My friends Annalise, Janet and I ventured there on a whim while visiting Northampton. When we entered, a young child was sitting with her dog in a sparsely furnished interior space to the right. The area where Annalise and Janet waited during our visit was mostly white, resembling a dentist's waiting room.
Behind pull curtains awaited the mysterious Veronica, who soon came out to ask us what we wanted and how much we were willing to spend. The curtains were Diet-Coke-can silver, and made out of tinsel-like material reminiscent of a disco ball. After reviewing the prices of all the possible psychic readings, we saw that the palm reading was the cheapest; thus, I embarked on this little adventure. Annalise and Janet were not invited into the exquisite chamber because, as Veronica thoughtfully informed us, "they'll give off vibrations." In retrospect, it could be that their bad vibrations were the result of their unwillingness to spend money.
Once inside, Veronica had me sit down, and proceeded to look at my palms. Unlike that of a stereotypical psychic (i.e., Whoopi Goldberg in "Ghost"), the room was quite sterile-no cloth, beads, incense or stars. Instead, it had completely white walls and a single expensive-looking desk.
Face-to-face with Veronica, I could see her wrinkles and scary, forceful eyes. She first asked for two wishes, or what I hoped to get out of my first out-of-body psychic experience. I wished for things to work out well at Amherst-and I'm sure they will, because of Veronica, of course.
She proceeded to tell me that I was one of God's favorites, and that much happiness would come to me as I followed the path that God had charted. When I asked her if she was talking about the Christian God, she responded, "There is only one God. Never question God." Apparently, Veronica doesn't do too well with answering direct questions.
She went on about how clear it was to her that God and his spirit friends really liked me and how, because of this grace, I had "a past to be proud of and a future to look forward to." Getting a psychic reading is like getting an in-depth Chinese fortune cookie. One can always apply the reading to his or her life-I'll find some love or I am lucky or I have excellent friends-but, truthfully, nothing very specific or insightful was said.
Meanwhile, Janet and Annalise were quietly and awkwardly sitting in the waiting area chairs, across from the random little child and her dog. We suspected that the child was part of Veronica's family and that her vibrations weren't that harmful to the spirits. When I walked out, my facial expression was apparently one of raised eyebrows and astonishment. Annalise and Janet quickly stifled their laughs while Veronica sought more visitors for her spirits.
As we left the building, Veronica continued for several minutes to follow us with her eyes, standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. Her gaze followed us until we were well out of her sight. We scurried around the corner, careful not to run or look back too often, and didn't even talk about the experience until we were sure that we had returned to normalcy. Granted, we already had a weird afternoon, but in an already strange city, our Veronica experience proved the strangest.
We live in quite a region. Northampton is quite a place and satisfies a spirit of adventure or experience. And although we're not going to recommend paying $10 for Veronica, it truly was an experience.