The Unseen (2 page)

“Does my smoke bother you?” Reese asked, blowing a thick plume toward Tamila.

“
It bothers anyone who doesn’t smoke,” Tamila said.

“
Can I have a Parliament?” Barb asked.

“
Oh, sure!” Reese stuck a cigarette in Barb’s mouth, then held out the open pack to Cassidy. “And you, ma’am?”

“
Let’s go outside.” Cassidy took one and led the way out.

The balcony wasn’t large, but Cassidy and her mother had decorated it with outdoor shelves full of small, blooming plants.  It overlooked a broken concrete walkway next to a chain link fence.  Past the fence lay a big sinkhole thick with pine brush and kudzu.  Tires, beer cans, and an old boxspring had accumulated in the weedy sinkhole over the years despite the high fence around it.

“Oh, yeah, we wouldn’t want to bother
all
the non-smokers here.” Reese just happened to blow a big cloud of smoke into Tamila’s face on her way out. 

Tamila hung back, standing inside Cassidy’s room and watching the three girls stand at the wooden railing.  The railing’s blue paint was faded and peeling, neglected for years by the apartment complex’s cheapskate management.

Cassidy wondered what Reese was secretly thinking about her tiny apartment.  She’d been to Reese’s house for a party once.  Reese had a big princess bed, a flower garden and swimming pool in her back yard, and a pool table and a bar in her finished basement.

“
Full moon tonight,” Barb said. “The werewolves will be out.”

“
So, Dex McKenna...?” Reese said.

“
We already did him,” Cassidy replied.

“
I haven’t done him,” Reese snickered. “But I will.  I know he’s kind of a douche, but...so hot.  So, so hot.”

“
I’m not sure he deserves the double ‘so hot,’” Barb said. “A single one, maybe.”

“
That’s why I invited him over tonight,” Reese told them.

“
What?” Cassidy asked.

“
It’s cool, he’ll bring some goodies if he comes.” Reese touched the side of her nose. “I was going to let it be a surprise, but...”

“
A surprise?  Like a present?” Cassidy asked. “Isn’t a present supposed to be something you actually want?”

“
I told him he could bring Kyle Bowers, too.  Kyle’s totally up for grabs.  Who’s calling him?  Barb?  Cassidy?”

“
I made out with Kyle at Jerry Krazinksi’s party freshman year.” Barb shuddered. “He tasted like bologna.  It was like sticking my tongue up Oscar Meyer’s crack.”

“
I don’t want those guys in my house,” Cassidy said. “Reese, you should have asked me.”

“
First of all—‘apartment,’ not ‘house.’  Let’s not mangle the English language.  Second, I’ve been after this guy forever, for like four weeks.  It’s cool if we use your mom’s bed, right?” Reese asked.

“
Gross.  Use my little brother’s bed,” Cassidy told her.

“
Um, even grosser?  I am not hooking up with Dex on your brother’s snotty-caked little Star Wars sheets.”

“
Then go somewhere else.”

“
Fine.  The living room couch?”

“
Like somewhere not in my apartment,” Cassidy said. “I’m not cleaning up those stains.”

“
We’ll use a towel!” Reese offered.

Cassidy shook her head. “I can’t believe you invited them without asking me.”

“They probably won’t even come, okay?” Reese said. “Dex said he was busy.  It was just my fantasy that he would show up anyway, and take me right to the...couch...Cassidy, does your mom’s bathroom have a Jacuzzi tub?”

“
Nope,” Cassidy said. “So those boys are
not
coming?  Right?”

“
Almost definitely not.  But maybe.”  Reese shrugged and flicked her cigarette out into the sinkhole, where it landed among dry weeds and brush.

“
Watch out!  You could start a fire.” Tamila leaned out to see where it had gone.

“
Don’t be such a panty-pisser.  Your friend is boring me, Cassidy.” Reese nudged Tamila aside with her elbow as she returned inside Cassidy’s room.  Tamila gave Cassidy a look of disbelief and shook her head.  She mouthed the word
bitch
, and Cassidy laughed.

“
What’s funny?” Reese looked back, frowning.

“
Nothing,” Cassidy said.  She stepped inside and grabbed the vodka bottle from her dresser.  Barb followed her in and closed the balcony door behind them.

When they sat down, Reese stole Tamila’s previous spot at the head of the daybed and Barb sat beside her, leaving Cassidy to sit at the foot of her own bed.  Tamila rolled her eyes and dropped into the sagging old armchair instead.

“So, yeah, probably no boys,” Reese said. “What do we do instead?”

“
Vodka shots.  Everybody empty your glass,” Cassidy said.  All four girls turned their glasses up and drained the wine.  Reese poured vodka.

“
That’s too much!” Tamila gaped at her wineglass, filled to the lip with clear liquor.

“
If you get drunk, maybe you’ll be more fun!” Reese gave her a chipper smile, and Barb laughed. Reese raised her glass. “Here’s to me hooking up with Dex, and to whatever you bitches want for yourselves.”

“
Cheers!” Barb replied, clinking her glass against Reese’s.  Vodka sloshed over her fingers. Barb turned to Cassidy and held up her glass. “To whatever us bitches want for ourselves.”

“
Cheers.” Cassidy clinked her glass against Barb’s, then leaned and stretched toward Tamila, but it was too far to reach, and neither of them made the effort to stand up and cross the room.

Cassidy, Barb, and Reese downed her entire drinks, but Tamila took a small sip, wrinkled her nose, and coughed.  She waved her hand in front of her mouth and set her mostly-full glass on Cassidy’s dresser, shaking her head.

“What?  How can you wuss-gag on vodka?  It has no taste,” Reese said. “Who wants seconds?”

“
We don’t want to waste all of it right away,” Cassidy said.

