Haunted Ever After (11 page)

‘Have a good day, Cody,’ I said, and he waved as he walked off with Ty.

I turned around to find Red with her hand over her heart. ‘That was adorable. I think I’m going to cry.’ Her face contorted into a slightly exaggerated expression of happy crying. I left her there and walked back to my friends.

‘Let’s go Sal, I’ve found something fun for us to do!’ Lorena tugged on my jacket much the same way as Red had done, and out of my newly ingrained habit I considered breaking into a linedance again, but thought better of it.

She led me towards the stalls.

What surprise would greet me next?

* * *

‘Palm reading?’ I asked.

‘Why not?’ Lorena shrugged. ‘It’ll be interesting.’

‘Guess so, but you know that stuff is just a load of hocus-pocus, right?’

‘Hocus-pocus or not, I’m in.’ Mel approached one of the kaftan-wearing women behind the stall and handed her some cash.

‘My shout,’ Lorena said. ‘Ooh, but wait. Do your jacket up and let’s get rid of this.’ She unclipped my tiara and I buttoned up my jacket, hiding the fact that I was a bride-to-be, unless they’d happened to see my tribal, bridal, mating ritual or whatever that man with the microphone had called my dance. ‘Wonder if they can tell you’re about to get hitched!’

‘Hmm, and I wonder if they can tell you have a baby on the way.’ I glanced at her rounded t-shirt poking beneath her long purple cardigan.

‘Haha. But if they can predict
what
I’m having, then I’ll be impressed.’

‘What
are
you having by the way?’

‘Ah, nice try, hun. You know I’m not telling anyone.’ She winked.

Lorena paid the other woman and I held out my hand.

The woman grasped it gently and gave it a rub. ‘Okay, let’s have a look, sweetheart.’ She pushed her glasses higher on her nose and studied my palm. While I waited for her to analyse it, or make stuff up, Red stood beside me staring at my face with an intense look of concentration. I wanted to ask her if she was giving me a face reading or something, but kept my mouth shut. Instead, I eyed her with a curious ‘what are you doing?’ expression, and she stopped her staring and said, ‘Drats. Oh well, I’ll try again later.’

Try what?
I narrowed my eyes, but she ignored my silent request and tried to fiddle with the crystal wind chimes hanging from the stall. They tinkled slightly and she smiled.

‘You have a good, strong lifeline, sweetheart,’ said the woman, running her finger along a line that curved down the middle of my palm. ‘Some challenges early in life, but as an adult you have stability and security, and a fairly straightforward direction.’

With a ghost hanging around me I wasn’t exactly feeling stable and secure right now, but I didn’t want to interrupt and tell the poor woman, who was simply trying to make a living.

‘You tend to rule with your head more than your heart,’ she said, running her finger down another line. ‘You need to learn to be more open-minded.’

‘I guess that’s why I’m having a palm reading,’ I said with a small smile.

She took her focus off my hand for a moment and looked in my eyes. ‘We all have to start somewhere,’ she said, then returned her attention to my hand. ‘There is some conflict between your practical nature and your emotions, and you would benefit from trusting your intuition.’

I nodded, and Red nodded too.

‘Interesting, you are both fearful of many things, a bit of a worrier, yet calm under pressure. As long as you follow the rules you feel you can cope with life.’

Hmm, it did sound a bit like me. But I bet anyone could recognise themselves in her description. Maybe she was doing that acupressure thing like Ty had done on my foot, softening me up or something.

She tilted my hand a little. ‘I see three main romantic relationships in your life. Three loves.’ She smiled. ‘You’re engaged, yes?’

Wow. Lorena was right, maybe she did have some sort of higher power or intuition.

I nodded.

‘Nice ring,’ she said.

Oh. In my effort to hide my self-explanatory t-shirt and bride-to-be tiara I’d forgotten to remove my engagement ring!

Not so psychic after all, Kaftan Woman.

‘So I take it you were third time lucky?’ she asked.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘In love. Third time lucky, with your fiancé.’

Three loves in my life. Greg, of course, and there were a couple of guys before him but it wasn’t exactly love, and then before that there was Mark, definitely love, but after three years his love for travel overpowered his love for me and our relationship took a nosedive. And before Mark, well, there was Stephen, but that was more lust, and Evan, well, that was barely more than a high school crush that never manifested into anything more than getting to school early so I could watch him get off the bus when it arrived.

So… Greg, and Mark. That was it. Two loves, not three. This woman had it wrong.

