Nine Letters Long

by J. C. Burke

  Evie is shaking. She presses her head against the receiver to stop the phone from falling into her lap.

  ‘Are you there, Evie?’

  ‘Yeah,’ she whispers.

  ‘Then, Roxy started telling me how Caz was one of Dana’s best friends and that’s how she got the job at the Penis Abuser ’cause Caz’s mum owns it. That’s when I said, “Who’s that really skinny girl that hangs around there?” Roxy said, “That’s Caz’s sister.” I asked what she was like and Dana answered, “She went completely weird after Caz died.” Then Roxy butted in and said, wait for this Evie, “She doesn’t talk to anyone, not even her mother.”’

  Thursday can’t come quickly enough. Evie smells Caz all around. In her room, in the kitchen, the bus, the classroom, everywhere – but Caz is patient. It seems, at last, she understands the rules.

  Poppy has to unlock the front door, Evie’s hand is shaking so much.

  ‘You’re freaking me out, Evie,’ she tells her. ‘I mean, if you’re scared then how do you –’

  ‘I’m not scared,’ Evie replies. ‘I just … well, let me tell you about what happens so you understand. In these séances, Caz can get really close – to me, not to you. You’ll be fine. So, if I breathe funny or make funny noises, that’s what that means.’

  Evie sees Poppy’s throat jump.

  ‘Hey, Pop. I understand if you don’t want to do this.’

  ‘No. I do, I do!’ Poppy keeps nodding. ‘I’m fine. Really. Keep telling me about it. What do I have to do? Do I have to write?’

  ‘Yes. I’ll have my finger on the pointer and you record the spelling. It can get fast so be prepared.’

  ‘Yep. Yep.’

  ‘Can you let the blinds down?’

  Poppy goes to the window while Evie climbs up to reach the top shelf of her cupboard. ‘This is my grandma’s ouija board.’ She opens it up on the floor. ‘It’s vintage, would you believe?’

  ‘Wow, it’s beautiful,’ Poppy says. ‘She was like you, wasn’t she – your grandma?’

  ‘You mean, I’m like her.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Evie smiles as her fingers touch the smooth wood of the board. ‘You know, I never thought I’d be able to use it. I was afraid, like it had some hidden power left over from my grandmother. Power that I wouldn’t be able to handle. But it’s not like that.’ Evie places the candles on either side of the board. ‘You know, she never speaks to me, my grandmother. Not when the Athena thing was happening and not now either. So for me, it’s like this is my link with her. If you know what I mean.’

  ‘Yeah. Maybe she’ll talk to you one day.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  Evie hands Poppy the exercise book then lights the candles. She inhales Caz’s presence then says to Poppy, ‘Are you ready?’ Her friend nods.

  ‘Okay. Watch the board carefully for the letters. Like I said, it can go fast – depending on her mood.’

  Poppy sits there, the pen poised in her hand. Evie places her finger on the planchette in the middle of the board. The only sound now is the breath of the girls, in and out.

  ‘We ask that you join us today and that you grant us permission to speak to your sister Caz. We call for her in good will. We want to help her. Help her to rest and find peace.’ Evie glances at Poppy. Poppy is staring at the board. ‘Is Caz there to speak with us today?’

  They wait.

  ‘I know she’s here,’ Evie whispers to Poppy. ‘Maybe I need to tell her who you are.’

  Poppy nods.

  ‘Caz, I’m with my best friend, Poppy. She wants to help you too. I know you had lots of good girlfriends. You can trust her like you could trust them. Will you speak to me with her here?’

  Slowly, the planchette moves to the word ‘YES’. The girls sigh, then smile.

  ‘Okay.’ Evie shuts her eyes. ‘What can you tell us then, Caz?’

  As always, the needle seems to circle the board before it starts. One, two, three times it goes around before zoning in on the letter ‘C’.

  ‘C,’ Poppy says softly. ‘C-R-Y-P-T-I-C-N-A-M-E-P-U-ZZ-L-E-T-R-A-C-E …’

  The pointer slides into the middle of the board as though it’s waiting. ‘Cryptic Name Puzzle Trace,’ Poppy reads. Patiently, it spells more. ‘A-L-L-S-P-E-L-L-A-N-A-G-R-AM-I-D-E-N-T-I-T-Y-H-E-L-P.’

