by Nicky Wells
‘Alex,’ Casey whispered, ‘but everything adds up. And we haven’t—we haven’t since—’
Alex rushed to kneel in front of Casey. ‘Casey, look at me.’ Gently, he tipped up her face with his hand until she was forced to look him in the eye. ‘Casey, we don’t believe in curses. Right? This is—it’s ridiculous. Seven years bad sex, hah! Well, bring it on, I say. I’ll drink to that!’
He raised his glass of beer in a defiant gesture. Before Casey could stop him, he downed his drink with his eyes closed. Time stood still.
And in that moment of time standing still, the lights dimmed. The room shook. Casey was certain that the room shook because one of the glasses on the table spilled over even though nobody had touched it. And there was that growling sound again as though the earth was passing a comment on everything that had been said. Casey felt lightheaded—and the moment passed.
‘Oh my gosh!’ Sasha gripped hold of Casey’s arms. ‘Did you feel that?’
‘That was awesome!’ Liza jumped around in glee. ‘I told you this is real!’
Alex rose to his feet. ‘You’re all delusional. This is some kind of mass hysteria. Come on, cut the crap.’
‘Did you see the glass?’ Myles chimed in from the sofa. ‘It spilled. And I swear I didn’t touch it.’
Casey shook her head in dismay. ‘That’s exactly what happened on the yacht.’
‘Oh my GOD!’ Liza suddenly screamed. ‘Does that mean we’re all doomed now?’ She, too, retrieved her smartphone and started scrolling through Internet pages frantically. ‘Is there a curse by association?’
‘Calm down,’ Sasha instructed. ‘I don’t know what to believe anymore. I don’t really believe in curses. You know I’m a facts kind of person.’ Casey grinned. Sasha used to joke about how law school had beaten all sorts of airy-fairy notions out of her brain, with the result that she was now a top-notch solicitor, although she rarely brought that up in front of her friends.
Sasha smiled as if she was reading Casey’s mind. ‘As I said, I’m a facts person, but I have to admit this curse is quite compelling. What I can’t figure out is how to break it.’
‘I don’t think you can,’ Liza wailed. ‘It’s like seven years bad luck after breaking a mirror. There’s no counter-jinx for that either.’
‘Well, there goes nothing then,’ Alex threw in sarcastically. ‘I’ve broken more mirrors than I can count, and I don’t consider myself particularly unlucky. Don’t I have a lovely wife, a great band, fabulous friends, and a nice home?’
‘I don’t see the relevance,’ Liza objected.
‘I worked for a house-clearance company in the summer holidays at uni and also when I first started playing in a band,’ Alex explained loftily. ‘I used to break mirrors for a living. And the last one would be less than—ooh—five years ago. So my luck should be well out, but still I’ve got what I’ve got. I’m hardly unlucky.’
Liza opened and closed her mouth as if to say something but sat down heavily on the sofa. ‘Point taken,’ she mumbled at length.
‘But even we said we must be cursed,’ Casey reminded Alex softly. ‘Lots of times.’
‘Yeah, but we were only joking. We didn’t mean it, did we?’
‘But now we know there is such a curse—’
‘Casey, it’s a load of rubbish. Ignore it. What’s going on between you and me is not the product of some ridiculous superstition.’
‘Well, what is it then?’
Alex raked his hands through his hair. ‘I don’t know,’ he conceded. ‘I don’t know. But a “seven years bad sex” curse? Nah. That’s absurd.’
He pulled Casey into an embrace, and she relished the warmth and feel of him against her. She felt immensely reassured. Alex had to be right. There could be no such thing as a curse on their sex life.
But somewhere at the back of her mind, she worried. She worried about the grain of truth in every cliché, every stereotype, every superstition. She worried about the earth-shaking moments. She worried: What if?
~Alex~
‘Come on,’ Alex coaxed Casey out of bed. ‘There’s something I want to do today.’ It was a Thursday morning in July. Alex had fully recovered from his little herbal episode, although he was still reeling from Sasha and Liza’s curse revelation a few days previously. This afternoon, Blue Heart was due for the dress rehearsal for their Apollo gig the following day, but the morning was free. Neither Casey nor Alex had booked in any music students, to give themselves time to prepare for the gig.
