When The Spirit Moves You

by Thomas DePrima

  "It sounds like fun. Who wants to have their future read by Amelia?" Anne asked. "Raise your hand."

  Martha, Elizabeth, and Roberta all raised their hands immediately, prompting the rest of the girls to raise theirs as well.

  "Will you, dear?" Anne beseeched Amelia. "Please? I'm bored with playing Bridge. We played all day yesterday."

  Amelia shrugged her shoulders slightly and nodded.

  "Wonderful," Anne said, smiling. "I'll get the cards."

  Moving to a cherry wood secretary with a door that pulled down to form a writing surface, Anne looked through several drawers until she found the card deck.

  "I've got them," she announced jubilantly as she moved back to the card table holding a small white cardboard box. "Let's get the bridge cards off the table so Amelia can get ready. Who's first?"

  "Me," Martha said excitedly.

  "Martha, I've read your future several times recently," Amelia said. "Let one of the others go first."

  "Oh, okay," Martha said, her voice dripping with disappointment.

  "No, that's okay," Anne said. "Martha spoke up first so she should go first. Here, sit in my seat Martha so you're facing Amelia from across the table."

  Martha was immediately happy and excited again and plopped down across from Amelia as soon as Anne rose and moved away from the chair.

  The magnificent, hand-painted deck of cards with very unusual images, looked uncannily similar to the one that Arlene's sister Sarah had picked up at the yard sale. When she began to shuffle the deck, she sensed a power coursing through them, and they began to speak to her in loud whispers. It required a conscious effort not to show the exhilaration she felt when she heard the familiar, dulcet speech in her head. The comforting voice, absent since she'd arrived in this place, had returned.

  * * *

  Chapter Eight

  "What do you wish to know?" Amelia asked. "Be specific. The cards have a limited ability to communicate information."

  "Who will I marry, Ar— Amelia?" Martha asked, catching herself just in time.

  Amelia finished shuffling and began turning cards. As she arranged the revealed cards on the table, an anxious look covered her face. After several seconds of silence during which she stared intently at the cards she had laid down, she picked them up and reshuffled the deck without saying anything or making eye contact with anyone. Then she started anew, again arranging cards in response to Martha's question. Her expression remained somber. Finally, she looked up at Martha and said, "It will be someone very near."

  "But who?"

  "Whom would you like it to be?"

  "Tad."

  "If he shares your desire, it will be Tad."

  "Can't you be less— fluxy?"

  Amelia looked up at Martha, recalling her use of the term in her former bedroom, and smiled sadly. "It's Tad."

  Martha smiled widely, and in a display of overt rapture, hugged herself. "I knew it. I knew he felt the same way I do."

  The other girls in the room giggled and lightly touched Martha on arms, shoulders, or hands as a sign that they shared her happiness at that moment. Then all started saying, "Me next, me next."

  "Wait," Martha said. "Will I have children?"

  Amelia turned over several more cards. "Yes, you'll have five; three girls and two boys."

  "Oh, that's wonderful," Martha said. "I can't wait to get started."

  "Well, at least wait until you're married," Amelia said, her jest being accompanied by giggles from around the room.

  "Well, of course I will," Martha said, feigning indignation.

  Over the next several hours, Amelia performed a reading for every one of the girls in the room. As she interpreted the information from the cards, she was positive that it was completely accurate. She didn't understand how she knew with such certainty, she just knew. Naturally she held back the seriously bad news. The cards had informed her that Anne's cousin, Beverly, would die in childbirth, although her second child, a girl, would survive. There was no way she could tell Beverly that, so she just accented the positives. Amelia had also learned some very serious things that would occur in the future lives of the other girls, but she kept everything negative to herself. After all, no one really believed her predictions, except perhaps Martha, Elizabeth, and Roberta, so there was no reason to prophesize gloomy news.

