Small Mediums at Large

The True Tale of a Family of Psychics

from Chapter 1 (page 4)
perfectly made. I shift into her being so that I can feel her, so I can know why we're here by the bed. What happened to her? I'm her, right now, I'm Kate, but I can also talk to myself. I'm looking down at the bed. I see a magnificent wedding gown and veil carefully laid out in the center of the bed. They're sleeping, preserved in a dream.

I snap back to the table, hearing myself talking. I have to remember the vision and understand what I'm feeling before it leaves me.

"Your heart was shattered. You had a wedding planned for this past summer. He left you, didn't he? And you have no idea why, do you? Is that what happened?" I close my eyes, "Nathan. His name is Nathan."

"Oh my God, how do you know? You can see that? And you got his name!"

Tears run down her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm crying."

"Please, that's why you're here. Don't stop. Don't hold back. You're stuck in a painful memory that you keep reliving. You have to let him go. You want to know why and what happened. And you can't move forward. You're still waiting for him to come back. You're still hoping."

I took the cards and laid them out in a horseshoe pattern. "Let me see what's going on here."

Certain cards catch my eye. A King of Swords-- a man wearing a red robe over a suit of armor. He holds a long sword up in the air and looks straight at me. He's a man who's strong, determined, sometimes abusive. The Lightning Struck Tower-- brick by brick a tower falls to pieces as two people tumble to the ground. Shock of the unexpected. The Death card-- the Grim Reaper, a skeleton clutches a sickle, clearing away an already barren landscape. The Hanged Man-- a man hanging upside down from a tree. Where do we go from here?

Kate's crying. I get up to get a box of tissues. By the time I've returned to the table I know the whole story. I just know it, as though I've known her all my life and have been with her every day. I sit back down and see her looking over the cards.

"It looks pretty bad, doesn't it?"