Lily Dale: Discovering Part 2

"She doesn't drink coffee."

Okay, true. But Calla wishes her father didn't find it necessary to answer for her.

Is this how it's going to be from now on? Dad here, in her s.p.a.ce, putting words into her mouth, imposing all sorts of rules . . .

"I'd love a cup, Gammy. Thank you."

"You're drinking coffee now?"Dad looks totally dismayed.

Instant guilt.

"Just sometimes,"Calla murmurs.

More like once, on a date with Blue Slayton, the cute guy she was trying to impress back when she first got here.

Still, she's almost eighteen. She can drink coffee if she wants to . . . can't she? Gammy offers it to her all the time. And it's not like it's a cigarette or a shot of whiskey or drugs.

"Caffeine is a drug,"Dad says, as if he's read her mind.

Only-being a mere mortal-of course, he didn't.

"It's not good for you, you know ."

"Dad, you can't go around treating me like a little girl."

"Sure I can,"he says easily, around a mouthful of rice. "You know, Odelia, this is pretty good."

"Of course it is."She pours water into the coffeemaker. "I'm a great cook."

"Modest, too."

Odelia cracks a smile, presses a b.u.t.ton, and returns to the table.

"Okay,"she says, sitting down. "I'm ready. Tell me everything. First things first, though, Jeff- like I told you on the phone yesterday, you're welcome to take my room until you find a place of your own around here-"

"Odelia, like I said, I can't put you out of your bed. The couch will be-"

"Wait, Jeff, let me finish. You don't have to put me out of my bed or sleep on the couch. You've met Ramona Taggart next door- well, she has a spare bedroom, and she says it's all yours, for as long as you want it."

"Really."Dad looks pleased.

He's met Odelia's flaky-and beautiful-neighbor a few times when he visited, and Calla definitely sensed sparks flying between the two of them.

Which shocked her. Not just because she can't imagine her father with a woman who isn't her mother, but because she can't imagine her father with a woman like Ramona.

Then again . . . he was married to Mom. A straight-shooting, pragmatic, workaholic businesswoman, she, too, was drastically different from Dad. And from Ramona.

I guess opposites really do attract.

Calla can't help but think of Jacy Bly. He's not her opposite-more like a kindred spirit- but they're definitely attracted.

Like her, Jacy is a relative newcomer to Lily Dale, uprooted from his home on a Native American reservation down on the southern tier. Like her, he moved into a house with a medium's s.h.i.+ngle out front and found himself in the care of strangers- loving strangers, but strangers, nonetheless. Like her, he eventually found himself at home here in the Dale.

Perhaps most important, Jacy is-like Calla- a gifted medium in his own right.

"Listen, it's not a fancy guest suite, by any means,"Gammy is telling Dad. "It's just big enough for a twin bed and a dresser- but it's a bed, not a couch, and you'll have room to store your things. In this house, there's not even room to store my things, and Calla's."

And Mom's, Calla adds silently. Her grandmother hasn't thrown away any of her late daughter's childhood possessions. For Calla, this house has been a welcome shrine to her mother's past, a soothing balm for her own grief.

"Since I pretty much just have the clothes on my back, and some stuff I grabbed from the house down in Florida, storage s.p.a.ce isn't a big issue for me right now, Odelia. But the room sounds great,"Dad adds hastily-maybe too hastily, because he glances from Gammy to Calla, saying, like he's still reluctant to accept the invitation, "I just hate to put anybody out. . . ."

"Oh, you're not putting Ramona out, Jeff. She kept telling me to make sure you knew that she'd really love to have you."

Of course she would.

"Plus,"Odelia continues, "you'll be right next door to Calla. What could be better? Right, Calla?"

She's got to be kidding.

What could be better than to have Dad move into a house that bears the s.h.i.+ngle RAMONA TAGGART, REGISTERED MEDIUM?

Talk about baptism by fire.

Dad has visited Calla in Lily Dale a couple of times, but he still has no idea what goes on around here.

Sure, he's driven past the sign at the wrought-iron gate: LILY DALE a.s.sEMBLY . . . WORLD'S LARGEST CENTER FOR THE RELIGION OF SPIRITUALISM. And, yes, he knows that the lakeside community was the birthplace of modern spiritualism back in the eigh teen hundreds. He's also well aware that some of Odelia's neighbors do psychic readings, thanks to the hand-painted s.h.i.+ngles in front of their homes.

Like REV. DORIS HENDERSON, CLAIRVOYANT.

And ANDY BRIGHTON, PSYCHIC MEDIUM.

"New Age freaks,"Dad called them, and asked if they hold seances and read crystal b.a.l.l.s.

Calla enlightened him just enough to take the edge off but figured that if he knew the whole truth, he'd yank her right out of Lily Dale.

At first, she was desperate to stay and delve into her mother's past, thinking she'd find the key to the mystery surrounding Mom's death. But as time went on, she felt more and more connected to her grandmother, and her new friends- and to the place itself. She decided to spend her senior year at Lily Dale High, rather than in California with Dad. Yes, she's missed him, but in a way, it's also been a relief to have some distance between them, considering all that's been going on here.

So much for s.p.a.ce. Now that Dad's decided to move into Ramona's house, he's about to discover that he's a mere mortal living among the dead- and among the living who can communicate with the dead.

