The wife’s response at the end is so classic and so telling. Even when our ways cause problems we cling to old excuses or rationalizations for them. You have a comma splice or two, for example the one about peering through the gloom, but otherwise it reads nicely. “punters” had be confused for a bit, but the rest of the context took care of that.

Yes, this is a great little scene. I love the delicious discomfort as the medium turns the screws on her hapless punter, and the latter’s defensive posturing at the end.

Re: the dreaded comma splice – in the spirit of conservation, I’d just take the one from “Mrs Kaplinski, she had that look” and stick it in”I’m careful [,] not tight”. No use in wasting good commas, eh?

Thanks have looked at commas and adjusted. I did wonder whether ‘punters’ was too English a term to sit right here. A punter is a term to describe a customer not sure whether it is used over the pond.

Sounds like a most unsavory customer. I applaud the psychic’s way of handling her. It seemed like a fitting response.

I’m glad you explained about “punters”. Though it was easy enough to move past the word and get into the rest of the story, I wasn’t clear on the meaning initially.