X Restored by Claudia Mair Burney

Author:Claudia Mair Burney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2011-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

I woke up in a strange bed with blinding white linens and a mattress so incredibly comfortable that it made me want to curl up and go back to sleep. So the bed wasn’t strange. I just had no idea who it belonged to, or why I was in it.

My head still hurt, and I widened my eyes and blinked to sharpen my focus. I tried to fish memories of the last few hours from my murky consciousness.

“Jean-Paul!” I bolted up with a start and felt like my head would split in two.

“There’s no need to yell,” a woman’s voice said. “I’m blind, not deaf.”

The freakin’ Oracle, wearing Blues Brothers sunglasses and sipping a cup of tea, sat in a rocking chair beside me.

“Aw, shoot! Now I’m hallucinating that I’m in the Matrix!”

She chuckled. “I get that all the time. No, chérie. You’re not in the Matrix. I just look a whole lot like Gloria Foster. I’ve got the same wide body and pretty face, and my hair is wavy and bobbed like she used to wear hers. I like wearing a bob. I don’t have to do much to it, and my husband says I still look good. That’s important if you’re blind. I haven’t always been blind, you know.

“Oh, and I don’t smoke cigarettes, and I don’t bake cookies. Predicting the future isn’t my strong suit either, but I have been known to see a few things other folks can’t see, and sometimes the Lord gives me inside information. That makes people think I can tell them the future, but the truth is, I’m just plain old Mary Brooks on St. Claude Avenue who the good Lord talks to sometimes. I live three doors down from the church. Jean-Paul brought you here. He thought I’d be able to help you.”

Why does her name sound familiar?

Jean-Paul leaned against the doorjamb, watching us.

“I’m okay, Ms. Mary,” I said. “I just have a really bad headache. I don’t need you to help me with anything.”

She snickered and called out to Jean-Paul. “She’s acting just like you said she would, J-P.”

I gave him my iciest stare. “What did J-P tell you, Ms. Mary?”

“He told me about your gift.”

“What gift?”

Jean-Paul spoke. “You mean which gift, ma soeur; you have many.”

Before I could respond to the bane of my existence, the Oracle sighed like she was tired of me already. “I’m going to help you with the visions you’re having of the dead.”

Okay. I don’t tell anybody about my ability to see the dead. Francis knew, but that was about it. And exactly how much of me could Jean-Paul see? I kicked the covers off and tried to jump out of bed, but dizziness took hold of me and I fell back onto the pillows.

Jean-Paul was at my side as fast as Jack made it to my mother when he found us looking crazy and staring at the wall. “Stay on the bed, girl. You’re not ready yet.”

“Ready for what? I want to go! I need to see Francis.

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