The Red Hotel (Sissy Sawyer Mysteries) Read Free Page B

Like, you know,
possessed
.’
    ‘But
then
you wake up?’
    ‘Yes,’ said T-Yon. ‘Always shaking and sweating and always feeling so nauseous. I mean I actually feel as if my insides have been dragged right out of me and all jumbled up and then crammed right back inside of me, for real. It’s like I’ve been quickly sewn back up again only a second before I open my eyes.’
    ‘Well,’ said Sissy. ‘That’s one hell of a nightmare.’
    T-Yon sat right on the edge of the couch with an imploring look in her eyes, her hands clasped tightly together, as if her nightmares were a sin and she was praying for Sissy to absolve her. Sissy took another two or three thoughtful sips of wine before she said anything. She needed time to think what these nightmares could possibly mean, because they were crowded with so many signs and innuendoes.
    Sissy had learned from years of fortune-telling that recurring nightmares were almost always a warning, but in T-Yon’s case it was difficult to say exactly what she was being warned about. Her waking relationship with her brother Everett was obviously healthy and non-sexual, and yet her nightmare about him was grossly incestuous. It not only suggested a carnal relationship, but something much more – a visceral entanglement. Their destinies were so closely twisted together that they were like conjoined twins, who shared even their intestines.
    Yet there were so many more questions to be answered. Why was she wearing stockings and a garter belt, which she never wore in real life? Why was Everett wearing a Mardi Gras mask? What was the significance of the black-and-white comedy on TV, if any? Why did T-Yon feel that having sex with Everett would be ‘worth her while’, and what exactly did that mean? Who was the red-haired
possedé
, peering in through the door?
    Sissy was still trying to answer all of these questions when they heard Billy honking his horn outside, immediately followed by Mr Boots barking.
    ‘Listen,’ she asked T-Yon, ‘do you have time to stay for the rest of the afternoon? You can even stay the night if you don’t want to drive back to Hyde Park today. Sherlock Holmes used to talk about a “three-pipe problem” which would take him at least the length of time to smoke three pipes to sort out. I think this nightmare of yours might be a three-reading problem.’
    ‘But what’s your first impression about it?’ asked T-Yon. ‘Do you think I need to be seriously worried about it, or do you think I’m just being dumb and letting my imagination run away with me? Maybe if I change my diet? Or give up drinking – not that I drink a whole lot? Or stop stressing out so much?’
    Sissy shrugged one shoulder and tried to give her a reassuring smile. ‘Maybe, yes, sure, it could be something like that. It could be that you’re allergic to some food additive, or that you’re pushing yourself too hard at college. But let me read your cards for you, T-Yon. Then we’ll soon see what we’re up against.’
    T-Yon said, ‘Thanks, Ms Sawyer. I so much appreciate it.’ She glanced toward the kitchen to make sure that Billy wasn’t listening, and then she added, almost mouthing it, ‘I can’t tell you how desperate I’ve been.’
    ‘Call me Sissy, for God’s sake,’ Sissy told her.
    T-Yon stood up and went through to the kitchen to help Billy with the groceries. Sissy stayed where she was, with a furrow in her forehead. She didn’t like the sound of this nightmare at all – especially not the way in which it kept repeating itself, night after night. That didn’t sound like a food-allergy nightmare or a nightmare related to worry or overwork. Sissy’s years of experience with the DeVane cards had given her a psychic sensitivity which very few other fortune-tellers could match, and T-Yon’s nightmare had made her feel deeply uneasy.
    It reminded her of one particular DeVane card,
La Cuisine De Nuit
, the Night Kitchen, which was a card that cautioned against