The Reluctant Psychic
Page 28
On the table where I do my readings was an iridescent stone heart that someone had once given me as a present. I wasn’t sure why I’d left it in the room—until now. “Take this, Apollo. Sleep with it. It’ll be all right. You’ll see. Just hold it until you meet her. It won’t be long now. I promise.”
“You’re really giving me this? God bless you. Bless you. Let me pay you for this. What do I owe you? Let me give you a few dollars so you can buy something for your pet cockatoos.”
“Nothing, Apollo. No money. This one’s on the house.”
Haunted, at 24
Acknowledgments
During the writing of this book, we became more than friends. We have shared a fondness for marzipan and a taste for Kahlúa. We have celebrated holidays together and fallen in love with each other’s dachshunds. We confided to each other our worries, our dreams, our deepest secrets, and our everyday wonders. Barely a day passes now that we don’t feel the need for a bit of a chat. In the midst of figuring out how to tell this remarkable story, we discovered a great deal about ourselves and the universe, but the most important thing we found out was how much we meant to each other—that we are, in fact, however it works, soul sisters.
We met because Perdita was desperate for help. Her daughter was sick with a mysterious illness, and a friend at the gym, Jo Schwartz, to whom we owe an incalculable debt of gratitude, suggested that she needed a reading with Suzan. That reading changed both of our lives forever.
One day, early in our friendship, Perdita noted the signed photo of the child actor Jack Wild in Suzan’s store. “Did you love him as a kid, too?” she asked. “Oh yes,” said Suzan mysteriously. “He was my chum.” That question led to a wealth of stories shared over blueberry smoothies and vegan quesadillas at Woodstock’s beloved Garden Café. To the patient waitresses and the cruelty-free cooking skills of chef Pam Brown, we owe many thanks. The hours we spent sitting in the sun at the front table, recording the sessions that became this book, were filled with laughter and revelations for us both. Jack always seemed to be there—in memories and in dreams. Once he actually seemed to materialize when a local teenager, who bore an uncanny resemblance to him, showed up wearing the Artful Dodger’s top hat. “Who is he? I mean really?” Perdita has asked Suzan repeatedly. Suzan asked Jack himself this question, and he answered that he was one of the “gentry,” an old-fashioned word for the fairy folk.
Fairies, angels, saints, and all manner of supernatural beings have guided us during the writing of this book. And ferrying them to us across that open channel was the dark figure of Ankhou, the Lord of the Dead. With each day that passes we understand a little more about his strange role in our lives. When we started the book, he told Suzan how important it was that people realize that the “dead are right here.” Then he added, “but tell them this in a way that’s entertaining.” We can only hope we have fulfilled our mission.
To the legions of the dead, we owe everything. Perdita thanks her mother and her father, both of whom dramatically appeared in that first session, and Suzan thanks Steve, her beloved Robin Hood of a father, always at her side. Again and again, he offered signs and encouragement to let us know how happy he was that his story was being told at last.
On this side of the veil, there were many souls offering practical help. First and foremost we have to thank our powerhouse of an agent Gail Ross and the incredibly talented team at Ross-Yoon Agency, including Howard Yoon and Anna Sproul-Latimer, who offered insightful editing. Through it all, Gail has created opportunities and adventures for us that we could never have imagined. She is a blessing—as is her long-gone “white dog” who arrived at our first meeting together and convinced Gail that Suzan was for real. We thank Kenny Wapner for passing along our manuscript to her.
At St. Martin’s we have been fortunate to have the wise and experienced hand of Jennifer Weiss gently opening up the hidden heart of this story, and we have enjoyed her assistant Sylvan Creekmore’s thoughtfulness and enthusiasm.
Many friends read the manuscript early on and offered counsel. We thank Robert Burke Warren, Beckie Kravetz, Babs Mansfield, Diana Cobbold, Violet Snow, Linda Dickey, and Karin Miller-Lewis especially.
Sara Reilly contributed irreverence and friendship and is one of those rare people who can appreciate Suzan’s gifts without ever having to make use of them.
To our own Dr. Who and Rose, Michael, and Alana Ellick, thank you for the past, thank you for the future, and thank you for sharing with us this wild ride on the TARDIS.
We thank our families—human and animal—for the healing powers of their love.
Our children—Gavin, Sophie, and Jonah—were in turns encouraging and skeptical. They kept us honest and productive and serious about this project. May it bring to them many rewards both spiritual and practical.
Perdita thanks her husband Clark Strand for everything, but most of all for helping her accept her own spiritual insights, and for sharing with her, lifetime after lifetime, the journey of the heart. Clark listened to every word of this book from the very beginning. He offered invaluable editing and encouragement. But more than that, he was this book’s spiritual midwife. He and Suzan are both intimate friends of the darkness, of each other, and of Our Lady.
Thank you to Bob for getting Suzan to Woodstock.
Thank you to Luna the dachshund, Babyhead Willie and Sweetie Poo the cockatoos, Scully the Rat, and all the many animals who have helped Suzan create a family.
And to David Saxman, who has been more patient, more stoical, and more enduring than Stonehenge, Suzan owes so much. He has risked grave psychic and physical harm to be her lifelong knight in shining armor. He cares for the animals, he talks to the trees, and he makes sure there is always a home to come home to.
Finally, Suzan owes a belated “thank you” to Madame Florence from New Jersey. Suzan didn’t believe her when she said that one day a woman would walk into her shop and help her write a book. Not everybody believes what a psychic tells them—even a psychic. But here’s the proof that what she said was true.
About the Authors
SUZAN SAXMAN (above) lives in Woodstock, New York, and runs a small shop called The White Gryphon Boutique and Studio. She is a lifelong vegetarian and passionate animal rights advocate.
PERDITA FINN is a writer whose works include the Time Flyers series. She and her husband are the founders of a nondenominational rosary fellowship in Woodstock, New York.
THE RELUCTANT PSYCHIC. Copyright © 2015 by Suzan Saxman. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover Design by Ervin Serrano
Cover Photograph Courtesy of the Author
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Saxman, Suzan.
The reluctant psychic: a memoir / Suzan Saxman, with Perdita Finn.—First Edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-250-04771-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-04779-3 (e-book)
1. Saxman, Suzan. 2. Psychics—United States—Biography. I. Title.
BF1027.S29A3 2015
133.8092—dc23
2014032172
e-ISBN 9781250047793
First Edition: January 2015