Arlette's Story Read online

Up until that moment I never knew I was psychic. On one of her more sober days shortly after that, I said to my mom, "I saw it happen in my mind. I should have warned her."

  Mom stared at me. "Nonsense," she said. "You're getting as ridiculous as my sister."

  "You don't have a sister," I said.

  Mom grunted and looked away. "I guess Lucie would be your aunt. She and I aren't close."

  "But… she's your sister. I would give anything in the world to have my brothers back here." I really didn't believe she was that callous. "Where does she live?"

  Mom hugged herself. "On Bayou LeGue. In the family home."

  "Can we visit her?"

  "No. That's the end of this conversation. Don't ask me about her again."

  I never forgot about my Aunt, but life got busy.

  I always carried condoms on me and when Bryan Hartley wanted to have sex with me in the back of his father's car after my senior prom I was the one who produced the condom. He didn't complain.

  I finished high school and went to university to study fine arts. I got a part time job serving food in a restaurant and moved into my own apartment. I developed an instant rapport with my roommate, Melissa. She is also an Aquarius. We always read our horoscope to see if there was anything about a new romantic interest. There often was. Sex with Bryan had not been all it was cracked out to be on those sites I visited online, and I didn't have an intimate relationship with a boy again until I met Angel in my senior year at college.

  With his dark olive skin and deep brown eyes and thick black hair, I thought I had gone to heaven when he asked me for a date. Our relationship progressed rapidly and it was only a couple of weeks later that I found myself having sex again. This time it was different.

  I dated a lot of boys, and had a couple of more serious romances, but they always left me in the end when they found out about my psychic abilities. I think men are afraid of me. Afraid I might be able to read their minds or something like that. They always tell me I'm pretty and that I have amazing eyes. I'm only five feet tall, have long almost black hair and I don't know about amazing, but I do know my eyes are very pale and are almost lilac in color. I've never met anyone else with eyes quite like mine.

  After I graduated with a Masters Degree in fine arts, I worked as a teacher, and on two occasions I was able to warn my students about impending disasters that I saw in my mind. Somehow the FBI found out I was psychic and they asked me to help them on a missing persons case. I didn't think I could, but I decided to try, and I actually did find the remains of the missing person. It wasn't the way I had hoped it would turn out, but the family was okay with it. They at least knew what had happened to her.

  My handler, Agent Chad Kingsley asked me if I would sign on permanently on a part time, as needed basis and I agreed.

  Several months ago something happened that changed my life totally. I had just arrived home at about five thirty. I was suddenly struck down with a headache and a vision followed. I saw an old lady. She was walking in a forest and then it changed and it became a cemetery.

  My cell phone rang. I didn't recognize the number, but I answered it anyhow. I had been teaching art privately and it could be a new student.

  "Is that Miss Xylander? Miss Arlette Xylander?"It was a man.

  "Yes. Who is this?" I said, cautiously.

  "My name is Wallace Ramsgate. I'm an attorney, handling the estate of Ms. Lucie LeGue."

  I don't know why, but my mouth was suddenly dry.

  "She was your aunt, is that correct?"

  I swallowed hard. "Yes. I…guess. Yes."

  "As you may know she passed away three days ago, and you are mentioned in the will, and I need to discuss it with you. Would you be able to meet me at my offices tomorrow?"

  Melissa walked in and I shrugged and pointed at the phone. She held out her hands as if to say 'what?'

  "Yeah. Sure. Of course," I said lamely.

  "My aunt died," I said to Melissa. "That was the estate attorney. He wants to meet me tomorrow at 10:00 am. Something about the will. I was mentioned."

  "Cool. Maybe she was worth millions of dollars and she left it all to you?" Melissa pulled off her shoes and dropped them on the carpet.

  "No. I've never met her. I should call Mom."

  I tapped the keys on my cell phone. "Mom," I said when she answered. "Did you know Aunt Lucie died?"

  Mom grunted. "So?"

  I wanted to say a lot of things but I knew there was no point. I just hung up.

  The next day, Mr. Ramsgate threw the bomb at me. "She left everything to you," he said. "Now, she wasn't a wealthy woman. At least, we don't think she was. She lived very simply. However, her home is quite large and it's on a couple of acres. We'll have to have an appraisal done, but I think you'll be able to sell it for quite a lot. It's old, but some restoration had been done."

