All That She Can See

  ‘It really isn’t what you think, I swear,’ Chase begged.

  ‘You may have been good for business, Chase, but this?! This is unacceptable!’ The man held up the bottle of blue pills which glinted in the sunlight.

  ‘Oh no… ’ Cherry said, realising what was happening.

  ‘It’s not what it looks like!’ Chase pleaded again.

  ‘It looked like you were… ’ he looked around to see who was listening. Cherry pretended to look in a shop window. ‘It looked like you were taking drugs! Right at the bar!’

  ‘I swear that’s not what I was doing. I was just —’

  ‘THEY’RE MINE!’ Cherry yelled, running over to them. She snatched the bottle out of the manager’s hand but he didn’t look surprised or impressed.

  ‘And who are you? His accomplice? His dealer maybe, hmm?’

  ‘No, I’m his friend. I asked Chase to take care of my medication for me because I often lose it and then forget to take it.’

  Chase’s manager wasn’t buying it. ‘Then why was he dividing the pills into little piles? Explain that!’

  ‘Well… I wouldn’t take a whole bottle of pills all at once, would I? Chase counts out how many I need a day to make sure I’ve got enough to last me until I can see a doctor again. Isn’t that right, Chase?’ Cherry jabbed him in the ribs. He nodded quickly.

  ‘Yes that’s exactly it. I’m a good friend.’ He nodded more and more, resembling one of those plastic dogs that sit on the dashboard of a car. The manager regarded them both, looking them up and down, and shook his head.

  ‘I’m sorry, it’s just too risky. I can’t keep you here. I have to fire you, Chase.’ Chase closed his eyes and hung his head, turning away from them both. ‘But, I won’t call the police. Just get those pills off my property.’ The manager slipped back inside before Cherry had a chance to say a word.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Chase.’ Cherry’s heart felt heavy.

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ he said, squeezing her shoulder, and Loneliness shuddered. ‘It was my idea – and I only took the job to annoy you anyway. It’s just… well, now we’ve got to find another way to give this town a bit of Normality. I doubt anyone’s going to eat your cakes, I can’t get them in the alcohol and it seems everyone is keeping a low profile anyway. It’s a ghost town out here!’

  ‘I’d noticed,’ Cherry said. ‘Except for your mother and Danior. They weren’t at the bakery yesterday and yet they still seem to be on full alert.’

  ‘Oh!’ Chase said.

  ‘I know. They’re just standing —’

  ‘No! Cherry, you’re a GENIUS!’ He shouted this so loudly that a few seagulls nearby flapped into a frenzy. ‘Come on.’ Chase grabbed her by the arm and led her back down the street. When the red and yellow came into view Cherry’s heart started racing again.

  ‘Where are we going? I can’t go back in there!’ Cherry cried.

  Chase stopped suddenly and Cherry stumbled into him. ‘You’ve been to my mum’s shop? Why?’

  Cherry squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see his reaction. ‘I went to go and find out if they knew about you. I had a suspicion they were… well… ’

  ‘Cheaters. Charlatans. Fraudsters. You name it, that’s what they are.’

  ‘They are? I knew it!’ Cherry fist-bumped the air.

  ‘I tell you that my mum and aunt are liars, cheating the population of Plymouth out of their hard-earned money, and you do this?’ He mimicked her air-punch. ‘Brilliant.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Cherry said sheepishly.

  ‘You’re mad,’ Chase declared, smiling down at her.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I love it.’ Chase’s eyes widened at his admission and then he started laughing.

  ‘Me too.’ Cherry smiled and broke into laughter too.

  The street was empty, but if anyone had happened along at that moment they would’ve seen two happy, laughing people bent double, clinging to each other. Chase’s hand found Cherry’s and as the laughing subsided they were left smiling at each other and holding hands. For two people who had felt a lot of things and who had seen a lot of feelings, feeling whole because of finding a true connection with someone was something neither of them had experienced. Cherry felt like she’d found what she was looking for and Chase had found what he never knew he needed: someone. Not necessarily even someone to love. Just someone.

