The first to arrive, Rose sat me in the foyer and rushed off to prepare. I'd been in there for several minutes when the girl came in. Still in her white dress and pink ribbon, she looked like she was on her way to an Easter egg hunt.
"Hello again," she said.
I stood. "Hi."
"You're early."
"Nothing else to do."
"That's the truth. This town is dead. Pun intended."
We shared a smile and I was struck by how warm and lovely she was. She was about my age, too, so that definitely didn't hurt.
Glancing around for Rose, she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Want a smoke? I stole a few cigarettes."
"Uh, yeah."
Grabbing our coats, I followed her outside and around back to a clump of trees. She led me into the thick of them where two rusty chairs sat hidden from view.
"Applesauce," she said. "I forgot the matches."
I pulled a matchbook from my pocket and her eyes went wide.
"I could kiss you." She snatched them from me.
"I wish you would." My cheeks instantly grew warm and I regretted saying it.
She smiled and lit two cigarettes, reaching over and slipping one tenderly between my lips.
A slight cough. "Rough,” she said. “You must be an old pro at this."
"Where I grew up, if you hadn't had a cigarette by the age of nine, something was wrong with you."
"And where's that?"
I waved it off, not wanting to let her know I spent most of my life picking pockets and digging through trash for food. "What about you?" I asked. "What are you doing here? How do you know Rose?"
She stared at me for long enough that I thought I'd made some kind of faux pas. Then she laughed. "You don't recognize me?"
Her eyes did look familiar, but I was sure I'd never seen her before today. "No. Should I?"
"I'm glad you don't. I don't get many chances for this."
"For smoking?"
"For being a kid." She smiled again and my heart skipped a beat. "For being a girl."
Not sure what she meant, I simply puffed away on the cigarette.
“The only time I really get to myself is at night. After everyone has gone to sleep, I slip out and go for a walk.”
“Young girl like you, isn’t that dangerous?”
“I didn’t used to think so.”
The back door clanged open and Rose called out: "Time to get ready!"
"Coming!" She stood and, dropping her cigarette to the ground, crushed it beneath her heel. Turning to me, she whispered, "I need to get changed."
"For what?"
She shook her head like I was the stupidest person she'd ever met.
Then she leaned over and, cradling my face between her hands, pressed her lips to mine. They were warm and soft, the rough taste of cigarette smoke rolling into my mouth. An electric tingle flooded through me, warming me in the cold November night. My arms went limp and the cigarette slipped from my hand. I was lost in her, the world ceasing to exist around me, and I prayed it would never end.
That was my first kiss, the kiss by which I've judged all others throughout life, and, eighty years later, its power still holds.
She pulled away and spun, running through the night and out of view. I heard the door open and close again and still I sat, unable to move, not even caring about the cigarette burning out beneath me. All I could do was grin. If anyone had come upon me right then, I would have looked like a blithering idiot.
Persephone and Simon stood in the foyer when I went back inside. Simon had been whispering something to her and she laughed before shushing him.
"Behave," she said and gently slapped his chest. "Connie. Nice of you to finally arrive." She looked around. "Are the parents here yet?"
"I don't think so."
"Poor things." She sighed and opened her purse. "As fresh as this is for them, I suppose it would be good taste for me to wait until they've gone before I point out all the tricks used tonight." She rummaged around in her bag until she found a mint and handed it to me. "Your breath smells like a tobacco field. Really, Connie."
Blushing, I popped the mint in my mouth.
Persephone paced back and forth through the foyer, stopping to look at a vase or a gourd or a framed illustration of Gallow's Grove. It took me a moment to realize she was anxious. I'd so rarely seen her in that state, but she'd been off-kilter ever since Sir Doyle first mentioned this town. I'm sure the idea of sitting across a table from a sister she'd never met before today had fried her nerves.
A knock at the door brought her to a standstill. Rose slipped into the foyer and glanced at Persephone before answering it. The Ennis couple stepped in, eyes wide to see the three of us.
