CHAPTER SEVEN
“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Manda said, pushing open Sierra’s bedroom door on Monday morning. “Look, breakfast in bed. Aren’t you a lucky cow.” She pushed aside the clock radio and placed the tray with the scrambled eggs and fried plantains on the bedside table. This used to be Sierra’s favorite breakfast as a child. Sierra sat up in bed bare-breasted.
“For cripes sake, put on a shirt, will ya.” Manda said. Sierra rarely slept in anything except her knickers. She saved her nightclothes for loungewear.
Sierra just scowled at her. “This won’t make up for what you’re doing,” she said. “How can you abandon me to go visit that nutter?”
“She’s not a nutter and I told you already, Tee is sick, and Angie needs my help at the restaurant.” Manda sat on the edge of the bed. She took a plantain slice off the plate and bit into it. She felt a little guilty about saddling poor Tee with an illness, but Sierra wouldn’t remotely accept any other excuse that related to Angie.
“So now you’ll do anything for Angie, but not your own sister.”
“Come now, you know that’s not true.”
“Then why are you letting me show up at this brunch alone?”
“It’s not all about you, you know. People can’t help being sick, can they? Besides, you won’t be alone for long. You always know people wherever we go.”
“That’s not the point,” Sierra said. She had never liked showing up anywhere by herself. If she had her way, she would always be surrounded by an entourage.
Manda cleared her throat. “I made you some special tea.” She took a cup off the tray and held it out to Sierra.
“What is it?”
“Oh, just something I bought in Brooklyn. It’s made of…special herbs. The man said it’s supposed to be very good for you. And it must be because the old bloke is about one hundred years old, but he moves like a young boy.”
Sierra sniffed at the cup. “It smells like hell,” she said.
“But it comes from heaven.” Manda gave Sierra a benign smile.
Her sister glanced at her sideways. “Why are you looking at me like that? What’s in it really?”
“Come on, just drink it,” Manda said, patting her leg. “You said the trouble at the radio station is beginning to get to you. This will help calm your nerves, I promise.”
“But I won’t back down,” Sierra said, her voice belligerent. “I refuse to let a bunch of lunatics dictate what I can or can’t talk about on my own show. Would they do that to Oprah? They wouldn’t dare.” She raised the cup to her lips.
Manda leaned forward. Drink it, she pleaded silently.
Sierra lowered the cup again. “I just can’t believe how crazy people are. You should see the letters. They’re unbelievable.”
“Drink the tea, love. It’ll calm you right down.”
“And I don’t care what you say. I know Angie is behind some of them.”
“Drink the tea.” Manda gave the cup a gentle nudge.
“Alright, damn it.” Sierra raised the cup and took a sip. Her mouth twisted downwards. “Ugh. This is just horrible,” she said. “How can anyone drink this rubbish?” She put the cup on the night table.
“The taste will grow on you.” Manda picked up the cup and put it back in Sierra’s hands. “Now quit mucking around and drink it.”
Sierra took one more sip. “Thanks, but no thanks,” she said. She put the cup back on the table. She climbed out of bed and headed off to the bathroom. At the door, she stopped to shimmy her behind at Manda. Another of her childhood favorites.
“So much for that,” Manda mumbled. Saving Sierra’s life wasn’t going to be easy. Not if Sierra had anything to do with it.
An hour later, Manda came down the front steps of the building carrying her subway map. She saw Noah by the road, just about to get into his car. He looked handsome and summer-ready in a white t-shirt, blue jeans and brown sandals. He smiled when he spotted her.
“Off to enjoy this great weather?” he called out.
“No, I’m off to Queens,” Manda said, standing at the bottom of the stairs.
“Queens? What’s going on out there?”
“I’ve got a cousin who lives in Queens Village,” she said. “I’m paying her a visit.”
“Hey, if you’d like, I’d be happy to give you a lift.”
“Thanks, but I couldn’t ask you to do that,” she said. “I’ll be alright. I’ve got my map, some water and everything I need to pass the time.”
“You’re not asking, I’m offering,” Noah said.
“But it’s too far.”
“I’ve driven cross country on book tours. Now that’s a long way.” Noah cocked his head. “Anyway, I was just going to jump in my car and go for a drive out of the city, find a patch of green somewhere and just stretch out and enjoy the weather.”
