Love at Second Sight

by Cathy Hopkins

  ‘When’s your birthday?’

  ‘June 2nd.’

  ‘Doing anything special?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet. Effy and my other friend Tash are arranging something.’

  ‘Sweet. So you were saying. Clairvoyant?’

  ‘We went to see the one on the Heath. The day you were playing. It’s Effy who’s into all that stuff though, not me.’

  ‘No, course not, not you,’ he said solemnly, but there was something about the way he said it that made me feel like he didn’t believe me at all. ‘Did she tell you that you were going to meet a tall, dark stranger?’ Finn raised an eyebrow suggestively.

  He’s flirting with me, I thought as I felt myself blush again. Like it or not, I did fancy him and there was definitely some chemistry between us, I could feel it down to my toes. It felt like we were walking along in our own rosy-coloured bubble. Not getting into it, not getting into it, I told myself. He has a girlfriend, I’ve seen him with her so it’s out of order that he’s flirting with me. I wonder if she knows what he’s like? Poor girl. I knew. I just knew it. Boys like Finn just play with girls’ heads because they can. Well, he’s not adding me to his hit list.

  ‘No. She didn’t.’

  ‘Ah, shame,’ said Finn.

  ‘She said that I’d met someone already.’

  ‘Already? So she did mention me?’

  I felt that Finn was teasing me but I wasn’t going to flirt back. ‘No, she definitely did not mention you. She, er. . .’ I didn’t want to tell him the whole story but maybe part of it if only to stop him asking questions. ‘She said something about soulmates knowing each other through different lives.’

  ‘Different lives?’

  He looked genuinely surprised and it felt good to have said something at last that really got his interest. ‘As in a past life.’

  ‘You’re joshing with me.’

  ‘No.’ It was fun to see him look so gobsmacked.

  ‘What else did she say?’

  ‘Um ... I can’t remember all of it. Something about finding my soulmate.’

  ‘Soulmate, huh? Not sure I believe in them.’

  ‘Well, you wouldn’t, would you?’ I blurted then clapped my hand over my mouth.

  ‘What do you mean, I wouldn’t? I’m capable of being romantic, I am, but a soulmate . . . that’s heavy stuff,’ he said, then put his hand over his heart and gave me a meaningful look, his eyes twinkling. ‘So you’re looking for your soulmate, are you?’

  ‘No, course not. I ... I don’t know if I believe in them either. Maybe they only exist in books and movies. Anyway, enough about me. Why’s your band called Minted? What’s that about? Sounds like toothpaste.’ I don’t know why I felt so defensive all of a sudden. Probably because he appeared to be laughing at me, like I was a dumb pet that made him smile.

  ‘Yeah. It’s a neat name, isn’t it? Ben came up with it. The rest of the band thought it sounded cool. So tell me more about what the clairvoyant said.’

  ‘She said I would bump into a very annoying boy down in Camden one weekend,’ I lied.

  Finn laughed. ‘Ah, now that would be me, would it? Maybe I am your soulmate!’

  I grinned back. ‘Get in line, pal. I have a few contenders so far.’

  ‘Is that right?’

  I wasn’t going to tell him there was only one. Owen. And that wasn’t serious.

  ‘Oh yes, a long list. But it’s Effy who’s into clairvoyants and stuff, not me.’

  ‘So you keep saying. But I like the notion that there might be a soulmate for everyone out there,’ said Finn. ‘Someone to meet when you’re ready to do the serious stuff, someone you’ve known time after time. I think I should write a song about it. It’s the sort of thing girls love.’

  ‘How could you write about it if you don’t believe it?’

  Finn tapped his head. ‘I have to think commercially. Think about what people want to hear.’

  ‘Huh,’ I said. I bet, I thought. I bet that’s what you do with all girls, not just the ones in your audiences. You tell them what they want to hear. Well not me, pal. I’m not falling for it. ‘I think you should write what you believe. Write from your heart if you want to touch people. It’s fake to write what you think people want to hear. If you’re a real artist you should write the truth.’

  Finn looked taken aback by my outburst. Now I should shut up, I thought, shut up, shut up! He’ll think I’m a nutjob. Why oh why can’t I just be myself? I either talk too little or blather away like an eejit.