‘Actually, my fiancé is my second real love, and so much more than my first. We’re very happy.’ I plumped my lips into a content smile.

She smiled awkwardly, and checked the markings. ‘Definitely three here. It is
slightly
possible the third could indicate some other significant relationship. But you’re sure you haven’t had a third love, long ago; high school sweetheart perhaps?’

I shook my head, and glanced at Red who was eavesdropping on Mel’s reading.

‘Not to worry, then. Now, let’s see what else we can find out.’ She continued giving her analysis, and when she finished, she gave me back my hand but asked me to put it inside a white box. ‘Every palm reading comes with a bonus gemstone lucky dip. Take your time, feel around and pick up the one your hand is naturally drawn to. You might be surprised how appropriate the stone is for you, based on its meaning and properties.’

They were just lumps of rocks to me, but I did as she said and took my time, picking up a smooth, oval-shaped stone that tapered a little. I held it up and the woman clasped her hands together in delight. ‘Oh, I’ve been waiting for someone to get that one! Only one in the whole box. It’s very special.’ She smiled and nodded.

I eyed the greyish-green stone with its silvery-white shimmery flecks that gave it a feathery appearance, and asked what it was.

‘Seraphinite. Comes from Siberia. It’s an extremely powerful stone, increases your intuition and communication with other realms.’

‘Realms?’

‘Yes, the divine feminine power that is all around us, and the angelic realm.’

The divine? Angels?

‘Do I have a halo?’ Red asked as she shoved her face in front of me, her hand above her head. ‘Do I? Do I?’

I wanted to tell her that if angels existed they were supposed to be kind, loving, gentle beings, and not irritating, demanding, pains in the arse. I shook my head with subtlety. But the woman noticed.

‘Oh yes, I assure you, it is true. Hold this stone when you wish to connect with the divine feminine, to enhance self-healing, and intuitive abilities.’

‘Oh, okay then,’ I said, even though without the stone I was quite in tune with the ‘other side’, thank you very much, and didn’t exactly want to tune in even further. Heaven help me if I was surrounded by multiple Reds demanding my attention.

I thanked the woman and moved away from the stall, as the others remained, listening intently to their readings. I held the
saph
, the
sephar
, the
s
…oh what was it called again? Anyway, I held the stone up to the light of the sun. It was quite pretty, with its streaks of green, white, and grey. I could use it as a paperweight.

Red stood in front of me and looked at it from the other side (ha!), and pointed her finger at the stone in deep concentration. She pushed her finger forwards, and — plop! —the stone fell from my grasp and down my t-shirt through the small valley of my cleavage. I shivered at its cold, smooth surface as it travelled down to my abdomen. ‘Oh no!’ Red laughed as I unbuttoned my jacket and tried to discreetly shove my hand down my top.

‘Can I help at all?’ I spun around to see Ty standing nearby, my hand still lodged between my boobs and my elbow pointing to the heavens, where I wished Red would toddle off to. I yanked my hand out and straightened my jacket.

‘No, I’m fine thanks. Where did you spring from?’

‘I saw you looking at something in your hand so I came to see what it was.’

‘Oh, it’s just a gemstone.’ I brushed a non-existent strand of hair from my face. ‘It sort of, um, fell down my top.’ I could still feel it low against my belly, but I didn’t think my arm could reach down far enough to get it. I could also feel an uncomfortable wave of heat rushing across my face, belying the fact that it was a cold winter’s day.

Ty tried to hold back a grin, but a hint of it twinkled at the sides of his mouth. ‘So, maybe just give your shirt a bit of a shake?’ He grasped his close-fitting black ribbed top at the hem and gave it a shake, and a glimpse of his tanned, hard abs brought back flashes of him last night in his underwear.

The heat on my face intensified. ‘Well, you see, I sort of can’t,’ I replied, touching the spot where the gemstone lay.

‘Why not?’

Oh dear God. Of all the days, why did I have to wear this thing underneath?

‘Because I’m wearing a bodysuit.’

Ty’s eyebrows rose. ‘Oh, one of those all-in-one lycra things?’

I nodded.

‘So you’d need to, um…’

‘Unhook it, below, yes.’ Too much information. Why was I telling him this? Surely a man of his ‘experience’ knew how a woman’s bodysuit was structured.

‘In that case, I’ll let you get on with it.’ He gestured behind and turned away, then turned back briefly. ‘I’ll just wait over here.’

