Part 9 (1/2)
”You know what? You're right. I think it would be better if I just left you to do whatever it is that you do.” He reached into his pocket and tossed Sadie a house key. ”Lock up when you're done.”
Owen strode out of the kitchen, down the hall, and out the front door before anyone could think of a thing to stop him.
”For some people, the paranormal world is just too much for the boundaries of their minds to absorb,” Rosemary said, not looking up from her cell phone.
”I don't think it was the thought of the paranormal that scared Owen off,” Sadie stated evenly. ”It was probably the fact that you three look and act like a band of freaks from the planet Zolon. Have you ever considered toning things down a bit?”
Rosemary looked up and the three eyed one another critically for only a few seconds. Between the numerous piercings, tattoos, bald heads, and fluorescent hair, it was like a clown convention threw up in the room.
”I have no idea what you're talking about,” Rick said evenly. ”But it would've been nice to stick with six people. Now when Maeva comes we'll be short a person.”
”Better to be one person short,” Rosemary said, tap-tapping on her phone with her long black fingernails, ”than to have negative energy in the room.”
”True.” Louise nodded her fluorescent-colored head wisely. She held up a cloth shopping sack. ”I have a few items to set up. Shall we get the table ready?”
Just as they were rounding the front corridor to go upstairs, the front door opened and Maeva walked in with a wailing Osbert squirming in her arms.
”Sorry, everybody!” Maeva exclaimed. ”Terry's been kept late at his catering gig.”
”You couldn't get a sitter?” Louise asked, shouting over the infant's screams. ”You know you shouldn't bring a baby to a seance!”
”I know,” Maeva said, scowling at Louise. ”Do you think I would've brought him if there was a sitter on the planet who was deaf enough to put up with the screeching?”
”Make it stop!” Rick shouted, placing his hands over his ears.
”Oh for G.o.d's sakes.” Sadie snagged the tyke from Maeva's arms and abruptly the screams halted. ”They just don't get your Ozzsomeness,” Sadie told the baby. In response, Osbert gurgled and blew a large spit bubble.
Maeva reached up and removed orange foam earplugs from her ears.
”Thank all G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses for Sadie,” Rosemary announced; then she pointed upstairs. ”At least now we're a multiple of three again.”
Sadie figured it was more like five and a quarter given Osbert's size, but she didn't argue. The sooner they could get this done, the sooner she could get home to late-night television and a cold beer, or a cold shower to stop her from thinking about Owen's s.e.xy body. She could still smell the distant scent of his cologne in the room.
”Let's get this thing rolling. In two hours I've got to be in a chat room cla.s.s instructing scrying,” Louise said.
The five stomped up the stairs, with Sadie swinging Osbert in the crook of her arm. The baby had wrapped his chubby fist around the necklace and was trying to cram the disc into his gurgling mouth.
Up in the master bedroom, Sadie watched as Louise decorated the table with the contents of her bag.
”Is this your first seance?” Louise asked Sadie.
”Yup.” Sadie held Osbert's face up to hers. ”We're newbies, aren't we?”
Osbert blew a wet raspberry between his lips and gave Sadie an adoring, toothless grin.
”She's like the frickin' baby whisperer,” Maeva muttered, and everyone laughed.
Louise spread a simple white tablecloth on the small round table and added two colored candles next to the other white pillar one in the middle.
”We use a white tablecloth for purity and protection,” Louise explained. She drew a lighter from her pocket and lit the three candles in the center. ”For the same reason, one of these candles is white.”
”The purple one represents the third eye, or psychic powers,” Maeva added.
”The black one helps to repel negative energy,” remarked Rick. He pulled a small packet from his pocket. ”I brought the incense.”
”We burn sandalwood scent for spiritual harmony,” said Rosemary, who still had her phone in her hand.
Maeva reached into the diaper bag on her shoulder and placed a dinner roll next to the burning incense.
”For munchies?” Sadie asked.
”For spirits who seek nourishment,” Maeva corrected.
”Better a bun than my blood,” Sadie remarked, sitting down at the table with Osbert in her lap.
”Vampires are make-believe,” Louise said with a laugh.
”But dead people who crave dinner rolls aren't?” Sadie countered. ”Sorry, I didn't bring anything tonight.”
”You'll be our medium,” Louise said and pointed for everyone else to join Sadie around the table.
”Say what?” Sadie's mouth dropped open. ”I've never even been to a seance before so I don't think I should be running the show.”
Louise shrugged. ”The house chose you when the words 'Bring Sadie' were scrawled on the wall,” Louise added. Sadie shuddered and glanced reluctantly at the freshly painted wall. She preferred the light tan color Owen painted over bloodred any day.
”Fine. Let's get this over with.” Sadie cleared her throat. ”Tell me what to do.”
”Let's be clear of our intentions first,” Rosemary said. She lifted up her cell phone and proceeded to snap a picture.
”Stop that,” Maeva admonished.
Rosemary put her phone on the table, resting it against one of the candles.
”Our intention should be to call the spirit here and then encourage him or her to move on so that Owen and Gayla may claim this house for their renovations,” Rick suggested.
”And if they resist moving on, we can suggest that they merely act in a more peaceful and benevolent manner rather than throwing things and scaring people,” Louise added.
”Since some here are touch-sensitive and can't hold hands with Sadie, let's just hold our fingers up, almost touching, and go around the table asking for the spirit to join us,” Maeva said. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath in through her nose, and exhaled slowly through her mouth. ”Beloved spirit, we bring you gifts from life into death. Please move among us and commune with us.”
After Maeva spoke, everyone around the table continued to hold up their hands in almost-touching positions while they repeated what Maeva had said: ”Beloved spirit, we bring you gifts from life into death. Please move among us and commune with us.”
Sadie murmured a word here and there but she'd always been bad with the memorization of lyrics to popular songs, so it wasn't until the fourth round of chanting that she thought she may have gotten the words correct.
”Sadie, why don't you ask the spirit to show herself?” Louise encouraged.
Sadie looked at her posse, who looked particularly comical in the flicker of the candlelight.