He's not going to appreciate that any more than Calla did when she first got here.

But it's not like he's eventually likely to discover-as she did-that he, too, can see dead people.

While the spiritualists here believe that anyone is capable of connecting with spirits, that it's a skill that can be developed like any other, they also believe that it comes much more readily to certain people, who inherit it from their parents and grandparents like any other hereditary trait.

Calla, as the granddaughter of one of Lily Dale's most powerful mediums, is ge netically predisposed through her mother's side of the family. And it's a talent that seems to have skipped a generation, because Mom didn't have a psychic bone in her body.

"So now that we've settled where you'll be staying, Jeff, why don't you tell me exactly what happened in Florida?"

Dad puts down his fork. "I really did cover most of it on the phone, Odelia."

"An insane woman- who, for G.o.d knows what reason, snuck into your house a few months ago and pushed Stephanie down the stairs- came back and tried to kill Calla, too. That's what I know ."

"That's exactly what happened."Dad pushes his plate away, suddenly looking ill.

Calla sets down her fork and shudders, remembering the crazed look in Sharon Logan's eyes.

"But who is this person?"Gammy asks. "She's from this area, didn't you say?"

"Not here-about a hundred miles away, I guess. Geneseo."

"I can't imagine the connection. Stephanie never even set foot in Geneseo, as far as I know . Not when she lived here, anyway."

"I don't know about that, but . . . Calla's been there. Calla's met the woman."

"What?!"

Great. Did he have to bring that up now?

Calla s.h.i.+fts her weight uncomfortably in her chair and tries not to look at her grandmother.

She had confessed that part of the story when they were at the police station yesterday. But only because the detective asked her directly, in front of her father, whether she had ever seen the woman before.

How could she lie?

She admitted that she'd been to Geneseo and had briefly met Sharon there. She just didn't tell the police-or Dad-the entire story.

But that's not lying. It's just omitting. There's a big difference.

If Calla admitted that she'd been led to Sharon Logan while searching for Mom's missing high school boyfriend, Darrin, she might somehow be forced to admit the rest of the truth: not just that Mom and Darrin had had a baby all those years ago . . .

But that they were, according to Mom's e-mail, apparently having an affair for months before they were both killed.

The knowledge is hard enough for Calla to swallow. It would be much too painful for Dad to hear after all he's been through.

"When did you meet her, Calla?"Gammy demands, with an ominous look in her eye.

"Last weekend, when I went to Geneseo."She might as well confess as much as she can, with Dad sitting right here. "Remember when I said I was going to the homecoming dance with Jacy? I really went there."

"To Geneseo. So you lied to me."

Calla nods miserably. "I'm sorry."

"And Jacy-what? Covered for you? Went with you?"

"He went with me. He drove me, actually."

At least Gammy doesn't scold her for the lie. She probably will at some point, but right now, she seems interested only in getting answers.

"Why did you go there?"

"Because . . ."Calla flicks a glance at her father, who is listening intently, of course. "See, a couple of weeks ago, Evange-line and I had gone to this psychic reading here in the Dale . . . with Patsy. You know Patsy?"

Gammy glances at Dad, then nods. "I know Patsy,"is all she says, obviously getting it.

Patsy Metcalf is a friend of hers- who also happens to be the instructor of Calla's Beginning Mediums.h.i.+p cla.s.s.

Which, naturally, Dad doesn't know Calla is taking.

He was disapproving enough when she told him- and the two police detectives, Lutz and Kearney- that she'd been led to Sharon Logan through a psychic reading in the first place.

"Calla, why would you waste your time on that kind of thing?"Dad had asked at the time.

"It wasn't a waste, Dad. There was obviously something to it, right?"

He muttered something about- what else?-New Age freaks.

But when he saw how seriously the police were taking her, he closed his mouth and didn't say another word about it.

The detectives took down contact information for Patsy and wanted to know about Bob, her fellow student, who'd had the vision. Something tells Calla that Lutz and Kearney might be paying a visit to Lily Dale in the near future.

Now, she explains to her grandmother as vaguely as possible how a psychic vision- not her own-of a purple house in Geneseo had led her to Sharon Logan's doorstep.

"I just don't understand what you were looking for, though,"Dad says.

I was looking for Darrin. The guy Mom was with when she was supposedly away on all those business trips.

But she can't tell her father about that.

"I wanted answers about Mom's death, Dad. But Jacy and I barely talked to her. She wasn't very friendly, to say the least."

"Did she threaten you?"

"No. It wasn't like that. She just told us to go away."

That happened right after Calla and Jacy showed Sharon Logan a photo of Mom and Darrin.

"And this woman killed my daughter."Odelia swallows hard, and her hands clench into fists on the table.

"She hadn't confessed when we left Florida,"Dad tells her. "She's not talking at all, as far as I know . The police said they'll let me know what she says when she cracks."

Calla voices the question that's been on her mind since the arrest. "What if she doesn't crack and confess?"

"Then I guess we'll never know the truth about what happened to your mother."

Calla knows what happened, though. She's seen it.

She's had visions, horrible visions, of Sharon Logan pus.h.i.+ng Mom down the stairs, wearing a signet ring that bore the Logan family crest. That's all the proof she needs.