A Smile Between Heaven And Hell

In The Beginning

Chapter 1

There is a soul. I know this to be truth. Well okay, maybe not a soul but something that binds us to this planet that we can't describe or maybe even fathom completely. I know this because I can save someone no matter how badly they are hurt or how closely they stand to deaths door. I can pull them back as long as they don't pass the threshold. Take Peter Wilkinson for example. Peter was a 6 year old kid who had leukemia and wasn't going to make it more than a few more hours. He'd fought this for 2 years and seemed to have beaten it back it came back fast and hard and he needed a miracle. He was airlifted by the Agency to the white room facility. He was brought into the room and I was given the go ahead. Just as I placed my hand on his chest and head, he flat lined. But I simply smiled because he was still there. He hadn't embraced it yet and I was able to pull him back. He was transferred to the hospital barely alive. But over the next few days and months he got better. The cancer went into remission and suddenly he was like every other little boy out on the soccer field the following fall.

I wanted to go watch one of his games, but as usual the Agency told me it was too dangerous for me to be out. I've only known these walls and the few places that I'm sanctioned to go. I was brought to the Agency when I was twelve by my adopted father. Not that I believe he had any choice.

When I was six years old my dog was hit by a car. The driver peeled away leaving a heap of blood and bones that was barely alive. I ran to him without concern for my own safety and gently lifted his head into my arms. He looked at me trying to wag his tail. The look in his eyes will forever be burned into my brain. As I lifted his face to mine and ours eyes met I saw the pain and question in them. What did I do wrong? I'm sorry for whatever it was.

As my parent came running out of the house I felt it build. I closed my eyes so I didn't have to look into the eyes of this hurting creature and watch it die. But the image of him being hit and the look he gave me just moments ago were there to greet me in the darkness of my eyelids. I didn't want him to die. I didn't want my dog to die!

And then I screamed.

Something primal came out of me and a force I didn't even know existed passed between my dying puppy and I. There was a blinding light and a thunderclap. I felt my body surge with a power that held me in place for what seemed like a lifetime. There was no pain, no sadness, no joy. I simply lived a moment of pure being. But in that moment I tapped the energy and sent if flowing into my dog. In later years, once I learned more to control my ability I'd open this door slowly but this first time was nothing but raw energy pouring out.

And as suddenly as it began, it was over. My mother swung me into her arms and raced for the house. I screamed for my father to save my dog as we made it inside. The last image I saw was my father standing frozen looking at the dead body of my dog. I sobbed into my mothers shoulder until my father walked in behind us with my dog. Alive! He was happily wagging his tail and licking my fathers face up and down. But how? My six year old brain couldn't yet comprehend what I'd done. It only knew my dog was alive and happy again. My father put the dog down and took me out of my mothers arms. He placed me on the floor with the puppy in a strange way, keeping the maximum amount of room between myself and him as he lifted and lowered me. Again all I cared about was hugging my puppy and giggling away as he licked my hands and face. I didn't notice my father backing my mother slowly out of the room. Or them shutting the door and the conversation that ensued. Dinner was quiet that evening and my parents seemed different somehow towards me.

From that day forth neither of my parents looked at me the same. Something was different about the hugs they gave and how tight they held my hand as we crossed the street. However they still loved me and over time my mother and I grew close again. My father tried, I saw him try, but in the end, he couldn't get past what he'd seen.