Dark Before Dawn (11 page)

They climbed the steps into a living room that held the invisible tinge of cigarette smoke. Jamie tossed her bag onto a fake leather couch. A chest of drawers had been built into the wood paneling, one drawer hanging out partway, revealing a stack of dishes.

Dawn squeezed into the narrow dinette, where an oven, microwave, toaster and refrigerator cluttered the cramped quarters. She floundered for a compliment. "This is cool. I’ve never been inside a trailer before."

Jamie grabbed a half-eaten bowl of soggy Cheerios off the table and dropped it into the sink. "Don’t worry, I know it’s lousy," she said flatly. "Come on, let’s do the makeover."

She and Dawn barely fit into the bathroom to experiment with the new makeup. Jamie sat on the toilet lid while Dawn hovered over her, rubbing blush across her friend’s cheeks.

"This looks great," Dawn said. "I want to trim your hair, too."

"Sure you don’t want a nose ring?" Candace called from Jamie’s bedroom. "How about a belly button ring? I know a guy who can pierce you cheap."

Jamie laughed, more relaxed than she had seemed earlier. "If my mother hadn’t gotten my ears pierced when I was a baby, I wouldn’t have even done that."

As Dawn was penciling green eyeliner under her friend’s lashes, the front door banged shut.

"Jamie? Jamie, where are you?" called a strident voice. "I've got tons of groceries."

"Oh, no. That's my mother." Jamie hopped up from the toilet and stashed the supplies under the sink as if they’d been shooting heroin instead of doing a makeover. She flew out to the living room, Dawn and Candace close behind.

Jamie's mother hoisted a paper bag into the trailer, her high heels clicking across the linoleum. She could have been a teenager herself with her long bleached strawberry blonde curls, tight red sweater and denim miniskirt, until Dawn saw the hard lines of her face. Candace stepped back, bumping into Dawn.

"Well, well, well," drawled Jamie’s mother, stubbing out her cigarette in the ashtray. "You have company. What's the occasion?"

"These are my friends, Dawn and Candace. This is my mother, Pauline."

Pauline peered into her daughter's eyes and chortled. "Are you wearing makeup? I don't believe it. Who's the guy?"

Jamie busied herself inspecting the contents of a paper bag. "There's no guy. I just want to look better."

"Since when? I've been telling you to do something with yourself for years." Pauline shook her head at Dawn and Candace.

Dawn wanted to yank off Pauline's glossy red fake fingernails. Candace stirred beside Dawn. Evidently, they shared the same thoughts.

Pauline lifted a package of Doritos out of a paper bag, sweater creeping up from her skirt, showing off her belly button. She piled beer bottles, cigarettes and Wonder Bread on the table. "Come on, Jamie, get the rest of the stuff. Don’t expect me home early. I’ve got a date."

Ten minutes later, Pauline’s sedan squealed out of the parking lot. Jamie collapsed on the couch in exhaustion. "Sorry. At least she didn’t stay long."

Dawn picked up a box of cigarettes from the cushion and absently flipped it back and forth. Something had been hammering at the fringes of her memory. "You know something? Your mother reminds me of my grandmother. I’ve only met her once, but my mom’s told me about her."

Now Dawn understood why her mother obsessed about her having a carefree life full of friends. But at the same time, having a difficult childhood should have made her more tolerant of a daughter who didn’t fit in.

"Serina's right. Just because you share the same blood doesn't make someone family." Candace squeezed beside Jamie on the sagging couch.

"How did I survive without you guys?" Jamie asked. "And Serina."

"Serina saved me, too," Candace said. "I don't know what I'd do without her."

Dawn knew she should join in, but somehow their devotion worried her. Serina had gained their utmost loyalty. Candace and Jamie would do anything for their mentor. Dawn didn't know why that bothered her. But it did.

Chapter Nine

T
he next afternoon, the girls waited in the foyer as Serina finished with a client. Dawn sometimes forgot Serina ran a business as she reserved so much time just for them.

Jamie peered through the sheer curtain into the sitting room. "He's totally good-looking," she whispered.

