Page 19 of Ghost of Christmas Future
“I feel so much better. I don’t know if it has to do with my attitude or just that the medicines the docs are giving me are doing their job.” To be honest, Jude didn’t care, so long as he was able to wake up and go home to his family.
“Attitude counts for a lot. Hell, I think it’s half the battle.” Bertha reached for Jude’s hand.
Jude hesitated. “Do you just want to hold my hand, or are we going to zip off to another place in my personal timeline?”
Bertha laughed. “A little of both, I think. You were wondering about my part with helping Cope and getting him to Massachusetts. We’ll talk about that, then I’ve got something to show you. Fair enough?”
Jude nodded and reached for Bertha’s hand. “I’ve always wanted to know this part of Cope’s story, but there’s never been a good chance to ask. When I see you, it’s only for short bursts of time and I didn’t want a long answer to take your precious time away from the kids.”
“You know, the Jude Byrne I first met would have bulldozed in and taken every scrap of time I had without thought orconsideration to anyone else in the room. You’ve come a long way, kid.”
Jude barked a laugh. It sounded rusty to his ears. “I sure have. So much of it has to do with Cope, but the rest is Ronan and Fitz. It feels like all of this was somehow meant to be. All of us together, making families, solving cases, being best friends.”
“It was meant to be, well, at least some of it. As for the rest, it was just good old fashioned meddling.” Bertha cackled delightedly.
“So, spill, Doctor Frankenstein. Tell me how you cobbled families together from a bunch of broken, hopeless people.”
“After I passed. I spent a lot of time with my sons. All they had was each other and the magick shop. Carson fleeced customers, all the while making sure Cole got his college education. I had spent decades building that business and there was Carson pretending he had the same kind of gifts I did.” Bertha shook his head. “The one thing I learned from that time was that each of my sons had big hearts. Carson used his intuition to help customers find the right person to marry or to problem solve in their own lives. His advice came from a place of love and compassion. That was the reason customers kept coming back to see him. Then there was the night of the storm.”
“I’ve only heard tiny tidbits of this story. What exactly happened to Carson that night?” Jude was utterly fascinated by Carson’s psychic origin story, but so much of it was a mystery.
“You know, I’m not entirely certain myself. I wasn’t with Carson when it happened. I was upstairs with Cole who’d been struggling with his economics class. As it was told to me, Carson had wrapped up with his last customer of the night. He’d locked up the store and went into my reading room to clean up the table and grab his notes. Outside, it had started to rain andquickly turned into a thunderstorm. On his way out of the room. He rubbed his hand over my crystal ball. I always had it on my reading table as a prop. I was never able to channel with it. When Carson touched it, lightning flashed and thunder rolled. Carson had his first vision. He saw a handsome man get shot at a Christmas party.”
“That’s absolutely crazy. You know that, right?”
Bertha nodded. “It is crazy. What we don’t know is if Carson had been coming into his psychic gifts all along or if something in the storm hurried things along a bit. Personally, I think it was all Truman.”
“Tru was the handsome man Carson saw getting shot in the vision?” Jude asked.
“Yes. It was obvious to me that Carson and Truman were soul mates. I think somewhere in the back of his mind Carson knew it too. At that time, my son wasn’t able to speak with me, so he was running on pure instinct. Carson wanted to save the man, but didn’t know how. He explained everything to Cole, half-expecting his brother to think he was losing his mind, but it was Cole who got Carson to go back over the vision to look at every detail. He was then able to see a banner at the Christmas party that listed the name of the company Truman worked for. I’d never been prouder of my sons than I was in that moment. Our family was born that night. Carson saved Truman, who worked with Cassie, who fell in love with Cole. Tennyson arrived in Salem shortly after that and made his way to West Side Magick. I’d known instantly he belonged with my sons. One day, not long after that, Ronan showed up, then he met you. I knew you were special from the moment I saw you, Jude. I watched with curiosity as you began to change and grow. You saved Ronan’slife and almost lost your own. It was around that time that I began to feel Cope.”
“What do you mean you began tofeelhim?” Even after being with Cope for seven years, he still wasn’t entirely sure how his gift worked.
“I started having visions of my own. Short little snapshots. Pictures of this man lying in a pool of his own blood. In a hospital room with an armed guard. All alone at a beach house. Like Cole did with Carson, I took a deeper dive into my vision, saw the attempted murder took place in Cope’s store Skullduggery, which I found out, thanks to Carson, was in New Orleans. I did the same thing with the pictures I saw of the beach. It took a while, but I was able to see a police car stationed near Cope’s house when he went to get the mail one day. The city name on the cruiser was Galveston.”
“Sounds like you and Carson were the original detectives in this family.” Jude could see the way the threads of fate were weaving together to bring everyone into this place and time.
“You got that right!” Bertha gave Jude’s hand another squeeze. “I started spending time with Cope. Getting to know him.”
“You mean spying on him?” Jude asked with a knowing grin.
“You could say that. When I finally introduced myself to Cope, he looked at me like I was his savior. I think he saw a little of what I had to offer in terms of family and the psychic shop. Later, I started seeing him in my visions with you. At first I thought that was the most ridiculous thing going. You were boning every man you could get your dick into and Cope was a bird with a broken wing. Getting the two of you together seemed ridiculous and reckless, until the day you took a bullet for Ronan. I’d already been spending time with Everly’s little soul.If anything had happened to Ronan, poof! No Everly.” Bertha stopped for a second, her eyes misty.
Jude watched, fascinated, as Bertha got her emotions back under control. He couldn’t imagine what life would have been like without Ronan, Everly, and Ezra.
“Anyway,” Bertha began, “I knew in that moment you were the reason I was seeing visions of Cope. You were soul mates, but I knew it wouldn’t be easy pulling the strings to get you two together.”
Jude smiled, feeling wistful. “All you had to do was get Cope to Massachusetts. I knew we were meant to be the second he fainted in my arms on Ten and Ronan’s stoop.”
“That was a surprise,” Bertha said with a laugh. “You were the ultimate himbo, but five minutes with Cope and you were a changed man.”
“You’re right.” It was obvious Bertha had known what would happen when he and Cope were introduced. He assumed she saw Wolf and then Lizbet coming into their lives. What else did Bertha know? He was about to ask, but she beat him to the punch.
“You’re going to be okay, Jude. I know that for a fact. It’s going to take a little time for you to be back to your old self. Let people help you. Let Wolf shovel the stairs. Work from the office or at home. Let Ronan and Fitz do the heavy lifting for a while. Build back your strength, Superman. I know it won’t be easy, but you’ve already proven you can do hard things.”
Jude knew Bertha was right. He only knew one speed, full tilt, full time. It wouldn’t be easy, but he would find a way to slow down and let his body heal. “Santa is bringing Wolf some newLEGO kits. They’ll give me plenty of time to sit on my ass and hang out with my son.”
“That’s a good boy.” Bertha beamed at Jude. “There’s one last thing I want to show you.” She held out her hand.
