Foretell (10 page)

Finally calm and breathing normally, I shrugged and said, “I honestly don’t know. I can’t remember anything.”

Rex knew I wasn’t being entirely honest. I hadn’t forgotten about his ability to read people. He was probably reading me now, wondering why I was lying.

Lina broke the awkward moment. “Let’s eat some breakfast. I’ll bet you’ll feel better.”

Rex rolled his eyes. “Because food is the Romanian answer for everything.”

Lina yelled at him in another language. She turned back to me, asking sweetly, “Do you like mămăligă?”

“What’s that?”

“Lina, no one likes mămăligă,” Rex said. “That shit is disgusting.”

Lina yelled at him again in the other language. It sounded as if she were cursing him out.

“I’ve no problem letting you starve, you ass,” Lina said in English, ending her tirade.

As soon as Rex left the room, Lina said, “That man is the devil. I slept with him once, two lives ago, and I swear it was the only time I’ve ever seen him be nice.”

I stared at her blankly. “I really didn’t need to know this.” And I definitely didn’t want to picture it.

“He’s lucky he’s good in bed,” she continued. “It’s the only thing he has going for him.”

“What do you say about that breakfast now?” I attempted to change the subject.

Lina wasn’t listening. “You know what they say, ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.’ I, personally, cannot be fooled twice. He’s a heartbreaker, that one. Luckily, I got away unscathed.” She looked at me, remembering my presence. “Sorry. He just frustrates me.”

“You and every other female on this planet, I’m sure.”

“Let’s go get that breakfast,” she said. “And later, I’ll rummage through my closet and find you a dress for tonight.” She grinned in anticipation.

Mindlessly, I looked down to see what Lina was wearing. A sheer, cutoff tank top, exposing her bright pink bra underneath, paired with a beaded mini-skirt. She had a dancer’s body, so it looked nice on her. Even so, I decided I didn’t want to borrow anything from her closet.

“That’s really not necessary.”

“Of course it is!” she exclaimed excitedly. “An Irish Traveler wedding is no joke. They go all out. Did you bring a dress?”

“No,” I admitted, “But I do have--”

“Say no more, I’ll fix you up. You’ll look fabulous!”

I forced myself to smile. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t bring myself to say no. “Sounds great,” I managed.

Lina squealed with delight. “This is going to be so much fun. Lola
never
lets me make her over. Well, once, but I won’t go into that.”

I definitely didn’t want to think about why Lola never let Lina make her over. I was determined to stay positive.

Besides, if the dress was really horrible, I could always fake a headache and stay in bed. As long as Rex wasn’t around to spot my lie, I could probably get away with it.

A little while later, I found myself sitting in the RV’s little breakfast nook, spooning a giant bowl of cornmeal mush. I sniffed at it while Lina wasn’t looking.

It smelled edible. I supposed.

“Aren’t you going to eat with me?” I asked Lina as she cleaned the countertops.

“Oh, no.” She scrubbed at a spotless counter. “I never eat carbs before dancing.”

“
Where’s
Lola and Gabe?” I asked. “Aren’t they coming for breakfast?”

“Nope. They left about an hour ago to call Zetta. No service out here on their cells.”

I picked up the spoon and turned it over, watching the white goblets of mush fall back into the bowl.

Closing my eyes, I shoved a bite into my mouth. It tasted as good as it looked. I forced the food down, feeling grainy chunks sticking to my throat like sandpaper.

Lina loaded dirty dishes into the sink. “Is it good?”

Snapping my head up, I pretended the food wasn’t torturing me and plastered on a huge smile. “Dee-lish”.

She seemed appeased, and went back to tidying up the kitchen. When she wasn’t looking, I lowered the bowl to Abby.

Abby, a puppy that normally devoured everything, gave it a timid sniff. I’m sure she whimpered as she looked up, waiting for me to give her something else.

