Ruby shivers. “That sounds mysterious enough.”
“It’s not meant to be mysterious. I just mean that your resources are already much broader and stronger than you understand. And the more you use them, the better they will serve you.”
The more you use them. Ruby sighs. “I should have read the fine print.”
That brings a chuckle. “There are some things we don’t get to choose in our lives, you know. Our genetic makeup is one of those things. You inherited a very strong intuition, coupled with clairvoyance and a profound empathy.”
Ruby starts to say something, but Sophia holds up her hand. “And we don’t always get to choose how we use that inheritance. Fate or chance or luck, whatever you want to call it, opens up new possibilities. You’ve used this experience to reach a new level of competence and understanding. Other opportunities will come—opportunities you won’t be able to turn down.”
“I hope you’re not encouraging me to become one of the Psychic Sisters,” Ruby says. Ramona had dropped in for breakfast that morning with more of her plans for their big project. Ruby reminded her that she had already declined, but as usual, Ramona wasn’t listening.
Sophia’s smile is amused. “There are more and better ways for you to use your gift. And to help you come to terms with what happened with Sarah.”
“You know about . . . her?” Ruby bites her lip.
“Just watch,” Sophia says gently. “And wait. The opportunities will come.”
A mourning dove calls from a tree along the creek, its plaintive call echoing through the evening air. Two scissor-tailed swallows dance and pirouette high in the sky, while a persistent woodpecker drums industriously on a nearby tree.
Ruby looks out over the green landscape. The world seems just as it should, with Nature going about its usual end-of-summer business. She is glad she was able to help Allison. Her guilt about Sarah has lightened—a little, anyway. She and China have grown even closer, Sheila is a little more convinced, and Ethan Connors is a lot less sure of himself.
But she can’t help feeling an uneasy nudge of apprehension. Important things in her life—essential things, fundamental things—seem about to change.
She just wishes she knew how.
About Susan Wittig Albert
As a young child growing up on a farm on the Illinois prairie, Susan learned that books could take her anywhere, and reading and writing became passions that have accompanied her throughout her life. She earned an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Illinois and a PhD in medieval studies from the University of California at Berkeley, then turned to teaching. After faculty and administrative appointments at the University of Texas, Newcomb College/Tulane University, and Texas State University, she left her academic career for full-time writing.
Susan’s best-selling work includes mysteries, memoirs, biographical fiction, fiction for young adult readers, and nonfiction. She is the founder of the Story Circle Network, a nonprofit organization for women writers, and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. She has three children and eight grandchildren. She and her husband Bill live on thirty-one acres in the Texas Hill Country, where she gardens, tends chickens and geese, and indulges her passions for needlework and (of course) reading.
Her website: susanalbert.com
Her blog: susanalbert.typepad.com
Facebook: facebook.com/susan.w.albert.author
Pinterest: pinterest.com/susanwalbert
Books by Susan Wittig Albert
Mysteries
The Crystal Cave Novellas: NoBODY, SomeBODY Else, Out of BODY
The China Bayles Mysteries
The Darling Dahlias Mysteries
The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter
The Robin Paige Victorian-Edwardian Mysteries (with Bill Albert, writing as Robin Paige)
Historical Fiction
Loving Eleanor
A Wilder Rose
The General’s Women
Memoir
An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days
Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place
Nonfiction
Writing from Life: Telling the Soul’s Story
Work of Her Own
Edited Anthologies
NoBODY: The Crystal Cave Novellas, Book 1
Copyright © 2019 by Susan Wittig Albert
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. For information, write to Persevero Press, PO Box 1616, Bertram TX 78605. www.PerseveroPress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or, in the case of historical persons, are used fictitiously.
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