were perfect, as if designed exclusively to enhanced the effect of the shimmering white dress and to display her rich auburn locks with faultless accomplishment. The earrings were of matching soft-brushed gold and set with a perfect-cut emerald. The necklace, a chain of brushed gold, displayed another delicately faceted row of emeralds. Seven small rectangular, brushed-gold plates linked together with twin brushed-gold chains encircled her slender wrist.

Selecting the bracelet, necklace, and earrings ensemble, she closed the jewelry box and set it in the center of her desk. Then she picked up La Caisse and set it on top of the jewelry case. Yes! It lined up perfectly. Except for a raised rectangular pattern on the front panel of the jewelry box, that she did not remember seeing before, she could not see any differences between the two. It seemed that the carving on La Caisse extended down onto the jewelry box. When she tried to lift La Caisse free to examine the carvings on the jewelry box in more detail, the two would not separate. Swift sensitive fingers could not detect any joint, seam or imperfection. Except for the solid raised panel on what had been the front of the jewelry box the two now appeared as a single unit.

Just a bit apprehensive, Sharla decided to try some of her other skills. Carefully taking one step at a time, she reinforced the wards around the house and around her room. Just to be on the safe side, she set up a strong containment ward inside the room in case something went wrong and then constructed a very strong repellent ward around her with very tightly controlled openings. Suddenly, the first time since she put it on last February, she consciously noticed the emerald finger ring she habitually wore. Pausing in her preparations, she established a permanent charging link from the emerald to her Green Crystal Batteries.

Actually, she told her self softly when she realized the potential power of her action; the Green Crystals in the battery are huge, perfect Emeralds. It's a good thing I so strongly warded the battery.

Placing the combined jewelry box and La Caisse on the floor; she checked her door, and then stripped to her favorite meditation garb–mules and thong—and thus attired slipped gently into a yoga position and deep trance, lightly resting her fingertips on the box. From her reading the Diary of Misty Dawn, she knew La Caisse, the books and box had been loaded with magic spells. She was beginning to believe the blue and red energies that she saw and manipulated were actually the forces of Magic. The Green Energy she'd been manipulating for the past year and some, fit in there somehow, but was different. Now she was going to have to see if she could see the unseen energies inside the box.

Slowly and cautiously she concentrated on her fingertips as a lens to the unseen energies as they touched the wood. A little bit more – there is something. A little bit!

Suddenly, she was surrounded by pulsating lights and deafened by the clash of harsh sounds. Someone dumped a ten-story pile of pots into her bedroom and flashed on the walls were all the laser and strobe lights from at least five different concerts. Shaking with the effort of resisting this assault on her senses, Sharla strove to pull her awareness back. As suddenly as she had been engulfed, she was free, still seated in a lotus position on the floor of her room, but now she was covered with perspiration and starting to chill. Almost without thinking, she focused on the Emerald of her finger ring and warmed up the air temperature in the room five degrees Fahrenheit. On the floor in front of her was the jewelry box and La Caisse.

But now the two were very different. The panel that had appeared on the front of the jewelry box had separated from the box and now formed the front of three drawers. The bottom drawer looked about two inches deep and extended the full width of the box. Above it were two more drawers, also about two inches deep, but each only half the width of the box. The top drawers contained rings, bracelets, and assorted other small pieces. The bottom drawer when opened seemed more interesting.

She pulled it out, until the inside back of the drawer was flush with the outside of La Caisse. A beautiful assortment of gold necklaces and gold belts were displayed on the black velvet of the lining. Sharla closed her eyes and tried to visualize how they would look against the white brocade of her gown. When she quit trying, miffed because she was rarely unsuccessful in such imaginings, she noticed that the lining of the drawer was the same white brocade of her dress.

Almost without thinking, she closed the two top drawers completely, allowing her to investigate fully the delicious items displayed within the big drawer. After deciding against a belt, for the mean time, she slid the big drawer closed. Moments later she could not get it open again. The two smaller drawers would not open either. To make things worse, the top part containing the books, would no longer open.

Touches, pushes, pulls, and even hits would not release anything. The three drawers appeared to be one solid panel firmly attached to the front side of the box. The top or lid of "La Caisse" was not there. It was like she now had a carved wooden box, twenty-four inches wide, twelve inches deep, and eighteen inches high. About an inch from the bottom was an embossed panel about a quarter of an inch thick that had been the fronts of the three drawers.

This was a serious situation! Being unable to get to the books of La Caisse called for some very serious consideration. The first thing that came to mind was, relax the wards and take a long hot bath. After that, make a raid on the comfort food – Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, and then do some serious thinking. She wondered if anyone was in the house; she really didn't want to dress just to raid the fridge.