  ‘Maybe. Maybe I just haven’t met the right girl yet so have no experience of a soulmate. Maybe I’ll write about that.’ He gave me another of his amused looks. It made me feel very unsettled. ‘Maybe the right girl would change my mind. So were you looking for this clairvoyant that you don’t believe in to see what else she had to say?’

  I shook my head. ‘No. I was trying to have a peaceful life. You don’t know Effy. Once she’s latched on to something, there’s no letting go.’

  ‘Effy. OK, if you say so. Well, I think the soulmate idea is lovely. Very romantic. Heathcliff and Cathy sort of thing.’ Now it was my turn to look surprised. ‘See I do know what you’re on about. Wuthering Heights. Passion. Yearning. Standing on the moors in the wind and rain in the middle of the night. HeathCLIFF. CaTHEEEE. Dying of pneumonia and haunting each other. All that good stuff.’

  Now he’s being patronising, I thought. ‘But the clairvoyant clearly made it up because she’s another one who knows what people like to hear.’

  ‘If you say so,’ he said with another of his grins.

  ‘I think I might have to punch you in a minute,’ I said.

  Finn was almost laughing now. ‘Girls often say that to me. Why do you think that is?’

  ‘Because you’re infuriating. I hate it when people tell me what I’m thinking; you don’t know me or what I believe.’

  Finn looked deeply into my eyes in a way that made me blush again. ‘So maybe I could get to know you.’

  ‘I . . . but. . .’ I stuttered as an image of him with the girl from the Heath flashed through my mind though he did just say that he hadn’t met the right girl yet. God, it was confusing. Maybe he was just saying that because he knew it was the kind of thing girls want to hear, like, I haven’t met The One but you might be her. ‘I’m going to go now before I push you in the canal.’

  ‘Have you thought about seeing anyone about this violent streak of yours? Like anger management classes?’

  ‘I am not violent!’

  ‘Er, you want to punch me and push me in the canal.’

  Once again, that mocking expression on his face. What was it about him that made me so mad?

  ‘OK. Going now,’ I said and this time I did turn and walk away. I couldn’t believe the cheek of him. He knew I’d seen him with his girlfriend, twice even! But he must have met lots of girls who didn’t care that he was in a relationship. Well I’m not going to be one of his groupies, like a Little Miss Available, I thought as I headed back up to the main road. He’s full of himself, a flirt and patronising. I am so not interested, Finn O’Brady.

  ‘Good luck with your search,’ Finn called after me. ‘Let me know if any of them mention me.’

  I turned back to him. ‘I’m not searching. Happy as lam.’

  ‘If you say so.’

  I walked a bit further, then couldn’t resist turning round again. He turned at exactly the same time.

  ‘I knew you wanted me,’ he called.

  ‘In your dreams,’ I called back, but we were both smiling.

  Chapter Eight

  The following week, there was no getting away from Henrietta. On Monday evening, I got home to find that Owen had sent me a badge in the post. It said Reincarnation is making a comeback. Very funny. Somehow the story about my clairvoyant experience had even got around school. On Wednesday, before assembly, I heard that Mac Johnson in the Upper Sixth, who fancies himself as a Casanova, had apparently been telling every girl he met
that he’d known her in a past life. His latest chat-up line and some gullible girls were even stupid enough to believe him.

  I was so glad I hadn’t told Finn the full story and prayed that he didn’t hear it from someone else. He’d have teased me even more than he’d done when he only knew the vague details. However, he’d obviously been thinking about what we’d talked about because on Wednesday evening, I saw that he’d sent me an email.

  Hi Jo

  Wondering if what you told me at the Lock might be a great idea for an article for the magazine? Clairvoyants, psychics, fortune-tellers. Girls are so into all that stuff aren’t they? Hoping to hear that they’re going to meet The One, etc. I’m going to source some local psychics and the like and thought you and Effy could do the research and write it up. I think it could be good. Ben could take some pics to go with what you write, so you could have a chat with him too.

  Finn

  PS: I’ll send you the list.

  PPS: Let me know what they say about me.