“Then don’t change your plans on my account.” She bent down to loosen the straps of her white sandals. It was actually Sierra’s sandals, which she had squeezed into at the last moment, since one of the straps had just broken on hers.
“Listen,” Noah said. “I don’t mind. Really. I’d rather have your company.”
Manda looked at his sleek blue car. If she took the train, it would probably take her nearly an hour just to get to Angie’s stop. And then there would be another long ride on the bus from the station to the restaurant.
“Alright,” she said, shrugging.
Noah ran around and opened the passenger door of his car.
“That’s a pretty dress you’re wearing,” he said, when she passed him and slid inside. “Did you make it?”
“I did, actually,” Manda said, smiling at him as he sat down in the driver’s seat and started the car.
She called Angie on Noah’s phone, and got the driving directions to the restaurant. The drive across the city was quite pleasant. The sky was a perfect blue, and a warm sun beat down on the crowds cramming the city streets. Noah stopped to buy water from a street vendor and tossed a bottle to Manda. He put on a Bowie CD and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the music.
“Is this a new car?” Manda asked him, taking a sip of the cold water.
He nodded.
“It smells like it,” she said.
“My old Honda bit the dust somewhere near San Francisco on my last cross-country trek.”
As they headed through the city, they had to take a roundabout route to avoid a large street fair that stretched down Third Avenue. She didn’t mind. She was enjoying the ride. And Noah’s company. He pointed out restaurants where he liked to eat, and told her some of the history behind certain buildings. She asked him about his trips across America, and he told her about things that had happened and people he had met along the way. He still kept in touch with some of them. He really loved these trips and looked forward to doing another one in the autumn. Noah was a people-lover, the sort of bloke who feasted happily on the scraps and detritus of other people’s lives.
“So,” Noah said, suddenly. “How does New York compare to London?”
“Well, it’s certainly a good deal hotter here,” she said. “But I can see why Sierra loves it so much.” She also shared Sierra’s attraction to cities. She loved a busy, wide-awake life, the kind cities offered in abundance. New York City was appealing, with its constant hyperactivity, and the perpetual rumbling of trains that ran all night. In a way, New York was more modern than London. “It’s like a masquerade ball where you can come all dressed up as the person you dream of being, and no one ever has to know the difference,” she told Noah.
“Sierra said you’re a nurse.” Noah glanced at her. “Had you ever dreamed of becoming a designer?”
“Yes, when I was younger I thought about it for a while. But it’s not very practical, is it?” In spite of that, she had finally given in to Sierra’s constant urgings about following up with Antoinette, the woman who had wanted to see her designs. One evening, Sierra brought out her digital camera and took photos of Manda’s clothes, using the living room curtains as a backdrop. Then they had emailed the photos to Antoinette. Manda didn’t expect much to come of it, and she hardly dared to hope. She hadn’t come to New York to be a designer after all, as she kept reminding herself.
“Nursing is a lot more stable, and I think nurses contribute far more to humanity than designers, don’t you?” she asked Noah.
Noah shrugged. “There’s good in both,” he said. “I think we contribute the most to humanity when we use all our best gifts. And besides, both nurses and designers are after the same basic goal. To make people look and feel good.”
Manda smiled across at him. “I never thought of it that way.” She watched as a flower vendor pulled a mixed bouquet of flowers from his cart and handed it to a woman. She liked being a nurse, but if she was honest with herself, she had gone into the profession to appease her parents more than for any other reason. They hadn’t come all the way to England to watch their children go after frivolous careers. And Sierra was impractical enough for the both of them. But if Manda could have started all over again…she brushed the thought away. People hardly started all over again. Why bother think about it?
“Thanks, Noah, I really appreciate this ride,” she said. “You saved me a trip I wasn’t looking forward to.”
“Anytime,” he said, winking at her.
“Daniel hates driving. Especially in the city, with all those cars crowded together in traffic.”
“Who? Your ex?”
Manda looked out the window. She hadn’t meant to talk about Daniel, but he had been such a huge part of her life, not thinking or talking about him at all was like trying to ignore a giant rock sitting on her chest. In a silver car next to them, two little boys sat in the back wrestling over a video game while their parents sat up front laughing about something.
“Sounds like he’s an agoraphobic,” Noah said.