Cleaned and comforted, realizing it was only just after lunchtime on the Tuesday after Christmas and everybody was out, and that White and Naomi were occupied—they would not welcome an intrusion before seven this evening—the psionic witch settled in for a serious meditation session. There just has to be a pattern I am missing. Lemme see…

The drawers had appeared when she projected into the maelstrom. That was the wild mixture of spells on the body she'd felt. The spells had swamped her just like emotions had been swamping her. Well, I designed a talisman to block out emotions. Why can't I do something similar with my own mental abilities? A few minutes spent trying to sense the energy patterns on just the surface, convinced her that what she was dealing with was something very complex and powerful. A series of careful manipulation experiments followed.

Cautiously she blocked out all of the Green and Red with a Talisman pattern. The Blue was very complex but would go nowhere. A change of pattern to monitor only the Green showed the same, and monitoring the Red had similar results. A careful review convinced her that she would have to build up some sort of strong mental bulwark against being overpowered. Using isolation, approaching it like the old time computers had done, might work. Put up screens of energy and then use specially trapped sensing lines to reach out to the test site. Now, she needed only to figure out how to do all that in her own head.

The chirp of the phone pulled her out of her concentration with a start.

"Darn! Who th…?"

It was Naomi, long distance from Colorado. They had tried to contact her at the scheduled time and bounced back, being completely rejected. Sharla looked up at her clock and realized it was half past seven. She had been deeply involved in complex meditation for six solid hours. Yes, it was time she took a break, to enjoy some light entertainment. Sharla quickly established mental communication links with Naomi and White, explained the situation and her plans.

A quick check showed that her energy level, being supplemented by the link to the Green battery, was fine, so she jumped into attempting to develop selective sensitivity with the in-mind guidance and monitoring of her two Native American friends. Several times during the evening she surreptitiously tapped into the Red Battery under the Hospital and slipped some much needed energy to her sagging friends.

Finally exhausting both friends and self, the Black Jaguar promised, "Yes, White, I will wait until tomorrow afternoon to work on it some more."

"Listen to me, you young scamp!" He chuckled softly. "One must have a fresh mind and body to properly work with the Force of Nature. I do not want you wearing your self down with this." The tone of concern touched the young psionic deeply.

"I swear I will not delve into this again until I am fully rested, White." She barely caught herself from saying White, my love, and wondered where that had come from.

"If I discover different, you will find yourself draped across my lap and paddled, my dear."

"That might be fun, White. We'll have to try that one of these days. Seriously, I will rest before I try again."

*****

Practice was what she thought it would take, and sooner or later, she would find the right combination. The next afternoon, after the promised rest, after re-establishing her wards, she discovered the knack of looking at the materiel of the box, not the energy of the box. In seconds she discovered that there were tiny pressure spots imbedded in the surface inlays that would release the box lid and the drawers. With the first part of her challenge resolved, she opened the box and pulled out one of the books before going to sleep.

All of her reading indicated that the individual Blue and Red energy streams that she was seeing were what practitioners of the magic arts were only sensing. Nothing she read indicated that anyone else had a perception of the forces the way she did. The perception of the structure was one of the Rosicrucian approaches and she found that it became lots easier with practice. It had long been a habit to automatically examine the internal mechanical structure of everything. Now she would begin to check out the molecular or crystal structure, and examine the item for the internal energy flows.

Although White and Naomi could not follow what Sharla was doing, they supported her and offered advice or suggestions. During the rest of the week between Christmas and New Years, Sharla spent a lot of the time in a trance accompanying White Running Bear and Naomi Tallcougar on their explorations of the Native American Spirit World. Sharla was able to slip into the Spirit World without the elaborate ritual and preparation while White and Naomi needed these formal Rites of Passage. Without this ability, because the cleansing ritual took a great deal of time, she would not have been able to spend any time with her "new" sister Andrea, or her other sister, Janine.

The New Year's Eve arrived and Sharla, Andrea, Jenny, and their guys attended the big bash at Turnbulls. Jenny had really been hesitant. Early in the month, Jenny's mother had foreseen a major disaster associated with Turnbull's and the New Years. Then Jenny told Sharla that whatever had caused the problem for her mother had seemed to disappear the morning of Christmas Eve. The blonde had confided in Sharla that her mother was very talented in accurate foreseeing; the girl believed her. Jenny would not have attended the party; except that whatever was to cause the disaster seemed to have been neutralized.

*****

The New Year had been welcomed and the first dance of the New Year danced when Sharla was called upon to resolve an argument in the kitchen. At the employee's entrance the outer door had been tied open, though Misty Piggy was doing an excellent job of clearing the air in the main rooms.

As a joke someone had tied a shoelace across the doorway about six inches above the sill. Just before Sharla arrived in the kitchen, one of the kitchen staff, going out to take a smoke, tripped on the shoelace and would have landed face first partway down the stairs had it not bee for the handrail he managed to grab going down.

