16. breakfast of Champions

Leo swerved to miss Yellow Yama Leaping Lynx as she walked out of the kitchen smiling at him, wrapped in the blanket, as he was just walking in.  Instead, he poked his head in the kitchen to see what was up this early.  He saw the partially-prepped food on the counter.  “You ladies came just in time … our hired help for breakfast just went out of town for a few days yesterday.  Thank you!  And thank you again for the massage!  I feel so wonderful this morning, and I slept so well last night!”

“You’re welcome, Leo!  We owe you and Auntie Spots a few meals, though.  Really, it’s our pleasure!  We’re having a blast here in New York, and staying with you guys so far” Sapphire Panther said.

Pink Panther glanced at Josy Lynx and giggled a tiny bit, as she and her sister Amethyst agreed “Yea!”

“This is SO fun … like being on vacation while we work!” Amethyst Panther said.

“Really, don’t fret anything.  Just remember, you guys are all our family.  We got your back … so to speak.  Auntie Spots backed us many times.  And you!  Well, you will remember soon enough.  So, thank YOU for the space to gather as the Round Council attempts to deal with this problem.  That is the official message from all of us to you.” Sapphire Panther said.

Violet popped her head in the doorway on the other side.  “Thank you ladies for the wonderful massage last night.  I’m sorry I passed out on you … I don’t know how … I guess it was later than I thought.”

“Oh, we knocked you out, my Grandmother” Amethyst Panther said.  “Or, actually Honeysuckle did” she continued, glancing at Pink Panther.  “You’re job … well, you needed a break from worrying all night about the gun under your pillow.”

Maxine Violet Leffleur suddenly had a clear flashback from several thousands of years ago, lifetimes ago, remembering these young ladies, and accepting Amethyst Panther as a student.  She smiled, and nodded a knowing gesture.

“We were hoping the massage table was comfortable enough for you, since Leo said Loverboy took your bed” Sapphire Panther said to Violet.  Pink Panther giggled.

“Hey, I would have just slept in my motorhome bus.  They knocked me out, too.  You can have it back tonight” Josy replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“We know, we saw.  Catia said you are so cute when you sleep” Leo said to his brother.

“Auntie Spots is still asleep, isn’t she?  I gave her an extra deep line of Qi.  She deserves a real night’s sleep.  I can see the weird patterns in her auric flow that look like long-term lack of sleep.  Yellow Tiger saw it too, and did his best to help re-harmonize them in the short time he was here.  We’ll give her long-term treatment.  It should help a lot more.  Maybe then her brain will re-organize and re-connect with her auric-mind, and she can remember her past lives, but we don’t want to tease her, because that’s a long-shot, so we’re not going to mention that hope at first, ’cause we don’t want to disappoint her” Pink Panther said.

“Yea, she’s sleeping soundly, breathing deeply.  It’s really nice to see her sleeping so peacefully.” Leo replied.

“Good!” Pink Panther said, just as Jazmin walked in the room, smiling a bright smile at the triplet sisters.  “And sister Jazmin!   Good morning!  How are you?”

“OH!  I feel so good today!  I woke up and I thought I was back home where I was born, and I just had a bad dream.  But then I opened my eyes, and remembered I was here now.  But I feel like I slept for real!  I can not sleep since Rafaél was killed.  I saw him in my dream, but then he was gone and I could not sleep really anymore.  Every day I feel so tired, and all I can think is "where are my children?"; I can’t even put on my socks sometimes in the morning, my head is so … bad.  I can’t think, because I am so tired.  Today I can think again.  Thank you!”  She walked over to Pink Panther, the closest of the triplet Panthers and gave her a hug, reaching out with an arm toward the other two.  They quickly joined in the group hug.

Violet, Josy, and Leo watched, as the 4 ladies embraced for a couple minutes, quietly holding each other.  Josy felt a deep longing to just reach out and hold Jazmin in his arms, wrap his aura around her, protect her, comfort her, nourish her.  He … almost … wait … felt like he wanted to kiss her gently on the lips, looking her deep in the eyes as he did so, giving her the solid foundation she needed to hold on to, holding her torso tightly against his, his ribs next to hers.  This feeling washed over him, overwhelmingly, as he wondered where it came from, and shrugged it off … or tried, but it seemed to want to persist.  Jasmine walked in, and the weird spell that had taken hold of him broke.

Jasmine said nothing, just walked over and joined the group hug, where she was instantly absorbed into the ball of arms.  “Come on guys!” she said, looking at Violet, Leo, and Josy, reaching out an arm.  So they joined the group, brothers finally embracing.  Leaping Lynx walked back in fully clothed, and joined the ball of huggers, standing just behind Pink Panther.  Pink Panther leaned her head back into Leaping Lynx’s shoulder, and Leaping Lynx laid the side of her head on the top of Pink Panther’s, as Qi circulated throughout the group.

The hugs finally released, the Panther Sisters finished preparing breakfast, and Catia Cheetah woke just in time to eat with the family.

“I slept so well, and never woke from sleep apnea, not once!  I can’t believe I slept so long!” Catia Cheetah said as they sat at the table eating.

“Pink Panther gave you the gift of sleep, so I hear” Leo said, smiling at the triplet.

