Ella's Voice (eBook)

Book 4 Of The Obscure Series

Charlotte Woodland (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
292 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-9203-8 (ISBN)

Infos

After a hit-and-run accident leaves her in a coma, Ella Maxwell is partially roused by an inner advisor she calls Voice. When an experimental treatment awakens her fully, she discovers the ability to sense and diagnose illness in others. Soon after, she's befriended by a group whose lives have all been improved by two pairs of cosmic sunglasses, which were invented by an optical scientist who died in an accident years before. Voice, and Ella's new power, seem to originate from the same source of infinite intelligence that's benefitted the group. One of them, Frank, a police detective, concludes that Ella's hit-and-run was not only no accident, but is also connected with a deadly jewelry-store heist. The investigation leads to a brutal Romanian gang who target Ella, fearful she'll derail their plans. Frank and his friends will need all the help they can get from the sunglasses, and Ella's Voice, to bring the thugs to justice...

After graduating from Rutgers University with degrees in English and Sociology, Charlotte became a stained glass artist until joining the world of IT sales and marketing for many years. When facing some life changing struggles, she also became a Volunteer Literacy Tutor and Reiki Master, mainly to help overcome her grief and to heal herself. This invaluable experience had a major impact in broadening her base of understanding of life's universal ways and human potential. Once retired from the corporate world she went on a World Tour with her partner and traveled through 60 countries. They maintained a pictorial blog of their journey, with their travels still continuing now in the US. Her novels come from the magical realism of her inner and outer journey through life's multifaceted dimensions.

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Ella's Voice is a new entry in a series that also includes the novels Obscure Felicity, Obscure As Ever, and You Think You Can't See Me. Like its predecessors, it's a thoughtful, philosophical work that explores the personalities, relationships, circumstances, and motivations binding a small group of individuals living and working in a suburban city. Most of these people, including two young children, have been brain-boosted by a well of infinite intelligence that the adult members of the group refer to as the Universal Mind, through two pairs of cosmic sunglasses. The title derives from the case of a young woman, Ella Maxwell, who has been left in a coma after a hit-and-run accident that killed her beloved stepmother, Trisha. Partially roused by an inner advisor she calls VOICE, Ella is fully awakened by an experimental treatment performed by audio scientist David and his friend Jim, a successful veterinarian who uses sound to help his animal patients. Ella awakes, still advised by Voice, with the ability to sense and diagnose illness in others. Ella rapidly recovers from her coma, spending some time getting to know Voice better. Voice presents as male, and insists he's just a part of her though he's not the same as the inner voice we all listen to at times. One day, following Voice's recommendation and her own heart, Ella dresses in street clothes and sneaks out of the hospital, to spend some time in its attached garden. The Universal Mind leads Renee, Felicity's 7-year-old daughter, to Ella, who then brings her to meet Brenda and Felicity. They all become fast friends and receive Ella into their inner circle. Even though Ella has not yet experienced a BAM! from the sunglasses, the others view her Voice as another vehicle of infinite intelligence and are intrigued by Ella's abilities upon coming out of her coma. Frank, who is currently investigating both Ella's hit-and-run and a jewelry store heist that left two dead, eventually realizes the two crimes are connected. The investigation leads to a brutal Romanian gang who target Ella, fearful she'll derail their plans. The adventure guides you through a labyrinth of circumstances, characters, and happenings that take you to the belly of a psychotic underworld, an unsuspecting restaurant owner, a thief swallowing a handful of diamonds, reformed criminals, a sting, and a ledger that is decoded by two youngsters who'd been touched by the sunglasses. Frank and his friends will need all the help they can get from the two pairs of sunglasses, and Ella's Voice, to bring the thugs to justice. Elements of fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, medical drama, and police procedural interweave throughout Ella's Voice, making it difficult to pigeonhole. The probing philosophical themes, while further exploring the results of normal people tapping into the Universal Mind and ultimately creating an intriguing tapestry, create a satisfying whole.

