With that, the boy ran off, pulling a cellphone out of his pocket. My mother would never have let me have a phone at that age. However, despite the technology, I couldn’t help but glow with pride. Sure, the compliment was from a kid who just got his dog back after the pup supposedly “ran away” when his aunt was alone at the house. Still, positives were positives and praise was praise. I wasn’t about to discredit a job well done just because it was for a kid.
And also for free. But whatever, it wasn’t like I was hurting for money. Again, I was all about the positives.
But what was decidedlynotpositive was when my phone beeped with a calendar alert. Hastily, I pulled it out and realized I was late for the first reading I’d had in a week.
Shit!
That was a terrible way to run a business, especially since it was a family business that had been around for generations and had a certain reputation to maintain. Cursing myself, I took off in a dead run toward my home, which also happened to be the location forHaus de Donmoue: Where the veil between what was and what could be was thinner than anywhere else in the world. That had been my mother’s slogan, and I wasn’t about to change what worked so well.
Even if it wasn’t entirely true anymore.
Thankfully, since I grew up in the neighborhood, I knew the layout like the back of my hand. I cut along the side of two houses, then vaulted over their back fences and another until I cut across the street.
It was going to be close, and I was on the losing side. At least, I was until a kid fell off his skateboard just ahead of me.
“Mind if I borrow that?” I asked without stopping, kicking it up into my hand when it was close enough and then tossing it forward so I could run and jump onto it.
“Hey!” the kid cried.
“I promise I’ll return it later! It’s an oracle emergency!”
While most of the neighborhood knew who I was, I wasn’t sure if that extended it to a totally radical preteen. Hopefully, if he complained to his parents, they’d assure him that I would make good on my word.
As long as I remembered it, of course.
“Almost there!” I panted, more to convince myself that I would make it in time than anything else. As I was coming up through the back alley and turning into the little gap between two buildings that led to my backyard, I saw a car pull into the wide driveway.
Double shit!
Chest heaving, face sweating, and heart pounding, I threw open the back door and practically vaulted in, hastily pulling on the flowing robe I had hanging next to the door and slamming the big, ostentatious hat that I decided was the statement piece for my character onto my head. It had a lightweight mesh veil around it that made me feel quite mysterious, as well as gemstones hanging all around the edge in sparkling teardrops.
Normally, I would take a moment to admire my carefully crafted appearance, but normally, I wasn’t quite literally racing against the clock. I suppose I could have just been late, but that didn’t sit right with me. Yeah, I’d always been frenemies with the perception of time, but when it came to continuing my mother’s legacy, I wanted to do it right. And I couldn’t do that if I passed off the first real, paying client who wanted a seated reading. In the year since I’d reopened the family business, the majority of my clients had been online readings, and even then, that “majority” had been less major and more meager.
The chime on the front door sang its delicate, cheery little song as I leapt into my chair in front of my covered crystal ball, the legs making a screeching sound that was in sharp contrast to the pleasant notes from the entrance. I couldn’t tell if the clientreacted to it or not, since she was in my foyer and I was in the reading room connected to it, but she didn’t seem too concerned when she stepped in.
“Ah, come take a seat, Angela. I’ve been waiting for you.”
I made a slow, sweeping gesture with my arm, inviting her into my oracle space. My mother had taught me the best way to sell the persona of someone who had access to what had yet to pass.
Thankfully, my breathlessness from my journey sold the bit more than I expected.
Hey, I actually sound kind of cool!I wonder what my heart rate is.What’s the normal heart rate again?I need to do more cardio.Where are my sneakers?Should I start running? Wait, where did I put that skateboard?I cut off that furor of thought as the client sat and looked me over. While she observed me, I observed her, my mind going a mile a minute.
“Are you okay? You sound a bit breathless?”
Okay. Maybe I sounded a little less cool than I thought.
I sighed. “The fates have been virulent today.”
“Oh no, really? Do we need to cancel? Reschedule?”
Panic surged through me. I shook my head, the beads on my hat rattling in a way that definitely didn’t go with an ethereal seer unbound by time. “No, no, best not to insult the fates by pointing out their fickle nature. I will do my best reading for you.”
“O-oh. Okay, if you are sure.”
“I am most certainly.” I waited until her shoulders settled a bit, then took a breath. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, as the saying went.
“Relax and focus on the depths of this crystal ball,” I said, removing the cloth with a flourish. I would never forget my mother explaining its use to me when I was a child, well beforemy Donmoue abilities had manifested and I was, for all intents and purposes, just a human.