Hits & Mrs.
Page 35
“Like father, like son,” Jimmy Lee nodded approvingly. “What an extraordinary resurrection you’re about to make. It reminds me of the return I made after that disaster with Banachek. That sonofabitch didn’t even know he was doing me a favor. As I told you, you can’t make a comeback without taking a fall.”
“This is just as I predicted,” Gil said with a grin.
The theater was packed full of people who were buzzing with anticipation.
Gil’s fans hadn’t forgotten him.
All of a sudden the lights went out in the auditorium. The excitement in the room increased. After a few moments the room quieted down enough that the audience could hear a piano gently playing a ballad. They grew quieter as they listened. After a few minutes the music stopped dead and the audience became excited again, but still nothing happened. There was an uncomfortable silence as people looked around the room wondering if Gil would emerge at all. Suddenly, a small blue spotlight appeared on stage. The spotlight swelled gradually until Gil could be seen standing there with his head bowed. He raised his head slowly and looked up into the audience.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen… I’m Gil Godsend…”
The crowd went wild. Some people ran up to the stage while others burst into tears.
“It’s good to see you all again…” he said with outstretched arms.
Claudia shook her head and sighed as she sat watching everything from a box seat.
She hated attending these shows. She disliked his rabid fans with their unquestioning commitment to Gil and their creepy swarm behavior. She’d heard that the police had to protect Gil from his adoring crowd when he arrived at the theater that night. She also loathed the groupies who dressed like they were going to a nightclub in their hope that they would get to meet their idol. The smell of sandalwood in the air always made her sneeze and she couldn’t believe that some people were still wearing their amethyst crystal pendants. Some things never change.
She was amazed that Gil could sell out these arenas as easily as a motivational speaker as he could when he was a psychic medium.
Claudia was feeling curious. Gil surprised her that night by revealing that his father would be attending the show and that she would finally get to meet him for the first time at dinner afterwards. She had a surprise for Gil too. Banachek was in town and would be joining them for dinner.
Claudia felt embarrassed when she told Banachek that she and Gil were back together again, but as always, he was understanding and supportive.
“We can’t chose who we fall in love with,” he said.
Claudia hoped Gil had taken his medication that day and that he’d be on his best behavior at the restaurant. She dressed nicely for the occasion because she wanted to make a good first impression. She had met his mother Sue on a few occasions and she liked the woman, but Gil had always been evasive about his father. All Claudia knew was that he was a doctor of some kind. Apparently he’d been working overseas for the past few years and Gil hadn’t seen him for a long time. Gil seemed uncharacteristically nervous about the meeting between Claudia and his father. In fact, she’d never seen him so anxious before.
Anyone would think his father was Adolf Hitler, or Jimmy Lee Mercy, she thought to herself.
Claudia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. These chairs weren’t designed for pregnant women. As she squirmed about she could feel her baby moving too. It felt like butterflies fluttering in her belly.
“Hello, little one,” she said softly as she rubbed her growing stomach.
Gil predicted she was having a boy, a fact that was confirmed by the sonographer during an ultrasound, but Claudia thought it was just a good guess because Gil had a 50% chance of being right. After much disagreement they finally decided on the name Aiden. This was Claudia’s choice because Gil wanted to go with the considerably more conservative James. In a fair compromise they agreed that James would be the boy’s middle name, just like it was Gil’s.
To this day, Gil still said things that made her wonder if he really was psychic. But there must be some things that Gil couldn’t predict. Like, what kind of man would her baby become? What would he believe in and what would he stand for? She hoped he would become a firefighter, a teacher, or something else honorable, but that he wouldn’t become a psychic medium. She imagined that her son would be intelligent, just like his father. He would be tall and handsome, just like his father. And there was one thing that Gil hadn’t seemed to predict…that her baby’s eyes might be vivid green instead of a piercing blue…
About the Author
Karen Stollznow is the author of God Bless America, Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic, and Haunting America. A co-host of the popular Monster Talk podcast, she has spent many years investigating psychics, ghosts, Bigfoot and other anomalous claims. A Doctor of Linguistics, she has taught at several universities in the United States and Australia, and was a Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Karen was born in Sydney, Australia, and she currently lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband Matthew and their son Blade.
Check out http://www.karenstollznow.com/books/ for more titles by Karen Stollznow.