“Steffie, I do not ‘play’ with things such as this. In most hands, the Ouija is a harmless toy. In the hands of someone who might have some … sensability, it can become a channel of sorts. That’s what’s happening here. Someone is contacting me and I’m very confused because I do not know who it is.”
“Stef, why don’t you try it with Miss Grace?” Vanessa sat on a nearby chair, as if putting as much distance as she politely could between herself and the coffee table.
“It’s okay with me, as long as it’s okay with Miss Grace.” Steffie looked across the table at Grace. “But you have to understand that I don’t believe in this stuff.”
“That’s quite all right, dear. You don’t have to.”
“You just put your fingers on the little planchette,” Vanessa said. When Stef looked up questioningly, Vanessa smiled smugly. “That’s what the little triangle thingy is called.”
“Did you look that up yourself?” Stef asked.
“Nah.” Ness loaded her spoon with ice cream. “Miss Grace just told me.”
Grace reached across the table and took Steffie’s hands and placed them on one side of the triangle. But even before Grace added hers, the triangle began to move, as if quivering.
“Holy crap,” Stef whispered. “I swear I’m not—”
“Hush, dear,” Grace told her softly as her fingertips touched the triangle. “Let’s see where it goes.”
“It’s spelling out HS over and over.” Stef watched as the small triangle sped back and forth between the two letters.”
“What word starts with HS? I can’t think of a one,” Vanessa said. “Unless it means his. Which makes no sense at all.”
The three women watched as the same letters were touched over and over again.
“I don’t get it.” Steffie shook her head.
“Wait, it’s doing something else now. Look.” Grace pointed to the board.
“What’s the word it’s spelling?” Vanessa leaned forward.
“H-S-T-E-P …” Steffie’s jaw dropped. “Oh, my …” She held her breath. “H. Stephen.”
“What?” Vanessa frowned.
“H. Stephen. I used to call Horace ‘H. Stephen.’ ” Steffie’s eyes filled with tears. “Horace?” she whispered.
The triangle went around and around in circles, as if doing cartwheels, and Stef laughed out loud. “Horace. How can this be happening …?”
“Steffie, your cousin Horace always called me Gracie.”
“Can you tell him thank you for me?” Stef asked Grace. “And can you tell him I miss him?”
“You just did, dear.”
Stef took her hands off the triangle and placed one over her heart. “I can’t believe this just happened. I don’t believe in this stuff. I think somehow you made this happen, maybe even unconsciously, but I don’t believe it.”
She thought for a moment. “But why would Horace be here, in Alice’s house?”
“You’ll have to ask him,” Grace replied.
Stef sat for a moment, her hands in her lap. “All right. Let’s ask it something. Something none of us knows the answer to.” She put her fingertips onto the triangle. “Will this work with just me?” she asked Grace.
“I don’t know. Give it a try.”
Stef thought about the dried flower that had fallen out of Alice’s diary. “Horace, is Alice your Daisy?”
The triangle went still for several seconds, then slid across the board to yes.
“Oh, my stars.” Grace stared at Steffie as if she’d sprouted a second and a third head. “Horace and Alice …?”
“How did you know to ask that?” Vanessa frowned. “Oh, you’re the one who’s goofing with this thing. Honestly, Stef, you had me going there for a minute.”
“I swear to you, I was only guessing. Why else would Horace be here, in Alice’s house, if there wasn’t a very close connection between them?” Stef stopped to consider what she’d said. “I don’t believe in any of this, but I can’t explain what just happened.”
She placed her fingers on the triangle again, but nothing happened.
“Miss Grace, you try it,” she said.
Grace did, but … nothing.
“They’re gone,” Grace said simply.
“Gone means they were here.” Vanessa looked around the room. “Swell. I’ve got ghosts.”
“Not ghosts, dear. Just spirits.” Grace patted her arm.
“Right. Just a couple of the undead.” Vanessa looked at Stef. “I wonder what they do all day …”
“Vanessa, would you mind if I took the board home with me?” Grace asked.
“Oh, would you?” Vanessa looked relieved. “I mean, of course, take it. I won’t be touching it again, believe me.” She looked at Stef. “You?”
“Nope.” Steffie shook her head. “I’m done.”
“Well, then, thank you, Vanessa, for the journals and the board and the … interesting evening.” Grace stood and gathered her things. “Yes, indeed, this was a very interesting evening.” She shook her head. “Horace and Alice. Who knew?”
Both Stef and Vanessa walked Grace to the door, but once she was gone, Ness turned to Stef. “Now tell me the truth. Were you pushing that little thing?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Oh, come on. Just a little tiny bit, maybe?”
Stef shook her head.
“How am I going to explain to Grady that we are not alone here?” Vanessa bit the inside of her lip.
“I wouldn’t bother. He won’t believe you and then you’ll have to explain the whole Alice-and-the-spells thing.”
“Good point.” Vanessa stood in the middle of the living-room floor. “I say we have more ice cream and forget that this little incident ever happened.”
“Amen.” Stef picked up the bowls they’d already used and followed Vanessa into the kitchen, where she placed them in the sink. “Let’s do cones this time. I brought two. They’re in the bag.”
