The dame with the sight

New York City.

Janey Philips was in love. Had had been more than five months now. It was what got her through the days and filled her lonely nights. Knowing the tenderness of his touch,the patience and passion of his lovemaking, and the fulfilment of dying bit by bit each night in his arms as he took her breathless and often trembling,was more than shed ever hope to have in life.

And tonight was no exception.

After another long and seemingly endless night of playing hostess for her father, federal prosecutor Peter Philips,it had been all Janey could do to get undressed before crawling into bed.

She wanted her lover with Anees that made her shiver. Longed for the mindless, weightless feeling of coming apart beneath him. Yet, even in the deepest part of her soul, she was sorry for the fact she saw him only in her dreams.

But how could she regret someone who, nightly, was breathing life and reminding her why she'd been born a woman? She needed him as much as she needed oxygen to survive, craving the freedom of his touch, getting lost in his kisses and ultimately experiencing the mind numbing shock of sexual release. No one knew he existed, and she would not admit, even to herself, that he was not real. Tonight was no exception.

It was with eagerness that she crawled into bed, rolled over on her side and warily closed her eyes,waiting for consciousness to subside, waiting for him.

And as she waited,her subconsciousness smiled between the state between cognizance and sleep, bringing her to the joke of her existence, wondering why she'd been born different from other women and always the butt of jokes. Tolerated only because of her father's status in the upper echelons of the city policies.

She rolled unto other side and plumped the pillow beneath her head, trying to block out the pain but it was with her as surely as the blood that flows through her veins.

People smiled to her face, but she knew they talked when her back was turned. She knew what the people in the elite circle o her father's life talked about her. They said she was unbalanced. Some even called her crazy. The kinder ones thought she was just giving to high flight of fanciful imaginations, but nearly all often figured she would end up in an expensive but distant institution, just as her mother, Josie, had done before she had taken her own life.

No one have credience to the provenance of Janey family, or to the legend that the oldest daughter in every family directly related to Mandy who had disappeared from her family plantation in Wisteria Grove in 1850, had the gift of 'sight'.

Janey so called gift had been an embarrassment to her father since the day she learnt to talk. It had ostracized her during her school years and made her something of a cult audity in college. Her reputation became the source of amusement at parties, as her so called friends urged her to 'see' into her future. But the day she 'saw' one commit a crime before it happened was the day her popularity came to an end.

Trying to hide her disability, as soon as she graduated college,she got a job at a local newspaper, but that too soon ended, along with her three months engagement to the editor's oldest son. Her second engagement to a stock broker occured two years later and lasted untill he began urging her to give him tips of the market.

For Janey, it was the last straw. Having to face the fact that he'd believed in her only enough to further his own goals had soured her ever possessing she would find someone who could ignore the gossips and love her for who she was. Now, at 25, and sick of the vicious circle that had become her life, she was ready for a change.

Unknown to her father, she was planning to leave New York but untill she could decide what she wanted to do, and where she wanted to go, having an affair with a man who existed only in her mind seemed like a damned good idea. For now, sleep had become her escape.

And so she waited with expectations, praying for sleep to come. She took slow, deep breath to clear her thoughts from the meaninglessness chit chat she'd endured throughout dinner, then inhaled softly. Moments later, she was asleep.

And, just as she'd had hoped, he came to her in her dream... in her world... in her mind, Slipping into her thoughts without warning. One minute she was alone and dreamless, the next thing she knew, she felt something wet and hot on her lips, it was a foreign feeling yet sweet. His lips was tasting mine. Savouring it gently and they moaned in between the kisses. Then his to give entered her mouth, devouring everything inside.

Before she knew it, his hands were on he body, caressing her shapes. Then his mouth touched her skin, leaving a thin, wet trails on her breast as he traced it's shape with the tip of his tongue.

Janey moaned and then sighed as she unconsciously rolled over into her back and parted her legs, she felt his hands on her waist, moving slowly towards her belly, pausing just long enough above the juncture of her thighs to make her moan with longing.

She wanted more.

She wanted him.

She wanted it now.

