“Is that why this is happening to me? Do the spirits want me to help them finish their business?”Wait, that sounds wrong.
Her grandmother laughed. “I knew what you meant.”
“Ack! You can read my mind?”
“Only if you project your thoughts, as if you want them heard.”
Shit. This is weird.
“Not really. We’re connected in a different way. Our souls communicate with each other in the spirit world.”
“Is that where I am? In the spirit world?”
“No. You’re in a therapist’s office.”
Well, duh.Her grandmother didn’t comment. Either because she didn’t hear what Mallory didn’t want her to hear…or she forgave that particular thought.
“I’m glad you’re here, Grams. I have so many questions. But cutting to the chase, is there a way to stop the spirits I don’t know from bothering me? Or can you tell me how to tell real people from the spirits?”
Suddenly, she was alone.
“Grams?” No one answered. “Grams? Can you come back?”
Again, there was no answer. Maybe her grandmother would have crossed some kind of line if she told her more. Maybe she’d already crossed a line and was dragged off by the heaven police.Shit, Mallory. You sound nuts now.Or more nuts than usual.It was time to come out of this trance and make sense of what she’d been told.
She raised her hand.
* * *
Dante arrived five minutes before the hour, and the door to the inner office was open.They’re done already?He peeked in.
“Ah, Mr. Fierro. Come in. We were waiting for you. Have a seat.”
Dante entered and sat in the empty chair. “Is everything all right?” He glanced at his watch. “I thought I was early.”
“Yes, everything’s fine,” the therapist said. “We had a breakthrough today. I’d like to see her again, but she wanted to speak to you first.”
Mallory squirmed in her seat as if she couldn’t wait to tell him what happened—or get out of there. He wasn’t sure which.
“I’ll let Mallory share with you what she wants you to know.”
“First off, I’m not crazy!”
Dante laughed. “I didn’t think you were.”
“Well, you were more certain of that than I was.”
Dante waited, then prompted her to go on. “What else?”
“I found out the spirit world is real, and I’m talking to souls that haven’t moved on.”
“Wow! Thatisa breakthrough.” He wondered how this new information came to her, but following the therapist’s lead, he was letting her tell him what she wanted him to know.
She frowned. “Unfortunately, my grandmother left before I could understand the difference between a real human and an uncrossed-over soul.”
“So, you had a chat with your grandmother?”
“Oh yeah.” She slapped herself upside the head. “My Grams showed up and told me what was happening.”
