“What if I am?” I asked. “Would it make you happy?”
“Only if you can look me straight in the eye and tell me that you’ll listen with an open heart and mind.”
“Okay,” I yielded, widening my eyes, so she could see my intent, staring back at her. “I’m willing to listen, Mom.”
She studied my face in the dim room, making sure I wasn’t just pacifying a dying woman’s wish. Once convinced, she began. “It all started when I met Druzella.”
“And who is Druzella?” I asked, trying my darndest not to give into my pre-programmed cynical self.
“MadameDruzella is a medium I met at a spiritual retreat last year,” she announced.
“You’re joking,” I half gasped.
“Not in the least,” she confirmed.
Of course she wasn’t.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Mike
Ilistened to every word breathlessly uttered by Mom’s dry lips, and then I listened some more. In fact, I paid attention until six in the morning as my mother enlightened me with a tale so outrageous, an idea so flawed in its reasoning, that I was convinced she had once and for all slipped out of reality. The woman before me in the rented hospital bed was an imposter, a stand-in for the mother who used to be of sound mind. She admittedly had been a tad on the fringe of normalcy my entire life, but this story took the cake by a longshot.
“An exchange?” I asked myself, taking a moment to suspend my common sense. “You and Dad for Cooper? And lemme guess, Dad’s waiting for an answer?”
“Not waiting per se, but he’ll be open to the idea,” she explained.
“So we won’t know for sure until you evolve, is that the term you prefer?” I asked incredulously. “And then once you get there he has to agree with the plan?”
“Michael,” she admonished. “You said you’d listen.”
“I am,” I stated. “But this is someout-thereshit, Mom. Even you have to admit that what you’re saying has zero basis in science.”
“And neither do miracles, virgin births, spontaneous combustion, alien visitation, or a whole host of supernatural occurrences,” she defended as she fortified her stance. “What do you really have to lose, dear?”
“How about my freedom when they lock me up for losing my mind?”
“You won’t be here, Michael. I already told you that.”
I stared at her dumbfounded.“I won’t behere?”I muttered to myself, gazing at the floor as if it could respond to my question. I looked up at her. “Yeah, okay, I forgot that part. I’ll be in a different universe?” I asked because I still needed clarity.
“Yes. Exactly right,” she confirmed.
“And you and thisMadameDruzella know for a fact that I will be going to a universe where I already exist and Cooper is waiting?”
She nodded and raised her eyebrows. Even she knew it sounded like the rantings of a lunatic. “Bit much, huh?” she agreed.
“Yes, Mom. A bit much for sure.”
“But you’ll consider it?” she asked.
I nodded. Insane for sure, but why antagonize her about it? She knew how this all sounded. I went over the plan she’d laid out for the third time. “I wait precisely seven days. Drink the concoction at midnight and then . . . that’s it?” I asked. “Nothing more to do but those steps?”
“Just go to bed in your old room and be sure to open your mind. You have to believe and you have to want it to manifest. Other than that, you’ll be good,” she stated.
“What’s in the potion?”
“A few things, but dried marigold petals are the main active ingredient,” she answered. “You know, to attract the dead,” she added without hesitation. “And no,” she added after seeing my face. “Trace amounts of marigold petals are not toxic to humans. It can be to household pets, but not us.”
“So don’t give any to the cat across the street?” I asked, thinking of the creepy feline I’d seen three times now, wondering if it was cruel to think I might like to poison the fucking animal.