As if he had sensed her thought, he moved from beside her to on top of her. She thought he whispered something shameless as he slid in between her legs, but she couldn't quite hear the words. For a heartstopping moment, he held himself poised above her; then she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him in, arching uncontrollably towards the hard, pulse length of him as he began to rock her world. Moonlight filtered through the pale blue sheers of the third storey building, bathing the room in a dim light, but Janey did not know and would not have cared. She felt nothing but the impact of their bodies in the ebb and flow of making love.

Hee climax came without warning and in the form of a belly deep moan, shattering Janey's dream,eaving her awake and shaken and trying to reconcile the loneliness of her existence with the I timacy of where she'd had just been.

With a stiffles sob, she thrust her fingers through her hair, swept the bright red curls away from her face and then rolled out of bed. She stumbled as she got up, the staggered to the bathroom, hoping to salvage her sanity with the shock of a cold shower.

Same time, Florida, New York

Justin Darwin woke with a gasp, then sat straight up, searching the shadow in his room for a glimpse of the woman who had been in his bed. When he realised that, once again, it was nothing but the same dream he had been having for months, he rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes and cursed.

"How was this happening? It had seemed so real." He muttered to himself.

He inhaled slowly, then frowned, imagining he could still smell the scent of her in the room.

With a muffled groan, he got out of bed and strode to the bathroom, flipping on light as he went. Withing seconds he was in the shower and standing beneath the stinging jets of cold water, and yet no matter how long he stood, the feel of her was still on his skin.

About an hour later, Darwin was still up, trying to come to terms with the fact that he was having a love affair with a phantom. Not even the sturdy walls and cool bare floors of the home that has been in his family for three generations were enough to ease his frustration tonight. Finally, he took a cold can of beer from his refrigerator and walked back into the back porch.

The Florida night was still, the air warm and sluggish. Beyond the perimeter of his house, the racket of tree frogs and crickets almost masked the less privelent sound of a nearby gators bone. This was his world- the world in which he'd been raised. But not even Florida and all it concealed was frightening to him as the last three months of sleep had been. He was no high school boy having wet dreams about sex. Whatever was happening was locked into his soul. He didn't know why, or if it would ever happen again, but he knew, as well as he knew his own name, that if she ever existed, he had to find her.

And so he stood, staring off into the darkness as a fresh layer of sweat beaded on his skin, reminding him of the heat they had generated while making love. Finally, he laid the cold can of beer against the back of his neck.

"God give me strength," he said softly, then popped the top of the beer. Lifting it to his lips, he tilted his head and drank untill it was gone.

Peter Philips was just finishing his breakfast when Janey entered the dinning room. He frowned as he watched her walk straight to the sideboard and pour herself a cup of coffee.

"You overslept." Peter said. "Are you ill?"

Janey took her coffee and moved towards the table.

"No. I'm fine."

There was no other answer she could give him. He already thought she was crazy. Telling him she was losing sleep over a love affair with some phantom from her dreams would send him over the edge.

"It's almost nine." He said, persisting in pointing out the fact that she was late in coming down for breakfast.

Janey lifted her cup, looking at her father over the room as she blew across the hot surface, then took her first sip. She knew it infuriated him that she has yet to I've him a satisfying answer, and while it was somewhat childish, she savoured the small rebellion. After the second sip, she set her coffee cup down and smiled at the woman who was coming into the room.

"Good morning, Miss Janey. What would you like for breakfast?"

"Good morning, Manda. Please te the cook I'm only having coffee this morning."

Her father frown deepened as the housekeeper left.

"You should eat something, Janey. It's not healthy to- "

"Father, for heaven's sake. I'm twenty-five, not five. I know whether I'm hungry or not. Besides, I'm having lunch with Mr Alex at one o'clock."

Her delayed arrival at breakfast and the fact that she wasn't eating properly were forgotten as he absorbed the fact that she was having lunch with their family lawyer and he hadn't known about it.

"Alex? Why? And why didn't he let me know?"

"Really, father, it's not like am doing anything illicit. He called. I agreed to lunch. I supposed it might have something to do with mother's trust fund, which is my business, not your."

"Still" Peter muttered. "One would have thought he'd have contact me not you."

"Why?" She challenged

"Well,because...."

"Am not my mother."

Janey snapped, her voice raising with each word she spoke.

"I'm not disturbed. I'm not unbalanced. I'm not crazy."

Then she shoves her chair back from the table and stood abruptly.

