Nerdgasm
Anna left for the new office on Washington Street at ten o’clock on Saturday morning. After six days of the world’s longest headache and barely any sleep, she longed for a dark room and icy washcloth. But with Jack unwell, it was up to her to continue working with Geneva. Instead of resting or seeing a doctor, Jack planned on spending the day checking the “release status” of dormant objects in the basement. When a bound spirit let go of their object and crossed into Source, the object had to be retagged and either returned to the client or stored with other cleared objects to avoid any “cross pollination.”
It was an important task, but Anna was surprised that Jack didn’t jump at the chance to see Geneva. His things in the basement trumped everything, she guessed.
Trudging down Eden Street, Anna checked her phone for any Izzy-related news or threats, praying that Jack was right and Izzy wouldn’t remember the exorcism. She’d hoped that memories of Izzy drooling and terrorized would bring her closure, but instead they made her nauseous and uneasy, as if she’d somehow diminished herself irretrievably.
The moment Anna walked into the ranch house’s bright living room, the pain of her headache subsided, but just a little. Geneva knelt on the wood floor, surrounded by boxes of files and office furniture in the latter stages of assembly, screwing the base of a battery compartment back into the belly of her mysterious EMF invention. It resembled a smooth, bulbous super-soaker type of water pistol, but smaller, sleeker and encased by dark-tinted fiberglass.
Geneva looked up and smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners. She wore a long flowing sundress in the same shade of yellow as the walls on her new bedroom. Her sandals had a vibrant floral design. Anna figured this was the kind of look that was easier to pull off in California.
“So, where’s Jack?” Geneva asked.
“He had stuff to do at home,” Anna said, registering Geneva’s disappointment. “How’s your hotel?”
“Lovely,” Geneva said, “but I’m looking forward to the day I can move in. This place already feels like home.”
Anna sat at the large white drafting table that was to become the main workstation and got to work untangling a printer cord. She was squinting at the back of a computer, trying to find the printer port, when the doorbell rang. Pete, as his name tag stated, stood on their doorstep.
“Delivery from holy water dot com,” he growled when Anna opened the door, wheeling in a cart stacked with three jugs. His goatee looked ridiculous hanging off his baby face.
“I need your signature.”
Pete handed Anna a pen and then snatched it back the second she signed her name, scratching her hand with his thumbnail. Anna glared at him. He wasn’t even going to apologize? The cold glint in his eyes made her think twice about saying anything, but she shut the door after him with extra vigor.
Anna returned to the drafting table with one of the jugs and began pouring small amounts of holy water into the array of vessels and spray bottles that Jack liked to keep handy.
Geneva abandoned her invention, wheeled an office chair next to Anna, and sat down.
“Do you mind if I watch?”
“Nope,” Anna said, funneling holy water into a spray bottle.
“So,” Geneva said, “if a spirit attaches to an object or person you do…an exorcism?”
“If it attaches to a person, you do an exorcism. To an object? It’s a clearing.”
“But isn’t holy water strictly a priest kind of thing?”
Geneva had watched too many movies. “Rituals to purify water for the purpose of warding off evil were done by the early Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Jews…everybody did it,” Anna said, “because it works.”
Geneva lifted the jug of holy water off the drafting table and examined it. “There was a study suggesting that water molecules react to their emotional environment,” she said. “Maybe that’s why anyone tapped into Source can make holy water.”
Anna nodded. “My dad used to make it when I was a kid, but he lost his mojo and now has to order it, and it ain't cheap.”
“What about nonhuman, negative entities?” Geneva asked. “Does holy water work on them?”
“Demons?”
“Have you ever come across one?”
There was a stretch of silence before Anna answered. “Years ago.”
Sensing the subject was better off dropped, Geneva busied herself with a box of files. After a few minutes, the doorbell rang again. It was Freddy, wearing jeans that seemed to bag more than usual. He was late, again. Anna bit the inside of her cheek to keep from admonishing him, reminding herself that he was there to help. It was getting harder to control her temper.
“Where's Dor?” Anna said.
Freddy shrugged. “Didn't pick up her phone. She’s been kinda weird lately.”
Anna wouldn’t mention Dor’s situation with Cindy until she and Freddy were alone. She felt a twinge of guilt for not checking on Dor last night, but then the pain behind her eyes sharpened. Jack’s illness, setting up the office, Doreen’s mom, the creep factor in Bloomtown—how did it all end up on her shoulders? Freddy stared at her as she struggled to calm her sudden anger.
Anna pointed to the beginnings of a smaller workstation in the corner. “You can start with getting that scanner working.”
“Hi, and you're welcome,” Freddy said. He stood inside the door, arms crossed. He was cute when he was feisty and had agreed to give up a weekend to help her out. So why was she fighting off another wave of irritation?
“Thank you for coming over,” Anna said.
Freddy brushed by her, smelling like a mix of fresh laundry and the slightly musty Freddy smell Anna was very familiar with. He must have ridden his bike over.
“Freddy,” Anna said, “this is Geneva. She's working with my father—um—with us.”
Freddy’s eyes went a little wide. Was it Geneva’s clingy yellow sundress or that Anna was stepping up as the heir apparent? Probably both.
“Nice to meet you,” he said.
Geneva bowed her head and clasped her hands together. “Namaste.”
Freddy blushed.
“It means she recognizes the soul part of you or something like that,” Anna said. “Right?”
“Pretty much,” Geneva said, winking at Freddy.