  ‘Cryptic Name Puzzle Trace, um, um.’ Poppy turns the book on an angle. ‘Um, All Spell Anagram Identity Help.’

  ‘Anagram?’ Evie says, opening her eyes. ‘Anagram?’

  ‘That’s what she spelt,’ Poppy whispers. ‘Look – anagram.’

  ‘Caz, what does this mean?’ Again, Evie closes her eyes and concentrates. ‘I don’t understand, Caz. What do you want us to do? Please tell us.’

  The needle skids across the board hitting the ‘P’. Then bang, bang, bang, it begins to strike letter after letter.

  ‘L-E-A-S-E-I-T-R-A-P-P-E-D-N-O-W-A-W-F-U-L.’

  They’re coming faster than Poppy can write. The pencil scratches the paper as she scribbles them down. ‘C-O-N-SE-Q-U-E-N-C-E-S-A-S-K-S-E-B-H-E-L-P.’

  The needle then slows, circles the board and rests on the word ‘GOODBYE’.

  ‘Goodbye?’ Evie looks up. Caz’s gone. In an instant, the perfume has vanished, leaving not a whiff behind. Evie sits there shaking her head. ‘She’s gone, Pop. Just gone …’

  But Poppy is staring at the book, a frown taking over her forehead.

  ‘Poppy?’ Evie touches her hand. ‘Pop? What is it?’

  ‘Oh my god,’ she utters. ‘Listen to this, Evie. Please I trapped now awful consequences … ask … Seb … help.’

  ‘Ask Seb help?’

  ‘That’s what she said,’ Poppy nods. ‘Look – ask Seb help.’

  Seb and Evie throw their school bags with all the others piled up at the entrance to Pappa Reggio’s. It’s Friday afternoon, and the new gelato bar is pumping. Wolsley boys are leaning over pool cues, deep in concentration, while others are tilting the pinballs and dragging their mates on the car machines. A group of Year 12 Goulburn Street girls huddle around a table of cappuccinos, hanging on to every word their friend whispers. Every now and then, one of them squeals with laughter or gasps a ‘No!’.

  Evie heads for a table on the opposite side of the room.

  ‘This new place must be raking it in,’ Seb comments. ‘Right on the bus and train line. Clever, eh? Wish I’d thought of it.’

  Evie picks a table, the most inconspicuous of them all, behind the cigarette machine. As they sit down, Seb starts nodding.

  ‘What?’ Evie says.

  ‘If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were embarrassed of me,’ he tells her. ‘I get the feeling you’re going to tell me something. Could we get any further away?’

  ‘Is it too obvious?’

  ‘Just a touch.’ He shrugs and smiles. ‘But who cares, eh?’

  Evie starts tucking her hair behind her ears. She’s wondering how to drop the bomb. ‘Seb,’ she starts. ‘Seb, this, um … this is –’

  ‘Shit, can you look any more pained, Evie?’ he asks her. ‘Let me put you out of your misery.’ Leaning forward, he puts his elbows on the table. ‘Anton told me the you-and-him thing was all Alex’s idea. He said you were a bit of a snob at first, then he figured out what was going on and it was cool after that. So don’t beat yourself up over it.’

  Evie opens her mouth then closes it. Seb keeps talking. ‘Alex seems to have got herself pretty wrapped up in Zac and … and well, Zac can be a bit of a prick, you know. Sometimes I don’t even like him and he’s one of my good mates.’

  Evie listens as the panic buzzes in her toes. She can’t let him go on. She has to speak now. ‘Seb! Seb, this isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about,’ she says in a single breath. ‘I need to tell you something.’

  Seb leans back in his seat as the waiter brings over their coffees.

  ‘That’ll be extra for getting me to walk all this way,’ he laughs as Seb digs in his pocket. ‘Settle it later,
mate. I don’t want to have to walk all the way back with the change.’ He slaps him on the back. ‘Enjoy.’

  Seb pours some sugar in his cup and starts to stir it. He licks the froth off the spoon then carefully places it back on the saucer. Evie watches him and waits.

  ‘Seb?’

  ‘I thought you’ve been acting a bit off lately,’ he says. ‘You know, back-in-your-own-world-type thing. But you didn’t say anything, at least not to me.’

  ‘I’ve only told Poppy – about what’s going on.’

  ‘Ah, that’s what you girls were scheming about yesterday.’

