Free Discovering by Wendy Corsi Staub Page A

with?”
    “It wasn’t even that specific. I just got that there was another man, and secrets . . . and guilt. Terrible guilt, on her part.”
    “Not enough to keep her faithful to Dad, though.”
    “You don’t know that for sure.”
    “Yes, I do.”
    When Dad was visiting Lily Dale back in September, he told Calla that for months before she died, Mom had become increasingly detached from him, more absorbed than usual in her work.
    Yeah, right. She wasn’t traveling on business. She was having an affair.
    “It was Darrin Yates, wasn’t it,”her grandmother says grimly.
    “I thought you said your guides didn’t show you the details.”
    “No, but you told me that you’d seen him at the house back in March, and at the funeral. He was obviously back in her life.”
    “Do you think Dad knew, Gammy?”
    “About Darrin?”
    “Or just . . . that she was in love with someone else?”
    “I doubt Stephanie would spell it out for him, but if that was the case, I’m sure he sensed something was going on. You don’t have to be a psychic to know when things aren’t right in a marriage.”
    She’s speaking from experience, Calla knows. She can’t see Odelia’s eyes, but her voice is taut with pain.
    “My father told me things weren’t the same lately,”Calla tells her. “He told me that my mother had taken a big step back from him before she died. Maybe it was more than that. Maybe he just didn’t want me to know the whole story.”
    “I’m sure he didn’t. If he even knew the whole story.”
    Calla shakes her head sadly, feeling terribly sorry for her father . . . and for herself.
    “I really thought she loved him.”
    “Honey, she did. She loved him more than anything— they were good together. When they were first married, when you were born, when you were little . . . the last time I saw them . . . they were crazy about each other. I couldn’t imagine that would ever change, but . . . things do. People do.”
    Feeling sick inside, Calla sinks onto the steps again. “I know people change, but . . . that much?”
    “That much.”
    Calla thinks about Kevin. He changed. Drastically. He went away to college and six months later, broke up with Calla.
    Remembering the numbing pain, Calla can’t imagine what it would have been like if they had been together for years, were married, with a child.
    Poor Dad.
    “You know, Calla, your grandfather and I . . . there was a time when we were in love the same way your mother and father were.”Her grandmother dusts off her jeans— which are rolled up to reveal her purple socks and orange gardening clogs— and sits beside her. “But then, right around the time I had your mother, Aunt Katie passed away and left the house to me. So Jack and I came here.”
    Calla looks up at it in surprise—just in time to see a face in the second- story window, looking out at her. Not Miriam’s. This time, it’s an old woman with pince- nez glasses and a jet black bun.
    “You mean, you didn’t always live here?”
    “In Lily Dale? No, I used to visit my aunt and my grandmother here in the summers. I always loved it—it felt like home. And when Aunt Katie died, Jack and I were living down near Pittsburgh, and I was pregnant and he was out of work, so we moved in. It wasn’t supposed to be permanent.”
    “Kind of like with me.”
    Odelia smiles. “Kind of. When I got here, I really began to discover who I was.”
    “You mean . . . that you were a psychic. And could see the dead. And . . . all that.”
    “That’s what I mean. Sound familiar?”
    Calla nods. “Were you seeing spirits, then?”
    “Yes. Especially Aunt Katie’s.”
    “Did she have dark, dark hair and wear it in a bun?”
    Odelia smiles fondly. “You’ve seen pictures?”
    “I’ve seen her.”Only in Lily Dale would an admission like that not raise an eyebrow.
    “Here?”Gammy looks surprised.
    “In the window. Just now.”
    “Really? She doesn’t come around all that often anymore. I miss her.