The Empath Cycle: 2001 It Takes One - Book 2

"Make it two and we will have to swing by our place so Karlie and I can pack too."

"Women! Even gay men can pack faster. I'll see you in ninety minutes and not one more." He grumbled before hanging up, forestalling any further haggling.

"I guess we'd better hurry. Mom and Sylvie, you shower first while Kay and I prepare breakfast, after which we will wash up while you pack."

"Good plan, sis. Push comes to shove, if we don't like it there, we can always come back."

The hour and a half drive was comfortable in the limo, but they all had so many questions that they didn't really appreciate the beauty of the scenery.

When the driver stopped at the gate, they were surprised to read the plaque announcing that they were entering the St-Jovite Mental Health Clinic and Research Center.

After letting them through, the gate keeper picked up the phone and dialed the main house.

"They have arrived safely. Cousin Stéphane is taking them to the mammies' house. Yes, ma'am, I'll let you know as soon as Uncle Jack arrives."

When they pulled up to a large three-story house, the driver brought the women's luggage inside.

"Aren't you coming in with us?" Sylvie asked John and Pierre.

"Nope. This is your house for the week. If you want privacy, nobody will intrude. Visitors will ring the bell and the cleaning staff will wait for your instructions as to when they should come in."

"Okay then, but when will we meet the girls and all those people you spoke of?"

"The welcoming committee should be by soon enough. You will meet the more important others at supper in the main house and the rest during the week, especially at the Christmas party."

"We should unpack and get ready, then."

Left to their own devices, the women explored the house.

The whole second floor consisted of two master bedrooms, each with a huge bed which could easily accommodate five persons easily, and a communicating bathroom with every amenity imaginable, set up with three open toilet stalls in separate enclosures, a huge shower with many heads on ceiling and walls, a spa bath of professional size, five vanities separated by three washbasins facing a large mirror.

On the first floor there were seven rooms of different sizes and three bathrooms well-appointed if not as lavishly as the master floor's. The ground floor consisted in a large modern kitchen, a dining room, two offices and a large living room with bay windows offering a view of a snow covered lawn-garden, and, beyond, other houses mostly hidden by trees.

Above the fireplace, there was an oil painting of four older women sitting and standing around a fifth. There was an air of serenity and love in the portrait. The artist had been a genius to express so much emotion with his brushes and paints.

"Wow! This is incredible. This could be a hotel or a bed and breakfast and we have it for the four of us." Jade said. "You must live a charmed life Sylvie if someone is willing to invite you here for a week, all expenses paid."

"That's it, though. The only people I know here are through you. They are your friends."

"Whatever! I say we choose rooms and unpack. Then we can try out those gigantic beds first, then the spa."

"Race you to the third floor!" Karlie shouted, already on her way.

"No fair, you cheated." Jade raced after her, only pausing to pick up their suitcases.

Sylvie and Patricia followed more sedately, arms around each other's waist, grinning like kids having been offered free rein at the candy store.

When they arrived at the top of the stairs, the others were waiting for them.

"We decided that you should get first pick, sis. It's your Christmas present, after all." Jade told Sylvie.

"It makes no difference to me. Both have beds big enough for all of us and we'll be using only one anyway. But if I must choose, we'll take the one on the right. I like the warm color scheme and the style of the furniture."

Three hours later, they sat on the comfortable couch in front of the windows sipping a fine Pinot Noir they had found in the well-stocked fridge.

"The only thing missing to make this perfect would be dry wood to make use of the fireplace. I've always dreamed of a place like this." Sylvie said.

"If there is a fireplace, there must be wood." Patricia pointed out. "We can ask when we meet the people here. Or I'm sure we can buy some in the village we passed on the way here."

As they spoke, a car pulled at the driveway. The saw John step out with Sylvie's boss, Jack White, to help an old lady out and up the steps to the porch. They all ran to the door to open it for them.

"Good afternoon, ladies. May we come in, please? It's quite cold for my aunt."