"Have a nice day at the office, father. I have some letters to write... and some spirit to channel," she added, knowing the last shot would infuriate him even more than he already was.

She walked out with her head held high, refusing to let him know how badly she hurt.

"Damn him," she muttered as she took the stairs back up to her bedroom.

"Damn all men to hell and back."

But the moment she said it, she thought of a man from her dreams and knew that uses she found him in someone real, she was the one who would be forever damned.

Alex was, all intent and purposes and except for the Philip's family, retired. He would have given them up too, had it not been for Josie's daughter. If he abandoned Janey the way Josie had, then she would be standing alone against the world, because her father certainly wasn't taking her side. More than once, Alex had been a witness to Philips cold hearted treatment of Janey. In a way, he understood a bit of why Philips was so stringent. He'd been helpless to stop his wife's self destruction and it was fear that drove him to ride Janey so hard. But Alex knew something about Janey that Philips did not seem to get. Janey wasn't Josie. She was strong, self confident, and more her father's daughter than either one of them realised.

He fiddled with his napkin as he waited for her to arrive, while wondering what his latest bit of new was going to do to the very fragile balance of her world. Then he looked up, saw the tall, beautiful redhead walking his way with her father's attitude and Josie's smile, amd felt his heart skip a beat. He laid down his napkin as he stood to greet her.

"Janey, darling, it's been too long." He said, then kissed her cheek and seated her at their table.

Janey smiled at her old friend and no forthe first time, realised that the older he got, the more he resembled Johnny Mark, sans beards.

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" She reached out and patted his hand as he sat down beside her.

"You must remember to do this more often." Alex signaled thier waiter that they were ready to order. As soon as the waiter was gone, Janey pu he elbows on the table and leaned towards him in a confidential manner.

"So, what's up doc?" She asked expecting to see a smile break across the somberness of Alex face. Instead, he frowned.

"Alex?"

He cupped her hand, then patted the side of her face.

"I have some sad news for you, dear. Your grandmother Marcy, has passed away."

Janey smile faded. she had it rague memory of her maternal grandmother, but what she remembered was all good. Going to New York to Wisteria grove, the family estate where her mother had been born and raised- had been like going to wonder land, only without all the rides.

The area had been hot and green and wet, and to her, someworth like a jungle. And it was the first time she'd ever felt completely accepted. No one minded that she 'saw' things other didn't, and no one shided her for her flight or fancy. It had been one of the most memorable time of her life.

But after Josie's disintegration, Janey had never seen her grandmother again. To her shame, she realised that she'd never considered going back on her own after she'd become an adult.

"When is the service?" Janey asked

Alex shook his head. "Again, I'm sorry, but it's over. Marcy was buried in the family's plot at Florida over two weeks ago."

Regret hit hard, followed by shame.

"Oh, no," Janey muttered.

"That's not all," Alex said.

Janey waited for the cat to be let out.

"She left everything to you."

Janey was still battling with indecision when Philips came home from work that same evening. And she could tell with the look on his face that he was geared to continue the argument that they'd started that morning.

"Good evening, dad. Would you like a glass of wine before dinner?"

Instead of an answer, he hit her with the same question he'd asked earlier.

"What did Alex want?"

"To tell me that grandma had died."

A smile on Philips face shocked her.

"Dad! Really!"

He shrugged. "What, you'd rather I be hypocritical? We didn't like each other. There's no need pretending at this late date. Besides, her demiss puts an end to the ridiculous notion that crazy family continue to transfer." If he'd had slapped Janey in the face, she couldn't have felt anymore betrayed.

"Crazy family? You married one of them. If you believe that so heartedly, then what does that say about your judgement?"

"That I was blinded by your mother's beauty," he snapped, then strode angrily towards the bar and poured himself the drink she'd offers moments earlier.

"I see," Janey said. "Well, that explains my existence, but it doesn't solve all of your dissatisfaction." Philips spun abruptly, his eyes narrowing angrily as he snapped.

"What do you mean?"

"Marcy's death does not change me, Mandy's blood still runs in my veins, too."

Philips turned a dull,angry red. "Shut up!!" He said, and then pointed his finger at her as if she was a recalcitrant child. "Am sick and tired of hearing about vision and spirits and "seeing" things that aren't there. There's no such thing as being psychic."