“No, he just doesn’t like driving,” Manda said. But maybe Noah was right. The longer she was away from Daniel, the more of a stranger he was becoming. She missed the Daniel she had known. The ache never went away, especially at night. She had rang his number again the evening before, but his voicemail had come on as usual. If they had gone ahead and gotten married as planned, they would have already returned from their honeymoon. But here she was, thousands of miles away from him and all that happiness she had anticipated. If her love-life had a theme song, it would have been “Alone Again, Naturally.”
Manda had been just about to ask Noah about his past relationships, when she suddenly caught sight of a figure standing in the road, not ten yards ahead of them. A figure Manda recognized instantly, with its long dark frock, unmistakable gray locks, and hard, piercing eyes. Dar. The car barreled towards her.
“Noah, stop,” Manda yelled, grabbing his shoulder.
Noah slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to a stop in the middle of the road. The driver behind them had to hit his brakes to keep from crashing into their back. He swerved his car around them, yelled something out his window and sped off.
“What’s wrong? Did I hit something?” Noah asked, peering out the windshield.
Manda struggled to catch her breath. “In…in the road.”
“What? I didn’t see anything.” Noah opened his door carefully and went around the front of the car. He bent down to look under it. Manda went rigid in her seat, although she knew he wouldn’t find anything. The driver behind them started to honk. Noah straightened back up and looked around him. He shrugged.
“There’s nothing there,” he said, getting back into the car.
“No, she…” Her heart had come loose. It bounced around in her chest.
“You saw someone?”
Manda buried her face in her hands and shook her head. She could feel her body trembling.
Noah steered the car out of traffic and stopped at the side of the road. He turned to her. “Are you okay?”
She drew in a ragged breath. “I’m fine.”
“Maybe you saw a shadow,” he said. “The sun is very bright today. It can create mirages.”
She turned slowly and looked at the empty road beyond him. “Yes, you’re probably right.”
Noah rubbed her shoulder. “You’ve been through a lot lately,” he said. “It can be very hard on the mind. But it will get better.”
Manda nodded. She remembered Sierra had said he was a trained therapist.
He started the engine again and pulled back into traffic. As they drove on in silence, Manda thought about the Obeah man’s words. “Your duppy follow you.” But the herbal bath was supposed to wash away evil. Wash off spirits. Yet it hadn’t worked. She remembered something else he had said – that the fault was in the patient, not the doctor. What was she doing wrong? Why couldn’t she get rid of Dar?
“If you don’t mind telling me,” Noah said, interrupting her thoughts. “What happened between you and Daniel?”
“It’s too hard to explain,” she said.
“It’s just that, I can’t imagine what kind of loser would leave a woman like you.” Noah reached over and touched the back of her hand lightly. He held her gaze for a moment, before turning his attention back to the road.
Manda realized she had been holding her breath, and she released it slowly. It still made her uncomfortable, that way he had of looking into her eyes as if they were the private journals that hid all her thoughts.
“Turn right, here,” she said, as they reached Hillside Avenue. She could hear the shakiness in her voice. “There, that’s the restaurant. On the left.” They pulled up in front of a tiny building squashed between a beauty salon and a Chinese restaurant. The words Big Yard were painted in yellow on the building’s green awning.
The minute they stopped at the curb, Angie came hurrying out the door. She was dressed in a stained white apron that reached down to the knees of her jeans, and had a black hairnet pulled over her wig. She grinned, and the sun spangled off her gold tooth. Manda grimaced. She had never had an easy time introducing her relatives to other people. Then she felt instantly guilty for thinking that way. Angie was a great girl. She got out of the car and gave her cousin a hug.
“Who’s that?” Angie whispered, peering past Manda.
Noah came out of his car and approached them. “Thought you might need your subway map for the trip back,” he said, handing it to Manda.
“This is Noah, Sierra’s neighbor,” Manda said.
Noah shook Angie’s hand and she smiled up at him. She seemed so much shorter than before, standing in front of Noah.
“Why don’t you come in,” Angie said.
“He was just dropping me off,” Manda said before Noah could answer. “He’s on his way somewhere.”
“You can’t send the boy away hungry. Where’s your manners?” Angie grabbed Noah’s arm and pulled him towards the door.
He turned around and mouthed “Sorry” to Manda, before Angie yanked him into the restaurant.
“Angie-.” Manda hung back for a moment. She wished her cousin hadn’t done that. She had embarrassed herself enough in front of him for one day. She could have made him crash his car. He probably thought she was losing her mind.