The minor argument resolved itself instantly and Sharla went to check on the sprawled cooks' helper. With skills unused since last Spring Break the witch made a quick, but thorough examination. He had dissipated most of the shock by grabbing the stair rail. It was but a matter of a few seconds to examine, and repair the stretched ligaments in his right arm. Semi-consciously, without realizing why, as the downed boy started to come around, Sharla began scanning everything around her using her recently acquired skills. The entire road was filled with vehicles from a traveling Carnival. Disassembled rides were lined up around the block. Right next to the landing were two big forty-foot semi-trailer supply vans.

Sixth sense told the girl something was not right. She concentrated. She froze. The front van was full of propane! Someone had stashed a 100-pound tank inside the trailer instead of placing it back in the proper storage bay built into the side of the trailer. What the danger was, was worse, they had not properly closed the valve. Sharla did not know how much damage would be caused if it exploded, but it was ready to explode… now!

Jenny's comments about Prudence seeing a disaster flashed through Sharla's mind. Recklessly tapping into all three of the energy sources, she built a three-layer ward around the trailer, and then realizing that a natural gas main crossed the street under the trailer, the witch extended the wards to close the bottom.

Just it time. The propane gas ignited and explosive flames shot straight up. Sharla quickly turned the wards opaque and added a partial ward across the top to keep solids down, but allow gas, especially oxygen up. Some of the employees were looking around, trying to identify the source of the brilliant flash and boom. Others were helping the individual up and noticed nothing.

Acting as if nothing was amiss, Sharla quickly figured out who had tied the shoelace by the simple means of comparing the skin oils impregnated in the shoelace with those of the onlookers. The culprit turned out to be a woman! Sharla pulled the prankster aside, one of the cocktail waitresses. Sharla suggested that she change her waitress costume of skin-tight shorts and halter for kitchen whites and directed her to finish the shift in the kitchen.

A quick check showed that the explosion, then fire, had died. Sharla opened up the wards to let heat radiate up, and nitrogen and carbon dioxide to flow in. She then scanned the other vehicles on the street and appearing calm and serene slowly walked back to the ballroom, but alertly checking everything on the way. Rejoining her friends in the ballroom, she set in motion a gradual release of the wards around the trailer. Inside ten minutes there would be no trace of the wards. Of course there would be no explanation of the massive damage to the trailer, but Sharla was not worried about that. The disaster had been averted.

*****ooooo*****

In a Vermont kitchen, just minutes into the New Year, Sheila Carstairs grabbed her temples, trying to block out the impossible reverberations of magical power suddenly manifest in huge amounts. The council had expected a small disturbance of The Power as two of the southern covens using the New Years drinking to confuse the issue used magic to make examples of some husbands, boy friends, and even some girl friends. The members of the council had been placed on alert to perform damage control, if necessary, so there was a lot of wide-awake talent well aware of when Sharla suppressed the explosion.

Almost as suddenly as it happened, the magical power was gone. Slumped on a tall counter stool, Sheila knew both phone and cell phone were ringing. She could also see someone turning into her driveway. The roaring in her ears caused from the sudden cessation of The Power gradually faded to where she could hear the phones' signals. Wearily she picked up the wireless phone and thumbed it on as she picked up the Cell phone and began talking as she moved toward the front door. Letting the sorceress Janet in, handing her the cell phone, the Vermont Mistress of Magic switched the wireless phone on. Impeccably dressed as usual, she swept aside her skirt and took a seat on a chair at the kitchen table and began calming anxious callers.

She could still feel residue of the sudden release of immense magical force, but even as she concentrated on tracking it, it was fading. She reassured her caller, that she could perceive no attack or danger and that the eruption was fading. After taking another call, she put her phone on call forward to an able assistant, the leader of a nearby coven, and dialed a number with a Colorado area code, then switched the cell phone to speakerphone to include Janet in a conversation with White Running Bear.

It was only twenty minutes past ten in Colorado, not even the New Year, and already the entire magical ambience had changed. Signs and auguries indicated that there would henceforth be a lot more magical energy in the new calendar year. But this, this was outlandish. More energy had flown past him in the last few minutes than he believed was available in the whole world.

Janet seemed to sense a vibration of the unknown "Trainee" that she and White had searched for earlier, but there was not really enough of a signature to even be part way certain. The sheer quantity of magical power now available, both of Force of Nature and of the Earth Mother's Power, really worried Sheila. This much power coming from nowhere and being freed on the surface of the earth possibly indicated extraterrestrial sources. And by The Mother's Skirts, she was not ready for that possibility! Not by a long shot. Maybe this 'Trainee' was from another time! Maybe even another system! Prudence, Janet, Karim, and White all agreed that was a very strong possibility, and something that should be kept active in all investigations.

White then mentioned in passing that he had two young women who were making great strides. Mentioning that both girls showed great sensitivity to magical forces, he was encouraged to keep the two young women involved. It was suggested that he should explore the extraterrestrial aspect if the new girls proved sensitive enough.

