The Invitation

Shannon was startled when she heard the woman's voice. Since it was so cold outside she was surprised that anyone would be out walking around unless they had to. Shannon turned to greet her new friend, Myrtle Green.

"I was taking my walk and saw you leave the library. I never saw someone look so upset! You look angry enough to spit! What's wrong?" Myrtle asked. Shannon looked at the old woman in her dark tweed coat and handmade aqua-green knitted scarf. "Oh, I don't know, things are just all going wrong," Shannon told her. "I can't tell which end is up and which is down. My parents don't trust me. Dan may not make it and people keep trying to hurt me. I'd say that about sums up my life."

"Ah, I see, you are feeling like the world is out to get you. Well, I assure you it's not. There are some bad things at work in this town and I'm working to get at the bottom of it. For starters, you can find the information you are looking for at the local newspaper office. They have the original copies of all of the towns newspaper on microfilm there," Myrtle said smiling. "Yeah, I guess that would make sense seeing as they are the printers of the paper," Shannon said laughing a little at her own stupidity. "Things are not as they seem right now and I'm not trying to be cryptic. Your visions are confusing, I know. I've had precognition for much of my life, starting at about the age you are now. As I grew older my visions became clearer and I started seeing and finally hearing spirits. Our gifts may change as we do. Denying that they exist will only make things more confusing," she said softly.

Shannon sat in the swing trying to understand what Myrtle was telling her. "So, I'm supposed to embrace the spirits? I thought that some spirits could be bad," Shannon said questioningly. "Well, you take the good with the bad. There are ways to deal with the bad ones and we'll get to that later. What you need to focus on is why are those murdered people reaching out to you across the dimensions? Something must be terribly important for them to try and contact a living person. Are you religious?" she asked Shannon. "Well, I go to St. Ann's church a couple times a month, if that counts," Shannon said. "Well, if you're Catholic then you and your family already believe in ghosts. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, am I right?" Myrtle asked. "I guess I never thought of it that way. My mom would like to hear that, I think," Shannon said with a smile.