Contacting the Dearly Departed

"Let us hold hands, and summon those who have gone before us," Melinda declared to those sitting around the study oak table. Candles flickered in the middle of the table, the only illumination in the little parlor.

"This is so exciting," whispered a gray-haired lady to Melinda's right. Her name was Rosa, and she was the one who had hired Melinda the medium to meet with her friends and try to contact her late husband.

"I so want to make contact with Samuel. I never got say goodbye to him," Rosa said as she clasped hands with Melinda and another lady to her right. Rosa had invited her best friends Sara and Gertrude to attend the seance. Soon all four women held hands around the table to complete the circle.

"Close your eyes, and open your hearts to a message from beyond," Melinda the medium said. The ladies obeyed, tightly closing their eyes. The room became quiet, the ticking of an old grandfather clock in the corner of the parlor marking the passing of several minutes of silence.

"I'm so worked up I'm getting goosebumps and hot flashes," Gertrude exclaimed. She broke the circle of hands to fan herself briefly. Melinda opened her eyes to shoot her a stern look of disapproval, and Gertrude quickly clasped hands again. The medium cleared her throat and began to gently hum. This continued for a few more minutes.

"I think that whatever weed the medium burnt earlier is bothering my sinuses," Sara, the fourth woman around the table whispered to Gertrude.

Melinda the medium chose to ignore the chatty women. She began chanting quietly. "Amate spiritus obscure te quaerimus. Te oramus, nobiscum colloquere apud nos circita."

"Shush, it's not a weed, it was white sage," hissed Rosa. "She burnt it to call in the spirits. Hopefully my Samuel's spirit. Now be quiet so Melinda can do her thing," she chided her friend in a whisper. Samual, Rosa's late husband, had passed away suddenly a month ago from a heart attack while away on business. A hotel maid had found him in the morning on her cleaning rounds.

Melinda the medium's chanting grew louder, and she began to sway to the rhythm of her words. Beads of sweat trickled down her face and her ample breasts heaved as the volume increased. The air was thick in Rosa's little parlor with the scent of sage hanging in the air.

Contrite from her scolding, Sara closed her eyes and tried to focus like Melinda had instructed them to. Breathing deeply, a tickle began in her nose.

"Achoo!" Sara covered her nose with a tissue and followed the sneeze with a loud honking blow.

The chanting stopped, and the other three women all glared at Sara.

"Sorry, sorry. I can't help it," Sara whispered. She blew her nose loudly once again. The others waited (not patiently) as she returned her tissues to her pocket. Sara straightened her hair with a plump hand and settled back into her chair.

The chanting began again. Gertrude risked a peek at the circle. Sara’s face was contorted into a deep expression of concentration, her eyes clenched tightly shut. Or was she trying to not sneeze again? Melinda the medium’s chanting had sped up, and her low-cut blouse was damp from sweat. Her face in a rapturous trance. Gertrude glanced at Rosa, whose eyes where closed, her face was relaxed, a gentle expression of expectation on it. Waiting to talk to her Samuel.

What a shame that Rosa was so naive, Gertrude thought. Everyone in town knew that Samuel had been having an affair for many years. Maybe Rosa had known, and just chose to ignore it? Most likely he had not even been on a real business trip when he died. Probably meeting up with his floozy. Gertrude shook her head at the thought and closed her eyes.

"Amate spiritus obscure te quaerimus. Te oramus, nobiscum colloquere apud nos circita," Melinda the medium's voice was reaching a crescendo. Sara squirmed in her seat. The sage was overpowering her sinuses again, another sneeze was feeling imminent.

Sara tried to think of anything but the tickle in her nose that was growing stronger by the second. She focused on the medium's chanting to distract herself. Then a giggle began to percolate deep in her throat. She felt Gertrude's hand giving her a painfully tight squeeze. She opened her eyes to see her friend staring daggers at her.

Sara whispered to Gertrude, "Samuel didn't even know Latin. Why is she chanting in Latin?" Sara unsuccessfully stifled a giggle and was rewarded with a sharp kick under the table.

"Be quiet," Gertrude silently mouthed. She was beginning to have doubts about the medium too, but for the sake of her best friend Rosa, she was holding her tongue.

The Latin chant she was using did sound suspiciously like something ripped straight from a B rated occult horror movie.

"Spirit, I beseech you to bring forth Samuel, beloved husband of Rosa. She wishes to be comforted with knowledge that he is at peace," Melinda cried. She punctuated her request by dramatically thrusted her arms up, fingers splayed, reaching for the ceiling.

When the table began to rock, even Melinda seemed surprised. Her eyes sprung open (along with all the other ladies' eyes) and she nervously looked around the darkened room.

The flames of the candles in the center of the table flared brightly, then dimmed back down.

The tableful of ladies collectively gasped. Melinda recovered first.

"Spirit, is Samuel with you?" she asked in a hushed voice.

The candle flames flared up in response. Sara and Gertrude's eyes were wide. Their mouths a gap in silent "O" shapes.

"Is Samuel at peace, spirit?" Melinda continued. "Rosa wants reassurance that her beloved husband has passed into eternal tranquility." Melinda lowered her arms, folding her hands into a serene gesture of prayer and waited.

"That's not what I meant," Rosa’s voice broke the silence. Now Melinda mouth formed a perfect silent "o" as well. The three women stared at Rosa, who now sat up straight in her chair. Her shoulders back and head held high.

"Pardon?" Melinda stammered.

"I didn't mean I wanted reassurance that Samuel was in a better place. I wanted to contact him to tell that son of a bitch that I knew what he was doing."

"Oh, thank God!" Sara and Gertrude exclaimed together. "We wanted to tell you, but we didn't know how," Sara added, grasping Rosa's hands in hers. Gertrude was crying now and side hugging Rosa.

Melinda the medium sat stunned, watching it all unfold around her. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. She shook her head as if to clear the chaotic happenings she had just witnessed from her mind.

"You just wanted to tell him you knew he was having an affair?" Melinda asked.

"That, and I wanted him to know that I did not forget to put his nitroglycerin pill bottle back in his jacket pocket. When he reached for his heart pills, they weren’t there because I purposely took them out." Rosa said with a large smile of satisfaction on her face.