Grave Intentions Read Free Page A

than the figments of an overactive imagination, an imagination now suffering from the ravages of mental decline. It made her heart ache.
    “Grandma,” she finally said, “You can’t go around telling people things like that.”
    “Why not?”
    She met her grandmother’s gaze then, hoping she could breach the divide and reach the sweet, rational woman buried beneath the psychosis. “Because Dr. Patel wants to sedate you if you keep causing trouble.”
    Pearl recoiled as if physically struck and Sarah felt like the biggest jerk on the planet.
    “Please, Grandma,” Sarah pleaded, desperate to keep her grandmother from a drug-induced haze. She knew it was impossible to convince Pearl that the visions were fabrications of her imagination, so she decided to try a different tact. “Can you just tone it down a bit? Just for a little while?”
    Pearl was silent for a long moment, studying her granddaughter with a critical eye. “I had a vision of you yesterday,” she finally said, a frown making the creases on her forehead more pronounced. “You’re going to meet a man soon.”
    Sarah fought the urge to roll her eyes. She knew this trick all too well. “Meeting a man” meant anything from the man of her dreams to the guy who delivers her pizza. It could even mean her next-door neighbor, the blond with the steel gray eyes, the one who kept such odd hours she never knew when he was coming or going.
    As far as she was concerned, clairvoyants were nothing more than charlatans skilled in the art of reading people and telling them what they wanted to hear. As a child, she watched with awe while her grandmother practiced her trade with a confident flair, asking all the right questions and then using the information to her advantage, making grand predictions that could be interpreted a million different ways. And every time they ate it up and came back, begging for more.
    Back then she thought it was magical. Now she saw through the parlor tricks and sleight of hand.
    “Oh?” she said, doing a poor job at hiding her skepticism. “Any idea what this guy looks like? Does he have a name, so I don’t tell him to shove off when I meet him?”
    Judging by the pursed lips and narrowed eyes, Pearl was not amused. “You know it doesn’t work that way, Sarah. I just saw a vision of you with a young man, and you both looked very happy.”
    She was probably just happy to get her large pizza with extra pepperoni in thirty minutes or less.
    “Thanks, Grandma.” She leaned in and gave Pearl a hug. The warmth of the embrace brought her comfort, despite the frailness in her grandmother’s bones. “Now, will you please try to tone it down a little? Please? For me?”
    “Well, okay,” Pearl said reluctantly as she pulled back. She pressed a kiss to Sarah’s cheek then wiped away the smudge of pink lipstick left behind. “But I don’t know how long I can hold back my talents.”
    “That’s all I can ask for.”
     
    “Oh God,” Adam said after draining the rest of his beer, the despair thick in his throat. He stared down at the bottom of his mug with glassy eyes. “We have to do this every day?” His face twisted with horror. “Every fucking day?”
    “Pretty much,” David replied, his tone purposefully even. “Some days are harder than others.” With a nod, he signaled the bartender for another round. He didn’t have the heart to tell the poor bastard that today was one of the easier days. Better to save that little nugget of joy for a later occasion. “Think of it this way, kid. It beats the alternative.”
    “You sure about that?”
    “You want to find out?” David learned that particular lesson a long time ago. Back in his impetuous younger days, he’d challenged authority and asked the same question. And in return Samuel had sent him on a little field trip to the other side, the side he’d go to for eternity if judgment on his soul were rendered prematurely. The experience had enlightened him to the true