Free The Spirit Room by Marschel Paul Page A

was the best she could do for now. He went straight for the chair by the fire. Was he cold? Weston and Payne took the places opposite him, with Weston next to Clara and Payne, the little Norwegian, closest to Izzie. Even from two seats away, Payne smelled like his saloon—cigar smoke and ale. Papa smelled just like that many a night.
     
    The men stood a moment looking back and forth between Izzie and her. Finally Mr. Washburn went over and put a hand on the top of Izzie’s ladder-back chair. Izzie smiled at him and sat down. He was treating Izzie like a lady. Lawky Lawky Lawk . Before Clara could take her seat, Weston grinned and imitated Washburn’s courtesy by shifting Clara’s chair for her. Clara bit her lower lip, but a giggle slipped out anyway. Finally everyone was sitting at the table. Except Papa, of course.
     
    That was planned ahead. He walked over to his shadowy corner near the tie up for the secret bell and folded his arms across his chest. Although he said he was itchin’ to test the bell in the wall and for Clara to try out the new knocking device in the floor, he had said they weren’t going to do anything tricky this time. They were to work on the alphabet.
     
    Izzie reached for Clara’s handmade alphabet sheet in the middle of the table and drew it toward her. It was nothing to be sneezed at, that alphabet sheet. Hardly a drop of ink in the wrong place and the curve of the letters only a little lopsided.
     
    “You ready to be hounded by your ghosts, Washburn?” Sniggering, the little Norwegian, Payne, slapped a square hand on the middle of the table.
     
    “What about yours, Payne? I’m sure they’ll come and collect moral taxes of some kind from you.” Washburn seemed almost angry, like they’d been having a bull and cow before, but Weston laughed and looked over at Izzie.
     
    “Tell us what to do. I promise they’ll behave.”
     
    “Well, the first thing is, we all put our hands out on the table and spread them out so that our little fingers are touching.” She put her hands on the table to show them. “This lets the magnetism that’s naturally in us connect with one another and gives us enough strength to draw in the spirits. It would be better if we had equal males and females, but I think we are close enough with three and two.”
     
    Lawk-a-mercy . Izzie sounded like she had done this a thousand times. The men placed their hands as they were told and Clara, spreading her much smaller hands out, touched fingers with Weston and Washburn. Her heart kicked up with excitement. These men needed to understand she was a medium in training too, not just the young sister of Izzie.
     
    “Yes, I think three and two will be fine. Equal men and women is because equal positive and negative works best.” Clara glanced at each man, and then looked at her sister. “I’m ready, Izzie.”
     
    But no one looked back at Izzie. Everyone kept looking at Clara with stone faces. They seemed tarnal fixated. Maybe she hadn’t explained it correctly. Her stomach was twittering wildly.
     
    Then, Weston burst out laughing and got the others laughing. He looked toward Papa in the corner. “You’ve been hiding these daughters from us, Ol’ Frank. Your Clara is a rare and extraordinary beauty. And Isabelle is charming.”
     
    Clara felt a big smile break out on her face and craned her neck to see Papa. He pushed his hand into the air toward Weston, as though shoving him, but didn’t say anything.
     
    Then, by making her face as blank as an empty wall, Izzie showed how serious she was and she waited like that, wall-faced, until it was quiet again.
     
    “Now, once the spirits are here, it’s not as important to keep the fingers linked just so.” Izzie raised both her little fingers in the air and wiggled them like tiny snakes coming up for a look. “Clara and I will have to move about. Everyone close your eyes until one of you wants to ask if there is any spirit here who wants to speak to you.