Teenage Clairvoyant


Colton, California, 1987


	



  


For Gemma Guimard, being clairvoyant mostly just spoiled her enjoyment of television: she knew the ending of every show. When she was younger, she'd assumed everyone did, and that was why they called sitcoms predictable. But it gradually dawned on her that she also knew the endings to situations in real life, whereas other people did not. 
Watching TV was pretty much all she did since her parents, academics from Boston, had moved the family to this California desert town.  The town, Colton, consisted of one long strip with a Denny's on one side and an Elks Club on the other.  There were a lot of pretty desert plants around, but they said nothing and did nothing and quickly lost their novelty.   In the old West, there had been horses and cows to be concerned with, and finding water.  Now that everyone lived a life of 1980s luxury, there was really nothing to do.
The other kids at her new high school did a lot of drinking and screwing.  Gemma made no friends among them: she didn't try.  Her only concession to school spirit was wearing a windbreaker her mother had bought her, a Colton Yellow Bees team jacket.  Gemma was a big girl, and the bright yellow jacket only made her look bigger.







	

	 
 


She was so bored she studied, and soon gained a reputation as the brainy type, which is why Annabel Weiss asked her about the English mid-term.
"Is the Red Badge of Courage going to be on this test?"  Annabel asked.
And Gemma, without thinking, told her the future.  
"Just an essay question about Private Fleming's mother," she said.
Instantly, she regretted it.  She had learned at her old school that people did not really want to know the future.  They did not want to know they would fail their drivers' test, or that their latest crush would never return their affections, or that the new Michael Jackson album would be no good at all.  The hardest thing about being a natural clairvoyant was keeping your mouth shut.
On the day after the mid-term, Annabel Weiss caught up with her in the hall. 
"How did you know that question would be on the test?" Annabel asked. 
"I just knew," said Gemma.
Annabel looked at Gemma carefully, narrowing her pretty brown eyes.
"Do you know the future?"   Annabel asked her. 
"Sometimes," Gemma admitted.

  





	





  


The idea of clairvoyance fascinated Annabel, who was one of Colton High's most popular students.  That day, she invited Gemma to the lunch table occupied by the school's cool kids.  
"Gemma knows the future," she told them.
The cool kids were fascinated with her gift,  especially those eager to know if the Yellow Bees would win that weekend's football game.  They were happy to hear they would.
As the weeks wore on, Annabel began to see Gemma less as a novelty and more as a friend. And Gemma looked up to Annabel with something like adoration:  she had never had a close girlfriend, and Annabel offered cachet as well as intimacy.    To the average viewer Annabel might have appeared sluttish and a little pop-eyed, but to Gemma she was the most beautiful girl in the world.
They spent hours talking, mostly in Annabel's pink bedroom.  Their favorite topic was how Gemma's clairvoyance could be used to help humanity.    She might, for example, announce the winners of a war in advance, so it would never have to be fought. Or, if people were very sick but would recover, she would tell them so and lessen their anxiety. She would avoid people who were sick and were really going to die.

  


 




	

	 
 



  
Gemma liked Annabel's friends, with the exception of Nikolaj, her boyfriend.  Nikolaj was a big blond man with a chipped tooth; he had been thrown off the football team for punching an opponent in the face.  But she had to pretend to like him, for Annabel's sake, and the three of them often cruised the Colton strip in Nikolaj's prized Datsun Z,  Annabel in the front seat and Gemma in the back. 
They went to the popular kids' parties together, parties that involved a great deal of drinking and random sex in back bedrooms.  No one ever approached Gemma about the sex - she was still a very big girl - and alcohol didn't interest her.  Her cultured parents had poured her wine since she was a child, and she had learned to like only the good stuff.
Gemma went to the parties anyway, to be with Annabel and to act as her advisor.  "I'm really drunk," Annabel would say.  "If I drive the Z home tonight, will I hit anyone?" And Gemma would look into the future and tell her.  Or Annabel might ask: "Can I have sex tonight without getting pregnant?"  And Gemma would tell her the truth.
  





	





It was her first lie that provoked a terrible rift. Annabel had asked, slyly, when they were both lying on their stomachs in the pink bedroom, if she could get away with cheating on Nikolaj.  There was an exchange student that year from France, and Annabel wanted to give him a go, as most of the other girls already had.  Would Nik ever find out?
Gemma assured her he would not, knowing full well he would find out almost immediately.  It seemed like an easy way to get rid of a perennial annoyance in an otherwise blissful friendship.
The results were apparent the day after the rendezvous.  Gemma saw Annabel coming down the school hallway with a black eye, and in tears. 
"Did you know?" she sobbed.  "Did you know this would happen?
And Gemma, heartbroken, admitted she had, and apologized with all her heart. 
Her apology was not accepted.  Immediately, Gemma was cast out of the glowing world of popularity and back into the world of television reruns.  She telephoned Annabel over and over, but the phone just rang at her house, and was one day picked up by the Weiss family's brand-new answering machine.   Gemma's mother worried about her suddenly friendless daughter.   She wondered if new clothes would help.
  
   


 




	

	 
 



But a month later, Gemma got a second chance. The Colton High Yellow Bees  had reached the Desert League regional playoffs, where they faced the heavily-favored Wauwatosa High Trojans.   
Nikolaj tracked Gemma down after her social studies class.
"Will we win?" he asked her.
Gemma looked up into his eyes which, although a lovely blue, chiefly reflected their own size and color.
"I'm putting money on this.  There are bookies involved from Vegas," he said.  
Gemma didn't want to tell him anything, but she knew he and Annabel were back together, and she thought he might put in a good word for her.
 "I need to know," he demanded again. "Will we win?"
"Yes," Gemma told him.
And then, suddenly, things were all right again.  She was once more invited to parties, and rode there happily in the back seat of the Datsun Z.   She and Annabel again spent hours in the pink bedroom, discussing  their latest ideas for using her gift to help the world:  Gemma would go to live minefields and tell the sweepers exactly where charges were buried.  Everything was great, until the Colton Yellow Bees lost the game. 
Until the last few minutes, they had all believed it would turn around: they had great faith in Gemma's abilities. There was a victory party planned at Annabel's house.  Gemma had even helped hang the decorations. A big crowd of kids had gathered to cheer the Bees on.  They were all in the stands together when the clock ran out with the Trojans leading 21-7. 
  
	  





	





When the final whistle blew, they sat in silence. 
"You fat fuck," Nikolaj said suddenly. "How am I supposed to get out of the hole with my bookie?  How the hell am I supposed to make payments on my car?"
"I put my college money on this," said another student.
Gemma said nothing.  No one was more surprised than she was.  She had never been wrong before. 
Suddenly, an announcement came over the public address system.  The Trojans had apparently fielded a player who was not a student: he was, in fact, not even high school age, but the 24-year-old brother of a player who'd failed the pregame drug test. At any rate, Colton High was declared the winner.
The group in the bleachers leapt up and cheered.  Nikolaj hugged Annabel; all the other girls hugged their boyfriends.  Nobody hugged Gemma.   She followed them all to the parking lot,  where they piled into cars to go to the party.  A couple jumped into the back seat of the Datsun Z;  there was no room for her.   The crowd of kids drove off, leaving her standing in the parking lot.


 




	

	 
 


She would have her psychic powers for the rest of her life, but from then on, even when she'd stopped crying, her visions of the future were always accompanied by a terrible headache.
   













Library of Congress Copyright TXu 875-975