First date, part 2
1296 Words
Louise was yelling at Thelma about how to get to Mexico. Louise did not want to go through Texas. Olivia could sympathize with Thelma's frustration with her friend. It seemed like a lot of headache to go around a place as big as the state, but maybe Louise knew something Thelma and Olivia didn't. "Worthless women. The whole lot of them." Olivia’s head snapped up. She glanced at Ben. He was engrossed in the movie and seemed to be enjoying it as much as she was, but that was beside the point. Who'd said that? Ben hadn't noticed. Olivia hoped she'd imagined it.
She turned back to the movie. Thelma had agreed to plot a course around Texas to get to Mexico but had told Louise that it was crazy.
"They deserve everything they get.
Put'em in their place. Show'em who's boss." Olivia looked around this time.
This was crazy. Was there another TV on in the house? Was someone outside?
She knew that was wishful thinking. Ben hadn't noticed the strange man's voice.
He couldn't hear him, which meant only one thing and from the sound of the voice and what he was saying, it was bad. She was about to get up on the pretense of going to the bathroom but really to check the house when someone knocked on the front door. Olivia about jumped out of her skin.
Ben laughed at her reaction. "Relax, it's just the door, or are you afraid the state troopers have finally chased you down?" She forced herself to smile at his joke, but her whole body had gone tense. She watched from the couch as he answered the door. The male ghost's voice had scared her. The voice she heard from the door was female and it terrified her more. What was Zoe doing here?
"Ben, home alone? Excellent!"
"Not really. Olivia’s here with me."
"She knows," said another voice. This voice she recognized, too. Goody, Kai had kept his promise. He hadn't come home alone.
Olivia got up from the couch, switched off the television, and braced herself for Zoe vitriol. The cheerleader sauntered into the living room with an easy smile plastered across her face. If Zoe was all sunshine and rainbows, Kai was looming storm clouds as he came in and leaned against the wall to glower at Olivia.
"Hi, Olivia. It's good to see you," Zoe said.
"Yeah, whatever," she said on guard.
She had no idea what the bubble brain was up to. There was another girl with them.
Zoe introduced her. "You know
Carolyn."
Olivia nodded her head. Carolyn hung out with Zoe and thought the sun rose and set on the auburn-haired bimbo. Carolyn wrinkled her nose at her. Her response was customary so Olivia didn't pay any attention to her.
Zoe was who had her full attention.
The cheerleader walked over to the large coffee table in front of the sofa and began clearing it off like she was in her own home.
Carolyn stood to the side holding a box under her arm. It was slim, like a board game box. Zoe held out her hand to Carolyn. She gave her the long narrow box.
"Look what I brought everybody! A Ouija board! I thought it would be a lot of fun, especially with our resident ex-pert. Right, Olivia?" Now Olivia was wor-ried. She'd never used a spirit board, but Gran had told her about them. They could pool a group's meager psychic abilities to talk to ghosts. They usually didn't work because either a ghost wasn't around or the people using it weren't really trying. But there was a ghost around, and even if Zoe didn't want to talk to a spirit, this one seemed eager to tell them things. Not nice things.
"Shouldn't be in my home. Even Julie knew better. She may have been a faithless w***e, but even she knew not to bring unwanted people into my house." Olivia bowed her head and silently prayed that the ghost didn't do anything. He was already amped up with her there. If he got really angry, there was no telling what he might do.
Zoe set up the Ouija board and plopped onto the floor at the head of the coffee table. "Now everyone gather round. Let's try contacting River Phoenix's ghost."
"Ugh, River Phoenix? He's so old,"
Carolyn complained.
Zoe made an outraged sound. "He died at 23!"
"Like decades ago. Why not Heath Ledger?"
"We're calling River Phoenix. He's better looking than Heath Ledger."
"Whatever," Carolyn said.
"Zoe, what are you doing?" Ben finally cut in to ask.
"Well, the dance was getting boring, so I decided to ditch it and come over here and have some fun."
He turned to Olivia and gave her a questioning look. It asked if she were okay with all of this. She bit her lip and glanced away, unwilling to say no and show her fear.
"Come on, everybody, gather round," Zoe commanded again. Carolyn sat down first. She went to Zoe’s right.
Kai sat down on Zoe’s other side.
Zoe got up and led Ben over by the hand. "Sit here," she said, nudging Kai over. He was not pleased with the new seating arrangement and moved down with a huff. Ben sat down stiffly. He didn't like this but was going along for now. Zoe retook her seat on the floor at the head of the table. Olivia still stood, facing everyone.
"Come on, Olivia. You do this all the time, don't you? It'll be easy." She looked at Zoe and almost told the truth. No, she didn't do this regularly, and she didn't do it willingly. She sat on the floor at the end of the coffee table opposite Zoe.
"What we have to do is put our hands on this heart-shaped thingy here." Zoe pointed at the planchette, the proper name for the spirit board's pointer. Zoe probably wasn't the best person to instruct everyone on how the spirit board worked if she didn't even know that. "Okay, now don't move it. When we ask the spirits questions, they'll answer us by moving it. Simple, huh? I don't know why people pay your grandmother money to contact spirits when they can do it themselves." Zoe frowned at her. They just didn't get it because they didn't know. There were things that went bump in the night.
Monsters were real, but she couldn't tell them that. They'd think she was crazy.
They wouldn't know until they found out for themselves.
"Now everyone put your hands on the pointer thingy." Kai and Carolyn did as Zoe instructed. Olivia kept her hands in her lap. She was not about to touch the planchette. She was glad Ben also abstained from joining in. Unfazed by their non-participation, Zoe threw her head back and closed her eyes. In her best dramatic voice, she said, "Are there any spirits nearby tonight? All famous people are welcome, especially movie stars." The planchette shot to
'Yes',
, but Zoe seemed far too perky for
it to have been spirit induced.
"Oh goody! We have someone. Okay, who are you?" she asked. Olivia waited for the planchette to move to the 'R'. It did. She settled back and got ready for it to go from 'I' to 'V' to 'E' and so on. It did go to 'T', and Zoe gave a girlish giggle, but then the planchette stopped. Olivia rolled her eyes. Had they forgotten how to spell River? She waited for it to go to
'V', but it didn't shoot to the letter. The hairs on the back of her neck started to rise. The planchette slowly crawled to
'C' as if it was fighting against several unwilling hands.
- Writer
