I was angry when I finally found Lady Azura, and I don’t really get angry very often. Lily always says it’s weird that I never yell and scream. I always tell her that’s just not me. But today I thought I might scream. Just a little.
“Eleanor and Dwight are a menace!” I exclaimed, pushing back the curtain to Lady Azura’s fortune-telling room.
She sat in her large armchair, shuffling through a deck of tarot cards. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“What do you think?”
She shook her head. “Sarcasm does not become you, Sara. Sit down and calmly tell me what is bothering you.”
I plopped into one of the wooden chairs circling the round table. “Your guests are bothering me.” I told her about Eleanor’s failure as a babysitter and Henry appearing at Scoops in front of all my friends.
“Where is Henry now? And Buddy?” Her face wrinkled with concern.
“Buddy was with Mrs. Randazzo in their front yard when I walked home. She couldn’t understand why I was hugging their dog so much when I saw him. Dad brought him back.” I rested my hands on the brocade tablecloth. “I managed to get Henry upstairs into the closet. It wasn’t easy. He loves that dog.”
“So it seems. But everything ended well?”
“Because of me. Lily and Mason and David and who knows who else think I just ran off on them. It’s all Eleanor’s fault.”
“I am sorry, Sara. I realize Eleanor and Dwight are quite trying to have around.” She rested her hands in the lap of her ash-gray skirt. “But Sara, you made the choice to leave Henry out while you went with Lily. It wasn’t a wise choice.”
“I know, but since Eleanor and Dwight showed up, everything has been upside-down.” I didn’t want to say that it had started once she became famous and all the clients appeared.
She reached for my hands. “Be patient. I am doing my best to help them find what they are looking for and move on. I truly am.” Worry clouded her eyes. She treated her clients’ troubles as her own.
I sighed. My anger had faded. I couldn’t stay mad at her. “Okay.”
She continued to hold my hands. Her thumb circled my palm. “Something else weighs on your mind. Tell me about it,” she urged.
And so I told her about all the strange things that had been happening. The caramel bottle moving. The skeletons falling for no reason. The milk bottle toppling. The drink spilling. The ball changing direction.
“I think spirits did it, but I don’t understand why I couldn’t see them. I can always see them.” I hesitated. “At least, I thought I could.”
She let go of my hands and shakily pushed herself to her feet. She wandered about the room, running her finger over glass shelves and side tables as if checking for dust. She always moved when she was deep in thought.
“There’s another explanation,” she said finally. “Telekinesis.”
“What’s that?”
“The ability to move objects with only the power of one’s mind,” she explained. She turned to me. “You were there when all these events occurred. Did you do anything to move the caramel sauce? Did you focus on the bottle? Think about moving it?”
“I . . . I don’t think so,” I said.
“Did you want these things to happen?”
“Maybe. Kind of.” I thought back. “I didn’t want the skeletons to fall, but I did want to help Mason get out of there. Now that I think about it, we were able to get out of there when we did because those skeletons fell. And I did want the green bear, so I wanted Mason to win, so I kind of wanted that last bottle to fall. But is wanting something the same as actually moving something?”
“If you want it enough. The mind is a very powerful tool.” Lady Azura studied me carefully.
“Do you think I can do this telekinesis?”
“Before today, I would’ve said no. It’s not a power that I have tracked along our family tree.” Lady Azura kept a detailed chart of the women in our family going back centuries. Not every woman had powers. They often skipped generations. My own mother had had no powers. And all the women with powers didn’t have the same powers. Some could communicate with the dead, some could read minds, some could predict the future, some had visions when they touched personal objects, and some could do all.
“Telekinesis is very, very rare,” she added. “It seems unlikely to me that you caused those things to happen. I believe your original idea of an unseen spirit is more correct.”
“But I could be developing it. I could have it a little, right?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about adding another power to my menu . . . but this seemed like a really useful power to have!
“Maybe, but telekinesis requires great mental strength and lots of practice to control it.”
“Wait!” I jumped from my seat. “Is it possible that someone could learn how to do it?”
Lady Azura let out her husky chuckle. “Sara, you and I know all too well that anything is possible.”
“So could Lily have done it? Could she have taught herself?” I knew Lily had been practicing moving objects with her mind. She’d been trying to tell me something earlier. Could this have been her big secret?
“I do not believe this is something Lily could have possibly taught herself. It would have to be a latent power that has come to the surface . . . but I have never sensed that Lily has any powers. Have you?”
I wasn’t sure. I didn’t think so . . . but then again, other than Lady Azura, I had never met anyone with powers. Would I somehow sense it? Was it possible my best friend had powers too?
Lady Azura didn’t know the answer. She was a big believer in keeping an open mind and letting the truth reveal itself. “If it is a spirit, you will eventually see it. If it is Lily, you will see that, too. And if it is you, the window will soon open wider and you will be able to better see what you can do.” She lifted a small, see-through crystal from a porcelain bowl on her glass shelves. “This is clear quartz. Add it to your necklace.”
“What’s it do?”
“It enhances psychic abilities. If you possess telekinesis, this crystal will bring your powers into clearer view.” Her brown eyes glimmered. “How exciting that would be. The first of us to mentally move objects!”
The doorbell chimed. Lady Azura checked the slim gold watch on her wrist. “Ah, Mrs. Merberg is back. Maybe we will make progress today.”
“I’m going to my bedroom,” I announced. “What about Eleanor and Dwight?”
Lady Azura smiled. “They are mine now. The house will be quiet for a while.”
Upstairs, I passed Dad straightening the room where we watched TV. He was muttering something about the house being a mess.
Tell me about it, I thought.
I closed my bedroom door. I sat straight on my chair with my feet on the floor and placed a yellow pencil flat on my desk. I needed to see what I could do.
I was going to move the pencil across the desk, I decided.
I stared at the pencil.
I focused on the pencil. Only the pencil.
My eyes crossed. The yellow blurred.
I tried to move the pencil.
A vein on the side of my head throbbed.
Nothing happened. The pencil stayed where it was.
I took a deep breath and tried again. Still nothing.
Maybe if I don’t focus so hard, I thought. I stared at the pencil and thought about seagulls, waffles, and rain. Anything but the pencil moving.
It still didn’t go anywhere.
I tried for twenty minutes, then gave up.
Lily had been with me when all those strange things happened, I realized. All of them, except the skeletons, but that could have been an opening-day mechanical failure.
It would be so cool if it were Lily moving things with her mind. Best friends, both with powers. Should I text her? Call her? How would I go about asking her?
I had no idea.
I stared at the pencil again.
One more time, I decided. I’d try to move it myself one more time.