Page 68 of Pucker Up
“Isn’t that something.” Mom continued juicing. For someone who claimed she could see the future, she seemed to be barely holding on to the present. “Your boy seems nice. He loves you.”
“Mom.” I gasped. “We’ve just started dating.”
She shrugged and handed me a glass of bright green sludge that looked more like algae than juice. “What does time have anything to do with it? Time is an illusion, Marigold.”
The juice tasted as gross as it looked. “Have you had celery juice before?” She must have noticed that I cringed every time I took a sip.
I shook my head.
“Make sure you’re near a bathroom. It can be a little…interesting for newbies.”
The straw gurgled as I finished the last of the drink. “That’s something you could have told me before I choked down this whole glass.”
Mom sat on the sofa with her own glass of juice. “It’s good for you, Marigold. It looks like you could use a few nutrients. Your refrigerator looks like it was stocked by a fasting monk doing penicillin experiments.”
She wasn’t wrong. I had been neglecting myself lately. “I’ve been very busy with my study.”
“Sit down, dear. Tell me all about it.” She patted the sofa next to her. I plopped down and she draped her arm over my shoulder. I crinkled my nose; her patchouli deodorant had given up the ghost hours earlier.
“You still haven’t told me how you got into my place.”
“Oh.” She pointed to the window. “I broke in. You really need to work on your security if a fifty-year-old woman can crawl through your kitchen window.”
“What are you doing here, Mom?” I was tired, and all I wanted to do was curl up in my bed and take a nap. “Do you need money or something?” The last time she’d rolled through town, it was to see if I wanted to donate to her commune.
“That makes me sad, Marigold. No, I don’t need any money. I’m doing just fine. I came because you need your mother. You’re having visions now, aren’t you?”
I stiffened. Of course, Mom knew. She had been telling me for years that I was going to follow in her footsteps. I wasgrateful it hadn’t started sooner. “I was, but I’m not anymore.” I hated admitting that I knew what she was talking about.
She shifted on the sofa so she could face me. Taking my hands in hers, she stared into my eyes. I tried to look away, but she let go of my hand to grab my chin and maneuver my face back to look at her. “Goldie, don’t be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid, Mom,” I shouted. “I’m embarrassed.”
“Oh.” She was the one who looked away this time. “Why are you ashamed of something so special, Marigold?”
Morton must have heard my outburst because he came over to sit by my feet. I let go of Mom’s hand to rest one on my dog. “I don’t believe in any of that stuff.”
Mom nodded. “If you tell yourself that long enough, you will lose it. Right now, there’s still time for you to harness it, and build it into something beautiful.”
“Yeah, like you did?”
Fern squeezed my hand. “I deserve that. I’m here now, Goldie.” Her voice had lowered to a whisper. “Don’t be scared. Tell me what you saw.”
If there ever was a time to get answers, it was now. I sighed. “It’s only happened with Ace and his brother, Gideon. I saw Ace scoring a goal in a hockey game.” I left out the next vision, the x-rated one. “It happened again, and I saw him do this trick shot.”
“The Michigan.”
“Yes.” I furrowed my brow. Mom didn’t know what icing was, and now she was naming off trick shots? “The Michigan.”
“What about the brother?”
I relaxed into the sofa. The conversation was exhausting. “I saw the reason why he hates his brother.”
“Mmm.” Mom nodded and took a sip of her juice.
“I also saw something weird. When I shook Gideon’s hand, it went dark and these lights blared at me. I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at.” Until that moment, I’d forgotten aboutthe dark vision with the weird fluorescent lights. I explained it to Fern and she was equally confused. “There’s another thing,” I added. “Every time I touched Ace, I felt like he was giving me a shock. My hands would tingle, and I saw…what I saw. Now, nothing is happening. There’s no shock or tingle or vision. It’s a relief.”
Fern smiled. “Goldie, everyone is different, and you’re going to have to figure out your own unique skills. However, I’ve learned that you can’t see things with people you genuinely love. When I was with your father, I couldn’t see anything to do with him. When we fell out of love, I saw everything, and it wasn’t pretty.”
