A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,69
can arrange to visit him too. I wanted you to see how other mind witches use their talents as part of their life and work. I know it troubles you, thinking about how all this will fit with who you are back in Chicago.”
Lauren shrugged. “It’s still all so new, and it seems like there aren’t any clear rules for when and how to use what I have. I’ve never been someone who wanted a complicated life.”
“It doesn’t need to be all that complicated, although it may take you a little while to find simple again. Come meet my friend Tabby, and see what her answers have been.”
“She works on Sundays?”
“Not usually, but some of her children need quiet, so she does special sessions with them outside of normal working hours.”
“What kind of center is this?”
“Tabby helps families—in particular, the families of children with special needs. When a child is born different, it can cause all kinds of cracks in how families love and communicate and function. She helps repair the cracks.”
“I guess witches would understand a little bit about being born different.”
Jennie hugged Lauren’s shoulders. “I guess we do.”
The door to the center opened, and a model-gorgeous woman came out. This must be Tabby. “Jennie, so good to see you! I felt you arrive.” She gave Jennie an enthusiastic hug and turned to clasp Lauren’s hands. “I’m Tabitha, and I’m so delighted to meet you. Please, come in. I’ve been guarding some chocolate donuts for us.”
They followed her into the center. They entered a large room, but instead of feeling like a warehouse, it more resembled a honeycomb. Furniture, plants, low walls, and shelves all combined to create a comforting warren of small spaces and child-sized play areas, feeding into a larger central space. A little boy spun happily in the center of the room.
“That’s Jacob,” Tabitha said. “Spinning is one of his favorite things.”
“Why?” Lauren asked.
Tabitha gestured toward some low pillows. “Why don’t you look and see?”
“Look in his head? Is that okay?”
“Yes. The parents and families we work with know we use unorthodox means to understand their children. In particular, they know I have some empathic skills. Children with special needs are often very difficult for their families to understand. If we can discover a little about what their child wants and needs and feels, it helps to build stronger connections.”
That made sense. Lauren looked over at the spinning boy and his parents sitting nearby. She dropped into her mind center and carefully reached out a light connection toward the boy.
She could feel his frenetic joy as he spun. The air on his fingers, the heaviness of his head, the blur of colors. When he stumbled and fell, his entire being soaked in the pleasure of firm attachment to the ground. As that sensation faded, he bounded up to spin again.
“It anchors him to the earth, the spinning,” she said.
Tabitha looked surprised. “Tell me more about that.”
“Well, when he spins, he likes the sensations it gives him—the wind and colors, the way the spinning pulls on his body.”
Tabitha nodded. “That matches what I pick up from him.”
“Then when he falls, he has this moment where he feels the ground under him really strongly. That’s his happiest moment. When that sensation of being anchored down starts to fade, he spins again.”
Tabitha looked surprised. “You’re a sensory telepath as well as empath?”
Jennie smiled. “She is, and very sensitive on both.”
“Well, she’s figured out something I couldn’t.” Tabitha turned to Lauren. “My mind talents are primarily empathy, so I can catch his feelings. I don’t have telepathic gifts, so I can’t see the images or words or sensations that go along with the feelings.”
Lauren tried to imagine what she’d get from the little boy’s mind if she could only read his feelings. “So you have to try to piece together the ‘why’ behind the feelings you pick up.”
Tabitha looked pleased. “Exactly. In this case, I can sense his pleasure peaking right after he falls, but I thought it was from the falling, and that’s why he gets up to spin again.”
“It could be.” Lauren shook her head slowly. “But I don’t think so. There’s this really clear moment, right after he falls, when he senses the ground under him. He gets up again when it fades—I think that’s why he spins. Does he spin a lot?”
“Almost the entire time he’s awake,” Tabitha said.
It was dizzying to even think about. Lauren looked at Jacob again. Suddenly what had seemed like fairly