And This Is Laura by Ellen Conford

Author:Ellen Conford [Conford, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939601230
Publisher: IG Publishing

8

“ALL RIGHT, ALL right, keep it down!” Jamie’s voice boomed over the excited chatter of the crowd on the staircase. “How do you expect Laura to concentrate with all this noise?”

I stuck my head out my bedroom door, just in time to see my mother struggling down the stairs with her typewriter.

“How do you expect Laura to concentrate?” she snarled. “How do you expect Laura to concentrate?” She squirmed through the “clients” who stood three deep all the way up the flight of steps. That is, some were standing. Others were sitting, sprawling or leaning. I hoped the banister wouldn’t break.

“Gangway,” she warned sullenly. “I said, gangway, dammit!”

Jamie and I exchanged nervous glances. I’d never seen my mother so surly before. Angry, yes. Upset, yes. But not like this.

“Sorry, Mrs. H,” apologized Jamie. “Hope we didn’t disturb you.”

My mother, having reached the bottom of the stairs, turned to look up at us.

“Now what makes you think three hundred kids screaming in front of my door when I’m trying to write this damn book would disturb me?” She almost shrieked those last two words.

“And take that damn sign off the wall!” She charged out of sight.

A piece of paper was taped on the staircase wall. Someone—Douglas no doubt—had scrawled an arrow with Magic Marker and printed: “THIS WAY TO THE DOOM ROOM.”

Jamie managed to work her way over to the sign and ripped it off the wall. She rolled her eyes at me. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Send the next one in.”

I went back into my room and sat down on the bed. After a week and a half I had grown accustomed to the routine. In fact, I kind of enjoyed it.

The first day had been the worst. I was scared that nothing would happen. I was almost as scared that something would happen. But miraculously, I was able to see things for each of the five people Jamie brought to me. And none of the things I saw was that hard to figure out. Like, I saw a teacher hand Katie something, and Katie cried. So I knew she was going to fail English.

And I saw Barry Cohen in a big room, running back and forth in a pair of shorts, so I knew he’d make the basketball team. Things like that. There was only one really mysterious one the first day, and with that I did just what Jamie had told me to. I told Sue Ellen Priddy, whose reading it was, exactly what I had seen, and that I didn’t know what it meant. She wasn’t dissatisfied at all. In fact, although she was puzzled by what I told her, she was thrilled that I’d seen something, and swore she wouldn’t rest till she figured out what it was.

And Jamie had been right. The more readings I gave, the easier it became and the faster I was able to “see” things. It was tiring, but not hard, if you know what I mean. And of course, the better I got, the more people marveled over my talent and the more confident I became.

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