6
The CD played static for a few moments before a gentle Cornish female voice kicked in.
‘Hello Sarah, my name’s Madame Louisa. It’s the twenty-second of April. Your friend, Mandy, has asked me to do a reading for all her friends as a memento for her eighteenth birthday. It will be a general reading covering the next ten to fifteen years.’
‘Oh my God.’ I pressed the pause button. ‘It’s the clairvoyant CD. But I lost it. How the hell…?’
Elise looked as shocked as I felt. ‘We trashed Mandy’s house and yours looking for that.’
‘I know! So how did it get in there?’
‘What is it?’ Clare asked. ‘Did you say clairvoyant?’
‘Yes.’
‘From when you were eighteen?’
‘Yes.’
Clare rubbed her hands together. ‘This should be interesting. And who’s this Mandy? I’ve never heard you mention her.’
‘She was a friend at college but we lost touch. She had this clairvoyant party. Her mum was into stuff like that. We’d been drinking cocktails all evening and, by the time I went in, the room was spinning. I had my reading, came out, fell over, threw up and my dad had to collect me. The next day I couldn’t remember a thing aboutmy reading. We’re talking major alcohol blackout here, but I figured it was no problem because I had a CD. Only the CD had gone missing and remained missing until right now.’
Clare sighed. ‘Things don’t just disappear then re-appear. You obviously didn’t look hard enough and?—’
‘But we did,’ I protested.
‘Obviously not,’ Clare said. ‘Let’s hear it then.’
‘I don’t know if I want to.’
Clare raised her eyebrows at me questioningly.
‘She said the reading would cover ten to fifteen years. It’s twelve years on now. What if she predicts bad things are about to happen?’
She shuffled her bum round so she could lean against the wardrobe and face Elise and me. ‘Or, what if she just comes out with an absolute pile of crap? I know what I’ll be betting on.’
‘What do you think?’ I asked Elise.
‘You never know till you try,’ Elise said. ‘There’s always the eject button if you don’t like what you hear.’
I looked from one eager face to the other, my two best friends united in opinion for once, but I still hesitated. What if she said I was going to contract an incurable disease aged thirty-and-a-half? What if she said the biggest mistake I ever made was taking over Seaside Blooms and I’d end up homeless and bankrupt? And what if she said I was never going to meet Mr Right or that I’d already met him and let him slip through my fingers? Andy perhaps?
‘I don’t know,’ I said eventually.
Clare sighed. ‘Jesus, Sarah. What’s the worst that could happen?’
‘That’s what I’m worried about.’ A flashback hit me. ‘Uncle Alan,’ I gasped. ‘I spoke to him.’
‘You did what?’ Clare asked.
‘When I came out of the reading, I told everyone I’d spoken to him.’
‘I remember that,’ Elise said. ‘But you didn’t tell anyone what he said…’
‘And I couldn’t remember the next day.’
‘Well, now’s your chance to find out,’ Clare said.
