Love at Second Sight (8 page)

‘You weren’t the one on the couch,’ said Effy and she put up her arms as though they were wings then proceeded to mock-fly down the road. ‘I am Icarus.’

An old lady out walking her dog gave her a filthy look then hurried off in the opposite direction.

So far it had been an interesting morning and no mention of Henrietta, Howard or Finn.

On the stage, a bald, middle-aged man in a black suit was speaking. The trousers to the suit were a tad too short for him and revealed his red socks. He cocked his head up to the right as if
listening to someone much in the same way that Betty had when I’d seen her in the tent on the Heath. ‘I’ve got an Annie here,’ said the man. Anyone here know an
Annie?’ He looked around at the audience but there were no takers.

‘Unless the Annie we saw this morning just passed away,’ Effy whispered.

The man listened again to whatever he could see up to his right. ‘OK. A Norman. Anyone here know a Norman?’ Again, there was no response from the hall. The man sighed. ‘OK,
someone else is coming through. John. A John. Anyone here know a John?’

To our left, a lady gasped and put up her hand.

‘Chances are everyone’s got a dead relative called John,’I whispered to Effy.

‘John says to tell you that he’s fine,’ said the man and the lady’s eyes filled with tears.

The rest of the meeting went on the same way with the man trying names until he struck lucky with the audience. The message was always the same. ‘I’m fine,’ the unseen
presences would say and it appeared to keep the audience happy. For a split second, I wondered what I’d do if suddenly the man on the stage said that a Robert had come to talk. That was my
dad’s name. I think my eyes would have filled with tears too even if I didn’t believe any of it. However, no Robert put in an appearance invisibly or otherwise that day and despite my
cynicism, there was a part of me that wished he had.

After half an hour, Effy whispered, ‘Let’s get out of here.’

I nodded and we snuck out the back as quietly as we could.

‘OK. So that was a waste of time,’ said Effy then looked at me. ‘And don’t say, I told you so.’

‘I wasn’t going to,’ I said, but I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief. Maybe this research would put an end to Effy’s obsession with Henrietta. Hopefully we
could return to our normal life, homework, boys, hanging out. We stood outside the church hall for a few minutes and got out our phones to do a text check.

‘Finn,’ I said as I read my text.

‘Mark,’ said Effy as she read hers. ‘Wants to know when I’m going to be finished. What did Finn say?’

‘He wanted to know if any of the clairvoyants had mentioned him,’ I said as I quickly texted a reply to him. ‘I’ve just told him that everything isn’t always about
him.’

Effy laughed. My phone beeped again showing another message from Finn, no words this time, just a sad face.

I linked arms with Effy and steered her towards a café. ‘You know what? The spirits are telling me, we need hot chocolate. Extra cream.’

‘OK. I think you’re right,’ she said and stuck her arms out a la zombie and began to stagger towards the café on the KilbUm High Road. I joined in too. The old lady with
the dog who we’d passed earlier in the day just happened to be passing again. She took one look at us and crossed the road muttering something about, ‘Teenagers. Should all be locked
up.’

Our appointment in Muswell Hill was at five o’clock and Effy and I were there on the dot. The house was a shabby semi-detached that looked badly in need of a new coat of
paint. The front garden was overgrown with weeds and littered with an old shopping trolley and bins.

An elderly, unshaven man in a grey tracksuit opened the door, grunted at us and then ushered us into a front room where he left us. It reeked of cigarettes.

We sat down and looked around. A black cat on the faded brown sofa raised an inquisitive eye then fell back asleep. A moment later, a women in her late fifties entered. She was wearing a
tracksuit similar to the man’s, only hers was maroon. I presumed that she must be Lily, the clairvoyant with whom we had the booking.

She jerked her chin at us. ‘Which one?’ she asked.

‘Your turn,’ said Effy.

I stood up. ‘Oh hi, I’m Jo.’

Efry stood up too.

‘You stay here,’ the woman said firmly to Effy. ‘Jo, come with me.’

Effy shrugged and sat back down.
Not big on friendliness,
I thought as I followed the woman. She was strange-looking. Everything about her face seemed to be exaggerated: huge eyes, a mass
of grey wiry hair that framed her very thin, heavily-lined face. She looked as if she’d put her fingers in an electric socket and got a shock. I was glad she hadn’t been our first port
of call or I might not have got through the day.