Textauszug

Chapter 3

Brenda takes the sunglasses from Felicity, gives her friend a smile, and puts them on. She leans back and rests her head on the back of the bench, facing the sun. Taking a deep breath, she says, “I’ve always loved the way they settle on my face. They feel so cool, but like a warm caress at the same time.”

“Yes, I know what you mean,” Felicity says, as she closes her eyes and leans back to rest while her friend enjoys the sunglasses. The sun feels good on her face, but she turns her head slightly so it isn’t directly in her eyes, and before long she’s in a light stage of sleep. She becomes unaware of her friend sitting next to her, and feels the world around her slow down.

Brenda too is feeling very relaxed, and has to make a half-conscious effort to keep her eyes open. She’s never experienced a BAM! or even a blip with her eyes closed, and that gets her to thinking about what perfect synergy of energy makes the Universal Mind open up so effortlessly through the sunglasses. It’s as though there’s this huge key that fits in a flawless slot, and with a graceful turn, the perfect alignment occurs. It can’t be forced, or rushed, or created outside of itself. The sensational all-knowing then occurs in the form of consciousness, and changes everything you thought you knew before.

How cool is that? is the last conscious thought Brenda has before the BAM! occurs. A long, continuous stream of an undefinable intelligence, almost palatable, pulses through her. She unknowingly gasps as a dream-like vision opens up to reveal a stunning landscape. The golden light tells her it’s late afternoon, and it’s the most beautiful place she’s ever seen. The landscape comes alive with birds, and wind, and trees, and flush with amazing colors. Then one fluid being materializes and comes forward. The being glows from the splendid light as they open their arms and gesture towards all that is around them. When they bring their hands to rest over their heart, Brenda senses the words, rather than hearing them. Show us how to capture this, to create how it makes us feel. Teach us the colors from vision to hand.

Afterward, the first thing Brenda becomes aware of is that her neck feels stiff. She sits up and rubs the back of her head where it rested against the bench, while moving from side to side to loosen up her neck. Once she becomes fully aware of her surroundings, she looks over at her friend Felicity, whose eyes are still closed, and wonders how long they’ve been sitting there.

“That was interesting,” Felicity says, with her eyes still closed. “I sensed subtle changes in your body that caused you to move around slightly. But other than that, and a gasp or two, no one would ever detect what was really going on. That was a BAM!, wasn’t it?”

“Yes! And it was different, but felt familiar too. In a way, it felt like how I sometimes feel when I’m communicating with Vincent through meditation or a dream. It felt surreal, and there was definitely a message. I need to think about it further, though, before I can say any more about it.”

Felicity finally opens her eyes and looks at her friend. “I totally get it. I started to fall asleep around the same time you started getting your BAM!, and I felt it! It’s hard to explain, but it felt softer, not as intense as getting one yourself. Yet I felt a gentle flow, as though the energy coming through you was finding its way to me as well. I had my eyes closed, and felt like I was almost asleep and starting to dream, but I was awake and also aware of my surroundings. I sensed you next to me and also felt the connection.”

“Wow, that’s intriguing. Do you remember what you started dreaming?” Brenda asks.

“It wasn’t so much a dream as images. I saw colors blending, and what looked like different textures. Like wood, and cloth, and shadows. There was a kind of bright reflection on a body of water. I remember thinking I wished I had my sketch pad, so I could try to capture some of it and use it in one of my creations.”

Brenda sits up and turns to face her friend with a look of amazement on her face. “Oh, I think I’m getting some of it now. I need to process further, but I think that BAM! has opened up the piece I’ve been waiting for. Something I need to do.”

“Ha, I feel like that, too! This is so wonderful. It’s incredible enough to even fathom what the sunglasses do for us individually, but to have this shared experience is beyond anything I could ever have imagined.” Felicity looks at her friend with a very serious expression and says, “I think what just happened may have been a little bit better than what you were alluding to before.”

