Don't Believe Everything

Rose sat across the table from another poor soul seeking some small semblance of hope in this dismal world. She had spent the last three years conning people into believing her bullshit. Rose was a “psychic” or at least that’s what people thought. She was in her thirties, some might call her beautiful with long dark brown hair and pale green eyes set a little too close together, pale skin with a few too many moles and plump red lips. Despite all that she was single with only her dog to keep her company, Dexter went everywhere with her. He had a bed and spare food and water bowls in her office. He was a four year old black lab mix and as loyal as they come, one of her favorite things about him was the blue speck in the inner corner of his left eye.

The storefront she rented was none too remarkable; it was small and easy to miss if you didn’t know what you were looking for. Inside mandala covered tapestries hung from every wall, there was a backflow incense burner sitting on the reception desk and palo santo smoldering in the holder, arm chairs lined the walls with coffee tables sporting pamphlets telling the reader how to communicate with their spirit guides.To the right of the reception desk was a hallway, the entrance to which was covered with a beaded curtain leading to the parlor. A deep purple curtain hung at the end of the hall as a final separation from the waiting room to afford the customers privacy.

Today was just like any other, the individual seated across from her at the moment was named… Simon… Spencer… Stepen! Yes, that's it. Stephen was distraught, his daughter was missing. Rose’s mind began to wander as she thought about her father who had been dead for years now, his name was also Stephen. Rose snapped back to reality when her client asked,

“Can you help me?”

“Right, what was your daughter's name again?” Rose asked, doing her best to sound like she cared.

“Searra, she’s five.” He said looking down at the table.

“Ah yes, that’s right. Let’s get started shall we?” With that she removed the cloth cover off the crystal ball in the middle of the table, it swirled with smoke and rose said aloud “Spirit guild show me where Searra is!” looking deep into the smoke she dropped her voice an octave and said “You’ll find her where the grass is yellow and the sun is green.”. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she slumped back into her velvet armchair.

With a solemn nod Stephen put $40 on the table, stood, said “Thank you.” and left without another word. Rose sighed and looked around the dark room she spent most of her days in and thought to herself, “Is this really it?”

The rest of the afternoon passed in kind, people coming and going having received half-hearted and vague messages that sound close enough to what they want that they pay and leave without a second thought. Eventually some will make what she said fit their situation and spread the word about how great she is and come back again and again. Others only came to her as a last ditch effort to say they had tried everything. Take poor Stephen for example, his daughter has been missing for two years today. She will likely never be found amd he will probably end up taking his own life after today, he was a single father before she vanished and hasn’t been able to hold down a job since. 

After her last client left for the evening she locked up the office as usual and walked down Sullivan st. with Dexter at her side. It was a quiet part of Manchester and she felt sefe walking down the street at night. This week had been especially difficult and Rose was glad for it to finally be over. As she walked she noticed a restaurant that she hadn’t noticed before and felt her stomach rumble reminding her that she had skipped lunch that day. She looked in the large picture window and saw a young couple enjoying a desert of some kind. It was rustic and charming, only two booths and three tables that could seat two people each. There was also a bar with five stools sitting in front. 

Behind the counter stood a petite woman with long green hair pulled back in a ponytail. She seemed to be almost glowing while she rolled the silverware into bundles. Rose didn’t even notice her feet moving toward the door until she felt the cold metal handle, she pulled it open and went inside telling Dex to wait for her by the door. Taking a seat at the bar she could see that the woman was quite beautiful, she had bright green eyes that shone like stars, a small pointed nose and plump soft pink lips that turned up ever so slightly at the corners. 

“Hi there,” the green haired woman said, breaking Rose’s trance, “my name is Dela, I’ll be taking care of you tonight. What can I get for you to drink?”

“Um, just water, thanks.” she says while accepting the menu Dela was handing her. Looking down she thought the letters looked strange, blinking hard she looked again and saw that they had burgers, salads, steak, fish and a soup of the day. Remembering how hungry she was when Dela came back she asked for the soup of the day without any questions. Dela came back holding a bowl of mushroom stew with a fresh baguette on the side, it smelled amazing!

“There you go hun, if you need anything else you just let me know, okay? Enjoy.” Dela said before returning to roll silverware.

Rose typically didn’t much care for mushrooms though she was so hungry it didn’t matter. Before she knew it she was using the baguette as a sponge to get every drop of stew out of the bowl. When she looked up she noticed that the couple had left, odd because she hadn’t heard the door but she figured that she was just caught up in the delicious stew.

“Wow! You must have been half starved!” Dela laughed as she said this, noticing that Rose had finished her stew in less than 5 minutes despite it being piping hot. Her laugh sounded like wind through a field of wildflowers, Rose could listen to that sound forever.

“Ha, yeah. I forgot to eat my lunch today, sorry.” 

“No need to apologize dear, I’m just glad to have helped get some food in you. Can I get you anything else? Dessert maybe?”

“Oh that’s okay, I should be getting home. How much do I owe you?”

“Oh don’t be silly! You don’t owe anything, soup of the day is always on the house. You go and get some rest now dear.” Dela winked and the next thing Rose remembers is climbing into bed with Dexter. 

That night Rose tossed and turned, she dreamt about a little girl. The girl was calling out to her, she needed help, but every time Rose caught up to her the girl would run again. Suddenly she found herself in a clearing surrounded by trees that seemed to whisper all around her. She could see something blue peeking out of the yellow grass, she walked closer and saw that it was a lone blue sneaker. Looking up she saw the sun covered by clouds, it looked almost green.

Rose sat bolt upright, she was covered in sweat and Dexter was staring at her. She patted his head reassuringly, not entirely sure who needed the reassuring. Looking at her phone she saw that it was 8 am, what happened last night? She couldn’t remember a thing.