  What a cheek, I thought as I printed it out to show the girls at school. Let him know what they say about him. Such a flirt. But I couldn’t deny the fact that I was well chuffed to have heard from him.

  I was about to show the email to the girls at break on Thursday morning when Tash’s phone beeped telling her that she had a text. It was from Dave.

  We’ve found her. Henrietta Gleeson, born Liverpool 1882.

  ‘No way!’ I said.

  ‘Wow,’ said Effy.

  ‘Still doesn’t mean anything,’ I said.

  ‘Course it does,’ said Effy. ‘It means she existed.’

  ‘Yes but doesn’t mean that I was her.’

  ‘It’s a lead,’ said Tash. ‘At least we can use it to find out more about her. I’m going to call Dave.’

  ‘Now, what were you going to show us?’ asked Effy as Tash called Dave on her mobile.

  I gave her the printed sheet with Finn’s email.

  ‘Hmm. Tell him what they say about him? Brilliant,’ said Effy after she’d read it. ‘I think he likes you.’

  ‘No way. He flirts because he fancies himself as a playboy. I am so not interested.’

  ‘Yeah right. So not interested.’

  ‘I’m interested in doing the article though,’ I said. ‘It will be great for my CV when I apply for journalism courses.’

  ‘It might be fun too,’ said Effy ‘We could take opposing sides – I’ll be for it, you can be against.’

  ‘No problem there then,’ I agreed.

  ‘And I see Ben’s to take photos,’ said Effy.

  ‘Yeah, maybe he could take some of the invisible guides and dead spirits.’

  ‘Haha,’ said Effy. ‘And for your information, there are some photos where a spirit has been captured.’

  ‘Yes, they’re called set-ups, spoofs, fakes, Effy.’

  Effy stuck her tongue out at me. ‘Us humans don’t know everything, you know.’

  Tash finished her call. Her face was flushed with excitement. ‘Dave and his uncle are still on the case. He says that now we have a date of birth, they should be able to find a date and place of death too. That should tell us if Henrietta moved from Liverpool and once we know that, they can maybe work out where she lived for most of her life. Dave said that then they can look at the census records and if she was in the same house as Howard on one of the nights of the census then we’ll have his surname. Yay.’

  ‘But, Tash,’ I said, ‘even though this is all fascinating, it doesn’t really tell us anything. I could pick a name randomly from the ethers or a name off a gravestone, an old-fashioned-sounding name like . . . Alice Marshfield or Violet Porter or something, and I bet you if you looked long enough, you’d find someone with that name in the records. The fact that Dave’s uncle found a Henrietta Gleeson, so what?’

  ‘Who’s Alice Marshfield? Is she another of your past lives?’ asked Tash.

  Effy playfully thumped her but ignored her question. ‘It might all lead to Howard,’ she said to me.

  ‘Yes but even if we found someone called Howard and he lived in the same place as Henrietta, again, so what? They might have been neighbours of Betty’s gran and she remembered their names.’

  Effy folded her arms. ‘I’m not giving up,’ she said.

  ‘Me neither,’ said Tash. And we should call you “Jo Yes But” from now on because that’s what you keep saying: yes but, yes but.’

  Yes but – I mean, look, I don’t want to be a killjoy but I don’t want you or Dave wasting your time. We’ve got a lot of studying to do this year, let’s focus on that because at least that will help up in this life.’

  ‘Now you are being a killjoy,’ said Tash. ‘This is way more fun than homework.’

  ‘Not to me,’ I said. ‘It’s not going to wash as an excuse if we get low grades, like, sorry, Miss, I was researching a person I was in a past life.’

  ‘OK, then look at it this way,’ said Tash. ‘You do the research for the magazine, and write a good article because that will help towards your CV, and Effy, me and the boys will do the Henrietta stuff. Deal?’

  I couldn’t argue with that. ‘Deal.’ Usually the students asked to write articles for Chillaxin were in the Upper Sixth whilst team members in the Lower Sixth, like Effy and me, did the groundwork like research and finding sources. But Finn had said I could write it up. It really was too good an opportunity to turn down.

  Chapter Nine

  ‘OK, there are two to see this morning and two this afternoon,’ I said as I glanced down the printed sheet of names from Finn. ‘Want to split up or go together?’

