page 14
... Darnda is a psychic. The real McCoy. She ... can talk with anything alive and anything that ever was ... Ghosts, squirrels, cherries. She can talk with mold, ants, and Africanized bees ... she's made scads of money hiring herself out as a sort of paranormal pest controller ...
page 19
... corkscrew gray hair ...
page 22
... pale blue eyes ...
page 23
When Darnda is angry, her cheeks turn as red as sour cherries.
page 28
... said Darnda. "I can't do it, Sasha. I've got my grandkids every night this week." My friend was between husbands right now. She went through them with amazing regularity. You'd think a psychic would have better foresight.
page 37
Darnda didn't answer her phone much, and she didn't use email or faxes. All of this was done to protect herself from unwanted energies.
page 70
photo ... with movie stars ... Julia Roberts, Val Kilmer, Shirley MacLaine ... heavy hitters from industry ... Bill Gates
page 168
... you spent two years in a mental institution ... Her eyes were going every which way, making her look ... dishonest ... Do you want the question again ... Okay ... She took another breath. "I was institutionalized when I was a teenager. The diagnosis was adolescent schizophrenia, but that was in the dark ages. Things have changed a lot since then."
page 169
"... can you talk to my shoes because they're leather and were once cows? Or can you talk to the cantaloupe in the green room? How about this coffee?" ... "In a nutshell, yes, I could talk to—or, as I like to say, 'communicate with'—all of those things. But for me, the really important question is, why would I want to communicate with them? There has to be a good reason because it takes a lot of effort."
page 170 (her name)
"I have seven sisters ... was raised on a hardscrabble farm in Oklahoma. My mom had all of us at home. When I was born—I'm the youngest—my dad was still hoping for a boy ... when I popped out and the midwife held me up, Dad said, "Darn ta hell, woman, why'd you have another girl? And 'darn ta' became Darnda because Mom had run out of girls' names by then."
page 242
... When Darnda got upset, she made milkshakes or smoothies or baked brownies. Today it sounded like she was working on all three ...
pages 242,3
... You're a grandmother, Darnda. You've given birth to five kids, healed yourself of cancer, survived the murder of one of your children ...
page 249 (dressed for a tv interview)
... I counted four sparkling rings on her chubby fingers in addition to the chunky crystal necklace, but the combination worked—right down to the fishnets ... "Sasha, I'm glad you're here," she said ... Something was different about Darnda's lips. Lipstick. In the years we'd known each other, I'd never seen her wear it.
page 251
Darnda looked around the room for something to work with ... "I'll see if I can get one of the buds to bloom on that Cataleya (orchid)" ... For the next few minutes, Darnda sat very still ... "Ah," sighed Darnda. One of the buds popped open, its tendrils unrolling like a miniature lavender carpet.
