N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 8 5 1 Personalities courtesy photo By sofia voltin T he psychic is finishing up a ses- sion with a client while I wait in the lobby of the Kennebunk Inn. She knows what’s going to happen, but I don’t. The dining room is closed, so we have the space to ourselves, the overcast day pro- viding just enough gray light through the windows. No candles, long robes, incense, or crystal balls are in sight. Vicki Monroe, 56, is wearing jeans and a lime shirt, her red curly hair pinned away from her face without much fuss. She greets me warmly, and we take our conversation to the empty dining room. Still, no candles. Rather, the interview and subsequent reading seems more like a lunch date. But in place of small talk about the weather, we circle top- ics of death, spirits, ghosts, the afterlife… You know, the typical pleasantries when meeting a psychic medium. Monroe has been featured on radio and television shows, including Psychic Detec- tive, using her gifts to help solve cold and ac- tive police investigations. During the high- profile Amy St. Laurent case, Portland po- lice sourced Vicki for help, and she revealed information that head detective Joseph Loughlin told local media was “uncanny.” “I was the last one of the day to go up for my baptism,” she says of her first spir- it sighting. She was just four years old. “I walked up steps that were covered in a red rug, and when I hit the bottom step, it turned to stone. It became very cool in there. I could hear water dripping, and I’m thinking, ‘This is a ride!’ I’d just gone to Disneyland for the first time, so I’m think- ing it’s like Pirates of the Caribbean, that kind of thing, right? I step up, and there’s this man, and all I can tell you is that he looked like Friar Tuck from Robin Hood. [He had] the bluest eyes I ever saw.” From that day on, Vicki would continue to see odd things every now and then. Many years later, when Vicki lived in Germany, her sister Heather surprised Vicki Monroe offers more than we bargained for. her with a visit. “When I saw her, I said, ‘What’re you doing here?’ She said, ‘You’re going to get some news. It’s not the best, but I’ve got to tell you. Look at me now.’ I thought she looked amazing. I asked her, ‘Where’s Tom?’ Heather said, ‘He’s late. They’re working on him.’” That’s when Vicki realized her sister was dead. She re- ceived the call from her father later inform- ing her of the car accident that’d killed both Heather and her husband, Tom. “After that, I was seeing things all the time. Not just random, little things. It was constant.” As Vicki speaks, her gaze flicks away– only for a quick second–into the space be- yond my left shoulder. I turn around, won- dering if someone has entered the room. “For me, it comes like a wave. I’ll just hear them say this name, then this name. Some- times, it resonates with somebody, and oth- er times it doesn’t resonate until they get home. It just depends. I have to explain how this works to people, and how [spirits] will mention people who are living in your life. Friends, family, coworkers, people you like, people you don’t like. They want you to know they’re watching over you. No matter what’s going on, significant or insignificant, they need you to know that somebody who loves you is watching you.” “Don’t you want to know who’s around you?” Vicki asks me, looking up and over my left shoulder again. “Is it your grand- mother? I’m hearing the name Mary.” Sure, it’s a common name, but one that just so happens to be the birth name of my mother—a name very few people know was her given name by her mother. “Do twins run in your family?” I’m lost. No twins that I know of. Vicki leans closer. “She says, for you, she agrees. She thinks you’ll be one and done with twins.” It clicks. Only two days ago, I’d met with my two oldest friends over coffee, one of whom has just become an aunt. I’d men- tioned offhandedly that I don’t think I’d want to be pregnant more than once, so it had better be twins. It was such a little thing, but hard to brush off as a coincidence on something this specific. Could any of us become psychics? Can anyone see and hear the same things Vicki does? Now the questions are flood- ing my mind. “Everybody has something. You’re born with it, no matter what. Not everybody is psychic, or a medium. Someone may be more in tune to animals or have more ex- tra-sensory perception.” Can you grow what you were born with? “Absolutely. I love helping people figure out their gifts. For me, it was usually visual, and I hear them. But for you, for example, maybe it’s a sense of smell, things that move out of the corner of your eye. The signs are there, always. It’s just, do we know what to look for? It’s an amazing thing. We can all be in touch with our gifts if we want to be. All we have to do is be open to the process.” CatchMonroeatJonathan’sOgunquitonNovember9. Mystic 8