Unhappy Medium (3 page)

Jac giggled strangely, and waved her hand in front of her face. “Yeah, no, I just … took myself out of the loop for a
while.”

Colin smiled, and my intestines quivered powerfully.

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” he said.

Jac nodded. Her smile didn’t look like the regular Jac smile. She had clamped her lips closed over her teeth.

“What do you play, Kat?” he asked, turning his blue lamps of glory in my direction.

I play dead people,
I thought.

But that was a bit of an overshare.

“I’m just along to keep Jac company,” I said.

“Excellent,” Colin said. My stomach did another little dance.

“Yes, I am,” said my voice.

Brilliant. Future Rhodes Scholar.

“I was about to head over to the welcome reception,” Colin said. “Were you gonna go?”

The question was obviously addressed to Jac, and she nodded, the color of her face now having arrived at a solid brick red.

“Yeah, I was going to check it out,” Jac lied.

“Cool. We can go together. I hate walking into those things alone. You coming, Kat?”

To the ends of the earth, Colin, if that’s where you’re going.
But I snuck a sidelong glance at Jac. She was practically crippled by the blush, her eyes huge and her hands slightly trembling.
The world’s most gorgeous violin virtuoso had asked my best friend to go to a reception where I technically didn’t belong.
If there was a Best Friend’s Handbook, I’m sure there was a whole chapter on what to do when the Cutest Boy Ever asks your
friend to go somewhere. I’m betting the whole thing can be summed up as Three’s. A. Crowd.

“Nah, I’m just going to hang here,” I said. “You guys go have fun talking Mozart, or whatever it is you do.”

“Okay, great,” Jac said, almost crushing my foot as she got up.

It would have been nice for her to make just a teensy argument, maybe pretend to want me to go along with them.

But another glance at the Face that Launched a Thousand Chicks and I swallowed my irritation and felt genuinely happy for
Jac.

“I’ll meet you in your room before dinner, okay?” she called.

I said, “Great.” I probably could have said anything. Her ears had turned such an alarming shade of crimson I doubted they
were working properly.

I snuck discreet glances at the happy couple making their way toward Mountain House. They actually looked good together. Jac
was really tiny, and Colin wasn’t more than three or four inches taller than she was.

It was only when they were out of sight that I realized Jac had left me alone with my Madame Serena problem.

Since I now had an unplanned block of time on my hands, I decided to follow the path around the lake. An old wooden footbridge
arched over a gully and led up a steep staircase to the path on the far side of the lake. From there you could go in any number
of different directions on marked trails. I took the one that was the steepest, and in half an hour I was atop an old fire
tower, looking down at the spectacular lake and the massive building and gardens of Whispering Pines Mountain House.

I got a perfect cell signal up there, so I took the opportunity to call my mom.

“Well, it all sounds amazing, Kat,” she said. “You guys should have a great time.”

“I just wish you could see it,” I told her truthfully. “I think you’d love it here.”

“Take plenty of pictures for me,” she said. “I’m going to have an entire new garden bed raked and cleared by the time you
get back.”

“That’s great, Mom,” I said. My mother did love her plants.

“Is something bothering you, Kat?” she asked.

“Why would you say that?” I asked innocently.

There was a slight pause.

“I don’t know. Just a feeling. I thought maybe you had run into a visitor there, or something, and wanted to talk about it.”

My mom sometime called spirits “visitors.” But she was a medium, not a mind-reader. How could she know about Madame Serena,
or any other spirit here?

“No worries, Mom. I’m having a blast.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie. But ever since I had started seeing spirits, I had this stubborn inclination to want to deal with
them myself, without asking Mom for help. I needed to figure things out in my own way.

“Well, give Jac a hug from me. And tell Mrs. Gray I said hello.”

It’s weird when your mother calls your friend’s mother Mrs. So-and-so, but Jac’s mom was super-formal. Did we even know her
first name?

“I will, Mom. And I’ll call again soon.”

“Love you, sweetie. Bye.”

After we hung up, I sat on a rock watching the world for a long time. I could see cars pulling up to the front entrance and
families with enormous piles of luggage going inside. I felt a twinge of envy. Imagine being in a family where you could just
head off to a place like this for a week or two. I’m betting it cost more to stay here for one night than my mother made in
a week. But to some people, that was nothing at all. Chump change.