Manda opened the door and went inside. There was a line of people stretching from the door to the glass partition, behind which all the food was spread out in metal bins. Tee waved to Manda from his place at the cash register, and she felt another moment of guilt for lying to Sierra about him being sick.
“We’re always busiest at lunch-time,” Angie said to Manda and Noah. “But come. Sit here, and just tell me what you want and I’ll go get it. It’s on us.” She seated them at a table for two, and brought back menus.
“I already know what I want,” Noah said. “Jerk chicken and rice and peas. And can you bring me some pepper sauce?”
Both Manda and Angie turned to gaze at him.
“I’m one-quarter Jamaican,” he said, smiling.
Angie looked impressed. She bent over and hugged Noah around the head. “Forget about that foo-fool boy in London. This is the one you should marry,” she said.
Manda picked up the menu and covered her face. What was Angie trying to do? Embarrass the daylights out of her?
“Angie, wasn’t there something you wanted to tell me?” she said from behind the menu. That was the real reason she was here, after all.
“Oh, yes, yes. When you finish your lunch, I’ll come get you.”
Manda ordered a curry chicken dish with boiled bananas, yam and dumplings, and a glass of sorrel, and Angie hurried off to get their lunches. She caught Noah staring into her face.
“Your eyes,” he said. “The right one is different from the left. There’s a ring around it.”
“I know, it’s always been that way,” Manda said, looking down.
“I’ve never seen that before.” Noah peered closer at her.
“It’s…” Manda paused as she remembered what the Obeah man had said. All visionaries mark-up with something. “It’s just a part of me,” she told Noah.
“Your eyes are beautiful,” Noah said, warmly. “Like you.”
“Hmmm, where’s Angie with our lunch?” Manda looked towards the crowded counter, trying to avert his eyes.
Noah took the hint and dropped the subject. “Yes, I’m starving too,” he said.
“Just don’t touch Angie’s pepper sauce,” Manda said. “It should come with a warning label.”
But that only served to make Noah more intent on trying it. When Angie brought their meals, he reminded her about the pepper sauce, and she ran off to get it.
“Wow, this food is great,” he said. He ate slowly, savoring each mouthful.
Manda had to admit that Angie’s curry chicken was even better than her mother’s.
Angie came back a few minutes later with the pepper sauce, and Noah poured a heap of it onto the side of his plate.
“Be careful,” Manda said. “That’s too much.”
“I can handle it,” Noah said. “I’m one-quarter Jamaican, remember?” He took a piece of plantain and used it to scoop a lot of sauce into his mouth. In an instant his eyes popped. He flashed at his mouth with his hands.
“My mouth ith on fah,” he said. Sweat poured down his face. He looked left and right, as if searching for a pool to jump into.
He had already finished his glass of sorrel, and so Manda handed hers to him. He drank it down in one long gulp.
Manda shook her head, feeling sorry for the bloke. She took a couple packets of sugar from a little basket on the table and gave them to him.
“Suck on these. It might help a little,” she said.
He tore the packets open and shook them into his mouth, while she went to the counter and requested some water from a sour-faced girl who was helping Angie to serve food. As the girl passed it to Manda, she gave her a resentful look.
“Don’t mind that lazy wretch,” Angie said, ducking under the counter and following Manda back to the table. “She’s Tee’s cousin. She used to have to walk clear down gully bottom to draw river water, and now she act like it pain her to turn on a tap.”
Manda laughed. She handed the water to Noah, who gulped it down desperately like a parched man in a desert. The skin on his throat had turned red.
“Poor bugger,” Angie said, patting Noah’s forehead with a napkin. “Your tongue may be one-quarter Jamaican, but you forgot about the other three-quarters.”
Noah nodded and tried to smile.
“Manda, follow me round the back,” Angie said. “I can take a little break now. Colleen can handle things for a while.”
“Will you be alright?” Manda asked Noah. She hated leaving him there in such obvious distress.
He nodded again and fanned his mouth.
Manda followed Angie through a door marked “Employees Only”, into a hall just outside the kitchen.
“I want to tell you about a dream I had,” Angie said. “But first tell me, what happen with you and Tee’s Obeah man. What did he tell you?”
