Firebird: Part II

I woke up the next morning on a cot in the garage that I left out there for just such an occasion. I seldom slept in the house in the summer as it got too hot, and I used the cot in the garage often as I would always be working on the Firebird.



I stumbled over to the coffee maker and got it working. I slid the garage door open and looked outside at the early morning sun. The wind was lightly whipping through the trees as the birds chirped their good mornings to each other. Dew was still on the leaves and the grass. The yellow early morning sunlight was shining directly into the garage. I had intentionally built the garage with the door facing east so I could wake up like this all summer long.



The Book.



I had almost forgotten about it while working on the Firebird last night. The Note. The Chop Shop Cafe. Alabama. 



I wasn't sure what to think. Should I trust this hocus pocus burning page that wrote to me? was it just some type of parlor tricks some kids down the street were playing on me? No way. Nobody knows that much about me. Shit, it had been so long I had nearly forgotten about all that. Took me a minute to remember my real name.

My real name. Nobody alive knows that name except her. It must be my mother. And she's in trouble. I need to help her.

If there's one thing my father never did, it was talk ill of mom. Whenever I asked he would say that she loved us very much, but she had to go away, and he missed her. I think he wasn't lying either. I think he didn't want to tell me what happened just for this reason as well.

I think he's rolling over in his grave if I'm working for the same sons of bitches that did this to us. to our family.  To me.



I grabbed my coffee and stomped inside and threw open the book. No more notes. I read on from the first page.



The art and science of divination has been known to a select group of people for many years. It is based around the simple usage of certain objects (called Anchors) to affix certain points in time to certain outcomes.  Utilization of these anchors, once created appropriately does not only allow you to foresee the future, but to alter it to your will as well.



I looked up from the book

 "no way in hell"



I walked away and dug in the back of my closet to get a pack of cigarettes I kept hid. I lit one up and sat back down in front of the book.



"Creation of these Anchors, then, can of course cause massive changes in the future, and must therefore be used with extreme caution. As your Master has already told you, you must read this entire book before attempting any of these spells. Your master has entrusted this ability to you, and She will expect you to have read this book in its entirety before she teaches you any more. Be sure to meet with your Master directly after finishing reading this book, as it will become unreadable to you in three days time.



I see my mother hasn't given me much space to learn all this. The damn book must be 600 pages long.



"As a young woman starting out in Divination, first you must learn the nature of Anchors. Anchors will be something significant to the situation at hand. As you only practice Divination for the good of others, and not for personal gain, the Item you choose to make an Anchor from will need to be of emotional significance to the person whom you are working with.



Young Woman? Why do they only talk about girls in this book?



"The Anchor you use will determine the power that you have to Divine what you wish to see, or change. A seeing anchor can be far weaker than a Change Anchor. For instance, a Seeing Anchor can be something as simple as a T Shirt the person owns, whereas a change anchor will need to be something specific to the situation that they wish to change, and also something that is very significant to the person whom you are working with. It is your duty as a young diviner to appropriately select the correct Anchor For your client.

So this is why Mom can't get herself out, its against their code to Divine for themselves. She needs me to divine for her.

I turned the page.

WHY NO MAN MUST PRACTIVE DIVINATION

"Men are well known to possess no natural caring nature as women do. They also cannot control their urges to Divine for themselves. The last, great male diviner was Merlin, who worked directly for King Arthur and no one else. It has been recorded in the old texts that he himself was quoted in saying that women only should divine, and he was merely passing on the art to new woman apprentices as the art had become so injured during the dark ages with superstitions running so high. Never, under any circumstances teach a man to Divine, as the last men who were known to divine have caused massive turbulence in the flow of time, causing such tragedies as the Great World Wars, and the Holocaust.

I looked up from the book. I took a long drag from the Camel 100 I was smoking, and put the rest of it out on the metal side of my kitchen table, letting the ashes fall to the floor. Well, the book's open to me now, I can read it for 2 more days or so. Better finish it at least.



I sat in my garage for a day and a half, reading that book as fast as I could, taking notes, and making as much sense of the book as I could. Then, as I finished the last page, writing appeared on the second to last page.



"Noe that you have completed your reading, the book will be open to you as a reference. Simply speak your full, true name while having the book open to the second page, and you will have it available to you as a reference. only those who have had the sight passed down to them may do so. Practice you divination thoughtfully, and carefully as you grow into the new Order of Diving.



Good Luck.



The text in the book disappeared, and the red color seeped from the covers. The book looked as if it had been left in a dump, outside in the rain for years now. The leather became cracked and old, and the bindings looked incredibly weak, although the books till held together well enough. I was surprised the covers didn't disappear, Mom must've cut the covers off in an attempt to hide what she was mailing.



Mom.



I looked over to the Firebird. I had tuner her up well that first night the book came in, but now I had barely a half day to make it to Alabama. Looks like I'm taking the back roads.