“Well, there you are!” cried Mama. “Wherever did you disappear to? You’ve given us such a scare!” Danger swirled in the air like a mist. “Mrs. Newman tells me there was an incident at school. That you had a bad turn?”
Peg appeared at the kitchen door, her face showing relief as bright as lipstick.
“She played truant on her first day,” pronounced Mrs. Newman firmly.
“Annie, dear,” said Mama. “Come into the front room and sit down.” The room was spotless, ready for that evening’s calling. “I am expecting clients at any moment,” she told Mrs. Newman. “I am conducting a séance. There are several seekers coming to call on their loved ones who dwell beyond the Curtain of Death.”
“Your daughter was truant on her first day of school.”
Mama adjusted the lace at the window. “Well, naturally, I’m terribly worried about Annie.” Her smile was quite convincing. So real, in fact, that I knew she was gloating. If I’d left school after stubbornly insisting on going, then she’d won another round.
“She attacked a boy—an innocent six-year-old boy—and then fled from the school at the first opportunity.”
“I’m sure Annie didn’t intend to hurt the child, did you, darling?”
“That innocent six-year-old boy called me a smelly idiot, Mrs. Newman. And a big, ugly baboon.” I spoke with a tremble. “I’m very sensitive about my former condition and not quite used to being with other children yet. I did not mean to create a disturbance. The teacher forced me to stand in the corner—”
Mama shook her head in disgust.
“—and I felt a terrible dizziness coming on and—”
“Miss Carruthers did report that you fainted,” admitted Mrs. Newman.
“You fainted?” Mama repeated.
“All the more reason that your absence this afternoon has been noted as willful truancy,” said Mrs. Newman. “The faint was clearly a ploy to excuse—”
“I didn’t realize that I’d fainted,” I said slowly. Inspired by my moments inside St. Alphonse Church, I felt a new idea swelling within me. “I can’t even tell you where I’ve been. I haven’t noticed anything outside myself.”
Oh, such an idea!
“Where my body has been is a mystery. But my soul has been transported!” Even Mama had never had an idea like this one. “I heard music, but it seemed I was enveloped in a dark shroud.”
“For four hours?” Mrs. Newman bit off her words as if they were a gingersnap.
“Mama!” I fell to my knees and buried my face in rose-colored chiffon. “Oh, Mama, I believe that I have been possessed by a spirit. She entered my mind and took control of my limbs. I seemed to be watching from a distant place as she took me on a remarkable journey.”
Mama shook her leg and pried me loose with her hands.
“Whatever are you babbling about?” All effort to be gentle and concerned had turned into irritation.
Mrs. Newman joined her. “This is the most ridiculous spewing of poppycock I have ever encountered! Get to your feet this instant, young lady!”
I tipped my head so that only Mama could see my face. I winked. The perfect partner, she rallied in an instant.
“Tell me again, Annie, dear,” she said. “Speak more slowly.”
“I received the spirit of a girl named Gwendalen,” I said. “I felt her slip into my body, as though I were a merino sweater. She told me she was born in 1214. Or, well, she didn’t exactly tell me, because she didn’t speak using words. She seemed to transfer her thoughts to me.…”
“Bosh!” said Mrs. Newman.
“She lives in a convent,” I continued. “She showed me scenes from her life, as though I were sitting at the moving pictures. Her father was very cruel and sent her away when he could not find her a husband. She said that if I provide her with ink and parchment she’ll communicate through me to write down her story.”
“What utter nonsense!” snorted Mrs. Newman. “I have never encountered such drivel! Your imagination borders on insane. Missus—Madame—how can you put up with this?”
“It is not unheard of, Mrs. Newman,” said Mama quietly, “when there has been a cataclysmic occurrence such as the healing of my daughter, that other magnetic forces come into play. She could easily be a conduit! The living, breathing conduit for a spirit who is trapped between worlds.” Mama’s voice rose with excitement. “If this is the case, we can all rejoice! If Annie has been selected as a vessel of spiritual power, it is something to celebrate!
