Chapter 2 New Orleans

Chapter 2

New Orleans

I guess my decision to go to school in New Orleans could have been construed as irrational.  I definitely jumped the gun by basing my future on one uncertain vision.  I honestly feel that I am supposed to be in New Orleans and it is going to feel more like home than Woodland ever did.

My Mother and Father weren’t exactly happy with the decision, but they knew I needed to grow up and leave the comfort and safety of my home in Rhode Island.  I needed to be on my own and find myself.  My whole life I have been looking for answers and now, being in New Orleans, I will get what I have prayed for. 

I simply just want to know who I am and what I am.  Clairvoyant has been my only answer for such a long time. I feel like there is more to me than that.  My visions are coming stronger and my senses are incredible.  I get scared sometimes because the energies affect me more and more physically every day.  The only thing I could compare it to is being electrically shocked.  The shocks are mostly a tingling feeling that waves through my body. Every inch of me knows that there are stronger energies out there that aren’t going to be as gentle and that aren’t as benevolent. 

The ride to the airport was a quiet one.  I just wanted to think about what I was actually doing.  I have been sheltered by my parents because of my supposed sickness for so long that I am completely unaware of the outside world, and completely out of touch with reality.  I guess being naïve will either kill me or make me stronger.  Stronger is what I am aiming for.

“You ok back there.”  Carol said in a concerned tone.

“I- I’m fine”

“We can turn right around and go home if you’re not sure about this.”

“No, I have to do this.”

“I know baby, I know.”

We pulled up to the curb at the baggage drop off.  My parents quietly helped me with my bags and my Mother went through a list of everything that she packed for me, making sure we didn’t forget anything.  I could tell that my Father didn’t want to make eye contact with me for the shear desire that I not see him cry.

“Alright kiddo, I think we got everything.”  My Dad said in a deep breath.

“Dad, I will be fine.  My roommate will be at the airport waiting for me.  She seems like a great girl and she is a native so I am sure she will give me all the warnings and need-to-knows.”

“You are right……just take care of yourself, and if you need anything or want to come home we will be in New Orleans as fast as you can say root canal.”

You can definitely tell that my dad is dentist through is constant dental innuendos.  They drive me crazy but somehow I love them and I am going to miss his quirkiness. 

I turned and grabbed my carry on off the ground and looked at my Mom. Tears were rolling down her face.  I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in my eyes as well.  I also couldn’t help but thinking that somewhere deep inside that this may be the last time, for a long time that I would see them.  I knew and I am pretty sure I think they knew too because the good-bye was long and very emotional.  We all hugged and cried.  I falsely reassured them that everything was going to be fine because in all actuality I was not so sure. 

As I turned around and walked away, I tried to close myself off from their energies.  All I needed to do was add to my own pain and guilt from leaving the only parents I have ever known.  I kept my senses very close to me on the plane ride.  I didn’t want to feel the nervousness and negative thoughts of the other passengers.  I had my own issues with heights and flying.  I was also thankful that the plane was not crowded at all and no one sat by me. I just relaxed and stretched out.  I closed the window, put on my mp3 player on the most soothing music possible, and tried to drift off to sleep. 

Closing myself off to energies and visions really helped me relax because the flight seemed really short.  Before I knew it we were circling New Orleans and ready to land.  Scared as hell, I did lift the window shade and took a peek at my new home.  It looked exactly how it did in my vision.

Since the plane landed, I had one visions.  New Orleans has already lived up to my expectations as an extremely alive place.  I felt it as soon as I got off the plane.  Neither of my visions were clear and concise, but they were very disturbing.  The first one happened while I was walking through the terminal and saw all the people.  So many people were surrounded by a weird glow.  This has never happened before.  I have never seen someone’s energy, but I have felt it.  There was so much to take in.  Then something happened.  Everything got really blurry.  I assumed that I would just fall over and go into a seizure-like state, but I didn’t.  My eyes shut and I felt as if I was floating through the airport at an unreasonably fast pace.  It felt like I was just running right through people and being pulled toward something. Then I saw myself standing there with my eyes closed.  I had a total out of body experience.  As I was staring at myself, I felt something hit me so hard in the stomach that it knocked the wind right out of me.  An enormous amount of electrical current went through me.  I was sure that I was in the middle of the airport terminal twitching and looking like I belonged in a mental hospital.  Then I heard my name and snapped right out of it.  I was still just standing there.  No one was crowding around me or trying to give me CPR.  I felt that I was starting to gain control of my gift. 

