Salem's Sight (8 page)

“
I have a small studio at
my house or I could bring my stuff to your house if it’d make you
more comfortable.” He smiled and I decided to be his model even if
I couldn’t get the gift at cost.

“
I still don’t know if I’d
have enough for the slipper. I only have fifty bucks.”

He looked at the tag in the case and
winced. I knew I didn’t have enough. “Fifty dollars it
is.”

“
What’s fifty dollars?” an
older gentleman asked. It wasn’t difficult to guess who this was.
In spite of the fact his hair was stark white, the face was an
older version of Doctor Martin. And like his son and his grandson,
he stood over six feet tall. They certainly grew them big in this
family.

I stood up straight and held up the
slipper, then frowned when it looked like the poor man was going to
collapse. He raised his eyebrows and Robby seemed
uneasy.

“
She’s a friend of mine,
Grandpa. I’m… ah… letting her pay cost and she’s agreed to sit for
me. I’d have to pay a model so I figure it’d equal out.”

I could tell by Grandpa’s expression
that the cost of the slipper was more than fifty and there’d be
some money coming out of Robby’s pocket. Then his grandfather
looked at me and his eyes twinkled and he smiled.

“
Smart boy. This is one
painting I can’t wait to see.” He clapped Robby on the back in
spite of what must have been a stupid sale. “Now make an old man
happy and wear the color peach when he paints you. It’ll be perfect
for your complexion,” he said to me.

“
I really shouldn’t take
this if it’s more than fifty.”

“
No,” both Robby and his
grandfather echoed together. A bit odd but I wasn’t about to
complain. So I managed to snag the gift and time with Robby. Talk
about a win-win situation.

Anyway, I was thrilled with my
acquisition and his explanation for looking at me so weird that
first day. I mean really, who wouldn’t want to be selected by an
artist as the perfect model?

Then of course, he mentioned the ‘D’
word. That would be dance. I mean, it’s not like he asked me out or
anything. He didn’t even ask me to go with him. He just asked if I
was planning on going.

I acted like I hadn’t even heard
anything about it, you know, being new and all. Then I felt
brainless because I’d have to be blind not to know about the dance.
Every hallway was littered with flyers, posters adorned the walls,
and banners flew over every entrance announcing the first dance of
the season. I blushed. He’d either think I was dim witted or a big
fat liar.

He let it slip casually into the
conversation that he was going to ‘stop by’ and I should ‘check it
out.’ Now for all I knew he could be stopping by with his
girlfriend and might have told me to check it out for any of a
million reasons, but I hoped it was because he wanted to hang out
and get to know me there.

So I left there grinning for more than
one reason.

****

Okay, so maybe the best time to tell
Berkley that I might be able to see the future wasn’t when she had
just gulped down a large amount of Dr. Pepper. She choked on it and
it sprayed all over the ground like a volcanic eruption. Good thing
I sidestepped or I would have worn the bulk of it and that would
not have been good for my new white sweater.

We were headed home and about two
blocks from school when the rest of the kids we were walking with
took a left on Main, and Berkley and I grabbed a soda from the
machine at the gas station. I should have timed it better, but we
were finally alone and I had to get it out while I still had the
courage.

And let’s face it, she was the logical
choice because not only was she my best friend, but Berkley had
been around for the whole ghost thing and believed, so I figured it
wouldn’t be much of a stretch for her to believe this too. Hadn’t
figured in the shock factor though.

She continued to cough a bit after her
ground watering so I hit her back until she caught her breath. She
glared at me to stop. “So you think you’re psychic?”

How the hell do you answer that? I
mean it sounds sort of stupid when it’s said out loud. “I’m not
sure exactly but something weird is going on.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, well I knew that
when I met your ghost.”

My shoes scuffed along the pavement as
I dragged my feet like I did when I was a child. “Technically my
grandmother. She may be a ghost, but she’s still my
grandmother.”

Berkley did a little time out gesture
with her hands and took a sip of the remaining soda. “Just wanted
to make sure I actually got to swallow some of this. Who knows what
you’ll say next. There won’t be a lot more now, will
there?”

We started walking again, but at a
slower pace so we’d have more time to talk before hitting the
intersection where Berkley and I would head in different
directions. “Other than the fact I share a room with my dead
grandmother and seem to dream of the future, no, there’s nothing
else.” But just so she’d understand, I filled her in on my dream of
flames.

The wind kicked up and Berkley zipped
up her hooded sweatshirt. “So if the fire is the only thing you
have to go on, how do you know this is for real? Maybe it’s just
some kind of coincidence.”

I gaped at her wondering where she hid
the friend who believed in me. “Well, let’s start with they are
rather strange dreams and then it ended up on the news. I mean, it
wasn’t like the everyday dream and I just had a feeling in my gut.
I’m not sure how, but I knew it as certainly as I knew my own
name.” I took a few sips of my own soda and waited for a
response.

Unfortunately for me, she was taking
her time. Berkley twisted her hair and tucked it beneath her hood,
which now framed her face. She mulled it over for a few more
seconds. “I was just playing Devil’s Advocate. Obviously this is
much too much of a coincidence. But do you really think you’re
psychic or is your grandmother just sending you the images from the
other side?”

Okay, had to admit I hadn’t thought
about that possibility. “I don’t know. Why would she show me those
specific images though? It’s not like I could have done anything to
prevent it or to save that man. I’d understand it if I knew him,
but he was a total stranger.”

We were silent for a few more seconds.
“Internet the sec we get home. You check prophetic dreams and I’ll
see what I can find out about ghosts sending information and we’ll
discuss the highlights later,” she said as we approached the street
where we had to split up.

