Part 5 (1/2)
”My next-door neighbor, Mabel, tells me you can see the future If you can prove you can do this, we'd like to hear about this girl's future”
”Happy to That will be twenty bucks,” says Madae I do soive you a treatift,” says Nellie
”Well, that would be a deive you a dehs ”I don't do exchanges Cash in advance”
”Cash stops the flow of energy,” says Nellie
”But it increases the flow of gin,” says Mada a bottle out of the cupboard over the sink ”You want a drop?” she asks Nellie
Nellie looks uncertain
Madame Crenshaw turns to me ”You?”
I shake my head
”Well, Christ, I do,” she says, and pours herself half a tumbler, then drinks about half of that all at once She sits down and crosses her aroes to her purse and opens it reluctantly She gets out her wallet It is stuffed with bills and heavy with coins I gape ”It's not all mine, some of it is fro that I have to make the deposit to it off and handing it to Madame Crenshaw
Immediately, as if the twenty has flicked the On switch of her telepathic mind, Madame Crenshaw stands up in a swirl of purple India cotton and begins incanting things we don't understand
”In English, please,” says Nellie
”I was getting to that,” says Madarabs one of Nellie's hands, sits down, and holds it over her heart, staring into space, her pupils dilating
I can see that Nellie is about to snatch her hand back when Madareat preaching powers” Then Madame Crenshaw takes Nellie's hand off her heart and looks at the palm Nellie relaxes her hand in Mada to see what Madareat healing powers You ever done any faith healing?”
”You y work! Isn't it, Jane?” she asks ht to do it You must do it You're intended to do it,” says Mada far far away ”You've got the gift”
The cadence of this reminds me of Millions of Cats Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats This runs over and over in my mind and I try to remember the last time I read this story Why can't I stay focused? I don't want to be skeptical but so Nellie anything Nellie hasn't already told her But I am afraid that if I as toopen to it all If you aren't open, ift?” asks Nellie, although it seeain Everyone wants to think they're extra-talented
”The gift,” says Madaift?”
”That's the one,” says Madaift,” breathes Nellie in hushed, awed tones
”Yeah, it's the holy grail of gifts, all right Anyone ood withher hands palht be visible ”And I can ?”
”Oh, it's different,” says Madame Crenshaw
”How different?”
”Different”
Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats
”Praise Jesus”
”Praise Jesus, praise Allah, praise the whole lot of 'e to slur her words She goes back to the cabinet where she got the gin and takes out a pack of cigarettes She lights one and draws in a lungful of smoke Then she exhales and at the same time she says, ”You ever seen a transparent poodle?”
We shake our heads again
”You're on this earth for a great purpose but to divine it, you e, [inhale] transparent poodle”
”Like aa standard poodle?” asks Nellie
”Is it so about?” Mada ”This poodle is a poodle into the future”
”A transparent portal?” I say It
”I hate dogs,” says Nellie
Madain and downs it as if thinking aboutWe don't want to interrupt her while she's on a roll ”There are ti poodles This is one The energy here runs through a sacred meridian You must realize this is why you have been drawn to this place Can you feel its sacred energy?”
”I wasn't drawn here so much as I was born here,” says Nellie
”Me too,” I say
”You weren't paid for,” Madame Crenshaw says, and turns her back on me ”But YOU!” She says this so loudly that Nellie and I both leap to our feet We are afraid she is about to spontaneously cos the National Enquirer is alarning you about ”You have a great and sacred purpose”
”You've already said that,” I point out, hoping to provide a valuable service and thus get back into the inner circle, but they both give me such a look I shut up immediately
”Well, how do I find this poodle?” asks Nellie
”It's easy Find the reeds It's by the seventh reed as you wade out from shore”
”The seventh reed!” says Nellie
”That would ood book title,” I say
They both look at ain
”Well, heck, come with us, then,” says Nellie ”We'll find out reat ifts and yours”