anxious as well. You'll find her just down the hall in the waiting room. Come, we'll take you there."
Nurse Newman led the party down the hall to a closed door.
Before entering Dr. Nygaard stopped and said, "I must tell you about the girl accompanying Luna right now. Daisy Revella is a twenty-two year old psychology major that does volunteer work with us. She's a bit eccentric, but the truth is that Daisy relates to Luna better than any of us. That's why they're together now." He added with a chuckle. "If Daisy starts spouting about Luna being a Star-Child, pay no attention to her nonsense. Well, let's go in and meet them."
Janice McClure opened the door. On a couch across the room sat Luna on a blonde girl's lap. Daisy was indeed freakish for Manny and Harald to behold. Sporting a ring in one nostril and two more on her lower lip, her short hair was spiked and garnished with orange streaks. On one bare arm she bore a tattoo, the all-seeing eye encased by an ornate pyramid. Harald remembered from Bible school that it was an occult symbol—eerie.
But Manny had only one focus. She dropped to one knee and said with out-stretched arms, "Luna, my dear, come to Manny!"
At first Luna did not respond. She looked at Manny, then at Daisy, and so back at Manny. Daisy sat rigid and clutched the back of Luna's dress. Everyone waited to see what the girl would do.
"Manny!" Luna suddenly broke away from Daisy and ran to her foster mother. They embraced and wept aloud for joy.
Daisy's face was in shock and her eyes betrayed great sorrow. She stood up, threw her arms around the nurse and cried, "No! Mrs. Newman, don't let them take away our Star-Child. You must stop them."
For a moment time all stood in frozen silence.
"There, there, Daisy," said the nurse, "everything will be all right."
Janice McClure joined in, stroking Daisy back. "Don't cry, my dear."
The two women led sobbing Daisy aside so as not to disturbed the happy staff now flocking around Manny and Daisy. But the scene caught Harald's eye as he watched the trio regrouped on the other side of the room. Though they were unaware, he could hear them talking.
"Just look at those two," whispered Daisy. "They're peasants. Who will help Luna develop her true Star-Child nature? They have zero spiritual awareness. All they know is just 'Hallelujah' and 'Praise the Lord'. That's it!"
"I know," replied the nurse in a low voice. "But Dr. Nygaard makes the decisions."
"We've got to get her back!" said Daisy.
"Shush or they'll hear us," hushed Janice McClure. "We'll just have to accept it—at least for now. You must be patient."
More staff members had now gathered around Luna and Manny to bid the happy mother and child goodbye. But despite his own joy, Harald would not forget the three women from across the room.
Later, at the local library, he learned that "Star-Children" were those New Agers believed to be superhuman with alien DNA from outer space. They purportedly had magical skills and telepathic powers. For him this was an abominable lie, and he would pray daily for God to shield his family from such evil powers.
Upon arriving at Daybreak farm, Luna was joyful to be home at last, and went about the business of greeting all the animals. The next day, Manny packed a lunch and dressed the child for hiking.
"Where are we going, Manny?" Luna asked.
"Today's little trip includes an adventure in God's Creation," she replied with a wink.
They said goodbye to Harald in the barnyard and set off. The sky was bright blue, with soft cool winds blowing from the bay. They passed through the orchard and walked along an old stone fence that led to a cast-iron gate, about as high as Luna's head. It was an old pasture gate, rusted and overgrown with weeds.
"Behold, the doorway into God's Cathedral," said Manny in a lofty voice. "Take off your shoes for you are approaching sacred ground."
The woman let Luna turn the handle while she swung open the gate. From the edge of Daybreak Farm, Luna scanned across a lush meadow bordered by birchen woods. Yonder the bluffs soared high.
"Go ahead, Luna. Enter the one place on Earth I want you to see."
Barefoot, Luna stepped between the tall prairie grasses. Myriad wild flowers carpeted the fragrant field. Bees were buzzing from blossom to blossom.
She stood perfectly still, mesmerized. Then beneath her feet came a tickling of bubbly air that seemed to lift her off the ground. Her eyes opened wide as she beheld no longer bees, but an array of fairies hovering over the cowslips and milkweed. They sparkled like diamonds, and like darting dragonflies, their wings fluttered at fever pitch. Their bright silken garments were saffron, their skin mossy green.
