Seers Read Free

pitcher of apple juice sitting on the table. While I poured myself a generous amount into one of the waiting cups, Grandma lifted the pan off the heat and carried it over to the table. As she dumped the scrambled eggs onto an empty plate she finally spoke. “How’d you sleep, honey?”
    “Good,” I lied easily, before putting the glass to my lips.
    She didn’t seem to notice the lie. “I’m glad,” Grandma smiled, scraping the rest of the eggs off the pan with the spatula. As she turned back toward the stove she paused to grunt at her husband.
    “Henry, put that down while the girls eat. The world and all its troubles will still be there.”
    “I’m nearly done,” his voice grumbled from behind the paper.
    I grabbed the top bowl from a small stack on the table and pulled the plate of steaming eggs toward me. I spoke automatically, “Thanks grandma. It smells great.”
    “You’re welcome, honey. Have you seen your sisters yet?” I started to shake my head, but then we all heard the loud
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    h e a t h e r f r o s t K • • •
    barreling down the stairs, and the shrieks of eleven year old girls in harsh competition.
    “No fair, you started on the second step!”
    “You started moving before I said go!”
    “You had the head start!”
    “You’re the one who moved first!” I held my glass of juice and watched as my sisters burst into the kitchen, not seeming to care that they were making a spectacle of themselves. They were twins, but dressed nothing alike. Jenna preferred pinks and lime green. Josie stuck to blues and browns.
    Jenna spent her time reading and playing the piano, and Josie played basketball with the boys next door. They were identical, physically, except that it was always easy to tell them apart by their noses. Jenna’s was straight and perfect, while Josie’s was a bit crooked. She’d broken it playing football when she was eight.
    Josie reached the table first, and snatched up a bowl before sitting next to Grandpa. Jenna was still glaring at her twin. “You started on the second step!”
    “You moved first,” Josie countered with a shrug, heaping the eggs high.
    “Only to make it fair!”
    Josie shook her head and grabbed for the juice. “You cheated first, loser.”
    Grandma put the pan back on the stove and spoke in her too-cheerful voice. “The next one to make a sound helps with the dishes.” We all knew what that voice meant—she was serious.
    The twins might have their disagreements, but where work was concerned, they both agreed that it was best avoided. They were quieted instantly, and instead settled for mute glares as they both got their breakfast.
    In the sudden silence, Grandpa’s page turn was amplified, and Grandma spoke without turning away from the sink. “Henry, you’ve just won a date with the dishes.”
    “Hmm?” Grandpa asked, distracted.
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    The twins snorted into their food, and even my smile was real.
    For a fleeting moment. But all too soon reality came back to me, and I was that depressed girl again.
    Everything in this kitchen was exactly as it had been my whole life—except for two major differences. My parents had been replaced by my grandparents—a huge change in anyone’s book. And then there was the other major difference—also a pretty big one, if you ask me. Because, ever since the accident, I’d gone psychic.
    At least, that’s the best word I’d come up with to describe it.
    (Psychic was better than insane, anyway.) Ever since I’d woken up in the hospital, I could see auras. At first, I tried to tell everyone—
    my grandparents, the hospital staff. But then reality set in, and I realized that they might not let me go home. Unless, of course, I assured them that everything was normal. So one morning when the doctor gently asked about my new ‘sight’, I pretended I didn’t know what she was talking about. They all assumed it had been related to some kind of head trauma, and