Hear No Evil by Bethany Campbell

take the stairs rather than the elevator, then wished he hadn’t. He had to pass the room in which Laurie had died.
    Against his will, he glanced inside. In the room awoman lay motionless upon the bed, her face lifeless. To Owen, she looked as young and thin and wasted as Laurie had. He had to turn away.
    Eden rose from the desk. She needed a cup of coffee, strong and black, to send a jolt of energy through her veins. The casting of horoscopes, even cat horoscopes, was taxing. Just as she reached the door, the telephone shrilled again.
    Damn
, she thought. But she steeled herself, turned back, and picked up the receiver. “Sister Jessie,” she said, her voice deep and sonorous. “God’s gifted seer.”
    For the space of three heartbeats, nothing but silence answered her. Then a woman said, “Sister Jessie, it’s me. Connie. Constance. I got to talk to you.”
    My God
, Eden thought with a chilling shock.
My God
. She had almost forgotten about Constance. The woman had a hoarse voice, whispery and breathy.
    “Well, Constance,” Eden said. “Hello, honey. How
are
you?” She sorted swiftly through the files in the carved box. She pulled a card covered with Jessie’s spiky handwriting.
    NAME Constance (last name?)
    FROM mixed acsent
    BIRTHDAY Mar 21, 1965 (borned on a cusp)
    CALLS:
    9–11 Worry about a projeck she is supose do, want to know when best sucess She says she got my name from sombody that know me She wont say who She is nerviss about somthing She askt about a childs birthday 2–8–93.
    9–17 She askt if she go somewhare else whare shood she go? I askt about whare she is but she say she CANT TALK ABOUT THIS I tell her cards say journy may be dangerous To be careful She askt about date in oct. is it good? I get no cleer answer I have strong feeling about Mimi
    10–2 She askt if she’ll be lucky and cards say a Strong No but I dont tell her that She is up to something I can tell She askts about dates and some other people’s birthday One is Mimi’s—I knowed I was rite!
    10–12 She askt if she be lucky tonite Cards say strong yes She is very nerviss about somthing I get strong vision of Mimi that she needs help In my mind I get strong picture of snakes.
    “I’m worried, Sister Jessie,” Constance said. “I got … questions.”
    If the woman was worried, she sounded oddly calm, almost detached. There was a slight slur to her croaking voice. Either she was drinking, or the slur was part of her speech impairment.
    “You want me to deal out the tarot, honey?” Eden asked.
    “Yeah.”
    Eden sat down again at the desk and picked up the deck of cards. With nervous fingers she began to shuffle. “What’s your question, child? You ask Sister Jessie.”
    “I want to ask about death,” said the woman.
    The words jolted Eden, and she tensed. “Yes?”
    “When people die quickly, without—expectation—do they suffer much?”
    “It depends on what you mean,” Eden hedged.
    “Like those people on that plane,” the woman said. “All those people on that plane that exploded in Miami. They didn’t suffer—not really, did they?”
    Eden mentally rifled through Jessie’s stock answers for dealing with tragedy. “Their suffering’s over now. Everything happens for a purpose. Some souls are supposed to leave life quick. There’s a lesson in it for them.”
    “I—don’t understand.” The voice rustled like dead leaves and broken sticks.
    I don’t, either
, Eden thought.
I never did and I never will
. She tried not to think of her own mother, who had died without warning, hit by a car as she jaywalked across a dark and wintry street.
    Instead she found herself echoing Jessie’s weary truisms, in which she had no faith. “Death teaches you, just like life does. It ain’t ours to question.”
    Again the caller hesitated before answering. “Most of the time anymore I’m not afraid to die,” she said in her coarse, breathy voice. “But—but—sometimes I still am.”
    Just what is your