Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 70779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
The man reached into the inner pocket of his suit coat and pulled out a fat envelope which he handed to me.
“Go on, count it,” Big Nicky said, nodding at me. “I think you’ll find it’s quite enough to cover your expenses for some time.”
With trembling fingers, I peeled open the envelope and stared, wide-eyed, at what I saw. Did you know they print a thousand-dollar bill? I didn’t until I saw what was inside.
“There must be fifty thousand dollars in here!” I exclaimed.
“Sixty-six thousand, actually. Every year I add a thousand—for my birthday, you know,” Big Nicky said cordially. “I trust that’s enough to awaken your ‘Gift’ so that you can help me communicate with my mother?”
“Oh, well…” I licked my lips which had gone very dry.
It was true that Pop-pop had done Spirit Channeling, talking to people on “the Other Side,” but I had always assumed it was trick—that he was only pretending to speak to the dead.
Now I was being offered the chance to follow in his footsteps…but could I be convincing enough to fool Big Nicky Valentino? If I could, I would make enough to pay the rent on the shop for a long time.
But if I wasn’t convincing and he figured out that I was faking it, I could be in a world of hurt. I really didn’t want to find myself sleeping with the fishes in Port Nola at the end of the night.
Big Nicky seemed to sense my hesitation because he frowned at me.
“Come on now, sweetie,” he said in a tone that was half cajoling/half threatening. “Your Grandfather assured me that after he died, his power of communing with the spirits would pass to you—his Granddaughter. So let’s get on with it!”
It seemed that I didn’t have a choice. The amount of cash the Mob boss was offering me was considerable, but I still wished that Pop-pop hadn’t put me in this position—or at least that he had warned me that Big Nicky would be coming in. I’ve always been a pretty straightforward person—which means I’m not nearly as good at the kind of trickery it takes to be a really good fake Medium. Still, it seemed like I was going to have to try and give him what he wanted.
“Of course, Mr. Valentino,” I said, nodding at the Mob boss. “Would you like to come with me?”
He smiled broadly.
“Now that’s more like it! Yes, I would very much like to come with you. Lead the way!”
So I did. What else could I do?
4
WILLOW
“Over here, Mr. Valentino,” I said to Big Nicky and led the way.
I didn’t have far to lead him—Pop-pop had set up a “Spirit Room” on the far side of the shop. Really, it was just a large janitor’s closet which he had converted, but it served its purpose well.
I opened the door and parted the strands of long red beads that served as a curtain. The beads clacked gently against each other as I ducked through them into the tiny room.
Inside there was a small, round table with two chairs sitting across from each other. There were also a few shelves where Pop-pop had placed some props—a real human skull someone had gotten from one of the many above-ground cemeteries in our area, a crystal ball on a golden stand, a set of fancy Tarot Cards with elaborate pictures fanned out to display their gorgeous artwork, and various other mystical looking things.
Pop-pop had never used any of these props—I knew because I had spied on him “communing with the spirits” more than once when I was little. Mostly he just sat at the table, closed his eyes, and spread his arms. Then he called for the spirit of the dear departed. When it came, he allowed it to “Indwell” him, as he called it. Then he spoke in the dead person’s voice, telling their loved one who had paid to hear from them what they were thinking and feeling.
Pop-pop really had his act down to a T, too. I remembered how creepy I used to think it was when his eyes would roll up in his head and his voice would change. It would go all high if he was letting a female spirit “Indwell” him and low and rough if he was channeling a male. It was a weird business, but it brought in a good amount of money.
Come to think of it, that was probably how Pop-pop had managed to keep the shop solvent all those years. Especially if Big Nicky Valentino had been giving him a ton of cash annually just to talk to his dead mother.
Pop-pop, I really wish you would have told me about this yearly appointment, I thought, as I switched on the small lamp with the red shade in the middle of the table and lit a stick of incense. If my Grandfather was going to have me follow his footsteps in the family “business,” the least he could have done was to warn me about it—and maybe leave me some details about Nicky Valentino’s mother so I could effectively impersonate her.