“Okay. And you can tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I had an interesting night last night,” Stef told her.
“Oh? Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because it’s the kind of interesting thing you want to tell your best friend in person. I was going to tell you when I stopped at Bling today, but you were busy.”
Vanessa stopped scooping the ice cream and stared at Stef. “You’re not sick, are you? It’s nothing bad, is it? Please tell me you aren’t sick.”
“It’s not bad. It’s good.” She grabbed the scoop and took over. “Like, really super good.”
“What’s super good?” Vanessa frowned.
“Super good is Wade telling me that he loves me and wants to marry me.”
Vanessa’s jaw dropped. “He didn’t.”
“He did.”
“But what about his job …?”
“He told the guy he changed his mind before he left Connecticut.”
“I’m … I’m …” Vanessa sputtered.
“Speechless.” Stef grinned.
Vanessa hugged Stef. “You … he …”
Steffie laughed out loud. “Yes. Me and he. Him.”
“It happened. Just like you wanted.” Nessa gave Stef one more big hug before letting go. “I’m deliriously happy for you. This is super good. We should have champagne.” She looked in the fridge. “No bubbly, but we do have some white wine.” She pulled out the cork and grabbed a couple of glasses from the cupboard.
“To you and Wade.” Vanessa toasted and took a sip. “May you have the happiest life ever.” She took another sip. “Stef, this is just like we planned. The love of your life—your soul mate—has found you.”
“Don’t start with the woo-woo stuff again.” Stef took a sip, then put her glass on the counter. “I’ve had enough tonight to last me a good long time.”
“You have to admit—”
“I’m not admitting anything.” She kissed Vanessa on the cheek. “But I do have a ton of monster mash to make for the kiddies in the morning, so I
need to fly. I hadn’t planned on staying quite this long, but with Grace here …”
Her voice trailed into the living room and Vanessa followed her. “… certainly was an experience I won’t forget.”
“But at least you learned something you didn’t know,” Vanessa reminded her. “You found out that my Alice and your Horace were lovers. Alice was his Daisy.”
“That is something,” Stef agreed. “But I think I might have suspected that.”
“And now you know for certain.”
“Or not. Who knows what really happened here?” Stef grabbed her bag from the living-room floor and headed out. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“I’m really happy for you Stef,” Vanessa said from the doorway. “The only person I’d be happier for would be me.”
Stef laughed, but once in her car, she started to wonder about the incident with the board. When she got home, she turned on her laptop and looked up Ouija. She read for a few minutes, then dialed Vanessa’s number. The call went directly to voice mail.
“There’s something called the ‘ideometer effect,’ ” she said. “It means that somehow you can unconsciously control the movement of the triangle, like, your muscles have a reflex reaction to your thoughts. It’s what they call a ‘psychophysiological phenomenon.’ No spirits. No ghosts. So sleep easy tonight.” She paused. “But I gotta admit, it sure did beat a game of Scrabble …”
STEF was still poking around on the Internet, having progressed from the ideometer effect to automatic writing and dowsing when the phone rang at two minutes before eleven.
“Hey,” Wade said when she answered, “I have a great idea. Why don’t you sleep over here tonight?”
“Won’t that be a little awkward? What will Berry think?”
“Berry’s still at Archer’s. She’s been there for the past day or so.”
“My, that sounds serious.”
“I’m thinking I’ll need to have a talk with him, find out what his intentions are toward my great-aunt.”
She looked at the clock. “I guess I could throw some things into a bag and drive over.”
“Great. We can all have breakfast together in the morning.”
“All of us?” Stef frowned. “Who’s us?”
“You and me and Dallas and Grant.”
“Grant’s there?”
“Yeah. That’s why I can’t come over there. When Berry’s not here, Grant stays over, so Dallas isn’t really listening for Austin, if you get my drift.”
“I can’t stay there if Grant is there,” she said, horrified.
“Why not?”
“He’s my brother. It’d be too creepy. I don’t even want to think about it. Him with Dallas right down the hall. Me with you.” She shook her head. “Uh-uh. I can’t.”
“You leave me speechless sometimes, Stef.”
“It’s part of my charm.”
“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.”
“Let’s plan on tomorrow night,” she suggested. “I’ll close up at seven and then I’ll come over, and after Austin goes to bed, I’ll even take you out to dinner.”
“And if Berry still isn’t back?”
“Then you’d better track Archer down and have that talk.”
“Good point.”
“I stopped over at Ness’s tonight. Wait till I tell you.” She related everything that had happened at Vanessa’s.
“You really believe that some spirit told you that this Alice was Horace’s Daisy?” He sounded incredulous. “Once again, I am almost speechless.”
She told him what she’d learned about the ideometer effect.
“Well, that would make sense, that somehow you or Grace were guiding the answers. But even if you were, why would you think that Alice and Daisy are the same person?”
“Vanessa gave me Alice’s diary to look over, and while I was reading it, an old, dried-up flower fell out of the book. It could have been a daisy, and that got me thinking and connected her to my dining-room-wall Daisy. Of course, that made me think about Horace, so I guess it was all jumbled in my head and I suppose that was enough for me to connect the dots and somehow control the planchette.”
