-S-
Jennifer’s house was very interesting. She was living in a one bedroom apartment. The walls were dark gray and there were many paintings and pictures on them. There was also some kind of religious idol and other artifacts too. Jennifer was interested in the supernatural and believed in psychic power. Sara looked around at the pictures one by one. Some of them looked very abstract, but others were representative art. Since Sara liked flowers, she stayed near the painting with a sunflower under the sun. She saw them one by one up close. “This is a little bit scary, but it’s cool.” Sara saw the picture of a gothic looking woman staring at the camera.
“That was me.” Jennifer said.
“This was you?”
“Yes, and they are all my pictures and paintings.”
“Oh my gosh, you are so talented.”
Sara kept looking at the paintings while Jennifer spread the plastic cover on the floor and placed a wooden board gently on top. Sara saw the painting of apple trees. The board had holes the size of people’s heads. Their goal was simple. Make the back ground board for the pictures and let people take funny pictures with the funny background.
“This is amazing, Jennifer.”
“Thanks. We need to make one more background.” Soon Bailey and Michelle came in with big brushes.
“Look! She’s amazing.” Sara told them.
“We already knew that she was good,” Bailey said while she put the brushes on the floor. Jennifer asked the other girls to paint big spaces and they worked together. After a while Jake and Shawn came with a stand.
“This is very nice. Where did you get it?” Michelle really liked the board stand.
“I bought it from my uncle for $50,” Shawn said smiling. Sara thought Bailey and Shawn looked similar when they laughed. Jake did not say much. Sara thought he seemed unhappy.
“Hey Jake, what happened to your fried apples?” Sara asked.
“It didn’t work. It tasted like crap.” Jake said without looking at Sara.
“Oh, I am sorry to hear that.” Sara felt awkward and came back to the girls. Jennifer and Michelle went in to Jennifer’s room to find the picture for them to copy. Bailey gestured for Sara to come over. Sara walked to Bailey and said quietly, “Jake doesn’t seem happy.”
“It’s because of Jennifer.”
“What? Why?”
“Well. Jake likes Jennifer, and she started seeing someone.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, and she posted a picture with the other guy on her Facebook, and I think Jake saw it.”
“Does she know that Jake likes her?”
“Yes. Actually, Jake asked her out before, but it didn’t go well.”
“Oh….that’s sad.”
“So what happened was…” Bailey kept talking even though Sara wasn’t that interested. “Jake really liked Jennifer. He told us that she was his type. He couldn’t sleep the night before their first date because he was so excited. So, he was so tired, he forgot his wallet. They went out for lunch and then he realized his wallet was MIA. So Jennifer paid for lunch and everything. Jennifer is cool, you know, so she was fine, and Jake promised to pay her back. After lunch, they went to see a play, but Jake was so tired that he fell asleep during the play.” Bailey continued telling the story, animated. Sara had a pretty good idea that she liked telling this story.
“So he started snoring.”
“Oh… that’s not cool…”
“I know. Anyway, Jennifer kept waking him up by poking him with her elbow, but Jake kept falling asleep. Later Jennifer got mad and poked him really hard, and then Jake freaked out, and…” Bailey started giggling. “And then, he screamed really loud and stood up during the play! It was so loud and everybody was staring at him and Jennifer. The show actually stopped because of him.”
“Oh, my gosh.” Sara felt embarrassed for them.
“Later he said, he was having this dream that he was working at the hospital, and one of his grumpy patients stabbed him with meth. That’s why he screamed so out loud.”
Bailey giggled. “But it doesn’t end there. The worst part was…” When Bailey was about to continue talking, Sara realized that Shawn was near them. Shawn was looking at them and shook his head and said, “Women….”
“Shut up, Shawn,” Bailey said to him. Soon Jennifer and Michelle came out of the room. Bailey whispered, “I’ll tell you the rest of it later.”
“Sara.” Jennifer called to her. “You said you know how to take pictures.”
“Yes, I took classes, too.”
“I will go see the psychic every day. While I am gone you should take pictures.”
“Yes, I can do that.”
“I assume you know all the basics.”
“Yes.”
“Here.” Jennifer passed her camera to Sara and explained how to use her camera.
After they finished preparing, they came to Sara’s house. Michelle insisted on having a barbeque that night. Jake went home, and Shawn said he was going to watch the video game tournament.
