Discovering (Lily Dale #4)(5)

Like her, Jacy is a relative newcomer to Lily Dale, uprooted from his home on a Native American reservation down on the southern tier. Like her, he moved into a house with a medium’s shingle out front and found himself in the care of strangers— loving strangers, but strangers, nonetheless. Like her, he eventually found himself at home here in the Dale.

Perhaps most important, Jacy is—like Calla— a gifted medium in his own right.

“Listen, it’s not a fancy guest suite, by any means,”Gammy is telling Dad. “It’s just big enough for a twin bed and a dresser— but it’s a bed, not a couch, and you’ll have room to store your things. In this house, there’s not even room to store my things, and Calla’s.”

And Mom’s, Calla adds silently. Her grandmother hasn’t thrown away any of her late daughter’s childhood possessions. For Calla, this house has been a welcome shrine to her mother’s past, a soothing balm for her own grief.

“Since I pretty much just have the clothes on my back, and some stuff I grabbed from the house down in Florida, storage space isn’t a big issue for me right now, Odelia. But the room sounds great,”Dad adds hastily—maybe too hastily, because he glances from Gammy to Calla, saying, like he’s still reluctant to accept the invitation, “I just hate to put anybody out. . . .”

“Oh, you’re not putting Ramona out, Jeff. She kept telling me to make sure you knew that she’d really love to have you.”

Of course she would.

“Plus,”Odelia continues, “you’ll be right next door to Calla. What could be better? Right, Calla?”

She’s got to be kidding.

What could be better than to have Dad move into a house that bears the shingle RAMONA TAGGART, REGISTERED MEDIUM?

Talk about baptism by fire.

Dad has visited Calla in Lily Dale a couple of times, but he still has no idea what goes on around here.

Sure, he’s driven past the sign at the wrought-iron gate: LILY DALE ASSEMBLY . . . WORLD’S LARGEST CENTER FOR THE RELIGION OF SPIRITUALISM. And, yes, he knows that the lakeside community was the birthplace of modern spiritualism back in the eigh teen hundreds. He’s also well aware that some of Odelia’s neighbors do psychic readings, thanks to the hand-painted shingles in front of their homes.

Like REV. DORIS HENDERSON, CLAIRVOYANT.

And ANDY BRIGHTON, PSYCHIC MEDIUM.

“New Age freaks,”Dad called them, and asked if they hold seances and read crystal balls.

Calla enlightened him just enough to take the edge off but figured that if he knew the whole truth, he’d yank her right out of Lily Dale.

At first, she was desperate to stay and delve into her mother’s past, thinking she’d find the key to the mystery surrounding Mom’s death. But as time went on, she felt more and more connected to her grandmother, and her new friends— and to the place itself. She decided to spend her senior year at Lily Dale High, rather than in California with Dad. Yes, she’s missed him, but in a way, it’s also been a relief to have some distance between them, considering all that’s been going on here.

So much for space. Now that Dad’s decided to move into Ramona’s house, he’s about to discover that he’s a mere mortal living among the dead— and among the living who can communicate with the dead.

He’s not going to appreciate that any more than Calla did when she first got here.

But it’s not like he’s eventually likely to discover—as she did—that he, too, can see dead people.

While the spiritualists here believe that anyone is capable of connecting with spirits, that it’s a skill that can be developed like any other, they also believe that it comes much more readily to certain people, who inherit it from their parents and grandparents like any other hereditary trait.

Calla, as the granddaughter of one of Lily Dale’s most powerful mediums, is ge netically predisposed through her mother’s side of the family. And it’s a talent that seems to have skipped a generation, because Mom didn’t have a psychic bone in her body.

“So now that we’ve settled where you’ll be staying, Jeff, why don’t you tell me exactly what happened in Florida?”

Dad puts down his fork. “I really did cover most of it on the phone, Odelia.”

“An insane woman— who, for God knows what reason, snuck into your house a few months ago and pushed Stephanie down the stairs— came back and tried to kill Calla, too. That’s what I know .”

“That’s exactly what happened.”Dad pushes his plate away, suddenly looking ill.

Calla sets down her fork and shudders, remembering the crazed look in Sharon Logan’s eyes.

“But who is this person?”Gammy asks. “She’s from this area, didn’t you say?”

“Not here—about a hundred miles away, I guess. Geneseo.”

“I can’t imagine the connection. Stephanie never even set foot in Geneseo, as far as I know . Not when she lived here, anyway.”

“I don’t know about that, but . . . Calla’s been there. Calla’s met the woman.”

“What?!”

Great. Did he have to bring that up now?

Calla shifts her weight uncomfortably in her chair and tries not to look at her grandmother.

She had confessed that part of the story when they were at the police station yesterday. But only because the detective asked her directly, in front of her father, whether she had ever seen the woman before.