ON THE ROAD WITH DANNY: Chicago Revisited

Title: "Tina"

Companion Piece: None

Danny took the worn down business card from his wallet and stared at it. He looked up at the address and it was correct. What was he doing, he thought. Oh, what the hell. Danny walked into the small downstairs room that was illuminated with low lighting. It had been a month since the woman had come up to him on the street. Never in a million years would Danny Concannon find himself going to a psychic but the circumstances seemed so strange, as a man of curiosity first and foremost he couldn't stop thinking about it. She had never asked him for money and the fact that she had seemed compelled to run after him. The journalist in him had his interest peaked. Danny thought that seven years ago, before he met CJ, he would have never found himself in this situation. Was it her state of mind that had rubbed off on him or was it her presence in his life that made him believe in things like fate and destiny? He wasn't sure.

"You came?" said a voice from behind the beads.

"Yeah?" Danny said with a sheepish blow of air making his voice a rasp.

"The man with the amazing aura. I'm glad you decided to come." She appeared to Danny.

"Shouldn't you know I was going to come?" He joked.

"We don't work that way." She smiled. "Besides we all have free will, we all have decisions. You made a choice. Come in." Danny looked around and took a step further into the room.

"I'm here on merely journalistic intentions."

"What kind of reporting do you usually do?' She said with a bit of sarcasm.

"Politics."

"I can see how I could help." Again she said it with a hint of sarcasm as she sat down at the round table in the center of the room.

"Well, that depends." Danny laughed with a small hint of uncomfortably. "Who's gonna win the next Presidential election?" He put his hands in his pockets.

"Again, I don't do that."

"Okay." Danny stood and nodded his head.

"But thanks for the encouragement." She smiled slyly.

"No Problem."

"You gonna sit?"

"Yeah?"

"Sit."

"Yeah." Danny didn't sit.

"I don't bite."

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"-Don't usually do this type of thing?"

"Yeah."

"You don't have to-"

"-No, no. That's why I'm here, isn't it." Danny took a breath and pulled out the chair for himself. He leaned his arms on the table folded in. They looked at each other for a moment. Tina coughed politely. Danny didn't get it. He looked around wondering when the show was going to start.

"Danny, I don't do this for free. I have a kid to-"

"-Oh yeah, sorry." Danny took his wallet out of his back pocket. "How much?"

"Twenty."

Danny nodded his head and placed a twenty-dollar bill in front of him, sliding it across the scarf-covered table to Tina.

"Thank you." She smiled politely and folded the bill into her pocket.

"Your hand." Tina reached her arms out for Danny to bring his hand closer.

"Does it matter which one?"

"No."

"Okay." Danny reached his arm and hand into the center and Tina took the hand in her two hands. She felt the indentions in the palm of his hand and let her fingers sooth Danny into relaxing. She closed her eyes and felt Danny's hand.

"You have a very stressful job."

"Not to me."

"You work late. You're tired a lot."

"I can be."

"Don't work yourself too hard."

"Is my mother speaking through you now?"

"Be quiet." Tina opened her eyes. "And I don't do that. You've seen Ghost too many times."

"No, I haven't."

"Shh - Just talk as I ask. Don't be such a smart mouth."

"I'm not usually, but I've spent to much time with someone back home. She's rubbing off on me."

"Home? Not Michigan."

"You know that from holding my palm?"

"I know that by your accent."

"Oh."

"You've left something behind—home- something you love. Two things you love." Danny took a gulp.

"Yes."

"You're in love."

"In so many ways."

"I see a wall. I don't know if it's physical or internal, but it is man made." Tina ran her fingers over Danny's palm smoothing the center with her thumb. "And this is why you can't be with her."

Danny was floored. Was he reading into what Tina was saying because it really seemed to be hitting close to home?

"Do you want me to continue?"

Danny paused for a moment taking in what he had been hearing.

"Yes." He said softly full of emotion.

"So this is true?"

"It sounds it."

"You have been in love with her for a long time, since first sight, she is the one."

"Yes." Danny said slowly.

"You may be unsure sometimes, but she loves you too, she may not even be able to admit it herself but she does…and this wall- this man made device is what keeps her from admitting it to herself, but…she keeps a reminder of you on her...her nightstand-no her desk, she keeps something you gave her, and its orange? Orange?….she keeps it on her desk to always remind her of you."

