How easy is it to drop out of sight? By the very act of hiding you draw attention from neighbours and curious friends and otherwise. Money helps. Unless money is part of it and you need to make some to stay unseen. The two-hit singer in my book, The Fortune Seller, said she had to disappear. She was suddenly out of fashion – crashed – but her good life habits were the last to go and she was in debt. She needed obscurity to reinvent herself. She couldn’t take any usual form of work because she was still recognisable.
She discovered that the best way of hiding was to become a chameleon; fitting into an unseen line of work that gave her an identity rarely questioned. A night psychic on the telephone. It couldn’t be more perfect.
You answer the phone, give a tarot reading to a stranger. You are paid by the minute and, if lucky, it pays the rent. You learn to attune to people. You see with your ears. No-one ever sees you – not even the employer. Your voice is all you need and a photograph of someone not you for the ads. You do the employment agreement on the phone and are accepted because of the way you sound. No one knows what you’ve done or where you live. You learn to know people by their voice and what they don’t say. If you pick up enough psychic skills you’re in. You’re safe. Only one obstacle left. Fate. A client recognised the singer’s voice and it almost hit the tabloids. She dropped the tarot pack and left town. It was said, months later, she was hiding out in mid-America singing in a club.
