Salem's Sight (9 page)

“
I don’t want to take
driver’s ed. class,” I said casually like I was politely declining
a cookie.

She looked like I just said I was
having elective brain surgery. Or maybe she looked more like I
needed it. Anyway, it took another minute or so before she shut her
mouth, which had been hanging open.

“
You have to take the
classes or you can’t get your license.” She said it slowly,
succinctly, just in case I’d recently lost a few-hundred brain
cells, and my IQ dropped like September temperatures after the sun
goes down.

I nodded and shrugged. Berkley
sputtered and tried to collect her thoughts.

“
But everyone wants to get
a license. It’s every teen’s dream. It’s not normal to not want to
drive.” As if trying to convince me with the conformity issue would
work.

I raised one eyebrow trying to look
cool. “And I would be normal in what way?”

It wasn’t her best argument, but she
wasn’t ready to admit defeat. “Point taken. So you’re not exactly
like everyone else.” She said it like the differences were minor.
“Big deal, your psychic.”

“
It is a big deal for me.”
I didn’t know if she was downplaying the psychic thing because she
changed her mind and no longer thought it was such a major concern,
or if she was just doing it because I was using it in the
argument.

“
But it’s a dumb excuse for
not wanting a license. I just don’t get it. A license is
freedom.”

Freedom for her and every other kid my
age. But not for me. For me it was fear and more frightening than
the visions that were taking over my life. I needed to take a
stand.

“
I’m not going to change my
mind.”

We had a stare down for a few seconds
before Berkley finally turned and grabbed her purse off my dresser.
“Gotta go. Think about it.” She zipped out the door without looking
back.

I stood there and watched her walk
away. Why couldn’t I tell her the truth? She would have been cool
about it if I’d only told her.

****

After a steamy shower I relaxed enough
to take a closer look at my homework. Math didn’t come as easy to
me as the rest of the subjects I took in school and AS Pre-Calculus
was especially hard. If I lived through it I’d take AP Calc as a
senior and be able to take a test to earn college
credits.

After what seemed like an eternity I
finally finished and was about to call Berkley to double check my
answers when I remembered she was still mad at me.

Wasn’t going to risk restarting the
argument over driving. I’d have to get my mom to look at them. What
a pain. She’d do out each problem to make sure the answers were
right. That was probably because math wasn’t her strong point
either. Boy, I could have used Dad about now. Math was his forte.
Too bad I hadn’t inherited the math gene.

It was about fifteen minutes later
when she told me there were three wrong answers - out of thirty.
She pointed it out because she wondered why I singled them out with
water.

The paper held three water spots. One
over each of the wrong answers. Okay, like how strange was
that?

It didn’t take me long to figure out
that the drops occurred from my wet hair as I was doing my
homework.

But to have three random wet spots hit
the page exactly where the only three wrong answers were? Major
weird, to say the least.

Skyler rubbed along my ankle then,
looked up at the ceiling and mewed. I followed his gaze. Are you up
there, Grandma? I thought wondering if she aided with the math
correcting.

As soon as I thought it, I realized I
was probably right. She must be here trying to give me
direction.

I just needed to pay attention. And
ask Mom a lot more questions. Who was I kidding? If I wanted
answers I wasn’t going to get them from her.

At this point it wasn’t that I didn’t
trust her or thought that she’d leave things out. It’s just that
kids don’t always know that much about their parents. I mean, for
real, we always think of our parents as just that. We rarely
consider them as individuals having lives that predated us. For
that reason, it’s hard to imagine them young. So we don’t ask. And
because it’s over and seeming to come from another life – they
don’t tell. It’s not that they’re secrets – just
history.

Then I remembered Vera Taunton. She
knew my grandmother. They had been neighbors and friends for
years.

There was a good chance she might know
things about Grandma that my mother didn’t know or simply didn’t
remember. And she had said to stop by any time. Well now seemed
like as good a time as any, except that it was getting dark. I’d go
first thing after classes tomorrow.

The hours didn’t fly fast enough, but
finally I made it home from school. Determined to go digging for
gold I baked a quick batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies and set off
for my neighbor’s house, berating myself at least a dozen times on
the way for going there with an ulterior motive.

What kind of girl was I to use an
innocent person for my own sick curiosity?

A desperate one.

Vera Taunton didn’t get a lot of
company especially at this time of day. Her friendly and genuine
smile made me feel like more of a rat for fishing for information.
“So what do you remember about my grandmother? She died when I was
so young I don’t remember that much about her.”

“
Marie was a lovely woman
and a good neighbor.” She handed me a tall glass of milk and a
floral plastic coaster to put it on. “I remember she always kept an
immaculate yard and grew the most beautiful flowers.”

Okay, not the kind of information that
I was looking for, but then again she might not just blurt out the
psychic stuff right away.

“
We used to play cards
every now and again. Your grandfather liked to play bid
Whist.”

“
Was Grandma good at cards?
Did she always seem to know which cards to play?” I asked hoping
that would give her a hint. I mean, being a psychic, I assumed
she’d be good with cards. Well you know what they say about
assumptions.

“
Gracious, no. It used to
make your grandfather crazy. No matter how many times he went over
the game she never did pick the right cards to win. As a matter of
fact it was the exact opposite.

Unfortunately, I could have beat
around the bush for another couple of centuries and Mrs. Taunton
still wouldn’t have a clue. Finally I just came straight to the
point. “So, did you ever hear anything about my grandmother being
sort of … um… psychic?”