*****OoooO*****

Sharla discovered that she had really made an impression on Mr. Caldwell and that her work for him had really impressed a number of his friends. For months she had been fending off a number of fairly good offers to do computer work for a number of other companies because of her emotional difficulties. But now, she had to fend them off because she did not have time.

Following his Company Master Plan, Mr. Caldwell had consolidated his operations into five data centers across the continent. Sharla had specified certain equipment and software that would be needed for the integrated approach he wanted and had promptly forgotten about it. Somehow, even with the Holiday overload, UPS delivered and Sharla was rudely reminded of those forgotten recommendations. Because the "medicine" was working, Kevin suggested it was time to get the installations set up.

Working together, Kevin and Sharla began designing and setting up systems for each of the satellite offices. The plan was to verify software and hardware requirements then make quick weekend trips to take measurements, lay out the groundwork, and arrange for a local or regional contractor to come in and to install the necessary power, cables, and raceways. During the week, following a list of needs and requests submitted by each of the satellite offices, the couple would set up the software and work up the configuration, line numbers, and identifications for the connection to the parent company and local network bits and pieces. On the following weekend, they would fly to the location with the hardware, and spend the weekend getting it up and operating. Everything worked perfectly… on paper.

With the success of Sharla's medicine, Kevin scheduled one installation a month. The first site visit was scheduled for the first Saturday following New Years Day. The first one that they would attempt was the newest branch office being set up in a series of reinforced concrete structures west of Norman and south Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They flew into the Will Rogers World Airport and rented a car. It took them about an hour to get to the site. The local manager had his electricians on hand and had promised to have the network installer out within an hour.

The original layout she and Kevin had prepared would not work. Sharla found that a number of use changes had been made to the buildings and peripheral locations. She and Kevin, along with the Branch Manager and his Operations Foreman, went over the plans, and then walked every building and traced the administrative workflow. That which they had designed to be efficient and unencumbered in the mother office had been turned into a cobbled mess by the local's inept description of the location.

While sketching out the layouts on a set of blueprints, Sharla recommended that the right wing of the building, as she was facing the entrance from the main parking lot, be used for the white-collar functions and as the site for the main computer server. The manager disagreed, he wanted to put a machine repair shop in that wing and put the white-collar stuff in a back wing.

Though the cast concrete in the right wing was solid and would stand up to a tornado, it was obviously unsuited for the purpose designated my the PM. Sharla explained that the vibration of heavy equipment, transmitted through floor mounted machines would cause a collapse of the structure within six months. Kevin, knowing her well now, was willing to believe Sharla's recommendation, but the local manager decided to ignore her recommendation. Kevin, assuming collapse of the wing immanent, made a special note for his dad to assign this manager another purpose and instigate catastrophic emergency plans.

Because flight scheduling had been disrupted by a major winter storm, the pair had to remain in Oklahoma for an overnight stay at the Airport Hotel. Sharla and Kevin booked adjoining rooms, but the connecting door was opened and only one bed used. Both slept in their seats on the way home.

At the semester break Jenny confided in Naomi and Sharla, her two supporters in researching magic at the university, that Prudence, her mother, had decided that as a mark of maturity, Jenny had to get a job and bring home for a savings account at least $400.00 each month after expenses. Jenny had already contacted a number of businesses, and had discovered that her new class schedule eliminated all office jobs. Sales positions were filled already, although if she would promise to work the entire Spring Break, the local Dullard's would hire her part time at five cents above minimum wage. Since her home was not on a bus route, she would have to use her mother's car to get to work. Her mom had decreed that all expenses for the car were to be included.

Certain with the computer related work coming up, that she would have to miss some weekends, Sharla suggested she take a waitress position at Turnbulls. If Jenny took over her job at Turnbulls, the job would remain in the family, so to speak. On Friday night, Bill agreed to the two girl's proposal and hired Jenny immediately for Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday nights. During the first weekend Jenny's lush figure, well displayed in a Turnbulls trademark short-shorts and tight tank top, and her pert personality, seemed instrumental in her getting large tips.

Easily meeting her mother's demand Jenny had a blast doing it. She loved flirting with the customers. Sure, working on Fridays and Saturdays cut into her love life a bit but, Karl had been taking her for granted a bit lately, so maybe not being available for his whimsical gratification would do something to spark their relationship a bit. Along with her success, came an offer from Bill, that should she want more work, he could find a spot for her in the topless bar section.

It took two weeks for the plant in Oklahoma to be set up with the wiring and raceways Sharla had specified. She made a couple of Out of body visits to the site and identified several items that were not being done correctly, and would be covered over. She faxed and then called the contractor and then the subcontractor about the discrepancies. As expected, she was again ignored. Mr. Caldwell had given her "Carte Blanche" to make sure the bold new central computer system worked well and worked for the company's benefit. When Sharla reported the discrepancies – she did not tell him that she had seen them, only what she suspected – Mr. Caldwell, trusting this strange girl completely now, chuckled evilly.