Manda told her everything the man had said, and how reluctant she had been to get in the bath, and that she swore she had seen two yellow eyes watching her. Angie laughed.
“And he gave me some tea to give Sierra,” she continued. “But when I tried to get her to drink it this morning, she absolutely refused.”
“Of course, she did, that stubborn donkey,” Angie said. “She don’t recognize when people trying to help her.” She held Manda’s arms, and her face got solemn.
“Last night, Mama Dove come to me in a dream,” she said, referring to their grandmother. “I dream I was walking in the cane field out back of her house, and I hear her voice calling, ‘Angie, come up on the veranda.’ That’s how she always used to call me when she had something to tell me. So I come out of the cane field and up the veranda steps, and I see her sitting in the same chair she used to sit in when she was alive. And she shake her head and say to me, ‘The duppies are restless. The Obeah woman stir dem up.’ And I ask her, ‘Mama, what can I do?’ And she say, ‘The girl must stop her tongue. She’s tempting her own fate’. And Manda, I wake up shaking so bad, Tee had to get out of bed and warm up some milk for me.”
“Speaking of duppies,” Manda said. “I saw Dar in the road on the way over here. She was standing right in front of Noah’s car. But naturally, he didn’t see anything.”
“Of course not. She don’t have no business with Noah.”
“But she does with me. How marvelous. So do you think your dream was about Sierra?”
“Who else? Anytime Mama comes to me in a dream, it’s always to warn me about something. Like how she come tell me I was gonna lose the baby.”
“You lost a baby? Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Yes, Ma’am, but I don’t want to talk about that now,” Angie said. “Manda, you must make your sister stop. She won’t listen to me. Tell her she’s stirring up more trouble than she knows.”
“Sierra doesn’t listen to me either,” Manda said. “The only person she takes seriously is Nik.”
“Then talk to Nik. Maybe he can get through to her.”
“Who do you think is spurring her on?”
“You told her about your vision?” Angie asked.
“I tried, but she didn’t want to hear it. And she can’t bring herself to believe what some old Obeah woman said before she was born.”
Angie squatted down and sat on a box. “Let me tell you about something that happen to me when I was jus’ finishing high school in Spanish Town. One day I was riding my bicycle past somebody’s house. I saw a crowd of people outside, and I asked them what’s going on. The people tell me there was a woman inside who could tell you anything about yourself. I didn’t believe in that kind of thing back then.” Angie let out a laugh, like she had been so naïve.
“So I decide to prove them wrong. I put my bicycle down and go line up with the people. When it was my turn, I went into the woman’s house. She made me drop a coin in a bucket by the door, and when I sit down, the first thing the woman ask me was, ‘Who’s Alfred?’ I told her Alfred is my father. The woman said, ‘He’s a policeman?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ And she tell me my father was gonna meet in an accident, and it would take him a long time to recover. Then she tell me Mama Dove was gonna have a dangerous operation, but she would live. And Lord, Manda, let me tell you – everything the woman tell me would happen, happen just like she said.”
“That’s amazing,” Manda said. But it was also frightening. If psychic visions could be that accurate, how could anyone prevent them from happening?
Tee appeared at the hall door. “Manda, your boyfriend wants to know if he should wait for you.”
“He’s just a friend,” Manda said. “Tell him I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Man don’t like to be kept waiting,” she heard Tee mumble as he turned back through the door.
“If I were you, I would have a word with that boyfriend of Sierra’s,” Angie said.
“I’ll try,” Manda told her. “But I can’t promise anything.”
She went back out front to where Noah still sat at the table, sipping more water.
“Are you okay? You look a little upset,” he said, touching her arm as he rose.
“I just need to get home,” Manda said. She was suddenly very glad he had stayed with her for lunch.
Angie walked them outside. “Wait,” she said, just as they reached the car. “I nearly forget something.” She ran back into the restaurant and came out a short while later with two foil dishes filled with food for them. Then she pulled Manda away from Noah, until they were standing under the restaurant’s shaded green awning.
“Here,” Angie, said, slipping a bottle into Manda’s hand. “Take this and put it in a corner of your clothes closet, where it’s nice and dark.”
“Is it some sort of charm? Isn’t it better if I put it in Sierra’s closet?” Manda raised the bottle to her face and peered into it. The bottle was just like the kind from which Angie had poured glasses of sorrel for them earlier. Opaque white, with an orange cap. It was filled with a clear brown liquid that looked like tea, and there were two pieces of folded paper floating inside.
