by Gilbert Ford
Mrs. Fisher shut her eyes, placing her hand over her heart. “Robert,” she said, “I know just what I’ll do. Thank you!”
30
Joining the Living
Birds chirped outside. Traffic swooshed by like the ocean tide. Houdini perched in his cage by the window and pecked at some seeds in his bowl. “KNOCK IT OFF!” he shrieked.
Archimedes sat just under the bird, his green eyes watching the parrot’s every move. The sun poured through the window and spilled onto the living room floor, the light broken only by the soft current of rolling shadows caused by the curtains. Piano keys rolled between the light voice of Mrs. Fisher as she played. “To our honeymoon, honeymoon, honeymoon a-shining in June!” she sang.
Suddenly a whistle blew in the other room.
“Tea’s ready,” said Mrs. Fisher before she shot up from the bench and scurried down the hallway.
Maria blew the hair out of her eyes and watched the shadows swim across her paper. Next to her was her own loot from Mrs. Fisher’s treasure: her father’s book of poems. She crouched on the living room floor surrounded by clumps of crumpled paper. Flat sheets of blank paper lay directly in front of her. She held the pencil—not between her knuckles, but the way a writer would. Maria’s handwriting dipped and sank across the page, struggling to stay afloat. Scribble after scribble, she’d searched for the right words, but they hadn’t surfaced.
It had all been so easy for Maria to write when Edward was guiding her hand, but it had been months since she’d felt his presence. Here she was. Writing the hard way. She wrote down the letters for her father, and those letters formed words addressed to anyone who cared, and those words made sentences that had been labored over for the love of every lonely soul—every girl who had read in secret in a tiny walk-in closet.
Only she was no good at any of it.
She sighed and wished she could connect to her father again. But if Maria was going to write, she was going to have to work at it. And the work was not easy.
The squeaky wheels of a cart turned into the living room.
Archimedes diverted his attention from Houdini only for a second.
“How’s your work coming along?” Mrs. Fisher asked. “Are you having any luck channeling your father?”
Maria shook her head. “The words don’t flow so freely anymore,” she whined.
“It took the Beats YEARS of practice to channel their subconscious.” Mrs. Fisher stopped the cart by the trunk. Then she smiled and poured a cup of tea. “And, sweetie, you’re only eleven years old! You’ve got your whole life ahead of you to write poetry!”
Maria took the cup of tea from Mrs. Fisher and collapsed into the cushions on the sofa.
After the police had caught Madame Destine and Mr. Fox last October, Maria had been placed in a foster home by Child Protective Services, but Mrs. Fisher kept her promise and visited her regularly. Maria was aware that there had been a speedy trial, but she didn’t have to testify at any of the hearings.
In between the court dates, Mrs. Fisher and Ms. Madigan catalogued the books and sold many to collectors willing to pay a high price. The paintings were auctioned at Sotheby’s, and the bids were generous. By May, Mrs. Fisher’s finances were in order and she was able to sign the paperwork to be Maria’s legal guardian.
Maria took in the surroundings of her home.
The upright piano rested by the tribal masks, hung in their proper places. The full-length mirror had been replaced—only it had been reinstalled as a revolving door. She and Mrs. Fisher had agreed that they should keep the secret passage.
Maria leaned back on the sofa and took a gulp of tea.
BUZZZZZZZZZZ BUZZZZZZ! BUZZZZZZZZZZ BUZZZZZZ!
“Good heavens!” exclaimed Mrs. Fisher. “Are we expecting anyone?”
Maria leapt over the sofa, landing by the window. Then she leaned out so her feet were barely touching the floor.
The warm sun felt good against her face. She peered over the ledge and saw the familiar red baseball cap of Sebastian below. “Who goes there?” she called in her pirate’s voice.
Sebastian glanced up at her and smiled his gap-toothed grin. “I’m looking for buried treasure!” he yelled back.
Maria smiled. “Arrrrr, matey! I’ll be right down!” She ducked her head back through the window and darted across the living room and down the hallway. “I gotta go!” Maria called from the door, almost out of breath. She reached for the handle before she added, “Sebastian’s here!”
“Off!” Mrs. Fisher said, motioning with her hands for Maria to leave. She chuckled to herself and added, “Join the world of the living!”
Maria glanced back and smiled at Mrs. Fisher. Buried treasure, indeed, she thought. What could be more priceless than friends? Then she raced down the stairs, opened the front door, and stepped out into the warm spring day.
Author’s Note
Although the story and characters in this novel are fiction, many of the references to art from Mrs. Fisher’s past come from real life. In fact, Mrs. Fisher was inspired by the real-life jazz singer and pianist extraordinaire, Blossom Dearie, who performed in Greenwich Village well into her late seventies.
Nineteenth–Century Spiritualists and the Birth of Modern Art
Spiritualism is a religion that began in 1848; its practitioners communicate with ghosts through a medium, also known as a psychic. The spiritualist mediums talk to ghosts in a variety of ways, one of them being through automatic writing. This occurs after the medium meditates and spontaneously writes a message without thinking ahead what she would like to say, believing that a spirit is guiding her hand. Many writers say that automatic writing comes from the subconscious, an idea also utilized by early modern art movements such as the Surrealists (who wrote from a dream state) and the Beats (who wrote from a meditative flow state).