  Amelia most regretted being untruthful with Martha, telling her what she wanted to hear, rather than what the cards had twice shown. But there was no way she could tell her the truth while they were in that room. Even afterwards she couldn't tell her. She could be entirely wrong, although she knew she wasn't. She had once told her three friends that she would tell them everything she saw, regardless of how serious the information, but now, faced with the prospect of dispensing the most horrific of news, she found it impossible to stand by that pledge.

  The large clock in the entrance hall had just completed eleven chimes when the young women climbed the majestic staircase to the second floor, ostensibly retiring for the evening. But Elizabeth, Roberta, and Martha instead followed Amelia into her bedroom.

  As soon as the door was closed, Roberta said, "Tell us the truth, Amelia. Were those predictions accurate?"

  Amelia sucked in her breath. Choosing her words very carefully, she said, "To the best of my knowledge, everything the cards told me was accurate. I've never been more sure of anything since I started reading."

  "Were they fluxy at all?" Martha asked.

  "No, everything I saw tonight will come to pass."

  "Then you're saying that we'll never go home," Elizabeth said. "We're going to stay in these bodies and live out the rest of our lives here?"

  "The cards have told me that these bodies will follow the natural course of events. If we continue to occupy them, then I suppose it applies to us as well."

  "Who else is going to occupy them?" Roberta asked. "You said that the life forces of the former girls had crossed over. Can they come back?"

  "Uh, not to occupy an existing body. Their souls can only return to this world in a newborn child. But it's possible that the spirit who brought us here will find someone else's life force to occupy these bodies, freeing ours to return."

  "How likely is that?" Elizabeth demanded.

  "Um, not very," Amelia admitted. "You have to realize that the four girls died in 1883, and the spirit didn't take us until 2006. There must have been good reason why it waited a hundred-twenty-three years. Many people must have visited the house and grounds during that time. Perhaps if we knew why it waited to take us, we might be able to determine what our chances are of getting home."

  "And how can we learn that?" Roberta asked.

  "We discussed the only possible source of information a few days ago."

  "You mean a séance, don't you?" Elizabeth asked.

  Amelia nodded. "As far as I know, that's the only way that we might learn what's going to happen. The cards only spoke to me about these bodies."

  "But you said that the spirit won't be available for contact until after Mr. Westfield crosses over," Roberta said.

  "We might be able to learn something from the spirits of the girls we replaced."

  Elizabeth and Roberta stared at one another for at least fifteen seconds. When Elizabeth nodded, Roberta looked at Amelia and said, "Okay, we'll do it. But if we wind up getting sucked back any further in time, I'm never going to speak to you again."

  Amelia smiled weakly and said, "Okay, let's get ready. We can use my writing desk as a table, but we'll need straight-backed chairs. The other chairs in here won't do."

  "You want to do it right now?" Elizabeth asked.

  "Might as well. We're all here, it's almost midnight, and we're eager to learn whatever we can. When would be a better time?"

  "Okay," Roberta said. "Let's do it."

  It took only a few minutes to quietly arrange the furniture in the center of the room. Roberta went down to the kitchen to get the necessary aromatic food, while Elizabeth, Martha, and Amelia
retrieved chairs and candles from the other three bedrooms.

  Roberta, the last to return, said after entering the room and closing the door, "There wasn't any sludge," a reference to the beef barley soup they had used at Arlene's house, "or chocolate, but I found this." She held out napkin containing a small sliver of apple pie.

  "That'll do," Amelia said. "Put it on the desk, and take your seats; it's almost midnight."

  The girls took their places around the desk, in the same positions they had occupied for the first séance downstairs in the parlor, and waited. When they could again hear the chimes from the large clock downstairs in the foyer, they placed their hands flat on the desk and touched pinkies.

  As the clock chimed twelve, Amelia said, "We're trying to contact the recently departed spirits of Amelia Turner, Martha Fuller, Roberta Johnson, or Elizabeth Reese. Can any of you respond?"

  Waiting some thirty seconds without hearing anything, she repeated the summons, and then repeated it again every half minute or so for five minutes.

