Kate rouses and blinks her eyes as she reflects. My Aunt Sophia and Davide. Lucía’s loved ones seem familiar. It is as if Lucía’s aunt and beloved life companion have returned to her in her present life.
Still in a hypnagogic state and with heavy eyes, Kate closes them again as once again she hears Gaius’s throaty, grandfatherly voice.
‘Some of you choose to reincarnate into the same biological family, where you are literally your own ancestors. Time and time again, you reincarnate together, changing roles to experience what the other has experienced in a former role. If, in one relationship, you enjoyed a close bond as father and daughter, in your next incarnation you may choose to emerge as husband and wife. The daughter in the earlier lifetime may manifest as the husband in the present lifetime and the father as the wife. Your personal scenario depends on emotional bonds and circumstances and what you choose to experience. It’s common for souls of family members to travel together, as do friends who share close bonds; although not biologically related, nonetheless they’re part of a soul family.
‘In your next incarnation, you may meet more than one kindred spirit. As kindred souls you may enjoy balanced harmonious relationships with a partner, a close friend and a member of your biological family at the same time.’
◊.◊.◊
Kate wakes, catches her breath, comprehends, and is amazed. She rings Julianne at once.
‘Pick up! Pick up!’ Impatient, Kate almost shouts at the phone. At last she hears her best friend’s cheerful voice at the other end and sighs with relief.
‘Hi you, how are ya?’ Julianne says.
Kate can’t contain herself. ‘We were lovers!’
Silence. ‘What?’
‘You were my boyfriend in a past life. Your name was Davide and we lived in Italy. You were an artist who I ran away with and we lived happily ever after by the seaside.’ Kate pauses. ‘We grew old together,’ she adds.
‘You know, I don’t really believe in that. My religious mother has always argued against the theory of reincarnation.’ Julianne’s voice sounds thin.
Kate takes a deep breath. ‘Does your religious mother know that reincarnation was included in both the Old and the New Testaments, but that Emperor Constantine removed the entries? He thought that if people believed in reincarnation, they’d think it would give them more time to seek their salvation, and he wouldn’t have the same control over them, so he had all the original versions destroyed.’
‘How on earth do you know that?’
‘I’m not just a pretty face.’ Another silence. ‘Okay, I Googled it,’ Kate says. ‘Anyway. Hear me out. You’ve always had an affinity with Italy, right? When you went there with your sister, you knew your way around even though you’d never been there, and you spoke to people in Italian when you’ve never spoken it before.’
‘Yes, but I thought it was because I’d learnt French in school.’
‘French is very different to Italian. When I was reading about past-life regression, it had a chapter on patients who, under hypnosis, fluently spoke languages they had no knowledge of before. It’s called xenoglossy.’ The long pause indicates that Julianne is considering this. ‘Doesn’t it suggest to you that maybe you were Italian in a past life?’ Kate bites her lip, waiting for Julianne to say something. She absolutely wants to believe that she and her bestie, who she has known since she was eleven and Julianne was ten, were in a past life together.
‘Doesn’t seem plausible. But yes, I’d like to believe that. Tell me about me. About us, I mean.’
Kate smiles and gets comfortable.
◊.◊.◊
Halfway through a meal of lentil and cashew-nut loaf, Kate comprehends who her Aunt Sophia is in this life — her niece who is only a few years younger than her. She picks up the phone to ring her to organise a visit, then stops short. Her niece has been through a lot lately, so she decides to put it off for a later time. She thinks about her niece. Theirs is more a friendship than an aunt/niece relationship. We’ve changed roles.
Kate also realises that she can see a likeness between her niece and Aunt Sophia as well as between Julianne and Davide.
She curls her fingers at her temples and flicks them open, making an explosive-type movement. ‘Wow!’
◊.◊.◊
Two weeks pass before Kate has another opportunity to hypnotise herself again. When she does, she feels as though it may be her last venture, and this saddens her.
◊.◊.◊
She applies the headphones and presses play. This time Kate finds herself in France again, in the twentieth century. She is a male.