The Good Ole Boy he had placed in charge of the Oklahoma and Texas Operations was getting a bit uppity, and Sharla had given him some ammunition to do a bit of ego trimming. When Sharla assured him that she could tell if the flaws had been corrected without tearing out everything, Mr. Caldwell actually dry washed his hands and he grinned.

*****Oooh*****

True to his word, White sought out information on the Empathic aspects of his craft. Initially he did not have much success. The ability to read auras was fairly common among the Shamanistic community, but feeling of emotions was very rare and not too reliable. A couple of weeks into the New Year, he opened up a flood of information. With the council's blessing, he introduced Sharla to several empathic witches who were in the City Bluffs area. The witches, very enthused to have a Shaman's Student demonstrate sensitivity to their gift were very generous with information and anecdotes from all over the world. On almost a daily basis, Sharla shared her new information with White. After getting over a major system shock of learning that a number of Native American women were quietly active in the Wicca philosophy, White contacted the Women at a time when Sharla would be available.

During these mental communications, they both learned quite a bit about the various aspects of sensing, controlling, and interpreting emotional projections of people, animals, and even plants. White and Sharla discovered that the co-research was very pleasant and were drawn ever closer to one another as man and woman. However, real life was getting in the way. Sharla had a new semester to undertake and White had to start the annual cycle of ranch work.

*****OoooO*****

Andrew's decision to live as Andrea cleared the fog from the Winslowe home. Doctor Hollister provided the papers necessary to start making Andrea Legal. Andrew had been getting weekly checkups by an endocrinologist and a number of other experts, including a school selected, court appointed psychiatrist. These reports simplified the legal problems for the school and made the legal name change at semester break near the end of January almost a non-event.

Sharla, with help from White and encouragement from Naomi, was continuing to exercise firm and now almost automatic control over the receipt of emotions. She had discovered from one of the Native American women, a trick of visualizing the emotions as a projected movie and controlling the volume and brightness. It was working and she could now work around other people with a minimum of problems.

*****OoooO*****

 

. The last weekend in January, Mr. Caldwell, Kevin, Sharla, and a good-sized load of computer equipment flew into Oklahoma City, this time via the Caldwell Construction Company's new Leer jet. Arriving on-site, Sharla pointed out the places where the Plant Manager had taken shortcuts and exposed understructures not properly reinforced already crumbling. While she and Kevin went off to begin their work, Mr. Caldwell returned to the PM's office and had a closed door 'conference' with the man.

The raceway's designed for internal expansion and the necessary modifications would not affect any of the current installation. Kevin and Sharla were able to quickly bring the main, and most of the secondary systems, online and even managed training some of the staff that were in the office Saturday.

At a little past noon Sunday, Sharla declared completion, but as Mister Caldwell still had some business to do, he gave the couple the car with instructions to enjoy the rest of the afternoon together and then agreed to meet them in the hotel at eight that evening for dinner. While driving around, simply enjoying one another's company, Kevin and Sharla were stopped suddenly on an unpaved road they were idling along while playing kissey-face.

"What th' hey is that?" The car had bumped, almost gently, to a complete stop. There was before them a heavy steel gate and a cattle guard across the road. On either side of the gate, stretched in either direction for as far as the eye could see, a tight six-strand barbwire fence.

"Kevin, where are we?"

"Somewhere in Central West Oklahoma, I think."

"Smarty!" The girl playfully gouged her beau in the ribs. "Come on, get us out of here and back to civilization. It's getting late."

Kevin, realizing that it was getting late, and that he had no idea about the route back to a main road, was one male unashamed of admitting to a fault—Sharla had told him about some of her out of body experiences—and he asked her if she could spy out a route. She agreed, if he would stop in the shady cut about a half-mile back.

Reclining her seat, Sharla started the relaxation regime required for an extended 'look about'. Stripping to the buff before slipping free of her physical self, she instantly felt a very strong force wanting to pull her past the closed gate. Before following this up, she sought a high perspective and saw that by taking the second cross road to the left and then following that out to the second cross road and turning right they would find a large paved highway that would return them to the Interstate.

Sliding back into her physical self only long enough to give Kevin directions, the nude witch then explain that she was going to be relaxing and working. Sharla specified that if she did not wake up when they got to town, he was to just let her sleep until it was time to meet his Dad. Easily slipping out of her body a second time, she hastened to investigate the attraction of the land beyond the gate.

