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CHAPTER SIX
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For this reading, I will need three things: quiet, time, and seclusion.
I called Mom the next morning and told her that I needed to take the day off from cleaning out the house.
Rachel had to work that day anyway, and I was still feeling a little queasy, so I was gonna stay home and get some rest, but I would see her tomorrow.
She understood and asked if I needed anything, and I told her that I just wanted to sleep for a while, so my phone would be off.
She told me to sleep well and call her in the evening.
When I got off the phone, Rachel laughed at me with fake admonishment and said, “You’re such a bad liar. You just lied to your mother, and you should be ashamed.”
She kissed me on her way out the door and told me to be careful and take lots of breaks. She understands the toll these visions can have on me sometimes, and that’s with people I don’t even know. It’s triple the toll when it’s someone you know and love, and a situation that we’re so close to.
I felt that familiar chaos when I first touched the mug, which meant either that there was a lot of information, it was jumbled, or both. I was preparing for whatever the mug presented to me.
My meditation space is just a soundproofed walk-in closet in the guest bedroom that serves as my home office.
I had a very comfortable pillow where I sat cross-legged in front of a small, low table in the middle of the room.
The light was dimmed and, on the table, sat a small incense burner with a cone of sandalwood incense smoldering slowly, and the mug that was still wrapped in the avocado-print tea towel.
I reached for the mug and dropped the sides of the towel to expose it fully. I knew that this was going to be intense, but stalling was not going to make it any better. I took a deep breath and grabbed the mug with both hands. The visions came easily and in rapid succession:
Sitting at the kitchen table: “God damn it, Guilia! How did you get to be so damn stupid? I told you no fucking sugar. How many times do I have to say it?!”
In the living room: “Here’s your coffee, John Robert.”
“Hmmmm, it will do, I guess.”
Standing in the kitchen: “You know, Guilia, I don’t know why I ever married you. It was the worst decision I have ever made. If I am going to be this miserable, then you will be, too.”
From across the room, I hear a younger version of Memaw, “Why don’t you divorce me if I make you so fucking miserable?’
Then his snide reply, “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? So you can play the little victim to everyone! Fuck You!”
Standing in the bathroom: “You have to have an abortion!”
“John Robert, that’s illegal and dangerous.”
Then him screaming back, “We don’t have enough money to have no fucking kid!!”
Standing at the back door: “My boss will be here tonight at 6. The house better be spotless, and supper better be good. Don’t wear that trashy dress that you like. Wear the long-sleeved one, and cover that black eye that you made me give you. Boss might take pity on you. Can’t be having that.”
Sitting in bed with a bed tray on his lap: “How did you like your breakfast, John Robert? Do you need anything else?”
“It’s fine. What the fuck did you do? Why the special treatment all of a sudden?”
“I didn’t do anything. Nothing is wrong, I just thought you would like a special treat. Can’t I try to do something nice for you, just because?”
Rapid movement down the hallway: “You are a fucking bitch! How dare you talk to Vivian like that? You had no right!”
“No right to talk to your whore, John Robert? Your whore who decided to come up to me and try to cause a fight? Fuck you and your whore!”
“You will regret ever being born. Send the girl to your parents.”
Sitting at the kitchen table: “Listen, David, this is none of your business. Guilia is in the hospital because she interfered where she shouldn’t have, and the girl is at your parents’ house.
Now, I don’t tell you how to handle your woman, so you don’t tell me how to handle mine.
I don’t give a shit if she is your little sister.
I will treat her how I want, and there is nothing you can do about it.
If she leaves or if you interfere in my house, I’ll just kill her and the girl and bury them so deep, you’ll never find them.
So why don’t you save two lives today and fuck off! ”
I took my hands from the mug and gathered my breath and my thoughts.
I was certain that David killed John Robert.
I knew it now. Evidently, no one else had witnessed their conversation, and David had killed him to save his sister and his niece.
I didn’t blame him. I would have done the same thing for sure.
The reading was draining, but not as bad as I had first thought it would be, though I was still thoroughly exhausted.
I put the incense out and stepped out of the closet and into the office.
The whole reading only took about twenty minutes, but it felt like I had spent five hours on a treadmill.
I went into the kitchen to get a large glass of water and a handful of chips.
Then, I collapsed onto the bed. I just wanted to close my eyes for a minute, and the next thing I know, Rachel was shaking me awake, “Yo Snoozy Smurf! Get up! It’s 6:30…
like 6:30 PM! How long have you been asleep? ”
“Holy shit, I slept all afternoon. I meditated after you left this morning and then examined the mug. I was so drained that I fell asleep immediately after. So see, I didn’t lie to Mom after all!
But, damn it, I’ll never be able to sleep tonight,” I said with my hands over my whole face.
I was still tired, so I hoped I would be wrong.
“Well, look at it this way,” Rachel soothed, “at least you don’t have to go back to work for another nine days. You’ll be back on schedule by then.” She said this while changing out of her scrubs and into shorts and a tank top.
Damn, my wife was sexy, even when she wasn’t trying to be.
I composed myself, “True, but I have to be back at the house tomorrow; I can’t skip out for two days. Mom also mentioned something about paperwork at the lawyer’s office tomorrow afternoon, and she’ll probably need me for that, too.”
The bad part about that, I had learned to despise lawyers, especially defense attorneys who bend the truth to set free the most vile people who have ever lived.
“Well, I don’t have to work tomorrow, so I’ll go with you.”
“Sweet,” I just smiled at her, just taking in her essence.
We threw together a quick supper of leftover chicken & broccoli bow tie salad, and what was left of the pizza, while watching some pirate movie.
We chatted about her day for a few minutes, and I decided that I was still definitely wiped out enough to sleep more. Then her curiosity overcame her: “You didn’t tell me, did you get out of the reading what you thought you would?
“Well, after vicariously enduring just for a few minutes what Memaw spent years enduring, I’m fairly certain that I’m on the right track in my thinking.
I believe David killed him. I witnessed an unbelievable conversation between the two of them, where John Robert openly threatened to kill both Memaw and Mom.
I couldn’t believe that David didn’t beat the shit out of him right then. ”