The Berty Family’s Incredible Date (II)

Read the first part of this story.

The visitors

Weekly nightmares, fit for a horror movie, gate-crashed their nights. They started after Véro’s first module of feng shui (a coincidence, of course…).

Like prey before its predator, she finds herself defenceless, face to face with entities that take possession of her body. Despite their sometimes radiant appearance, it’s more despair and anguish that emanate from them. Each time, it’s the voice of her husband, terror-stricken, that cries out to her from the other side of the dream: ‘Darling! Darling! What’s happening to you?!’

Desperate, he tries to wake her up in order to calm her down, but to no avail. His wife’s body, bathed in sweat, is in the throes of convulsions. Véro would love to be able to cry out, but her cries remain stuck in her throat. It’s uber scary and considerably compounds her already very stressful panic attack. Her heart beats so loudly that she has the impression of it literally going to jump out of her chest!

Purificator

Chance determined that the feng shui tutor chose their house to perform a demonstration. Followed by her whole group of tutees, she proceeds slowly from one room to another. She serenely holds out at arm’s length a bowl of incense (olibanum with charcoal, if you want to try it…), as she does so enveloping in smoke those following. The leader solemnly calls out to her ‘invisible guides’, whom she addresses as ‘beings of light’, asking them to chase away those that are already in the room (go figure…). A few turns and the whole of that polite little crowd bows and scrapes profusely and makes its way home. Their visit has certainly made an impact! Yes, but not the one expected, as the situation has taken a serious turn for the worse!

Once night has fallen, there are to be heard in the attic, just above the parents’ bedroom, some sinister creaks of footsteps, though no-one is there! Some violent blows are struck in that upper bedroom, as well as on their door, which opens into that room. When the terrified couple switch on the lamp, the light makes the din stop abruptly. Not knowing what to do, Alex spontaneously burns some purifying feng-shui essence, which is supposed to drive away evil curses, but to no avail, for, as soon as he presses the switch again, the disturbance immediately restarts to accompany the darkness (could be that poltergeists like the smell of the essence!?). Véro now has that unpleasant feeling of ‘presences’ passing through her… even in broad daylight!

Imaginary visitors

As she is going to bed, Véro comes upon her daughter Eva standing in front of the attic door, bringing to an end an animated conversation with ... nobody! The composure of the little girl leaves no shadow of doubt as to the reality of ‘the lady’ with whom she was speaking. And there’s something downright sinister and disconcerting about that. There’s also this man who came into her bedroom, whom she had first mistaken for her father, and who terrified her.

Communication between them and Kérane, their teenager, isn’t going very well any more, and he is shutting himself away more and more in his bedroom and in reading material that worries his mum (but that’s quite normal… Uh, these mums who are always freaking out!)…

But let’s go back to the beginning of this story…

‘Date in the forest’

Barely has she arrived home than Véro leaps on to her favourite sofa to begin right away reading the book she got from Sandra (the housework can wait!). More than the ‘forest’ aspect (well-being linked to nature), it’s the enthusiasm of her new friend that spurs her to turn the first few pages.

The spiritual perspective that she discovers there is of a completely different order from the one she has known until then. It’s a string of anecdotes about the everyday life of an uncomplicated guy who has a friendship with God. His struggles and humour, at once irresistible and profound, echo inside her (at this point it’s fair to say that I am showing off a bit!)…

This approach has, for her, something disconcerting and innovative about it. Isn’t ‘God’ that antiquated, heavy-going, fusty concept right out of the Middle Ages? (her thing is more New Age!)

‘ …Why couldn’t that happen to me?’

And there, alone on her sofa, she timidly speaks to God for the first time in her life.

‘ …But do I have the right to speak to Him like this?’

To be continued next week...