  ‘So why are we going to visit your terrifying, lying mother and aunt?’ Cherry asked once she’d managed to catch her breath.

  ‘Shhh,’ Chase said, knowing they might be listening from around the corner. He pulled her closer to the wall, further out of sight. ‘When you met them, they offered you tea, didn’t they?’ Chase coughed out the last of his laughter.

  ‘Practically forced it on me, yes.’

  ‘Years ago they discovered the internet —’

  ‘Marvellous, isn’t it?!’ Cherry said.

  ‘— and they met another fortune teller on some forum. A clairvoyant, who claimed he could speak to the dead. Another lying bastard but far better at lying than my mum and aunt because he took them for a complete and utter ride. He sold them this green tea and told them it would make their customers far more susceptible to believing whatever they told them. It was all total bollocks, of course, but they bought it and have been giving it to their customers ever since.’

  ‘It’s just grass, isn’t it?’ Cherry said remembering the taste in the back of her throat.

  ‘Grass in a glass.’ Chase smiled. ‘If they’re that easily fooled and that desperate to get their customers believing… ’

  ‘You’re a genius!’ Cherry said and she kissed him hard on the cheek.

  ‘Come on!’ They rushed down the street hand in hand, Chase holding the bottle out before him. Velina and Danior were already waiting for them.

  ‘Dani.’ Chase nodded.

  ‘Boy,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘Come to visit your dear mother and aunt? We thought you’d gone for good this time.’

  ‘Not this time.’

  ‘Shame,’ Danior sneered. ‘You two seem awfully chipper,’ she said, a cigarette holder balanced between her teeth, today’s purple lipstick staining the rim and, yet again, her teeth.

  ‘It’s because we’ve discovered something,’ Chase said.

  ‘As soon as we heard about it we knew we had to come straight to you,’ Cherry added. Chase held up the bottle. Velina and Danior’s expressions shifted subtly from annoyance to intrigue. ‘Can we come in?’

  Danior roughly pulled them inside and Velina looked up and down the street, making sure nobody had seen them before closing the door. They followed Danior through the beaded curtain and into the back of the shop. She took up her usual spot in the corner and told Cherry and Chase to sit. Velina burst though the curtain with a flourish.

  ‘Why the change of tune, dear son?’

  ‘I thought you hated our ways, nephew dear.’

  ‘I know. I know I’ve not been as supportive as I should have been but… ’ Chase’s jaw tensed, ‘I guess… I’ve always felt like I’ve never had anything to contribute.’

  ‘I think what Chase means to say is that he doesn’t have the panache or… or the intelligence that it takes to be a palm reader or an expert Tarot reader,’ Cherry said. Chase caught her eye and without changing his expression he quickly winked at her.

  ‘I knew you’d come around, that one day you’d see that what we do is in people’s best interests,’ Velina said, stroking her son’s hair.

  ‘What we do is give people hope,’ Danior added. ‘People don’t often want truth. They just want someone to tell them things are going to be okay. Even if they’re not.’

  ‘I know,’ he said and then with a little more conviction, ‘I know! And that’s why I want to help. This has been a few months in the making, but I have a friend – she’s a clairvoyant too – and she does this amazing thing where she pretends the soul of someone departed has entered her and she speaks to her customers in differe
nt voices. She’s a voice actress who’s currently unemployed and she’s making a killing in this field.’

  ‘Interesting,’ Velina said.

  ‘But what does this have to do with us?’ Danior spoke quickly, impatient.

  ‘Well, my friend said she wouldn’t have been half as successful if it wasn’t for these.’ Chase held up the pill bottle. ‘Like you, she puts them in tea and serves it to her clients but they work differently to your tea. They’re instant and strong. Really strong. One of these pills will make your client believe anything you say and, in her experience, the more generous you are about their future, the more generous they’ll be too, if you catch my drift.’ Chase rubbed his fingers against his thumb and Velina’s eyes lit up.

  ‘Are you certain?’ she asked.