I looked behind me and saw a girl.  She was gesturing towards me and yelling my name.  I could recognize her from the picture she sent me.  It was my new roommate Erica.  She was absolutely gorgeous and exotic looking.  She had gorgeous chocolate skin and dark curly hair.  She got closer towards me and I noticed her amazingly gorgeous gold colored eyes and perfectly white friendly smile.  My Dad’s a dentist so I definitely notice teeth.  She smiled at me and I immediately felt safe for some reason.

“Sarah…..Sarah Benes?” 

“Yes, I’m Sarah.  You must be Erica.”

“Oh my God girl, it is so nice to finally have you here.  You are so much more gorgeous than you pictures.  Welcome to the Big Easy!”

“Thank you so much for picking me up.”

“What are roomies for?  Anyway, you are going to love our apartment!  It is so eclectic and different!”

“I am excited.”

“You look sort of nervous.”

“Oh, yeah well, is it that obvious.”

“Girl you are shaking.”

“I am?  I guess I am.”

“Don’t worry; this place is not as scary as everyone makes it out to be.  I mean you do have your locals, crazies, and freaks, but who’s to say we all aren’t a little like that. “

“That’s a good way to look at it”

After all she did have a point.  I haven’t even got out of the airport yet and I have seen more different and strange things in 5 minutes than I have seen in 18 years.  And I definitely could proclaim to be just as crazy and weird than anyone in this city. 

“Let’s get your bags and get out of this airport, its giving me a bad vibe for some reason.”

“Bad vibe.” 

“Yeah, sometimes I just get a bad feeling about places.  It may be due to the fact that I hate airports, airplanes, and flying.”

“Yeah, you and me both.”

“By the way, how was your flight?”

“Good actually.  I slept.”

We picked up my bags and headed to a cab that she had waiting.  I really don’t know a lot about Erica.  I know that she grew up in New Orleans.  She and her Mother had left after Katrina and stayed with family in North Carolina until her house was rebuilt.  Her mother is a business owner in the French Quarters.  I never really asked what kind of business but I know Erica said she would never work there to spare herself the embarrassment. Her father died in a fire when she was 10, so it has been she and her mother ever since.

  It was pretty remarkable how Erica and I got paired.  I never thought of myself as the dorm room type so I decided to live off campus.  I definitely wanted a roommate.  The University of New Orleans had this matching program that took you through a questionnaire and depending on your answers, they matched you with a roommate.  We contacted each other through e-mail and phone and hit it off.  She seemed very open-minded.  That was number one on my roommate wish list.  I mean someone would have to be open-minded to be roommates with a clairvoyant on some sort of unknown mission. 

The cab ride was pretty quick.  Our apartment is right outside the French Quarter and close to central New Orleans.  This was the perfect location because I didn’t have a car. I was depending solely on the public transportation system.  As we pulled up to the house, I couldn’t believe it.  The outside looked like something you would see in a book.  It was a two-level building painted in a pastel blue color.  The top level had a balcony painted white as well as the doors.  We had the top level apartment.  I was  excited to see the inside.  Erica and I ran upstairs like two excited children on Christmas morning.  We opened the white door at the top of the wooden, creaky steps and walked into our new place.  Erica had already been here moving some things in, but she wanted to wait until I arrived to pick rooms, which I thought was very thoughtful. 

