Free Totlandia: Spring by Josie Brown Page B

corner of Van Ness and Vallejo, to show her how to get up here—”
    “Whoa! Calm down and take a deep breath.” Matthew’s soft, soothing tone was the same one he used when he played with Dante. “It was only Bettina. She wanted you to meet her at Mother’s today to go over the details of the Easter egg hunt. I told her you had to hang here.”
    “Oh my God! You didn’t tell her why, did you?” The thought of Bettina barging in on them in order to meet Hera, only to diss her to anyone within hearing distance—particularly Eleanor—was too much for Lorna to bear.
    He laughed. “Hey, I’m no fool. I told her Dante had a play date. I figure she wouldn’t show her face here if she thought a battalion of one-year-olds were underfoot.”
    The tension went out of Lorna’s shoulders. “That was smart thinking on your part. And it is a ‘play date’ of sorts.”
    The crunch of car wheels on the driveway brought the trepidation back to her face. She ran to the window. Yes, it was her mother. She had come in a brand new Leaf. That was to be expected.
    But Hera wasn’t alone. A pale bald man with a hawk nose, wearing almost sheer, white flowing robes, got out of the car, too.
    “Battle stations,” Lorna murmured under her breath as Matthew opened the front door.
     
    ***
     
    “Your aura is nice, Matthew.” Hera tilted her head as she examined her son-in-law. “A bright pink. The telltale sign of a tender and passionate soul. What a wonderful counterbalance to Lorna’s! She’s been a cloudy blue for so many years now.”
    At a loss for how to answer, Matthew gave a thumbs-up to his mother-in-law.
    Lorna stifled a groan. She was a cloudy blue, eh? She’d been around Hera’s mumbo jumbo all her life. She knew that in ReikiSpeak Hera had just pegged her as being fearful of the future and indecisive.
    Scared.
    She may have been right once, but not now, Lorna thought. The cost of fear is too high. It’s Dante’s well-being.
    Lorna glowered at her mother. “I thought I made it clear that you were to come alone.”
    Hera’s smile faltered, but only for a moment. “You specifically said I couldn’t bring the shaman, so I didn’t.” She raised a thin arm in the direction of her companion. “You know very well that a swami is someone very different.” Before Lorna could contradict her, Hera held out her arms to Matt. “Ah, and our little man here. May I hold him? So pale and yellow is his glow! Swami B, you see it too, don’t you?”
    The man in the flowing robes bobbed his head. “Yes, Hera, this child is an old soul! A healer in his own right.”
    “One day, maybe.” Hera clapped her hands together. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
    “Mother, I told you about Dante’s condition. He’ll have his own issues to work through.”
    “Yes, dear Lorna. That is what Swami B and I are here for.” She nodded at the man.
    “Swami B?” Matt asked. “The B stands for…what? Bailey? Brown? Berkowitz?”
    The swami shrugged. “Brownstein.”
    Matt squinted at him. “I thought you looked familiar! Aren’t you the guy on that infomercial about those tricked-out timeshares?”
    “Good eye! Used to be. Then the Great Recession brought me enlightenment.”
    Hera snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Enough already. I paid you to do a healing, remember? It’s time to commence.”
    Swami B put his hands on Dante’s head and muttered a fast and furious chant, but the little boy obviously didn’t like it because he moaned and squirmed.
    Lorna slapped the man’s hands away. “Stop it! You’re scaring him!”
    “Lorna! How dare you?” Hera’s voice trembled. “We came all this way, and this is how you treat us?”
    “I asked you here because I thought you cared about me and wanted to be involved in my life.” Lorna’s tears felt like hot coals on her cheeks. “All I’m asking is that you be sensitive to my son’s needs and respect our wishes for him. Mother— Hera —really! Is that too