The Theories

I don't remember if I was afraid of ghosts at first. I saw them occasionally when I was little, and I think they knew I wasn't working yet. I told my parents about them, I asked why that man had such strange white hair, why this woman was wearing such a strange dress. Then they looked at me surprised and replied that I must be hallucinating because I'm too tired or my imagination works too much.

Over time, I saw more and more of them and asked more questions, so my parents became terrified. The screaming started, dragging me to all sorts of psychologists. The ghosts often wanted to have a chat with me, the cold and specific aura they spread around them did not bother me, but it was burdensome for my family.

Eventually, to make life easier for both them and myself, I stopped talking about it. It took me years to open up to Zoey again. In fact, she forced it out of me because she thought I was getting hurt when I mentioned the secret job I had to do after school. I gradually distanced myself from my parents and ignored all ghosts. I closed myself off to everyone, so when someone tried to reach me, I was surly and unpleasant.

A few days before I first met the previous coordinator, the ghost of a middle-aged woman appeared before me. She was wearing a loose, long dress made of some natural materials and lots of shiny, noisy jewelry. A storm of black curls surrounded her head, and there was a broad smile on her face that irritated me from the beginning. I ignored her like any other ghost and continued swinging on the swing.

"Hi sunshine," she called cheerfully. “I am Cecilia and I have chosen to be your spiritual guardian. Why don't you say anything, I know you can see and hear me."

"Leave me alone," I only murmured in a whisper, making sure no other kid on the playground heard it.

"It's not nice to talk to elders like that." She wagged a finger at me but kept smiling.

For the next few days, she spent time with me, calling me sunshine all the time and talking about the Association, my responsibilities, being a medium, etc. I didn't understand much at the time, but then the coordinator came and I started to be a part of this world. Cecilia really became my spiritual guardian, she made sure that ghosts didn't bother me outside of working hours, which they often took advantage of when the mediums when were younger. She chased away those whose requests she thought were too complicated for me. She was such a spiritually good fairy.

To be more specific, she is a psychic because that's what she did during her life, and after her death, she explored the secrets of astrology, numerology, and other such things even more. Apparently, the tarot told her that she should find a sad child, strongly associated with death, and take care of him. In fact, one of the theories about the existence of medium 2.0 was that we were basically half dead, and someone must have pulled us out of death when traditional media only had experiences that almost ended up crossing over to the other side. Another, much older one, is the belief that we are the descendants of death itself... When I heard it for the first time, I almost burst out laughing, at least I didn't meet its personification. The scientists liked to scan us.

Anyway, people often mistook us for psychics in the old days, so at first, Association just had them sent away empty-handed. However, it was bad for our image, they figured it out before anyone came up with the whole PR thing. The coordinators who run the board said they would approach the psychics' spirits and suggest that they just do their job with us since there's no way to explain to people that the media won't tell them the future. We specialize in looking the other way. When I grew up and Cecylia could let me out from under her wings, we became just such a duo.

I thought about her, wondering when she would show up on my shift, I had a lot of appointments as a "psychic" that day. It reminded me of how, when she found out I was going to that memorable party, she immediately decided to give me a tarot reading.

"Today you will make the most important decision in your heart," she told me then, and I just rolled my eyes.