Mom and I had never had much money. When my dad dumped us to wallow in his midlife crisis, we were completely on our own.
He never sent so much as a ten dollar bill in a birthday card. Not to this day. I guess my mom could have taken him to court,
sued for child support. But she didn’t. She said that money was just energy in another form, and that money from a negative
source was nothing more than negative energy. And we got by. Sometimes more than got by.

There was money for what we needed, and occasionally some for something I wanted. It was usually enough. And I wouldn’t trade
my mom for anything in the world. But every once in a while, seeing a place like Whispering Pines and realizing where money
could take a person, could take Jac’s family, I felt a bit wistful.

When the sun went behind a large cloud, I suddenly felt chilly. I headed back down the path and over the bridge. I could hear
music and laughter coming from a large room near the front of the building and wondered if it was Jac’s reception. I smiled
as I brought to mind a vision of the extraordinary shade of red Jac had turned in Colin’s presence. I’m so glad I’m not a
blusher. I may see dead people, but I stay the same color when I do.

When I reached my room, I was relieved to find that Madame Serena wasn’t there. I really didn’t feel like being “Simple Cat,
Guardian of the Sacred Portal of Transmigration” right then. I stretched out on my bed with a book, alternately reading and
dozing. The last time, the sound of my stomach growling woke me up. I glanced at my watch — it was 6:30. Definitely dinnertime.

I guess Jac went back to her room,
I thought.
Her mother’s probably doing handsprings that she attended the reception. I should go rescue her.

I brushed my hair and swished a little mouthwash over my teeth and gums, then left my room and knocked on the door across
the hall.

“Jac? It’s me, Kat. I’m starving.”

The door opened. I was surprised and a little dismayed to find Jac’s mother standing there. I assumed she’d be off hobnobbing
with the other parents of prodigies.

“Oh, hi,” I said. “I’m sorry. I was supposed to meet Jac right before dinner.”

Mrs. Gray looked distracted and slightly rumpled — very unusual for her. I noticed she’d lost one of her earrings.

“Jackie?” she asked. “I thought she was with you, Katherine. She said you were going to the lake.”

“She was. We did,” I said quickly. “But she ran into this … there was another musician there that Jac knew. They went
to the reception together.”

Mrs. Gray’s face brightened.

“Jackie went to the YNMC welcome reception?”

I nodded. Mrs. Gray looked happy, for once.

“Oh, I’m so pleased. Come in, Katherine. Have a seat. Who did you say she went with?”

Jac had never discussed her mother’s position on boys. My suspicion was that, like most everything else that was interesting
in the world, Mrs. Gray was against them.

“I’m really bad with names,” I said. “It was a violin player, I think.”

I felt a little strange telling the half truth — it stressed me out and made me feel dizzy. But I hadn’t lied, really. I had
just obscured the full details of the truth.

“I’m happy to hear that, Katherine. I’m glad you came with Jackie. She certainly had no intention of coming without you. I’m
just going to pour myself a glass of Fiji water — would you like one?”

My mom and I loved to poke fun at people who drank designer water, but Mrs. Gray was being nice to me for a change, and I
wanted to encourage her.

“Thank you, I’d love one,” I said, reaching deep for my best manners.

She poured two glasses of water, then opened the ice bucket and sighed.

“Empty,” she said. “I’ll just go downstairs to get some more.”

I nodded, and Mrs. Gray left the room.

My head was starting to feel even stranger, like I’d just gotten off one of those spinning rides at Playland. I gripped the
arms of the chair I was sitting in and took a deep breath.

I was hit with a wave of sheer terror.

I gasped, pressing my hands over my chest. My heart was racing, and every inch of me was trembling. I’d dealt with being terrified
before, but this was different. I felt more frightened than I’d ever felt in my life, but I had no idea why. As far as I could
see, there was nothing in the room.