  ‘We did a séance.’

  ‘Another one?’

  ‘You knew about the first?’ Evie frowns. ‘You didn’t say anything about that.’

  ‘Neither did you.’

  ‘God, Alex must’ve told Zac.’ Evie feels her skin flush. ‘We did that séance ages ago.’

  ‘Yeah, well, Zac told me about it the other day. You’ve got to be … careful, Evie.’ He taps the spoon on the cup. ‘He was going on, you know.’ His eyes rise to meet Evie’s. ‘I kind of had to cut him off. I don’t know what Alex said to him.’

  ‘The séance was Poppy’s idea,’ Evie tells him. ‘Alex had a big crush on Zac, and Poppy thought we could ask a spirit if Zac liked her. That’s how the whole thing started. But it got a bit … well, out of hand.’

  ‘I kind of got the impression Alex only told him about it last week, after Luna Park, if you know what I’m getting at,’ Seb shrugs. ‘I know it’s pathetic but Zac was pissed with you for ignoring Anton. Reckons it made him look like a dickhead. Like he’d set Anton up or something. He was also pissed with Alex about it and I reckon that’s why Alex, you know, said some … stuff.’ The colour in Seb’s cheeks rises. He looks down and scratches his cheek. ‘Ah shit, Evie.’

  He’s not telling her something. She knows what it is but somehow that isn’t enough.

  ‘Tell me, Seb,’ she whispers. ‘Please? Sometimes, I need to hear it.’

  ‘Evie.’ Seb’s hands cover his face. She gazes at his fingers. They’re strong and slender. The fingers of a musician. ‘Evie, don’t do this. You know she’s just being a loser. I thought she was meant to be your friend.’

  Evie says nothing back. Seb will tell her.

  ‘She was playing up your …’

  ‘My …?’

  ‘Your, your … sensitivity?’ He grimaces. ‘Like you were –’

  ‘Weird?’

  ‘I think it was her way of letting herself off the hook with Zac over you and Anton.’

  Evie shakes her head. Somewhere at the back of her eyes the tears sting, but the deception stings more. And yet, somewhere, Evie feels there must be more to it. Alex has always been her friend. Someone she could trust, no matter what.

  ‘You okay?’ Seb asks.

  Evie sighs. ‘If I wasn’t so caught up in something else, I probably wouldn’t be.’ She takes a deep breath, then heaves it out, long and hard. ‘Ahh, what a mess I seem to be in.’

  ‘I don’t think she told him too much,’ Seb says. ‘And I hosed it down, saying what a load of crap it was and that you girls would’ve been just mucking around.’

  ‘Why is Alex doing this to herself? It’s not like her. She’s always been so loyal.’

  ‘Don’t worry about Alex. She’s just being a desperado.’ Seb’s shoulders rise and fall. Evie notices their broad outline through the white shirt. ‘She and Zac won’t last long. He’s a desperate too.’ Again he leans on the table towards her. ‘So?’ he says. ‘What’s it really about?’

  ‘There have been more séances,’ she begins. ‘Lots more. And, well, I’ve kind of found myself in a situation a bit like, you know, Adelaide.’

  ‘What!’

  ‘Well, it’s not exactly the same.’ This is the hard bit. ‘I’m getting these messages in the séances. These messages from a girl who wants me to help her sister.’

  ‘Hang on!’ Seb holds up his hands. ‘The girl that’s giving you these messages has to be … dead, right?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Geez.’ Seb leans back in the seat and puts his hands on his head. ‘Shit, Evie. What’s it about?’

  ‘Stuff about her and her sister. Caz, she’s the dead girl.’ Evie swallows. ‘Caz gives me these messages, but they’re all jumbled and I don’t understand them. But I have to figure them out ’cause they’re telling me how to help her sister.’

  Seb is looking at Evie, nodding with her every word. ‘So her sister’s alive, yeah?’

  ‘Yeah. Her name’s Paris. Anyway, Poppy and I did a séance yesterday and …’ Evie chews her bottom lip. ‘Well, this is going to sound crazy, Seb, but the last message Caz gave us was, “Ask Seb help”.’

  His eyes widen.

  ‘Honest.’

  He’s sitting there with his hands still on his head. He looks as though he’s frozen in the moment. Finally, he says, ‘You’re not bullshitting?’

  Evie shakes her head.

