Dave and I had a wonderful and intimate celebration when he got home. And it was a double celebration. Not only had I gotten the gig with WKRV, but he had landed a great contract to do graphical digital design for a gaming company in Northbrook. He was ecstatic—the 2 things he loved most of all (next to me, of course) was computer games and digital graphics, and they were going to pay him to do both. What more could a guy want?

Now with the lovemaking over and my husband sleeping contentedly next to me, I lay staring at the ceiling unable to sleep. The doubts that had been in my mind since the interview at the radio station, were now nibbling at me with their little rat teeth. How could I even think I could do this? I had to be crazy. I couldn’t do readings on the fly—not unless I just “faked it”, as Katy (my best friend) so quaintly put it. I hadn’t signed the contract yet. Maybe I should just send them a “sorry to have bothered you” note.

I rolled over and propping myself up on one elbow, I gazed at Dave’s quiet, restful face. His lips were curved up in his trademark quirky smile, and I could hear his voice telling me that I would be just fine. Earlier he had reassured me when I voiced my doubts, telling me that I had obviously gotten through the interview just fine, so I would do just fine with the actual show, too.

I traced a finger across his smile, and he murmured something in his sleep. I kissed two of my finger tips and placed them against his lips, then I silently slipped out of bed. I wasn’t going to be able to sleep, I knew that. So, rather than wake him, I decided to try to do some of the readings that were piling up.

Although, I’m more of a daylight dweller—I love sunshine and often contemplate dragging Dave off to live in some place like Arizona or Florida—night time has its own specialness.

At night most people are asleep, so the noise level drops significantly—and I’m not referring to the ambient noise that people hear with their ears, though that does drop, too. The noise I’m referring to is the type created and felt through your aura. Every thought, emotion, idea, movement, comes out in your aura, and this energy pulses outward affecting everyone around you.

An aura is a large (sometimes a very large) bubble of energy that surrounds you. Auras can sometimes lie close to a person like a second skin, or they can be as a full and flowing as a hot air balloon. Most are somewhere in between. And, just because you hide in a house, your energy, your aura, can surround the house and overflow into your neighbor’s yard or apartment, and their aura can be in your vicinity. So, imagine millions of people all moving around thinking, planning, shifting emotions, and you can see how a normal day can be very noisy for those of us perceptive enough to “hear” it.

Of course, most people aren’t sensitive enough so don’t “hear” a thing (sometimes I just can’t help thinking how lucky they are). But people like me, we ‘hear’ all that noise. In fact, focusing in on just one person’s ‘noise’ or aura is one way to do a reading. You’d be surprised at the information everyone carries around in their auras.

Besides the superficial noise of immediate surface thoughts (“Wonder what I should make for dinner?” “Did he just look at my breasts? What a sleaze.” “I hope I’m not getting a cold.”), there are emotions (anger, love, fear, envy, depression) that are changing sometimes from minute to minute, ideas (such as musical or artistical compositions, mechanical or mathematical insights) that are at a deeper level of cognition. There are also memories stored in each person’s aura (memories of skills used in previous lives, and even memories of fears (drowned in 12 other lives, therefore, water is bad).

When people sleep, a lot of the surface thoughts and emotions are shut down, so the noise levels drop significantly. It makes it a lot easier for me to do what I do, which is read their auras and relay the information back to them. See, most people don’t know how to read their own auras anymore—I think at one time it was an easy and common thing to do, but nowadays, most people don’t even have time to read a book, let alone read their own auras—therefore, they seek out people like me.

There’s another reason I like the night, though. I love seeing the lights. By focusing on the physical world with my inner vision—my third eye, if you will—I can see the webbing of energies that link every object in our world. Each part of the world—every person, plant, object (chairs, sofas, cars, buildings, etc.), animal, insect, etc.—is linked to every other part of the world. And at night, those links glow, creating a beautiful light display.

It’s like a gorgeous glowing tapestry of light. Golds twined with silver, and outlined with purples and blues. There are oranges and greens, reds and yellows, and they’re all woven together creating a picture that changes every second. It swirls and ripples, and sometimes I can almost make out the overall pattern of it, but then it shifts and another pattern surfaces, only to be replaced by another, and another. It’s almost hypnotic in its beauty.

I padded out to the small desk in the corner of the living room where I kept my laptop computer, and I joined the small contingent of people who were enjoying the quiet of the night.

I did four readings, two of which were extremely long, and by the time I finished typing them up, I knew I’d be able to sleep. I closed down my computer, and crept back into the bedroom. Boxr, our 10-pound Russian blue cat, was sprawled across my half of the bed.

I pushed the box-loving cat toward the foot of the bed, and slid beneath the covers. I scrunched over and snuggled against my husband’s back and was soon sound asleep.

All too soon, the alarm clock buzzed, and I pulled the blankets over my head in an effort to negate the fact that I had to get up. I heard Dave in the shower—he loves to sing, but he really shouldn’t. He can’t carry tune to save his life—so, I grudgingly pushed the covers down.

Grumpily I got out of the nice warm bed, and headed to the kitchen to make coffee. I put together lunch for Dave, found his missing keys, and wave mechanicsd him down the driveway on his way to the train. I then, with only a few pangs of guilt, went upstairs and crawled back into bed.

Within moments of falling back to sleep, I found myself planing.