CHAPTER FORTY-SIX Mike
“Nice to meet you, Druzella,” I said, extending my hand as I made my way to her. I wanted a closer examination of the woman who’d been involved in turning my life literally upside down and inside out. I wasn’t sure how to describe moving between cosmoses.
She rested her hand gently in my open palm. Her grip tightened as she gazed into my eyes. If you had asked me a month ago if we exchanged something unspoken during the handshake, I’d have laughed at the absurdity, but now?
“You’re an intuitive soul, young man,” she said, looking at Mom and nodding to confirm her assertion. Her free hand moved across my inner arm when she squeezed harder with the one holding my hand. “Very strong impulses,” she added.
“Strong willed,” Mom interjected. “Like his father.”
“Oh, yes,” Druzella agreed. “Your late husband’s spirit is inside this creature.” I gently tugged my hand back but she held tighter and wouldn’t release me. “You Cancer’s are a willful bunch, aren’t you?”
“I never mentioned that Michael was born under Cancer,” Mom said, looking from her mystical friend to me.
“You didn’t have to, Kathleen,” she purred. “I can spot someone born under the fourth sign immediately. He’s just like his mother.” She turned to Mom, not letting go of me. “Your son is sensitive and protective.”
“I’m not sure I believe in those things,” I admitted. “I get that Mom likes this stuff, but I’m harder to convince.”
As soon as I spoke I had an electrical sensation flow through me. Mom picked up on it too and grabbed Druzella’s arm, linking all three of us.
“That’s not true, child,” she stated, surprising me when she called me out so easily. “You and your mother share a powerful astrological sign for sure, but I’m sensing a trinity.” Her eyes closed suddenly.
I quickly looked at Mom and made a face that said what the fuck is this?
“Druzella?” Mom whispered.
Druzella’s eyes popped open. “But your departed husband is not Cancer, Kathleen.” Mom shook her head, confirming Dad wasn’t. “But there exists a trinity? There is a bond within this trinity that involves some kind of jewels,” Druzella murmured.
What the . . . ? She knew about the ring and the three rubies in the setting.
And then as if she’d been jolted by an unseen power, she jumped back and released my hand. Her eyes widened while she studied me closely, her eyes darting between Mom and me.
“Are you okay, Madame Druzella,” I asked, fearing her head was about to spin three hundred and sixty degrees.
All color faded from her face in an instant. “Where did you hear that name?” she asked.
Mom turned her attention to me. “Michael?”
“I’m not sure,” I lied. “I just said it.” Apparently neither of them were aware that Mom referred to her as Madame in the future. Maybe she’d earned a certificate? How the hell would I know?
“Who are the three Cancers in this household?” Druzella demanded. “And I need to see the cat?”
“We don’t have a cat,” Mom clarified slowly. “And it’s just Michael and I that live here, Druzella. What’s wrong?”
“That cannot be so,” she said, eerily looking around the space and clutching a necklace I hadn’t noticed until it was in her hand being handled like a rosary. The piece she held was a circle with a sun in the center with the astrological signs going around the circle’s edges like a clock.
“His name is Cooper,” I said. “He doesn’t live here but he comes over often.”
She turned to Mom. “Like a son to you.” And then toward me “Like a brother to you,” she stated calmly. “But not quite,” she added, slightly grinning.
“Do you sense danger?” Mom asked.
“Not at all, dear, but there is a force at work in this house,” she announced.
Now normally I would chalk this up to crazy talk. Mom and Druzella, Mom’s potions and her books, their shared spiritual interests and stuff, but I had a different point of view now. I was smack in the middle of crazy. In fact, I was the duly elected mayor of Crazy Town.
“Have I spoken to you about the transitory aspect?” Druzella asked Mom.
I became interested in what Mom’s friend asked and slid into a chair, waiting for Mom to answer the question.
“Is that when a planet moves into position with the location that another planet had on the day you were born?” Mom asked.
Druzella snapped her fingers. “Precisely,” she stated. “The locations of the planets at the moment of your birth are recorded and calculated as part of your astrology chart.”
“Cooper and I share a birth date,” I contributed. “Mom, him and I are all Cancers.” I had a gazillion questions and figured I should tamp down my sudden interest in what this unusual woman was speaking about. “You know, if it matters.”
Her face changed and the alteration was hard to describe. Fearful, grave, dread. Those were words that came to mind.