Nope. She hadn’t heard anything about
that. And I could tell by the way she laughed for five minutes and
practically fell off the cat-scratched over-stuffed couch, that she
wasn’t exactly a believer. So I did the only thing I could think
of, I changed the subject and patted Fluffy.

Well at least I made an effort. My
grandmother and her ‘capabilities’ had everything to do with what
was happening to me. But was I just getting help from the other
side in the form of my grandmother’s ghost? Or was I also psychic?
Either way just asking the question made me a perfect candidate for
Dr. Martin’s couch and maybe the nearest sanitarium.

CHAPTER eight

I flicked through the channels with
the remote hoping something good would suddenly appear. Normally
I’d just go to the guide section and check out everything that was
on first. Not in that kind of mood today. I would have been too
bummed if there’d been nothing worth watching.

This way I had to watch a second or
two of each program. Occasionally I’d find some new show this way.
Sort of the ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ theory. Often the
little blurbs didn’t do the actual show justice. So I was a little
more engrossed in the television than on the average
day.

That had to be the reason I didn’t
hear the sound of anyone approaching. That’s why it was such a
shock to see Berkley materialize in my doorway like she’d just been
beamed there from outer space. Then again with the way my life had
been going lately, maybe she had been.

“
Why didn’t you tell me?”
she asked as she stood there under the doorjamb as if she wasn’t
sure if she was coming in or not.

I stared her down and knew my mom
ratted me out before Berkley said any more. It had been in her
voice and in her expression. She had the ‘that’s sad, wow your life
sucks even more than I had imagined’ look. The one that was an iota
more pity than I could stand seeing.

That look was the reason I never gave
the details. I didn’t want people to pity me, didn’t want anyone to
see how truly pathetic I really was. I mean, like who
would?

I shrugged when I realized she
actually was waiting for a response. “It’s still too new. I don’t
like to talk about it.”

“
I get it. But you could
have saved an argument if you’d just said why. I wouldn’t have
pushed.”

I did the cool one eyebrow thing. She
laughed, took off her coat as she entered the room and tossed it
over the back of the desk chair along with her backpack. “Okay,
maybe I would have pushed a little, but I wouldn’t have made you
talk about the accident. But since we’re back to driver’s ed., what
if you only took the class, the written part? You don’t have to
take the driving lessons or actually go for a road test,” she
pleaded. “Think about it.”

If it’s one thing I learned early on,
it’s pick your battles and cut your losses. There was no reason I
couldn’t accommodate her with only the class part. I mean, how bad
could learning the driving rules be? “Okay,” I said more to shut
her up than anything.

She threw her arms around me and
hugged tight. “I’m sorry about the other day. And I have a peace
offering,” she said as she released me.

Out of her backpack she pulled a few
books and what looked like a deck of cards. “These are some books
on ESP. They talk about the different kinds and how to develop that
psychic thing you’ve got going.”

Yeah, great. Just what I always
wanted. How to be a freak in just a few easy lessons.

“
And I’d want to develop
this for what reason?”

She gave me the look. Like I’d just
asked her something stupid like how to spell the word dog. You know
the look I mean, the one that says, how could you possibly be so
dense?

“
To control it. If you
don’t control it, then it controls you.”

I grabbed the books and was really
grateful Berkley was as smart as she was. She nailed it. If I
understood it more, then maybe I could get it under
control.

That could change
everything.

“
What are those?” I asked
pointing to the cards, hoping they weren’t some kind of Tarot
cards. Like I said, I wanted to understand my abilities and all,
but I had different career choices under consideration. Becoming
the headliner at a carnival just didn’t do it for me.

“
Zenner cards. They’re used
specifically to test the amount of ESP you have and they can be
used to increase your ability. I guess it comes from focus or
something.”

“
Cool, thanks.” I took a
closer look at them. The pack consisted of twenty-five cards, five
of each kind. A star, square, plus sign, circle, and three squiggly
lines that looked like water.

This could be interesting. If nothing
else I’d get a fix on how much ‘ability’ I actually had.

“
Do you want to try it?”
Berkley asked. So much excitement bubbled over in the pitch of her
voice, I couldn’t disappoint her by refusing.

By the third time we went through the
entire deck I was nailing it four out of five cards. If there’d
been a question before, there wasn’t now.

And I have to admit; I was pretty
impressed.

Berkley was more than impressed; she
acted like I just came out of a bottle in a puff of smoke. Unlike
her, I couldn’t see how this ‘gift,’ as all the books called it,
could in any way enhance my world.

Right now it was just a royal stinking
pain in the butt.

“
So, do you see anything
happening at the dance tonight?” Her eyes sparkled awaiting the
gossip she expected me to impart before it even
happened.

“
Wait.” I closed my eyes
briefly as if a news flash just interrupted the programming in my
mind. “I do see something.”

“
What?” she practically
squealed.

“
I see you and me at the
dance.” I paused and stared slightly off into space as if my focus
was beyond the realm of this world.

“
And?” she asked as she
moved closer to try to get the scoop.

“
And we’re dancing with…” I
let it hang till her eyes looked ready to pop, “each other.” I
started laughing and she picked up my pillow and hummed it at me. I
ducked and it sailed on by taking out the perfume, nail polish and
lipsticks that had been lined up like little soldiers on my bureau.
They crashed to the floor and Skyler immediately started batting a
lipstick around while Berkley and I cleaned up the
damage.