Luna embraced the flowers, the sunlight and air with all her being. She laughed and plunged helter-skelter into the meadow as if riding on air. Unveiling the shroud of scent and color, Luna beheld all manner of ethereal beings—fairies, gnomes, and elves—that ordinary eyes cannot see. It was a baptism, her soul's immersion into Nature as breathing and conversing—God's Creation fully alive.
Astonished, Manny was witnessing a miracle. While her eyes saw only flowers and butterflies, Luna could see beyond. All her life, when praying in a woods or by a pond, Manny felt the trees and waters join in. Nature was alive! At Faith Bible Church, where the Nelsons worshiped, Pastor Norquist would say such ideas were silly, if not sinful. But Luna's descriptions of her angelic visions had confirmed what Manny had long believed.
The next day Luna grabbed Manny's finger and pulled her toward the back door. "Manny, take me back to the meadow-fairies."
For many weeks to come, Manny often took the child to the same place. Luna would go through the iron portal with Manny right behind. Each time her experience was different.
"Bird-lady, bird-lady!" The child squealed with delight as she knelt and embraced some blue bells.
Luna pointed toward the old stone fence by the cherry orchards. "Little man, little man!" The child thought Manny could see the elves.
"Horsey-fish flying! Horsey-fish flying!" Luna cried from the edge of the bluffs above the bay.
What could all this mean? Indeed, God's hand was on this child. Manny marveled as Luna ambled among flowers and trees, babbling about invisible realms. As a Christian, Manny believed in angels and often felt their presence; the Bible also spoke of unseen powers. Did they actually live in plants and inanimate things like rocks? Many times, Manny felt nature's forces. Most of them were good, but some were evil. For Luna's sake, she would keep her as close to Jesus as possible.
"Pretty angel-lady! Pretty angel-lady!" the little girl cried as a gust of wind blew across the meadow. She broke out singing in what sounded like a wondrous angelic language.
Manny imagined what the others at the Bible Church might say. She could hear them clicking their tongues. But she need not care. God had answered her prayer by sending this blessed little girl. So spiritually graced, so anointed and beyond this world, the child literally saw what others could only imagine. Surely God had brought Manny and Harald to Daybreak farm to prepare an abode for Luna. She had forgotten Dr. Nygaard's talk of psychosis. This was real. Her mission was to help Luna grow, to prepare this celestial child for a skeptical world.
"Horses don't fly, Luna. Is there another way to say that?" Manny wanted her foster child to use ordinary words when describing her angelic visions.
One day, after a year had passed, the two stood on the highest bluff. "Down there! I see hundreds of water-spirits skipping over the whitecaps." Luna no longer said 'flying fish-ladies' because Manny had shown her pictures of flying fish, and that was not what she saw. She now knew that her foster mother could not see beyond, and that she must speak clearly.
"What do the water-spirits look like, Luna?" asked Manny as they climbed down to the shore where the waves crashed against the rocks.
"Their turquoise skins shimmer and ripple like the water, and they shine with all the colors of the sea."
"What are they doing?"
"They laugh like silly children and dive straight up in the
air only to crash into the waves."
Manny slowly visualized Luna's world by the bay and in the meadow. Luna described, as best she could, how flower-fairies took form from fragrance and color. Manny found this hard to grasp. When Luna repeated what the nature-spirits said, however, she could only babble. Was Luna speaking with the tongues of angels like Manny's Pentecostal friends?
Hoping Luna might have this gift of grace, Manny prayed in earnest for the interpretation according to First Corinthians: Let one who speaks in an unknown tongue also pray for interpretation. Her prayer was answered, not by miracle, but through a bedtime reading.
Eight-year-old Luna loved fairy tales like Rumpelstiltskin and Peter Pan. Every evening she stood before Manny and Harald with one tattered volume or another. The child cuddled on their laps and never said a word―until Manny began to read The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis.
"That's what happens to me, Manny."
"What are you talking about, dear?"
"When Lucy goes to Narnia through the wardrobe, I do the same."
"We don't have a wardrobe, Luna."
"I mean when passing through the iron gate, I enter Entréea."
Manny's eyes widened. "What?"
"Beyond the cherry orchard, I go through my wardrobe and meet Weenah, the flower-fairy. She takes me to Righty and Lefty's house. They're the tree-elves who live over by the stone fence, and—"
"Wait, wait, Luna, you're talkin' too fast. Back up."
Luna sat up straight and