"Of course, sir. I would have loved to ask her to come sit by the fire, but we don't have wood and we figured the gas heating was sufficient enough that we didn't have to start breaking up the furniture yet."

They all laughed and Mr. White asked John to show them where the dry wood was stacked while he settled his aunt.

Once they had the fire burning nicely and everybody was seated on the couch and the various chairs around it, the old lady introduced herself.

"My name is Joannie Lamoureux. I am the last living daughter of Catherine Lamoureux, one of the founders of this institute. This is Jack White, my brother's son. And this young pup is my grand-son, John. I am certain you have many questions and are burning of curiosity as to the reason you were invited here. I ask for your patience a little while longer as I must ask a few of my own to you, young woman." She said, looking at Sylvie.

"Of course, ma'am. We are a bit overwhelmed by all this, but I will do my best to answer to the best of my ability."

"The two young women you've already met, Ryanna and Julia, caused quite a stir in this community and in our family when they spoke of you a few weeks back. They mentioned some things that have happened to you and around you. The first people they spoke to were too young to remember some things. They only had records to help them. Eventually, the inquiries reached us older folks and we could guide them in the proper direction. May I ask what you thought of this house when you first saw it?"

"Well, we were surprised that this was a mental hospital, then we realized that there is a separate compound for the hospital and what we suppose is the residential section. This beautiful house is much too big for only the four of us. We expected a chalet of some kind, not this mansion."

"You are partly right that this place is dedicated to mental health, but it specializes in special cases such as deep psychological trauma or what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. It is also a research institute in what you would call para-psychology. But we will talk about that later. Did you find anything familiar about this house?"

"I hesitate to say this, but since we arrived, I've had this feeling that it had waited for me for a long time and was happy I had come home. I know it sounds silly, but... Jo... Honey... Why are you crying?"

Without realizing what she was saying, Sylvie instinctively rushed forward to hug the woman, her only thought to alleviate her obvious distress. When she touched her, a shock ran through her, followed immediately by a deep sense of belonging, of being where she was meant to be.

When she looked up, she was astonished to see Mr. White also crying. John was holding on better, but he had misty eyes and his lip was quivering.

Before anybody could say anything, the front door burst open and two women in ski suits rushed in. Their body language definitely projected anger but a single gesture from Mr. White halted them in their tracks.

"Girls, you were taught better manners! Remember where you are. Apologize right now for bursting in like this and politely ask for permission to stay or get the hell out of here as fast as you came in." He said sternly, even harshly, in a tone of command Sylvie had never heard him use.

The intruders looked at each other for a second and took off their ski goggles. The four guests were astonished to recognize Ryanna and Julia. They looked sincerely contrite when they said. "We are very sorry we barged in like this. It will never happen again, we promise. Please allow us to stay so we can explain properly why we did it."

"Ms. Tremblay, we will explain everything later, but for now, please act like this is your home and these 'children' have behaved very badly. If it will help, think of your reaction when they invaded your privacy on your island."

At first, Sylvie was very confused by this. None of it made any sense at all. So she followed Mr. White's advice because she trusted him.

She stood and walked to the two women standing at the door with heads bowed.

"I thought I had already told you that all you had to do was ask if you wanted to visit. Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough." Remembering Julia's previous reaction to the gesture, she reached over and put a hand on each woman's cheek and scratched behind their ears. They reflexively leaned into the caress. In seconds, to Sylvie's amazement, they were purring. "You will go to your rooms and change from your ski outfits, take a shower and, when you come back, you will ring the bell and wait to be invited in. Are we clear this time?"

"Yes, mammy... Sylvie. We will be nice. We promise." When they looked up, tears were rolling down their cheeks, but their smiles were ones of utter happiness.

"Up to it then, girls." Sylvie said and when they turned around, she gave then a slap on the ass which sent them on their way with a definite spring in their step.

Not really sure what had just happened, Sylvie walked back to the living room. Her boss and his mother were smiling widely and John grinned from ear to ear, while her three lovers were slack jawed in astonishment.