‘What?’ Casey grumbled sleepily. ‘I want to have a lie-in.’
‘You’ve had a lie-in. It’s nearly nine o’clock. Now come on, our appointment is at eleven-thirty.’
‘Our appointment?’ Now Casey’s attention was piqued. ‘What appointment?’
‘You’ll see. Trust me.’
He knew Casey was still brooding over that matter of the curse. Somehow, she seemed to believe it, even though she denied it. Alex instinctively understood that this wouldn’t help matters at all, so he intended to exorcise that particular demon. He had made a ton of phone calls and eventually located someone who had seemed to have his head screwed on in a sensible fashion, and he planned to enlist that person’s help even if he didn’t know it.
A short while later, Alex pointed at a little shop window almost directly opposite Tottenham Court Road Tube station. ‘And here we are,’ he gestured.
‘Here we are, where?’ Casey didn’t understand.
‘Psychic Sam,’ Alex elaborated. ‘Psychic Sam will tell us the truth about whether we’re cursed.’
Casey stopped dead in her tracks. ‘Have you gone completely mad?’
‘No more than you.’ Alex refused to have an argument. ‘I know you’ve been worrying away about what Sasha and Liza said. Well, let’s see if that curse is in our aura. It either is, or it isn’t. If it is, I promise I won’t laugh about it anymore. But if it isn’t, we’ll have to move on. Deal?’
‘I suppose so.’ Casey bowed her head. She looked entirely unconvinced.
Alex frowned. ‘I thought you’d be excited.’
‘I don’t believe in this stuff, and you know that.’
‘I thought I knew that. But your persistent worry about that curse has really thrown me. And anyway, what have we got to lose? We can always laugh about it afterwards.’
‘Did Liza put you up to this?’
Alex grinned. Liza was into this kind of stuff, as they all well knew, and it wasn’t an unfair assumption of Casey’s that Liza should have engineered this session. However, not so on this occasion.
‘No. This is all my doing. And Sam’s not short for Samantha, by the way. Sam’s a man.’
‘Ah.’ Casey chuckled. ‘And that makes a difference how?’
‘I thought at least you wouldn’t be able to accuse me of having dragged you to a run-of-the-mill Mystic Meg.’
‘Psychic Sam, eh?’ Casey grinned, good humour somewhat restored. ‘Let’s see what he has to say.’
The interior of Psychic Sam’s emporium looked more like a corporate headquarters than a clairvoyant’s lair. There was no flute music, no whale songs, no candles or incense, no ethnic throws or colourful wall dressings. Instead, Psychic Sam favoured pale green walls with clean lines, black leather sofas, and plenty of daylight.
Sam himself was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He looked to be in his thirties, and he could have easily walked off the set of a popular soap opera. Alex shook Sam’s hand vigorously and introduced himself and Casey.
‘What can I do for you?’ Sam enquired solicitously. ‘Would you like a couple’s reading or individual readings?’
‘Err—um. As a couple, please. We—we just got married, and we want to know—it would be nice to get an idea—’
‘I get it,’ Sam cut in. ‘Kids, prosperity, what the future holds. Am I right?’
Alex cringed. He was experiencing an instant dislike for the man, and considering the extensive research he had done to find the right k
ind of psychic, this was a big disappointment. But there was no getting around the fact that Sam was too smooth, too smug, like he could really read them like an open book. Maybe coming here was a mistake.
Too late now.
‘Please, sit down,’ Sam invited. ‘Would you like anything to drink? Tea? Coffee?’
‘No, thank you,’ Casey replied. ‘If it’s okay with you, we’d much rather get on.’
Sam crinkled his brow but said nothing. He simply fixed them both with a piercing stare before he nodded.
‘Okay, so let’s commence.’
They were all sitting down now, Casey and Alex side by side on the sofa with the psychic opposite them in an armchair.
‘Let’s hold hands,’ Sam encouraged, taking Casey’s left hand and Alex’s right hand as he spoke. ‘Let’s form a circle of trust.’
