She squinted at the screen. Yes, she knew enough to recognize a battery graphic.
This one's was an angry red.
Merde! No, no, don't lose power. Not yet! Manipulating small touches to dial wasn't easy, much less while being panicked. Brows drawn in concentration, she painstakingly "scrolled" until she reached the address book. Within it were business cards that looked like actual paper cards that had somehow been copied into the phone. Searching under W, she found:
The House of Witches
Est. 937
1st Class Curses, Hexes, Spells, and Potions
We Won't Be Undersold!
ph: (504) WIT-CHES
Member LBBB
Swallowing, she selected the card and pressed the green "call" button.
Mon Dieu, we're ringing! The phone made an ominous beep. Hold on, battery.
Two rings. Was no one there? Ringing, ringing. It was long after five o'clock. Businesses probably closed even in the Lore.
The red battery picture had begun flashing. Just as she was about to hang up to save the power, a woman answered in a creepy tone, "Hellooooo, Clarice."
Néomi's jaw dropped. This worked? I made a call? Who's Clarice?
In the background, it sounded as if a dozen females were singing, drunkenly howling the high notes of some song. First they'd mumble, "Duh, duh, dun, duh, duh... " then they'd yell, "Ever-last-in' love!"
"Hello? Hello? Is this a crank call?" the woman said, sounding normal now." 'Cause let me tell you, you dialed the wrong coven. I can convince your dialing finger to make its legal residence where the sun don't shine. Got me?"
Throwing caution to the wind, Néomi silently begged, Please be able to hear me! then said, "This isn't Clarice. Can I speak with Miss Mariketa? My name is - "
The witch held the phone away and called out, "Hey, does anybody here speak Voice from Beyond?"
Néomi's eyes went wide. My God, I love the Lore!
Back on the phone, the witch cried, "I'm kidding! I'm Mari. Hey, how do you spirits keep getting on the cell lines? It's because you're all electrically and everything, right?"
Néomi could barely move her lips. "I, um, electrically?" she repeated dumbly.
"I keep telling everyone our conversations are not private. Hold up, I've gotta do this." She held the phone away again. "Hey, Regin! Firstly, stop peeking at my frigging cards. Secondly, get your own cigars. And C, check this - I've got a ghost on the line, and she's coming over the phone wire to see us right now."
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" a woman screamed. Néomi heard running footsteps, then a slammed door.
Mariketa chuckled. "Reege isn't scared of basilisks or twenty-foot-long centipedes, but ghosts make her freak balls. We just made one of the most fearsome Valkyrie on earth run for her life. Classic."
The music grew louder as a manic-tempo song played - the only lyric was the word tequila.
Sweet pandemonium. Néomi wanted to be there so badly it hurt. The phone beeped again.
"So what's your name, spirit?"
"N-Néomi. Néomi Laress."
"Oh, man! I've heard of you! Dancer, right? From the old-timey days? You refused to get hitched and got shanked in the ticker. We studied you in my Local Feminists 205 class."
People actually study me?
In a chiding tone, she added, "Which, Néomi, I might have passed if you'd called two years ago. So what do you want with me?"
This is so bizarre! "I need, um, I would be very grateful to be corporeal, and thought you might be able to help me."
"Do you have any money?" Mariketa asked, her tone instantly turning shrewd. "I don't do gratis."
"I have a drawer full of antique jewelry." The phone was beeping more insistently!
"Meh. It's my one girls' night out for the week, and I'm kicking ass at five card st - "
"There are more than fifty diamonds! One alone is four carats. You can have all of them."
"We're getting warmer, spirit."
Beeeeeep. "In the safe there are stock certificates from before I... died. They were worth twenty or thirty thousand dollars eighty years ago. They'd have to be worth a fortune today, since the companies are still in business."
"Which companies?" This Mariketa was certainly no-nonsense when it came to money.
"Um, there's General Electric and International Business Machines. I think it's called just IBM today - "
"Okay, I have cartoon dollar signs in my bulging cartoon eyes. I'll be right over. Knock on the mirror closest to you while I'm on the phone."
Did Mariketa need the mirrors for her spells? Néomi's heart fell. "But they're all broken."
"Doesn't matter. Just need a sliver." Néomi dutifully knocked, and Mariketa said, "And I've... got it. All right, when a witch of superlative gorgeousableness climbs out of your mirror, don't ghost out on me."
Climbs out of my mirror? "Oh, I assure you - "
The phone was now emitting a long, unbroken tone!
"Please hurry, Miss Mariketa!"
"Hey, just call me Mari." In a feigned somber tone, she sighed, "And I shall call you... Spirit Friend."
Smiling stupidly, Néomi turned off the phone and tossed it to the bed. She was giddy - she was... hopeful.
She began to pace anticipating Mariketa's - Mari's arrival. With their singing, music, and cards, those females were like the bons vivants she'd adored. And one was coming to visit!
Life was suddenly new and different and full of promise.
It couldn't be this easy. But, what if, what if, what if?