Chapter 2.21-Pieces of My Past

          “It’s not as simple as that I’m afraid,” Sabria leaned forward slightly as she spoke.

          It was a stupid question and Layla had known it, but she hadn’t been able to resist asking if Sabria knew the future.

          Much of what Sabria had told her in the dining room could be chalked up to the possibility of Ignacio telling his mother what he knew about his girlfriend. However, Ignacio did not know about Anthony, and if Sabria’s actions rang true when she first entered the backyard, then Ignacio had not told his mother that he was actually involved with Layla at all. In fact, as they walked into the living room, Sabria had told her that she assumed that Ignacio had ended it with Layla after the blow up with Ned. Since he hadn't confirmed the rumors his parents had heard, they had discounted the details.

          “Most people here in ‘Hickville’ view me as someone to be frightened of,” Sabria went on. “And so in public they ignore me, and in private they come in droves with inane questions I cannot answer. ‘Will I marry him? Should I buy this car, or that one? What’s in my future? Will I be rich?’ None of that is concrete. But it’s all they expect when the sign says ‘Psychic.’ Ignorant masses,” she chuckled not entirely unkindly. “However, they wouldn't believe me if the sign didn't say just that.”

          Listening to Sabria’s complaints about the ‘ignorant masses’ made Layla distinctly uncomfortable. Those are exactly the kinds of questions she would have asked had she known Sabria had a gift. Thank PlumbBob she hadn’t asked them aloud.

          “Anyone with an internet connection can look up the answers to those if they wish,” she said. “And as I’m doubly gifted sometimes it really does seem a waste to even consider giving an answer. Admittedly, there are times when I look for the answers to those questions and discover something rather momentous about something else that I feel the questioner should know, but it’s unusual. And usually I just get a headache trying to sift through the fog the future is generally shrouded in.”

          “Generally?” Layla had found a word and latched on. She still wasn’t entirely sure what Sabria was talking about. Layla had never been the sharpest student and right about now she was feeling it.

          “Yes,” Sabria answered clearly. “Generally. There are times when events are clear and well defined, but not all the time. We make our own choices and nothing is ever set in stone. Sometimes, even as I try to See, things change and the fog is even worse. Really, using the past to learn about the future is so much more of a sure thing.”

          “Is that how you knew about Anthony?”

“Yes,” Sabria nodded. “With the assistance of my spirit guide, Wendy. She asked of your past to those that surround you for me. I am a Clairvoyant Medium, not truly a Seer, or a Psychic, if you will.

It’s nice to see that you’re taking this so calmly and quietly. Many of the people in town would have thrown me out by now. Most of them do, actually.”

          “So,” Layla asked. “So if I were to ask you if my tomato plant is going to stick around to be twelve seasons old, and that I’m concerned because I love that tomato plant, that’s not something you can really See?”

          “Well, I could See it, and that vision could be wrong. First, the weather changes: There are simmade forces that influence our weather and those change daily, sometimes hourly, and if you leave out in the weather it’s unknowable. Hail, wind, drought all could happen, or they could not. Or perhaps you decide to move and leave the tomato plant behind just because your new home is a small apartment and planters would take up too much space. The tomato plant could live or die and it would not matter despite your affection for it. It would be a cloudy mess if I simply used my ability to See how the tomato plant fares.

          “But say I asked Wendy to ask the spirits that surround you to tell me of your past. In your past you put up with small spaces and made exceptions for things you had tender affiliations with. In your past perhaps you were perpetually hungry and the tomato plant symbolizes your affirmation to never go hungry again. Using that in combination with what I might be able to discern of the future I could tell you that your plant would remain in your care as long as you wanted it in your care. Or that the tomato plant would live as long as possible due to your tender care of it. And I could say all that and still be wrong. Maybe next year you purchase a lottery ticket on a whim, and then you win. You might move into a mansion and have gardeners of your own and you stock pile emergency food and forget that particular plant. Free will is always at play.

          A better question to ask might be ‘How is the tomato plant going to impact my life?’ Or you could even ask ‘Is it in my best interest to keep the tomato plant alive?’

