this to my attention.”
“You're welcome.”
The ghost gave a very Eastern-style bow, which Isabella returned. Then the ghost faded away.
“You've ruined my business,” the medium said sullenly.
“I'm sorry.”
“At least I was an honest medium!” she snapped.
“If not a happy medium,” Leah muttered.
Dave sniggered.
“You don't have to do what my great-grandmother said.”
“Yeah, well, I think I'd rather find a safer job. But you don't know what it's like being a real medium and sometimes hearing dead people and seeing spirits.”
“Everyone has some issue,” Nora said before Isabella could reply. “At least you've got all your limbs and all your brains. You can do another job. If you have issues, you deal with them, or you don't, but whatever happens is your responsibility. And here you've been given a great gift from strangers; you got a warning you were going to hurt yourself, and bad. Now you feel like you've been sucker punched. Maybe you were, and yeah, that sucks.”
She blinked, looking surprised.
“But you've got your health and your soul, and clearly enough money to rent out this store. You've got resources. Use them. Owe up to your mistakes and stop taking advantage of people for your own gain. And sure, it's probably creepy and weird to hear dead people and see things no one else can, but now you know there are at least five other people in the world who treat that as a perfectly normal thing.”
“I-I guess I didn't think of it like that. Why aren't you freaked out anyway?”
“Because we know there are more things on Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in conventional philosophy,” Nora answered.
“We know weird,” Leah clarified.
She clasped her hands nervously. “Fine. My gift has been getting me in trouble since it manifested. Why should now be any different?”
“I think if you use your gift responsibly you may find you'll resent it less,” Nora said. “Believe me, I don't envy you. But we're not going to tell you to ignore those warnings and go back to taking advantage of the grief-stricken. I mean, that's damn low. I don't think there's any lower than that. You can do better than that. Like I said, you've got some resources and some business know-how. Put that to good use.”
“Easy for you to say,” she muttered.
“It's always easy to say,” Nora replied in a softer tone. “It's always easier said than done. But here you are with a chance to start over and on a better path this time.”
“Maybe.”
“That's up to you. It always was.” She turned to the band. “Come on, it's time to move out.”
They followed Nora out of the store and to the van.
“Why didn't you want me to tell her I knew exactly how she felt?” Isabella asked. “She could probably use someone to talk to who understands her.”
“We never did find out if she was blackmailing anyone,” Nora replied. “That kind of information is better kept a secret, especially around an unscrupulous person like that.”
“She seemed sorry,” Maryann said.
“It's easy to seem sorry. There's just no reason to trust her with that kind of info.”
“But you told her we weren't freaked out,” Leah said.
“But that much was obvious, and she would have realized it when she calmed down. I brought it to her attention to try to calm her down a bit. If you want to call her up and tell her you're a medium, you've got her card.”
“No, no, you're right,” Isabella said. “She'll probably find people like her eventually.”
“We do seem to find each other,” Maryann said brightly. “I really hope she comes around and mends her ways.”
“Well, it's out of our hands now,” she replied.
“I'll keep you updated, if you're interested,” Dave said.
“Sure. I'd like to know how this story ends. Isabella, are all your ancestors that hardcore?” Leah asked.
“Not all of them,” Isabella said.
“Good, because that would be really scary.”
She kind of laughed and they headed back to the beach house to pack up and get on the road to their next gig.