“Your rhythms were all out of sync, Auntie, and competing with each other.  I tried to chill some out; they were running top speed, and didn’t want to stop for the night.  All together, they make your body work.  When they get out of sync like that, you’re about to take a breath, and your body is saying "make room for the air", but the heart beats at just the right moment, wanting to expand itself, and tells your breath "wait!  Heartbeats are more important and need to be in a nice rhythm!"  And breath goes like "OK," but then looses track of its own rhythm, and just stops, and then sometimes your throat relaxes too much, because it’s like "oh, we are taking a break" and your breath can’t start back again.  If you study a high-level martial art at advanced stages, the "inner" stages where your training involves meditation, you learn to "strike" or "block" or extend your Qi in sync with your heartbeat, and your breath is always supposed to be in sync with both your heart and your body’s movements.  Same principle; I just apply it backwards” Pink Panther said.

“Well thank you Honeysuckle, and thank you all for the wonderful massages yesterday!” Catia Cheetah said.

“You’re welcome, and we have more in store for you, Auntie!” Sapphire Panther said.

“Yea, now that we found you, and the cat is out of the bag as to who you are and who your spirit is, and we don’t have to hide the truth from you, we’re gonna give you the complete workover!” Amethyst Panther said.

Leo was quick.  He jumped in “Hey, how did you know her name was Honeysuckle?”

“Um, … I don’t know … you didn’t tell me that last night?  I don’t know.  I just thought that was her name, Pink Honeysuckle Pouncing Panther” Catia Cheetah replied.

The three Panther sisters looked at each other, and smiled.  Sapphire Panther reached over the table, and high-fived her sister, Pink Honeysuckle.  Amethyst Panther, sitting next to her, did so next.  Then Sapphire Panther and Amethyst Panther high-fived each other.

“You didn’t tell me that?” Catia asked a little confused.  Leo put his hand on her back between her shoulders and rubbed.

They all finished eating, and Leo insisted he help the Panther sisters clean up the dining mess, as Violet excused herself to the guest bathroom shower, and the others moved to the front living room.  The cell-phone rang and Leo stopped, and looked confused as he walked back to his bedroom to answer it.

“Hi, Leo?  This is Tammy.  Is my mom there?”

“Tammy!  Hi!  How are you?   Are you OK?  Yes, your mom is here, I’m walking to get her now.  But I'm worried about you calling from Mexico right now.  Are you OK?”

“I’m O.K.  I’m just worried about my mom.  Is she O.K.?”

“Oh, yes of course she is … here, hold on a sec, here she is …”

“Tammy?  What’s wrong?  Are you O.K.?  Why are you calling?” Jasmine was an instant tangled knotted ball of worries, a mother’s dilemma.

“I’m fine Mom!  I’m in a Church!  Nothing bad happens here.  Father Thomas sent me this phone, and I was worried you were in trouble or something, so I wanted to make sure YOU were O.K.”

“I’m fine.  Everything is O.K. here.  We found help for Jazmin, and we…” she stopped short.  Should she tell Tammy she was going to the Moon?  NO!  Should she go to the Moon, considering Tammy was left in Mexico?  She hadn’t even gotten to the point of processing those thoughts yet.  The Moon?  What?  Go to the Moon?  Unreal!  But real.  It was like she stepped into an alternate reality back at Suki’s diner with Father Thomas, when José Yaguar appeared.  She needed to process these two conflicting realities she now found herself stuck in, and combine them.  She felt compelled to stand by Jazmin’s side through the stress of the upcoming trip; after all, she was the one who dragged Jazmin this far.  But she couldn’t deny the responsibility of motherhood, either.

“How are you getting along at the Church there?  Bored I bet” Jasmine continued.

“No Mom!  Well, I was at first, but now I help here, and watch kids, and grow food, and cook, and all kinds of stuff.”

“Really?  Not craving a video game?  I bet!”

“No.  Facebook at first, but now I feel better than Facebook, because I meet real people, not their pictures.”

“Well good!  Tammy, bad news is that it may take a week or two more to find Jazmin’s kids; are you O.K. to stay there?”

“Yea, I like it here.  Everyone here is nice.”

“Tammy, I want you to sit tight and wait.  Don’t call here, because it endangers you.  I don’t want them to find you.”

“Oh, Mom!  I’m in Mexico now.  How can they find me through a cell phone?”

“Tammy, you don’t understand!  They can!  Just wait.  Don’t call here, don’t call your friends, either!  Don’t text anyone!  Don’t check your Facebook account or any account.  Did you already?” Jasmine asked her daughter with growing worry.

“No.  O.K. I won’t.  Can I see the news on the internet?  They can’t tell it’s me, and I can see if they found you or something bad like that.”

“Yea, that’s O.K.  Just nothing personal.  Nothing that connects you back to here or to home.”

“Well, I looked up Leo on the internet to find you…”

“O.K., what is done is done, but please, for your own safety, no more.  I will text you from a safe phone when I get one and know more about when I will be back to get you.”

“O.K. Mom.”

“Now tell me more about what you’re doing; I want to hear your voice.  I miss you!”

They chatted for a few more minutes, but then the line went dead in the middle of Tammy speaking.  Jasmine heard "We’re sorry, the international signal has been lost.  Error code 8-6-4-7."  Tammy heard "All circuits are busy now.  Please hang up and try your call again later."

A minute later, Violet returned from her shower.  “Did I hear the phone ring?  Anyone important?”

“Just Tammy calling Jasmine” Leo responded.

“Oh, no, not from Mexico, I hope?!”

“Yea.  I told her not to do that anymore” Jasmine replied.

Shortly later, Maxine Violet Leffleur found a distracted moment and bowed out of the room quietly.  She pulled out her gun, and ejected the 12-bullet cartridge, and installed another with steel-tip hollow-point armor-piercing ones.  Then she added a silencer.  No need to attract attention in this quiet neighborhood if trouble comes around …