he reached out Mira saw his hands were scared; not the physical sort of scarring - these were spiritual wounds.
She caught her breath, feeling a little awed herself.
The scars had a soft white glow.
Most people’s spirit scars were festering with a kind of corrosive energy that was like a soul infection.
But these scars were healed crystal clear.
He took the cup “Thanks.”
Mira sat there feeling a jittery urgency to keep his attention.
Out of the corner of her eye Mira caught something else that glowed on his hand, vivid and green to her - it was a tattoo.
“Your tattoo! It’s my two favourite symbols in one. A dragon eating its tail, wrapped around in such a way…” “Infinite gratitude,” they both said together.
She had his attention now. Little blue sparks of energy burst around his head. He was thinking.
“I’m Rex,” He held his bright, scared hand out to her.
Was she suppose to shake it? That felt kinda weird.
“I’m Mira,” and she reached back for his hand awkwardly.
A current of energy hit her hand and shot up her arm like a river rushing, returning to the source.
He pulled his hand back and so did she on autopilot.
Mira held her hand in the other, still feeling warm energy smouldering it.
“Mira means light,” He said, standing up.
“And Rex means king,” Mira rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm, trying to think straight.
“Wanna go for a walk little light?”
Mira’s eyes popped.
“Ok, but I’m not little.”
“Sure you are. You’re like the smallest person I’ve ever seen.”
“You’re just very big,” Mira picked up her coffee cup.
Rex had his hand held out. Mira gawked at it, a deer mesmerised in headlights.
“I liked that jolt you gave me, I could do with another one.”
And Mira did something she hadn’t done in a long time, so long her muscles felt stiff and protesting - she smiled a real smile.
So there she was, trying to get her head around the fact she was having a hand-in-hand morning stroll with a complete stranger who was setting a fire alight up her arm.
And her palm was sweaty.
Gawwwd!
Actually, Mira could only concentrate on the quandary she had of wanting to hold Rex’s hand and at the same time desperate to get rid of the humiliating puddle pooling in her palm.
Before she had another moment to think about it, Mira’s hand pulled away almost by itself and she started wiping it on her skirt.
Rex shoved his hands in his pockets again.
Damn it!
“So you gotta be somewhere?”
“I’ve got about half an hour before work,” Mira stuttered out, still wiping her hands down her skirt in an attempt to put her nervous energy somewhere.
Rex snickered and she shot upright again, worried she’d accidentally flashed her bra strap or something in her fumbling.
“What do you do?” Rex was looking out over her now, like he was distracted.
“I’m a copy editor,” Mira said nonchalantly, “How ‘bout you?”
Rex shrugged, “Shift work,” and he smiled to himself.
“I gotta go. See you then.”
“Ok,” but before Mira could say any more he was down the path in the other direction.
Mira shuffled along the footpath, sipping her coffee, enjoying how warm it felt inside her clutched fingers. The breeze wasn’t exactly cold but everything rippled in Mira. She brushed off shiver after shiver that tickled down her spine and shook her to her fingertips.
The universe was brewing, Mira could feel it in the air.
By the time she hit her desk at work Mira’s hands were trembling with adrenaline.
“You’re wound tight today,” Sunny popped her head around the corner of Mira’s cubical desk.
Mira knocked her coffee gasping, and fumbled a juggling act to catch it.
“So what’s new then?” Mira grumbled.
Sunny smiled and her rainbow energy hummed a soothing balm over the nervous tension that had built itself up into a ball in Mira’s gut.
“Nah, you’re wound up even more than usual - got needles spitting outta your eyes,” and Sunny popped her eyes wide, making fizzy noises.
Mira laughed.
Sunny literally was that to Mira. She was a burst of sunshine on Mira’s shadow nature. They’d grown up together, loved reading together, and now they worked together.
Sunny was a photographer though, capturing the beauty in what was really there and flapping it in Mira’s face.
Sunny was good for Mira.
Sunny was also the only one Mira could talk to about the way she saw things no one else could see, and felt things she shouldn’t be able to feel.
“You’re not talking to ghosts again are you? You always get extra titchy when you do that, like someone’s been messin’ with your radio waves and got you on static.”
“Noooo,” Mira hissed, trying to hush Sunny’s bright voice.
“How’s your Dad?” Sunny asked lower, more gently.
Mira just shook her head down at her desk.
“K,” Sunny put her hand on Mira’s back, “Lunch?”
Nodding into the desk, Mira bit her lip, felt it hurt and used the pain to pin together the ripping inside her.
Then she took a deep breath, snapped her head up, and got on with things.
Later at lunch Sunny smiled over her smoothie at Mira as Jen and Rosie chatted back and forth about Jen’s upcoming birthday party, which was a month away… at least. Shrugging to herself Mira smirked, she was hopeless at keeping track of social events.
“So I’m not sure whether