  Finn hadn’t wasted any time and had already emailed a list of assorted clairvoyants that he managed to get to see Effy and me at short notice. He’d also picked them because they didn’t charge a fixed fee but took donations instead. He said he would reimburse us from the Chillaxin kitty when we’d finished.

  Now it was Saturday and Effy and I had just met in west Hampstead for a quick cappuccino before we headed out to the sessions we were booked in with. It was a sunny day and Effy had a short blue dress on and her turquoise sneakers and I was wearing a black lace vintage top that I’d got from Notting Hill market with my black jeans.

  ‘Let’s go together,’ said Effy as she spooned froth from her coffee into her mouth. ‘We might remember different things.’

  I laughed. Effy’s nobody’s fool. She knew we’d take a different angle on it all. I didn’t mind that. I knew it was good journalism to represent different viewpoints.

  ‘It would be amazing if any of them come out with the same story’ Effy continued. ‘You know, say that you were Henrietta once.’

  ‘Yes, that would be amazing,’ I said. ‘But it’s not going to happen. So. Who’s first?’

  Effy glanced at our sheet of appointments. ‘Annie Simmons. According to her ad in the back of the local paper, the spirits speak to her.’

  What if she evokes someone we don’t want and it follows us home?’ I asked. ‘Like a bad spirit, wuhoohoo.’

  ‘That won’t happen,’ said Effy, but she said it rather quickly.

  I picked up the list and glanced over it again. Number one: Annie Simmons in West Hampstead. Number two: Heather Mason in KilbUm. Number Three: a group who meet in a church with guest clairvoyants and the last was late afternoon in Muswell Hill. ‘Doesn’t sound like an awe-inspiring bunch,’ I said. ‘I hope we get something we can write about.’

  ‘That’s because you’re not open-minded,’ said Effy.

  Being accused of not having an open mind by Effy or anyone really bugs me. Effy particularly because she’s my mate and supposed to get me, but sometimes she just doesn’t. ‘There’s a difference between being open-minded and gullible.’

  Effy bristled. She doesn’t like it when I insinuate that she’s naive. I suppose that makes her feel like I don’t get her. ‘I am not gullible. I can spot a fake as well as the next person,’ she objected. ‘Come on, let’s not argue. Let’s go and get
started. Is Ben coming to any of them to take photos?’

  I shook my head. Finn had sent me Ben’s email address so we could discuss the article, and I’d sent him our list of appointments, but he’d emailed back saying he preferred to work alone and would go round later to take his pictures. Miserable git, I thought, although part of me was glad he wasn’t coming along. I didn’t know what was going to happen or what was going to be said and I didn’t want any witnesses apart from Effy.

  ‘What does your mum think of you doing this research?’ asked Effy.

  I shrugged. ‘Haven’t told her. You know what she’s like. She’d be here doing it with us. I just said I was working on a magazine article. What about you? You told yours?’

  Effy shook her head. ‘Same as you. Just said I’m doing stuff for the school magazine. You know my mum. She’d put such a dampener on it – bit like you.’

  ‘Sorry, Ef. No more fighting today’

  ‘Agreed,’ said Effy, then grinned. ‘As long as you admit that I am right, always was right and always will be.’

  ‘Yes, Your Majestic Queen of bossiness. I hear and obey.’

  Effy laughed. ‘I supposed it would be boring if we agreed on everything,’ she said as my phone bleeped that I had a text. It was from Owen again. Have a spooktacular time, he’d written.

  You’ve been filling Owen in on what we’re up to though I see,’ I said.

  Effy shrugged. ‘He always asks after you when he calls home,’ she said.

  As we left the café and headed off on our way to our first appointment, I remembered Finn’s last words to me at the Lock: ‘Let me know if any of them mention me.’ Now that would be worth going along for, as well as a published article going on my CV. Even though I’d told myself that Finn had a girlfriend and was out of my league, I couldn’t get his annoying face out of my mind or the fact that he’d told me that he hadn’t met the right girl yet. Things change, I thought, maybe things won’t work out with his girlfriend. Maybe that’s why he was flirting with me. Maybe already things aren’t working out with her. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Yeah right. Maybe I was the one that was gullible.