DEAR LISA | JENLISA

TWENTY-ONE

LISA

Still damn month seven because time seemed frozen, letter number seven

September
***

IT WAS ONLY a few sentences, but those sentences made her joints zing with adrenaline and a little horror.

My sweet darling Lisa, hello!

I have a wicked fun thing for you this month. You ready?

See a medium.

Oh, come on! Why not? It'll be fun. You know you want to see if there's a GB, my darling atheist. Give it a shot! You never know. Maybe I'll appear and we can sneak off for a paranormal shag. Or maybe I'll be busy doing angelic, miraculous things and you won't hear from me. If that's the case, know that I'm doing THE LORD'S WORK saving children from being hit by buses, rescuing kittens, etc.

But I know what I believe: I believe in you and me. Forever.

I love you.

Jennie

She had to be kidding.

She wasn't kidding.

This . . . okay, she would need help for this one. Her mother was out; being Lutheran, her religious focus had been on ideas such as Jesus died horribly for you, you wretch, and therefore you should make casseroles for potluck suppers. Mrs. Han, though, was a hard-core Catholic and had saints for every occasion.

She picked up her phone and called their landline, since they were of the demographic who only turned their cell phones on if they wanted to make a call. "Ben? Hi, it's Lisa."

"Hello, darling. What's new?"

"Um . . . do you know any . . . uh . . . any mediums?"

There was a long pause. "I think you better talk to Sumi," he said. "She loves that crazy woman on TV. The one with the hair?"

"Yeah. Jennie did, too." Which is probably why she gave her this ridiculous task.

"Hang on, Lisa." He passed the phone to his wife, saying, "Lisa wants to see a medium."

Sumi squealed with joy. "Oh, my darling, this is wonderful! Wonderful! I'm sure Jennie will come through for you, sweetheart, she loved you so! Loves you. You won't regret this, these people, they've been blessed with a gift, it's amazing, do you watch Long Island Medium? Or Mama Medium? They're so gifted! I've been to a few of these, so I'll send you a list, okay? Oh, this makes me so happy! So happy, Lili. It will comfort you. You should take your mother! Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Oh . . . yeah, no, she's not . . ."

"She's not yet!" Sumi cried. "She will be!"

"Maybe we don't mention this to her," Lisa said. She could already picture her eye roll. She already felt dirty herself.

"I'll email you the list, okay? Or do you want me to come over?"

"Email is fine."

"Okay, darling! Bye!"

Two hours later, there was a knock at the door. Lisa got up from her computer and opened it to see the Hans and her mother.

"I couldn't stop her," Ben murmured as Lisa was enveloped in Sumi's hug. "Sorry."