"Good evening," Rose said. "I'm sorry tonight's séance must take place under these circumstances. As discussed, my daughter Persephone and her assistant will be joining us. Persephone, this is Don and Mary Ennis."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Seph said.
"Thank you," Mary muttered, her eyes looking raw. She'd likely been crying all day.
"And," Rose went on, "you know the mayor, of course."
"Mr. Mayor." Don shook his hand.
"My sympathies," Simon said.
Don turned to Persephone. "I know this must seem strange to you, us demanding a séance the same day our daughter was..." He couldn't finish that.
"Not at all," Seph said. "I completely understand."
"Shall we?" Rose opened the doors to the parlor.
The room dark, candles lit around the walls, I thought for a moment the table was a tombstone. Carved from some dark wood, its circular shape had been decorated with symbols. It wasn't until we were seated around it, Persephone on one side of me and Mary the other, that I realized they were letters.
The alphabet had been carved into the wood, white paint filling the grooves each letter made. They were in some kind of scrambled order I couldn't decipher, things like "B" next to "V" and "O" next to "A." On either end of the table, the words "YES" and "NO" almost beamed, while the word "HELLO" was etched in front of an empty seat I assumed would be used by Madame Nephthys.
Looking straight down, the word "GOOD BYE" glared up at me as though I'd been commanded to leave. I shifted in my seat, suddenly uncomfortable.
Rose took her place at the table across from Simon. "The table before you is a spirit board. It's modeled on the table used by Queen Elizabeth's court sorcerer, a man named John Dee. Dee was renowned for regularly communicating with the Heavenly Host. The table was one of many tools he used to decipher Enochian, the language of Heaven. This table was carved to the exact specifications that Dee gave. The wood itself is oak taken from a massive tree that grew in a cemetery outside of Prague. The earth there had been brought back from the Holy Land during the Crusades and every soul interred within had been a priest, nun, monk, or Crusader knight in life. This wood itself is thus holy and radiates the resonance of death. During the séance, it will help us to channel the spirit of Caitlin Ennis."
Mary Ennis moaned at the mention of her daughter. Her husband placed a hand atop hers and squeezed.
"When the séance begins, we will each link hands. Whatever happens, do not let go of the hand next to you. Do not call out or otherwise interrupt. Madame Nephthys will instruct you as to when you may ask questions. Until that time please remain silent. Mary, have you brought what I asked for?
Mary nodded and, sniffing back tears, pulled an envelope from her purse. "A clipping from her first hair cut is in there. Her baby teeth, too."
"And the photograph," Don said. "Don't forget the photograph."
"Thank you for sending it over earlier," Rose said and stepped over to a side table. She grabbed a dark frame about the size of a book cover and stood it in the center of the spirit board.
Caitlin smiled inside of the photograph, her hair done up and eyes sparkling. What everyone had said was true: she was angelic.
Rose placed the envelope beside it. "Persephone, before we begin, would you like to examine the table?"
Persephone looked to Mary. "Do you mind?"
Don nodded. Mary did nothing.
There was no skirt, nothing to hide any kind of wires or levers beneath the table. I'd found that odd and it seemed Persephone had, too. She leaned over to examine the underside, running her hand along beneath it, her brow furrowed all the while.
"Nothing," she said. "Nothing obvious, at any rate. And the planchette?"
Rose slid a wooden triangle about the size of a large hand over to her. It had three tiny legs, one at each corner, that raised it an inch above the board. Seph turned it over in her hands for a moment before passing it back.
"Satisfied?" Rose asked.
"No," Persephone said. "But we can continue."
Don and Mary exchanged a glance.
"Persephone is here to keep us honest," Rose explained. "Now, if we may begin?"
Everyone nodded.
Rose held a small bell up and rang it twice.
The door in the back of the room opened and Madame Nephthys entered. Dressed again in black head to toe, the veil over her face, she glided through the room and took her place at the table. Examining each of us, she placed her fingers on the planchette.
"Let's begin, shall we?"