“
Yeah, I’ll call you before
supper.” With that we waved and paced off in our separate
directions.

****

Come five o’clock Mom and I were
pretty much in the same position that we were in the night before,
except I was paying close attention to the news this time. And this
time I was only pretending to do my homework. I sat on what was
normally a comfortable chair, yet I couldn’t control the urge to
fidget. My tense muscles ached while I waited impatiently for the
inevitable to occur.

To be honest I was praying I’d be
wrong and there’d be no body. I begged and begged, please just let
it be some freaky kind of coincidence.

Yeah, like I really believed
that.

The anchorman once again showed clips
of the devastation from the chemical fire the night before and
discussed possible causes. Yada, yada, yada still under
investigation. There was one new development though… oh crap, here
it comes. No, no, no, no… - It appeared the charred remains of a
body was found near the entrance of the building.

Yup, I could have told them that. So
much for breaking news. Evidently the poor bugger made a valiant
effort to get out, but was overcome by smoke inhalation first. Not
what I wanted to hear.

I was close to soiling my pants, but
couldn’t lose the opportunity to ‘I told you so’ my mother. I
looked back to her and raised an eyebrow. She looked ashen and her
glass was hanging upside down while her diet caffeine free soda
spilled out all over the new plush carpet.

I went to the kitchen and ran a cloth
under cold water and grabbed the Resolve spot remover. I started
dabbing it up before it stained and my mother was still just
sitting there like some sort of zombie when I came back.

“
Believe me now?” I asked
wanting to rub it in just a little bit.

She nodded mindlessly. “It isn’t that
I didn’t believe you before. It’s just I hoped you were wrong. I
really hoped that you were wrong. And with all the trauma you’ve
suffered lately. Well, you can see how it would be easy to think…
Oh, hell, I just didn’t want it to be true, but I should have known
right away. Should have recognized the symptoms.” She sighed and
massaged her temples the exact way I do when my head
hurts.

I didn’t get it. How would she have
guessed and what was so wrong with being psychic? Okay, forget the
last thought. “What do you mean? How would you know anything about
this?” She’d spent the past few days telling me I was imagining
things and now that I had proof I wasn’t, she was acting like she
knew more about it than I did.

“
This gift you have, well
it seems to have skipped a generation. Who knows, maybe I’m just
jealous,” she said with a fake half-hearted laugh.

Oh yeah, knowing what it feels like to
burn up in a fire is really something to be jealous of. I mean,
really, who wouldn’t want to experience that? Sometimes my mother
acts weirder than I do. And makes less sense.

“
Skipped a generation? You
mean Grandma?”

“
Yes, my mother, used to
have strange dreams sometimes and they would always come true. She
hated it because she never had a handle on them. They would never
make any sense until the deed was done and then it would all fit
together.”

Anger started to take over. I couldn’t
believe my mother had fought so hard the other night, denying the
possibility of something she knew was more than likely true. And
she had laughed about my grandmother’s dreams before, saying no one
really believed in them.

I felt like one of the cartoon
characters that has steam blow out of his ears as the anger built
up. “So it’s hereditary?”

“
I’m not sure what it is.
And in your case it seems to be different from Grandma’s. Yours is
much more exacting. Hers wasn’t anywhere near as
specific.”

I just stared at her. Big, fat, hairy
deal, my dreams were more exacting than Grandma’s. It was still the
same. I was actually psychic. Oh holy crap, did I just admit that
for real?

Yup, no matter how I looked at it, I
appeared to be psychic.

That is unless Grandma’s ghost was
sending me signals. I mean, she might not have had the psychic
thing down when she was on earth. But who knows maybe she had the
chance to perfect it on the other side?

Salem, think about what you’re telling
yourself. I couldn’t help it; I’d rather have my dead grandmother
imparting information than getting ghost signals and being psychic
on top of that. I mean, how weird could I get? That got me
thinking, why did all this start when we moved into this
house?

“
Mom, why didn’t any of
this happen before?” I asked.

“
Why do you think I didn’t
put this together? Nothing in the past indicated that you had any
talent in that area.” She shook her head. “It can’t be. There would
have to have been something.”

But there wasn’t and I was.

Tough cookies, Mom.

CHAPTER seven

I didn’t need this crap right now. Too
much was going on, and to be honest, I wasn’t exactly handling it
all with finesse.

But then again there’s no preparation
for clairvoyance. It’s not exactly like the flu – tough it out and
get over it. It was more like some insidious debilitating disease
that took over the body the longer it was around.

And now this.

Berkley was waiting for an answer and
no words would come out.

“
Earth to Salem. Didn’t you
hear me?” She paused for a nanosecond. “We’ll be able to take
driver’s ed. Together.” She said it like we’d just won all expense
paid tickets to Disney.

I crossed my arms and my posture
answered the question while my mouth remained silent. How do you
tell someone what she thinks is great, makes you want to lose your
lunch?

“
What’s the
matter?”

Again I thought – hard – and continued
to stand like I was made of alabaster.

“
Are you
breathing?”

The question did take me out of my
reverie and I took in a little too much air on the next
breath.

“
I was kidding. Salem, what
is wrong with you? Oh, wow, are you having some kind of vision or
something?” The way her eyes rounded she might have been taking in
a UFO.

I thought about it. Lying, that is.
Yeah, sure, I’m having a vision of doom and gloom and have to avoid
driver’s ed. at all costs. But I couldn’t do it to her so I told
the truth.