Little Red Gem Read Online Free PDF Page B

He
senses things other cats don’t.”
    Sneaking a look behind, in
case I’d accidentally let in a snarling, rabid hellhound, I saw
nothing to cause the cat to act so violently toward me. The insult
stung; animals usually adored me. To add further insult, the cat
stuck its head out a box and let forth a series of meows from deep
within hell’s bowels, warning me to stay away. I’d have been stupid
to ignore the hint, so I gave Oleander a wide berth again, almost
crashing into shelves and display counters to follow Teri across
the swirly-patterned carpet, passed shelves of candles, crystals,
and fairy figurines, and finally through velvet drapes of the
deepest purple.
    She stopped and pointed to
a chair. Obediently, I sat down. Teri stayed standing. Her eyes
traveled over my face, my hair, my clothes. I took in Teri’s
slept-in hair, her brightly colored dress, her sandals adorned with
jewels and shells. Our eyes met somewhere in the middle. With a
frown, she honed her wizard-stare on my crumpled dress and I
inhaled sharply at the critique. She’d have resembled a dishcloth,
too, if she’d suffered my bad breakup.
    Teri continued staring
until it finally dawned on me that she was looking for payment. I
reached into the tiny pocket of my dress and pulled out the
folded-in-quarters gift certificate. Teri took little notice of it,
so I smoothed out the piece of paper and slipped it along the
tablecloth and wedged it under the crystal ball.
    Little by little she eased
into the chair on the opposite side of the table.
    “ Are you comfortable?” she
asked.
    I nodded. The small back
room was neither hot nor cold. She ran her hands along the fabric,
smoothing the cloth as though she was avoiding eye contact. She’s nervous! This only
confirmed that coming here was a huge waste of my time.
    “ Can I get you something
to drink?” she said, and immediately laughed it off. “Of course you
don’t want anything. What am I saying?”
    Okay, so she could read
minds; I wasn’t thirsty. But I told myself not to be too impressed.
The number of choices in that area wasn’t that
exhaustive.
    “ Do you have a specific
question you’d like to know the answer to?” Teri asked, gliding her
fingers over the crystal ball and sneaking a look at me from
beneath her long lashes.
    “ Ummm, not really. This is
my first reading.”
    Hardly fair to lure me
here only to give me one question, though. Still, I only needed the
answer to one question, didn’t I?
    Maybe Teri could tell me
what Leo couldn’t.
    From the corner of my eye
a familiar face popped into view. Audrey Adams. We weren’t friends
but I knew her. She was the clairvoyant’s daughter. She was also my
half-sister.
    My father, David Parker
and well-known, wealthy portrait painter, was Audrey’s father. Dad
had left me and my mom when I was two years old. The memories were
vague, but my mom told me I’d cried nonstop and that I wouldn’t
accept her cuddles or kisses for weeks. He’d moved in with Teri
Adams, who’d speedily become pregnant with Audrey. They’d married
and Audrey and I had spent the next eight years playing happy
sisters every alternate week, which, according to Mom, only
exacerbated my temper tantrums. Not long after Audrey’s tenth
birthday, however, my dad flew to Japan to put on an art
exhibition. While there, he fell in love with the curator, a tiny
raven-haired beauty who went by one name – Mishi – and he started a
new phase of his illustrious career. Teri had resorted to her
maiden name, Mom had made snide remarks about how the psychic
hadn’t seen that one coming, and Audrey and I had no more reason to
hang out.
    Teri smiled and seemed to
relax a little. “I can give you a general reading. The first
readings are often the most informative. I’ll begin with tarot
cards, unless you’d rather I start with numerology or
astrology.”
    “ Whatever.”
    “ Or, if you’d rather I
exchange the reading for something else, I’d be happy to