Burden or Gift?

Natalie sighed. Why did it always have to be up to her to sort stuff out. I mean people always offloaded their mental crap, like she was a scrap yard collecting old metal car carcasses of bygone ages. She had just put down the phone from another droning conversation with Louise. Gawd that woman could collected problems, enhance them and magnify them into annoying blowflies that circled the drama for specks of rancid crumbs and Natalie thought she herself could over indulge drama. No flies on her when it came to Louise it seemed.

She sighed again. Really it was time for her to stop being the one that everyone confided in. It was exhausting and she was exhausted. She turned and looked sideways meeting the kind eyes of her Grandmother watching her intently.

"I do know Nan" she said to the older woman. "but I didn't ask for this."

Her Grandmother watched her sympathetically, not saying a word. Natalie sighed again. Her Nan, so lovely with her faded forget-me-not eyes. Such an amazing support to her for so many years. She really felt like Nan was more of a mother to her than her own really. She scooped the cards from the table and shuffled them lazily. The cards were worn from many years of being handled. Natalie looked at them affectionately, they had been passed on to her from Nan 10 years ago, when Nan had finally been honest about the whole "Gift" thing. They felt as familiar to her as Nan's beautiful faded eyes.

She loved the energy of them, the smoothness of them in her palms and the sense of belonging they had in her hands. She heard Nan laugh, tinkling with love. "Yes, they always have been in the family, handed down generation to generation with love." Natalie smiled at her. "I am grateful really Nan, just sometimes I wonder if it is a Gift or a burden?"

Nan smiled and walked around behind Natalie. Natalie caught the scent of voilets that she always associated with Nan and closed her eyes for a moment savouring the smell. Nan whispered in her ear. "Phone's about to ring, time to use your Gift, and it IS a Gift". Natalie smiled, she supposed so, after all it had been handed down to her.

The phone buzzed on the table shattering the still air and Natalie placed the cards on the table glancing at the time on the wall. Hmmz, right on time her 1pm client. She answered "Natalie speaking". She winked at Nan as she faded to a dim outline and then wisped out of sight. "Let me shuffle the cards Barbara and see what they say." Natalie shuffled the cards fast out of old habit and sighed in her mind. She wasn't really that exhausted and after all Nan had taught her well. The Tarot she absolutely loved and having Nan with her all the time. Well that Gift was always handed down to the women in the Dee Family. It was just one of those things......