“Eat. It. Now.” I said through clenched teeth, giving her my most menacing stare. She tilted her head to the side, not in the least bit afraid of me.

“Good for nothing dog.” All those wire cords and leather shoes Abby chewed to shreds, and she wouldn’t eat this one little bowl of mămăligă
.

Thankfully, Lina left to take a shower. Rex walked through the door holding a bag of McDonald’s. “There’s a Mickey D’s around here?”

He tossed me an Egg McMuffin.

“Thank you,” I breathed gratefully.

“Better hurry and eat it before she comes back.”

Abby and I split the Egg McMuffin. She had no qualms with McDonald’s. She devoured the food in seconds.

While I ate, I watched Rex through the fringe of my lashes. The thought of Lina and him together bothered me.

I wondered if I was jealous. That had to be crazy, right? Why on earth should I care about what Lina and Rex did in a past life? I didn’t even like Rex-or did I?

Must have been Stockholm
Syndrome
. I was stuck with the guy so it seemed like a logical explanation.

I trashed my sandwich wrapper right before Lina came back. Wrapped in one towel, she dried her hair with another. As soon as she saw Rex eating McDonald’s, she mumbled another string of Romanian curses. Rex didn’t seem at all offended. He just looked smug, as usual.

Lina headed to the back of the RV to get dressed, and a few moments later Lola and Gabe opened the door.

“Good morning.” Lola greeted us with a smile.

“What did Zetta have to say?” Lina yelled from the bedroom.

“Nothing important,” Lola yelled back. She tipped her nose to me. “She wants to meet you and get a read on your past, try to figure out how you came by your sight. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course.”

“First, she has to get permission from my father to leave their troupe. As long as he agrees, she can probably get here before tomorrow evening. She may be able to help us, Estelle. At least, I’m hoping she can. Because I honestly don’t know what to do at this point.”

There was a definite apprehension in Lola’s eyes. Gabe took her hand, squeezing it. “It’ll be okay, Lo. We’ll figure this thing out.”

“It’s fine,” I agreed. “We’re not running anymore, so that’s a plus.”

“Not to be negative or anything, but I don’t know how long the not running part will last.”

An out-of-the-blue idea hit me. “Hey, I want to try something. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. Here, take my hand.” I placed my palm over Lola’s. Understanding lit up her eyes.

“I see where you’re going with this. What do you want me to ask for?”

“Ask how to keep the mind readers away.”

She nodded, closed her eyes,
then
cleared her throat. “Ahem, dear Oracle,” she began in a powerfully loud voice.

“Um, Lo?” I interjected.

She opened her eyes. “Yes?”

“That’s really not necessary. All you have to do is tell me what you want.”

“Oh, okay.” She laughed at herself. Gabe shook his head, suppressing a smile. Rex coughed, choking back his own amusement.

Lola began again. “I want to keep the mind readers away. How can I do that?”

All the familiar symptoms washed over me. “Surround the camp with an invisibility charm. Lina knows the ingredients.”

After my vision returned
to
normal, I looked up at Lola. “Invisibility charm?”

She shrugged. “Don’t look at me. You said to ask Lina.”

Lina sauntered out of the bedroom, fully dressed, by her standards anyway, combing out her wet auburn hair. “It’s a simple mixture of herbs, like sage and tea leaves, ground together to make a type of dust. In the old days, gypsies would trespass on land that didn’t belong to them. They used the charm to keep themselves hidden from irate landowners.”

I raised a skeptical brow. “I know I shouldn’t be questioning myself because the words came out of my own mouth, but does this stuff actually work?”

Lina nodded. “Oh, definitely. It’s how the Royals keep Redwood Forest so well hidden. And sage has been used for centuries by many different cultures to ward off negativity. It may not make the camp invisible, per se, but it keeps the wrong sorts of eyes from finding us, if you get my drift.”

“I’d say it’s worth a shot,” Gabe added. “Do you have the ingredients?”

“I think so.”