The place was amazing.  It was very open.  The middle and focal point of the apartment was the large living room.  It had an amazing brick fire place and gorgeous cherry wooden floors.  Off to the right was the extremely small kitchen, which I didn’t mind because I couldn’t cook anyways.  Between the kitchen and one bedroom was the bathroom which was painted the coolest red color I had ever seen.  I never thought of red to be a bathroom color but it did look amazing.  The back bedroom was very big and had a huge window overlooking the small and unexciting back yard. The walls were painted this outlandish orange color which was texturized and it faded into purple.  The closet was huge in that room.  To the left of the orange room was the front bedroom and it was much smaller.  It was painted this grayish blue color with white trim.  This room was the room with the French doors that leaded out to the balcony.  The balcony overlooked the busy street and also housed and cute little swing.  I knew this was the room I wanted, which worked out because I could tell Erica wanted the orange room with the huge closet. 

“Are you sure you are ok with the room.”

“Of course I am.  I don’t really have that many clothes to fill that immense closet and I sort of like the muted blue color.  It’s very relaxing to me.”

“Sarah, I mean, I know you were smart from our e-mail conversations, but you do not talk like you are 18 years old.”

“Is that bad?”

“No!  It is so refreshing.  You are truly a unique soul.  I totally get that from you.”

“You don’t even know how unique.” I mumbled under my breath.

After we got my bags all settled in my room, I wanted to go check out the neighborhood and Erica wanted to do some shopping for the apartment, which wasn’t a bad idea because I needed bedroom furniture as soon as possible. 

We walked the 8 blocks to the French Quarters.  I was like a kid in a candy store.  Everything had such a great energy.  There was so much history good and bad. I felt it with all of my senses.  I decided just to stop and take it all in for a second.

“Sarah, are you ok.”

“Yeah, I am just taking this all in.”

“It’s amazing, isn’t it? I could just imagine what it’s like seeing this place for the first time.”

“Especially me, I haven’t really been anywhere.”

“So you were held captive in Rhode Island for 18 years?”

“Sort of.  I was sick, or so they thought.”

“Sick?  Why?  With what?  You look healthy to me.”

“I am very healthy.  Maybe we should talk about this later.”

“Please tell me you are not contagious.”

“No.  Definitely not contagious.  No worries.  It is just complicated.”  I laughed.

“Ok but you gotta tell me when we get home.”

“You have to promise me something.  You have to promise you won’t think I am crazy and move out.”

“I am definitely not moving out of our bomb pad girl.”

As we continued in a couple of antique furniture stores, I finally found a beautiful rod iron canopy bed.  I have always wanted a bed like that.  I could drape some silk material from the top.  It was absolutely perfect.  It also had a matching armoire.  It looked like something that dated back to the 1800’s. 

“Erica, I have to have this.  There is so much history here.”

“Furniture has history.”  She looked at me weird with one eyebrow up.

“Everything has a history and a certain energy.  I am definitely supposed to have this.”

“Wow girl, you really are unique. How much is it?”

“$2,000”

“Jesus! There is a Wal-Mart just outside of town.  I can get you a whole bedroom, living room, and décor there.”

“I know.  I have enough from my savings to cover it.  I am just going to have to get a job really soon.”  I laughed.

“It is really beautiful though.  Now we just got to pick the perfect décor.”  She said wistfully.

“You are really quite the decorator aren’t you?”

“I am. I want to be an interior designer, but my Mother is convinced I have another purpose on this earth, like saving the world or something.”

“Leave it to parents to put that kind of pressure on a teenager.”

“I know, huh.” She said looking at me agreeing totally with my observation.

We went to the sales person and I purchased my furniture.  Since it was early enough in the day they could deliver it by the evening.  I was so excited.  I had never made such a big purchase.  It sounds a bit trivial, but it was a big step for me. 

Erica took me to this linen store she raved about to pick up a comforter, sheets, and other décor for our new rooms.  She picked out this White silk comforter for my room with light blue silk accent pillows.  I couldn’t have picked anything better myself.  We also went to this boutique to pick out some pictures to hang on the walls.  The pictures I picked were of nature.  I picked a black and white photo of a beach with the waves crashing off the sand and rocks.  It gave me a feeling of peace and relaxation.  I picked another picture of hands wrapped around a long stemmed red rose.  The hands were in black and white and the rose was in color.  This picture gave me a feeling of desire and want.  Like the hands touched the rose and the rose went from black and white into pure color.  Like the person’s hands had the power to make life from a dark lifeless object. 