"What... How did you do that, sis? I have never seen those two girls submit like that. They even talk to my sensei as equals." Jade asked.

"It's about time somebody took them down a notch or three. The kids are this generation's best talents and they take themselves way too seriously." John said, adding to Sylvie's bewilderment.

Seeing this, the old lady took pity on the young woman.

"Come sit by me, my dear. We have a long story to tell you and it would be better if you were sitting down for some of it." She said, gently.

Joannie Lamoureux went on to relate the story of the foundation of the original clinic and of the research institute. She spoke of the five women who came together to found the original family from which originated a whole clan of dedicated people who kept their vision alive.

"With the goal of helping her friend Arianna who had suffered a major shock when young, it was Sarah who had the idea of using empaths to reach the people afflicted by deep traumas. She got it from reading John Campbell's Astounding pulp fiction magazine in the late thirties. The concept of empathy was not new, only the degree to which it existed. With this in mind, she searched for manifestations of the talent and found Catherine Lamoureux, my adoptive mother, who was drifting from job to job, unable to stay too long at the same place because people eventually started noticing unusual things happening around her.

You see, she did not know she had this talent and she was exceptional in that she could not only receive, that is feel the emotions of others, but also project her own when she got excited. Without training to better hide herself, she eventually would have been a prime candidate to be burned at the stake in the not too distant past. Even in the mid-twentieth century, the Church had a lot of power and she could have been taken to be experimented on with monstrosities such as a pre-frontal lobotomy or massive electro-shock therapy like many 'different' people were in those days.

Also, she was a lesbian in an era of great intolerance.

All of this made for a very unhappy young woman. She was lucky that Sarah reached out to her. With the help of the electroencephalograph, a fairly new and yet to be fully tried diagnostic machine, she showed her that her talent was very real. Once Catherine understood what had been happening around her all these years, they worked together to help her control it and use it in a therapeutic way.

Catherine helped Sarah in her research for her Psychology Doctorate and, with the collaboration of her thesis advisor and mentor, they founded the original clinic to further develop her technique."

The old lady went on to recount how the five women had become a family and three of them a powerful empathic team. Also how the present compound came into being.

"Originally, it was a rich man's retreat with the main house, a secondary house for visitors and employees and the guard house at the gate for the caretaker and his wife. Over the years, they added a large building for the clinic, another, smaller, farther away from the others for the research institute, and various living quarters for the family as it expanded. The one we are in was that of the family core. It may look big to you, but I remember it being filled with so many children, we had to share rooms with three or four siblings."

"Why is it empty now? And why give it to us for our use? Are we going to share it with the rest of your families when they visit for the holidays? If so, we will move in a single room. We don't need more." Sylvie asked.

"It's empty because the last of the mammies, as we fondly called them, passed away a few years ago and those of us who had stayed in the compound had long moved to our own houses with our families. It stayed empty since then because of an explicit codicil of their will. As to why we gave it to you, it's because it belongs to you, Sylvie."

"That's impossible!" Sylvie exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "How can that be? I'd never heard of you all before today." Bewildered, she looked at Patricia who had been holding her hand while they listened to this unlikely story.

Seeing the look of panic in her partner's eyes, Patricia took her in her arms, afraid of a relapse despite Sylvie's great strides in gaining self-confidence in the recent weeks.

"Why don't we go to our room for a while to compose ourselves? I'm sure these fine people won't mind giving you a few minutes after springing such wild stories on you."

"Of course, ladies. We understand how this must all sound." Mr. White said. "We will tell your friends how to get in touch with us when you are ready for more information and we will come back. Please, take your time. There really is no hurry."

Once they had all watched Patricia support Sylvie to the stairs, Karlie faced their visitors. "I may be willing to keep an open mind and give you all the benefit of the doubt, but that young woman has been through hell and back this fall and we will not allow you or anyone else to hurt her."

"That's for sure!" Jade stood by her mate, glaring at the three sitting.