1950s New York and Greenwich Village
After World War II, the cultural focus shifted from Europe to the United States, and New York City became a vibrant place for artists to live. Moving into cold-water flats (apartments that didn’t even have hot water) in run-down neighborhoods of lower Manhattan such as Greenwich Village, artists could share ideas in neighborhood clubs and cafes while surviving on very little money. Clubs like the Village Vanguard and Café Wha? popped up in the neighborhood, too. They showcased stand-up comics like Lenny Bruce, and jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker. Artists took over lofts that allowed for plenty of light to paint, and writers penned their manuscripts in late-night cafes. Miles Davis came out with his album Birth of the Cool, and a group of writers became known as the Beats. It wasn’t long before the term beatnik described the 1950s hipster: someone who lived on strong coffee and jazz, loved modern art and Beat poets, and lived in Greenwich Village.
The Beats
The Beat poets were an informal group of writers whose core members, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, met while attending Columbia University in 1944. The group of writers expanded to include Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs, among others, and they held informal meetings in Times Square diners to discuss their ideas. They would later travel across the country and set up shop in San Francisco. Jack Kerouac was the most popular of the writers, typing On the Road (1957) on a continuous scroll of paper so as not to interrupt his flow. Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” (1956) was controversial, giving the Beats notoriety with mainstream society by rejecting materialism and embracing Eastern spirituality. By the late 1950s, the Beats had brought counterculture to the masses and were the forerunners of the hippie movement of the 1960s.
The New York School of Abstract Expressionist Painters
While the Beats were developing their own style of writing, the abstract expressionist group of painters in New York City were inventing an American style of art that would differ from what was happening in Europe. Painters like Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning flung, dripped, and glopped paint onto canvas, calling their method action painting.
It emphasized the physical process of painting instead of depicting actual subject matter. Peggy Guggenheim, whose uncle Solomon Guggenheim founded the Guggenheim Museum, championed these artists, bringing them into the spotlight and helping to establish New York as the destination for modern art.
Jazz Improvisation
When musicians improvise, they invent melodies on the spot without knowing what they will play beforehand. Sometimes it comes together in harmony, while other times it can be discordant. Jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker developed improv into a new staccato, wild sound called bebop in the mid 1940s, playing in small clubs in Manhattan. By the late 1950s, they had influenced Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, and long, melodic lines of cool jazz took over. Clubs like the Village Vanguard and the East Village Five Spot Cafe were the places to be, allowing poets, painters, actors, and musicians to cross-pollinate their ideas.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my editor, Christy Ottaviano—genie in a bottle, who not only has been a constant cheerleader and a thoughtful editor, but also a wish granter, allowing me to illustrate the novel from cover to cover!
I would like to thank my team at Macmillan, including Katie Klimowicz, who helped with the design and layout of this book.
Additionally, I would like to thank my teachers at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where I earned my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. A very big thank-you goes to Mary Quattlebaum, who advised and guided me through the novel-writing process for this book, along with my other advisors: Betsy Partridge, Jane Kurtz, and Amanda Jenkins.
I owe a big thank-you to my agent, Carrie Hannigan, who believed in this manuscript and helped me put the finishing touches on it. Thank you for meeting with Christy for that fateful coffee before handing her the manuscript!
I’d like to thank Shannon Taggart, photographer, whose invitation to attend a séance was the initial spark for this novel. Thank you, Ralph Smith, Ginger Albertson, Caron Levis, Julia Hall, Jason Neufeld, Maria Falgoust, Tae Won Yu, and Jessica Grable for sharing dinner and drinks between working hours.
I’d like to thank my writer friends Caron Levis, Monica Rowe, Katie Bartlett, Bonnie Pipkin, and Monica Baker for all of their support and writing advice.
I’d like to thank Tracy Mantrone, librarian at the Clinton Hill branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, who has been my go-to for just about every question I can conjure.
Thank you, Hank Flacks and Jeff Corbin, for all of your advice and guidance. And last, a big thank-you to my parents and siblings for all of their support, lending an ear as I lamented every obstacle thrown my way on the path to publication.
About the Author
GILBERT FORD holds a BFA in illustration from Pratt Institute and an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is the author-illustrator of How the Cookie Crumbled and The Marvelous Thing That Came from a Spring, a Best STEM Book of the Year, as well as the illustrator of Alice Across America. The recipient of a Society of Illustrators Silver Medal, Gilbert marks his fiction debut with The Mysterious Messenger. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Visit him at GILBERTFORD.COM or sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
1. The Spirits Visit
2. Dig Up the Dead
3. Edward
4. A Restless Spirit
5. A Return Client
6. Ghosting the Widow
7. A Vanished Era
8. Two Rings
9. Mystifying Messages
10. The Sharks Are Circling
11. Finding a Clue
12. Culture Vultures
13. Automatic Writing
14. Mutiny
15. Making Contact
16. The Getaway
17. A Home-Cooked Meal
18. Signs for the Searchers
19. Message Received
20. Friendship Derailed
21. A Missing Girl
22. To Stay or Go
23. Danger! Danger!
24. Kidnapped
25. Cry of the Dead
26. To Solve a Riddle
27. Buried with Treasure
28. Houdini’s Magic
29. The Ghost of a Family
30. Joining the Living
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by Gilbert Ford
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
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First hardcover edition 2020
eBook edition July 2020
eISBN 9781250205681