“So it’s a girls’ night then,” Bailey said. They bought what they needed, but they ran out of gas for the barbeque.
“Do we have to go to the store?” Bailey said.
“I will see if I can borrow some.” Sara went to Mr. Mitchell’s house. She felt comfortable talking to him.
While they were eating food, they talked about the guy Jennifer was dating.
“His name is Jason, and he is a painter. I met him at the open studio.”
“I thought he was cute.” After Michelle said that, they Facebook stocked him and kept talking. Bailey and Jennifer added Sara on their Facebook, and Sara brought her laptop and logged into her Facebook. It was been a long time since she had looked on Facebook after she deleted the app from her phone. She accepted the friend request from her friends. She carefully visited Keith’s page. Nothing was changed.
“Sara was so popular at the dance,” Bailey said.
“Oh?!” Everybody hooted again.
“Have you called back any of those guys?” Michelle asked.
“No I haven’t.”
“You didn’t like any of them?” Michelle asked. Sara shook her head quietly.
“You were always very popular in school.”
“No. I wasn’t,” Sara denied.
“Well. You didn’t know because you were always with Keith. I knew dozens of guys who had a crush on you.”
“What happened with Keith?” Jennifer asked.
“We broke up.”
“Why?” Bailey asked.
“It was…just not right.”
“It’s ok, Sara. We will find someone for you. Jason said he has a lot of friends and I have three older brothers. I love matchmaking!” Jennifer said.
“What about us? We need boys, too” Michelle said.
“Of course you guys, too.” They talked about guys for a while and Jennifer turned on Youtube and showed them some psychic videos.
“Check this out. It’s really cool.” Jennifer was excited.
“Is this the one we watched before?”
“No. This is a new one.”
In the video, there was one man who had short, dark hair and a curly-haired middle aged woman on the stage. The stage was dark except for the table where they sat. The man had big, dark eyes. The camera did a close up on his face. He was closed his eyes and then slowly opened them. The woman looked very nervous. "I see him. He has... a mustache. A white mustache. He is smiling at you. He’s trying to say something. Milkshakes..." The woman put her hand on her mouth. She was surprised. "That was his favorite." "Sh...wait. I see another guy next to him. It's a boy... I would say... brown hair. He calls you mom. Did you lose your son?" Suddenly she started to cry loudly.
"Yes, I did. That happened 10 years ago. It was my first son. Oh, please tell him sorry. He died because of me. I… I am so sorry."
The man spoke slowly to her. "You don't have to worry. He says it was not your fault." The woman kept crying.
"This guy is so real. The FBI hired him to solve a lot cases," Jennifer said.
"And he did?" Bailey asked.
"Yes. 100%. He caught all of them."
Sara did not understand why Jennifer liked the psychic that much.
"So he is the one that is coming to the festival?" Michelle asked.
"Yeah, and guess what? They will do the raffle, and pick two people a day, and they will be a guest on the show!" Jennifer was very excited. "The best part is. You can ask him any question. Anything. He tells you what to do, and it works." Jennifer turned on more videos.
"Can I ask him where I’ll find my prince?" Michelle asked as a joke.
"Yes, you can. Check this out." Jennifer found other video.
While other people were watching Youtube, Sara started cleaning and made a hamburger for Mr. Mitchell. Sara did not like those videos because the guests always got so emotional. After Jennifer and Bailey left, Michelle wanted to talk.
"Sara, do you believe in psychics?"
“Yeah, it's like magic, right?"
"Well. I guess so."
"I wish magic was true. It would be so much fun. What about you?"
"Well. I don't. They are all liars, but don't tell Jennifer." Michelle declared, making Sara laugh.
"But it would be nice if someone told you the answers all of the time and could solve your problems.”
“But Sara, if that were possible, we wouldn’t be us anymore. We are us because we make our own choices."
Later that night Sara called her mother. Sara told her mother about her plan and the friends she made.
"I really like it here. It's very comfortable."
"That's great. Grandma loves you there, too."
"She has gotten much better."
"It sounds like it. Can you visit her once a week?"
"Of course, Mom. I love seeing her."
"And… I saw Keith the other day. I think he is doing better. I saw a girl next to him. That's a good thing right? So you don't have to worry about anything."
"Oh, that is great. Thanks for telling me." Sara felt relief and emptiness at the same time. Sara was confused. What was I expecting? However, the most important thing to her was Keith was alright.