The Lyrics:
What I see before my eyes
Has got to be all in my head
Must be a trick just like the lights
We can't be talking to the dead
Tricks O'Pedia
Call the media
Someone come and prove this wrong
Tricks O'Pedia
Call the media
Can't take it my heart's not that strong
Someone tell me what to do
This ghost spilling secrets I dread
This can't be real at all
You can't really talk to the dead
Tricks O'Pedia
Call the media
Someone come and prove this wrong
Tricks O’Pedia
Call the media
My heart is failing it's not that strong
Talking to this ghost
It mocks me to my face
Must not let it talk
Have to get out of this place
This woman has to be a fraud
Doing tricks to mess with my head
Yet she saved me on this very night
Perhaps she did summon the dead
Tricks O'Pedia
Call the media
My heart revived even though it's not strong
Tricks O'Pedia
Call the media
Someone come help me prove this wrong
Track 7: Crushed Velvet and Black Lace
The Interview:
Brad: Now we'll discuss your most controversial song, “Crushed Velvet and Black Lace.” This is a very angry, bitter song that reminds me of both Joan Jett and Carly Simon. The song was met with outrage from the newly formed Unified Pan-Pagan Anti-Vilification Sodality who accused you of "trying to bring back the Burning Times," culminating with a protest in a state park.
Lenore: Which was cut short because they nearly caused a forest fire with all those candles and incense they had burning.
Lee: Which proves earnest but clueless college kids plus flammable materials just don’t mix.
Brad: Yes, that's true, but I have to say, I would think the people you're angry at in this song would be your target audience.
Anna: You need to understand that we take religion very seriously.
Lee: Very seriously. We don't like religious hypocrisy or disrespect for religion. Typically this manifests in Christianity as people who proclaim Christ's love but then tell people they'll burn in Hell if they don't convert.
Lenore: Or otherwise attempt to force the beliefs of their loving God on others despite the beliefs of others.
Anna: Now, paganism is a bit different because it's new. “Paganism” is really a broad term that means anyone practicing a religion that is not Judaism, Islam, or Christianity. Technically Hindu, Buddhists, and Shinto would qualify.
Belle: That kind of religious hypocrisy tends to manifest as people who take fragments of ancient religions and cobble together their own religion either without due respect to the source or in order to further their own agenda, which is a common problem with Christianity as well.
Anna: So you have someone, for example, who wants to worship Dionysus because they think he's all about getting drunk and partying hard. That's not entirely untrue, but it leads to a pagan who's using religion to justify acting like the worst of frat-boy stereotypes.
Belle: And they tend to ignore or downplay the less socially acceptable acts of their gods. In the case of Dionysus, a worshipper would do well to remember the Maenads also worshipped Dionysus, and they were known for going into a blood frenzy and ripping men apart with their bare hands. Dionysus, in the myths, did not condemn this behavior and that's a crucial insight into the god which should not be ignored.
Brad: Wow. I'm reall
y surprised you're taking all of this so seriously. I guess I didn't expect that.
Lee: You don't get a serious song without serious passion, or anger.
Brad: So you're not making fun of pagans?
Anna: Yes, and no. We're trying to highlight problem areas in pagan religions that we feel denigrate the ancient religions they're supposedly modeled on and denigrate modern worshippers who have put more thought and effort into constructing their own religion.
Lenore: Basically, if people are going to use religion to justify whatever they already want to do, we're going to call them out on it.
Brad: Wow. I see. I didn't realize this was such a calling.
Belle: It's not a calling. It's just a principled stand. Many famous musicians have taken principled stands and written songs on those principles.
Brad: But they were protesting against war and capitalism.
Lenore: And we agree with that, and maybe in our next album we'll have a song protesting against more global concerns like that.
Brad: Is that a promise?
Belle: It's a possibility.
Brad: Are you going to write a similar song about other religions?
Lenore: Probably not. We've done it once; we don't like to repeat ourselves.
Anna: And the umbrella of paganism gives us more to work with, lyric-wise, than older religions.
The Flashback:
“Maryann, why am I here?” the fourteen-year old boy with auburn hair whined. “Ren Fairs are stupid. It's hot and there's nothing I want to buy.”
“It's not that bad, Skipper. You shouldn't have worn that black t-shirt,” replied his older sister, who was wearing red shorts and a pink tank top with yellow flowers. She also had a wreath of flowers in her hair that she had made with items from the craft store. “How about a sword?”
His eyes lit up and he dashed over to the blacksmith table. But in a few minutes he returned, more disgruntled than ever. “They're like three-hundred bucks!