She led me through to a small living room at the back where Lily sat on a hard chair in the corner and lit a cigarette. She pointed at my wrist.

‘Your watch,’ she said.

I took it off and gave it to her. She pointed to a chair similar to hers next to a table with paper and pencils. ‘Sit and write down what I say,’ she instructed. ‘It might not
make sense now but may later.’

I took a piece of paper and waited.

She looked away from me and seemed to be listening to someone up to her right, much in the same way that Betty had when I saw her on the Heath and the bald man had in the church hall earlier.
She began to speak. ‘Anandpana says someone is here. A man. Says you’re wearing his ring.’ She pointed to my right hand. ‘He died eight years ago. He had difficulty
breathing. He died because of his heart.’

I felt shocked by how specific she was and sudden tears filled my eyes. Dad died eight years ago of a heart attack. Mum gave me his wedding ring when I was eleven. I’ve worn it on my right
hand ever since.

‘There’s a dog with him,’ Lily continued.

Rex. Dad’s dog died the week after him. I felt stunned. How could she know this?

‘He says he is happy and you should be happy also. Don’t be afraid. Anandpana says you have been unhappy in love. You don’t let yourself love but recently there is a boy. You
have known him before. You are meant for each other but there will be obstacles.’

‘Who’s Anandpana?’

‘My spirit guide,’ Lily replied.

‘Does he, Anandpana, say who this boy is? His name? Um, how recent is recent?’ Owen flashed into my mind. I’d known him most of my life. Did recent mean I could rule him out?
Lately, his texts had made me laugh and seeing him on the bank holiday a couple of weeks ago had reminded me of how well we got on. If I was honest with myself, I had missed him and our
conversations since he’d gone off to uni.

Lily listened up to her right again. ‘Time is different on the plane on which Anandpana dwells. He says you will know him. He is a good soul.’

‘Can’t he give me a name?’ I asked. It seemed to me that if Anandpana or Lily could pick up on so much then why couldn’t they give a name?

Lily turned her attention to me. It felt like she was looking straight into me and made me feel very uncomfortable. ‘He
says
you will know him. Write that down. I have no name.
Anandpana says all will be resolved in time.’

Lily was back listening. ‘Your friend’s cat has gone missing but don’t worry, she will return. Someone, maybe your mother, works long hours and needs a break.’
Well at
least that last part is true but then probably everybody’s mother works too hard
, I thought. Lily stopped and looked at me again. ‘Is there anything else you want to ask?’

‘Er . . . do you do past life readings? Who I was–’

Lily sighed wearily. ‘People always come to me with this kind of question. Often they want to hear they were some glamorous character from history. To escape from the reality of this life
into a fantasy in their head. Do you want to hear that you were Cleopatra?’

I shook my head. ‘Not especially.’

‘Good. So get on with this life. I believe people should move on, not be looking backwards. Life is what you make it this time.’

I nodded, but she was off again as if someone had switched her on.

‘Anandpana says that in this life you are here to learn balance. People have many lives, not just one. You have had many. Some lives steeped in your senses, seeking pleasure, some as a
recluse seeking answers. In your most recent past life you were a governess, here in England. But you didn’t find balance in that life either. Anandpana says that your lesson is this: if you
seek pleasure exclusively, you lose the meaning of life, but if you seek the meaning of life exclusively, you lose the pleasure. Only when pleasure and meaning are balanced, will you find true
joy.’ She looked across at me. ‘Anything else?’

‘A governess in my last life?’ I asked as I scribbled madly, trying to get it all down but at the same time not miss what she was saying.

‘Yes. That is when you were with your soulmate. With him, but not with him. You will find him again in this life. Or he will find you.’

‘Do you have the name of the governess?’ I asked.
Maybe they teach all clairvoyants at psychic school to come out with the same story
, I thought.
Governess. Soulmate. Lost
love. But if she gave the name Henrietta that would be more convincing.

‘No name,’ said Lily. ‘I don’t always get a name.’

And how will I know who my soulmate is?’

