Halloween

1931

A smile spread across her face as she spotted the familiar man. She hadn’t been home long and she figured he had met another freak before appearing in her home.
“Edward, it’s nice to see you.”
“Yes,” he said, a small smile on his lips, as if he was refraining from smiling properly. “You have summoned me this year.”
“I have,” said Marie. “I wanted the company, I figured you still won’t take my life yet.”
“I’m afraid you might be right about that.”

She lifted her jacket off of the back of the empty chair so he could sit down. She pulled her pack of cards out of her pocket.
“I may have learned how to juggle knives in that hotel but I am far better at card tricks,” said Marie. As she hung up the jacket on the hook by the front door, Edward sat down at the dining table. “I can do one for you, if you wish.”
“I may know how it’s done,” he said.
Marie shrugged. “Is that a yes or a no?”
Edward stared at her for a moment. “Yes.”

A smile spread across her face as she took the cards out of its flimsy packaging. It was an old deck of cards but she liked them. She shuffled the cards in her hands and then spread them out.
“Pick a card,” she said. Marie wasn’t sure why she was so excited to do a card trick for a ghost who probably knew how it was done. Carefully, he pulled a card out.

“You are a strange lady,” he said. Marie shrugged as she shuffled the rest of the deck in her hands.
“I’m aware,” she said. She had heard it said before, mostly in ruder ways. “You have to remember what your card is. Do you want to shuffle the cards to make sure I’m not cheating.”
“It’s not really going to make a difference,” said Edward as he placed the card face down on the table.

She separated the deck of cards into three piles and told him to put the card on top of any pile. He placed it on top of the middle pile before she gathered the deck up.
“See, sometimes I mess up this part,” sighed Marie as she started placing the cards face up on the table and creating different piles. “Sometimes I get distracted by things and I forget what I’m doing, especially if there's someone pretty around.” Spotting his card in the pile, she started a new one.

Edward chuckled. “I’m sure it won’t be too difficult not to mess up.”
As he said that, Marie paused, counting in her head. “I don’t know, I might have done.” Marie continued to place the cards on the dining table face up in various piles. Then, she gathered them again, in a certain order Edward was probably aware of since he could read her mind if he wanted to.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“Now I spell out what card you picked out with cards,” she said. She placed down one card for every letter, spelling the card out loud. Two of Hearts. If Marie had done it right, the next card she put down would be Edward’s card. And, if it was the card she thought it was, it should be the Two of Hearts, the one she spelled out. She placed his card face down in front of him.
“Do I turn the card over?” he asked.
“It should be the Two of Hearts,” she said as she nodded and leaned forward a little. He flipped the card over and she smiled.

The Two of Hearts lay face up on the table.

“Is that your card?”
“Yes,” he said. Marie smiled to herself as she gathered the cards together again, it had worked. “Though, I know how you did it and you almost spelt it wrong. ‘Hearts’ has six letters, not five.”
Marie gasped. “That’s not fair!” she exclaimed. He had been reading her mind.
“I still enjoyed it, Marie,” he said as he stood. He smiled and bowed his head. “And as much as I would like to spend more time with you, I must go on. Goodnight, Marie.”
“Goodnight, Edward.”