"Too sleazy for me," Dawn murmured back.

The man looked like a Wall Street bigwig with his pinstriped gray suit, silk tie and gold Rolex. His black BMW took up most of the driveway. Either he knew his stuff, or Serina had steered him right more than once.

"He's been coming to Serina for financial advice every month since she opened," Candace said in a low tone. "He's got a crush on her."

"Every month?" Dawn asked. "Isn’t that a little much?"

They heard the rustle of movement, chairs pushed back, people rising. "How about dinner, Serina?" the man asked.

Candace pretended to gag.

"You know I don't get personally involved with clients," Serina answered with a laugh.

"Come on, we can get married, go to Las Vegas and hit the Roulette tables. With you on my side, we'll walk out with millions."

"Then what?" Her voice sounded light, flirting, not like Serina at all.

"We'll go to Bermuda and live on a yacht."

"Sorry, I'd better stay your consultant. I don't like boats."

He sighed. "I'll keep trying. You're my good luck charm, after all."

The client winked at Dawn on the way out. He was a hunky blond in his late thirties with the tan of a California surfer. "Convince her for me, ladies. Maine gets cold in the winter."

"We’ll try!" Jamie called after him.

Dawn stared at his retreating back. A cute successful guy wanted to date a psychic? Maybe there was hope for her own social life after all.

They gathered in the next room, Dawn and Jamie drifting to the loveseat and Candace to the meditation chair. Serina wrapped her tarot cards in a black silk cloth and slid them in her antique wooden box.

"Does that guy really come every month?" Dawn asked. "Isn’t that being too dependent on you?"

"Of course not," Serina said. "He simply realizes the benefit of spiritual guidance."

Dawn hoped she wasn’t offending Serina, but curiosity made her plunge ahead. "Wouldn’t once or twice per year be enough? If he sees you every single month, it’s like he’s afraid to make decisions himself."

"Dawn, let me be blunt. It isn’t easy making your living as a psychic. If someone wants to see you every month, you take the money. Then everybody’s happy." Serina smiled, softening the edge to her words.

Dawn nodded, unconvinced. Wasn’t it a psychic’s responsibility to offer what she saw or felt, while helping people trust their
own
intuition?

"That man was gorgeous," Jamie said. "Why don't you go out with him?"

Serina chuckled as she got up and poured herself a cup of tea. "If it doesn't work out, then I'll lose one of my best customers."

"Don't you get lonely? Don't you want to get married?"

"I prefer being self-sufficient. Perhaps soon you'll have guys begging for a date, too. Your new makeup and haircut is flattering."

Jamie did look better, Dawn thought. Her shoulder-length locks fell with more life now that she was using styling mousse and the right shampoo. Coppery lipstick, blush and a shimmer of eye shadow brightened her pale face. Unfortunately, the acne medication hadn’t worked miracles, but Jamie had blended foundation and a cover-up stick like Dawn advised.

She needed a new wardrobe, though, her shapeless sweater deflating the effects of the makeover. Dawn would have lent her clothes, but Jamie was skinnier and shorter.

Jamie pushed back her hair. "Dawn and Candace helped."

"I'm glad to see you're working as a team." Serina leaned beside Dawn on the arm of the loveseat, cradling her cup. Dawn angled her legs slightly in the other direction, the fragrance of Serina’s rose perfume impregnating the air. It smelled pleasant enough, but it was too close, infringing on Dawn’s space.

"I understand Candace and Dawn paid a visit to your home," Serina was saying to Jamie.

"It's not much of a home, but yeah," Jamie said.

"Candace says your mother doesn't deserve a daughter like you."

"She's not all bad. She's just..."

"Selfish," Candace cut in. "It's okay to say it."

"You can love your mother, she brought you into the world, but you don't have to be grateful for more than that," Serina said. "You don’t need her approval. Know that when she disappoints you, we'll be here."

Hair bristled on Dawn’s arms. Serina sounded like a cult leader. Dawn struggled to quiet her thoughts so Serina or Candace didn’t pick up on them.

