Page 21 of Sort of Seeing Someone

“Now turn around in a circle. As you hit each direction on the compass, pause and invoke the spirit of...”

“Larry,” I remind her.

“…The spirit of Larry. Ask him to come into the room with positive energy and ask that any negative, stuck energy please exit.”

“I’m supposed toask Larrythis? Out loud?”

“Or in your head, either is fine. I’ll do it, too,” she says.

“What if he’s busy?”

Yasmin closes her eyes and begins to chant—no real words, just noises. I hope my neighbors don’t hear. I really don’t want their last memories of me to be that I may or may not have been part of a satanic cult.

“Okay,” she says, seemingly returning to the present. “I’m done. Are you done?”

“I’m very done,” I confirm.

Next thing I know, she pulls a pen out of her purse and proceeds to draw a star on the wall near the window.

“What are you doing? You can’t draw on the wall,” I say.

“You said they’re knocking the place down in three weeks. I’m pretty sure I could spray paint a giant penis if I wanted to. Besides, I need to mark that this room has been cleared to prevent the re-entry of negativity,” she says like she’s installing a necessary support beam.

“So did it work?” I ask, handing the smudge stick back to her.

“Well, do you feel better about sleeping in a death-house tonight?”

“I suppose I do,” I say.

“Then yes, it worked. You see, Moonie, rituals aren’t something you get can get a receipt for. They’re performed to help you visualize what you want. We wanted a house with no more weird death vibes. We got it. And we have the extra powers of a full moon to thank for that. Man, how do you have a name like Moonie andnotknow the powers of the moon?”

“My mom was a teacher. She taught me the importance of solving for X, not how to pray to the moon.”

“You think this is all a bunch of bull crap, don’t you?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Let me break it down for you. Every month, the moon travels the closest it can get to Mother Earth and showers us with light and yang energy. That’s a gift, Moonie! There’s no better time to pause and check-in with yourself. Purge anything that doesn’t serve you, let it go, and make space for the new. If I were you, with all this transition going on, I’d make the full moon my new best friend—along with these...”

Once again, Yasmin dips into her bag of tricks. This time, she pulls out two crystals and hands them to me.

“What are these?” I ask, masking my disappointment that they are not a couple of Xanax.

“Rose quartz and rutilated quartz. I carry them with me always.”

“Then why are you giving them to me?”

“Because you need them more than I do. Rose quartz is for healing. Whether you feel it now or not, losing your house, job, and boyfriend back-to-back-to-back is traumatic.”

Oh, I feel it now, honey.

“You’ll need to recover from that once the dust settles. Visualize the healing you need and want, then put it in your sports bra, and go for a run.”

“Arun? That’s ambitious. And what’s this one?” I feign interest.

“Rutilatedquartz. It’s for goal setting. See those little gold flecks in there? When you use that crystal, you charge it with the goal of what you want to accomplish. Then imagine the gold seeping into your body, flowing through your blood, prepping you for greatness from head to toe.”

“Stuff it in my sports bra?” I inquire.

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