~~~
One night, a mission took me father north and west than I'd ever gone, to Madison, Wisconsin. There, I was to break into an antique dealer's shop, take from his safe a locked, lacquered wooden case of about twelve by nine by two inches, and deliver the case unopened to Dr. Ventnor at his house in Upper Arlington, Ohio, just west of the Ohio State University. As that night I followed tradecraft that the Colonel had drilled into my thick head, the breaking and entering and safe-cracking went well.
After leaving Madison, I began to run south along I-39 to give Chicago a wide berth. It was a clear night of a full moon, Dr. Ventnor was going to let me sleep over the next day, and it felt good to lope along at three hundred mph. As I loped, I wondered what the lacquered case held. Having learned a healthy respect for the Colonel's debriefings, I dared not open the case.
I'd turned left at Bloomington, Illinois, and was running east along I-74 when I heard a girlish voice shout in the moonlight, "Ti-shev-es, Tan-a!" For those of you whose Tan speech isn't up to speed, let me add that those words mean, "Stop, woman of the Tan!"
I wanted to stop. In fact, it took a magnificent recovery from a stumble for me not to fall flat onto my face. Fear of the Colonel, though, kept me on task. Filled with wonder and frustration, I kept heading for Ohio.
My stumble, though, had given one of you time to run after me. Nearly on my heels came a second cry of "Ti-shev-es!"
I am entitled to rest, I told myself.
Slowing to a stop, I heard footsteps grow louder and die behind me. Turning, I saw a ghost from Ul. The one who'd called me wore a turban, scarf, smock, and long skirt just like those once worn on the Homeworld.
"Mi-tan su-es?" I squeaked out. "Who are you?"
"Earth-name or birth-name?"
"I've never heard those terms, but I think I know what they mean. Both, please."
To make a long story short, I was meeting Lona Kul-Ved, or Lonnie Stormgren, then of Urbana, Illinois. Recalling me better, it shames me to say, than I recalled her, she knew that she was meeting Mira Das-Es, but I told her that she was also meeting Mirabelle Gordon of Paducah, Kentucky. She and I hugged each other and cried on each other's shoulders awhile, but I'll pass over the hugging and crying so that Un-Thor won't barf.
When we stopped the touchy-feely stuff, I said, "How did you happen to see me?"
"I was sitting on a hilltop and meditating to clear halos from my eyes when I heard something rush by and saw a glowing figure running faster than anyone else but I could run. I figured that it had to be a Tan, and it was."
I see a blank look on Par-On, who's still new to some things. When we Tani run really fast, we start radiating in a wavelength that earth-humans can't see, but we can. I suspect that it's infrared, but we'll have to test whether it is when the Work is well in hand.
"Did you say that you can see halos?" I asked Lona. "Wonderful! Your crystal-shaping gift is awaking!"
"I thought that it might be."
Recalling that Lona was nearly as old as I, I thought that her gift was awaking late. Talking with you others, though, I've learned that it can turn on as early as twelve or as late as fifteen. Early or late seems to make no difference to how strong the gift is.
"Haven't you tried viewing the memory-crystals?" I asked Lona.
She shook her head. "I wanted to learn to control the gift first. I was afraid of shorting them out, as I shorted out the entertainment center at my aunt's house."
I laughed. "Been there, done that, except that I erased hard-drives. The memory-crystals will stabilize your gift."
"Wonderful! Would you like to come home and view them with me?"
"I'd love to, but I'm on a deadline. I must deliver this box to Dr. Ventnor before he leaves to teach tomorrow morning."
Lona gave me a hopeful look. "Could I run to Columbus with you? You and I could talk on the way."
I gave her a look of disbelief. "Can you get away on the spur of the moment?"
She shrugged. "After blowing out the entertainment center, I'd best stay away from home tonight. Besides, Mom is tied up with her new boyfriend. She won't even notice that I'm gone. I can call on my cell phone in the morning to say that I spent the night with a friend."
I wonder whether the Colonel knows how lax security is in these parts, I thought. "Come on, then."
Lona and I set off east at an easy pace, maybe two hundred miles an hour -- a pace that let us hear each other's words over the wind in our face. "I gather that you've kept up your Tan speech," I said to Lona. "Can you still read the old books?"
She could. I learned of her life in what seemed to me one of the hippie communes of which I'd read, she learned of my regimented life under the Colonel's thumb, and I told her what I knew of Dala's life. Lona and I lamented not having found each other before. As Urbana and Paducah are just over two hundred miles apart, and both of us were fond of night running, we might often have passed each other unseen.
As dawn was rising, I knocked on Dr. Ventnor's back door. When he opened it, he took the box from me and said, "About time, Belle. What kept you?"
I pointed with my chin over my left shoulder. "I met a long-lost relative on the road."
Dr. Ventnor winced, taking in Lona, but forced out a grin. "Ah, well. Who found whom?"
Lona grinned back. "I found Mira. Two down, five to go."
Dr. Ventnor sighed. "Told Lonnie of Delia, did you, Belle? Well, come in, ladies. I was making breakfast for two, but I think that there's enough for three."
A hand goes up. "What became of the box?" Dala asks me.
"Dr. Ventnor locked it into a safe without offering to show it to Lona and me."
Fierce Kuma gives Dala a haughty look. "Un and I have seen what was in the box, but it'll be awhile before Mira gets around to talking of its mysterious contents, as she might say."
Par-On looks at Lona. "Could you tell us something of your life before you met Mira?"
"When my ship landed, I was taken in by Donald Stormgren and his then wife Brenda. They lived on a farm near Battle Creek, Michigan, and raised Halloween pumpkins and Christmas trees. The farm went bust after a few years, and Don and Brenda split up. Don went off to California, where he worked in a vineyard in Napa Valley, and Brenda took me to live with her sister in Urbana. Things were free and easy there, as Mira has let on."
Par frowns. "Mira mentioned your mother's boyfriend. Did she let him in on your secret?"
"She let none of her boyfriends in on it. She was a good mother in her own way: she kept me fed and clothed, helped me keep my secret, sent me to school, and took me to see Dr. Ventnor."
Dour, brooding Un-Thor raises a brow. "What did she teach you to do with your gifts?"
"Nothing, sad to say. What she taught me was to weave dreamcatchers, cast the Tarot and horoscopes, and raise organic vegetables. I doubt that any of those skills is useful to the Work."
Par smiles. "We'll always need vegetables, and you've no doubt learned much from Mira in the four years while you've known her."