"I'm glad you're seeing each other's different environments. You'll appreciate one another more." Serina changed to her teaching voice. "Today, we're going to talk about chakras, spiraling energy centers on your etheric body. We have seven chakras leading from the base of our spine to the top of our heads. Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘wheel,’ and an imbalance in one of these energy centers will cause disharmony on body, mind, spirit and emotional levels."

Serina hopped off the armrest and crossed over to her table in the corner. Involuntarily, Dawn exhaled. Although the perfume scent lingered, the room seemed bigger without Serina parked beside her.

"The most important chakra to you girls is the sixth chakra, or the third eye," Serina said, setting down her tea. "It’s the point between the eyebrows in the center of the forehead. Its development brings about clairvoyant abilities because this chakra is the center for intuition and the link from which we perceive the higher planes. Dawn, you’ve never received guidance on how to use your clairvoyance efficiently so I’m sure you have imbalances. Physical symptoms of a blocked sixth chakra might include headaches, blurred vision and eyestrain."

"I get a lot of headaches. Eyestrain, too." Dawn sat poised on the edge of the cushion, re-energized. This sounded far more important than anything she had ever learned in school. More important than anything she had learned her entire life.

She still wasn’t sure she fully trusted Serina, or understood why this woman took such an interest in three teenage girls, but now more than ever, Dawn knew that she needed to be here. Where else would she have the opportunity to study with a master? Serina’s motives might be unclear, but her expertise was obvious.

"Once you get the sixth chakra into balance, you won’t have that problem anymore and you’ll be in much better control of your abilities," Serina was saying.

"How do you get it balanced?" Jamie asked.

Serina reached inside her wooden chest and paused with her hand in its womb. "One way is through crystals, which can allow you to reach higher spiritual levels during meditation. They magnify your own personal energy by focusing and connecting it with universal power. Candace has hers already, but Dawn and Jamie, I have a gift for you." She pulled out two pairs of shiny star earrings set in sterling silver, exactly like Candace's. The blue gems glittered, winking as if they knew a deep secret.

"I want you to wear these," Serina said, bringing one set to Jamie and the other to Dawn. "Crystal earrings worn on both sides of the head will help to balance the left and right sides of the brain, as well as open the third eye. If you all wear them at the same time, you’ll be united in strength."

Dawn removed her own gold studs and fastened the new pair onto her lobes. The stars dangled, brushing against her cheeks. She touched one, heat radiating through her fingers.

"These are beautiful," Jamie said. "What type of stones are they?"

"Lapis Lazuli," Serina said. "It’s a stone of total awareness that stimulates emotional, mental and physical clarity and enhances the third eye. It’s valuable for developing self acceptance. The Afghanistan Lapis has been likened to the night sky bedecked with stars, promoting a connection between the physical plane and the celestial kingdom. I chose crystals shaped like stars as a reminder. Indigo blue is also the color associated with the sixth chakra, so a gem like lapis is particularly stimulating."

"It’s funny you picked that," Dawn said. "Our school logo is the Blue Stars."

"Ah, more synchronicity," Serina said with a hint of mysteriouness, and Dawn wasn’t sure whether her teacher had known about the logo or not. "Now you’ll always remember that no matter what those kids say about you, you’re special."

She dipped back into the chest and withdrew a pair of silver necklaces with royal blue star pendants. She clasped the cold chain around Dawn's neck, and moved to Jamie. "I'm giving each of you one of these also. If you concentrate, the crystals will calm heated emotions and improve your ability to see truth from higher places."

Candace nodded, touching her own pendant. "It works. It really does."

"Thank you, Serina," Jamie said.

"Yeah, thanks," Dawn echoed.

"You’re welcome," Serina said, taking a seat at her table. "We’re going to practice psychic hearing. You’ve probably never thought of it this way, but we’re all like radio stations, broadcasting across the airwaves. How many times has someone around you been angry or depressed, and the mood has rubbed off on you? You’re picking up on their vibration. If someone’s happy, it’s contagious. We’re sending out signals all the time, and we’re all in tune to each other’s channels."