Page 36 of One Year Ago in Spain
“The first time was here at the hotel. I was working downstairs, and there was a flash of light when the sun reflected off awindow, and then he was just there in the driveway. I ran out and he saw me, and we talked, but then the light went through him and I freaked out and fainted.
“The second time was this afternoon. I had just left his bedside at the hospital. I went to the park to get some air, and he was there, just behind me in line at a drink kiosk. We ended up walking and talking for a while. But I don’t think anyone else can see him.”
“What happened when you parted ways?” Professor Hong asked. She was leaning in toward the screen now.
“He went back in the direction we’d come,” Claire said. “And then some light hit him, and he disappeared. Not like I lost track of him. He was just gone.”
“Hmm,” Professor Hong said again. “Give me a moment, please.”
She went offscreen, then came back with a lit incense stick in a small glass bottle. Professor Hong then closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, drawing the smoke straight in.
Claire frowned. This was what she might have expected from an internet psychic, but not a respected academic. What the hell?
But Professor Hong sat like that for nearly five minutes without moving. Claire fidgeted with the hotel pen. Then she checked several times to make sure the internet connection was still good and the screen hadn’t frozen. Everything was working, though; the incense continued to sway and stream into the professor in a steady, if languorous, flow.
Am I supposed to be doing something, too?Claire thought. Closing her eyes and thinking about…what? Maybe she was supposed to focus on Matías?
Just as Claire was about to try that, Professor Hong’s eyes fluttered open.
“Did you, uh, have any visions?” Claire asked.
The professor smiled. “Oh, that wasn’t a trance or anything supernatural.” She raised the bottle with the smoking stick. “Just eucalyptus aromatherapy. I have a photographic memory, but sometimes I need a smell to help me focus as I flip through the mental files of all the research I’ve done.”
Claire didn’t know what to say. She felt stupid for thinking the professor had gone into some kind of New Age hypnotic state. And she’d never met anyone with a truly photographic memory. The fact that Professor Hong had enough research on the subject to riffle through made Claire feel alotbetter that maybe this thing with the vision of Matías was real and she hadn’t lost her marbles.
“I believe Matías is looking for you,” Professor Hong said.
Claire frowned. “But I’m right here. I went to the hospital straight from the airport yesterday and then again this morning as soon as I was awake.”
“Yes, but he’s looking for you in a different way. What you saw was what we call an astral projection. But I think you are already familiar with the concept because that’s why you reached out to me, isn’t it?”
“Right.”
“Matías is lost,” Professor Hong said. “His soul needs something to focus on, to hold on to—similar to how I use the stream of eucalyptus scent—and I believe that something is you.”
Claire shook her head. “But from my conversation with him yesterday and today, that version of Matías is from a year ago. He doesn’t even know me yet.”
Professor Hong closed her eyes again, but she wasn’t gone in her mental file cabinet as long this time. She reopened them a minute later and said, “Here’s what the evidence suggests. Matías’s physical body is in Madrid right now, so that is why his soul is there, too. But his soul is also lost, stuck in his own subconscious. To make sense of being in Madrid, his soul has retreated into the memories from the last time Matías was in the city—one year ago.
“But,” Professor Hong said, “aplaceis not enough to tie a soul to reality. You are his soul’s connection with this world, and you must make him stay. Based on the academic research, as well as on youractualrelationship, I believe you must make sure Matías falls in love with you.”
Claire furrowed her brows. “He already does love me, though.”
The professor shook her head. “In hiswakinglife, Matías loves you. But now that he’s unconscious, his soul is confused. This version of Matías doesn’t know about the accident, and he doesn’t realize he’s separated from his body. And he doesn’t knowyou,because you were not part of his life one year ago.”
Claire winced, even though it was true.
“Right now,” Professor Hong said, “you are a stranger to him, just another part of this ‘world’ his soul has constructed to make sense of his surroundings. But you are also his anchor in therealworld, and the only way for him to return here. If you can get this version of Matías to fall in love with you, then he will be tugged back toward his body, toward reality, so he can truly be with you.”
“This is a lot.”
“I know.”
“I’m not sure if I believe it.”
“I know that, too. But there’s a reason you emailedme,a scientist of parapsychological phenomena, rather than a psychic or medium, right? Clearly, you have already accepted that you saw some sort of vision of Matías. So you emailed me because if I could back up what you saw with proof that such phenomena have been documented before, then that would give you enough rational basis to move forward. Am I correct?”
“Yes…” Claire said, letting the logic sink in.
