Erasing: Shadows (The Erasing Series) Read Online Free Page A

sometimes overrode the rationality. The younger you were the more likely you might lose your intellectual and emotional maturity. Twelve seemed to be about the limit of maintaining the adult intellect while still in the body of a child.
    “Okay,” the gang agreed, wondering how much they had or hadn’t grown in their inner selves since years ago when they traveled all the time.
    Jonathan thought to himself, This is why we need Stu. Stu never stopped learning and traveling. He’s light years ahead of us all. Jonathan held his tongue in deference to his brother. He would bring it up again only in an emergency.
    “All right then,” he said to everyone. “Meet you in one hour on the astral.” Jonathan didn’t mention that he would most likely be older than Michael due to his continuing work with Stu.
    Michael didn’t mention that he knew Jonathan had been practicing some with Stu; there was nothing he could do about that now.
    The gang already knew where to meet up. They always knew.
    It wasn’t in this reality.

Chapter Three
    The High Five Gang
    Exactly one hour later, six raggedy looking teenagers showed up out of nowhere in the astral, sitting on the ground near a farm. For a moment, they weren’t quite sure where they were. Then it all came back to them. The gravel underneath their legs was leaving imprints like always. They smelled hay. It was a sure sign they were ‘there.’
    The Emergency Meeting Place.
    The group surveyed the landscape, and it appeared exactly as it was supposed to be. The field over the hill lay behind Mira’s childhood home. Then they caught themselves staring at each other because of the sheer scale of difference between their before and after appearances.
    “Wow.” Jonathan spoke first. He gaped at Michael, who, true to his word, had come back at about sixteen-years-old. Even his clothes were teenage clothes. “You’ve learned some things haven’t you!” He was impressed.
    “From Mira,” answered Michael. “And apparently you have too.” Jonathan looked obviously older than Michael. If Michael had to guess, he would say Jonathan was nineteen or twenty. “But, I’ve re-thought this, and maybe I am going to return to age twelve. It’s closer to Mira’s age, and I can build more rapport with her.”
    He didn’t mention that also he just plain missed her. If they were both twelve, well, hopefully her former crush on him when they were younger would manifest this time too. In real life she was older than him, though not by much. That was the weirdness of the astral. Playing with ages got really complicated.
    Michael amazed the others as he shrunk. Suddenly he wasn’t sixteen anymore. Jonathan knew the technique, but the others were in awe.
    “Can I do that too?” asked Zac, who was changing into the clothes he brought. Jonathan noted his older clothes were hanging off of him. Zac was the only other one at about age twelve. He was also the only one who hadn’t seemed to travel into the correct clothes. He had arrived still wearing his adult attire. Somehow his traveling skills were a bit behind the others, who looked their appropriate ages.
    “No,” said Michael. “You are the cousin I have that is Mira’s age. The more people her age the better.”
    Trina laughed at Zac’s adult clothes falling off. “Okay, Mr. Hobo, about ready there?” she teased.
    Then she turned to Onie. “Wow, you’re suddenly a cougar , aren’t you,?” she said laughing, for Onie had turned up as age sixteen, four years older than her husband.
    “Ha, ha,” said Zac.
    “Yeah, forgive me if I wait until we’re back into the real world to um—oh never mind,” said Onie.
    “So you do only love me for my body!” teased Zac.
    “Well,” said Jonathan, getting everyone back on track, “we have to be careful how we introduce ourselves to Mira. It needs to be like it was before; except at our current astral age, so we don’t freak her out. I’m not sure where she would end up if she got