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To Ian, Luke and Chyler: no house, not even The Astrology House, is a home without you. Thank you for every day and every adventure.
When an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.
—C. G. JUNG
SUNDAY
THE FINAL DAY
The house is a wreck.
In the kitchen, a fly buzzes around a bowl of rotting fruit on the counter. Coffee grounds dust the espresso bar. The abandoned fridge beeps, its door ajar.
In the foyer, a size-seven Golden Goose sneaker rests on its side, laces outstretched and tangled in knots. It stands out from the orderly line of yesterday’s driving loafers and platform wedges near the door.
A thick chunk of books is missing from the meticulously kept library, yanked from the shelves. A trail of novels drips like tears from the library to the living room. On the couch, pages have been ripped from their spine and strewn about like confetti. Wind rattles the windows.
Beyond the walls of the Victorian house, the storm accelerates. Lightning slices through the sky to the ground, quick and sharp as an epiphany. The roar of thunder arrives, angry as the fight that churns outside.
Six remain. They move around the backyard as if in a poorly choreographed ballet, tiptoeing through their confused desires, shifting loyalties, and volatile emotions. The chaos of the storm cannot outpace the fury convening at this spot. Here, the people will do more damage than the weather.
All signs indicate that life will change in the next instant, but the astrologer would counter that viewpoint.
She would say everything that happened at 4:44 p.m. on Sunday, August 25, had been building, gathering momentum, and taking shape over time. Two days since they arrived. Six months since that fateful call. Ten years of pain.
Life did not change in that instant. The moment had simply arrived.
The moment that drove one of them to murder.
TWO DAYS EARLIER
FRIDAY
ARRIVAL DAY
WELCOME TO THE STARS HARBOR ASTROLOGICAL RETREAT
Your custom weekend itinerary is as follows:
DAY 1—FRIDAY
2–4 p.m.—Tour and suite assignments
4 p.m.—Welcome Circle: Fate Has Brought You Here
6 p.m.—Couple Compatibility: Aimee and Adam (Cancer & Scorpio: Charm and Mystery)
7 p.m.—Stars and Charts Astrology Dinner
8 p.m.—Individual readings: Adam, Eden, Ted
DAY 2—SATURDAY
9 a.m.—Astro-smoothies
10 a.m.—Individual reading: Farah
11 a.m.—Sun Worship: Bringing Out Your Buried Masculine Rage (women only)
12 p.m.—Couple Compatibility: Farah and Joe (Virgo & Taurus: American Royalty)
1 p.m.—Couple Compatibility: Margot and Ted (Pisces & Aquarius: Passionate Planners)
3–5 p.m.—Individual readings: Aimee, Margot
7 p.m.—Dinner under the Stars
9 p.m.—Moon Men: Bringing Out Your Feminine Receptive Nature (men only)
DAY 3—SUNDAY
12 p.m.—Winery tours
2 p.m.—Individual readings: Rick, Joe
3 p.m.—Couple Compatibility: Eden and Rick (Aries & Leo: Setting the World on Fire)
4 p.m.—Farewell meal
RINI
When I was in kindergarten—before I knew about birth charts and death dates, when I still had a mom, a dad, and a big sister—I learned a vital life lesson: you get what you get and you don’t get upset.
Anyone willing to pay my rates for a night at the Stars Harbor Astrological Retreat has probably never heard that pithy rhyme. This weekend’s group, in particular, were likely taught the opposite lesson.
In the study of the main house, I spread out manila legal folders for each of the guests across the desk and light my vanilla-ginger candle for integration, inviting my studies about these eight men and women to become part of my recall knowledge for the weekend.
