A Daughter of Light(A Light onto the World)

Chapter 23

 Marimar

Chapter 23

“Excuse me, sir.  Where is the group, The Visionaries, lecturing?” Papa asks the man at the desk.  

“It’s in the main conference room.  Just go down the hall and go through the first door on your right,” the guy says, eyeing us like we are a group of freaks from a side-show.  A few weeks ago I’d probably have thought the same.

“Thank you,” Papa says.

We step into a large room with a stage on the far end.  There are hundreds of people here.  And we’re twenty minutes early.  I can’t believe so many people are into this.  We should have gotten here even earlier.  We take a seat in the second to last row.  I take a seat next to Sage.  In the back of the stage is a large screen and to the side is a laptop on top of a podium.  On the left side of the stage there is a long table with all sorts of weird gadgets.  To the left of the stage there is a closed door leading to who knows where and on the opposite side is the exit.  Above the mouth of the entrance hangs a clock.

The room becomes even more pact as the presentation is about to start.  There are people of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds; all bound by a love of the paranormal.  Seated behind me is this massive biker dude talking to this dweeb about a time when he thought he had some paranormal experience.  The biker dude looks like he could squish the dweeb like a bug.  If that doesn’t say it all then I don’t know what does.

I turn back around and turn my attention to the clock.  One minute to go.  The door next to the stage opens and out comes the paranormal group.  Everyone begins to applaud as they make their way onto the stage.  A close up image of them is projected on the screen behind them.  They all look around their late twenties or early thirties.  They are wearing identical headsets with little microphones attached to them.  They’re a rag-tag group, as diverse in personality as most of the people here.  I don’t remember any of their names, but what I do remember is the tall mulatto women is a medium and the leader of the group.  She is very curvy, with brown curly hair and big brown-sparkling eyes that seem to look through you and into your soul.  She’s clothed in a flowing skirt and a lilac top with frills around the neck line.  She is adorned in jewelry.  She takes her place at the head of the stage; the rest of the team follows behind.

“Welcome,” she announces, in a sweet yet booming voice.  “For those who don’t know me, my name is Calista.  I am the lead investigator and clairvoyant/medium of this group.  Behind me are our investigators, Lawson and Gunner.”  She gestures to them with her hand. 

Lawson is a burly man.  He has long dirty-blond hair slicked back into a ponytail, a scraggly beard, dark green eyes, and his arms are coated with tatts.  His garb is a pair of ripped jeans and a black t-shirt with a skull on it.  Gunner is of a stocky build.  He’s a Latino.  He has black piercing eyes and a crooked nose.  He is also wearing jeans, but his are falling down his ass, showing off his boxers.  He has on a heavy green sweater with a large number seven in white, and a red cap that he’s wearing “gangsta” style.  Hanging around his neck, over his sweater, is a gaudy cross.  But it’s not like any cross I’ve seen, there seems to be something else scrawled on it.  Both men come across as cocky.

Are we to be reduced by desperation to enlist their help?  I’d much rather be left alone in a room with the biker dude behind me than be left in a room in the dark with either of them.

“Our technicians, Adelaide and Allan Avery.”   Calista gestures to a young couple who are both holding hands. 

Something glints off Adelaide’s hand; I think it’s a wedding band.  Adelaide has straight blond hair that she has pulled back into sleek bun, light blue eyes magnified by her bright pink glasses, and a pair of white shorts and a pink buttoned up blouse.  Allan is Asian; his jet-black hair is spiked up.  He has on a pair of big grayish-blue glasses that magnify his light-brown eyes.  He is tall and thin.  He has on a white shirt with blue stripes going across and a pair of skinny jeans.