The Spirit Room Read Free Page B

concentrating so hard on Anna, standing there in her green plaid bloomers, with her perfect olive skin and radiant black hair, that she began breathing in rhythm with Anna.
     
    Finally, Anna closed her eyes, then blinked a few times.
     
    “I’m sorry. I had to stop. It was too baffling, too many voices at once. That happens sometimes.”
     
    “I don’t want to speak with them,” Izzie said.
     
    “Why not?” Mrs. Fielding asked.
     
    “Because that’s what my mother did, talk to people who weren’t there.” Izzie’s face burned and tears started to stream down. “Sometimes my mother stayed in that world with her spirits for long periods of time. This last time she didn’t come back to us.” She took a moment to compose herself and wiped her eyes with her dress sleeve. “I won’t be like that.”
     
    Izzie knew she had to leave. It was dangerous here. She shoved her chair back and rose.
     
    “Come on, Clara. Leave with me.” Izzie glanced from Anna to Mrs. Fielding who both looked concerned.
     
    “Are you sure, Izzie? What if Mamma wants to say more to us?”
     
    “Mamma is dead. She’s gone.”
     
    Clara stood, picked up Mamma’s black cape from the back of her chair, walked to Izzie, and took her hand. Then Izzie turned quickly and, pulling Clara along, started down the hallway for the front door.
     
    “Wait, please, Isabelle. Anna gave you a very special message. Please, don’t run away,” Mrs. Fielding said.
     
    Halfway to the door, Izzie stopped and whirled to face Mrs. Fielding who was again calling for her to wait. Anna, watching them, remained behind in the parlor. Clara’s hand trembled in Izzie’s grasp as they waited for Mrs. Fielding to get closer. Mrs. Fielding held out a thick book toward her. Without thinking, Izzie dropped Clara’s hand and accepted it.
     
    “Isabelle, one great lesson I have learned is that life is never what you expect it to be.”
     
    Mrs. Fielding’s blue eyes narrowed as she spoke. She tapped the brown cloth cover of the book. “Your father says you love books. This one is our sacred scripture. Read as much as you can tonight and tell me your thoughts tomorrow.”
     
    The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind . Izzie pushed the volume back toward Mrs. Fielding, but Mrs. Fielding raised an outward palm and shook her head.
     
    “No, please, just read some of it and return it to me at your next lesson. If you choose not to take the lessons, we will return all of your father’s money.”
     
    Izzie was torn. She did want to know more about how Anna spoke of the white horse, but she was afraid. The weight of the book and the texture of its embossed gold title tugged at her. She had never refused a book and she knew the book itself couldn’t hurt her.
     
    With the big bright windows behind her, Anna’s face was just visible, but Izzie sensed the now familiar encouraging smile. The glass chandelier sparkled above Anna’s head as she waved calmly at them. Clara returned the wave.
     
    “Tomorrow then,” Izzie said to Mrs. Fielding. Tucking the book under one arm and taking her sister’s shaky hand again, she led Clara to the front of the house and then out into the snowy evening.
     

Two
     
    LATER THAT NIGHT, after they had met with the mediums, Clara perspired by the fire as she sat sewing at one end of the long pine table in the Blue Room. While she worked the needle, she was missing Mamma and trying not to cry. At the other end of the table, near the foolish, giant fire her brother Billy had stirred up, Papa and Billy were playing checkers. Izzie was downstairs in Mrs. Purcell’s library reading the big fat Spiritualism book that Mrs. Fielding had given her. Her younger sister, Euphora, was playing alone with her wooden horses on the girls’ bed. Everyone had been settled like this for hours, no one saying much of anything. Clara’s heart sank every time she looked over at Mamma’s empty rocker.
     
    The