travel throughout the seven nodes of the human body.
The purpose of the ritual was to preserve order and repel chaos. In order to do this, there first has to be an effort to raise the Wadjet Eye.
Memphis became tired and the words reverted to symbols. This was too much information to take in; she needed to rest and then return to the lesson. She fell away from the Moon’s light; she could now see it from afar. The trip up seemed longer than the trip down; when she returned, Lawrence, Gabriella, and Claudia ran to her; they came from inside the house. She was standing in the middle of their small backyard.
“What happened? Where did you go?” Lawrence demanded.
“What do you mean what happened? You told me to ascend.”
“You were supposed to ascend mentally; we didn’t think you would do it physically. That’s never happened to us.” Gabriella explained.
“Oh my god really? I think I went to the Moon.”
“Are you serious? You were supposed to go into a hypnotic state,” Lawrence explained.
When he said the word hypnotic, it reminded her that she needed to call Jill to find out more about Dr. Thompson. All of these strange events began after her session. She described her session to them and that she couldn’t remember anything.
“That would explain it. She may have been the one to activate your node,” Claudia agreed.
“I’ll call Jill now to try to get more information.”
She went to the couch and found her phone in her purse. She utilized her speed dial setting and barely allowed Jill to finish her greeting before she immediately asked, “Jill, where did you get Dr. Thompson’s information?”
“Hello, Memphis. How are you? Oh, me? I’m fine, thanks for asking. Just going through my breakup alone, without my best friend.”
“I’m sorry. How are you?”
“I’m all right. He wasn’t much of a loss and I’ve actually met someone.” Her voice immediately sounded cheerful.
“The guy I saw you cuddled up with at your party?”
“Why, yes, that would be him.” She could picture Jill’s big grin.
“I want to hear all about it; let’s talk about it during our usual mani-pedi meet-up. I just needed to know where you got Dr. Thompson’s info. Um, it’s for a friend. It’s an emergency.”
“Oh, why didn’t you say so? I got it from Anne in classifieds. What’s your problem? She was a nice Southern woman—reminds me of my aunt Laura, gray hair and all.”
“Gray hair?” She must have dyed it. “Jill, I know that this may sound like a strange question, but is your aunt Arabic?”
“Um, no. She’s one hundred percent Southern Baptist and she won’t let you forget it. So is Dr. Thompson.”
Memphis ran over to Lawrence’s computer and mimed a request for permission to use it. He nodded. She quickly typed in Dr. Thompson’s name and address and then clicked on the link that took her to the doctor’s website. A picture of a gray-haired woman with kind eyes smiled back at her.
That was not the person who had hypnotized her.
“Jill, I’ll have to call you back. I have to discuss something with Luri.”
“Luri? Who is Luri? You didn’t tell me—” Memphis ended the call. She would apologize for her rudeness later.
“This is not the woman who hypnotized me.” She pointed at the computer screen.
Claudia came up to her. “Describe the Dr. Thompson that you saw for me. Better yet—Lawrence, can you tap into her?”
“Pardon?” They hadn’t even gone on actual date, and now he wanted to tap that?
“He can tap into your memories if you allow him,” Claudia explained. Memphis blushed at the fact she thought that she meant something less innocent, but also less peculiar.
“Can he just read my palm again?” The thought of Lawrence in her head filled her with alarm.
He sensed her unease. He approached her carefully, took her hand, and led her to the sofa. “It’s fine. I’ll be gentle,” he said, softly holding her chin up.
She acquiesced, and he placed his hands on her temples and looked into her eyes.
“Now just picture her in your mind and I’ll take it from there. I will be able to project the image from your mind into my crystal ball. And yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds.”
Gabriella had brought the ball over and placed it on the coffee table. “We will be able to see who really treated you.”
Memphis laid back and tried to picture the doctor’s face, but she couldn’t unwind.
Lawrence began to coach her by asking her questions that would take her back