Free Chapter: The Promise

Connecticut
Summer, 2002

My friend and I are packing up our gear after another hard fought tennis match. We are about to leave the court when he turns to me.
“Do you still watch the TV show with that John Edward guy, the one you mentioned last year? Are you still interested in those sorts of things?” he asks.
“Yes, I do!” I exclaim.“I would so much love to get on his show!”
“Well,” he says, “I can’t help you with that, but I have a friend who does something similar.”
“Where do I have to fly?” I ask.“I am willing to travel anywhere!”
“She is a few miles away, in Milford. Her name is Vanessa,” he replies, then gives me a phone number.
The next day I make an appointment.

I enter the waiting area that doubles as a gift shop. An assortment of crystal items are lined up on the glass shelves and on the counter. I spend only a few moments glancing at the display before Vanessa comes out from the back area, and ushers me down a narrow hallway.
I am very nervous. Vanessa picks up on my apprehension.
“You don’t need to be afraid of the dead,” she says, “only the living can hurt you.”
Inside the room is a massage table pushed against the right wall, a coffee table and two wicker arm chairs in the far left corner. Vanessa points out the notepad and pen on the table, between a crystal angel and a box of tissues.
I take a seat in one of the arm chairs. Vanessa pulls a chair from underneath the massage table and sits down across from me.

Over the next hour she periodically appears to listen to someone invisible, then slowly describes events that are similar to things that have happened to me. Some are too vague, and the rest could be lucky guesses. I remain skeptical.

I try to take notes of everything she says, but have trouble writing neatly. I am still very uncomfortable with the whole experience.
Near the end of the session Vanessa asks me about my daughter.
“Yes, I have a daughter,” I answer.
“How old is she now?” she asks.
“She is two.”
“Not quite,” she remarks.
“That’s right. Her birthday is next month.”
“Your father says that he is going to send a present for her third birthday,” she says. She listens some more, then grabs her right wrist with her left hand.
“It will be a baby bracelet,” she explains. “Your father wants you to know that it will be from him.”
“He will be the one sending it to her, remember that.”

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