Alex wanted to gag, but he didn’t withdraw his hand. In fact, Sam’s hand was nice and warm and oddly soothing to hold. Casey’s hand was trembling slightly, and Alex squeezed it to reassure her.
‘Good, good,’ Sam praised them after a moment. ‘Now I want you to close your eyes and breathe deeply.’
Oh God, Alex thought. I so can’t do this. I’ll laugh. Why did I come here?
He half closed his eyes and peeked at Casey and Sam. Casey’s eyelids were fluttering as though she was dreaming. Sam’s eyes were closed and still, and he looked completely at ease. Alex nearly jumped out of his skin when Sam addressed him.
‘No peeking now, Alex. Go on, relax. Close your eyes.’
How the heck?
Alex felt like a schoolboy caught cheating. He gulped a couple of times but obediently forced his eyelids together. There, that was the best he could do.
Psychic Sam started to hum. There was no other word to describe it. He seemed to hum from the inside out, with no discernible words coming forth, not even the obligatory ‘ohmmm’ that Alex had expected.
Alex could feel himself grow sleepy and relaxed almost despite himself. Silly though it was, the situation was comforting. He noted that Casey’s hand had stopped trembling.
‘Okay, so here’s your story.’
When Sam finally spoke, Alex was startled. How long had they sat there in silence with only the psychic’s humming for company? He resisted checking the time. They were still holding hands, and he didn’t want to be accused of breaking the spell.
Spell. Ugh. Ugly word. Almost as bad as curse. Banish the thought, quick, quick.
‘I know you wanted a couple’s reading,’ Sam continued, ‘but I couldn’t get to you as a couple without reading you individually first. So. Alex.’
Alex sat up straighter even though Sam had done nothing other than say his name. The man was intense!
‘Alex, I sense you’re in great turmoil. You’re unsure of yourself, and you’ve recently done some very unusual things. There’s a presence about you that suggests you’ve been in medical care, but I can’t get to the reason why. I hope it wasn’t anything serious.’
Damn it, he was good. How did he do that?
‘And Casey.’
Casey started trembling again, and Alex held her hand more tightly. Hang in there, I’m right here.
‘Casey, you’re desperately worried about having children. I’m getting lots of mixed messages from you, but I think you’d like children, if perhaps not right now. However, you’re worried about conceiving. No, don’t speak.’
Once more, Alex peeked through his eyelids and saw that Casey’s and Sam’s eyes were still closed. How had Sam known that Casey was going to say something?
‘As a couple, you’re in uproar,’ Sam continued. Every word hit home like a blow to the head. ‘You’ve only recently been married, but your relationship isn’t at all what you’d expected. You’re struggling to re-establish intimacy, although I can’t get to the reason why. It’s as if—’
Sam halted, and when he continued speaking, there was a hint of a tremor in his voice. He was breathing in short sharp bursts, almost as if he had been running. ‘There’s a cloak around that side of your relationship that I can’t penetrate. I can’t see into the darkness. It’s almost as if that side isn’t there. I’ve never seen anything like it.’
Alex’s heart plummeted. If he mentions a curse, we’re out of here.
The psychic was silent for a long moment, and his breathing gradually relaxed again.
‘This is now. However, I see light in the future. I see calm oceans and clear skies. I see sunshine, and I see—yes, I see children. Two—no, three. Two boys and a girl.’
Wow.
‘And now I’m going to have to ask you to leave please.’
Quite abruptly, the psychic let go of their hands and stood up. ‘I won’t charge you for this consultation. Just please—please leave.’
‘You did say light, though, didn’t you?’ Casey stood shakily. She was very pale. She looked drained, Alex noted.
‘I did, yes. Definitely light. Hold on to the light. And children.’
Sam avoided eye contact with Alex when he spoke those words. Casey, however, had his full attention, and Alex felt perturbed by the dynamics.
‘Never forget the light,’ Sam said one last time directly and only to Casey. ‘Goodbye.’
And he ushered them out the door.
~Casey~
‘What the hell was that?’ Alex asked when they were safely ensconced in a rattling, homeward-bound Tube carriage.
‘He was odd, wasn’t he?’ Casey giggled. ‘But ever so clever, how he figured us out. How did you find him?’