The woman really knew how to throw a guy off balance. Anna imagined trying that namaste stuff with Craig. Nah, he wouldn’t go for it.
Freddy wheeled an office chair over to the workstation in the corner. “What’s this?” he said, picking up a small plastic box with a series of lights on it.
Anna squinted. “An EMF reader.” She grinned at Geneva. “The old-fashioned kind.” She took it out of his hand to get a closer look. “Looks like it’s busted. Stuck on the highest reading.”
“Really?” Geneva said. “May I see that?”
“What’s an EMF?” Freddy asked.
Geneva scrutinized the device. “An electromagnetic field. It’s a physical field that emits a low-frequency radiation. You’ll find one around anything electrical.”
“Oh yeah, sure,” Freddy said, “so wiring, cell phones, appliances, all that stuff?”
“Yes,” Geneva said, “and more.”
“Spirits, too,” Anna said. “You can use it to track the location of an entity, or the object they are attached to.”
“Ghosts are electrical?” Freddy was dubious.
“Not exactly,” Geneva said. “It’s possible that they gather electrical energy from the living, harvest it from our auras. And when they get enough of it they can use it to get people’s attention, do spooky stuff.”
Freddy gave Anna the side eye. “Our auras?”
Geneva graced him with a patient smile. She took the batteries out of the EMF reader and popped them back in.
“All living things are electrical, Freddy. There are low-frequency bio-electromagnetic fields inside cells. Even nonliving things like rocks have magnetic fields.” Her fingers found the crystal on her necklace. “One theory is that the magnetic fields of certain elements can intermingle with our auras and potentially strengthen them.”
“You study the supernatural?” Freddy asked.
“Well, yes, I’m here to learn, but I'm also an inventor.” Geneva pointed to her invention, lying on top of the glass coffee table, still in pieces.
“Cool. What is it?” Freddy asked, coming alive in a way Anna hadn’t seen in a while.
“Something that will make this”—Geneva held up the older EMF reader—“obsolete.” She turned to Anna. “According to this thing, we’re standing on power lines instead of wood.”
Anna nodded. “Broken, right?”
“That, or something in this house is throwing off massive electromagnetic fields.”
“Nothing is even plugged in, except for one computer and that radio.” Anna walked over to the radio. “And it’s not even on.”
Anna flicked a switch on the radio and the smarmy voice of Bloomtown’s very own shock jock filled the room.
“The geniuses at NASA are now saying we're getting one or two more big blasts from the sun, and I mean mongo big, and then this once-in-a-lifetime solar storm will finally be kaput. Let's hope the chumps at NASA know better than the local chimps we got predicting the weather. That Channel 2 guy with the big ears, now am I nuts, or does he look—”
Static overwhelmed the signal and a series of deafening cracks boomed out of the speakers, making them all wince. Geneva shut the radio off.
“Could the storms be causing those high readings?” Freddy asked Geneva.
Geneva shook her head. “Not levels this high. Not on the ground.”
Anna took out her phone. “Let me see if I can get online.”
“Internet's down,” Freddy said, fussing with the radio as Geneva knelt next to her invention. “That’s why I was late. I spent the whole morning trying to check my email to see if I got into that school in Florida. Then my mom made me clean my room. She wants to rent it out if I get in.”
Wait. What? “What school in Florida?” Anna asked.
“I told you about it,” he said.
That’s right. He had mentioned a school on the day of the failed puppy excursion, but she hadn’t taken it seriously.
“Some stranger will stay in your room?” she said, shaken. “Gross.”
“Chill, I haven't even gotten accepted yet. If I do get in, the rent money will keep me off PB&J.”
Freddy, leaving Bloomtown? Leaving her and Dor? Anna pushed down a growing panic, imagining Freddy in a new, palm-treed town with new and cooler friends, a girlfriend.
“Can I take a look?” Freddy asked Geneva, gesturing to the pieces of fiberglass on the coffee table.
Geneva nodded.
“How will this make EMF readers obsolete?” Freddy asked.
“It’s an electromagnetic field imager,” Geneva said, “an EMI—or Emi, as I like to call her. EMF readers”—Geneva pointed at the older device, still registering through the roof—“can only pick up energy, but they can’t show you exactly where it is and what it looks like.”
Anna tipped the jug on the drafting table, pouring holy water through a funnel into an empty bottle of Windex. Was Freddy flirting with Geneva? No, he couldn’t be. She was old enough to be his mother. He was probably just excited to meet a real scientist. Besides, why would Anna care if he was flirting? She wouldn’t. Holy water splattered on the wood floor. Crap. She needed to pay attention.
Geneva got to her feet. “After I finish unpacking, I'll do the last couple tweaks on Emi and give you two a demonstration.”
Freddy stared longingly at Emi. “Any way I can help?”
“You good with a screwdriver?”
Freddy nodded.
“I can vouch for his total geekness,” Anna said.
“Gently reattach the base of the signal trigger.” Geneva pointed to Emi’s underbelly. “Right here.”
“I’m on it!” Freddy said with unnecessary loudness. He cracked his knuckles and dropped to the floor like a spaz.
Geneva raised an amused eyebrow at Anna, said her good-byes and disappeared down the hall to her bedroom. Anna watched her go, perplexed. The woman just gave Freddy free rein over her invention. Anna wasn't sure if she was a good judge of character or just flaky. Probably a bit of both.
“Wow,” Anna said to Freddy. “I think you just had a nerdgasm.”