“Huh?” Brenda says, looking at her friend, not quite getting it until Felicity starts laughing. “Oh, that. Well, hmm, maybe it’s a tie!”

After a few chuckles, the friends continue sitting quietly, relishing and processing the shared experience. When Brenda realizes Felicity didn’t get a full turn with the sunglasses, even though she did experience some of Brenda’s BAM!, she says, “You ready for a go now?”

Felicity shakes her head and says, “No, I’m good. Actually, better than good. Even though I’m tempted, there’s something to be said for having too much of a good thing. Do you ever think about when it is enough? I mean in everything, not only the infinite intelligence we gain through the sunglasses. Will it ever be enough?”

“Enough? Funny you should say that. The entire time I was having the BAM!, I felt so full, overflowing with enough. I actually felt I was being shown that certain parts of me were brimming over, as though they were filled to capacity, and that it was time for me to flow that energy elsewhere. I’m seeing it now as an evolution, and that we are ever-evolving creators. So, in that sense, it doesn’t appear as though it’s ever enough, because there will always be more. But if you can look further and wider, from singular parts of yourself, then what is enough in one area may be just the beginning of the evolution in another. Hmm, I feel I’m onto something here, and I think I know what will be coming for me next.”

“Oh, do tell,” Felicity says eagerly.

“Not yet. I still need to allow some of it to come on its own, without me overthinking it and forcing it.”

“Fair enough. I sometimes wonder what our lives would be like if Vincent had never created the sunglasses. In some ways, many ways in fact, I think they would still be wonderful, although very different. I wouldn’t have some of the abilities I have, but I’m sure I would still have others that would take me far. Like I said, just different.”

“I do think about that sometimes. But I can’t help thinking the talents and gifts we’ve received from the sunglasses were always in us to begin with. All kinds of greatness is in every one of us… we just have to connect somehow to where within us it is to bring it forth.”

“I think you’re right about that,” Felicity says. “Another thing that’s on my mind even more is that someday I’ll have to tell Renee all about the sunglasses, and how they’ve affected all of our lives, especially hers. She’s such an amazing little girl, and I wonder what she would have been like at this point in her life if I hadn’t used the sunglasses so frequently when I was pregnant with her. I have no doubt she would still be wonderful — I am her mother, after all — but would she be as intelligent and intuitive as she is now?”

“Well, no one can say for sure about any of it. Though there is one thing that you can be sure of.”

“What’s that?”

“Your sweet little Renee would most likely not be able to convince certain people they can’t see her. I think invisibility wouldn’t be one of her talents if she hadn’t received some of the intelligence through you,” Brenda says, laughing.

Felicity smiles and says, “Yes, you’re probably right about that. We’re grateful she doesn’t try to do that anymore, at least that I’m aware of. At the time, I remember David half-jokingly saying he thought she would grow out of it. I remember we were so worried, and couldn’t figure out how to tell a toddler not to do something she doesn’t realize the effects of. But Jesse getting kidnapped, and how he told her never to do it again afterwards, had a big impact on her. I’m not even sure if she remembers how to do it.”

“Probably should brace yourself, though. I’m sure other things like it are going to come along that are equally as astounding.”

Felicity winces and nods. Before she can say more, they both become aware of other voices and footsteps rustling along the path. When the footsteps stop, they hear what sounds like a young man and young woman having an argument… or more like the man expressing frustration, and the woman laughing at him.

“Casey, I can’t believe how mean you can be sometimes. Poor Ella is in a coma, and you’re grabbing and pinching her hand, and knocking it around like it’s a discarded toy or something. That was so disrespectful. You shouldn’t even treat an animal that way, and she’s your cousin. What’s wrong with you? You weren’t always this way. You used to be so sweet, and much nicer to me. I don’t like what you’re...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 14.2.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-9203-8 / 9798350992038