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Trinity
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“Okay now, tell me what happened.” I encouraged her to start talking. I didn't want her to feel overly pressured, but I needed to hear what had happened, what was going on. As a mother, and as a queen, I needed to know about it all.
“Well, Mommy, the magic things started to happen before you fell asleep. There was this bad lady's voice that kept talking to me. Sometimes she would try to sound like you, but I knew she wasn't you. And she said bad things about you and me. She was not nice at all.” She must have heard Hekate. I can't believe she tried to get to my little girl. “I didn't listen to her. I didn't like her. But after she talked to me, I started to hear other people. The other people I knew were ghosts. They were dead, but that other lady wasn't one of them. She was a bad lady. The dead people were not bad, but not all of them were nice. I can't see them, not like my friends, but I might see them some day. I wanted to help the ghosts. I wanted to make them all a little less sad, but then you went to sleep. I didn't help any yet. I feel so bad.” I saw a tear fall down her cheek as she pouted. This look on her face, these tears, all of it was more than I could handle at the moment. They were so painful. Why? Why was my little girl so heartbroken right now? I needed to help her. I needed to stop her from feeling like this.
“I think they would understand. And we can still help them together. Maybe your friends can help you with them.” I wanted to help her to stop crying. I couldn't even wipe the tear from her eye right now.
“Maybe.” She nodded and gave a forced smile. “The dead people kept talking to me, they still do. But they aren't bad. And they gave me the idea to see you. I wanted to see where you were in the 'underwear' world. And so, I talked to Charlie and Chloe about it. They agreed to help me. It worked too. We saw you. But then, like I said before, I trapped Daddy, Uncle Noah, Uncle Trevor and Athair mòr in the room. No one was able to come in here for a week. I was a bad girl.”
.....
“No, honey, you weren't. That is how magic is sometimes. You can't predict what it will do. You did good. And I am so proud of you.” I put my cheek on her hair and held her as best as I could. “Do the dead people scare you, Tally?” I needed to ask her a few more questions.
“No, Mommy. They are just lost people. A lot of them were scared to move on. Others had been alive two times and remembered that they died two times. They didn't want to see how bad the 'underwear' world was now. They know it's bad. Why is it bad, Mommy? I don't understand.” Now, how was I going to explain this to Talia?
“It is a place that people go to when they die, sweetheart. The good people get happy places, but the bad people get-.”
“Get bad places?” She finished for me.
“Yes, baby. And that is why some people are scared to go there. They don't know where they will be.” I didn't want to scare her. I was not going to tell her anything about hell. Not yet anyway.
“That is sad. They shouldn't be scared. Someone should make it a better place. Sometimes people do bad things even though they don't really want to. Like Fiona at school. She pulled Callie's hair because she was jealous. Callie got to be the special helper for the day, and I saw how sad that made Fiona. She isn't a bad person, but her emotions got to her. I know that bad people are out there, Mommy, but Fiona isn't a bad girl.” She had a better grasp on the world than I thought she would have at this age. She was so smart.
“Yes baby, you're right. But some people do those little bad things and think they make them a bad person. And that makes them scared. When people are scared or angry, or even jealous, it can make them do bad things. It's hard to know sometimes if someone is good or bad because of those little moments. And because of that, they are scared to move on like those people that you talked to.”
“I don't want them to be scared, Mommy. Someone should fix it.” She wasn't smiling anymore. She looked so sad.
“I know, baby girl. I want someone to fix it too. Maybe one day Mommy will talk to the people in charge and then I can tell them that they need to fix it all. We all want the people to be happier and we want them to not be scared to move on.”
“Not all of them need to be fixed. I know that there are really bad people. Like the bad lady that Mommy fought before. And that bad lady that talked to me and said those bad things. They are really bad people. I don't want those bad people to be free to come and get me.” The fear flashed across her eyes now. I could tell that she remembered what had happened before. She was so little when I went to battle against Solanum but she somehow remembered that battle.
I had to wonder how much of it she knew about. Just how much did she remember? Or did someone actually tell her about it all? How did she even know anything about it?
“Talia, what bad lady that Mommy fought are you talking about? I don't know who you mean.” I probed gently to get her to tell me more.
“You don't remember, Mommy?” She looked at me with such disbelief that I nearly laughed. She must think that her mommy was so stupid or had no memory at all.
“Well, Talia sweetheart, Mommy has been through a lot. I think I just need you to remind me about it a little bit.” I gave her a smile that said, 'please forgive me, I'm silly'. She giggled and nodded her head at me.
“OK, Mommy. I will tell you.”
That little giggle of her was so adorable. Normally, I couldn't get enough of it, but I was more interested in her words at the moment. Right now, I had to pay attention and I couldn't get distracted. In truth, I felt like I was sitting around a campfire listening to an epic tale. And that made me think about the other Trinity that had been in my head. Now that I was home, I would never hear her talk to me again. That was both good and sad at the same time.
“Okay Mommy, the bad lady that I mean is the one from Athair mòr and Aunt Glory's weddings. Well, it was just Athair mòr's wedding since Aunt Glory didn't get married then. The big evil bad lady came up in the sky and she started talking about all the mean things that she wanted to do. She had filled up the whole great big sky with her head. That made it get darker. She was really big and really mean. I think her name was Sally and Mum. I think that is a funny name by the way. I never heard something like that before. Anyway, when the big bad lady was talking and being mean to Athair mòr and Aunt Glory, that was when you stepped in, Mommy. You were strong and brave and made her go away. After that, me, Reagan and Rika were taken home and Mommy and Daddy were gone for a little while. Not like you were gone this time. And when you came back you were sad.”
I couldn't believe my ears. She was talking about it like she remembered it all herself. This didn't sound like a story that someone told her. Unless maybe it was Reagan or Rika that had told her.
“Talia, baby girl, who told you about that day? Was it you brother? Maybe your sister?” Though at the time Reagan and Rika were still so little, only the same age Talia is now. How would they have been able to remember all of this to tell her about it? I was at a loss here. And I was certain that I was about to hear something that was going to blow my mind.
“No one told me about it, Mommy.” She giggled that cute little laugh of hers again. “I was there, silly. I remember it all happening. I remember her up in the sky and I remember how scary it all was.” She was telling me the truth. I could tell that she was telling me the truth. But that didn't make any sense. She was just a baby.
“Tally, honey, you were only nine months old when Athair mòr got married. How do you remember that? How do you know about what happened?” Could she hear the shock in my voice? Did she know what it meant?
“I remember it Mommy. I remember it all. I remember the first time that Mommy smiled at me. I remember the first time that Daddy held me. I remember the first time that Reagan and Rika held me in their arms when I was a baby. I remember everything.”
Talia was so proud of herself right now. She was happily telling me that she remembered every single moment of her life. If this was true, that made Talia one of the rarest people on the planet. Even more rare than she already was with her genetic background. This meant that Talia had Hyperthymesia [1].
“That is amazing, Talia. See? I told you earlier that you were amazing. That just proves it. You are quite the special little girl.”
“Maybe.” She smiled happily at me. “Okay. Well, I told you about the bad lady. And that bad lady I don't want to see again. She was scary. I don't want her to get out of the bad 'underwear' world. But I think that the mostly good people that do little bad things should be helped. Can I help them Mommy? Is there something that I can do to help them?” That sweet little voice of hers made me want to smile. My little Talia was so sweet.
[1] Hyperthymesia, or highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), is a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail.
