“What?” Jennifer stared at Phoebe, completely baffled.
“I’ll explain everything in time.” She gently pushed Jennifer out the door.
Jennifer nodded, too confused to respond. “Oh, I almost forgot,” she said, reaching for her purse. “You have been so helpful to me. What is your fee?”
“Well, I usually charge fifty dollars for a thirty-minute session, but
” She was looking away, as if embarrassed to be talking about money, “But yours is such an unusual case, and you are clearly a sympathetic soul. Let’s say twenty-five dollars, shall we?” She looked up at Jennifer with a smile.
Jennifer pressed the twenty-five dollars into Phoebe’s hand and pushed open the heavy iron gate. It had started to snow again, and she realized she wasn’t going home to Brooklyn Heights until she had a crystal to protect her.
“I’ll call you,” she said, turning to Phoebe.
“Yes,” Phoebe replied, “I know you will.” Smiling still, the channeler closed the iron gate of her basement apartment and stepped back into the dark interior of her home.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
JENNIFER TOOK THE SUBWAY to the Village. It was not rush hour, so the train was half deserted. Instead of burying her head in a book as she usually did on the subway, she glanced around, checking for transit police. When she saw one, she slipped down into her fur coat and hid her face.
The store was located off Fourteenth Street. It was a tiny sliver of a place, with steel bars drawn across the showcase window. Not open, she thought, disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to buy a crystal. But then, behind the counter, she saw a man, and she stepped up the snowy front steps and opened the door.
“I thought you were closed,” she said.
The man smiled. “We keep the bars around the windows all the time because of the location. You never know what people will do.”
“I’d like to buy a crystal,” Jennifer said, embarrassed to be saying it out loud.
“Well, let’s hope so!” The man smiled. He held a quartz crystal in his hands and wiped it lovingly with a piece of soft cloth. “Is it for you, or are you buying someone a gift?”
“Does it matter?”
“Oh, yes.” The man slipped the crystal back into the case, then gave Jennifer his full attention. “If you’re buying one for yourself, then I’d want you to hold it in your hands. To see if you feel anything.” He gestured at the hundreds of crystals on display. “One of these is right for you. You’ll see. The crystal will choose you, not the other way around.”
Jennifer liked the man, liked his soft blue eyes. “Well,” she confessed, “I want to buy a crystal for myself.”
“Fine. Take your time, look around.”
“I want a small one,” Jennifer said quickly. “One I can carry around with me. In my pocket.” Jennifer stepped closer to the small glass case. Dozens of clear quartz crystals were displayed on blue velvet trays.
“This is your first crystal?”
“Yes, I guess. I mean, a friend did give me one, but
“
“Do you know why you want a crystal?” he asked next, reaching into the case and pulling out two trays.
“Do I have to have a reason?” Jennifer realized she sounded defensive. “I mean, a friend suggested it. And I thought it might be fun.” Her voice had risen.
The salesman looked over at her questioningly. His blue eyes were even softer and kinder up close. Jennifer felt foolish for having raised her voice.
“Well, what I meant is that people buy crystals for different reasons. Besides, the crystals are themselves different. Now this is a lovely single-terminal quartz crystal. As you see, it has just this single point. And this smokey quartz here is helpful if you’re seeking to calm yourself down, gain control of your feelings. Or this amethyst. Amethysts are very protective crystals; they’re used by many people to raise spiritual powers.” He paused to look at Jennifer for a moment. “You don’t know much about crystals, do you?” he asked. “I mean, the power of crystals and why we use them?”
Jennifer shook her head, feeling foolish.
The salesman lifted a small crystal off the tray and held it out to her. “Hold this in your hand, why don’t you, while we talk. My name, by the way, is Jeff.”
Jennifer nodded. “Hello. I’m Jennifer.”
“Okay, Jennifer, here comes Crystals 101.” He, too, was holding a crystal in his fingers as he talked. “Crystals hold the four elements of our world within their very being. Earth, fire, water, and air. They are also beautiful, as you can see, in their pure, clear symmetry. So when you hold your crystal, you are holding the world within your fingers. You are holding creation itself.”
“Some crystals are meant for you, others are not, which is why I wanted to know if you were buying the crystal for yourself. It’s important to be in tune with the crystal from the first. Here, why don’t you hold another.” He gave her a second crystal, and as soon as Jennifer slipped her right hand around it, she felt a charge of warmth through her fingers.
“This one feels better,” she said.
“Good! We’re getting closer. Now you have to program your little friend.”
“Program?”
Jeff smiled. “Yes, you need to tell a crystal what you want. Crystals contain energy; you have to direct it.”
“How?”
“Hold it in your hands. Think of what you want to have happen or what you wish to do. Visualize. Say it’s a health problem. Someone you love is suffering from cancer. You visualize that person active again and place the image of this healthy person in the crystal.” He leaned back from the counter. “You don’t believe in the power of crystals?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jennifer said slowly. “I’m afraid that, you know, it’s all so faddish. It’s so much the yuppie thing to believe in.”
“It’s not really, you know,” Jeff said. He returned one tray of crystals to the display case and took out two large pieces of smokey quartz. “Some people, I guess, think that crystals are just part of the New Age movement, but primitive societies all over the world have used them throughout time to heal, and to predict the future. There’s nothing new about crystals or crystal lore.”
“Well, yes, I know,” Jennifer said quickly. “It’s just that I know it’s all tied up with channeling and everything.”
The salesman seemed at the moment not to be listening to her. He had picked up the smoky quartz and was turning it in his hands, and then she noticed that he had focused the point at her. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Smoky quartz has the power to calm. To soothe nerves.”
“Please,” Jennifer said, “don’t point it at me.” She backed away from the display case.
“You have nothing to fear,” Jeff said, watching her. “Crystals are harmless. You bring to them your own energy, and they expand it, energize it, that’s all.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Jennifer answered, trying to make a joke of her concern, but she was thinking, too, of what she had already done.
The man carefully returned the quartz to the blue pad.
“Why are you here?” he asked, frowning. “Why do you want to purchase a crystal? I’m not sure you’re ready for one.”
“Please,” she said, stepping toward the counter. “I was told
that a crystal would help.”
“It will help,” he answered, “but you have to be ready to accept that help. I’d be more comfortable with myself if I didn’t sell you one at this time. You can try elsewhere, of course.”
“Oh, come on. Are you in business or not? What’s the owner going to say?”
“I am the owner,” he replied softly. He walked around to the other counter, as if he had already dismissed her from his store.