Chapter 19
Matt
Sunday afternoon, while Deejay and the twins nap, I watch a movie with Jasper, Cary, and Robbie, though at this point the younger two have both fallen asleep as well. Kendall and Colt come in about halfway through the movie. Colt sits next to Robbie, immediately snagging the bucket of popcorn from Robbie’s lap. Robbie chuckles at him, while Kendall comes to stand next to me. “Are you invested in this movie?”
he asks seriously.
I shake my head. “I’ve seen it about thirty times, so no. I’m not particularly invested.”
“Will you read my aura then?”
Kendall asks. “All of it. I want you to tell me what you see on all three levels you mentioned at the zoo.”
“What’re you talking about?”
Robbie asks, curiosity overcoming his usual temerity.
“Matt can read auras. He’s an Obsidite hybrid and retained that gift of the Obsidites. I want him to read me,”
Kendall explains, pushing his glasses up his nose.
Robbie looks a little lost. “You can read auras?”
“Yes, and they can be quite telling, but don’t worry, I don’t usually delve beyond what I can see at a glance,”
I assure him. “A person’s presenting aura reflects their main disposition as a person and current mood. Good versus bad, happy or sad, that kind of thing. I try to respect people’s privacy beyond that.”
“I see,”
he murmurs.
Kendall waits to see if he has more to say, and when it’s clear Robbie is done, he takes the conversation back. “Can you do it now?”
“This can be pretty personal; you want me to do it in front of everyone? We can go to my room, and I can look,”
I offer, concerned that he might not realize how invasive an aura reading can be. I did some research Friday evening and yesterday morning. Deejay had a single book with an aura map and a brief description of how to read one. That information was tucked into a handbook on Obsidite culture. I added the information in that to my well of knowledge—most of it jives with what I’ve already learned or figured out. The things that didn’t match up were easily explainable by my dad just not knowing what the hell he was talking about.
“I don’t mind, and Colt wants to know what you can see too,”
he replies firmly.
Colt huffs but doesn’t refute Kendall’s assertion as he shoves popcorn into his mouth.
“Ok, but if you decide you want me to stop at any time, just tell me and I will stop.”
He nods his agreement and waits.
I take a moment, preparing myself for this intrusion, and start. “Overall, your general disposition is on the light side of orange, indicating that your personality hinges on your intellect, self-confidence, and stability. That is the color below the shine that all non-humans have. Questions yet?”
I ask before I head deeper into his aura layers.
He shakes his head. “I think that’s an accurate representation of my personality, but what does that say about my current mood?”
“You’re in the mood to learn,”
I reply. “There’s a bit of happy yellow, and some red, which can be any kind of mood that comes from your passions, so it can indicate love or violence, or even that you’re keeping a secret.”
“Interesting. And accurate. Go on.”
I’m kind of relieved he didn’t feel the need to go into detail about the red. Reds are a difficult color palette to pin down when it comes to auras.
“Ok, below that outer shell are your chakras, which reflect the details of your personality and build on each other, not just bottom to top, but also top to bottom. Your crown affects your root as much as your root affects your crown, but aura readers typically follow a bottom to top map for readings.”
I peer at the brick red ball of energy at his groin and wince a little. “At your root, you have a strong sense of survival; overly developed even. Your sense of security is weak, and your ability to trust low, but I can see that when you do trust it’s an extraordinarily strong bond, unbreakable by outside influences.”
I glance up at his face, checking for discomfort or questions, or any indication that he doesn’t want me to go one. “You lost your innocence quite young, maybe two years old.”
“That is true,”
he nods. “My mother abandoned me when I was two, and things did not go well from there.”
I nod and move up to his second chakra on the Sacral point just below his navel. “Your sacral chakra indicates you have—yeah, I didn’t want to know this—a high energy sex drive. Way above normal levels. Might be how non-humans are, but since I’ve never done a reading on a non-human like this, I don’t know. Moving on—”
“Have you done readings like this on humans?”
he interrupts curiously.
“Twice. And it was because my old man wanted to teach me what he knew, and I have learned that he wasn’t always correct about everything, so I’ve done a bit of independent study as well. Like I said, I’m not an expert, and I don’t know if I am going to be one hundred percent accurate, but I will give it my best try.”
Kendall nods, content with my answer. “Thank you. Go on.”
I look back at the dandelion color sacral chakra. “Ok. Your thirst for knowledge is insatiable, but we knew that. You have low self-confidence. And fuck, Kendall, you have a difficult time feeling your emotions and that affects your ability to feel both pleasure and pain.”
“I do have a high pain threshold, though I did not realize it was because I don’t feel my emotions like everyone else.”
He sounds like I imagine a scientist would, taking notes and commenting on interesting discoveries. Not exactly excited, more curious; this is a research project, but not one he’s passionate about.
Moving up to his Solar Plexus chakra, I see that it’s sunny yellow, which makes me happy because I’m pretty sure that means that it’s relatively unscathed. “Your solar plexus chakra is pretty healthy. You have a strong sense of purpose both in the moment and long term and are content with your current circumstances. Looks like around this chakra your self-confidence is improved because of a disciplined habit of self-control. Looks good.”