The strong fence stretched almost a mile to meet similar fences. All told, there was about one square mile of fairly rough land. Near the center it was elevated a bit, but the area surrounding the knoll had been cut by wide washes. The fences on each side had a single gate and several trails on the inside, all but the faintest of faded tracks, intersected at the lip of the first wash and vanished. Before checking further, she searched for the hidden energies. Off to the north she could sense a large collection of Red. Under this particular square mile plot, she could not detect any discrete Red, Blue, or Green energy except that generated normally. However, under the remaining half of a hill, the other half had been washed away some eons in the past, she detected three major ley lines, grey torrents of mixed unseen energy, radiating like evenly spaced spokes of a wheel. .

Approaching this area carefully, she realized that the hill was just a covering for a huge building and that the building, the hill, and for that matter an almost circular area a half mile in diameter was very strongly warded. She concentrated on the ward, located under the center of the building, and realized it was a variation of what White had called "I'm not important – Anything else is more interesting." The first interesting thing was that this ward seemed to be powered by the ley lines, but not directly, the way she obtained power to her ring. The next thing she noticed was that there were two shells of something, maybe a force, one forming a half ball about a half-mile in diameter. At this line, she saw a small ridge of dust, and small leaves. Apparently anything moving slowly was diverted. Closer towards the big house in the hill, there was a circle—actually a ball or sphere—of something, or nothing, much stronger than the big half ball. This one seemingly stopped everything. She saw where flash floods had slammed up against this "force" and then worked their way around the object, leaving a major accumulation of debris stacked up to fifteen feet high. She could "see" the ley lines touch the ball underground and then bend down to go around it. Inside the circle it was pristine and, she quickly realized, lifeless. That was enough to stop her explorations for now. She sat up in the car, just as Kevin made the first turn, the left one. With a bit of effort, she pulled herself away from the mystery lands and before dressing, started teasing Kevin and telling him about what they would do after dinner.

Mr. Caldwell was extremely happy when they met for dinner. All he would say is that he had used Sharla's information, and it was accurate, and he made a bet. Because of that information, he won the bet. The plane would not be available to take them back to City Bluffs until nine the next morning, so he turned the car over to them and wished them a good evening. He was going to enjoy the company of an old friend. Kevin hoped and therefore asked, if it was a female friend, but his dad would not say.

*****OOOOO*****

Andrew, now quite happily living as Andréa full-time, knowing she would one day become a witch, started working with Sharla and Naomi to create some of the tools of magic. Wednesday nights, starting the week after Sharla made her first Site Visit for Caldwell Construction, seemed to be best for all concerned and quickly became a firm schedule. Andréa learned well and quickly became an adept 'parlor magician'.

Late one Wednesday afternoon, Sharla was walking along the banks of a stream near where it joined the river. She was looking for a particular sized piece of straight willow branch, growing directly from the soil. One of the first tools to help direct the energy of the magic that the Grimoire described was an Athame. She had a feeling that a simple Willow Wand would work best, especially for Naomi and Andrea. She found a stand of Willow and was checking over the different plants when she heard a noise. Walking up the creek bank towards her from the river's direction was a tall individual.

The impression she received was anger and hostility at the world. She studied the approaching figure more closely and recognized Jerry Tanner, the guy who had bothered Andrew just after Halloween. Andrea had never really said what had happened; only that Tanner getting his testicles torn off by the fence was appropriate punishment. His utterly unfocused anger bothered Sharla in a fundamental way.

She had selected six different Willow shoots about four feet long. She was using the Blue Energy to see if the internal structure was uncongested. Now, without thinking, she used the Blue Energy to clip off the wands before confronting the angry and all but invalid individual approaching her.

The gentle breeze lifted her hair into a halo about her head as She stepped out of the Willow Thicket, onto the path, about six feet in front of him. "Jerry Tanner! I am Sharla. I am Andrea Winslowe's sister. I do not know what went down between you and her, and I really no longer care to know, but I can tell you this. Unless you get the senseless anger you're harboring under control, you are going to attack someone else. I can also tell you that if you do attack someone, you are going to wish that you had tangled with the fence again."

The slender willow wands in her right hand punctuated Sharla's statements. The aura projected by Jerry changed from anger to terror, and he bulled through the thicket and up the bank, scrambling to get away.

As she turned away from the rapidly disappearing individual, she spotted a stone that would probably do great as a candleholder. As she used a bit of Red Energy to free the roughly cubic stone from the frozen ground, she realized that she could have explored a lot more if she had been using out of body and by manipulating the energy directly she would have been finished and free to work on one of the other projects.

Sharla, Jenny, Naomi, and Andrea were planning on wowing the crowd, as well as their dates, at the Valentines Day Ball to be held the Saturday after Valentines Day, but Naomi, nearly at the last minute, had to pull out. An Apache Shaman, who also ran Diablo Air Charter Service, requested her assistance. The Shaman, upset at being drawn so deeply into a commercial situation, contacted the tribal members and told them that he had sought help of a powerful Shaman through the path between the worlds.

