Free The Predictions by Bianca Zander

Shakti and confessed to her that Lukas had split. She asked us to sit with her in a circle under the trees by her caravan, a space she had hung with dream catchers, talismans, and crystals to enhance its sacred vibe. “You do realize,” she said, after some consideration, “that without Lukas we can’t go ahead with the ceremony?”
    I felt deflated, and so did the others. “That’s not fair,” said Meg. “He can’t ruin it for the rest of us.”
    Shakti said, “The universe has made it quite clear to me that for the ritual to work, the seven of you must form an unbroken circle. Take any one of you away and that magic is lost.”
    “Can’t we just do it another day?” said Timon.
    “Timon,” said Shakti gravely. “There is no other day. I have been summoned to heal Gaialands on the summer solstice in the year 1978. I didn’t choose that date. The universe chose it. Just like it chose me to be the instrument of your destiny.”
    The six of us fell silent, overwhelmed by the gravity of her words.
    “I want to do it,” said Fritz. “It’s Lukas who’s stuffing everything up.”
    “I know, darling Fritz. It isn’t fair.” Shakti focused her amber-flecked eyes on me. “Poppy,” she said. “You have the power to turn this around.”
    “How?”
    “You can change Lukas’s mind.”
    Six pairs of eyes turned my way.
    “Me? But I don’t even know where he is . . .”
    Shakti sighed dramatically. Her eyes had filled with tears. “I don’t think any of you understand how important this is—how many preparations have taken place. The fate of the commune is at stake.”
    “I’ll try,” I said, feeling suddenly responsible for everyone’s future. “I’ll do my best to find him.”
    Timon had a hunch that Lukas had gone into Coromandel to replace the transistor radio, so I hitched in the same direction, hoping to find him. It wasn’t easy to get a ride, but eventually an elderly couple stopped to pick me up, and I sat in the back of their dusty car, next to a picnic basket full of delicious-smelling ham sandwiches.
    In town, I asked around. Had anyone had seen a boy fitting Lukas’s description? Someone said they had spotted him hanging out with the Maori boys at the end of the wharf. Everybody knew everybody in this town, and if you weren’t from around here, then you stood out even more.
    I recognized Lukas from a long way off, his lean torso and the flared jeans that ended too far above his ankles. He had grown taller, suddenly, but we did not have any new clothes. The guys he was with seemed older, more like men, but then, when I got closer, I realized Lukas was the same age, that he was no longer the boy I thought of him as. Approaching the group, my confidence stalled. In my plain, boyish clothes, and despite Shakti’s declaration otherwise, I still felt very much like a child.
    One of the boys must have seen me approaching and alerted Lukas, because he turned around before I reached the group. He looked baffled, but also pleased, to see me.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “You have to come back to Gaialands.” In front of these boys, I was reluctant to say what for. “If we leave now, we can be back before it starts.”
    Lukas felt no such reluctance. “I don’t want anything to do with her fortune-telling bullcrap.”
    “But Shakti says . . . She says the fate of the commune is at stake.”
    “The fate of the commune my arse.” Lukas laughed, and the other boys joined in. He was showing off for them, using dirty words. “It’s a power trip. I’m telling you, she’s a witch.”
    One of the boys said, “Oooooooh,” like he was a ghost,and another said, “Don’t do it, bro. What if she chops off your old fella?”
    They hooted with laughter, Lukas loudest of all. Had he been telling them stories about us, how crazy and weird we all were? I bit my lip, not knowing what to say. One of the guys, wearing a Coromandel school T-shirt a few sizes too small for him, had been looking