Four more chakras to go and as I look at them, I am happy to see that their coloring indicates they are mostly healthy; the spring green of his heart chakra pleases me. “Your heart chakra is a mix, but the mix leans toward healthy. You have a low capacity for compassion, but forgiveness isn’t an issue for you. You don’t hold onto offenses. Your sense of responsibility is split. You feel responsible for your family, but don’t really care about people outside of us. Your sense of security and stability is much stronger here than in your root, which I think means that you draw your sense of security from your connection to your family.”
Kendall looks at me a little surprised. “I would have thought that not having a strong sense of security in my root would affect all my chakras the same way.”
“Not necessarily. It depends on the reason behind the low level in your root and the reason for the stronger connection in your heart. They may be completely unrelated events that caused both levels. I can look deeper to find the reason, but that’s the third level of an aura reading, and it’s really, really invasive. It would tell me specific details about your life. For example, if I knew how to do it, I could probably tell you exactly how much of your genetic make-up is Naiad versus other ancestries. I don’t know how, but I could if I did. At this point what I would be able to read on that third level are just things my old man thought were important and what I already know to be true. I would be able to read your self-identity lines, history of violence, sexual history, and health history in your meridian lines.”
Kendall looks intrigued by this. “After you get through the chakras, do that,”
he encourages without guile.
“You are weirdly open to this,”
I say, wide-eyed and agog that he wants me to look that deeply into his aura.
He smiles and shrugs. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with self-knowledge and I don't have anything to hide from my brothers.”
I shake my head, then start in on his last three chakras: the cobalt blue throat chakra, the pure indigo third eye, and the royal purple crown. “In your throat I see penchant for blunt communication, which we know about already, a strong sense of loyalty to those who have earned it, and a super organized life, but your creativity, trust, and diplomacy are all weak. The third eye tells me you have psychic magic, and medium levels of forgiveness here, but a lot of clarity and imagination, low compassion. Kendall, you just are not compassionate, are you? I think maybe that part of your empathy might be broken. And your crown indicates almost zero spiritual tendencies, but a deep capacity for wisdom and knowledge.”
Kendall looks at the wall, processing my words for a minute while I delve deeper to study his meridian lines. There’s a lot I just don’t know, but I can see a few things that I recognize.
“That was enlightening. I understand that chakras reflect a person in the moment, so this reading would change over time, right? Like if after puberty my sex drive lessened, that would reflect in my aura, right? And I could work on developing my capacity for compassion.”
“Yes, that is true. The only part of your aura that doesn’t change, are the parts of you that are unchangeable and those are reflected in your meridian lines.”
“This is incredibly exciting.”
His words and his tone do not match up. He’s so matter of fact, I wouldn’t know if he is joking or being truthful except that I can see the excitement in the outer layer of his aura. “Do my meridian lines now,”
he encourages me.
And so, I proceed with that, tracing out the lines for him as I tell him what they represent. “Pansexual, potential for polyromantic relationships, serious neglect as a young child. Abuse here—looks like a broken arm and clavicle when you were three. Your foster sister threw you down some stairs.”
Wow, this is interesting. And a little sad, but exciting because I picked up on it. “So, your solar plexus chakra is really super healthy, right? And it’s here,”
I point to his stomach, then trace up from there a meridian line. “This meridian is associated with that chakra and I can see when I get here,” I stop just behind his ears, “that you are going deaf. But slowly. You’re at eighty percent hearing right now. And you have an amazing capacity for acceptance about it. Losing your hearing isn’t hurting you, which I can’t say would be true for most people. I assume Deejay knows about this?” I ask slightly amazed. I know touch telepaths eventually go deaf and mute, but I didn’t realize it was already happening to Kendall.
“Yes. I keep him apprised of my condition and we go for hearing tests every three months. My rate of decline indicates I will lose my hearing and voice between sixteen and eighteen years old.”
He has zero regrets toward this loss and has just accepted his future with matter-of-fact aplomb.
Impressed, I look back at his meridian lines, cocking my head when I catch something that kind of amuses me. “Do you have a crush on a firefighter?”
Colt laughs and snorts. “Is he talking about Inigo Valencia?”
he asks Kendall as he intentionally points to his smile until his brother reflects it back.
Kendall turns that smile back to me, nodding. “Inigo Valencia was a firefighter, but now he’s our school’s vice principal,”
he explains. “He’s a Werebear and he’s very nice to look at and treats me kindly instead of like I’m odd.”
“I like him,”
Colt affirms, grinning at Kendall with quite a bit of lime green lust flowing across his blue aura.
I guess Kendall isn’t the only one with a crush on the vice principal, and I really like that Colt is helping Kendall with matching his facial expressions to the mood he is hoping to convey. Colt doesn’t like me much, not that he’s intentionally antagonistic, but that he doesn’t like people in general except for his brothers and I don’t count among that group for him. Regardless, I’m glad that he and Robbie are friendly and that he takes care of being the right kind of help for Kendall. He’s a good kid, just going through some shit, if I’m reading his outer aura correctly. I would never do a deeper reading without permission—at least not on a family member.