Demon

Natalie

All of this information about how guardians and souls got started is so amazing. They’ve been around for such a long time, but not forever. I know that I’ll be thinking about all of it a lot, trying to understand. Angel will help me.

But for now, I agree. We want to know how to help Jonathan.

Angel has been watching patiently each time I repeat a sentence to Gabe and Timothy. I’m trying as hard as I can to get all the words right, since I know how important this is. Angel tells me that I’m doing a good job, that I’m telling them everything just fine.

“As we have discussed, Jonathan’s soul is present, but without his Guardian, it is diminished. When souls grow during their lifetime, they become brighter and stronger. Jonathan’s soul had grown very bright and strong indeed. However, when Demon vanished, all of the growth in Jonathan’s soul vanished as well. It is now barely visible, barely glowing. When Natalie touched his hand earlier today, it began emitting a stronger light. As soon as the contact with her hand ended, his soul reverted to the lessened state. This occurred a second time as she touched his shoulder while we were departing.”

Timothy nods. Angel has told us most of this before, he is just summarizing. Timothy looks over at me, and I know he’s thinking about what this can all mean. “So there is something about Natalie’s touch that helps,” he says. “I know it helps me feel better sometimes when she touches me.”

“Me, too,” Gabe adds quietly. I’m a little surprised to hear him say this, and look over at him. He gives me a gentle little smile. “Yeah, Nat, it’s true, I’ve always known that if you give me a hug or something when I am sad, I feel a lot better. More than Mom or Dad. There’s something about you that’s different.”

I giggle. “Well, obviously,” I say, pointing over to Angel. Although, of course, Gabe can’t see him.

Timothy

“All right,” I tell them, “this should be the next phase of our experiment. Our hypothesis is that Natalie’s touch is different. We need to try to figure out more about this.”

Natalie rolls her eyes. I tell her, “No, Natalie, you have to take this seriously. You know lots of things about you are different. This is one of them. I’m sure you want to learn as much as you can, right?”

Natalie says, “Sorry. Yes, I want to learn as much as I can, since we have to figure out how to help Jonathan.”

Gabe is still laying on Natalie’s bed. “Okay, what do we do?”

I think about what to do next. “I think we should have Angel and Guardian watch while Natalie touches us.” I realize I should include Gabe’s guardian too, since he is here as well. Everyone can participate in the experiment. “And Aaron, of course.”

Gabe blinks. “Um, yeah, all right.”

“First, I would like Angel to tell us anything else there is to know about what happens when Natalie touches someone.”

Natalie looks to the side, and after a minute says, “Angel says that he and Guardian and Aaron are remembering times that I have touched anyone and something seemed to happen. Apparently there have been a lot of times that if someone is sad when I touch them, they feel better.” She is quiet for a minute, then says, “I guess I always knew that, but I didn’t know it was any different from other people. I thought anybody could touch someone to make them feel better.”

I write that down in my notebook. “Angel, can her touch do anything other than help sad people feel better? Like, can she change other feelings?”

Natalie listens to Angel, then says, “Angel says that he has seen it work with other feelings. Especially when I first started the Jonathan Project, if I touched his hand or something while he was feeling mad or annoyed or wanting to do something mean, it would help change the way he felt.”

I write this down.

Gabe asks, “What about other stuff? Like pain? Could she help with that?”

Natalie looks over at Gabe and her forehead wrinkles. “Is your ankle hurting still?”

“Yeah, a little.”

“Want me to get you some ice? Or Tylenol?” she asks him.

“Wait!” I say. “First, Angel, has Natalie ever been able to help someone that had physical pain?”

Gabe snorts. “Are we going to experiment with my ankle now?”

“Of course,” I tell him. “It’s the perfect opportunity.”

Natalie goes over to Gabe and starts to fluff up the pillow under his foot, but I say “Wait!” again. “Hold on, let’s do this right. Gabe, you don’t mind waiting for a couple of minutes, do you?”

“Um, no, I guess not,” he says.

“Okay, Angel, do you think she can help with pain?”

Natalie listens to him. “He thinks it might be possible, but it is difficult to separate the reaction to physical pain from emotions. So it might be hard to tell.” She frowns. “I guess I don’t really understand.”

“Well, let’s do some experiments. First, I am going to touch Gabe as a control. So we can rule out any random touch being effective.”

Natalie says, “That’s a good idea. Do you think you should touch his skin or his clothes?”

I consider this. “I think skin would be best. So the contact is as close as it can be. Gabe, would you mind lifting up your pants leg a little so I can touch your knee, up over your cast?”

I can tell that Gabe thinks this is silly, but he does it. “Okay,” I say, “guardians, please all check to see whether anything happens when I touch him.” I lean over to the bed and put my hand on top of Gabe’s knee, then count to ten in my mind, and take my hand back off.