          From those questions I could look and See a few of the paths in relation to the tomato plant and your life. Then, by weighing the outcomes, I could give you advice that would be far more useful than anything I can predict. It’s up to you to make happen what you want to happen.”

          Layla sat back, her mouth open slightly. “Oh,” she said. She kind of got it. Maybe.

          Sabria smiled a little, though her eyes stayed sharp and did not warm.

          “So why did you have to facepalm me?” Layla asked.

          “Why did she what? Madre! No touching! I told you not to touch her!” Ignacio finally walked back in.

          “Physical contact can often help me make a connection and glean information more easily,” Sabria talked over Ignacio’s interruption. “And I have to apologize for that. That’s usually a move I reserve for those I want to test in a way. I can do it just as easily by touching your hand.”

          “You did not do that to her,” Ignacio’s voice was low, his expression mingled outrage and disgust.

          “So have you ever used what you know for yourself?” This time Layla talked over Ignacio. Noting that he was being quite ignored he went to sit beside Layla. Might as well.

          “Oh, of course I have!” Sabria beamed at Layla’s question her eyes finally warming. “I knew my family would be moving abroad when I was a teenager and at first I was devastated and fought my parents tooth and nail. But then I had a vision of my Santiago sitting by my side in our new home that was only a little hazy. So I stopped fighting and it became crystal clear. I began to fight my parents again and the vision became hazier than ever and I was afraid I had lost that handsome man. So I quit fighting them finally and even told them I was ready to go with an apology. And look, Ignacio, even you wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t used my own abilities.”

          Ignacio sat dead-pan looking at the wall opposite.

          Layla tittered a little when she saw his face.

          “Oh, it’s not that bad, Iggy,” she said, playfully tapping his thigh. He jumped, looking at her hard. She’d never before called him anything other than Ignacio. Was she that comfortable with his mother? No girl had ever been comfortable around his mother before. What did that mean?

          “So, is there a particular question you wanted to ask me, or are you honestly concerned about that scraggly little tomato plant in the backyard?”

          Laughing, Layla shook her head.

          “Are you sure,” Sabria pressed. “I don’t think I’d have to touch you this time. I gleaned quite a bit the last time.”

          “No,” she sighed. “No, I think I’d rather not know what might, or might not, be coming right now. But thank you for some of what you have already told me. It-” she took a deep breath, finally looking up into Sabria’s eyes. “It helped. Really.”

          “What did she tell you?” Igancio was brought back to the conversation abruptly. “She didn’t embarrass you did she?”

          From the loveseat, Sabria tutted and rolled her eyes.

          “No,” Layla said. “I was not embarrassed at all by how she brought up pieces of my past.”

          “Oh,” He put on an overly bright smile and put an arm around Layla, scooting closer to her. “Okay then.”

          Layla snuggled in gratefully and a little thrill ran through his stomach giving him nerve.

          “Well, Madre,” Ignacio said. “It’s getting a little late don’t you think? Does Papi know you are here?”

          “It is getting a little late,” she admitted. “Perhaps I’ll head home for the night.”

          She stood gracefully, quickly. “Don’t get up. I can see myself out. You two have a nice night.” And she left.

          “Sorry ‘bout that,” he said, looking at her, hoping to see her reaction more clearly. “She is incredibly protective of me, but I never thought she would follow me to your home.”

          “Oh, she’s not that bad. Don’t apologize for her. I think I learned a lot. Or maybe I’m just really really confused and I’m mistaking it for understanding,” she laughed.

          “Soooooo,” she said playfully. “Does your mom do that to all the girls she follows or am I just special?”

          “She has done it to all of them,” he said rolling his eyes, still smiling though. “But that does not make you any less special. You, Miss Sixkiller, are the first one, the very first one ever, to have accepted it.”

          “You’re kidding.”

          Pulling her back toward him, he pressed his cheek into her hair.

          “No. No kidding. All of them would run out swearing that I had set up such an encounter with my mother to get out of the relationship. That I was tired of them and that I used her to frighten them off for me,” he said quietly.

          “I’m sure you have heard of my reputation as a bit of a ‘womanizer' around town, that is where it came from. No one wanted to believe my mother really sees things. No one wanted to hear her explanation. No one wanted to think I had nothing to do with it. In the end, my mother used it as justification that the relationship would not have lasted anyway. Then, later, when they wanted to know something on their terms they would become her clients in secret.”

