Page 56 of The Forest of Lost Souls

Trott glances at him. “Jesus what?”

“Nothing. I just ... just realized we’re almost there. The turnoff to her place is on the right, maybe a mile or so ahead.”

“Ain’t it across from the church house where four was shot?”

“Directly opposite, yeah.”

“You remember that crazy fortuneteller?”

“What fortuneteller?”

“For a while back in the day, she worked her racket outta that house ’fore they made it a church.”

“I heard some talk about her.”

“I went to see her once,” Trott reveals.

“You believe in fortunetellers?”

“This is eighteen years ago. I was nineteen. Weren’t as smart about things like I am now.”

“What did she tell you? How far off the mark was she?”

“Weren’t no mark to be off from. She couldn’t see a mayfly’s future iffen it was one day through its two days in this world.”

“But what did she tell you?”

“Says she don’t want no money. Just wants what I value least.”

“So she’s working some scam.”

“Yeah. I tell her, shit, I value everythin’ high, ’cause I had to kick so much ass to get it all.”

“She had a comeback to that?” Vector asks.

“She tells me I need some tough love. I start tellin’ her what kind of lovin’ I like best ... but then, I don’t know, I didn’t feel right talkin’ trash at her that way.”

“That doesn’t sound like you.”

“Lookin’ back on it, I don’t understand myself. Anyway, she says she sees how I don’t put no value at all on my soul. She says this breaks a mother’s heart.”

“She knew your mother?”

“Shit no. You could break a ball of iron sooner than break that bitch’s heart. I wish she’d died in childbirth and spared me ever knowin’ her.”

“So the fortuneteller . . . ?”

“She says even the devil hisself won’t want such a pitiful thing as my soul. She says she can’t touch it neither until first I do some work to polish it up and give it at least a little value.”

“Your soul.”

“My soul.”

“I don’t see what her scam is.”

“Weren’t no scam. She starts talkin’ about souls, I know she’s bug-shit crazy, can’t be nothin’ she can tell me about the future or anythin’ else. So I’m out of there before she can pick my pocket.”

Trott brakes the car. “Here it is.” He turns right into the dirt lane that leads to Vida’s house.

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