Maya pushed her way through the men standing in
the aisle who were forcing oversized carry-ons into the overhead
bins. She hated planes. She ducked under the arm of an American
guy. He must be American. He was wearing blue jeans and a black
t-shirt and his pits told her it was not the first day for that
t-shirt. Jees, why didn't he slap some hand sanitizer on them to
kill what reeked.
It was slow going, but at least she didn't have to make it all the way to the back of the jet. She only had to go as far as 17B. She felt heartsick when she found her seat. There was a big fat guy in the A seat, and another one in the C seat. This was going to be a long flight. She sighed. It was a long haul anyway, Heathrow to LAX, but to have to sit between these two slobs. She looked around. The plane was full. There would be no empty rows in the back to stretch out on. FUCK.
Grunting, she tried to push her small flight bag up into the overhead, because there certainly wouldn't be any room for it under the seat. The overhead was already jammed full.
"May I see your ticket please?" said a clipped and professionally polite voice. She turned to face the stewardess and handed over her ticket.
"I'm sorry. This plane was overbooked. You will have to come with me." The stewardess did not wait for an answer, she just took the ticket and Maya's bag and stepped quickly along towards the doors at the front of the plane.
"But I have an appointment in Hollywood," Maya called after her. "It's all arranged. I can't miss this flight." She hurried in the stewardess's wake and pushed the odd fat ass in jeans out her way, calling and calling her protests. Eventually the stewardess seemed to hear her pleas, because she turned and almost pushed Maya down into a big seat and told her to wait there until her ticket was re-confirmed.
"Don't you hate flying?" cooed a familiar voice in the next seat.
"Wendy!" Maya cried out and crushed the woman's Armani suit with her hugs. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to give you this other ticket, business class, by the way, and this, your severance pay."
Maya opened the envelope and took out a cheque in pounds from the Upper Thames School Trust PTY and signed by Wendy.
"It's so large because it includes a retainer for one more job," Wendy continued.
"Oh no! Absolutely not."
"But dear, you are the only one I trust to do it."
"Do what?" asked Maya.
"Why to make sure that my new boss isn't a psycho. I mean, my job became quite enjoyable once the boss was out of the way."
"But the new guy will be hand-picked for the job for the very reason that he is a psycho. His job is to keep the psychos in power."
"That's what I mean. You are to make sure that he is no longer a psycho, I mean, after he has been confirmed in the appointment. It could actually be quite revolutionary. Think of it. The continuance of the gifted ruling elite being managed by a non-gifted CEO. Why, that would be like having a democratic country that is actually a democracy. Totally revolutionary."
"Are you sure you can pull it off?" questioned Maya, "I mean, he may not even want you as his executive assistant."
"Oh my dear, of course he will want me." She took a deep breath that made her silk blouse push out through her open suit jacket. "No matter who they choose. You see, I got to the top the old-fashioned way. I screwed my way up through the ranks."
"So, are you just here to give me the cheque, because they are closing the doors," observed Maya.
"Actually, I have a meeting in San Diego on Thursday, but I booked an earlier flight so that I could travel with you. We need to catch up. I haven't seen you since that day at Maud's house that didn't officially happen." Wendy broke off while the Business Class stewardess lowered their tables, and then presented each of them with a pre-flight glass of champagne.
Maya sipped and sighed, and stared dreamily out the window for a moment. At a random thought, she turned to Wendy. "Do you have a place to stay in L.A.? Because, like, my room there is huge."
"I would love to stay with you at Karen's house up above Laurel Canyon. Thank you for asking."
"I should have known you would know about Karen's house," Maya smiled.
"But there is a lot that I don't know. For instance, that afternoon next to St. Ann's Well in Buxton. Why did you swoon? You never did tell me what happened, you just zonked out of it, and then slept till morning."
