Psychic Ear Ringing

Hendrick's left ear was ringing, but he refused to pick up.  It had taken years of diligence to learn how to block out the feelings, and sometimes images, that accompanied the ringing, but he had managed.  Unfortunately, his left ear was also the ear upon which sat the headset's cushioned speaker, and his ear's own ringing muffled the client, who had just begun to describe a computer problem.

"I'm sorry," Hendrick interrupted, "but could you please repeat that?"

62

The clients watched the girl trail her fingers across the dead woman's china cabinet, then the buffet, then back again to the dining room table. The husband watched with detached interest, the wife with a tightness in her chest and hands clenched. It was the wife's mother who had died without warning, without illness, without closure.

The girl's hair hung in a neat, dark braid down her back and, compared to the clients, she was a girl, but she was really in her late 20s and not a girl at all. She always dressed appropriately for her work; she thought dressing like a slob would have been rude and unprofessional. Dressing like an old hippie would be disingenuous and it would make her seem like a charlatan.

Her fingers swept across the abstract blue painting that was meant to seem like a ship at sail, and she stopped short.

18

"I see...a man."

"Is he cute?" The three girls watching their friend get a psychic reading giggled.

"Shh! Don't interrupt, Denise," chided Allison, who was actually wondering the same thing.

The medium, Madame Fo, didn't seem interrupted at all. To Jessica, whose reading it was, Madame Fo seemed very far away indeed. Madame Fo continued, "This man is not good for you. You must avoid him."

Denise clicked her tongue, "Get thee to a nunnery, Jess. Or maybe to the softball team. That's rather vague, isn't it, Madame?"

Madame Fo still gazed into her crystal ball, a line creasing between her brows. "This man will hurt you." Jessica could feel the medium's struggle. Was she trying to see more clearly? Trying to find the words? Trying to concentrate over Denise's hostile posture?

"What does he look like?" Jessica breathed.

"He's...going to hurt you. He's difficult to make clear, but the intent is powerful."

Jessica could hear the candles sizzling and their flickering light was making her dizzy. "When?"

"Sssssssoooooooonnnnnn!" Madame Fo's prophecy seemed ripped from her, and the medium kicked out with her legs, knocking the table and making her crystal ball and two candles fall to the floor. The girls screamed, hands over their mouths, eyes wide in the increased darkness. At least Denise had the presence of mind to open the door and let in the light of the tiny waiting room.