During her Spirit Walks after Christmas, Naomi had met several other highly accomplished Shamans. Because of the impression she—and her totem, the golden cougar, considered Strong Medicine in the Shaman community—made in the Spirit World, she had been called as Adjudicator to evaluate and help resolve a severe conflict involving several wealthy tribe members and a big corporation. Her Uncle White, who was out of the country tending to some sort of business, had concurred in the Shaman's choice of Naomi. After being picked up at the local airport and flown to Denver, Naomi made her first solo entrance into the spirit world to solve problems of her people.

She evaluated the resonances as her spirit guide instructed her and applied the Sharla honed sense of balance. She instructed the Apache Shaman in the construction of a Spirit Catcher to be put on the wall and then had certain potted plants placed around the room in specific locations. She told the Shaman that if all the principal people would meet in the "Charmed Room" reason would prevail and a solution would be found.

The Charmed Room was waiting for them to meet and resolve their differences. The two wealthy Native American businessmen expressed severe doubts, but they had requested the Shaman's help. They agreed to hold a meeting at White's Conference Center. The operations Officer of the Corporation, the individual who had complicated the situation was in town and though reluctant, he finally broke off his skiing trip to give them a few hours.

The note the shaman had included with a significant Cash Thank You to Naomi, explained that when all three men sat down at the conference table, it was like the Great Spirit had inspired them. After only and hour and a half, they had discovered an alternative path that let all three be winners. The recently installed communications lines got a work out, and before the evening was through, all the details had been resolved and documented.

*****00000*****

The weekend of the big valentine Ball seemed to mark the end of the calm organized life for Sharla and her friends. Jenny was interested in what Sharla, Naomi, and Andrea was doing with magic at their Wednesday evening get together. For some reason the Grimoire was never mentioned to Jenny. Sharla observed to herself that Jenny had almost as much magic handling capacity as Andrea, and maybe one tenth the capacity of Naomi.

At the behest of a number of Mr. Caldwell's business associates, Sharla and Kevin laid out a number of potential information handling setups. Kevin had used Sharla's installed software to develop proposals. It'd been before Christmas when they had worked these propositions into presentable form. They had figured that with these draft proposals as a basis, the companies might be able to decide what they could use. Then, maybe, after some serious consideration these companies could probably sort out what they wanted.

That would be the correct time for negotiations and specific proposals of what they really needed. Maybe by the end of the semester, if their proposals did not scare the potential clients away, she would have a decent part time job lasting most of the summer. Sharla worked up the technical parameters and Kevin worked up the basic graphics. Then they assembled all of Sharla's technical stuff, plus the detailed cost analysis of material that the program would use, and the drawings. Andrea printed the packages on a LexMark laser jet printer Mr. Caldwell had installed for her sister's use. Sharla then compiled a cover letter for each package.

In it she stated that the figures and configurations were just personal estimates, and were done without the complete systems analysis that would be necessary to tailor a data system to the job requirements and/or the potential job requirements. Mr. Caldwell's secretary collated and mailed the draft proposals to aid the endeavor.

Valentine's Day seemed the release key as all of the companies Kevin and Sharla had prepared proposals for returned answers of the bids within two days, before or after, of the fourteenth of February. These companies had accepted those proposals as full, final, professional recommendations and had acted on them. All of them notified her that they had ordered the recommended hardware and software. Several had sent out bids for the recommended construction. The psionic coed suddenly found she was the head of an up and coming compute systems Installations Company.

Then Kevin was shanghaied and sent to work on several different aspects of the newly operational Caldwell Construction Company Data Automation plan and the impact of the new operations had on the existing systems and did not have any free time for these non Caldwell Company projects. Sharla cornered Mister Caldwell one afternoon and asked if there was an empty desk she could use for her maintenance work. He replied, "Sure, just let me look into it."

In addition to continuing the monitoring of the up and running Caldwell Construction Company system and the monthly installation schedule already confirmed, the psionic coed was forced to take on the other installations alone. One of the base reasons she was willing to do attempt the work alone was that, while she was making very good money, in her opinion, at Caldwell Construction, when he had bragged about her, he had indicated that he was paying twice what he was actually paying. When Mr. Caldwell's associates had came to her with their ideas, she'd made informal estimates, or more realistically, in most cases, pure guesstimates and told the requestors as much when she sent the bidder's packages back. To her surprise the business people took those cobbled together, "Wild-Assed Guesses" seriously and many made major purchases on her recommendations. Now the work orders were coming to her with agreements drawn up and signed checks attached. The hardware and software was on order, or in many cases on hand, and needed to be installed and synchronized.