“Peg! Peg!” Mama began to shout.
Mrs. Newman’s mouth dropped open in a gape of disbelief. “Both of you,” she muttered. “Like mother, like daughter.” She stepped away from us, her hands up as if to fend off an attack.
“Yes’m?” Peg appeared from the kitchen, drying her hands on a tea towel.
“Please find paper and a fountain pen in the drawer of my writing desk and bring them to the front room.”
“Yes’m.”
“You’re going to indulge your disobedient and truant daughter in this way?”
“Gwendalen said parchment, Mama.”
“This is absurd,” said Mrs. Newman.
“She likely didn’t have paper, darling heart,” said Mama. “In the twelve hundreds, did you say?”
There came a knock at the door.
“Oh!” cried Mama. “The callers are here already. Peg! Never mind the paper! Peg! Answer the door!”
“I’ll get it, Mama.” I stepped around Mrs. Newman and opened the door. Two young women were there, both wearing wool jackets with thick raccoon collars turned up. The sky had turned gray since I’d come in, and a blustery wind was blowing. Behind the ladies was Mr. Poole, smirking like a well-fed Persian cat. I glanced at Mama. Did she think he was handsome?
“Hello, Annie.”
“Come in,” I said. Peg bustled up to help with the coats.
“This is the miracle child,” Mr. Poole told his companions. “Observing her now, it’s hard to remember that she was no better than a drooling moron last week.”
If only I could arch my eyebrow like Mrs. Newman’s!
“I hope I have not offended you, my dear. It was none of your own doing. And now, you see? Here you are, greeting us like a perfect little hostess.”
“We’ve had the most thrilling thing happen,” gushed Mama. “Just this afternoon, it seems that my Annie has had the honor of becoming a vessel for a spirit caller.”
She was greeted with a trio of blank faces.
“There are rare occasions,” Mama said, trying to explain the unexplainable, “when a restless spirit seizes the chance to inhabit a living person and gives voice to centuries of wisdom and poetry—”
“Well, well,” said Mr. Poole. “Another marvel.”
“Please, step in,” I said.
“This is my wife’s niece, Claudia Weather,” said Mr. Poole, putting his hand on the shoulder of the taller girl. Taller because her shoes had higher heels. She also wore too much rouge, like buttons painted on her cheeks. “Noisy,” my mother would say.
“Good evening, Miss Weather.” I bobbed a curtsey and backed up, trying to make room in the crowded hallway.
“This is Claudia’s good friend, Sylvia Torn, who lost her husband in the Great War. She’s visiting from Springfield.”
“Oh, dear,” I said. “That’s the saddest thing I ever heard.” We naturally had no file on someone from another town. Mama widened her eyes at me in a silent command; I had two minutes to extract something useful from her. “What a pretty ring,” I gushed. “Were you newlyweds?”
“We were married four months and nine days before he went overseas. In New Orleans. That’s where we were from.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“But I couldn’t bear to go back there after he died, so I’m trying out a new place. I just …” She shrugged. “I keep expecting to wake up and still be Buddy’s girl. I just can’t seem to get on with things.”
Mrs. Newman would not budge an inch the whole time Peg was taking the coats. It got to be awkward with her just standing there. I’d have to introduce her.
“This is Mrs. Newman,” I said. “Mr. Poole, Miss Weather, Mrs. Torn.”
“Will you be joining us for the calling, Mrs. Newman?” asked Mr. Poole.
“No,” I said.
“No,” said Mama.
“I don’t think—” said Mrs. Newman.
“Oh, please stay,” said Mr. Poole. “We would be delighted to extend the circle. If you haven’t seen Madame Caterina before, you must join us.” He was such a gentleman that she would have seemed downright rude to say no. “It’s sure to be a remarkable experience.”
Mrs. Newman smiled a half-smile and allowed Peg to take her coat too; her thin woolen coat without a trace of fur, not even rabbit, on the collar.