  ‘One hundred per cent.’

  ‘How do we know you’re not lying?’ Danior said, coming out of the shadows.

  ‘Dani… ’ Velina warned.

  ‘I’m just saying… prove it.’

  ‘W… what?’ Cherry’s palms became clammy.

  ‘Prove it does what you say it does.’ Danior placed both her hands on the table and leaned in towards Chase and Cherry. Cherry could smell her smoky breath.

  ‘Okay, fine,’ Chase said. He quickly opened the bottle of pills and shook one out into his palm.

  ‘Chase. Don’t,’ Cherry whispered but it was too late. Chase knocked it back and swallowed it dry.

  ‘Try me,’ he said.

  Danior’s eyebrows flickered for a moment and her face cracked into the grin Cherry heard in her voice earlier but now that she saw it, it was worse than she feared.

  ‘Did you know Velina isn’t actually your mother?’ Danior said, a swagger in her hips as she circled the table.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Oh yeah. We had a third sister.’ Danior smiled.

  ‘Dani,’ Velina warned again.

  ‘That’s a joke… ’ Cherry squeezed Chase’s knee under the table. ‘… isn’t it?’ Danior gave her sister a wide-eyed stare and Velina dropped her eyes and shook her head.

  ‘So my mother is your other sister,’ Chase said, wanting to ask questions, to deny it all but Cherry’s trembling hand on his knee kept his focus on the task at hand. ‘Where is she?’ Chase’s fists clenched as Excitement slowly came into the room, squatting on Danior’s shoulders.

  ‘She died,’ Danior sighed. ‘Killed herself. Dear Velina here stole her man and it was just too much for your poor mumsy to take.’ Danior swiped a finger across her neck and let her tongue loll out the side of her wrinkled lips. Cherry dug her fingertips into Chase’s thigh once more, silently begging him to go along with it. None of this was true, she was sure of it, they just needed to get them to believe the pills worked and then they could leave and forget about the horrible lies Danior was telling Chase.

  ‘I’ve been searching for her ever since,’ Velina said, gesturing upwards to the unknown, a tear trickling down her face making a clear path in her make-up.

  ‘Why didn’t you ever tell me?’ Chase asked, looking at Danior, who in turn looked at Velina, whose head was hung in shame. ‘Why?’

  ‘Auntie Velina didn’t want —’

  Velina held up a hand to silence her sister. She sniffed and finally lifted her eyes to meet Chase’s gaze. ‘I didn’t want you to feel like you didn’t have a family.’ Velina threw her hands to her face and sobbed loudly and Chase knew instantly they were lying.

  Velina and Danior changed their ‘gift’ every few years. They had gone from being psychics to mediums to clairvoyants and then to Tarot cards and palm reading. Back when Chase was a young boy, his mother claimed to be a medium, someone who had perfected the art of summoning the spirits of the dead and communicating with them through the realms. Velina was theatrical and tried to put on a show, pretending ghosts had possessed her by convulsing and flailing her limbs, knocking over anything in the way and then when she finally spoke, her voice was a low and rough growl. Although her imagination and acting abilities were very limited and somehow every ghost that entered her body had exactly the same voice as the last, her clients always seemed to recognise it as their loved one. The client’s wishful thinking accounted for around eighty per cent of being a medium, which was half of the appeal for the sisters; it was quite easy. Chase would sit and watch Velina’s every move and copy her actions and noises, and the one thing that Chase had perfected above all else was Velina’s ability to cry on cue. She reserved it for special occasions when her clients weren’t believing her straightaway or were asking too many questions that she wasn’t able to answer. She would only ever be able to produce one tear that would slip silently down her cheek but from there she would throw her hands over her face, sob, wail and heave hard.

  ‘I’ve seen things in the other realm. Things I never want to see again!’ she would say.

  ‘They tried to hurt me!’ she’d wail.

  ‘It’s just… too much,’ she would cry.