If John bristled at the aggressive tones, Mr. White and Mrs. Lamoureux seemed to take it in stride, it even seemed as if they were restraining grins.

"Young ladies, you have no idea what it means to us to have you three stand by her like you do." The old woman said. "Can you tell me if she chose the room on the right, please?" When the answer was affirmative, she went on. "Then everything will be all right. All we ask is for you to trust that we have only her well-being at heart. Be patient and all will be explained soon. John will show you how to use the telephone for in-compound and external use. We will be waiting for your call."

Once alone with the two women, John turned and took a step toward Karlie, eyes blazing. "What the fuck was that all about? That old woman deserves respect and you treated her like shit. We may be friends, but..."

"You mean 'were friends'." Jade growled, moving between the two. "We came here at your people's invitation for a week of R&R, that's all. When Sylvie has settled, we're out of here. Tell your driver to be ready for us. And if you know what's good for you, you'll hightail your ass out of here right now. Nobody talks to Kay like that and walks away. Consider yourself lucky that we 'were' friends."

John stomped out of the house to the running car where his grand-mother and uncle waited. He was brought to a halt by the sight of his two cousins running toward him, naked, their wet hair already whitening with ice. Before he could get a word out, he found himself flying in the air, then face first in the snowbank, held in place by a knee painfully pressing on his lower back, his head pulled up savagely by the hair to look at the raging face of Julia.

"What the fuck did you just do in there, you bastard?"

Before things could get further out of hand, Uncle Jack was there with a blanket which he wrapped around Ryanna. He was pulling off his coat to cover Julia when Karlie and Jade ran out of the house with two warm blankets from the couch. Each went to one of the naked women.

"Girls, what are you doing? You're freezing. Come in the house with us." Karlie said gently pulling Ryanna along, followed by Jade who held Julia.

"We c-c-can't gggggo in. W-we were n-n-not inv-v-vi-t-ted." Ryanna stuttered through chattering teeth.

"It's all right. This is a special circumstance. I'm sure we speak for Sylvie when we say we do invite you in our home. Heck, we're not going to let you freeze to death out here on a technicality and you have some explaining to do as to why you decided to go jogging naked fresh out of the shower, in the middle of winter." Jade assured them.

John was picking himself up from the snow when he was lifted clear off to ground by a strong hand on his collar to face another angry face, his uncle's this time.

"What did you do in there? What did you tell them?" He growled.

"I just..."

"I don't want to know. I can well imagine how you took it upon yourself to play the big man of the family to your friends. You will be lucky if they still speak to you after this. For now, you will walk your sorry ass to the Community Hall and stay there until somebody, and I can't imagine who at this point, is ready to talk you. And if you think you can go whine to your mother so she will intercede for you, think who Sylvie is to us all and in whose house you just were."

Back in the car, he turned to his Aunt and sighed. "We sure made a mess of things, auntie. We should have listened to the girls and let them go with you."

"Don't worry, Jacky. There are more forces in play here than just our little egos. Trust in the mammies and remember the family motto 'Listen with your heart first'. I have faith and so should you."

Chapter 2

It took some doing, but vigorous body rubs in front of the roaring fire to which they had added as many logs as would fit, eventually got the two amazons to stop shivering long enough to answer their questions.

"Earlier, we were on our way home from a morning on the slopes when we felt granny Joannie's distress and we knew nobody lived in this house since mammy Juliette and mammy Arianna left to be with their beloved mammy Sarah and the other mammies, Catherine and Martine, we thought something bad had happened. That's why we burst in uninvited. We thought you were only coming in later."

"That doesn't explain what you were doing outside at minus 20C, naked as jaybirds with your hair turning to blocks of ice." Karlie prompted.

"Not that we mind seeing you in the buff. Ouch! There was no call for that, Kay. You were ogling them as much as I was." Jade protested as she rubbed her abused nipple.

"I wasn't staring. I was only ascertaining if they had been hurt." Karlie answered innocently.

Their banter got the intended result and the blanket covered women in their arms giggled.