  "So… she left it to me?"

  "She left everything to you. I can't be sure I've accounted for everything until I've completed my asset search. There's also a book."

  "A book?"

  "A spell book." His eyebrows went up when he said this.

  I felt mine wrinkle. "What?"

  "She left it in the house for you and instructed us not to touch it."

  What had Mom said about Aunt Lucie when I told her about my vision?

  A few months after that, the estate was wound up. The only assets were the house and the book. Instead of selling the house, I decided to move into it. It was rather too big for me and my cat Marbles, but other than that it was perfect. I love being away from the city and it was at the end of a bumpy road on the banks of a bayou. There's a thick stand of tall trees that go deep into the woods behind the house and it has grass all around it that has to be mowed. And there's an enormous gator living in the bayou. I named him Sampson.

  The house is old, it could be called a mansion—New Orleans is famous for its mansions—most of them are haunted. In fact, New Orleans is the most haunted city in the U.S. So I wasn't surprised when I heard ghostly voices coming from my dining room.

  The spell book lay in the middle, on the floor in what was to become my home office. I stared at it for a while. It was large and thick, bound in red leather, only the leather had cracked with age and it was more brown than red now. I was afraid to touch it at first. I sat down cross-legged on the hardwood floor beside it and reached out and placed my hand flat on it.

  I felt a strange vibration, and pulled my hand away quickly.

  "That was weird," I said to myself to relieve the tension.

  Marbles came and sat beside me and gazed at the book. She meowed loudly and stared into my eyes, almost as if she was telling me to pick it up.

  "This is crazy," I said, and reached out and grabbed the book and lifted it onto my lap.

  "There," I said to Marbles. "I hope you're happy now."

  She meowed again, stood up, humped her back, yawned and left the room.

  The book was heavy, and that strange sensation came again. I was ready for it this time, and it actually wasn't a bad sensation. It was like the anticipation you feel as a child on Christmas morning as you rush to the hearth to see if Santa has left you anything. I almost expected a vision to come, but it didn't.

  I took a deep breath and opened it carefully. Nothing happened. I was afraid that I might tear the old parchment-like pages, so I handled them gently and started paging through the book. I knew this book had to be extremely valuable. It was hand printed calligraphy and hand painted pictures. It really was a spell book. "To Unlock a Secret" I read the incantation but was afraid to say it out loud.

  I don't know how long I sat there totally absorbed in this exquisite heirloom, but when I looked out the window, the sun had almost disappeared over the trees. I set the book down carefully and stood up on stiff legs. I would leave it right there where I found it until my furniture had been moved in.

  When I climbed the stairs to my bedroom I stopped to look at the picture. The old painting of a
young woman. She has almost black hair and light eyes almost the color of the curious amethyst pendant she is wearing on a chain around her neck.

  If I didn't know better, I would say it's a portrait of me.

  A disturbing thing started to happen just a couple of weeks after I moved in. I was walking from my living room to the kitchen and suddenly, without any warning I crashed to the floor. I knew I wasn't hurt and I just lay there for a while, trying to figure out what happened. It just didn't make any sense. I hauled myself up and retraced my steps. There was nothing at all that could have caused me to trip or slip. No loose floorboards, nothing left lying in the way, which would not be unusual for me. It was like my legs just stopped working, and yet as soon as I could move, they felt fine.

  Eventually I put it down to clumsiness.

  A few days later, it happened again. This time I hit my arm on a chair on my way down and bruised it quite badly. It hurt, but the pain was nothing compared with the awful creeping feeling of fear that I couldn't shake off. What if something was wrong with me? I didn't feel like I was sick.

  When it happened a third time I made an appointment to see my doctor. I'm only twenty three. I've always been fit and healthy, but this was too severe to ignore.

  I never imagined he would tell me I'm dying.

  Nor that on the same day I found that out, I would meet Andre Rossouw, the man of my dreams, who stirred something deep inside me with those cool gray-green eyes that seemed to see beneath my clothes.

  Could life really be that cruel?

  END

  ~*~

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