by Heather Gean
“What makes you think my aura is so dirty?” I asked. Liz stopped in her tracks to spin around and give me an accusing stare, which tinted my cheeks the same bright color red as the western sky. I saw Van suppressing a smile as he relaxed in his lawn chair on the porch. He simply put his beer bottle to his lips and kept his eyes straight ahead. I smiled in spite of myself.
“You’ve been under a lot of stress, and that’s really bad for your aura. I’m just trying to help you out,” Sasha defended as I climbed the stairs to the porch.
“What do I have to do?” I asked. I helped her to her feet and followed her into the house as she detailed the ritual.
“I just have to run upstairs and get a few things,” she said.
Samson suddenly appeared at the screen door. “Hey, could you grab me that plate of vegetables?” he asked me. Per his request I headed into the kitchen where a plate full of aluminum foil-covered corn on the cob sat on the stove. Before picking it up, I swung open the refrigerator door in search of a bottle of water. As soon as I had the bottle in hand, Van appeared over the top of the refrigerator door. His eyes followed me as I stood up.
“What are you doing?” I asked him quietly. My heart sped up when he was close to me. He smiled innocently.
“I’m getting a beer.” I knew, though, that he had followed me in there purposely. I got him another bottle out of the fridge, and as I handed it to him he used it to pull my body forward, causing our lips to fall together for a few seconds. He took the bottle from me and quickly disappeared from the kitchen, leaving me dumbfounded. Sasha reappeared a few moments later.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m bringing Samson the vegetables,” I stammered. My brain was so scattered that it sounded like a lie. Sasha’s shoulders drooped as she studied me. “What?” I asked nervously.
“I… it’s… you aren’t giving off any negative energy. I swear like two minutes ago you were,” she said. “That is so weird.” I stood at the refrigerator like a deer in the headlights as Sasha contemplated my aura. “Oh well… I guess you don’t need it then.” She disappeared with her incense sticks in hand, and I heaved a sigh of relief. I knew what had changed in the two minutes Sasha was upstairs, and I couldn’t quite fathom the effect it had had since I knew nothing of auras. Still surrounded in strangeness, I picked up the vegetable tray and ventured outside.
Piper and Cain, one of Sasha’s other housemates, had returned from their trip to get more charcoal. Piper sat perched on the railing of the porch, while Cain sat cross-legged on the floor. I could tell from the smirk on her face that she had done something naughty in their absence. Her promiscuity amused me. “We’re going to channel Elvis tonight,” Piper said excitedly. She nudged Cain’s shoulder with her foot. “Aren’t we, lad?”
“Cain, don’t encourage her,” I begged as I handed the tray off to Samson.
“What? What’s the point of having an Ouija board if you don’t use it?” he asked.
“I thought you were going to cleanse Rainy’s aura,” Liz said skeptically. Sasha shrugged and explained that it suddenly wasn’t necessary, and Liz eyed me in a way that made me uncomfortable. I sought refuge in the nearest lawn chair.
The following few hours of the evening progressed as any lazy Southern night would, with grilled food and cold beer and a few mosquito bites. The conversation may have been slowed by a few drawls but never dulled. Other aspects of the evening were not so conventional. Samson broke out his saxophone, which even when played beautifully elicited wild barking from neighborhood dogs. Piper removed her heels and did some sort of Irish jig to the rhythm of the song; most of us joined in before we nearly tripped over ourselves with laughter. To settle things down Cain broke out a hookah, whose smoke danced the line between smelling like limes and coconuts, and eventually found all of us sitting in a circle on the porch. I found something seductive about the way smoke wafted out of Van’s o-shaped mouth and attempted to occupy myself with Liz and Piper’s competition for the group’s attention.
As nighttime settled in around us so did the bugs, and upon moving the party into the living room Sasha broke out the candles and Cain broke out the Ouija board. Holding a séance in their old house felt like something straight out of a scary movie, and I had to keep laughing myself out of being afraid. The hardwood floors were dull and creaky, and the light fixtures hanging by old chains from the paneled ceiling loomed darkly overhead. Though I didn’t believe that Ouija boards had any power, especially in connecting Piper to Elvis Presley, I got chills every time I touched my fingers to the pointer. I rubbed my hands over my bare arms to rid myself of the goose bumps.
“Guys, this is dumb,” I said.
“Shun the nonbeliever,” Samson said with a grin stretched upward by candlelight. Piper giggled. More candles burned in the room than any cult meeting or church vigil could ever need. Wax rolled down the side of the candle sitting on the floor nearest the board, reminding me of melting skin.
“Elvis Presley, can you hear us?” Cain asked. Piper’s fingers nearly overlapped his on the pointer. I knew the main reason he was feeding into this was because he wanted to hook up with Piper, which was none of my business exactly, but it was obvious enough to be annoying.
“You have to start out simple,” Samson argued. “Warnings?”
Cain nodded. “Spirits, do you bring warnings for anyone among us tonight?”
“That’s simple?” Liz asked. Piper and Cain simultaneously shushed her.
“It’s moving!” Piper whispered loudly. The pointer was in fact moving, and unfortunately for the group it moved toward yes. Piper shrieked, and a few others in the group shared ominous glances.
