e lingering sorrowful energies." The whole town was there, packed into her large living room, the

e same woman who had ple

ne. She gestured toward me. "Sarah is struggling, as is natural for those

e. I stood up. Th

my voice steady, betraying none of t

queen indulging a subje

n a pool with a broken latch. A latch I asked Tom to fix multiple times. A lat

could feel the collective discomfo

ht in its illusions, Sarah. The latch is merely a symbol. Your focus on it, your fear, created a vortex of negative energy. You must und

blame back on m

letting the words hang in the ai

ransition. You must forgive yourself. We will hel

en I' d known my whole life, grabbed my arms. Tom stood b

he room. The crowd formed a circle

f," Deborah announced, her voice booming now. "It ha

It was with a cold, clarifying rage. This was their answer to everything: when r

She dabbed my forehead with a pungent, oily substance that

You're a fraud, Deborah! Your cures are fa

me. They saw my fight as proof of her diagnosis. My own mother and father watched from the

was a performance, and I was the unwilling star. They pressed on my s

g every detail. The faces in the crowd, the smell of the oil, the feel of the rough ha

went limp. They took my silence as sub

ad. "The spirit is quieted. But

my parents, at the faces of my neighbors. There was no sympathy. Only

erene smile back on her face. For a moment, our eyes met. In hers, I saw no spiritual wisdom, no divine connectio

," I whispered as we w

is still there. Mom was right. You can't leave. Not until you're f

re my saviors. And in their world, th