Free Gallows Hill by Lois Duncan Page A

activity going on outside the tent, and the shouts and laughter and conversation from the carnival participants had bled in through the loose-hanging curtains. Here there were no such distractions, only the soft background music of strings and woodwinds and the dubbed-in cry of a loon by a moonlit lake.
     
    She peered into the globe, and in the flickering light of the candles it seemed less like a paperweight than it ever had. It seemed in fact to hold an iridescent light of its own.
     
    She became aware of the sound of voices outside the bedroom door. Then the door swung open, and Eric ushered in the first client and closed the door again.
     
    Jennifer Albritton stood staring at Sarah in apparent bewilderment, as if she didn't know what to make of her.
     
    "Are you the same girl who did the readings at the carnival?" she asked doubtfully. "I thought she was dressed like a Gypsy."
     
    "I am the same person," Sarah told her, assuming her fortune-teller persona. "I am Madam Zoltanne. Sometimes I present one image and sometimes another. The outer shell is of no importance; the only thing meaningful is what appears in the glass."
     
    She motioned to the chair across from her.
     
    Jennifer giggled self-consciously as she sat down.
     
    "I can't believe I'm doing this," she said. "My folks would kill me. You won't tell anybody, will you?"
     
    "Everything that occurs in this room is sacred," Sarah assured her. "This is a place where secrets of the soul are revealed."
     
    "This is totally far out!" Jennifer said. "Can you really do this? Do you really see things in that ball?"
     
    Sarah stared into the globe in silence for a moment. Then she said quietly, "I see a young girl who looks up to you. You are her idol. She seems like a happy child, but at heart she is frightened. The darkness brings out the fear in her. A large yellow bird watches over her."
     
    "That's my sister, Amy," Jennifer said. "She told Mom you said that at the carnival, and Mom didn't like it. She said yellow birds are supposed to be familiars of witches."
     
    "I see duplicity," Sarah said quickly, changing the subject. "I see a two-sided coin, a two-sided soul within the person who sits before me. On one hand, she has made a commitment never to bring the flesh of an animal to her lips. Yet there are times—times when she cannot control herself, times when her carnal desires grow too powerful to resist. There are times of shame...." She paused.
     
    "It's not often," Jennifer said nervously. "Just once in a while. And then it's just chicken."
     
    "That's not what the glass tells me," Sarah said, leaning closer to the paperweight. She wished that Eric could be there to enjoy her performance and to see that she was not always as serious as she appeared to be. There was a quicksilver sparkle about Eric that brought out the fun in her—a reckless, devil-may-care quality that reminded her of Jon, when he skimmed the top of a cresting wave on his surfboard. She was tempted to tell. Jennifer, "I see something big and four-footed that says 'Moo,'" but decided that that might be overdoing it. Instead she said, "The beast that I sec in the glass does not appear to have wings. But—quickly this image fades—too quickly for me to be certain."
     
    Jennifer gave an audible gasp of relief.
     
    "And now I see Christmas," Sarah said. "What a joyous holiday! Something wonderful happened at Christmastime. Your heart began singing."
     
    "Yes!" Jennifer exclaimed. "That's when I started going out with Danny! We got together at the tree-trimming party at the church. He was just so cute! He came over to where I was standing and whispered in my ear, 'I wish you had a bow on you, 'cause then I could unwrap you.' Wasn't that an adorable way to come on to me!"
     
    At which point Jennifer took full control of the session, rhapsodizing in detail about her romance with Danny Adams, who was scheduled to be Sarah's next client. So when Danny came in for his reading, she had