Danny took in too many breaths that curdled his throat.

"Could I have a glass of water? I'm sorry."

"Yes." Tina turned around and poured Danny a glass of ice water. Danny caught silently thanked her as he downed half the glass.

"Thank you." Danny took a breath.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Danny relaxed himself.

"Should I continue?"

"Yeah."

She took his hand again, taking a moment to find where she had been with him.

"She still loves you and that's why you're away from her because you can't be together, she did something that made it harder...you can't get over her."

"No."

"You're waiting for her?"

"Yes."

"Because it's getting closer?"

"Yes."

"If you wait she will come around. I see her as part of your aura. This is what you wish to come true isn't it? This is what I caught in you! You are a kind and sweet, and thoughtful man Danny Concannon. Honest and trustworthy, you do good things."

"I'm a reporter, I told you that.-" Danny tried to pull his hand away, but Tina kept it in her hold.

"I see letters. Two letters. Your love, this woman, no one sees her as her true self. Not like you, but you still call her by another name. She is always under the guise of another?" Tina paused. "She has a nickname? Yes. A nickname. She is her true born self to no one, not even you in this way. They call her something else. The men in her life. She is someone else."

"Yes, she has a nickname."

"Makes her feel like one of them."

'Yes." Danny laughed.

"Two letters. Initials."

"Yes." Danny couldn't believe how close she was getting. "In the place with your name she also has your name. And someday will have both your names."

"You see this?"

"I see you love her and she loves you. But we all have decisions. You want to give up?"

"Sometimes. What do you mean the place with my name?"

"I don't know, its what I see. Sometimes it's hard for me to describe. I keep seeing letters in the alphabet. They all seem similar, but I can't see what they are. I know she is in the place, like her name, is your name?" She paused. "It's harder to be away, so you stay away?"

"Yes. She…she compromised her job for me I can't let her do that. I loved that she did it. I love her for it. But I can't let her do it again."

"And you love her."

"I need to shake it."

"You won't. Her aura and yours are mixed. We all have a soul that is intermingled with us. She is yours although you don't have her yet."

"It is in the stars?" Danny said with humor.

"Meant, yes. When we meet our sworn lover, our friend, our companion, it all falls into place and the body knows it. You fell in love with her at first sight and you didn't know why?"

"Yes." Danny remembered the moment and his heart hurt.

"And then when you got to know her you learned why you loved her."

"Yes. It all fit."

"That's how it works - but you still have choices to make. You make the choice." She let go of Danny's hand. "Give me your other hand."

Danny gave her his other hand.

"You have a very long life line." She told him Danny.

"I do. Good." He laughed.

"Yes, and I see children."

"Children? I'm getting a little old to have a family."

"I see at least one child. Maybe more."

"You do?"

"Red haired children with their red haired mother, or is she blond?" Tina was confused. "Her hair keeps changing colors-"

"That's my girl." He lowered his head and smiled.

Tina let go of his hand and placed his sweetly on the table.

"I think we're done for now."

"Okay," he said softly.

"Was that okay?"

"It was interesting that's for sure." Danny got up. "Thank you. I should be going anyway." Danny felt like jelly not knowing what to think about what had just happened to him.

"Anytime man with the amazing aura. You are destined for great things."

"If you mean New York and Colombia University in May. You're right." Danny said in a joking manner.

"You're getting a Pulitzer?"

"Another one." Danny said trying not to sound proud. "But aren't you - that's right you don't do that kind of stuff." Danny walked for the door.

"A moment of happiness will come to you there. Trust it. Enjoy the moment Danny. Enjoy it." She smiled those all knowing and penetrating eyes.

Danny smiled unsure what to make of it and started to leave.

"Wait." He turned around. " I never told you my last name, and you knew it."

"I said I don't guess elections and awards…your name I can do-not always-"

"Yeah."

"Your name fits you."

"Yeah?"

"So tell me where are you from? What's home now?" She paused." Any idea what I meant by the initials and your name?"

"You want me to translate what you said?"

"Hey, I'm just as curious as you?"

"I work in Washington DC." Danny paused. "The place that's like my name? DC." He laughed. "I just got it."

"Yeah, I saw that."

" She's in DC?"

"Yeah, she's in DC."

"In so many ways."

Danny thanked her and left the building.