          “Well, it was a little odd for sure,” she admitted. “But I didn’t run off.”

          “No, it looks like you got comfortable with her.”

          “Couldn’t have run out leaving you two in here could I? Might as well stick around and see just what I’ve gotten myself into.”

          “A big heaping mess,” he interjected. “I bet that is what you think you got into.”

          “That’s not what I’m thinking at all,” she said.

          “Oh? Care to let me in on those thoughts then?”

          “Not really.”

          He chuckled in her ear.

          “Can I tell you my thoughts then?”

          “If you’d like.”

          “I think that you are bluffing a bit in how you felt about meeting my Mami.”

          “Oh you do, do you?” she turned to see just how serious he was. To her relief, he looked like he was teasing her. “Do you have your mother’s gift, then? Can you See what I’m thinking?”

          “Oh Layla, you are still very confused. No,” he admitted as she settled back again. “But I know how new situations can make you uncomfortable. And I am willing to bet that was a very new situation for you. And Thank You, also.”

          “‘Thank you?’” she asked. “Thank you for what?”

          “For not freaking out, or running out, or yelling or anything anyone else has ever done. Thank you for accepting Mami as she is. I imagine that it's not so easy for anyone who wasn't raised with it to really accept it.”

          “It’s not hard, either.”

          “Still.”

          And the two lapsed into silence for a while. Each one allowed their thoughts to overcome them. Layla contemplated meeting his mother and the peculiar information she had heard. Ignacio dwelt on how different people treated that same woman.

          Much later, Ignacio broke the silence.

          “Well, it is getting quite late,” he said. “And I do indeed have things at home I should take care of. And an early morning as well. Perhaps I should go now.”

          “Not just yet, please,” she said, turning to kiss him. If nothing else she would get a kiss from him. Surely his mother hadn’t scared him to the point that he wouldn’t do that even.

          Instead, Ignacio pulled back.

          “No, really,” he said. “I should get home. Sleep would probably do both of us good.”

          Putting on her most coquettish face she tried to convince him to stay with her eyes.

          “Oh, I am sorry,” he laughed. “But tonight is already spent. Fish bite better early.”

          “So move in with me,” the words flew out of her mouth before she even realized she had said them.

          “You are kidding,” he said.

          She sat up, held her head high, and smiled.

          “No,” she said. “No, I’m not. Move in with me. Then your Mami isn’t interfering as much in your life, and I get you all to myself at night.”

          “HaHa! Tha’s crazy!”

          “Of course it’s crazy, but it could work. Just think about it. Okay?”

          “Alright.”

          "Good."

        

          “No, Mi Llamita. Alright, I will move in with you.”

          “You don’t want time to think about it?”

          “I don’t need time. You’re right. Mami cannot interfere if I don’t live with her. And I can spend much more time with you if I do.”

          “Really?”

          “Yes,” he chuckled. “But I am still going to be an arrogant ass sometimes. Jus’ so you know.”

          “And I’m still going to be stubborn and willful, and sometimes haughty.”

          “I think I can handle that.”

          “And I think I can handle whatever you can throw at me.”

          “Really? What if I told you I have a daughter? And eventually I'd like her to live with us, too?”

          “I could handle that.”

          “Really?”

          “Of course! I can handle that.”

          “Well then, I guess we will just have to move in with you then.”

          “So, we’re going to live together,” she said. “We’re really going to live together.”

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Reckless Layla resurfaces. Let's see how this goes. (BTW- she didn't believe him. She thought it was a joke along with their "can you handle this" spiel.)

And I really hope that made sense about Sabria. If it didn't Please Please Please let me know so I can clarify. It's going to be rather important later on and I'd hate to think I've already muddled it.

Finally, I realize the story Ignacio told about how his mother treated the girls he brought home has holes in it (great big gaping ones), but that is the story as he believes it to be true. We will revisit it later and perhaps add to it what he does not yet know. I'm only mentioning it now because I'm sure a few of my readers will have spotted the holes fairly quickly. In the meantime, just know that to him those girls were attacking his mother and for that alone he was just as ready to walk away from them.