“
It’s not wasted if we drink it.” Reese winked, and Barb laughed.

“
You know what we should do?  A full moon is the best time to contact the dead,” Barb said.

“
Why would we want to do that?” Reese asked.

“
To see what’s on the Other Side,” Barb replied.

“
Isn’t that why the chicken crossed the road?” Tamila asked, but only Cassidy laughed at her joke.

“
I’m serious, let’s do it,” Barb said. “Let’s talk to the spirits.”

Cassidy bit her lip.  Barb thought death was dark and romantic, but Cassidy didn’t find it romantic at all.  Her own father had died when she was six years old.

“How do you want to contact the dead, Barb?” Cassidy asked. “A séance?”

“
Oh, this is all part of your ‘Look at me, I’m so Gothic and mysterious and weird’ thing,” Reese said to Barb.

“
It’s better than your ‘Look at me, I’m wearing a see-through shirt’ thing,” Barb countered.

“
Bitch!” Reese replied.

“
Slut!”

Reese gasped and slapped playfully at Barb, who tackled her in return.  Cassidy watched them, drunk and friendly on the bed beside her, and still couldn’t think of a single good reason to ever hang out with Reese again.

“Want to do the séance, Tami?” Cassidy asked.

“
That’s not funny,” Tamila said. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“
Yeah, a séance!” Reese suddenly seemed interested now that Tamila was clearly uncomfortable.

“
We used a Ouija board at my cousin’s house during Christmas,” Barb said. “It really does move by itself, it spells out words.  It was creepy.”

“
Those are dangerous,” Tamila said. “We did a study unit on them at church.  Ouija boards, Tarot cards, Satan-worshipers, Wiccans—”

“
Hey, Wiccans worship nature,” Barb interrupted, sitting up and looking serious. “Not Satan.  Satanists don’t worship Satan, either.  I read the Satanic Bible.  Well, like three pages of it.”

“
Then that’s a rip-off,” Cassidy said. “What are people who worship Satan supposed to call themselves if they can’t use the word ‘Satanist’?”

“
They need a name,” Barb said. “They should organize.  They need like a devil-pope, and a whole Satanic bureaucracy—”

“
Stop it.” Tamila said. “Stop saying ‘Satan.’”

“
Are you fucking serious right now?” Reese asked. “Let’s break out that Ouija board, ladies.”

“
No!  They can make people crazy.  There’s demonic possession, ghosts...if you really read up on this, Reese, you’d know.  It’s dangerous,” Tamila said.

Reese and Barb looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

“Dangerous?  They’re made by Parker Brothers,” Reese said.

“
I don’t have one here, anyway.  I bought one in middle school, but my mom found it and threw it away before I could use it,” Cassidy said.

“
Did she throw it in the sinkhole out back?  Like next to the old homeless-person mattress?” Reese asked, and she and Barb broke down laughing again.

Cassidy felt herself blush—part anger, part embarrassment—and she poured herself more wine.

“We can make one!” Barb, who knew Cassidy’s room as well as Cassidy herself, stumbled across the room and opened the door to Cassidy’s tiny closet. 

The closet door was covered in drawings, as were all the walls in Cassidy’s cluttered room.  Her oldest works were approximate drawings of Oscar and Elmo from Sesame Street, in the medium of Crayola, just above the springy doorstop that had fascinated her as a small child.

From there, the drawings had spread up and out, bats and dragons done in colored pencil and marker, then attempts at portraits of people she knew—her mother, her father, her kindergarten teacher, and some preschool friend whose name she’d long forgotten.  Later works included paintings of trees, spiderwebs, and a homeless one-eyed cat who lived in the parking lot.

“
You could draw an awesome spirit board, Cassidy!” Barb carried out poster board and a shoebox with markers, glue, scissors, and bottles of glitter, which Cassidy had used to create the colorful, shimmering flowers on her dresser drawers back in middle school.  “It would be so much better than the store-bought ones, anyway.  You know it would.”

“
You want me to make it?” Cassidy smiled, a little excited by the idea of creating something new.  Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if they might contact her father’s spirit, wherever it was, but she certainly didn’t say it out loud.

“
We’d better not,” Tamila said.

“
Come on, Tami, it’s something we can all do together.  What goes on a Ouija board?  Just letters and numbers, right?” Cassidy asked.

“
You also need a
YES
and a
NO
so the spirits can answer questions, and a GOOD-BYE so they can leave when they’re done,” Barb said. “Use the glow-in-the-dark markers.”

“
Good idea!” Cassidy replied.  Barb hopped up to light the three scented candles in Cassidy’s room.  Tamila frowned.

Cassidy carefully wrote out the alphabet in three rows of green letters, then added numbers from zero to nine.  She wrote
YES
and
NO
in the upper corners and
GOOD-BYE
at the bottom.

“
And maybe a big FUCK YOU in case they get annoyed,” Reese suggested, and Cassidy snickered and added
FUCK YOU
between the
YES
and the
NO
.

“
This isn’t a joke,” Tamila said. “I’m not doing this.”

“
Blah, blah, blah.” Reese rolled her eyes.

“
Now we just need to decorate it,” Barb said. “There’s usually a sun and a moon...”

“
We can do better than that.” Cassidy drew a blue moon, a green clover, a red heart, and a purple horseshoe before realizing she was imitating the ingredients of a Lucky Charms box. “Wait, this is stupid.”

“
That’s what I’ve been saying,” Tamila said.

“
It looks good!” Barb countered.

“
Make it more occult-y,” Reese said, with a sharp grin at Tamila.

Cassidy used the nozzle of her Elmer’s Glue bottle to sketch stars in each corner of the poster board.  She dusted them with red glitter and blew off the excess, leaving four sparkling red pentagrams.