Chapter 5

That's the Place to Start

The line to Prunella's room was so long that it stretched across the street. I found a place at a park bench while the line was in a standstill. I used to think the people that believed in psychics were all idiots, but after binky... after my dreams, I couldn't help but think there might be at least something to the supernatural.

My father had traded all my books for a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon a few days before so Fern gave me half of her most recent unfinished manuscript to read. It was a shame that Fern was never published. The language in her stories was so beautiful. I would buy every manuscript, every painting, every musical recording she would create, but there was something about her novels. The father characters were never kind, something bad always happened to them, and they had always done something horrible to their daughters. Something in that spoke to me. Perhaps that was why I enjoyed her fiction so much.

"What are ye' here for?" An old man's voice yelled to the left of me.

"I'm just here to get rid of a bad feeling.

When I turned to him I realized it was my grandpa. I had heard he was in a mental institution For his Alzheimer's. "You're here to see that psychic lady aren't ya'? What do you think of them psychics, huh?"

He obviously didn't recognize me, and I was glad. "I think they're frauds. I think their only purpose is to comfort the weak minded."

His eyes widened. "I like birds. I keep one with me all the time." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a dead pigeon.

I almost abandoned the line altogether but it was moving anyway. I stood up and turned my back to him, hoping some other poor bastard would get in between us.

"Wait, I like squirrels too!" He grabbed my hand.

"Get off of me, you freak!" I pulled away violently.

His eyes went yellow and began to glow. "Arthur." He spoke with Grandma Thora's voice.

"Grandma?"

"I just wanted you to know I escaped from jail, honey. I won't be visiting but I wanted to be the first to tell you."

"Grandma. What are you doing?"

Grandpa Dave chuckled. His face was hard with the stoicism of a man who had grown stoic under the weight of a thousand lifetimes. "Sorry. I can't say. Love you honey. Goodbye." In an instant, his face fell back to the stoicism of a child's. When his eyes stopped glowing, they were bloodshot. "Ahhhh! She was in me again!" He dropped his pigeon and ran out into the street, screaming obscenities. "The nightmare lady! She's back! She's in me again!

All of a sudden, I began to remember the talks my mom had with my dad in his last days of sobriety. They talked about grandma and grandpa going away. My mom told me that grandma did something very bad to grandpa. My dad started drinking a lot more after that.

As he ran farther away, the whispers in the crowd grew loud enough to obscure his screams. The line moved ever quicker as most of the people in front of me got the fuck out of there. I was eighteenth in line as Prunella's sister, Rhubella, stumbled across me.

"thank you all for your patience. Unfortunately, prunella Deegan is not seeing anyone else today. I have red cards for all of you. If you wish to see her tomorrow, present them and you will jump in front of the..." When she approached me she stopped and stared.

"A Read!" She exclaimed before grabbing my wrist.

Her eyes grew wide. "Are you the son of David?"

I shook her off my wrist. "To my great shame, I am."

She pulled me aside and into the house. She looked in my eyes again. "Oh there is nothing to be ashamed of my dear, at least not in all. Come, you must to see Prunella."

She pulled me past the angry patrons in waiting. "Make way, make way." They moved aside, almost against their will it seemed. The door opened without anyone touching the handle.

Inside, Prunella was talking with a young bunny who wore square shaped glasses. "What are you doing? I'm not finished with James yet!"

Rhubella shooed out James and flung the door shut behind him. "This is a Read. This is the son of David."

"David, son of Thora?"

She cleared her foggy crystal ball and beckoned me over. "Sit, sit."

"Finally, Rhubella. We can be in service to a true Read again."

"What in God's name are you talking about?" My head was reeling.

Rhubella's eyes reflected off the crystal ball and looked directly at me. "With Thora gone and David in his current state, there are no Read's for us to serve."

I looked up at Prunella. Her eyes were already whitening as she rubbed the ball. "You are a son of Tomised, a prince of the city. We must serve you."

"did you say Tomised?"

She responded quickly, almost like she was covering her tracks. "leopold tomised read. He is one of the founders of the city."

"Is?"

"Was. Of course. Apologies. He was one of the founders of Elwood. Now there are two things you wish of us. What are they?"

"Well, the first thing, um. I'd like to know where my grandma Tora is." Purnella's eyes shot to her sister. She was crying for help.

"We don't find people. We tell their futures" Rhubella exclaimed

"Next question!" Prunella rubbed her ball and it began to glow brighter.

"Hold on. I came here for answers. If you won't find my grandma, that's fine, but give me the courtesy of the truth at least.

"Fair enough read." She squinted at me. " Your grandmother can be found, but only if she wishes to be found" she sighed "now please, ask me your second question. I can say no more of Thora without bringing her down upon me."

After the incident with grandpa Dave, I wouldn't dare endanger her. I could not ask her what I truly wanted. "Um, I just want to know my future, that's all."

"You are a good liar in man's eyes Read, but a poor one in mine. You seek the means with which to defeat the red-sweatered one, do you not?"

"Francine, yes."

"It seems you already have the means." Was she referring to the coke that Binky gave me?

I had to confess. "I...I have the product, but I don't have the muscle."

"You are afraid."

"I've never been afraid of death!"

"It is not death of which I speak, Read. It is killing."

"I need someone who can kill for me."

I looked into the ball. Her hands opened up like a curtain, revealing a face within it. It was George.

"Seek the hammer. He will clear your path to greatness."

"George? He's a moose! That's no better than being a dog! And he's dyslexic!"

"Do not judge him by what you find on the surface. Just beneath his holds the coldest killing machine Elwood has to offer, besides one other."

I heard a whisper leave Rhubella's mouth. "Binky."

"Seek him, for he will smash your foes to pieces and you will have your kingdom in Elwood."

The ball cleared, and Purnella's brown irises returned. "Is there anything else you wish of me read?"

"There is one thing. If you can't find Thora, there's someone else id like you to find."

"Who would that be?"

"The man who wrote the crazy bus song."

Prunella's face melted with fear. Her ears sank like a sad puppies, and her confident smile fell to a frown. "As you wish."