“What warnings do you bring?” Cain asked in his deepest voice. The house was eerily quiet around us.
“It’s moving!” Piper whispered again.
“Duh, we see it,” Liz countered.
“R!” Samson and Cain chanted together. My heart skipped beats. My name began with an R, which seemed coincidental but at the same time not at all.
“I,” Sasha added.
“N,” Van said.
“G,” Liz finished. She looked over at me. “Ring.”
“What does that mean?” Piper asked.
Liz looked at me again as if it was a sign for me. I knew what she was thinking: ring, like an engagement ring, a wedding ring. The tension mounted as everyone looked around at one another.
Just then the front door creaked open and slammed shut. The group simultaneously jumped and gasped so hard that it is amazing we didn’t knock over or blow out every candle in the room. “Is the power out? The house across the street has power,” Iris, another of the housemates, said as she entered from work.
“You scared the shit out of us,” Cain said to her.
“Ahh! The Ouija board! I want in!” she said.
As our heart rates returned to normal and everyone made their introductions, I bowed out of the game to allow room for Iris to crowd around the board. “What’s the occasion?” she asked.
“I’m channeling Elvis,” Piper said.
“Presley?”
“Is there any other?” Piper asked as I stood up and headed for the back door. “Where are you going?”
“Outside to get a little air. All these scented candles are stirring up my allergies,” I lied.
The damp air met me like a cold sweat after a bad dream. I plopped into the nearest lawn chair and leaned it on its back legs with my head resting against the railing of the porch. The stars stared down at me. Something about the vastness of the universe cleared my head, made my worries seem small and insignificant in the bigger picture of things. After all, would it really matter in a few hundred years if I married Ashley Schroeder?
I could still hear chanting through the back door, which opened slowly and closed shut behind a familiar figure. “Do you have allergies too?” I asked Van. He took a few hollow-sounding steps across the porch and chuckled softly.
“If b
y allergies you mean the irritation in the back of my mind I get from trying to channel Elvis, then yes.” He pulled a lawn chair beside mine. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
Van shook his hair away from his brows as he leaned his chair back against the railing and tipped his head toward the sky. He folded his hands comfortably behind his head. I could hear his breathing and though I wasn’t looking could imagine the rise and fall of his chest as if my head were on it listening to his heartbeat. I enjoyed his appreciation of the quietness between us. Not every moment needed to be talked to death, though I was often guilty of trying.
After a long couple of minutes, laughter rose up loudly from inside. I joined in though I didn’t know what had happened. “I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to use one of those things in the Bible belt,” I said in good humor. “It’s one of those ridiculous bylaws in the fine print.”
“The government doesn’t like to tell you about the fine print.” His somewhat somber eyes remained focused on the stars. “There are rules about everything.” By everything I knew he meant marriage.
“Rules are for people who can’t think for themselves,” I said. It only took Van a few seconds to spark a smile off of the starlight. He faced me with an adoring smile.
“You know, I think I’ve heard that somewhere before. Some amazingly intelligent person must have said that.”
I nodded at him. “Amazingly seductive, too.”
Van raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Seductive? No, I heard he was one of those quiet, artist types. Probably demented. Definitely not seductive.”
“I heard he seduced an innocent girl in her own laundry room.” I locked my eyes into his as the teasing plot thickened. We both wore tempted smiles on our faces. Van inched his turned head a bit closer to mine after dropping the arm interjecting between us to the arm of his chair for balance.
“I heard that he was seduced by his sexy employer who only wanted to use him for her own selfish career advancement.”
I slowly bit my bottom lip as I contemplated the slow, alluring way he had delivered his statement. “Well, I heard that he also seduced her on her best friend’s back porch.”
Van smiled. “Now that part might be true.” His lips gingerly caressed mine, and I refrained from deepening the kiss for fear that I could lose my balance or get caught by one of my friends. His tongue deliciously tasted like coconuts and limes. I put my hand to his face before pulling away.
I took a deep breath and lowered the front legs of my chair to the ground again. I ran my hands over my warm face before standing up and walking across the porch to sit on the railings. Van looked confused. “Or maybe that wasn’t exactly the way it happened,” he said. “Are you okay?”
I half-smiled at him. “I’m fine.”
“Nobody ever means that.” He lowered his feet to the ground, and his body slouched in the chair to where his legs were outstretched in front of him. He was studying me as one might study a piece of art, with conflicting emotions and the admiration of beauty.
“I don’t know how to feel about you,” I admitted.
He titled his head to one side. “How do you feel about me?”
“I feel like I could sit and talk with you forever. Every moment with you is a mini-adventure. Everything you say just seems to make sense to me. When I touch you even a little I want to hold you and kiss you as long as I can,” I said. “It’s crazy.”
Van gave my distress a half-smile. “You saying it’s crazy is you telling yourself that’s how you should feel.”
“Van, we can’t really be together.”
“That doesn’t sound like Rainy thinking for herself that sounds like Rainy letting the government think for her.” My shoulders sank in a sigh, and for some reason I smiled at him. “What do you want to do?” he asked me.