Gabe stares at me while I’m doing this.

“Did you feel anything different?” I ask him.

“Only that it feels different to have some dude grabbing my knee,” he scoffs.

“Does your ankle still hurt the same way?” I ask him. I think he is trying to joke around, but this really isn’t the time for jokes. We need to focus on the experiment.

“Yeah,” he says.

“Did any of you guardians notice anything happening?” I ask.

Natalie looks to the side, then tells me, “No.”

I write that down in my notebook.

“Okay, Natalie, I want you to do it next. Hold your hand on his knee for ten seconds. Guardians, please monitor whether anything changes.”

She leans over the bed and puts her hand on Gabe’s knee, and counts to ten. Then she asks Gabe, “Well?”

“Um, I don’t know,” he says, “I can’t tell. Maybe?”

I take in a deep breath. “We need to be as precise as possible. Please. Gabe, when you think maybe something happened, let’s be specific. Did the pain in your ankle change at all?”

He rolls his eyes a little, but then says, “Okay, I’ll try to be serious.” He thinks. “I don’t think the actual pain changed, but somehow I felt a little better.”

I ask Angel, “Can you tell what happened?”

Natalie listens, then says, “Angel says that since pain and emotions are all sensed inside the brain, it is difficult to tell the difference between them when I touch someone. He says that the guardians all watched carefully, and there wasn’t any change in the injured ankle at all. But that the pain Gabe was feeling was reduced, maybe because he wasn’t feeling as bothered by it.”

She lifts her hands and shrugs. “I’m not sure that makes very much sense.”

Gabe looks thoughtful, then says, “Maybe it does make sense. I really didn’t feel anything different in my ankle, but I think maybe I wasn’t noticing it as much.”

I write this down in my notebook. It is frustrating that this kind of experiment is so hard to get exact results. Stuff about feelings doesn’t seem very scientific.

“Okay, I’m not sure we’ll get a better answer about the pain, but I have another question. Angel, when Natalie touched Gabe, or when she touches someone else, do you see any change at all in their soul? Like what happened with Jonathan?”

Natalie says, “They haven’t ever noticed a change in a soul before. He thinks that it only changed because Demon is missing and Jonathan’s soul is so small.”

I write that down, then say, “Can we repeat the experiment one more time? Just to be sure that we aren’t missing anything? This time, Gabe, I want you to concentrate on what you are feeling and try to see if you can find another way to describe it. Guardians, can you please pay extra attention to whether anything happens with Gabe’s soul when Natalie touches him?”

Natalie looks at Gabe, and he nods. So she does it again, holding her hand on his knee and counting to ten. He closes his eyes, I guess so that he can concentrate better. I know that helps me sometimes too.

When she lifts up her hand, she asks Gabe, “Anything?”

He looks up at the ceiling, then says, “Yes, I think it’s what I said before. I just felt like the pain wasn’t bothering me as much, even though it was still there. Like maybe you touching me helped me live with it?”

Natalie shrugs. Then she listens to Angel, and says, “Angel says that they all monitored Gabe’s soul carefully, and thought that perhaps there was a small gleam while I touched him. But he says that human souls are changing all the time, so it is impossible to tell what caused this change.”

I write some more, then stop to think for a minute. “I don’t think we have discovered anything specific. There is a possibility that Gabe felt better from Natalie’s touch, but I don’t think we can quantify it.”

“Can I get Gabe something for his ankle now?” Natalie asks.

“Yes, go ahead,” I tell her. Then while she goes downstairs to ask her Mom for some Tylenol, I think about what to do next. Their Mom comes in and checks on Gabe, gives him some Tylenol, then goes back out.

Natalie looks at me. “What should we do now?” she asks.

“I don’t think that we can pursue this experiment more right now. We have learned a little, but we can’t replicate the conditions we need for more. I would like to learn more about what happens when you touch somebody who is mad or scared or sad, but we have to wait until that happens. And I want to know a lot more about what happens when you touch Jonathan.”

“Okay,” she says.

“So, I have to give the guardians an assignment. I would like you all to always be paying attention, whenever Natalie touches anybody, especially Jonathan. Report back if she helps anyone change their feelings, and tell us everything that happens when she touches Jonathan. We’ll just have to let this be an ongoing experiment. All right?”

Natalie looks to the side, then says, “Yep, they’re all on board. They’ll let us know when anything happens.”

Gabe says, “Well, if we’re done with that, I’m going to go play with my Gameboy. Unless you need me for anything else?”

Natalie looks at me. “No,” I say, “that’s all I can think of for now.”

“Okay,” he says, and gets up with his crutches to go in his room.

Natalie looks at me. “Soooo,” she says, “want to read books?”