It's Lois and the Psychic by Annie Riley.
Now off to find a quote <bg> Ok, here one is.
Sunlight filtered in through the heavily tinted windows of
the office, rare streams of light that only appeared in
late morning as the sun cleared the building across the
street, before it continued overhead and masked the office
in shadow once again. Even though those rays appeared for
only a few hours a day, they were the one thing that had
made this particular office, above all others that had been
available in the vast concrete jungle that was Metropolis,
attractive. The sunlight was a symbol, a sign from above
that even the bleakest of lives could have some brightness
in them, and that was comforting somehow.
The brunette woman who called that office her own leaned
back in the large leather chair she sat in, letting the
rays send light across her face. Her life was the kind that
had seen far too little sunshine, mired more in shadows and
darkness than anything else. A distant, bleak pain, a pain
that had been present almost as long as she could remember,
penetrated her whole being, and not even the invigorating
rays of the sun could drive that away. That pain had
consumed her, driven her, led her. In and of itself it was
almost soothing, a reminder of what she had in her life at
one point, a memory of the happy times. But those happy
times had only made the aftermath that much more bleak.
Laura