“The what?”
“The little triangle thingy that you put your fingers on and it moves. Or not.”
“I see. And this is the same Alice who you said wrote something about Aunt Berry and Archer in her diary?”
“Her journals.”
“Why would she write about them? I wonder.”
“Wade, Alice used to practice …” Her voice trailed away.
“She practiced what?” When Stef didn’t answer, Wade asked, “Law? Medicine? Voodoo?”
“Close.”
“Which one?”
“The last one.”
“She practiced voodoo? There was someone who lived in staid old St. Dennis who practiced voodoo?”
“No, magic. She … Alice … she knew how to put spells on people.”
Wade laughed out loud.
“Wade, I saw her book.” The words spilled out. “She taught some of the girls from town how to cast love spells. Berry’s name was in her book, Wade. Alice taught Berry how to do a love spell.”
“Stef, there is no such thing as spells.”
“I’m serious. I saw the book. One of the girls she taught was my nana Cummings. Another was Grace Sinclair, who just a few months later married Dan.”
“I suppose next you’re going to tell me that you put a spell on me.”
“No,” she told him. “Vanessa did.”
“Vanessa put a spell on me?” Through the phone, she could hear him chuckle. “That just goes to prove that this is nonsense. I didn’t fall in love with Vanessa. I fell in love with you.”
“That was the spell. I thought it was all hokey at the time, I never believed it, but here you …” Stef felt slightly panicked. “I don’t know if she can reverse it.”
“Why would we want it reversed? Don’t you love me?”
“Well, yes,” she said, exasperated. “That was the whole point.”
“I don’t think I understand the problem.”
“The problem is that I wanted you to love me because of me, not because of some spell. Which is why I told Vanessa not to—”
“Stef, I do love you for yourself, not because of a spell.” Wade paused. “Are we really talking about this? I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”
“I can’t believe it really worked.”
“Stef. There was no spell.”
When she started to protest, he said, “I don’t care what Vanessa did or what she thought she was doing. There’s no spell. And the only magic I believe in is the magic we make when we’re together.”
After a long silent moment, Stef sighed. “That was the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard anyone say.”
“You’re going to find that I am a very romantic guy.”
“I’m packing a bag and I’m going to ignore the fact that right down the hall from your room, my brother and your sister are … never mind. I’ll be there in ten minutes …”
Stef was already up and out by the time Berry arrived home. From the kitchen window, Wade watched his aunt park her big old Mercedes sedan and walk slowly to the house. Berry looked crestfallen, and he wondered if things had gone all right with Archer.
“Coffee?” he offered when she came in through the back door.
“Oh. Yes, thank you.” Berry dropped her overnight bag and her purse on the floor near the table. Having heard her voice, Ally came racing down the steps and flew into the kitchen. “There’s my girl,” Berry crooned to the dog. “There’s my very sweet and precious girl.”
Berry sat on one of the chairs and stroked her dog’s head. “Finding Ally was one of the nicest things I’ve ever done for myself,” she told Wade. “She always loves me, no matter what. And she’s always happy to see me. No matter what.”
“Much like Dallas and me.” Wade smiled and brought Berry’s coffee to th
e table.
“Where is the little fellow?” Berry asked.
“I took him to the babysitter’s for the morning. I have some calls to make about equipment. It’s tough to watch him and try to get work done.”
“Now you know what mothers deal with every day.”
“Are you sorry you never had kids, Berry?” he asked.
She turned her head and seemed to study his face but didn’t immediately answer.
“I have a few regrets when it comes to children, yes,” she finally told him, “though probably not quite what you meant.”
It was his turn to stare. It wasn’t like Berry to be cryptic.
“Is your sister here?” Berry asked.
“She’s in her office. The library.”
“Be a darling and ask her to join us, please.”
“Berry, are you all right?”
“That remains to be seen, dear. Now please …”
“I’ll get her.”
What the hell, Wade was thinking as he went down the hall to the room Dallas used as an office. He knocked on the door, then pushed it open.
“Dallas, Berry wants you in the kitchen.”
She glanced up from her desk. “When did Berry get home?”
“Just a few minutes ago, but she wants you now.”
“Is she all right?” Dallas rose from her seat and placed her glasses on the desktop.
“I asked her the same question, but I didn’t get an answer that made any sense. I just got the impression she wants to talk to both of us at the same time.”
“Then she shall.” Dallas led the way back to the kitchen.
“Hello, Berry.” Dallas kissed the older woman on the forehead, then sat next to her. “Wade said you wanted to see me.”
“Both of you. I need both of you for this.” Berry took a sip of coffee. With her free hand, she petted Ally, who leaned against her leg.
“What’s wrong, Berry?” Dallas put her arm around her aunt.
“Tell us what’s bothering you. We can help.” Wade sat on Berry’s other side.
“Oh, dear. I had my courage up all the way from Archer’s, and now it seems I’ve lost it again,” Berry said.
“Why do you feel you need courage to talk to us?” a confused Wade asked.
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