The Love Sucks Club by Beth Burnett Page B

to go home.”
    Still silent, she turns onto the dirt road that leads to one of
our favorite hikes. Resigned, I stare out the window at the view from the
bottom of the mountain. A few minutes later, Sam parks the truck on the side of
the road near the bushes. Grabbing a few bottles of water from the back, we
take off into the woods and hit the trail. It’s a steep uphill climb and for a
while, we just focus on walking and breathing. Sam has a harder time than I do
because she is an on-again off-again smoker. By the time we reach the top of
the trail, we are both sweating like crazy and Sam is doubled over with her
hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Finding a nice boulder, I plop
down and take a sip from a bottle of water. Sam finally straightens up and sits
down beside me.
    “I suppose you’re wondering why I brought you here today,” she
says, grinning.
    “I’m actually wondering how you don’t get fired from your job.”
    “I’m the only one who knows how to do any of the things I do. So,
it takes me two hours to go get a bucket of primer every once in a while.
That’s better than having to hire ten guys to do my one job.”
    I open my mouth to call her on her arrogance, but I know she’s
right. Stalling, I take another sip of water. Sam waits patiently.
    Finally, I look at her. “Okay. What do you want to know?”
    “I want to know why the seizures have suddenly come back with a
vengeance.”
    “They’re not seizures!”
    “Fine. Fits. Whatever you want to call them.”
    “You’ve know about my visions for years.”
    “Yes.”
    “And you know my visions are accompanied by some physical issues.”
    “They seem to be getting worse.”
    “They are getting worse. Or at least, more frequent. I don’t know
what’s going on. I had almost gotten rid of them altogether for a long time
there. And then I woke up one morning feeling like I was having a heart attack.
Since then, the attacks have been coming more and more frequently.”
    “Well, what can we do about them?”
    “According to Brad, I need to focus on them and listen to the
voice.”
    Sam’s sniff is all the answer I get to that.
    “Actually,” I continue, “ Esmé feels the
same way.”
    “She’s new agey ,” Sam protests. “Of
course she wants you to move into your visions or whatever the hell it is.”
    Laughing, I put my arm around her shoulders. “What do you think I
should do?”
    “I think you should go to the doctor and have them check you out. If this started with heart attack symptoms, you should already
be in the hospital.”
    “It wasn’t a heart attack. It was a panic attack.”
    “You can’t know that for sure.”
    I debate about how much to tell her. I know that Sam’s belief only
goes so far. She trusts me and she knows that I wouldn’t lie to her. So, she
wrestles with her skepticism about things beyond the “norm” of the world and
the fact that her best friend has dealings with the spirit world.
    “The panic attacks and the visions are connected. I think the
panic attacks are my body’s reaction to the visions. Either that or the
vibrations coming through are too intense for me to handle so I react
physically, either with the panic attack or passing out.”
    Trying not to look at Sam, I stare over the side of the mountain
at the sea. As far as geographic cures go, this was a pretty smart move. Still,
I’m starting to wonder if I got far enough away. Maybe my sister had the right
idea in escaping to the other side of the world.
    We pause at a thumping noise coming through the woods. It sounds
like a herd of goats. Scanning the woods, I listen to the sound of hooves
getting louder. They sound heavy, but then, goats can sound like elephants when
they are crashing through the woods. Sam is grinning. She’s probably
remembering Susannah’s retelling of my last goat encounter. Finally, the
animals push out of the tree line and I realize it isn’t goats. It’s three men on horseback. Sam tenses