Predestined by Abbi Glines Page A

was hanging out in my room
probably listening to my iPod and painting her toenails an
outrageous color didn’t exactly sound like the best of plans. So I
decided to go with something she would believe. “I had a dream. I
saw it all. I remembered everything. Even the moldy stale
smell.”
    A small amount of relief came over
her tense expression. She nodded and wiped her palms on the front
of her pajama pants nervously. “Okay. A dream. That’s okay,” she
was talking more to herself than to me. I waited.
    Finally she turned her gaze back to
mine. “I was desperate Pagan. A nurse in the hospital told me about
the voodoo doctor back in the swamp. I knew nothing of Voodoo. We’d
been sent to The Children’s Hospital in New Orleans because they
had a specialist there that came highly recommended. The culture
there was so different. I didn’t know what to believe. I ignored
her at first,” she paused and took a deep breath. “But then...but
then they told me you weren’t going to wake up. I panicked. I took
you to the old woman. I didn’t know anything about her or her
methods. I thought maybe she had a miracle drug,” she let out a
hard laugh. “I mean, who believes in spells anyway. I wasn’t
expecting her to actually brew up something and then the boy walked
in.” She closed her eyes tightly. I watched the creases on her
forehead deepen. It had been Leif. I knew that without a doubt
now.
    “The boy was so young. But his
eyes... his eyes were terrifying. He began chanting and this dark
mist fell over the room.” She opened her eyes and stared at me. I
could see the memory of it in her eyes. The experience haunted her.
“And then we woke up back in the hospital room. It was as if we’d
never left. You were sitting up in bed chatting with a nurse and
smiling. The circles under your eyes were gone. You wanted macaroni
and cheese and someone had run off to find you some. Doctors and
nurses began to pour into our room. You were a miracle. They had no
explanation but there was no sign of the disease in your body,” she
swallowed so hard I could see her throat constrict. “There wasn’t
even any sign that the disease had ever been there. You made the
news. You were a medical marvel. Then one day everyone forgot about
it and it was as if it had never happened.”
    This was all she knew. She hadn’t
promised them anything. She’d just said she’d give them whatever
they wanted. She had no idea she’d given them my soul. I stood up
on shaky legs and walked around the table and hugged her. Not
because she deserved it but because even though she’d made a grave
mistake she’d done it because she loved me.

 
     
     
     
     

Chapter Seven
     
    “Hey, what’s
wrong?”
    I sniffled and looked up at a
young boy about my age. His hair was blond and he had friendly blue
eyes. I shrugged and wiped my nose on my sleeve. I wanted to be
alone and cry. I didn’t want to explain things to some
stranger.
    “Nothin’,’” I mumbled and stared
down at my dirty tennis shoes. I’d just got my pink sparkly tennis
shoes last week but now after running through the woods in the mud
they were all dirty. Didn’t matter. Mom was upset. I’d scared her.
I didn’t mean to. I never meant to. I needed to learn not to say
anything.
    “Something is bothering you,” the
boy said and sank down on the porch step beside me. Who was this
kid?
    “Just stuff,” I muttered fiddling
with my dirty shoe string.
    “I’m good at fixing things. I bet
if you told me I could help,” he replied.
    Was he for real? I just wanted him
to leave me alone. Shrugging, I figured the truth would probably
send him running away. I lifted my head and stared at
him.
    “I saw my dead Grandma today. We
went to her house because she had a heart attack and died. Everyone
put on dresses and went to visit her in her casket at her house and
eat food and stuff. I saw her lying there. She looked asleep but
she wasn’t breathing. Then I went into the kitchen to