all have access to these records. It’s that knowing hunch. Your intuition at work, the feeling of déjà vu. You know the answer because you’ve got a gut instinct.”
“You mean the thing that’s making me question Lily.”
“The answer to Lily will be found within those records. We just have to tap into them.”
“Do you think Lily could be evil?”
“There isn’t really good or evil,” Brad said. “There is only positive and negative energy. The terrible things people do to each other come from negative energy. Some people have a little negative energy and some have a lot. What we want to know is how much negative energy Lily gives off. Remember what I said to you about that dark energy? It could be Lily.”
I took a long breath that failed to calm me down. A tingle of anxiety crept up from my toes and filled my throat.
“There’s one very big problem with this plan of ours,” I said.
Brad dipped a fry in a mini-mountain of ketchup. My willpower fast fading, I reached across the table and took a fry for myself.
“Lay it on me, my brother from another mother,” Brad said.
“Don’t take offense, but if something really is wrong with Lily, some hidden agenda, I’m going to need a lot more proof to convince Anna than a psychic plumber picking up her negative vibes.”
Brad looked about as bothered as a cat lounging in a ray of sunshine.
“At least you’ll get to validate your gut instinct,” he said.
“One more issue,” I said, holding up a finger to match that number. “If it turns out Lily has to go, I can’t lose Anna in the process.”
This time, Brad leaned back in his seat and looked uncomfortable.
“Like a guide, I can only point you in a direction,” Brad said. “The pitfalls and undesired consequences of our choices, nobody can control.”
CHAPTER 15
I had one of those days at work that belonged in the annals of those days at work. So I called Anna and asked her to meet me for a stroll down Newbury Street in Boston. Anna and I loved to walk Newbury Street, especially on a warm, pitch-perfect summer afternoon like this one. We thought it felt like a European enclave tucked inside Boston proper. Many of the shops were unique, with specialty boutiques outnumbering the chain stores by at least a two-to-one margin.
Having come directly from a client meeting, Anna wore her hair in a working-girl bun that I thought looked sexy. She was wearing one of my favorite dresses on her, a blue number that just barely scraped the knees, cinched at the waist by a thin black belt that gave a pleasing shout-out to her fit figure. For all my bad fortune, I was a lucky man to have Anna in my life.
Our first shop stop was Dona Flor, a high-end specialty home goods store. Normally we just browsed, but this time we walked out with a set of nickel-plated roller shower curtain rings. Who didn’t need nickel-plated roller shower curtain rings?
“Do you want to take the T over to the art museum?” Anna asked. “It’s open past nine tonight.”
Anna had bought us a membership back in December, and we’d already earned back the value with the frequency of our visits. I liked the Impressionist collection, Degas especially, whereas Anna favored the American Wing. We both gravitated to the Egyptian exhibit. Anna was deep into studying ancient cultures, believing it helped with her consulting businesses by broadening her perspective on human behavior. It was my heartstrings pulling me to the earthy rooms of mummies, and sarcophagi, and ancient hieroglyphics. Max had loved the museum, but he favored the Egyptian Wing most of all. I ached to leave the museum without picking him up a little something from the gift shop. It was the little things I no longer did that often caused the greatest amount of pain.
“No, I think I’d rather just walk,” I said.
We hit a few more stores. As usual, Anna had something to say about the quality of the retail window displays we passed, but I was quiet and she
“You mean the thing that’s making me question Lily.”
“The answer to Lily will be found within those records. We just have to tap into them.”
“Do you think Lily could be evil?”
“There isn’t really good or evil,” Brad said. “There is only positive and negative energy. The terrible things people do to each other come from negative energy. Some people have a little negative energy and some have a lot. What we want to know is how much negative energy Lily gives off. Remember what I said to you about that dark energy? It could be Lily.”
I took a long breath that failed to calm me down. A tingle of anxiety crept up from my toes and filled my throat.
“There’s one very big problem with this plan of ours,” I said.
Brad dipped a fry in a mini-mountain of ketchup. My willpower fast fading, I reached across the table and took a fry for myself.
“Lay it on me, my brother from another mother,” Brad said.
“Don’t take offense, but if something really is wrong with Lily, some hidden agenda, I’m going to need a lot more proof to convince Anna than a psychic plumber picking up her negative vibes.”
Brad looked about as bothered as a cat lounging in a ray of sunshine.
“At least you’ll get to validate your gut instinct,” he said.
“One more issue,” I said, holding up a finger to match that number. “If it turns out Lily has to go, I can’t lose Anna in the process.”
This time, Brad leaned back in his seat and looked uncomfortable.
“Like a guide, I can only point you in a direction,” Brad said. “The pitfalls and undesired consequences of our choices, nobody can control.”
CHAPTER 15
I had one of those days at work that belonged in the annals of those days at work. So I called Anna and asked her to meet me for a stroll down Newbury Street in Boston. Anna and I loved to walk Newbury Street, especially on a warm, pitch-perfect summer afternoon like this one. We thought it felt like a European enclave tucked inside Boston proper. Many of the shops were unique, with specialty boutiques outnumbering the chain stores by at least a two-to-one margin.
Having come directly from a client meeting, Anna wore her hair in a working-girl bun that I thought looked sexy. She was wearing one of my favorite dresses on her, a blue number that just barely scraped the knees, cinched at the waist by a thin black belt that gave a pleasing shout-out to her fit figure. For all my bad fortune, I was a lucky man to have Anna in my life.
Our first shop stop was Dona Flor, a high-end specialty home goods store. Normally we just browsed, but this time we walked out with a set of nickel-plated roller shower curtain rings. Who didn’t need nickel-plated roller shower curtain rings?
“Do you want to take the T over to the art museum?” Anna asked. “It’s open past nine tonight.”
Anna had bought us a membership back in December, and we’d already earned back the value with the frequency of our visits. I liked the Impressionist collection, Degas especially, whereas Anna favored the American Wing. We both gravitated to the Egyptian exhibit. Anna was deep into studying ancient cultures, believing it helped with her consulting businesses by broadening her perspective on human behavior. It was my heartstrings pulling me to the earthy rooms of mummies, and sarcophagi, and ancient hieroglyphics. Max had loved the museum, but he favored the Egyptian Wing most of all. I ached to leave the museum without picking him up a little something from the gift shop. It was the little things I no longer did that often caused the greatest amount of pain.
“No, I think I’d rather just walk,” I said.
We hit a few more stores. As usual, Anna had something to say about the quality of the retail window displays we passed, but I was quiet and she
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