“How’s tricks?” she said, without looking at either of them.
“Routine,” Rudy said. “Except Alice’s cat died last month, and it stole her tongue.”
He laughed at his own joke.
Helen stood to hug Alice, embracing her with her wide arms. “Aww, honey. I’m sorry.” She squeezed Alice tight. “If you meditate, you can try to connect with your cat’s energy,” she said in Alice’s ear, voice sotto, but loud enough for Rudy to hear.
“Don’t listen to Helen’s woo-woo crap,” he said.
“It’s real,” Helen said. “Like gravity. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
“Gravity, my ass,” Rudy said, placing the lunches in the office’s kitchen for Helen and Alice to handle while he unloaded snack boxes and drinks from the van.
“Smells yummy!” Helen said, opening the bags. “I’m starved.”
“Can you really connect to Bella?” Alice asked, washing her hands at the kitchen sink.
“Without a doubt,” Helen said.
They heard Rudy dumping coins into the sorting and counting machines; the sounds of swirling coins and the hum of the machines made the walls vibrate.
“Are you telling Alice ghost stories again?” he said, entering the kitchen and washing his hands before joining Alice and Helen at the table.
“I want to connect to Bella’s energy,” Alice said, between bites.
“If connecting to dead people and pets were real, everybody would be doing it,” he said, sounding annoyed.
“Never said it was easy. Only possible,” Helen said, biting into her sandwich.
Rudy waved the thought away. “Helen’s endless ghost stories,” he said. “You believe that, next thing you’re paying a charlatan who tells you he talks to dead people.”
Helen shrugged. “Believe. Don’t believe. Charlatans are out there, but so are woo-woo people who didn’t ask for the ability.”
Rudy shook his head. The counter/sorter machines stopped. He left to reload them.
“How?” Alice whispered.
“Meditate,” Helen said.
The answer disappointed Alice.
# # #
A few weeks later, everything in the world started shutting down. A new virus was infecting and killing people. Alice began teleworking, while Rudy complained about an avalanche of extra emergency plumbing calls.