Free Gone and Done It by Maggie Toussaint

be—“Uncle Emerald?”
    He nodded.
    I let out the breath I’d been holding. During Uncle Emerald’s funeral reception, I’d become trapped in his psychic delusions. That experience soured my outlook on extrasensory experiences.
    “That’s when I knew I’d messed up.” Sadness permeated Daddy’s facial features. “I resented that Mama Mary trained me to do a job that I had poor aptitude for. I wanted you to have a choice, so I waited for you to come to me about your abilities. If I’d trained you from the cradle, you would have shielded yourself at the funeral. I failed you, and I’m sorry for that.”
    Daddy’s apology caught me by surprise. I hadn’t known he carried guilt and shame for all these years. I’d been so busy focusing on
my
perceptions, I’d forgotten to be attuned to his.
    “Don’t beat yourself up about it. I know how hard it is to be a parent. You believed in what you were doing. Never once have I blamed you for that event. No one is to blame. Stuff happens. We deal with it.”
    The lines on his face relaxed. His color brightened. “Thanks for saying that. You’ve no idea how much better I feel.”
    I lowered my shields and enjoyed his relief. “Actually, I do.”
    We both laughed, and an oppressive weight lifted from my chest.
    “How about your shielding?” Daddy asked. “That still working for you?”
    “Thank you for teaching me how to do that. I wouldn’t have survived without that skill.” I pulled out the stone Roland had given me. “And this. Roland gave it to me.”
    “Moldavite. Good choice. I carry crystals in my pocket during dreamwalks. Lacey covers me in them afterward.”
    Made sense. Mama was a healer. My husband was not. The disconnect jarred me. “How did Roland know?”
    Daddy shrugged. “How does anyone know anything? They look and learn.” He hesitated before patting my shoulder. “Be careful. Trouble is in the air.”
    I drove out to Mallow to be alone with my thoughts. The talk with Daddy helped ease my mind, and I felt better until he issued that odd warning. My repeated questions on the matter fell on deaf ears. The only thing I was certain of was that the cosmic clock was ticking. Sometime in the near future, trouble would strike.
    Well, it wouldn’t strike here because I was alone at Mallow. Just me and the birds out here right now. But I couldn’t hide out here for long. I wanted to be home before the school bus came by. If I didn’t get the Mallow people identified today, that matter would keep until tomorrow or the next day. Much better to lie low and let trouble find someone else.
    Since the irrigation system wasn’t working, I watered everything that a length of hose would reach and made a mental note to call the repairman. A
Podocarpus
on the left side of the house angled forward. I walked closer to inspect the gangly shrub, swatting at the profusion of small flies in the area.
    That was odd. The side stakes were loose. The one closest to the house had worked itself out of the ground. Carolina Byrd would have my hide if anything happened to her precious landscaping, and this plant was a perfect-size match to one on the right of the mansion. I hammered the stake with my fisted hand, but the shaft wouldn’t penetrate the ground.
    What rotten luck. I’d dug this hole myself. Nothing was down there but root ball, sand, and peat moss. Why wouldn’t the darned stake go in?
    Dropping to my knees, I folded back the black fabric I’d installed to deter weeds and scooped the soil out of the way with my hands. I used the edge of the stake to loosen the soil as I dug. A putrid smell rose from the ground, gagging me.
    I coughed the odor from my lungs and summoned a barrier to block the noxious scent. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention, putting me on high alert.
    I grabbed another handful of dirt and saw a curved object.
What’s that?
It seemed familiar, and yet I couldn’t make it out in this context. Curious, I brushed more