“There is another commonality,” she began, setting her gaze on me. “But the shared event isn’t about birth.”
“What is it?” Mom piped up, her voice laced with fear.
Druzella grabbed both of our hands. “This Cooper, where does he live?” she asked.
Mom and I simultaneously pointed at the picture window and toward Cooper’s house.
She focused her attention on me, her eyes rolling into her head. “You and Cooper were born on the same day,” she began, turning to Mom, her eyes popping open. “And you and Cooper share . . .” She let go of our hands suddenly and pulled back from us.
A death date. She knew.
I had to change the conversation before things got weirder. “Can I ask you about parallel universes?” I asked.
Mom, who had been entranced with her friend’s words, spoke up. “You’re still interested in that, Michael? I’m sorry, honey, but I keep forgetting to bring home the books from the library.”
“Do you know anything about parallel universes?” I asked Druzella. “How they work, are they connected with astrology or birthdays? Stuff like that?”
“Umm, not really my area of expertise, young man,” she stated.
“Really?” I asked. “You seem like you’d know about that stuff. I mean, you’re so interested in those types of things. Right, Mom?”
“Well, honey, Druzella is experienced in many things but perhaps that subject is not an area she delves into seriously,” Mom said. “I’ll get you some books.”
The discussion got quiet as we looked from one another, checking on whether anyone had another topic.
Druzella was gathering her things and pushing her chair away from the table.
A minute before there had been tarot cards, a star map, and some small metallic pieces depicting stars and moons arranged on the table.
What I needed was a fucking map home before I blew my cover.
“I think I should leave,” Druzella said. She checked her wrist for the watch that was buried between twenty bracelets. “Yes, it is getting late,” she added. “Thank you, Kathleen.. We’ll finish your reading another time.”
I wasn’t prepared to give up so easily. This exotic woman knew things I needed to know and I wanted answers. But how to get them?
“Don’t go so soon, Druzella,” Mom said. “How about staying for dinner?”
By then Druzella was standing and slinging her bag of goodies over shoulder.
“Great idea, Mom,” I encouraged.
Druzella was already heading for the living room, steps from the front door. “No thanks,” she said, scurrying away in a hurry.
“Wait up,” I said, rushing to get the door for her. I turned to Mom. “I’ll walk your friend to her car, Mom. Be right back.”
I followed Druzella down the sidewalk, struggling to keep pace with her. “Are you coming back soon?” I asked. “I’d really like to talk to you about parallel universes.”
She stopped abruptly and turned around so fast that I nearly bumped into her.
She grabbed my hand and stared into my eyes for what seemed an eternity.
I was uncomfortable and felt a chilling sensation come over her.
Her hands were ice cold even though it was eighty degrees outside in late June and she was covered in layers of colorful clothes.
“How long have you been here?”
Her question floored me and I felt the rush of fire burning across my face. But how to answer her question was my biggest concern. Currently, nothing was normal in my life, so why should this exchange be any different?
“My whole life?” I answered in the form of a question in case she hadn’t noticed me following her out the door.
“How long this time?” she asked, reframing her question.
I froze. How should I answer? Did she actually know?
“I’m . . . well, I’m not quite sure what you mean,” I stammered.
“I think you do,” she stated.
Oh, I did alright, but I wouldn’t admit to something this insane to a person I’d just met, even if it was the illustrious Madame Druzella from 2023.
“You’re what, seventeen or eighteen?” she asked, studying me.
I nodded.
“But not actually, am I correct?”
I didn’t respond.
“You’re going to make me say it?”
I nodded again. Better her than me. I no longer thought she was nuts, but she didn’t know that.
“I cannot pinpoint your precise age, young man, but you’re no teenage boy. Your aura is far too mature to fool me. Is your mother buying this version so far?”
What do I say?
“So,” I began, revealing nothing. “Do you know anything about parallel universes?”
She stepped closer so that her face was inches from mine, glancing toward the front window in case Mom was watching. “I know you don’t fuck around in them. How about that?”
“Helpful. Direct,” I stated.
“You seem like a wise man, Michael,” she said. “So listen closely.”
I held my breath out of fear that I may have already fucked around in this dimension.
“Do what you came to do and then stop tinkering; or better yet, leave.”
“That’s where you come in, Madame Druzella,” I asserted. “I don’t know how to go back.”
“You’re barking up the wrong tree, my celestial friend.”
“But I’m not,” I stated. “You’re the one that sent me here.”