Then he flung his drink into the empty fireplace, shattering the glass and splattering the wine into a thousand directions.

"Why?" He shouted. "Why do you keep harping on that goddamned claim as some kind of gift? It ruined your mother. It ruined our marriage and it's goinggo make you crazy, just like it did her."

In that moment, both Philips and Janey would have been started to realise how alike they really were.

"Am not crazy, and I'm not my mother!" She shouted back. " But since we are harping on the same old subject again, then let me tell you something right now. You aren't going to get the chance to put me away like you did mum. I'm leaving in the morning, I'm not coming back, which should make you exceedingly happy. You will not longer be embarrassed by having to explain to you colleagues that your daughter is a half burble of plum."

Philips did not know whether to argue or be glad that the break had finally been made.

"Fine. A trip to Italy will probably do you some good."

"Oh, yes," Janey said. "I forgot to mention the other part of Alex news. I'm not going to Italy. I'm going to New York. I'm going home. Grandmother Marcy left everything to me, including Wisteria grove."

Philips felt as if someone had just yanked the ground out from under him." What the hell are you saying?"

"I'm moving. Tomorrow. To the family estate in Florida, New York. That's what am saying. Maybe my absence will give your life some peace. God only knows what it wi do to mine, but everything wi be better than this."

Having flung down her personal gauntlet, Janey strode ou of the room.

For once in his life, Philip Peter was speechless.

Janey exited the Miami international airport terminal with the keys of her rental car clutched in one hand amd dragging her piggybacked suitcases with the other. That heat and humidity of Florida sucked the air from her lungs and stuck her clothes to her body as she struggled to pull the luggage over the curb.

"Help you, missy?"

Startled by the unexpected voice,Janey jumped as a young black mam came out from behind a concrete pillar and pointed at her bags. His features contorted im a constant shift of jerking muscles as he waited for her to answer instinctively, her fingers curled around the suitcase handle and she took a nervous step back.

"No. No. I'm fine, thank you." She said quickly.

I stead of leaving her alone, the young man moved closer. Now she could see his bloodshot eyes and the droplet of spittle at the corner of his mouth. When he pointed at her bags, she could see the muscles in his forearm twitching, too. What on Godsyname was wrong with him? Did he mean her harm?

Suddenly, he grabbed her wrist, an before she could scream, the air shifted. The mansyface began to dissolve before her eyes, and the flesh on his hand melted away, leaving what appeared to be a skeletal hand with fleshless fingers wrapped around her wrist.

Janey gasped then yanked out of his grasp. Immediately,the vision disappeared.

"Don't touch me!" She cried, her voice trembling from shock. "I don't want you to touch me!"

His expression crumbled as he began to cry.

"Sorry, lady. Don't mean to scare you. Just trying to help. Mama said to help people in need."

Almost immediately, Janey felt sick. This young man could not be more than twenty, maybe twenty one years old, amd now that she could see him clearer, she could tell he was simple. And she knew one other thing about him too. He was going to die. She didn't know how, and she didnt know when, but it was going to happen as surely as she knew her own name. Once she would have tried to tell him what she'd seen in hopes that she could stop the inevitability of it. But she'dearned the bad way that fate could not be changed and people did not welcome such news.

So I stead of spilling her guts,she took a deep breath and made herself smile.

"It's ok. Please don't cry. You just startled me." He jammed his hands in his pockets as he ducked his head, then looked up at her from beneath his dark shaggy brows.

"You don't mad at me, lady?"

Janey sighed. "No, I'm no mad at you."

"Ok." Then, he said, and walked away.

Janey gave him one last glance and then started on into the parking garage. A few feet away, she felt the urge to turn. As she did, she saw the strange young man walking towards the terminal in a slow, shuffling motion. His head was down,his shoulders hunched around his neck, as if brazing himself for a deadly blow. Janey quickly turned away, wiling herself not to think of what she'd just "seen" and wondering if there was anybody in his life who would grieve for him when he was gone.

A few minutes later, she found her rental car and wearing stuffed the suitcases in the trunk. With a map of New York unfolded on the seat beside her, she settled a pair of sunglasses on her nose, turned the air conditioner upto high and drove out of airport parking.

It was after eleven in the morning as she hit the highway and headed south towards the little town of Florida. If nothing happened, she would reach Wisteria grove by late evening.