Alex waved a non-committal hand. ‘On the Internet. His website and Facebook pages are full of glowing testimonials.’
‘He’s certainly spot on, don’t you think?’
‘I’m not so sure. I feel like I’ve been had,’ Alex confessed.
‘How can you have been had? He didn’t even make you pay. How much was it supposed to have cost anyway?’
‘You don’t want to know.’
‘Oh. That much, huh?’ Casey smiled. ‘Did you get out of it what you wanted?’
Alex chewed his lip. ‘Did you?’
‘Oh yes,’ Casey laughed. ‘I found that whole “dark cloak” thing really disturbing, although at least he didn’t see a curse in our aura. A dark cloak could mean anything. Just a bad patch, for sure. Right?’
She looked at Alex for confirmation, and Alex obediently offered it. ‘Right.’
‘Right,’ Casey repeated. ‘But he was really positive on the light and the children. I meant to ask him when, you know, when we can expect—that—to happen, but I forgot.’ She shrugged. ‘Still, doesn’t matter. “Hold on to the light”,’ she chanted, copying Psychic Sam’s tone perfectly.
Alex muttered. ‘I know it was my idea, but it seems a bit mumbo-jumbo to me.’
‘The trouble with you is that you are confused, like the man said. You don’t know what to believe. You don’t know if you want to believe in any of this stuff.’
‘But I thought you didn’t either?’ Alex objected.
‘I don’t. But I’ve decided to follow the tried-and-trusted horoscope policy.’
‘Which is?’
‘I only believe in the good bits. So, no more fretting about curses but instead looking forward to “the light”. Job done.’ She smiled.
Alex shook his head. ‘In that case, my mission is accomplished. As long as you quit worrying about any—’
‘Don’t even say it,’ Casey begged.
‘Okay, I won’t.’
Casey leaned her head against Alex’s shoulder while she allowed her mind to freewheel. For some reason, she felt reassured. It was all hocus pocus, she knew that, but it was comforting to be selective. And even acknowledging the ‘dark cloak’ wasn’t so bad with the promise of light at the end.
Casey felt more optimistic than she had for a while. She looked forward to the afternoon’s rehearsal and the big gig the next day. And she looked forward to the day after, when perhaps they would try out the miracle
medication. Who knew what would be around the corner? Casey was certain that things were on the up.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered into Alex’s ear. ‘I know this was a bit uncomfortable for you, but thank you anyway.’
‘You’re welcome,’ Alex said softly. ‘But please don’t tell Liza, she’ll have a field day.’
‘I won’t. I love you, Alex Morgan.’
‘I love you too, Casey Morgan.’
Casey felt immensely reassured after their visit to Psychic Sam. In her heart of hearts, she knew that this was ludicrous, but she was willing to let Sam’s positive vibes cancel out the negative vibes of the curse. There will be light, she reminded herself.
As a result, she breezed through the afternoon’s dress rehearsal. Her energy and drive surprised everyone, and she could tell that Liza was dying to ask questions. However, Casey had become very skilful at evading the bass player, and she managed to dodge Liza’s questions all afternoon.
The promotional gig the next day was a resounding success. Casey was on top form, and she whipped the crowd into a veritable frenzy. The two-hour set flew by, and Casey left the stage on a glowing high. She felt great. She felt invincible. This was what she lived for!
They gained the safety of the backstage area, retreating into a dimly-lit and empty side room. Alex wrapped her into his arms and kissed her deeply.
‘You look positively orgasmic, Mrs Morgan,’ he whispered in her ear.
‘Speak for yourself,’ Casey whispered back. ‘I’m so glad we’ve still got our stage mojo. This was awesome!’
She gasped as Alex tightened his grip around her waist. ‘How’s about trying out that bedroom mojo later?’
Casey giggled. ‘Are you sure?’
She noticed Alex frowning and hastened to elaborate. ‘Silly question. Of course you’re sure. I’d love to. Of course I would. As long as we’re not both too exhausted.’
‘I’m a stallion,’ Alex assured her. ‘I’ll rock you tonight.’
Casey exploded with laughter. ‘I can’t believe you said that.’
Alex grinned. ‘But you liked it anyway, didn’t you?’
