ability.
“Good evening!” she bellowed into the microphone and the crowd applauded. “Thank you all for joining me tonight. Spirit has been preparing for this occasion all day, and I am ready to pass along their messages,” she extended her arms toward the audience, “to you.”
Spirit. I snickered to myself, rolling my eyes. I hated that, always had. Having one all-encompassing, singular word to describe every soul to ever pass over, as if they had all combined to create just one entity on the other side of life. In my experience, the dead are just as unique and individual as they were alive, every one of them with their own personality.
“I will perform my readings first, and then I will allow a handful of questions. So, if you could all be very—” The woman stopped talking, her mouth hanging open and her hands frozen in mid-air. She turned soundlessly toward our section of the auditorium and pinned her eyes to where I sat, or so it seemed.
“I'm sorry,” she said, urgency in her tone as she grabbed the mic from its stand. “I'm feeling a pull in this direction and I cannot ignore it.”
I sat up straighter in my seat, while my heart pounded loudly in my ears, blending seamlessly with the static. She moved closer to the edge of the stage, until she was just a few rows away, and the closer she got, the louder their chatter became. Almost as if she were bringing more with her.
With a glance at Vinnie, I saw his curious trepidation, leaving its lines along his forehead and between his eyebrows. He didn’t say anything, only watched as Tracey Lambert came to stand at the very edge of the stage, looking out at the rows before her.
“There’s a woman coming through, a mother. She’s here for her son.” Her eyes bounced between every man sitting in those few rows. “Who here has lost a mother?”
“Um, my grandma—”
“No,” Tracey abruptly cut the guy off. “A mother looking for her son. Someone right here.” She made a circle with her hand. “Right in this area.”
Every man turned to look at each other with an odd blend of accusation and hope. Every one of them wanted so badly for it to be them, while also knowing deep down that it wasn’t.
Except for one.
“Raise your hand,” I hissed at Vinnie, all of a sudden excited at the prospect of this woman being the real thing.
“What? Hell no. Greyson lost his mom. Maybe it’s her—”
Tracey loudly sighed into the mic, putting a stop to Vinnie’s words. “Someone right here. She’s showing me pizza. Maybe someone loves pizza, someone owned a pizza place, or—”
“Our dad owns a pizza place,” I heard Zach call out from beside Vinnie.
Tracey seemed to deflate with her relief. “You’re brothers?” she asked, volleying a finger between Zach and Vinnie.
“Yes,” Zach answered, nodding while Vinnie continued to scowl with skepticism, his jaw clenched tight and his eyes narrow.
“There’s a sister, too. She’s showing me a J name.”
Zach looked at Greyson, wide-eyed and excited, before answering Tracey, “Yeah, our sister, Jenna.”
Tracey nodded happily. “Yes. Your mother is nodding. She’s very proud of the three of you and who you’ve become. Although …” She pursed her lips, shaking her head. “You’ve been troubled, the two of you. You,” she pointed to Zach, “have come to the other side, but you,” her finger moved to Vinnie, “you continue to struggle.”
All faces turned to Vinnie, including mine. He swallowed, then lifted his mouth in a forced half-smile. “Nah, I’m all good.”
“Your mother wants you to know you’re going to be fine, if you can fight temptation. That will be your downfall.”
He scoffed. “Good thing she doesn’t know anything about me.”
Tracey wasn’t perturbed by his snide comment. Instead, she smiled. “You will believe, sooner than you think.” Then, her eyes flicked toward mine, as she said, “Your mother likes her, by the way.”
My stomach twisted, hitting me with a relentless barrage of pangs. Not because she happened to elude to my secret, nearly leaving me uncovered and vulnerable. No, none of that was my reason for excusing myself and running to get some air.
This woman was the real deal, and she saw me.
***
We were nearly out of the theater, moving with a sea of new and old believers in the afterlife. Once we reached the door, I stopped abruptly, and Vinnie turned around.
“What’s up?”
“I just remembered I forgot something at my seat.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What?”
I released my lip that I’d