Unhappy Medium Read Online Free

teensy argument, maybe pretend to want me to go along with them.
    But another glance at the Face that Launched a Thousand Chicks and I swallowed my irritation and felt genuinely happy for
     Jac.
    “I’ll meet you in your room before dinner, okay?” she called.
    I said, “Great.” I probably could have said anything. Her ears had turned such an alarming shade of crimson I doubted they
     were working properly.
    I snuck discreet glances at the happy couple making their way toward Mountain House. They actually looked good together. Jac
     was really tiny, and Colin wasn’t more than three or four inches taller than she was.
    It was only when they were out of sight that I realized Jac had left me alone with my Madame Serena problem.

Chapter 5
    Since I now had an unplanned block of time on my hands, I decided to follow the path around the lake. An old wooden footbridge
     arched over a gully and led up a steep staircase to the path on the far side of the lake. From there you could go in any number
     of different directions on marked trails. I took the one that was the steepest, and in half an hour I was atop an old fire
     tower, looking down at the spectacular lake and the massive building and gardens of Whispering Pines Mountain House.
    I got a perfect cell signal up there, so I took the opportunity to call my mom.
    “Well, it all sounds amazing, Kat,” she said. “You guys should have a great time.”
    “I just wish you could see it,” I told her truthfully. “I think you’d love it here.”
    “Take plenty of pictures for me,” she said. “I’m going to have an entire new garden bed raked and cleared by the time you
     get back.”
    “That’s great, Mom,” I said. My mother did love her plants.
    “Is something bothering you, Kat?” she asked.
    “Why would you say that?” I asked innocently.
    There was a slight pause.
    “I don’t know. Just a feeling. I thought maybe you had run into a visitor there, or something, and wanted to talk about it.”
    My mom sometime called spirits “visitors.” But she was a medium, not a mind-reader. How could she know about Madame Serena,
     or any other spirit here?
    “No worries, Mom. I’m having a blast.”
    It wasn’t exactly a lie. But ever since I had started seeing spirits, I had this stubborn inclination to want to deal with
     them myself, without asking Mom for help. I needed to figure things out in my own way.
    “Well, give Jac a hug from me. And tell Mrs. Gray I said hello.”
    It’s weird when your mother calls your friend’s mother Mrs. So-and-so, but Jac’s mom was super-formal. Did we even know her
     first name?
    “I will, Mom. And I’ll call again soon.”
    “Love you, sweetie. Bye.”
    After we hung up, I sat on a rock watching the world for a long time. I could see cars pulling up to the front entrance and
     families with enormous piles of luggage going inside. I felt a twinge of envy. Imagine being in a family where you could just
     head off to a place like this for a week or two. I’m betting it cost more to stay here for one night than my mother made in
     a week. But to some people, that was nothing at all. Chump change.
    Mom and I had never had much money. When my dad dumped us to wallow in his midlife crisis, we were completely on our own.
     He never sent so much as a ten dollar bill in a birthday card. Not to this day. I guess my mom could have taken him to court,
     sued for child support. But she didn’t. She said that money was just energy in another form, and that money from a negative
     source was nothing more than negative energy. And we got by. Sometimes more than got by.
    There was money for what we needed, and occasionally some for something I wanted. It was usually enough. And I wouldn’t trade
     my mom for anything in the world. But every once in a while, seeing a place like Whispering Pines and realizing where money
     could take a person, could take Jac’s family, I felt a bit wistful.
    When the sun went behind a large cloud, I