Chapter 2

Mom grabbed a fan from the table, which was crowded with various esoteric trinkets (candles, little mirrors, crystals), and fanned herself several times. Her long false eyelashes fluttered.

"Can you imagine, the assistant director just called and told me the stream would be hosted by some celebrity presenter and a group of experts! And now I'm terribly worried about what they've all cooked up, so I'm weaving a protective web against the evil eye!"

"Ah..."

"Oh, I feel I'm on the threshold of something adventurous."

"What if you refuse? Let them do the stream without you."

"I can't, Diana. I feel that I can't, and that's that!"

Honestly, Mom had no reason to worry. First, over the years she'd proved more than once that she could handle much bigger challenges: battling herself and her own oddities, removing the ink stain Stan had put on Dad's passport, even winning the show "Psychic Showdown."

And second, there was something... real in her esoteric eccentricities. Something that had made even us, the people closest to her, wonder more than once: what if anomalous forces do exist? What if everything isn't as clear-cut as it seems? And take her seriously.

Sometimes we all thought Mom really was a witch. In the best sense of the word. Well, almost.

Especially after one old incident with an airplane.

Back then, our whole family was late for a flight to Turkey. Stan was little and cranky. Traffic had been blocked, and a jam had formed. I was rolling my suitcase. Mom was carrying my brother and breathing like a dragon. Dad was cursing and carving a path with his shoulders as he ran with bags in his hands. We were almost at the finish line...

And then the pretty girl at the counter informed us with a smile: Check-in for the flight is closed. That's it. You're late.

"For fuck's sake!" Dad snapped, I remember. "Great vacation!"

And, overcome with feeling, he added several stronger words.

Mom replied:

"Tony, don't get worked up! Check-in is over, but the plane hasn't taken off yet!"

Then she shoved my brother at me, rummaged in her purse, and twisted a tiny candle out of a lipstick tube. Without thinking twice, she lit it right there on the check-in counter. Then she started drawing an infinity sign over it with her index finger.

"Natasha, have you lost your mind!" Dad looked around in alarm, too frightened now to keep "fuming." "They'll arrest us!"

"Mom!" I tugged at my mother's dress just in case.

"Mama..." Even Stan got scared and started whining.

The pretty girl behind the counter got nervous too and was about to call security... But her intercom suddenly beeped and went dead, and the loudspeaker announced that our flight had been delayed by thirty minutes for unknown reasons.

They didn't just put us on the plane then; they also escorted us to business class along with a group of late diplomats. So it was in Turkey that Dad bought Mom the first crystal ball of her life. Crystal!

Or this one.

Last year, on my birthday, Mom suddenly said that "young energy with a conflicted past and a good body" was looming on my path. And what do you think happened? That very day at the supermarket, when I was taking a little cake down from the shelf, Dennis Demond crashed into me.

He came flying around the corner with demonic charisma, left a bruise on my forehead, and landed my butt on boxes of oranges. Good thing he caught the cake, or he wouldn't have survived.

Later, while the two of us were gathering oranges off the floor, I was so furious I thought about running Demond over with the shopping cart. About twenty times. Unable to resist, I grabbed a tomato from the shelf and smashed it against his T-shirt.

Ugh! I remembered him again!

In short, Mom was worrying for nothing. So what if it was a famous TV channel? Whatever those schemers had planned, they were going to break their teeth on Astralia's abilities!

"Mom, everything will be fine, don't worry!" I hugged Mom, stepping into a cloud of perfume, and smiled encouragingly at her. "The main thing is, eat the sandwiches while you have time. And air the room out from the candles. Otherwise Dad will block every exit to the astral plane if you make yourself faint!"

Mom agreed, and I went off to cook dinner. If only Dad's day off would hurry up. At least then we'd eat proper borscht, and maybe even duck with pie!

***

An hour passed. Stan and I had managed to eat dinner, chat about school, and drink tea.

Soon my brother went back to his room. I washed the plates and was just feeding our ginger cat, Zodiac, when the door to my parents' bedroom flew open. A second later, Mom appeared in the doorway.

Unusually pale and bewildered, she came into the kitchen, looked at me... and suddenly pressed her hands to her cheeks. Slowly sinking onto a chair, she blinked with a mixture of shock and revelation in her eyes.

"Mom?" Worry pricked at me. Straightening up, I set the bag of cat food aside. "Are you okay?"

Zodiac clearly disliked the amount of food in his bowl and meowed in protest.

"Wait, Zodie!" I nudged him away with my foot. "Mom, what happened?"

Mom blinked. Then she looked at me strangely, both frightened and piercing, as if she were trying to read information about my past lives from my forehead. Which would not have surprised me in the slightest!

"Oh, Di!" she finally whispered, shaken, widening her gray-green catlike eyes. "I think I've just been challenged! And I think I accepted!"

That was new, and I drew my brows together in confusion.

"Accepted how?" I asked, surprised. "Did you agree to go on Psychic Showdown again? Mom, last time the tricks with smoke and spirits ended with a week-long migraine and insomnia for you. I object!"

The turban on Mom's head wobbled.

"No, thank God, not Showdown!"

"Then who challenged you, and why?"

Mom waved her hands, shifting to the edge of the chair. She began speaking excitedly:

"You see, sunshine, at first everything was wonderful! Interesting people, original questions, a friendly atmosphere. I was talking about signs of fate and how, if two people are made for each other, the Universe will definitely send them a signal! The main thing is not to miss it. You have to answer, because chances at happiness are not infinite! And then he appeared..."

"Who is he?"

"Valentine! The celebrity host from Cupid TV. Eyes like onyx, a voice like velvet, snow-white teeth... I swear, I even smelled vanilla powder coming off him and sneezed! And then he asks me with such polite condescension, as if I'm either unhinged or a polished liar. Astralia, tell us, if fate has signs, why does it need psychics, psychologists, and dating services? Isn't it easier to trust love at first sight? You see someone and fall in love! And no problems in your personal life!"

"And what did you answer?"