"Interesting" rather than "strange"... It never occurred to me that the food (and Melanie's insistence that the client eat some) might mean that she was dosing them to make them more suggestible. The ending seems to indicate that Melanie does, in fact, channel the spirit of the deceased, once she is able to evoke strong enough memories. But maybe she doses both the client and herself to facilitate the process...I wonder what Madam Melanie put in that food to make her clients more willing to believe her.
An interesting story.
(I don't think that's what Chris Sharp had in mind, but reading a story is a collaborative thing.)
RM