"Oh, I was playing with a new crystal at the time." Maya fished down her skirt for her travel pouch and pulled out one of her three most treasured possessions. She showed it to Wendy. "By new I mean new to me, because as you can see by the bog iron cage it's a thousand years old. I, um, lifted it from Robin Hood's cave while you were um, distracting the old man."
"It looks like just another one of Maud's ancient crystals," Wendy said looking closely but not touching it. Maya didn't like it when you touched her crystals.
"Well, it isn't. Maud's are all, like, of a set from the Fens. From village seers. This one is different. It's from the Peaks, from that very cave."
"How did you know it was there?"
"Oh, I didn't. Not until I had the cave to myself and could flash my aura at full strength. Even then I thought I had just found a quartz vein. They are common in mining areas. The cave did have a quartz vein, and someone had been harvesting the crystals, like this one. This one, however, someone had put back. Interesting eh?"
"Well, um, not really," admitted Wendy. "I can't get anything out of the crystals the way you can. They are worthless to me. I prefer emeralds."
"Well, the first time I tried to dream with this crystal was when I was sitting by that hot spring. The memories leaped out at me so strongly that I guess that is why I swooned."
"I wrote down all that you said. Not much sense in it as I recall."
"Only the motherload, Wendy. I haven't even told Maud yet. She was so busy when I left, and so distracted, no thanks to Sir Doom. Oops, it's not wise to speak ill of the dead."
"This old thing. The motherload? Really, Maya? I am speaking to Maya, aren't I? Not to Anske or Roas?"
"Okay." Maya pulled up the silk cord around her neck and showed Wendy the crystal that was hung on it. "This crystal is a family heirloom that was brought to America by my ancestor, Britta, who had an aura and was a healer born in the Fens near to Maude's house, like, over two hundred years ago."
Maya held up her gloved left hand and flashed the strange iron ring at Wendy. "Britta, or perhaps her younger brother, Jon, also brought this other family heirloom. A bog iron signet ring. Very unusual and rare, but of no real value except as an heirloom. But they are my heirlooms, and that is why I allowed you to bring me to England. I wanted to find out like, more about these heirlooms, and through them, more about my own ancestry."
She dropped her new-to-her crystal into the ring hand so that crystal and ring were together. "This new crystal is the motherload because this ring and this crystal belonged to the same man. A man who also had an aura. A man named Raynar who lived a thousand years ago, and was the lover of a queen, and fought William the Conqueror."
Wendy smiled in comprehension, "And because both Raynar and Britta had auras, their crystals contain memories, like Anske's crystal does."
"Exactly. Isn't it exciting? How many generations is a thousand years? Like. fifty at least. This crystal contains the memories of my great- great- fifty times- great- grandfather. And because of my own aura, I can be a part of his life, and he a part of mine. And that is without all the other historical connections that Maud and I discovered along the way."
"Like the Anske and Roas connection."
"Yes, they were two of his wives." Maya's voice was getting more and more excited. "And all three of them knew John Smith, you know, Little John, and Hereward the Wake. Not only that, but Maud is right now translating three rare and forbidden books by famous noble women of the same era, and those books also mention Raynar, and John, and Hereward."
Wendy's smile was getting wide. Not so much because of all these connections being unraveled, but because Maya was beaming at her, and her heart was filling up to overflow with love. "That is the queen connection."
"Yes, Saint Margaret, married to the King of Scotland, elder sister of King Edgar of England, mother of Queen Edith of England. A woman who loved Raynar for decades, and loved him so much that eventually she cuckolded her husband and had Edith by him. How romantic. I can't wait until I have quiet time enough to dream with his crystal, and watch it all happen."
"I still don't get how the crystal ended up in Robin Hood's cave."
"Oh Wendy. Raynar was Robin Hood."
"Fasten your seat belt, please," said the stewardess as she passed by picking up champagne glasses while doing her final check.
THE END of The Crystal Witch
Be sure to watch for the next in the series: Maya's Aura - Destroy the Tea Party
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MAYA'S AURA - The Crystal Witch by Skye Smith