MY LITTLE SISTER

I’m ashamed to admit this, but I used to think my little sister was crazy. used to stare at her in disbelief when she played with her invisible friends when she was a child, and I made all sorts of nasty comments when she reached puberty and said she could talk to the dead.

Our parents were terrified, especially when things started flying around the house, but I told Polly that she was just being silly because ghosts don’t exist, and I informed them that she needed to see a psychiatrist.

I honestly thought there was something wrong with her, although I did wonder sometimes if she was just doing it all to get attention because I was cleverer than her, but now I know that she’s got a gift and I can’t wait for this meeting to get started so I can see who comes through.

Everybody else in the hall is excited too and I’d be mortified if any of the people I’ve persuaded to come found out how I used to treat Polly.

I didn’t believe a single word she said, and at one stage I thought she was just making it all up so she could get money out of the bereaved.

Mind you, I was going out with Dave then and he was even more sceptical than me.

We went to one of her meetings once and he was a hundred per cent certain that Polly was a charlatan.

We stood outside and listened to some conversations before we went in and Dave reckoned Polly had an accomplice who had been listening too, and he

I told Polly she was being silly – ghosts don’t exist

wasn’t the slightest bit moved even when some poor woman broke down in tears after Polly passed on a message from her son who’d been killed in a car crash.

‘She found out about him somehow,’ he said afterwards when we were sitting in a pub. ‘And it’s very cruel, Hannah.

That poor woman’s probably going to go and see Polly again and again.’

‘I know,’ I said before I took a gulp of my wine.

‘And I bet Polly charges a lot for private readings.’

I nodded. ‘ Yes, she does, but some people don’t care how much it costs, so Polly’s got it made, and it makes me cross because she was useless at school.’

‘But she’s obviously not stupid,’ Dave remarked.

‘ What do you mean?’

‘ Well, she’s the one making tons of money, isn’t she?’

‘ Yes, she is,’ I agreed grumpily, wishing I could think of some way of making money that didn’t involve a lot of hard work.

I’d gone to university and trained to be a teacher, but I wasn’t earning anywhere near as much as Polly back then.

She asked everybody who went to her meetings for a payment and she charged her private clients an awful lot of money for a reading.

She told me when I asked her how she had the nerve to charge so much that people were happy to pay if it meant they might get a message from a loved one, but I couldn’t understand how anybody could be so desperate until our father died and my heart broke in two.

It was so sudden, you see, and there were so many things I hadn’t said to him.

I’d never told him that I loved him for a start and I’d never thanked him for all the things he’d done over the years, so when Polly next held a meeting like the one that’s going to be starting shortly, I asked her if I could go along in case he was there.

‘I suppose so,’ she said unenthusiastically because

I’d been so negative before. ‘I can’t promise he’s going to come through though. I can’t control who’s there.’

‘I know, but surely he’ll be at the front of the queue if we’re both there.’

Polly shrugged. ‘I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see. He hasn’t spoken to me since he passed, but you were his favourite, Hannah, so he might turn up.’

‘ Was I?’

‘His favourite?’ She stared at me. ‘Of course you were. He was thrilled whenever you achieved anything, but he wasn’t impressed when I said I was going to be a medium. And neither were you. So why do you want to come to this meeting?’

‘Because I miss Dad,’ I explained as tears loomed in my eyes. ‘It was so sudden, Polly.’

‘ Yes, but Dad’s in a better place, so you should be happy for him, and I’m sure he knows how you felt about him.’

‘ Well, I don’t think he does,’ I said, praying he’d come to her meeting.

Sadly, he didn’t though, but Polly told me a few days later that she’d spoken to him and that he wasn’t in pain, and then she said something that made me realise that she wasn’t crazy at all.

‘He said he’s never forgotten doing jigsaw puzzles with you,’ she said.

I gasped. ‘Really?’ ‘Really.’ She smiled. ‘He said you used to have a lot of fun doing them, especially one with kittens on, but I can’t remember him doing puzzles with me.’

‘ Well, you weren’t interested,’ I breathed, a shiver running down my spine as I realised that Dad and I had tackled the puzzle with kittens on before she’d even been born.

Polly’s nine years younger than me, you see, so I was an only child for ages, and I wasn’t impressed when she came along.

I screwed up my nose when I first saw her in the hospital, and we were never that close even after I’d accepted that she had a gift.

I had my own life and she wasn’t part of it, but I desperately need to talk to her during this meeting because I need everybody to know that it was just an accident.

I didn’t mean to take all those pills and I’d have been fine if anybody had found me in time.

There hasn’t been anybody since I broke up with my last boyfriend though. I’ve been so lonely, and I’m much happier now I’m on the other side.

There are some lovely people sitting here with me, and I’m praying that my new friend manages to get a message through.

She was murdered, you see, and she wants the police to know who killed her.

She says she’ll feel much better once justice is done, and I’ll feel as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders once I’ve told Polly I’m fine.

I’ve been watching her, and she’s been distraught since I passed. She even told our mother that she felt guilty because she hadn’t been there for me, so I need to tell her that my death had nothing to do with her.

And I need to apologise. I was so cruel to her when she was young. I even called her crazy to her face once!

But she’s not. She’s gifted, and when I see her, I’m going to give her a great big hug.

Because I love her. And she’s the best little sister in the world.