I thought for a few moments as I swung my feet back and forth. “I want to empty out my bank account and you empty out yours.”
Van raised an eyebrow at me. “Mine isn’t very much…” he warned with a laugh.
“And we could take all the money and hop a plane to South America, any plane, just the next one leaving. When we got there we could change our names and hitchhike until we found somewhere worth staying. We could get by on your artwork. Screw the retirement fund and the car payments. We could just… live.” I sighed as if it was the most liberating thing I had ever said. “What do you think?”
Van rose from his chair and wrapped me up in a hug. He pressed his hands against my back to hold me closer. As he hesitantly kissed my neck, I laced my fingers through his hair. “Just say the word,” he said into my ear.
It was a crazy idea. Running away wouldn’t solve things. Whatever Van and I had was so new and unpredictable that no one could bet on it. I knew all of this, but I still found solace in the prospect. I held onto it in my mind like a small child holds onto its teddy bear.
“You’re so damn beautiful when you imagine freedom,” he said. His lips grazed mine as they moved to form his words. I gently bit his bottom lip to pull it into mine. Racing heartbeats and raised body heat and relentless passion completely engulfed us.
I knew to stop when I heard the footsteps running towards the door. I knew to pull out of Van’s arms when the back door squealed open. It wasn’t until it slammed shut that Van and I jumped apart, but by then it was too late. Piper was standing wide-eyed in front of us. I froze.
“Whoa…” she said.
Van sunk his hands casually into his pockets. I slid off of the railing of the porch and propped awkwardly against it. I couldn’t read her open-mouthed expression for anything other than shock.
“Did you hear from Elvis?” I asked after an excruciating silence.
Piper blinked a few times to gather her thoughts and slowly nodded. “Yeah… it was… awesome.” Van brushed past her and disappeared back inside. Piper glanced over her shoulder and then tilted her head inquisitively at me. “You’ve been taking lessons from me, yeah?” She offered a laugh before beckoning me to come back inside. Though I laughed it off with her, I only had one thing on my mind: Piper was a reporter.
Chapter 14
The boss had just dubbed me the overseer of the newest exhibit, a position that a seasoned museum worker had more than a few ruffled feathers over. Catherine had been spreading a rumor in the lounge over morning coffee that I only got the position because my fiancé had donated the hefty chunk of money that was being used to fund the exhibit. This news had been passed from cubicle to cubicle until it had, as rumors often do, reached the victim. Wes wasted no time filling me in on the details; he was too much of a gossip to consider that the silly snippet might actually bother me. It had been a thorn in my side for the past few days, and I sat at my desk mulling over it when I should have been filling out the new exhibit proposal. I still hadn’t decided on a theme.
Ashley and I had not spoken in a month. I had changed my phone number and had accumulated a large amount of both paper and electronic mail from him and his people. The most recent ones were stamped urgent, which would’ve struck me as official had I not known that Ashley had his own secretary who would use the urgent stamp pad upon his request whether the information contained inside should have been labeled such or not. At work things were more complicated. I had struck a deal with the old fellow in charge of answering phones and screening calls that I would make a point to stop by his office at the busiest point during the day and throw him a flirty compliment if he would convince anyone calling on Ashley’s behalf that I was no longer employed at the museum. What good were womanly wiles if not used in gainful yet innocent ways? Strangely enough, I didn’t feel bad for Ashley. I could ignore him as long as I wanted, couldn’t I? After all, I wasn’t required to marry him. He cared enough to send me mail but not enough to tell me that he had filed an appeal before I filed mine, and I didn’t care enough to sit around and consider his reasoning. We were happily estranged, at least on my end.
The ringing phone on my desk interru
pted my plotting to put an end to the rumors. I smiled when I was met with the voice on the other end. “Hello, Sunshine,” Van said. For a touch of both irony and a seductive level of secrecy, Van had dubbed me with the nickname, you know, just on the off chance our phones were being tapped. I teasingly called him Compact Car on occasion but unfortunately it didn’t stick.
“Why, hello there.” I had been hearing from him at least once every couple of days, sometimes multiple times a day depending on his schedule. It was a part of my day that I not only looked forward to but had grown attached to.
“Am I interrupting something?” he asked. “You’re using your thinking voice.” I groaned into the receiver.
“I’m trying to come up with an exhibit theme proposal for the meeting this afternoon. If I don’t have something legitimate then Catherine’s rumors will look true and I’ll lose credibility.” I switched the phone to the other ear and twisted the cord around the ink pen in my hand. “My brain is failing me today. I hope you only liked me for my looks.”
Van chuckled. “Oh, c’mon. It can’t be that bad. Think outside the box.” I narrowed my eyes at him though he couldn’t see me.
“Think outside the box? Yes, because that’s never been done before.” I dropped my pen to the desk and twisted side to side in my spinning chair. “What do you do when you need inspiration?”
“I invite the muses over for casual sex and free beer,” he said matter-of-factly. A smile broke through my distress.
“That works?”
“Have you seen my work lately?” he asked in response. I laughed some tension out of my chest. “Seriously, though, it’ll come to you.”