Lily seemed to suddenly tire. ‘Why are you here? What do you want?’ Her grey eyes pierced into me. I found I couldn’t lie.

‘I . . . I’m doing research for an article about clairvoyants for a magazine–’

Her expression turned to sadness. ‘That is not why you’re here. You are here to know the joy of love. To lose your fear. Trust in your destiny. Trust in your heart.’

She handed me back my watch, stood up and opened the door for me to leave.

Meeting over.

I handed over a ten pound note then went back in to join Effy. I felt in a daze. I had a hundred questions I wanted to ask but an elderly lady was waiting to see Lily, and Effy and I were
quickly ushered out by the grumpy man.

‘How did it go?’ asked Effy when we got back onto the street and went through our usual ritual of checking for texts. ‘Another waste of time?’

‘Not sure,’ I answered as I looked on my phone but there were no messages. ‘She said that–’

‘Oh
no
!’ Effy exclaimed as she looked at her messages.

‘What?’

‘Tash. Cassie’s gone missing since this morning. She wants to know if we can go round and help look for her. I’d better let Mark know I can’t meet him.’

‘No way!’ Cassie is Tash’s cat, a big, dopey white creature who hardly ever moves from the sofa and certainly never leaves the house. ‘Text her back and tell her not to
worry. She’ll turn up.’

‘Jo! This is
Cassie
. You know how much Tash loves that cat. We can’t just tell her to chill.’

‘I can. Cassie will turn up.’

Effy sighed with exasperation. ‘You can’t know that.’

‘I can. Lily just told me.’

‘
Lily
just told you? So suddenly you believe in what clairvoyants tell you? Can you be sure it was about Cassie? What did she say exactly?’

‘I–’ Effy was right. I couldn’t be totally sure but Lily had been spot on about a friend’s cat going missing so maybe she was spot on about her reappearing too.

Effy’s phone bleeped again before I got a chance to tell her what Lily had said. ‘Tash again,’ she said as she read her message then sighed with relief. ‘Phew. Drama
over. They found her in the laundry cupboard.’ She put her phone away. ‘You were right. So what exactly did Lily say?’

‘Just that a mate’s cat had gone missing and would show up.”

‘Did she say anything else?’

I shrugged. ‘I can’t remember everything. Some of it was a bit vague like about my mum working too hard.’ I decided not to elaborate on the other stuff that Lily had said, the
things about my dad and Rex, my ring, and especially not the bit about me having been a governess and how I had to find my soulmate. Now that Cassie had gone missing then turned up, it was all
beginning to feel a bit spooky and I needed time to think. ‘But, Effy, whatever Lily was, she was certainly no fake.’

Effy nodded. Luckily she didn’t press me further because there was another text from Mark and Effy’s attention was elsewhere.

After Effy had gone off, I headed straight home where I let myself in and headed for the kitchen. Sometimes I wished that we had a cat, just so there was somebody living to
greet me on evenings like this when Mum was out with a friend and the house felt so quiet. Not that I begrudged Mum a night out, no way. I knew that she needed some fun time as much as anyone, but
in the past when she was out I didn’t feel being alone as acutely because Tash and Effy were always here with a DVD or ready for a sleepover or I was over at theirs. So much had changed since
Dave and Mark had come on the scene. A cat would be the perfect solution. A presence that would be there but not ask too many questions. ‘Purrfect solution,’ I said out loud.

Mum had left me some chicken in the oven but I didn’t feel like eating much. I made myself a hot chocolate and sat at the kitchen table. I pulled out my phone in the hope that there might
be more texts. Nothing. I went up to my room to my computer. No emails so I went to Facebook to see what was happening on there. Effy, Tash and I used to use it a lot last year but none of us
bother with it that much any more. I went to my page. One message, one request to add a friend and a notification that Owen had poked me. I clicked on the request link to see who it was from.
Ohmigod! Finn O’Brady I immediately clicked confirm. My Saturday evening suddenly got a whole lot more interesting as I accessed his page and began to read his status updates, comments left
and checked out his photos. He had thousands of friends, far too many to go through and mainly girls. There were also loads of messages on his wall from girls and probably a ton more private ones I
couldn’t access. Looking through his photos only confirmed what I was feeling deep inside that Finn was one hundred per cent gorgeous.