4

          THE next time Shawn comes back to #87 Mystic Lane, Fleur and Aurora take him out to their backyard, where strings of lights are hanging overhead, all going back to a single willow tree in the distance. It turns out that they lived right next to a lake; there were no borders to fence out strangers from behind.

          His head is still spinning from all the things Aurora had 'uncovered' about him through the cards. Initially, it made him upset, but now he was sort of grateful that it made sense. The way he felt, at least. He only has to count to a ten before he falls asleep now; before, it took him at least a hundred times ten.

          "Are you happy, Shawn?" Fleur asks as they sit on the grass. She told him once—or Aurora told him, rather—that the cards said nature was his happy place. He was 'connected' to it, they said, like Fleur, and he never looked at plants the same way again after that. There really did seem to be an energy radiating off of them, and it made him feel lighter, more peaceful, almost; and so it was his idea to conduct their little sessions outside in the open air.

          "Um," he says.

          "Let me rephrase that. Are you content?"

          Shawn frowns. Aurora points at a card, and without even looking, Fleur says, "The cards say you're not."

          He shrugs. "I want to be," he tells her. "I just can't figure out how."

          "Well, have you tried meditating?" Fleur suggests. "Or, what I do, I stand barefoot in the grass and imagine all my negativity being sucked into the ground. Then when I go to the beach, I make sure to sink my whole body underwater and say, 'This is my cleansing.'"

          Shawn snickers. "You're such a hippie. I bet you do yoga, too."

          Fleur nods. "It helps with my breathing."