  "Maybe they can't hear you," Martha said.

  "Shush, Martha," Elizabeth said.

  "Let's just remain quiet, everyone," Amelia said. "It took a while for the other spirit to appear, if you remember. Maybe they have to work up the energy to communicate with us or something."

  The four girls sat waiting for almost fifteen minutes before Roberta exclaimed, "It's not working, Amelia. Is there anything else you can try?"

  "I don't know anything else. This is basically what we did last time."

  "Maybe we have to go to where they died," Elizabeth said.

  "We can't do that. It's five miles away in the freezing cold."

  "How about if we just visit the carriage where they died?" Roberta suggested.

  "I suppose we could, but we can't hold a séance in the carriage house."

  "Who calls me?" Martha suddenly asked, staring straight ahead at Amelia.

  "Nobody called you, Martha," Roberta said. "Be quiet."

  "Who calls me?" Martha repeated. "Who has summoned the essence of Martha Penelope Fuller?"

  "Shush, Roberta," Amelia whispered loudly. "It's not Megan." Raising her voice to a normal timbre, Amelia said, "I summoned you, Martha."

  "Who are you? By what right have you occupied the body of Amelia Turner."

  "My name is Arlene Catherine Watson. I was taken from my body and brought here against my will. I only wish to return to my own body. All four of us wish to return to our own bodies. Can you help us?"

  "Who is responsible for this unconscionable act?" the spirit speaking through Martha demanded angrily. "Who has violated our bodies and prevented them from being properly laid to rest?"

  "I believe it was the spirit of William Westfield."

  "Impossible. William Westfield still lives in this time. His eternal soul still resides within his corporeal body."

  "Yes, but we were brought here from the far distant future. It was 2006, long after William Westfield would have departed."

  "For what purpose would his spirit have done this?"

  "We weren't informed of his reasons, but we believe it was so Anne wouldn't grieve for you and the others, and so her marriage plans could continue without interruption."

  "Yes-s-s—" the spirit said eerily, its voice calming noticeably. "I can see it. Many futures are changing. Dear, sweet, wonderful Anne will continue now. She will have children and enjoy a rewarding life. We were expecting her to be with us shortly."

  "We'd like to return to our own bodies. We're hoping that the spirit that brought us here will take us back once the engagement party is over."

  "The spirit of William Westfield is powerless during his corporeal lifetime, and in your time his spirit still roams among the living. He cannot manifest here, nor even look back and observe. He must have had assistance from a spirit that had completed the crossing. Only from outside the corporeal lifespan, and prior to crossing over, is a spirit able to initiate a transference, but only one who had completed its journey before your arrival here could have guided your spirits to this time. Time is only irrelevant to those that have completed the journey to the immortal world."

  "Can you help us return to our own bodies?"

  "Any physical interaction with the living drains us, and the energy required to transport just one soul is enormous. I would not even have thought it possible to transport four souls in such a manner. I am already becoming fatigued simply from manipulating this once familiar body."

  "Then you can't help us return to our own bodies?"

  "Your presence here will have wonderful consequences."

  "But we've been out of our bodies for six days now. They can't survive for much longer without us, can they?"

  "All living things die; it is a natural part of the cycle of life. But death is not an end, it is but a beginning. Events in this time are still unfolding."

  "But isn't the future basically written? I mean, we lived in it, so we know what it was, or rather what it will be."

  "When the past is changed, so too is the future. An infinite number of possible futures exist; yours was but one. In your future, Anne had no descendants, but now there will be a great many. And since each person's life affects all others that it touches, your future will see significant changes. Your presence here means that five families in this time are not grieving the deaths of sisters and daughters."

  "But we had lives of our own. And what about our families? They'll grieve the loss of their sisters and daughters."

  "You still have lives of your own, but they are here now, in this time. How do you know that this was not your destiny?"

  "Uh— I don't. Was it?"