I really thought I might faint. My heart rate had practically doubled, and there was a rushing sound in my ears. Outside the
bathroom, I paused and put my hand on the wall for support. I became aware of a sharp pain in the center of my chest, in the
place where the ribs meet. Tears were streaming down my face from the pain and the terror. But I saw nothing! How could I
know what to do if I couldn’t see who or what I was dealing with?

Still leaning on the wall, I looked down at my feet. I was standing on something. Seeping into the wooden floor was a large
pool of red paint.

No.

Blood.

I yelled and jumped into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I crumpled to the floor and pulled my shoes off.

But there was no red sticky substance anywhere on them — not even the soles.

The silence was deafening.

But the feelings of terror, and the sharp pain in my chest, were subsiding. I took deep belly breaths, the way my mother’s
healer friend, Orin, had taught me. I heard the door to the room open.

“Katherine?”

“I’ll be right out,” I called.

I got to my feet a little shakily, and looked at my reflection. My face was pale. I flushed the toilet and ran the water in
the sink to buy myself another minute to recover. I smoothed my hair back, pinched my cheeks to bring a little color into
them, and put my shoes back on. Then I unlocked the door and went back into the room.

“Here you are,” Mrs. Gray said, handing me a glass of water.

I gratefully took a long sip, secretly registering surprise that the water with the fancy name
did
taste better than tap water. I snuck a glance over my shoulder at the floor outside the bathroom. The planks looked just
like the rest of the floor — polished and honey colored — no blood stain.

I was walking back to my chair when my toe connected with something. I leaned down and picked it up — it was Mrs. Gray’s earring.

“I think this is yours,” I said, handing it to her.

Her hands flew up to her ears.

“I didn’t even know I’d lost it!” she exclaimed. “Thank you, Katherine. I’m feeling a little odd this afternoon; perhaps it
was the drive. And the thermostat isn’t working properly in this room — one minute, it’s warm, and the next it’s like an icebox.”

I stared at the glass of water in my hand and chewed on my lip.

“And there’s something … I don’t know, a noise maybe? Like a very high-pitched electronic signal or something? Do you
hear it?”

I shook my head.

“Maybe I’m imagining it. But something in this room is setting my teeth on edge.”

The door opened, and Jac walked in.

“Kat! What are you doing in
here
?” Jac asked. “With
her
” was the unspoken remainder of her question.

“Looking for you. You said we’d meet before dinner.”

It seemed weird to me that Jac hadn’t even acknowledged her mother. I knew they really didn’t get along and everything, but
still. You say hello.

“Hello, Jackie. Katherine said you went to the welcome reception!”

“I stopped in for a minute,” Jac replied, not looking at her mother. “Kat and I don’t want to go to the fancy sit-down dining
hall — can we just go by ourselves to the buffet thingy?”

Again, it seemed kind of rude for us to not eat with Jac’s mom — I mean, she was footing the bill for the trip. But Mrs. Gray
just nodded, and pressed a hand to her temple.

“That’s fine, Jackie. I think I’m actually going to have a bit of a lie down — my head is really starting to ache.”

“Bye,” Jac said.

She already had the door open.

“I hope you feel better, Mrs. Gray,” I said. “Can I get you anything before we go? An aspirin?”

She sat down on the edge of her bed.

“No thank you, Katherine. I just want to close my eyes for a while.”

I closed the door quietly. Jac was waiting impatiently in the hall.

“What’s with the sucking up?” she asked.

“I wasn’t sucking up!” I retorted. “I was just being polite, which is more than I can say for you. Didn’t you notice she kind
of looked worn out?”

“I’m starting to think my mother has you on the payroll,” Jac said, striding down the hall toward the elevator.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

The whole turn the conversation had taken was making me uncomfortable. I decided to change the subject.

“So? Are you going to tell me about this Colin guy?”

Jac came to a sudden stop and turned to me, her face shining.

“Oh, Kat, isn’t he gorgeous?” she whispered.

I smiled.

“The boy is redonkulously good looking,” I said. “I can’t believe you’ve never mentioned him.”

“Because he’s barely ever spoken to me before!” she cried. “He goes to all the conferences and competitions in the area. He’s,
like, a celebrity at them. I most definitely knew who he was, but I had no idea he even knew I existed. When he called me
Jac the cello genius, I thought I was going to pass out!”