I hid behind a stall and grasped the stone through my clothing with one hand, walking it up my body the way one does with a draw cord lost in the waistband of one’s pants, but it only moved slightly. I plunged my hand down my top again and dug around, but the tight-fit of the bodysuit made it difficult.
C’mon gemstone! Where are you?
It was like the Bermuda Triangle in here. If this failed I’d have to find the ladies bathrooms and do the unhooking, but if I could just get it…

I grunted, sinking my stomach muscles inwards to make more room for my arm, and stretching poor Mel’s t-shirt piece of art. My fingers came in contact with cold stone which I grasped, and with my other hand I pushed it upwards, until the stone was in my hand and my arm was finally out of a place I didn’t exactly aspire it to be whilst in public, or even private, for that matter. ‘Phew!’ I breathed out, having held my breath for a little while.

I adjusted my top and jacket and returned to where I’d been, feeling as though everyone was looking at me, even though they weren’t. Except Ty.

‘Got it?’ he asked.

I held up the stone in victory.

He clapped. ‘If you were single I would have given you a hand. You know, just to do the helpful gentlemanly thing.’ He winked.

Flirt
. ‘Oh, I’m sure.’ I crossed my arms and diverted my gaze from his.

‘Hey, Ty!’ Lorena said, as she approached with Mel and Georgie, each with their own gemstone.

‘How was your palm reading?’ I asked Mel, who seemed quite pleased.

‘I have a pointy girdle of Venus.’ She held up her palm and touched the area under her two middle fingers. ‘Something about being emotionally up and down, hot-headed sometimes.’

‘And is that true?’ Ty asked.

‘Are you calling me hot-headed?’ she mocked, in an exaggerated angry voice. Ty held his own palms up, as if to say ‘no, not at all’, not as if to have his palms read.

‘Oh well,’ Mel said. ‘At least it wasn’t a saggy girdle like this one.’ She patted the belly that had grown five children.

‘So what did she say, Sal, anything about love and marriage?’ asked Lorena. ‘She said I have two relationship lines, or two loves in my life. Luckily, since I married my second one.’ She held a hand over her heart.

I gulped. ‘Um, yeah, she said the same about me.’ I didn’t know why I felt the need to lie. It was all just made-up, new-age stuff anyway. Wasn’t it?

‘Well that was fun, how cute and quirky is Barron Springs?’ Georgie asked, as she closed the door behind us when we returned to the guest house.

‘We should come here more often, have a regular girls’ weekend every six months or so,’ Mel added. ‘And we could book Ty again. You know, help him pay for medical school. Would be a nice gesture.’

‘Something tells me you’d want to book him even if he didn’t need the money.’ Lorena nudged Mel in the ribs and she shrugged.

‘Maybe we could go somewhere new each time, if we make these girls’ weekends a regular thing,’ I suggested.

Lorena nodded. ‘Good idea.’

‘But why go anywhere else?’ Mel said with a cheeky smile.

Georgie plated up some antipasto and placed it on the coffee table. ‘Dig in, gals.’

‘It’s also time for us to play a game,’ Lorena said, rubbing her hands together.

My stomach dropped a little. ‘Not Pin the You-Know-What on the You-Know-Who again?’ I asked.

She flicked her hand towards me. ‘No, something new.’

I glanced at the old wooden bookcase towering beside the fireplace, which held not only a collection of books but an array of board games. ‘Oh good, what about Scrabble? Or Operation?’

‘Yeah, like we’d have a chance against you with your large vocabulary and medical precision. Nice try, Sal. We’re going to play something a bit more…fun.’ She grinned, then disappeared into her bedroom and returned with a large bag. She withdrew a huge lump of newspaper.

‘Papier-mâché?’ I asked, as my forehead drew downwards.

She laughed.

‘God I hope not. That stuff is evil,’ said Mel. ‘I vowed never to do that with my kids again, such a mess.’ She scrunched her face then raised her finger. ‘Unless…are we going to fashion a 3D version of Pin the You-Know-What on the You-Know-Who?’ Her eyes widened.

‘Mel!’ I scolded. ‘You naughty thing.’

Lorena held up the large lump in front of her own large lump. ‘Can’t you tell what it is? Pass the Parcel!’ She shook the lump in anticipation.

My stomach returned to its normal position.
Phew
. Nothing naughty or embarrassing, just a simple childhood game with gifts inside. Much better. ‘Haven’t played that for years!’ I said, taking a spot on the floor on top of the intricately patterned rug. ‘Let’s get started.’