  It would cause her client to feel sorry for putting her through so much for their own selfish gains and be forced to come back again another day when she was more up to it – or at the very least, they would feel obliged to tip generously. Little Chase had learnt her tearful techniques and used them at home, at school, with his friends, in the few relationships he had had, in any situation that he wanted to get out of without getting caught or being penalised. It was manipulation at its finest and he’d learnt it from his own mother at a young and impressionable age.

  Now when he looked at Velina, he saw himself. Selfish, shameless and a little heartless.

  ‘Chase?’ Cherry whispered. ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘I feel… ’ He looked at Velina, who was quieter now, still sniffing but he could see her eyes looking expectantly at him.

  ‘I feel… ’ He looked at Danior, whose eyebrows were raised, her lipstick-stained teeth bared and her breath held.

  ‘I feel… ’ Then he looked at Cherry, so full of hope and counting on him to say what they needed him to say.

  ‘I feel so sad that no one told me the truth. You are my family no matter what. Whether you’re a mother or an aunt, you’re still my family,’ he said to Velina.

  ‘Really?’ she asked, wiping away her one single tear and smiling all too easily.

  ‘Really.’ Chase nodded, slipping his hand over Cherry’s relaxed fingers, which were still resting on his thigh under the table.

  ‘Wonderful!’ Velina ran round the table and put her arms around his shoulders, planting a kiss on his cheek. Danior snatched up the bottle of little blue pills in her talons and started to unscrew the cap when Cherry said, ‘So shall we talk about payment?’

  Chase’s heart stopped, Velina’s smile vanished and Danior almost dropped the bottle.

  ‘Payment? My dear, what on earth for?’

  ‘The pills. I think it’s only fair. Those pills will do wonders for your business so you should… reward us.’

  ‘You little —’ Danior switched the bottle to her other hand and quickly raised her free hand but Velina quickly took it and placed it over her own heart.

  ‘Now, now, Dani. Fair’s fair. Cherry does make a good point. After all, we’d never do anything for free.’ Velina disappeared through the beaded curtain and Cherry heard the till open, the rustle of money and the ding of the till being slammed shut. Chase hadn’t said a word and when Cherry slid her eyes towards him, he was chewing the inside of his lip with great concentration.

  ‘Here. Take it and leave.’ Velina handed over a wad of notes. Cherry took it quickly and put it in her pocket and stood to leave. When Chase didn’t stand with her, she pulled at the shoulder of his jacket until he stood up.

  ‘I suggest you hold an event and charge a little less per person than you normally would. Give them each a small mug of tea on arrival and they’ll be putty in your hands. Guaranteed to keep returning,’ Cherry said as she backed through the curtain and into the shop’s waiting room, her sweaty hand clinging to Chase
’s shoulder as she dragged him to the exit. Velina and Danior herded them out, Danior still clutching the bottle in her red pointed nails.

  ‘I hope you get all you deserve,’ Chase said through gritted teeth and without so much as a goodbye, the door to the shop was closed in their faces. Cherry and Chase took a moment to exhale but then quickly made their way back to the port and onto the empty ferry boat that was leaving shortly. As soon as they sat down, the waves gently bobbing them up and down, Chase took Cherry’s hand.

  ‘You know they were lying, don’t you?’ she said, keeping her gaze fixed ahead of her on the waves, rising and breaking.

  ‘Oh, I know,’ he said, also looking forward.

  She squeezed their interlinked fingers. ‘I could see Danior’s Deceit and Velina’s Uncertainty.’

  ‘And I could see my aunt’s Glee and my mother’s Excitement.’

  ‘Even though they were doing something bad? You can still see the good?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad people. I see what they feel. Bad people feel good about bad things.’

  ‘Oh,’ Cherry said, understanding.

  They wore silence like a warm blanket around their cold shoulders all the way back to Royal William Yard. They walked hand in hand back to the bakery and once inside Chase went behind the counter, like it was the most natural thing to do, and flicked the kettle on. He busied himself making tea, rearranging Cherry’s handwritten signs and dusting crumbs off the counter into his hand to put in the bin.