Mariel's Magic

Chapter 9. Mariel's Friends

Mendocino County, occupying nearly four thousand square miles of California's northern coast, became the new home of Mariel, her parents, Hana, Trista, and Jennifer. Surrounded by hundreds of acres of forest and meadows, they lived in a sprawling ranch house located east of Fort Bragg. The majority of Mendocino County was sparsely occupied forest, and this sylvan paradise became the new sanctuary in which to raise Mariel, who was now seven.

As they arrived in their new home for the first time, the air was thick with the scent of wildflowers, tall trees, and powerful earth magic. It was Hana who advised them to move there. Lacking a monastery or spiritual retreat to nurture the child's native magic, she chose this as a place where Mariel could dance through the meadows and along the forest paths, giving free rein to her powers without drawing too much attention.

It was a large house surrounded by five acres, and the property included a barn, outbuildings, fences corrals and pastures. All of this was provided as a gift to them from Dave Sawathi, a wealthy CEO of a technology company. He was one of the few that knew of the magic that Mariel, Trista and Hana practiced.

Sawathi came to know of their magic when his young son was gravely ill and unlikely to survive for more than a few more weeks. The boy had been brought home to die peacefully with this family. Jonathan learned of this and confided in Sawathi that his daughter, who was about to turn seven, and her teacher had certain healing powers. The man was desperate and met with Mariel and Hana. He was immediately convinced of their power and allowed them to visit their home.

The room in which the sick boy lay was dark, except for two small candles, one on either side of the boy's bed. As Sawathi and his wife watched, Mariel and Hana wove a coverlet of white magic that floated gently down onto the boy, who was sleeping fitfully. Immediately he relaxed underneath the glow of the sparkling coverlet. Hana instructed Mariel to take his right hand as she took his left. Both closed their eyes and began to sing a tonal song that filled the room with deep vibrations, much deeper than would be expected as coming from the child and the old woman. Sawathi and his wife could feel the sound moving through them. As they watched, the glow of the coverlet intensified, and was so bright they had to close their eyes. Even with eyes closed they could see the pure light.

The light blazed for twenty minutes as Mariel and Hana continued singing. Then the light faded and the song became a nearly inaudible murmur. Finally, they let go of the boy's hands.

"Please turn the lights on," said Hana.

They did so and saw that the two were on their knees, on either side of the bed, looking exhausted. They looked at the bed and saw that their boy was awake and was smiling at them. They went to him and hugged him.

"Hi," he said weakly.

"Hello, how are you feeling," his mother asked.

"OK, I guess. I'm not so tired. I feel kind of hungry."

Sawathi and his wife looked at the other two, stunned. "He's better? He's healed?" asked Sawathi.

"The healing has begun," said Hana. "He will need to stay in bed and eat well for two or three weeks. It will take the body that long to heal itself. So, make him stay in bed, even if he thinks he can get up. After two or three weeks, he will be fine."

"What did you do. Is this magic" Is this God?" asked the wife.

"It is what we call white magic," Hana replied. "Now, be warned, you will want to tell people what happened here, but you will not be able to. You will remember everything that happened, and you will know the truth, but if you try to speak of it to anyone outside this room, you will not be able to. I tell you this because you will try to talk about it or write about it, but you will find yourself unable to do so. Our magic must be kept secret, and this is how we keep it secret."