3.

July second, 1984 and a young Tanya Ferguson is sitting alone out her back garden, playing with her dolls, and singing.

The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout.
Down came the rain
and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun
and dried up all the rain
and the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again ...

She is about to start the rhyme over again when she catches the sight of something that completely brings her to a halt. She stops singing, she stops playing to the point she is no longer moving for what she sees has her frightened and it has her frozen to the spot. A small dark shadow moves around her bright garden, itself coming to a halt right next to her not only that for it appears to have taken the shape of a person.

'Hello' speaks the shadow in a friendly tone.

She may only be a child in this moment though even Tanya knows that this should not be possible.

'You are young Miss Ferguson, aren't you?' continues the shadow, 'your name is Tanya, is that right?'

'Yes', replies the young girl after a moment of hesitation.

'Aw, isn't that great? How about you and I play a game?'

Tanya smiles and at the same time considers going inside and away from this shadow for what kind of games could any shadow know how to play? She moves to her feet and decides to go inside skipping her way along as she does. Darkness follows her. Tanya knows this is not quite right, still she is just a child and really knows no better so she accepts it for what it is.

Odd as it will be that when the time comes that one who can see things that many others cannot, will herself not be able to see the very thing she did see at a time when she was only a child.

***

August eight, 1999 and Julie Evans has herself a whole host of friends. She, for the past five years, has been known as the girl who heals the owie's. She can heal cuts and bruises with the mere touch of a finger. Aches and pains, the same thing applies, they can be healed with a touch. Julie is the talk of the town and people are, for the most part, friendly and grateful for anything she can help them with.

At times people can be cruel and distrusting but they can also feel blessed and be understanding. Sometimes all it comes down to is the luck of the draw and Julie Evans has come into good fortune. She is not feared, she is not considered to be a witch, instead she is considered to be the town miracle. She is also the town secret. Sometimes secrets do have a tendency to get out.

The older generation have never felt younger, arthritis and back pain being at a low, the young have never been so ... adventurous, a town as a whole has never before felt so close. People look out for one another; doors are left unlocked and such closeness of a community is down to a special young girl and an amazing gift she has. On this day however, all this may just be put into jeopardy.

This particular day is bright and lively. So many children out and about playing on the streets, skipping and riding bicycles, running and jumping, not worrying about the games they play, all in the knowledge that if someone has a small accident then Julie can help put it right. Even adults too, building and making repairs to whatever needs repairing knowing any small knock can easily be looked after. It's enough to almost put any local General Practitioner out of business.

The sound of a near-by crash brings the place to a grinding halt then the calls for Julie begin. Julie, only having become a teenager a couple months prior, is about to have herself a moment she will never forget.

A stranger, a newcomer to town, took his eyes off the road for a moment or two in an effort to gain his bearings and in doing so, he did not see a young boy on a bicycle move out on front of his vehicle until it was too late. Anything Julie has ever healed before now has been small so powers or not, she may be incapable of healing this young boy, still she is asked to try whatever she can.

By the time Julie has been brought to the site of the accident, the young boy has stopped breathing. Yeah, she certainly has done nothing quite like this before. Whatever she may or may not have done in the past, she has to at least try save the boy. She places both her hands upon him, and both of her hands begin to glow.

For ten or fifteen seconds nothing seems to be happening, twenty seconds and this attempt of hers definitely appears to be taking everything she has got. Thirty-five seconds after first placing her hands on the boy it becomes clear than she has done it, she has done the impossible. The boy is alive, struggling to catch his breath and coughing as he does struggle though alive all the same. Right away there appears to be a cost as Julie in all her efforts has collapsed.

Julie awakes the follow morning to gifts a plenty and to much joy and relief. She has always been special, particularly over the past five years and now she is a hero. Even the girls who once taunted her now hold Julie in high regard. She is a hometown hero. The effects of her latest endevours have cost her that ability of hers as she is soon to discover. She is never able to heal again from this day on, not until one day many years from this day when an unseen force guides her to a place she needs to be.

Less than a week after the small-town miracle a priest, a certain Father Jason Alveron has come to pay Julie Evans a visit. Unfortunately, he is not able to witness her gift for himself though he has many a testimony offered to him to take doubt away including that of a boy who surely would no longer be around if it weren't for a special girl ...