Page 13 of Sort of Seeing Someone

It’s the second time today I’m taking orders to breathe at the request of someone else. If the intention here is that I’ll sink into a deep state of relaxation, it’s not working. All I can think about is the wrinkled ten-dollar bill and how it came from change made at the cash-only ice cream shop and how ice cream sounds good right now but that I should save my money until I find another job and…are we at three breaths yet?

Once I’m donebreathing, I watch as she places her dry, cracked, cold hands atop mine. Now, it’s her turn to close her eyes and inhale.

While she’s doing that, I admire all the jewelry she’s wearing. Bangles upon bangles. Rings upon rings. She must have more than five pounds of jewelry between both wrists and hands. Does every piece tell a story? Or were these Amazon Primed to help complete “thelewk.” Because surely, in the end, this has to be a bit.

Next thing I know, she removes her hands from mine and smiles.

What’s thehaps?

Is Joe n’ Flow going to open back up as a pop-up on the beach?

Are Brody/Kevin and I going to get back together and make it official this time?

Is Gerda going to back out of the sale of her house so I can have my beach shack back?

Esther’s smile is so big, I can’t help but smile, too.

But then she simply reaches for the wrinkled ten dollars I gave her and pushes it back to me.

“I cannot accept this.”

Whatever she saw must have been so awful, she can’t possibly take my money in good faith.

“What is it? What is happening?”

“I saw nothing. A black screen.”

“Does that mean…death?” I ask.

She laughs, which I find insanely morbid for the moment.

“It could. But I would have no way of knowing. You are one of us. And I don’t take money from our kind.”

“I don’t really understand?” I say.

“The gift I have, you have. You did not know that?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Whatgift?”

“How old are you?” she asks.

“I’m twenty-five.” I say before quickly catching myself. “Twenty-six.Today’s my birthday. I’m twenty-six.”

I expect her to say happy birthday. Instead, she says: “Welcome.”

...to hell?! I am so confused.

“Today you have received the best birthday gift you will ever get.”

“I lost my job today. And my house.”

I don’t even bother mentioning being dumped.

Esther doesn’t seem to hear me. That or she doesn’t care to play therapist. She just rattles on about more woo-woo shit.

“Open your gift slowly. Let it reveal its powers over time. Be careful with it. Stay genuine.”

Powers?This is getting ridiculous.

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