  ‘She actually said my name?’

  ‘Spelt it.’

  ‘Right.’

  They sit in silence. Evie can almost hear the thoughts buzzing around in his head. She waits. It’s all she can do. The matter is so delicate.

  He finally speaks. ‘So, what do I have to do? Is it –’

  ‘One of the words she gave us yesterday was “anagram”.’

  ‘Anagram?’

  ‘Yeah. “Anagram” and “cryptic” and “puzzle”.’

  ‘So you, I mean, she –’

  ‘Wants you to help unjumble the messages,’ Evie tells him. ‘I don’t know what else she could mean.’

  ‘And this girl, she …?’

  ‘She found me in the first séance. The one we did with Alex. The one she told Zac about.’

  ‘She didn’t tell Zac any of this stuff!’

  ‘Caz told us she found me …’ Evie hesitates. It seems every time she thinks she’s told him the worst, there seems to be something still worse to come. ‘Um, through … Athena.’

  ‘Hang on a minute!’ Seb almost shouts. ‘Hang on,’ he whispers, leaning forward again. ‘You mean, they know, they knew each other?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Evie shrugs. ‘It’s all pretty weird. Isn’t it?’

  Seb’s foot is tapping under the table. ‘Well, it’s um, it’s … pretty incredible.’

  ‘It doesn’t end there,’ Evie says.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Caz’s mum owns …’ Evie begins.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘The Venus Cuza College, over there.’

  ‘You mean that modelling chick school? What do you girls call it?’

  ‘The Penis Abuser. And, well –’

  ‘Hey!’ Seb sits up. ‘Roxy’s sister, Dana, works there.’

  ‘How did you know that?’

  ‘Zac’s … got a bit of a thing about her.’

  ‘He does?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Do you … know Dana?’

  ‘Kind of,’ he shrugs. ‘Just to say g’day to and stuff.’

  ‘What’s she like?’

  ‘Pretty hard, if you ask me.’

  ‘Hard?’

  ‘If you had something she wanted, she’d do anything to get it.’

  ‘Oh?’ Evie says. ‘Anyway, Dana and Caz were really good friends.’

  ‘Whoa, that is freaky.’

  ‘The messages –’

  ‘Have you got them here?’

  ‘Yeah. I copied them out for you.’ Evie glances around the café. ‘They’re in my pocket.’

  ‘Let’s have a look,’ Seb whispers.

  Evie passes him the folded piece of paper. Seb checks over his shoulder as his fingers unfold it. Suddenly, his head swings back. ‘Shit!’ He starts to crumple the paper in his hands. ‘Shit! You will never believe who’s just walked in.’

  ‘Who?’ Evie turns around to see a girl, possibly in her early twenties, smiling and walking towards their table. Her hips swing with
each stride, and a green stone sits in her tanned smooth belly. Instantly, Evie knows who she is and her stomach begins to churn.

  ‘I thought that was you,’ she smirks at Seb.

  ‘H-hey,’ he stammers. ‘Um –’ he mouths, ‘Dana.’

  ‘Hey yourself.’ She grins. ‘So what’s happening?’

  ‘Nothing – much.’

  She perches her bum on the edge of the table and faces Seb. It’s as if Evie is invisible. ‘I’ve just got to get myself a coffee,’ she moans. ‘Too much champagne at lunch. My boss, Nora, just secured all the Christmas fashion parades for Westlands. She’s amazing, that woman; she can buy herself into anything. Shame it’ll all be wasted on that zombie of a daughter. Well, not that it’s her money, anyway, but she uses it like it is.’ Evie’s hands grip the sides of the chair. The deception is everywhere. Thick in the atmosphere, it hangs rank like a bad smell that won’t go away. Evie feels it in every cell of her skin.

  ‘Wish I had someone to finance me in a business.’ Dana hasn’t stopped for a breath. ‘I’ve got this amaaazing idea, can’t talk about it yet, too soon, but Zac’s dad said he’ll look at the figures. He is such an amazing business man. I mean – his concrete business is worth an absolute motza, if I could just –’

  Now the room is starting to swim and sway as the repulsion travels fast up Evie’s throat. She doesn’t understand it but she has to get away. Away from this scene, away from the rancid scent that sits in the pit of Evie’s guts.

  Evie knocks her chair to the ground, the sound echoing through the café.