Reagan's Readings

Chapter Sixteen

"I just don't understand what we're doing here," reiterated the exasperated husband that made up half of the couple Yoshi was working with behind the curtains.

I could almost see the wife rolling her eyes.

"I already told you. I wanted to see him so that we could work on our relationship."

No. I thought. You wanted to see him so that Yoshi could dig through his head without him knowing in order to ease your distrust.

"So," the husband replied haughtily, "why don't we go see a therapist or marriage counselor? Who goes to a psychic to work on their marriage?"

People who are looking for reasons to end their marriage.

I heard Yoshi murmur something before the curtains rustled and his head popped out.

"Hey, cynic. You're thinking incredibly loud. Tone it down, just a little?"

"Magic words?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at his tone of voice.

"Please and thank you," he threw back, winking at me before letting the curtains fall back into place.

I laughed internally and made the effort to quiet my thoughts as I went through paperwork and billing for the week. Since Yoshi had started, revenue had nearly doubled. And, with his popular demand, I was able to free up more time for myself and really focus on the business side of things more. I'd never admit it to him, but between the shop and my brothers, Yoshi had been a Godsend.

After about twenty minutes, Yoshi came out from the back with his customers. I stayed silent as he processed their payment and observed their body language from the corner of my eye. They weren't standing close to each other by any means, but there was very little hostility in their postures.

When they finished up and left, I turned to Yoshi.

"So, was he cheating?"

He shook his head and leaned close to me, putting his hands on either arm of my chair.

"What a surprise," I said dryly.

He shook his head at me and looked at me with a look of disbelief.

"Do you always expect the worst from people?"

"Yes," I responded immediately. "When you suspect the worst, you're never unprepared. And, I'm fully aware that we're all just human and making mistakes and screwing things up is just a part of the human condition."

The disbelief didn't leave Yoshi's face as he released my chair and grabbed his own, bringing it up next to mine and taking a seat. He leaned over and grabbed some of the paperwork I hadn't started yet and got to work on that. We both wrote in silence for a few minutes before I broke it.

"How are you always so hopeful?"

Yoshi paused, looking startled at my sudden question. His expression morphed from startled to thoughtful as he pondered what I asked him. It didn't take him long to find an answer and he responded simply.

"I'd rather be hopeful than hopeless."

I blinked. Such an easy philosophy to live by, and, yet, my mind couldn't comprehend it. Yoshi had gone through pain as I had. His mother passed, he felt isolated and cast out from the world growing up, just like me. How, after all of that, could he still make the decision to be hopeful so easily?

"Oh, it isn't easy," he said, turning towards me to answer the question I hadn't uttered out loud. "But all of that is why I constantly make the conscious decision to be positive and hope for the best. When I'm doing that, yeah, I might get a little backlash here and there. But an overwhelming amount of general happiness with slight backlash here and there is a no brainer in comparison to years of feeling helpless and sad."

I mulled over his words. He was obviously right and I could see the truth and sense in what he said. However, there was a difference is seeing something as true and employing that something into your everyday life. I wasn't sure I was ready to make his ideas a lifestyle just yet.

"Well," he said quietly, turning back to his paperwork, "when you are ready, I'm here to help you figure out how to do it."

I nodded and paused.

"Hey, Yoshi?"

"Yes, Reagan?"

"Why do you think Legend can use his powers with me now when they didn't work before?"

That question had been running through my mind a lot lately.

Yoshi contemplated his answer for a moment.

"It probably has to do with the elasticity of his powers. Because of your psychic energy, he probably needed a higher threshold of power to even begin token reading on your things. He's been practicing a lot lately though, and he's honestly a natural, so his abilities have most likely reached the level that they need to be to overcome the block from your own abilities."

It sounded like he knew what he was talking about like it was a science.

Yoshi snorted. "Well I do have a close relationship with my abilities. I guess part of me has subconsciously been studying and keeping track of things all this time."

That made sense.

"I have another question."

Yoshi finally put his pen down and gave me his full attention.

"You're extremely talkative today," he stated matter of factly.

My heart dropped a little. Was I asking too many questions? I was so used to always being in the listening role with Legend and Venice. Maybe I was taking this opportunity to talk and running with it too much.

Yoshi shook his head at me fervently as he heard my thoughts.

"You're not talking too much at all. Its just different from usual. I like it though, I feel like I'm always badgering you for information on yourself so ask me anything you want."

"I was just wondering if you had any siblings," I said shyly, still self conscious about how much I had asked.

Before he answered, Yoshi grabbed my gloved hand in his own and gave me a hard stare. "I promise, I don't mind the questions."

"But yes," he continued. "I have an older sister. We were never really close because she was twelve years older than me, but she's still in Japan. We moved here when I was eight or so when my mother got sick because the doctors here were more promising and my sister decided to stay in Japan."

"What's her name?"

His lips twitched.

"What?" I asked, infinitely more intrigued now.

"Don't laugh," he warned, a small smile on his lips.

I nodded, eager to hear it now.

"Yoshiko."

I couldn't help it. I started giggling.

"Rae," he whined, pushing my chair away from him. I laughed harder and grabbed the arm of his, pulling him towards me.

"Wait, so, is she Yoshi #1? Or are you Yoshi Jr.?"

He just looked at me with a grumpy expression.

"I hate you."

I giggled again and scrunched my nose at him playfully. "No you don't."

He watched me laughing and a soft smile lit up his face.

"No," he said. "I really don't."

That was the last thing I heard before his lips touched mine.