To Sharla, pushing information around was a much more interesting way to make money than pushing food and drinks. Spacing the projects out she began to do the work herself. From her point of view the work, though time consuming, was not that difficult. But, she knew from her classes, that some people, well actually most people, could not follow the details of the different application protocols and permission table stuff on assorted connected systems. Fewer and fewer weekends were spent working for Turnbulls, and more and more afternoons following classes were consumed as more and more work came in. Mr. Caldwell's too helpful secretary mentioned Sharla was doing an awful lot of work and receiving quite a large volume of mail. On this bit of information, he began to consider setting her up in a small office. He did not want to lose his ace in the hole.

One Wednesday following the Valentine's Day surge, Sharla explained her work bind to Andrea, Naomi, and Jenny. Andrea came to the rescue. She indicated that, for a reasonable wage, she and Frank could do a lot of the manual, time consuming set up and physical portions of the installations, simple software installation and even configuration. Sharla would need be available only as back up. After the other two girls had left, with a smile, Andrea added the cincher. She reminded Sharla that she could visit the site, out-of-body, and see what was happening with the computer and use her cell phone to relay critical final instructions if she spotted trouble.

Before starting her Tuesday evening stint at Turnbulls, Jenny, fairly bubbling with her excitement, chased and caught Sharla, passed her a slender folder of full documentation on the property in Oklahoma, grinned and then took off. Jenny was running late, as usual. The folder showed that the land was up for sale as part of a nine square mile parcel. It was the center of a real estate block, three miles long on each side. Included in the folder was a file copy of a U. S. Postal Money Order in the name of Sharla Winslowe Enterprises, made out in the amount of five hundred dollars. A bid form, and a priority handling registered mail receipt, also dated last Thursday, were clipped to the inside front of the folder.

There were photocopies of microfilmed newspaper articles about the area and surprisingly enough, on some of the old newspaper articles, about the specific plot of land. One of the earliest settlers in the area, an Irish Captain of the guard protecting a group of missionaries, had had kept a detailed journal concerning their activities on and about the Ouachita Knoll, located someplace west of the main mission in what is now Oklahoma City. The gentle elevation and good water at the base of the cut provided a natural operations base, when Erin O'Malley was spotting bison grazing and generally surveying the area. After submitting willingly to a ritual ceremony conducted by a Shaman, with some of the local Indians witnessing, the Chief pledged to him and his descendants full right to use the land until eternity. After five years of the idyllic life, Erin had been returned to the old country with new commission and a waiting bride.

In his book, he had written about the harmony and rapid healing that happened when people and animals rested in this area. He had developed several water holes in the area and was seriously considering trying to establish a ranch when he departed for his promotion. The monks had used his composition for writing lessons so several copies of O'Malley's Journal of diverse quality were available. The well-detailed descriptions of Indian rituals in one copy, very probably the original, now lying in the Great Plains/Will Rogers Museum near Guthrie, made this property a very noteworthy subject. Several research papers had been done on the Ouachita Knoll.

Apparently the history of the site had been favorable up until the fall of 1819. In an early story, one of the local's was quoted as saying that the spirits had put a curse on the land when buffalo hunters ambushed and totally annihilated a family group of the Wichita Tribe and after killing the men, raped the women and stole their horses. According to him, three families and their medicine men had been following a large herd of bison with their animals, women, and children. From that point on, the Ouachita Knoll became known as a center of bad luck. What O'Malley had reported as good water, had become boggy alkaline seeps. Without good water, it became impossible for bison to exist there and the great herd drifted north and west and the area of blight continued to spread.

When the Great Oil Rush hit, the area was included in a claim, but unspecified reasons said it was never developed. About 1950 an overseas engineering firm had purchased the entire nine square miles and had done some construction. Nothing more was documented until 1981 when the land was sold by a quitclaim deed by a Shawn O'Malley to a large real estate development speculator who did nothing with it. The land had finally been placed in the hands of a management company, and they too had their problems doing anything productive with it. The Red River Management Company could not lease the land, even at a penny a section. In 1983 cattle from adjoining areas began getting bogged in the stinking mud holes. This became a major concern to the management company because the livestock owners started suing the management company. Since 1987 when the management company agreed to have a good fence installed, no one had gone across the land.

A good fence all the way around the center section, Ouachita Knoll, seemed to keep the spirits inside. Once the fence was up, local ranchers agreed to lease the sections around the site if The Management Company paid the cost for the upkeep and general maintenance of the fences.

The speculator died and the property offered for sale by the estate. Friday had been the final day for receipt of bid offers on assorted plots of development for his estate settlement. The six hundred and forty acre block that Sharla was interested in was listed as the center section of a three-mile by three-mile parcel. Based on land prices, even cursed land without water should sell for twenty five to fifty thousand dollars. Just to keep Sharla's name in the information loop, Jenny had filled out the form and attached a money order for five hundred dollars, the minimum increment stated in the small type, and sent it off by registered courier. She was certain Sharla would refund her expenses, and after a few weeks the money order would be returned with the notification of who the successful bidder was.

   

   

   

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