“Then let’s get started.”

Lola and I helped Lina to concoct the invisibility charm. It only took us a few minutes to crunch up the herbs and mix them together. Afterwards, everyone left me alone with Lina to encircle the camp with the stuff.

It wasn’t long before Lina remembered she planned a makeover for me. I’d just gotten back from the showers, walked into the RV and found it transformed into a dressing room.

“I have to get ready for my performance tonight so I was wondering if I could start on you early?” She grinned ecstatically, holding up her makeup case. She could hardly contain her excitement.

She terrified me.

I wrung my hands behind my back. “Are you sure I won’t be an inconvenience to you?”

Lina shook her head emphatically. “Noooo. Of course not.”

Her huge brown eyes were too damned eager to resist. She looked like Abby, begging for food. I couldn’t say no. “Let’s do this thing.”

I sat on Lina’s bed, fidgeting nervously while she rummaged through her closet. She showed me a few different dresses, all of them being either too short, extremely revealing, gaudy or just very flamboyant.

“Do you have anything in black?”

Her cheery expression began to fade. She ventured back into her closet and came back out with a black scarf in her hands. Confusion swept over me upon noticing the scarf.

“I’m sensing some hesitation from you,” she said. “I’m going to need you to trust me.”

Lina held the scarf out, sliding the fabric around the back of my head. I could see where she was headed with this. I shook my head, pleading no.

“Trust me,” she echoed the reminder. She tied the fabric around my eyes.

“Don’t you already know which dress I’ll end up wearing?” I asked. “You know, doesn’t that come part and parcel with the whole psychic thing?”

“I see the dress you would’ve chosen,” she admitted. “You would’ve ended up in some dull, lackluster dress. However, the future changes constantly based on the choices you make. You only need to see the right dress to change your mind. And because you haven’t seen it yet, I can’t see your decision.”

“That sounds complicated.”

“It’s my life. I’m used to it.”

Lina zipped me into dress after dress while I stood there blindfolded. She pulled the fifth one down over my body when I heard her intake of breath. “This is the one.”

She tugged the skirt at the bottom, straightening it and smoothing it into place. “Definitely the one,” she agreed with herself. My blindfold came off of my head a moment later. “You can open your eyes now.”

Fearful of what I was about to see, I opened my eyes slowly. Lina faced me towards a full-length mirror. There was someone I barely recognized in it, wearing a one-shoulder,
tea
-length gown with a beaded empire waist. Red.
A deep, bright, fiery red.
Normally I came out looking like Indie whenever I dressed up. But Indie never wore red. She claimed the color didn’t go well with her skin tone. On me the color was striking. I never would’ve imagined it.

Lina presented me with her best
I told you so
grin,
then
crossed her arms over her chest. “Say it,” she demanded.

I smiled back at her. “Okay, I’ll admit it. It’s sort of amazing.”

“Sort of?”

“All right, really amazing.”

“Thought so.”

I stared at myself for a while longer, turning to see the back of the dress.

“Let’s do your hair and makeup. The wedding begins at four. Curly or straight?”

“Huh?”

“Stop ogling your reflection,” she chuckled. “Do you want your hair curly or straight?”

“Oh. We can leave it straight.” I flushed in embarrassment.

Lina finished my hair and makeup, completing her handiwork by adding a few swipes of red lipstick. “All done,” she said. “You look gorgeous, dah-ling.
It
’s very old Hollywood glam. I’m thinking this look is the modern day Sophia Loren.”

I hugged Lina. “Thanks.”

“You’re very welcome.”

I’d never seen anything like an Irish Traveler wedding. From the moment we walked into the large, flowing tent and took our seats, my jaw was in a dropped position. I attended elaborate weddings, even the occasional unorthodox wedding, but this was beyond anything I’d ever seen. Hundreds of people packed into one tent. Where they couldn’t sit, they stood to watch the ceremony from the back.
Where had all these people come from?