Free Salem's Sight by Eden Elgabri Page A

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