Serenis

Chapter 27

 We reached Imogene's house which was lower set than ours and had one step leading up to a beautiful purple door. The outside porch was covered in fairy lights and the sound of melodic wind chimes danced through the air as they swayed from the rafters. We reached the door, and before we knocked it flung open and the young girl from the highway who I'd seen cause the small earthquake, opened the door. She was shorter than me and had a lovely angelic face which now that I saw it up close resembled a porcelain doll's, with a flawless complexion and beautiful almond shaped dark eyes.  

A huge smile beamed across her face as she leaped over the threshold and gave me a welcoming hug. 'Oh, it's so lovely to finally meet you Evie! I'm so honoured you decided to come to my home, please come in.' 

Her voice was as melodic as the wind chimes and I was shocked to find that she wasn't in fact a European exchange student and had no distinguishing accent that I could pick up. 

Josh and I walked in and followed her straight ahead to a small sitting area; I sat on a plush purple sofa as she and Josh sat opposite in large tanned colored armchairs. Her cabin was much smaller than ours though as I looked around the room I got the feeling she liked it that way; pictures, ornaments and paintings were everywhere. Her home was cluttered but in the perfect way that made you feel hugged as soon as you walked in through the door. 

'You have a lovely cabin, Imogene, very homely.' I stared at a large photo frame which sat proudly above the fireplace next to me. It was a black and white portrait style photo of a family with a girl that resembled Imogene sitting very daintily in the front with a delicate smile on her perfect face. 

'That's my family; they lost their lives in a house fire when I was 16, many years ago.' 

I blushed as she watched for my reaction; there was fondness in her voice but no obvious heartbreak which made me think her loss must have happened quite some time ago. 

'I'm 156 years old next Wednesday to be exact.' She looked over at me with a very proud smile on her face.  

Again I blushed as I was caught out once more. 'Josh was right; you're very good at reading people's energy.' 

She shrugged. 'I can't take all of the credit, I have a little help.' She looked over at the front door which was still open and blew out gently as though she was blowing out a candle - the door lightly closed as she stood and walked into the kitchen. 'I thought I'd make some tea for you, you must be exhausted after your session yesterday with Tobias; he's quite the task master and is not used to taking no for an answer.' 

I stood up to walk into the kitchen but she was already coming back with a tray loaded with three white teacups with purple violets delicately painted on them and a matching pot of boiling water. 'Thankfully I had today off, so no lessons - but I was hoping that maybe you could teach me a few things about feeling people's energy.' I was trying to get the point of my visit as soon as possible. 

She set the tray on the coffee table and served out the tea before coming over to sit next to me on the sofa. 'I think it's a good idea that you learn this skill as it's our most valued defense as a Super. The thing I want you to keep in mind though is that for you this particular skill will require a lot of work and it maybe harder for you to pick up than most others.' 

Josh scrunched his face up and put the tea back on the table. 'Evie's smart, Imogene, she'll get it soon enough; hey, do you have any cookies to go with this, my tea's a tad bitter?' 

I looked over at Josh and shook my head. 'Josh, don't be rude.' 

'No, it's okay, I have actually, they're in the far right hand cupboard in the kitchen. Why don't you help yourself Josh and then go through to watch television and let me work with Evie for a while. This will probably bore you as you have been through the training before.'