“I guess it could work no matter where you put it,” Angie said. “But I think you should keep it close.”
Manda pushed the bottle down into a corner of her purse. Just one month ago, it would have made her smirk in amusement to hear Aunt Beryl or Sherrie talking about charms and spells and other such things. Now here she was, about to go hide a bottle in her closet, willing to try anything that might change the future for her and Sierra. She was now a hopeful Thomas, as opposed to a doubting one.
Manda thanked her and kissed her goodbye. When Noah bent over to hug Angie, she pulled his ear down and whispered something to him.
“What did she say to you?” Manda asked, when they had driven away from the restaurant.
“Nothing,” he said. But his neck had gone even redder.
“Hmm,” Manda said. She turned and waved at Angie, who gave her a big, exaggerated gold-toothed grin.
And Manda did have a word with Nik the next day, for all the good it did. He came home with Sierra and immediately kicked off his shoes, turned the television to the History channel and made himself comfortable on the sofa. He was soon engrossed in a show about UFO sightings. Manda sat down in the armchair adjacent to him. She held the book Noah had bought for her on her lap. She waited until Sierra went into her bedroom to change out of her Sistah Britain alter ego, complete with yellow leather pants and her white cowboy boots.
“Sierra told me she’s been getting threatening letters,” Manda said to Nik.
Nik laughed and shook his head. “Unbelievable.”
“This is serious,” she said, but then softened her tone. “Nik, don’t you think this whole Obeah bashing has gone on long enough?”
“Listen,” Nik said, looking over at her. “You never stop doing what works. We haven’t had this kind of response since the fat and flabulous topic last year. A whole fat posse, storming the station.” He laughed again. “Boy, that was heavy.”
“Well, as amusing as that might’ve been,” Manda said. “There must be a million other topics Sierra could talk about.”
“Yes, but this one’s a winner. Who knew?” Nik kissed his silver ring. “And when it runs dry, she’ll go on to something else.”
“What about your listeners? They’re offended. Don’t you care if you lose them?”
“Manda, these are just a few nut-jobs who have nothing better to do with their time. Trust me, they’re not going anywhere.”
“Well…there could be consequences.”
“Consequences? What consequences. We’ll gain a bigger audience. That’s good.”
“Is that all that matters to you?” she asked him, her voice tense.
Nik nodded. “Frankly, yes. That’s what keeps us in business.”
“Well, I think Sierra’s headed for an iceberg if she keeps this up.”
“Nah.” Nik turned his attention back to his show.
But Manda wasn’t going to let him dismiss her like that. “Look, we both care about Sierra, and I’m really worried about these threats she’s been getting. I don’t think they should be taken so lightly.”
“Manda, you’re taking it too hard,” Nik said. “As my grandfather always said, don’t let the ship suck you down. Don’t you worry about Sierra. I can take care of her well enough.”
“But what if someone comes after her when you’re not there?”
He fixed Manda with a steady gaze. “They would live to regret it,” he said.
Manda sat back. From the look on his face, she knew he meant it. “Perhaps. But things don’t have to get that far, Nik. Not if you tell her to stop talking about Obeah and go on to another topic. It’s simple.”
“I’m not telling her anything,” Nik said. “Sierra is free to talk about whatever she wants.”
Manda studied the cover of her book. “Well, did you know an Obeah curse may have been behind the sinking of the Titanic?” she asked, speaking to him in a language he could understand. One evening when he had cooked dinner for them at his flat, he had taken Manda from room to room, showing her his collection of Titanic memorabilia. He had a huge painting of the ship hanging in his living room, and on a side table below it was a black-and-white photograph of his great-grandfater, Nicos.
“Where did you hear that?” Nik gave her an incredulous look.
Manda opened her book to the page she had book-marked and passed it to him. She watched his face as he read it to himself.
“Ha. This is funny,” Nik said.
“What’s funny?” Sierra asked, coming back into the room.
Manda looked up and gasped when she saw her. On her sister’s head was a white scarf decorated with butterflies – the exact scarf she had been wearing in the visions just before she fell off the cliff. Before she could stop herself, Manda leaped up as Sierra reached the couch. She snatched the scarf off her sister’s head. She stood staring down at it, clutched tightly in her hand.