prologue

prologue

Welcome to the Shop 

Hello my name is Nova. Welcome to my pet shop. That’s what I always say to anyone who comes in my store. I know what you’re thinking, who names their kid Nova? That a such a weird name but I'm pretty weird myself to, so it matches me.

I’m not a vain person so I won’t bore you with a lot of details about my looks. I’m not a model or anything fancy but I guess I am o.k. To look at, I'm just a little chubby but I'm healthy. I’m half black and half white, but for the most part I look more black then white.

  Most people would never know I’m half white until they look at my parents. My Mom has very dark beautiful skin and long hair down to her waist. She wears blue clothes a lot, she says it’s because Dad  tells her she’s not really black, she’s just dark blue. Mom for some reason thinks that’s funny; maybe because her favorite color is blue, I don’t see it. Personally I think that’s kind of racist for Dad to say that to Mom but parents are weird like that. I guess every couple has strange things that make him or her happy. At least Mom doesn’t dress up like a French maid or a cheerleader to make Dad happy (If you know what I mean).

  My dad is Scotch Irish and white and pretty pale. Dad is not very active he spends a lot of time watching sports, rather then really doing any sports, or movement.    

 

Unlike my mother I only have shoulder length hair, which I keep back with a bandana. My hair is difficult to control, it doesn't help that since I'm half white and half black. As a result I have what my dad calls half and half hair. This is not in a good way because instead of having the benefit of having white hair that stays straight or black hair that stays strong I just get puffy hair that’s constantly trying to morph, (as my uncle would say), into an Afro. That’s why I wear the bandana to keep it down. An  entire Bottle of special shampoo called “Just for wild untamable hair” still is not enough for me. When I was five I used to fear my hair really would morph into a monster and eat my head or at least my face. My Mom was so mad at my Uncle when I told her this because she thought my Uncle had put the idea in my head for telling me my hair was a monster. This was not fair because it was the other kids in my playgroup who were telling me it looked like a fuzzy animal on my head. Now granted they did get the idea from my Uncle when he said it kind of looked like a monster but it had been funny when he said it. 

My Uncle felt so bad later when he saw how scared I was he gave me the bandana for my hair and I’ve been wearing it ever since.

Granted bandanas aren't for everyone as some people think I look like a pirate with it on. I know what you're thinking now? That I sound perfectly normal other then a strange name and big hair. So you re still wondering, why would anyone name his or her kid Nova? Well you see Nova is actually short for the word Novation, that means” the act of replacing". So that would explain why I always feel obligated to help people. Granted it’s a word usually used for plants, not animals and people, but hey it’s still a cool name. 

Plus my name being weird really fits me well because I have a very unusual gift. Actually it’s kind of more liked two gifts in one. I can see dead people and talk to animals, or rather I can talk to animals that used to be dead people but have come back as animals. Confused? Yeah I don't blame you. So let me explain. You ever heard of this thing called reincarnation? Well its kind of hard to summarize what reincarnation is, but the short version is this: "Reincarnation is when the soul after death of the body, begins a new life in a new body that may be human, animal or even spiritual depending on what the person being reincarnated has decided or what they were like in there last life”. 

When you come back as a human you forget you’re past life. I’m not really sure why. If you asked me, wouldn't it make more sense if you remembered everything you learned in your last life such as what you learned in school so you don't have to go back again? Although schools are always updating things, but what’s the point of graduating if your just going to have to do it all over again? 

 I got to admit there are a lot of things about reincarnation I don't understand.  The questions I ask in church that the reverend doesn't answer could probably fill a whole book, but you don't want to hear that. The point is most people when they have a choice to get reincarnated come back as a human. Usually a human in their old family or their best friend’s family that they were always jealous about. Some people would rather come back as an animal and they say when you come back as an animal you have a better memory of your last life. Not a perfect memory, but you'll remember the important stuff. I'm not sure exactly why that is either, maybe because you can’t talk to humans from your old life as an animal. Maybe God or the universe or who ever is in charge up there doesn't want you babbling all the secrets of the after life to just anyone. Maybe who's ever in charge up their only wants reincarnated animal people or r.a.p for short as my Uncle calls them, (he's big with acronyms) to talk to certain people who will help them and not hurt or exploit them. That’s where I come in.    I cannot only tell which kitten in a litter of kittens is really your great great grandfather reincarnated but I can talk to him as well. 

Spotting someone who has come back from the dead or the other side, or whatever you want to call it is easy! Well…At least for me. Not that I'm trying to boast. You see my gift works through my eyes and ears. In my right eye when I first, look at an animal I just see a normal dog or cat depending on what they are. But when I wink or close my right eye I see whatever that person used to be in their human life.  I also see what they wore in that life so I don’t see them naked. Thank God, as that would be weird. There is only one person I’ve seen naked as long as I’ve been doing this and that was because he was actually a nudist as a human. He came back as a Mexican hairless dog.  That was very awkward to pet him.

  So instead of seeing animals I’ll often see men and women on their hands and knees on the floor with balls of yarn. It’s quite a sight, especially if I catch them .. during mating season. eww but I wont get into that. its not that kind of story.  If I wink my left eye I see them as an animal again, but even if I have both eyes closed I can still hear a R.a.p talking to me in human voices. I’m not sure why I can hear them no mater what, but I can’t see them in human form unless I wink. That’s just weird. Almost as weird as naming your daughter Nova after a gardening word.

   I'm not the only one in my family who is weird like this. My family has a long history of family members with these weird gifts or Psychic Talents as My Uncle calls them, or just Talents for short. My Uncle has his own gift too. My Uncle’s gift was or rather still is Psychometry or "object reading", as Uncle calls it. I will explain more about that later.  It's not easy having a talent because I have to keep it a secret. But it sure makes life more fun in this small town fun.

  I love my life. I love my job, even if I don't make much money. I love animals and I love helping them, and I love helping people too. But I had no idea I was part of something much bigger and my life was about to get a lot more complicated than I ever imagined.