After my long, first day in New Orleans, I was ready to go back home and settle in.  Erica had a lot of furniture because she had lived on her own before.  We had a chocolate brown futon in the living room with baby blue accent pillows, a round cherry coffee table, and a couple of chairs that only served for decorative purposes because they clearly didn’t look comfortable.  As a present, my parents got us flat screen TV which arrived the day before I got there. 

The movers arrived with my furniture several hours later.  They were nice enough to assemble everything and put my mattress on the frame.  I draped my white silk material from the canopy and put my sheets and comforter on my bed.  I started to unpack and hang my clothes up.  I opened the French doors to catch some of the evening breeze.  The air must have triggered something because I had a vision. 

This vision was the most powerful yet.  It hit me like a gust of wind as soon as the doors opened, like something was waiting outside my door, pushed it open, knocking me to the ground.  I saw 7 dark shadows coming through the doors to my room. They felt like they wanted to pull me outside but something made them stop and drop me to the ground.  I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was so bright.  There was a feeling of safeness and protection after that.  Then I heard my name.  I snapped out of it and Erica was by my side on the floor holding my head on her lap.  She looked frantic and afraid.  I thought this would be the right time to tell her the truth about my supposed sickness.

“Sarah, are you ok?”  She said with a shaky voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine.  What happened?”

“Well, I heard your doors open and a huge thump and it almost sounded like you were choking, so I rushed in and you opened your eyes. What’s going on Sarah?”

“I guess this would be a good time to tell you.  Since I was 5 I was pegged to be an epileptic.  You know, the disease where you have seizures.  I went to  a ridiculous amount of doctors and they did test after test.  I took their medicine, but the medicines never helped.  As I got older I started to remember what was going on while I was seizing.  I would see things.  I would see past events first, and then I would see things that were going to happen.  Nothing big, but I would see questions on a test I was having a in a few days, segments of days, things people were going to wear, say etc…. I lived in a constant state of de ja vu.  Then as I got older, I could touch things, taste things, smell things, see things, and get energies from them. Do you follow?”

“I think.  Go on.”

“If I touched a photo of say, a family, I could absorb certain feelings or senses they were having at that time, like happiness, sadness,  or anger.  I could sesnse this just from touching a photo.  If I smelled one of my neighbors baking a pie for instance, I could tell you everything they put in that pie and what they were thinking when they made it. 

         Touching another person is the strongest for me.  If I touched someone and really tuned into their soul and energy, I could read their present thoughts and even see into their future.  I only did that with one living creature and it was overwhelming and that was my dog Percy.”

Erica laughed.

“So you’re saying you are some kind of psychic?”

“Sort of. I think it is more complicate though.  It’s so strange, that I don’t know much about it myself.  I came here because of a precognitive vision I had.  My vision told me I would find out more about who I am in New Orleans.  There is so much that I have to find out.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am adopted.  I have no clue who my real parents are and neither do my adopted parents.  They tried to find out but my adoption records were destroyed in a fire.”

“Wow, I am so sorry.  If there is any way I can help, I will.”

“I really appreciate it, but I don’t want to drag you into my depressing life.”

“Depressing?  My God girl, you are the most interesting person I have ever met, next to my Mom of course.”

I laughed.

“Wait, my Mom!  She could totally help you!”

“Umm ok.  How?”

“Aside from her embarrassing me with her chosen line of work, she is quite knowledgeable on the….. unusual.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Well, my mom owns a store.  It’s like a store for the occasional occult enthusiast. She knows about everything.  She studied parapsychology, psychology, religion, voodoo, etc…”

“That is a very weird coincidence.  I mean I came here to look for answers and it turns out I was matched up with a roommate whose mother is an expert on my situation.  It seems too perfect.  I always had a feeling that if I started listening to myself that I would point myself in the right direction.”

“I am so glad I can help.  To be honest with you, I had this feeling that I was supposed to help you. Weird?”

“Nothing is weird to me anymore.”

“We can go see my mother tomorrow afternoon, if you want to.”

“That would be great.  I need to go look for a job in the morning first.”

“Let’s hit the sack.” She said as she yawned.

“Yes, lets.”