It’s—outrageous! Your chakra and your aura are completely screwed up.” Nosy-body rattled the purple beads around her neck as if to make a point. She was wearing a black T-shirt that had a pair of giant red lips on the front. She was an infant at twenty-seven.
“Well, it would have been Jack’s house if he hadn’t broken his neck in the basement,” his sister said reasonably, and Jack almost groaned. “Really, I think of it as his house.”
The medium, who hadn’t said a word to that point, was looking around at the carefully kept Victorian with an almost bored look on his face. He was holding hands with a small, curly-haired blond boy, a boy with the bluest eyes and dirtiest green coat Jack had ever seen. The child looked like an angel down on his luck.
“You’ll never get the damned thing out,” the angel said.
“Think so, Tommy?” The medium, who had the same curly hair (less vivid than the boy’s), dirty clothes, and blue eyes, seemed unsurprised at the child’s tone and language.
“Dad, you can’t do it. Nobody could do it.” The child paused, his eyes narrowing with thought. “Maybe Mr. Graham in London. Nobody here.”
“Sorry, then, ladies,” the medium said.
“But you haven’t even taken your coats—”
“If Tommy—”
“Tom,” the child corrected, bored.
“If my son says it’s a no-go, it’s a no-go. He’s much strongerthan me, you see.” The medium offered a small smile, which didn’t match his eyes.
“Besides, he’s not hurting anybody,” the child added, apparently in response to the stunned look on the faces of the two ladies. “He helps you, doesn’t he, Miss Carroll?”
“Well, yes, I don’t know how I’d get along without my Jacky.…”
“Yeah, well, that’s the problem,” the child said. “S’long as you both feel so strongly about helping each other out, he’ll never leave. And nobody will ever get him out.”
“Er…oh.”
“Good-bye,” the child said, almost politely.
“Good-bye, dear. Thank you—thank you both—for coming.”
“Bye, Jack.”
Jack knocked once in response, making Nosy-body jump. The child didn’t even turn, and the father was halfway out the door already.
That poor boy! He was, what? Four? Five? And how much of the human condition had he already seen? Murder, sex, greed, thievery, vanity—it made Jack shiver to think about it.
“Not one of my finer moments,” his sister said when they had left.
He knocked.
“I know, I know, I should have told Sharon I wasn’t interested. Because I wasn’t, you know. She just has a way of—taking over, I guess. All that chakra talk makes a lady tired.” She paused, waiting, and then added, “And I’d never get rid of you, darling.”
Sulking, Jack didn’t respond.
“But I must admit I was curious.”
Jack restrained himself from snorting.
“And I also have to admit I wanted to meet a famous medium.” While she chattered, she set the pot on for tea and rummaged through the cupboards. She was a tea snob, and would no sooner use a Lipton bag than go outside without a girdle.
“Thomas Fillman is supposed to be the most powerful psychic in the Midwest. But I see it’s Thomas Jr. who’s the real talent. That poor baby! Better at five than his father ever was, and now he’s being dragged all over town to dig through old houses, looking for ghosts.…I could cry right now.”
Well, don’t,
Jack thought.
It’s none of our business.
Still, he couldn’t help wondering, as the years passed, how the child was doing, and if he was happy.
Chapter 1
LITTLE CAYMAN, 2006
Nikki floated through the azure waters beyond Little Cayman like a—well, like an angel, thank you very much! Her long blond hair was fanning out behind her as she twirled and whirled through the water, dancing like a water sprite, wriggling through schools of fish like…like…
Like someone who’s got to get a grip, she thought, and snorted, and then had to swim to the surface.
She spit out
John O'Riley
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Brenda Sinclair
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C. J. Cherryh