Never stop looking for the magic, folks!
Secret Worlds
Granny could see ultraviolet light. It happened after she had her cataracts removed. When we walked the dog, she’d tell me all about the shimmering, purple-white rainbows that splashed clouds of blue mist all over the park every time it rained. She’d admire a bed of blue and white flowers where I saw only yellow and point out the exact direction of sunlight even on the cloudiest day.
“There are secret worlds all around us, Shayla. Ever wonder what a duck’s world’s like?”
I always loved that about Granny. There was always more than met the eye.
“Ducks can probably see the glint of weed without the glare of the water.”
Granny’s skin was milky thin, so you could see the veins through it and her fingers were that bony, her hand looked like an x-ray.
“Caesar, Sit!” Caesar sat. “Caesar sees the world with his nose, don’t you boy?” He was snuffling at her pocket for a biscuit.
“How do you know the secret worlds are there, Granny?”
“Oh, you have to be looking for them. I have the gift,” she said proudly. “I see auras.”
“Horrors, Granny?”
“No auras -- colours around people that signify something about them.”
“Have you ever seen a ghost, Granny?”
“No but it’s not too late. You never know what you’ll see in a lifetime. I never imagined I’d see computers and space walks but I have and now there’s this strange light... Another gift.”
“But that’s science, Granny isn’t it. And science is different from auras.”
“There are more things in heaven and earth than ever we can see, Shayla,” she said.
My mother disapproved of Granny. “She’s an auld woman, Shayla and she’s half blind. What she thinks she can see is beyond me. Pay no heed to it.”
I told Granny what she said, of course.
“Do I have colours around me, Granny?”
“Yes, Shayla brown with warm flecks – like match heads sparking about in rich chocolate – that’s you; all fun and curiosity. Your mother’s blue and cream and far too caught up with things in general – but she’s right about one thing.”
“What?”
“What I can see is beyond her. It’s beyond most people. Never forget that Shayla – always believe in your own vision and keep your eyes skinned for those other worlds or you’ll never see them.
Granny always harked back to when she was a girl; counting with pounds, shillings and pence, no central heating, no colour T.V.
“The past’s a kind of secret world too, unless it’s your own of course – and the future... In fact no two people see things in quite the same way.”
I have a grand daughter now -- Sinead. I tell her about cash -- before the mega-crash, power lines that criss-crossed the countryside, petrol cars, keyboards you had to type on. I can see ultraviolet any time, by just putting on my visor. I worked all my life as a micro-biologist. Secret worlds… But that was science.
“Grandma Shayla, I made you a present.”
“Oh that’s lovely Sinead. Thank you. Is this me?” I see it’s an orange crayon person with brown fuzzy patches around the edge.
“Yes. And that’s me.”
A little pink person is holding my hand.
“And who’s this?” I ask.
“That’s the old lady who visits you,” she says.
The lady is white, has huge eyes and is surrounded by a violet glow. “Is she here now?” I ask.
“No Grandma. She’s not here today but she visits all the time… and she has a dog that comes with her.”
Seems Granny did have a gift and she passed it to Sinead. So many advancements, yet so many secret worlds: I’d almost stopped looking for them.
“Secret Worlds” ©2011 Oonah V Joslin. Not previously published.
