“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing Berlina was right.
To my surprise, Ida smiled. “No worries. And to answer your question, no, I’m not pregnant.”
“Then why can’t you talk to Jackson about what’s troubling you?”
“Ask if it’s about her mother,” Berlina said, sitting down on my right side on the couch. She seemed far too interested in Ida.
“Is it about your mom?” I asked, and Ida’s eyes widened, then she did something surprising, she looked at Berlina, and then me.
“You can… you can hear her too?”
I gaped at her. “You’re a medium?!”
“Oh, this is just lovely!” Berlina clapped. “Sven!” she called.
“What?!” Sven snapped as he came into the room.
“We have another medium!” Berlina gushed.
Sven looked at Ida, then nodded and grunted his hello. I believed that was the best welcome Ida could get from him.
“Is that what’s troubling you?” I asked, focusing on Ida. If it was, we needed to talk it throughnow. And fast. Jackson couldn’t be here while we talked about it.
“It is.” Tears formed in Ida’s eyes and she sniffed. “I started hearing them first, around six months ago, and then… Then I saw them. I asked my mom if she could hear them, but she started worrying, threatening me that she would have me checked out. Apparently, hearing things wasn’t a thing sane people did.”
“Youaresane. You just got your abilities later in life,” I assured her.
“I got mine when I was twenty,” Berlina added helpfully. “I was freaked out too.”
“Wait?” Ida said, frowning. “You were a medium?”
Berlina nodded. “Me and Sven both.”
“Can you… can you help me?”
It broke my heart seeing Ida like this. It also explained why she was so tired looking. I was used to ghosts; she wasn’t. And it took some time getting used to feeling drained. It would get better for her, but yeah, it would take time.
“We will all help you. But not around Jackson.” That was my one condition. Jackson would do anything he could to help Ida out, but I wasn’t about to mess up his trauma.
“Deal,” she replied quickly. “Can I turn it off?” Her eyes were filled with hope and I hated that I would be the one erasing that.
“No,” Sven replied, surprising us all. “But you can ignore ghosts you don’t want to deal with. It takes practice, but you owe them nothing. If you want to help, then help, but no one will blame you if you don’t want to.”
“I… I want to. I just don’t know how.” She seemed terrified.
“I work as a medium, like Berlina and Sven did when they were alive. My mom is a medium too. If you want, I can ask her if she’ll help you? You can meet at her house so Jackson won’t overhear, and you’ll be safe with our ghosts there. All are friendly.”
“I would like that. She truly won’t mind?”
I shook my head and smiled at her. “No, I actually think she would be excited. I started my training when I was sixteen, so you’re the same age now as I was when I first got truly into being a medium. Oh, and Jackson believes I work for the FBI, something all us mediums have to say if we’re asked.”
She just blinked. “I need to sleep; all this information is just too much. I wasn’t even sure I was a medium until just now.”
“You thought your mom might’ve been right? That you needed professional help?”
She started tearing up again. “Yes. I felt so fucked up. That was why I left. The ghosts at home kept bothering me, demanding I look at them. That I help them. They weren’t all nice…”
“Ghosts are like they were when they were alive. Some people are assholes, and they continue to be assholes even when they’re dead. I’m sorry you had such a bad first experience with it,” Berlina said.
