stairs?
I took off with gusto. The first few steps seemed easy. “Piece of cake,” I mused privately. As I climbed higher, however, my legs began to quiver. Then they began to ache, my hamstring muscles burning like a match to the strip on the box. I gasped for air, unsteady as my legs began to wobble. As I was nearing the top of the steps, I tripped and missed breaking my nose on the corner of one of the wooden benches by mere millimeters. I barely managed to pull myself upright, still gasping for air.
As I sat down to collect myself, I watched Elsa, decked out in a pair of my yoga pants, come running up the stairs. She was not out of breath when she reached the top. I hid my face as she approached.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” she said. “I didn’t do that to humiliate you. But I did want to make a point. You need to know your body and know your emotions. The best way to do that is to be physically fit. Being fit also gives you mental endurance, and you will need those skills when you allow your gifts to return.”
“I think I might throw up,” was my brilliant reply.
“By all means,” Elsa said in response, “But when you’re finished you need to run the stairs again. We’re going to be out here every day until you can do this easily.”
“Why?”
“I outlasted my enemies because I rode harder, rode faster and rode farther,” Elsa said. “Endurance is everything in war.”
“War,” I said, a shiver running up my spine. “I’m not at war.”
“Do you want your career back? You will have to stand up to the demon and Stoner Halbert to do it. That is not something that can happen without work. Think of it this way. I have been watching television and the men of your era seem to like fit women. It is easy to distract men using physical beauty. It will give you one more skill to use to your advantage.”
It was not the motivational speech one would normally hear from a personal trainer, but it worked. And so, my training began, and in those first few days, Elsa and I settled into a comfortable schedule. We exercised for several hours each morning before returning home. The city, it turned out, was a wonderful boot camp, with endless hills to climb, many lined with hidden staircases. We drove to Crissy Field and ran the path to the Golden Gate Bridge. After a few weeks, I was able to run across the bridge as a part of my regimen. My afternoons were left open, and I spent that time running errands, touching base with my office and working in the garden.
Although I was feeling better, I wondered what Elsa had in store for me next. She’d asked me not to tell Lily about her, and so far, I had honored her request. Lily was pretty busy with her own life, but eventually she would want to spend time together. One afternoon as Elsa and I were having tea—she’d banned coffee from my diet—I asked if I could see Lily.
“Not yet,” was her reply.
“Why?”
“Because you need to focus,” she said in a schoolteacher’s voice. “If you bring your friend into this, she will only distract you.”
“Distract me from what? It seems as if your work is almost done here,” I said, feeling confident. “I am exercising, I feel great.”
“We are a long way from being done,” Elsa said. “This is simply the conditioning you need to get physically ready. We have yet to unlock your senses and see how they work.”
“No,” I said. “How can allowing myself to feel more possibly help?”
“You will not help yourself by remaining ignorant,” Elsa said. “The reason you feel well is because I’m here, and because you’re not in the direct path of the demon. The minute you step back into your office, you will experience the same problems again.”
I didn’t know what to say. I did feel better and I was growing used to Elsa, although I knew next to nothing about this woman living in my guest room.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I know you said my grandmother summoned you, but why do you have to stay?”
“I don’t have to stay,” she countered. “But as a spirit guide, my job is to help you escape danger. My work isn’t finished yet. And, I have business with the Council that keeps me here.”
“So you aren’t necessarily