From Me to You [Complete]

50

Michael asks Andy and Robert if they want to come to Mick's house with us. I think he asked to comfort our parents, since it means Michael and I won't be alone. We set out before we can be commandeered into dishes, leaving Ann and Jean to cover for us. Robert quickly finds a stone to kick around on the sidewalk with Andy, so they remain contently occupied as we make our way along the route Michael and I ran last night. Once we feel like we are far enough away, Michael slips his hand into mine, and I squeeze his back. Neither of us seem too comfortable with physical things in front of our parents just yet.

As we near Mick's driveway, Michael turns to me. "I totally forgot to tell you. Mick has a younger sister who is around Robert's age."

"Ah, is this how you casually pawn me off to spend time with your friend?" I tease.

Michael rolls his eyes at me with a smile. "Thought you'd appreciate it if you didn't have to play video games with us all day."

"Well that's for sure," I say truthfully.

After a knock at the door, which Mick answers, we are ushered inside. Robert and Mick catch up, and Andy gets introduced. Already I can see that we are in a house not a cottage, and one that has been lived in. A large closet next to the door is full of coats, shoes, boots, and even a giant beach umbrella. A couple knickknacks hang out on the edge of the floor, and two purses that are the same shade of purple hang off of a white chair, which I can only assume is for decoration since it doesn't look too sturdy. The front hallway ends in a door to the kitchen. The counters boast a number of appliances, books, papers, and glasses. Several photographs hang from the walls, one of which features Mick, a tall man, a woman, and a girl who looks younger than me, with the same hair colour as the woman. We follow as Mick leads us into the living room where the girl from the pictures sits on the floor playing with some kind of cards.

I'm introduced to Devy, and she stands up to greet me. She's built in the same way as her brother, with a short, stocky frame that makes her seem taller than she really is –unless she's standing in a room of Lyon brothers. She has a heart-shaped face, and her light brown hair hangs loosely down to the middle of her back. She has short, quick little fingers with fingernails painted a baby blue that match her eyes. She smiles as she offers me her hand.

With her other hand she gathers up the cards from the floor and pulls me along out of the room. I shoot a look of surprise back at Michael. He smiles back reassuringly, so I let Devy continue to pull me along. We pass through the kitchen and up a flight of spiral stairs that make me a little dizzy. Devy opens a door on the landing and pulls me inside. She swings the door shut and crosses to open a window across the room as I stare around.

The room is wide, but not long. There's a window on every wall, and two on the west side overlooking the lake. A bed sits between these two windows, neatly made up with a dark coloured duvet and matching pillows. Two bookshelves line the walls on either side of the door, and a desk and dresser sit directly across the room from each other beside the other two windows. I'm not allowed to admire her room for long, however, as she promptly pulls me down onto a soft rug in the middle of the floor. She sits cross-legged in front of me.

"Can I read for you?" she asks. She has a large deck of blue cards in one hand. I like the sound of her voice, it's soft and sweet, and makes me feel comfortable with her, even though I only just met her. I nod back at her, although I'm not sure what she means.

She produces a black cloth about the size of a handkerchief from somewhere, and spreads it out between us. The cloth has a diamond shape, and the corners point toward the middle of each wall. She shuffles the cards in her hands and places them neatly face down on the cloth between us. Now that I have a better view, I can tell these are no normal cards. The card backs show a pair of wings coloured in various shades of purple, blue and green. I've never seen cards exactly like these before, but they remind me of some that Monica brought to a sleepover once. From that experience, I think this should be fun. Monica and I spent the night figuring out all sorts of ridiculous things from the cards, like who has a crush on us, when we'd get married, or what we'd do for a living. So far, nothing's come true that I know of. Although I haven't really given it much thought before. I guess I'll have to find out if whatever these cards say comes true, and if Devy really takes their meaning to heart.