  "It was but one possibility. After having saved Anne, would you now choose to kill her?"

  "Uh, no, of course not! Certainly not if there's a way to save her without causing our families to grieve for us."

  "With you here, she is removed from such danger."

  "But what about our lives in the future? Will you help us find a solution that sends us back while still saving Anne?"

  "There is much to consider. Already I can see how rich our lives would have been, if not for our untimely accident. Upon learning of our deaths, those we love were destined to sink into depression and would have suffered greatly. The wonderful sacrifice you have made, by assuming our bodies, has changed all that. I am very grateful."

  "But we didn't choose to make this sacrifice," Amelia said stubbornly. "Don't we have a right to the lives we were born into? And what about our loved ones? What about the suffering they'll experience if we never come home?"

  "There is much to consider," the spirit said. "I am greatly fatigued and must leave now. Your connection to the immortal world is surprisingly strong, Arlene Catherine Watson. We will be watching and listening."

  "But are you going to help us?"

  After five seconds of silence, Amelia said, "Martha can you hear me?"

  "Of course, Amelia, I'm sitting right across from you."

  "Not you, Martha," Roberta said, "the other Martha."

  "What other Martha?" Martha asked, confused.

  "The one we were just speaking to," Elizabeth said. "Don't you remember?"

  "Remember what?" she asked, with more than a hint of exasperation in her voice.

  "We were just speaking with the original Martha," Amelia said. "She was speaking through you. You didn't hear anything?"

  "No, nothing."

  "What do you remember?"

  "We sat down and you began calling to the spirits. Then you said that it might take a while for the spirits to appear. You said that maybe they have to work up the energy to communicate with us or something. It was quiet for a couple of minutes and then I heard you ask me if I could hear you."

  "The spirit of Martha Fuller must have taken over your mind. I spoke with her for several minutes."

  "My mind?"

  "Well, it was her mind first, dear. Perhaps that's how she was able to control you."

  "What
did she say?"

  "Basically, she seems satisfied that we're here. I don't think she wants to help us get home."

  "Not ever?"

  "She didn't say."

  "Is she going to speak to us again?"

  "She didn't say. I suppose we might be able to summon her again after she's rested, although I don't know how long it takes for a ghost to rest. But we've already been out of our bodies for so long I'm afraid they might not live, even if we manage to get back."

  "Then we'll just have to stay here," Martha said, "where we're assured of having long and rewarding lives. Uh, I've been thinking that I might want to stay anyway."

  "What? Since when?"

  "Well, since you told me that I'd be marrying Tad."

  "But you've wanted to go back ever since we arrived."

  "I know, and I'm sorry to have been such a pest, Amelia. I did want to go back, really I did, but I've changed my mind. I feel very comfortable here now, like I've always belonged here. Tad is so different from all the boys I've known. He's kind and considerate, a real gentleman. He doesn't curse constantly, use drugs, or go looking for fights. If Tad proposes, I'm going to stay with him and become his wife."

  "What about your family in the future?"

  "I don't want to cause them any heartbreak, but this is my life. My happiness must come first."

  By telling Martha what she had wanted to hear during the tarot reading, Amelia knew that she had worsened the situation. Now she not only had to find a way back, but she would have to convince Martha to leave.

  "I sort of feel the same way," Elizabeth said.

  "And me," Roberta said.

  "But you just urged me to hold the séance, Roberta," Amelia said.

  "Only because I need to know what's going to happen if I'm to make plans. If we're staying, then great, but if we're leaving, I don't want to become any more deeply involved with Charles."

  "What about you, Amelia," Elizabeth asked. "Can you be happy here if we can't go back? Things should be better for you now, having reconciled with Jeremy."

  "I think I'm falling in love with Jeremy, and like each of you, I've already become accustomed to this life and era. I think I could be happy here, but I worry about my family. I don't want my parents to grieve for me after our bodies are discovered. I think I would even give up Jeremy to spare them that terrible pain and anguish."