Mama Amethyst-Rain brought me into the other room, which was lit only by candles. The only furniture was a round table, draped with a purple brocade table cloth, that had six upholstered chairs around it.

“Welcome to my place of work,” Mama Amethyst-Rain said. “I hope you are feeling comfortable.”

“I didn’t expect you to be white,” I blurted.

Mama Amethyst-Rain tipped back her head and laughed. “Oh, darling, you are too precious. I doubt you anticipated me being an American either, I presume. But my great-great grandmother was a Native American and she had the sight. Fortunately for me, the universe blessed me as well.”

“And you came to South Africa, because?”

“My partner is South African,” she said. “When she moved on to the other side, her spirit returned to her homeland. So, darling, I had to come so I could be with her. Without her spirit communicating with mine, I could not feel whole.”

I nodded, feeling bad that I had poked into her private business.

“Now!” She clapped her hands, “You’ve come to talk to me today.”

She reached over and took my hands in hers. Her skin was soft, warm, smooth, making me self-conscious of my own. They may look pretty, but I hardly remember to moisturise now that Ma isn’t around to nag me, and between hockey and doing the dishes, I’ve got callouses on top of callouses. But she didn’t say a word about how rough my hands felt. Instead she leaned over, giving me a flash of her ample cleavage, before she looked me right in the eye.

“Now, darling,” she said. “Your mother is worried. She says you haven’t been taking good care of yourself. You need to eat, Nevaeh. More than a banana for breakfast and a boiled egg for lunch. Not only does your mother worry that you are becoming too thin, she wants you to understand you need good nutrition to keep your immune system running and make strong bones.”

With that, she sat back, and sighed, like such a speech took a lot out of her.

I blinked. “Um.”

“Yes, my darling?”

“Uh, er, am I supposed to say something back?”

Mama Amethyst-Rain shook her head. “No, darling. I’m just acting as a messenger. Unfortunately, in order to stay near my beloved, I have to work, and my job is here, allowing people to use my body in order to communicate with their ancestors. But from time to time, a spirit contacts me first, and begs me to get in touch. That, I do for free. It’s my way of giving back to the universe for blessing me.”

“Oh.”

She reached out and brushed some of my baby hairs on my forehead. “But darling, you listen to your mother, please. She is so worried. For a spirit to hunt me down like this, to be so insistent, is a sign of someone who loves you very much. Not all people get loved like that.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks and Mama Amethyst-Rain wrapped me in another big hug. She rocked me back and forth, saying, “There, there, darling. There, there.”

***

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