“That’s an excellent question.” Heather motioned that they should follow her. “I’m set up if you’re ready.”
“Set up for what?” Sue asked.
“To see if we can’t find out why this is happening to you,” Vivien said, turning Sue’s question back on her.
Lorna tried to walk Sue toward the amphitheater.
“Do you mean a séance?” Sue asked, refusing to budge. “I thought you didn’t do that here anymore.”
“Not publicly,” Vivien stated. “We still do them. Don’t worry. We’re getting pretty good at it, and summoning Julia is a fairly safe bet. We were going to wait a few days until you settled in, but considering tonight’s paranormal activity, it’s probably best to get this show on the road.”
“Fairly?” Sue clung to that one word.
“We’re going to call Grandma Julia so all of you can see her,” Heather said. “I could ask her and translate, but I think maybe this is something you need to hear for yourself. Seeing is believing, after all.”
“Julia Warrick?” Sue shivered, rubbing her arms.
“The one and only.” Heather went back behind the curtain.
“I’m going to grab candy out of the storeroom for after,” Vivien said, leaving the lobby.
“It’s safe,” Lorna assured her. “Julia doesn’t mean us harm. If her magic sent you the ring, then she means for you to be here. She’s tied to this place, so I think that makes her stronger when we call to her here,” Lorna said.
“I…” Sue wasn’t sure what she thought. On the one hand, she didn’t want to see Hank ever again—spirit or not. On the other, she didn’t want to call more ghosts into her life.
“I know,” Lorna soothed. The woman definitely had a nurturing quality to her. She slid her hands off of Sue’s shirt to touch her forearms. The skin-to-skin contact connected them just as it had with Vivien.
The prickling sensation of awareness started where they touched. It shivered over her and caused goosebumps to rise on her arms and legs. She felt her hair lifting like the effect of static electricity.
“We know you’re scared,” Lorna said.
Sue nodded. That was an understatement.
“When this was happening to me, when I tried to get closure after my husband died, I was terrified. I wasn’t like Vivien or Heather. I was like you. I didn’t grow up knowing ghosts existed, or magic, or mediums, or any of this. It was a fantasy story or Hollywood movie. Heather sees ghosts like Julia. Vivien is psychic like her ancestors.” Lorna held up her ring. “Until I put this on, I was just a sad lady whose husband had cheated on her in the worst way.”
Sue looked at her ring. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“You didn’t have to.” Lorna leaned over to force Sue to look at her. “But Julia’s magic knew you needed it. You might not want it, but you needed it. And there are strange perks.”
“Are you coming?” Heather called.
“We need a moment,” Lorna answered.
Sue put her hand over Lorna’s on her arm. She felt the woman’s sincerity. Her energy was different than Vivien’s. Lorna was gentle, a mother, a nurturer. Beneath that was an echo of her old pain. It would be a scar she carried with her, but it had dulled and healed over.
“I’m not going to lie.” Lorna tightened her hands on Sue’s arms. “It’s going to break your heart to face this, but when it’s over, the healing is worth it. You’ll see life is not him. It was never meant to be like him. You were meant for more. I can feel that in you. You were meant to love and be loved.”
“What did you mean by perks?” Sue heard Vivien coming back from the storeroom.
“The rings amplify something inside us. For me, I desire to take care of others, my family, and my friends. It’s all I ever wanted to do. As a mother, I could always find anything in the house. I never thought of it as a skill, but with the ring, I have the natural magic to find lost things. And, as we talked about before, I’m a healer. I can transfer physical illness and injury from one to another or into myself. I don’t like that as much. I don’t like making those decisions.”
Sue shook her head. “I don’t have any natural magic. I’m not good at anything.”
“I don’t believe that’s true.” Lorna released her arm. “You might not see it yet, but you have something inside you.”
“Come in when you’re ready, but do come in.” Lorna walked behind the curtain.
Sue felt colder without the contact. She rubbed her arm where Lorna had touched her. She doubted she had natural magic. What was she good at? Keeping secrets? Following orders to avoid punishment? Cleaning?
Magical punching bag maid, she thought in dejection.
“Stop that nonsense,” Vivien whispered as she passed.
Sue glanced at her in surprise.
Vivien gave her a sad smile. “Never again.”
Sue slowly nodded.
“Good.” Vivien walked toward the curtains holding an armful of movie theater candy boxes.
Sue checked the dark sidewalk beyond the glass door. Hank wasn’t there. How easy it would be to tell herself she imagined it.
She wasn’t one to lie to herself, even when she’d justified her bad decisions. Would walking into the theater to perform a séance be another regret? Or would she regret walking away from the help and friendship these women offered?
Beyond practical matters and fear, curiosity stirred. Ghosts? How often did a person get the chance to see proof of the supernatural, of an afterlife?
Sue found herself walking toward the curtain. Although she knew it to be thick, hanging material, she felt it was more like a veil, another threshold between her past and her future. If she stepped through, it took her further away from who she had been.
Sue ran her hand along the red velvet, feeling the soft texture even as she detected the faintest hint of age and dust. She should want to run from her past, but the future scared her too.
Everything scared her.
She hated that fear.
Sue wasn’t sure what she expected to see when she balled her fist around the material and pulled the curtain aside. Her eyes went first to the lit stage where Vivien, Heather, and Lorna waited, then to the theater seats hidden in the shadows. There couldn’t be more than a hundred cushioned seats, but she scanned over each one as she walked down the aisle, half expecting an audience of ghosts to stare back at her.
She took several deep breaths before finally focusing on the stage. Lorna sat on the stage, digging through a messenger bag. They’d spread a blue cloth on the floor. When Sue went up the stairs along the stage’s edge, she saw that a thick, old book had been placed in the middle of the cloth. A symbol had been drawn on the fabric to match the symbol on the book’s cover.
Lorna pulled out blue candles, dropped oil on them from a vial, and handed them to Vivien.
“What are you doing?” Sue asked, approaching hesitantly.
“Anointing the candles with basil oil. It’s for protection. And the blue will amplify our message to Julia,” Lorna suddenly frowned. “I don’t have blueberries.”
“It’s just Julia,” Vivien dismissed as she arranged the four blue candles at the edge of the cloth but didn’t light them. “We’ll be all right.”