Forecast (31 page)
Authors: Jane Tara
Drew noticed the empty bowl of chips in front of Rowie. “You’ll get fat,” he laughed. “And I can’t wait.” His hand slipped down and rested on her still flat stomach. He gave it a rub. This had been a surprise, albeit a wonderful one, conceived during their first weekend together—so much for condoms—and discovered during their first weekend back together.
“She’s sleeping,” whispered Rowie.
“How on earth could
he
sleep with this racket,” chuckled Drew.
“She.”
“He.”
“Here we go again,” laughed Angel.
“We really should settle this, once and for all,” said Drew.
Everyone looked at him in shock.
“You said you didn’t want to know,” said Rowie.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“But we’re not due for a scan until—“
Drew interrupted. “Oh come on, there’s another way to find out.”
Rowie laughed. “Oh boy, the scientist has changed his tune. Are you sure?”
Drew nodded. “Positive.”
“Okay,” Rowie jumped to her feet. “Let’s find out.”
*
Gwendolyn was channeling a past life as a royal and holding court in the living room. She was regaling everyone—not for the first time—about her near death experience.
“It was a revelation,” she announced. “It taught me about living, as well as dying.”
William watched her and smiled. She was a vision in red. He’d been relegated to working the punch bowl. Not that he minded. He quite liked it when Gwendolyn bossed him around. And besides, the punch was delicious. It was an interesting concoction that reminded him of … his youth. He took another sip. He couldn’t work out what was in it and Gwendolyn refused to divulge the ingredients. The recipe for Shakespeare’s Secret Punch had been handed from each generation along with the family name and bright red hair.
William caught Gwendolyn’s eye and she gave him a wink. Who would have thought that he’d be standing in the middle of a haunted house, watching his witchy girlfriend conjure up tall tales about the world of Spirit. How incredible that one can feel so at home in the strangest of places.
Jack pinched Gwendolyn’s bum on the way past her and squeezed onto the couch beside Lilia. “How’s my second favorite girl?”
Lilia rolled her eyes. “You’d think Rowie was still a baby, the way you mollycoddle her. I feel quite left out.” She obviously didn’t. She was beaming.
“I have a lot of time to catch up on,” Jack explained. He looked at his wife lovingly and then searched the room for his daughter, the child he never even knew he had until two months ago.
There she was, pushing her way over to them. The light of his life, looking radiant.
“Drew wants to know,” she said when she reached them.
Lilia and Jack looked at each other in surprise and then nodded and headed for the stairs. Then Rowie went and grabbed Gwendolyn.
“I need you,” she whispered.
They made their way to the attic, where Lilia, Jack and Drew were already sitting.
Gwendolyn immediately understood what they were up to. “There’s no point. It’s definitely a girl.”
“Yes Mom, but none of us are sure. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
Gwendolyn threw her arms up in mock-defeat. “Fine, let’s look … but six hundred years of tradition says it’s a girl.”
“Let’s make sure, Gran.”
The five sat at the séance table and Lilia shuffled the cards. They could hear the strains of music and laughter three floors below.
Lilia held the cards. “Please tell us about the baby.” She spread them across the table: The empress, the world, the priestess … and then …
Drew was no tarot card reader but even he understood what was before him.
Everyone stared at the cards for a moment and then looked at each other with joy.
“There you go,” said Jack, proud as punch.
“Wonderful,” said Gwendolyn. She glanced at her daughter. “What do you think?”
“Oh my!” said Lilia. “Lovely.”
Drew and Rowie gazed at each other and nodded. “Perfect.”
And it was.
Writing is supposedly a solitary occupation, but there was nothing solitary about my journey with this book. I am completely indebted to the following people:
Rosemary Serluca, Ken Atchity and Mike Kuciak, Chi-Li Wong, Olivia Pigeot, Sue Scannell, Robyn English, Markham Lane, Ulrike Sturm, Warren Gibson, Gerhard and Hiromi Linzbichler, Assh Whiley, Vince Paul, Thorsten Eckhoff, Sean Hinchey, Rod and Shirley Hinchey, Paul Bishop and Joe Brownlee. I thank you all!
I am extremely grateful to Joel Naoum and Momentum for giving Forecast a new home.
To Chicky, because this one wouldn’t exist without you, and to Indy and Raffy, for putting up with a mother who forgets to do normal mother things because she’s in front of the “poota.”
And last, but certainly not least, to my incredibly patient mother, Yvonne Pfeiffer. Thank you for your support and encouragement, the many road trips, plane trips, and the countless hours of babysitting. But mostly,
thank you
for showing me what a magical place the world is. No matter what else was happening in your life, you always,
always
took time to show me the faeries.
For that alone, I am
eternally
grateful.
Jane Tara’s motto is “life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” Jane spends most of her time wandering the world and writing. She is an award winning playwright, and her novel, FORECAST can also be found here on Amazon. Jane has over twenty children’s picture books published, has written freelance articles for many publications worldwide, and worked on the hit TV documentary series Cool School Antarctica. She has lived in Tokyo, London, Vienna, New York, various parts of Australia, and traveled everywhere in between. She recently transformed her itchy feet into ITCHEE FEET, which publishes travel books for kids. She has two sons, and two stepsons, known collectively as RIOT. Jane and her partner Dom divide their time between Sydney and the rest of the world.
Trouble Brewing
Calypso Shakespeare knows what the future has in store for her, and not just because she's psychic.
The "gifted" Shakespeare women have always had their one true love ... Problem is, Calypso’s came and went and didn’t work out too well.
She doesn't need a crystal ball to see that she'll never love again. And even her magical cocktails aren't up to the ask of healing her bruised heart. So instead she wanders the world brewing in pubs and bars in the hope that she'll help other people find love.
That's the plan anyway. That is until Taran Dee shows up and Calypso finds she has real trouble brewing …
The juicy sequel to
Forecast
can be purchased here at:
momentumbooks.com.au/books
First published by Dorchester Publishing in 2007
This edition published in 2013 by Momentum
Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney 2000Copyright © Jane Tara 2007
The moral right of the author has been asserted.All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
A CIP record for this book is available at the National Library of Australia
Forecast
EPUB format: 9781743341919
Mobi format: 9781743341926Cover design by Carrie Kabak
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