Fairy lights twinkled in the darkness. Shimmering plum-dark tents decorated in hand-embroidered golden constellations dotted the usually vacant lot. A ferris wheel rotated above and below the horizon, while crowds milled below.

Josie Ellison pulled wispy strands off of her blue cloud of cotton candy, careful to place them in her mouth with precision. It was hard to cleanly eat cotton candy, and she hadn’t seen anywhere someone could wash their hands if necessary.

Little at the carnival interested her. The rides made her nauseous, and besides, they were probably full of children whose parents let them stay up too long. Josie didn’t want to sit on the same ferris wheel seat as one of them without it being cleaned off first, preferably with disinfectant. No, carnivals were not really Josie’s scene.

But her best friend Amalie had asked her to go, and Josie hadn’t wanted to make Amalie go on her own. Amalie already did enough alone. She lived alone. She went to bed alone. She visited her boyfriend’s grave alone.

Even though it wasn’t her intention, Josie lost Amalie and left her alone.

She switched the white paper cone that held her cotton candy to her other hand and took her phone from her black leather purse. “Where are you?” she texted Amalie.

Josie exhaled. She didn’t even know if Amalie would hear her text tone over the stir of the crowd.

“I’m near the light post across from the dunk tank,” she texted again. If Amalie wanted to find her, then, she could.

It wasn’t like Josie had anywhere else she wanted to go.

Her phone chimed.

Josie glanced down at the screen. A text from Amalie previewed on the screen. “I’ll be there in a moment. On the way.”

Josie leaned back against the tall, steely light post and shoved her phone back into her purse. She closed her eyes and waited until hurried steps approached her.

“There you are,” Amalie exclaimed. Her pastel blue dress fluttered in the low breeze. Josie wondered, with no sweater on in the mildly cool spring night, how she wasn’t too cold. Maybe she was.

“Here I am. There you are. Nice to see you again. I thought I’d lost you for good. Did you see anything interesting while you were gone?”

Amalie stared into the middle distance momentarily.

Josie raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t remember,” Amalie admitted. “I think I just got lost, and then I got confused. It’s nothing to worry about.”

“As long as it’s nothing to worry about.”

The two left the light post and ambled side by side through the crowd. Josie threw her cotton candy out at the nearest trash bin. She didn’t really want it anymore. It had been bought to distract her from having lost Amalie.

Around them, people were people. A couple of brothers laughed in joy as one poured the contents of a soda cup on the ground. Spouses fought further down the line. Josie veered away from their direction so Amalie would follow her and not have to see the fight. She knew what Amalie would think, whether it was right or whether it was wrong. What a privilege it was to get to argue.

Amalie stopped abruptly as her gaze fixed on one of the mystical tents.

Josie had been to some of the tents earlier in the night. Tarot readers who gave her advice she’d rather not hear because she wasn’t going to implement it anyway, palm readers who told her how alarming her lack of wrinkles across her wrist was, pendulum diviners who had her half convinced that she had a shot at getting her request for a week off at work approved. What else was there left to see? To be told? Josie felt it a little bit stupid to even bother the psychics and diviners with the minutiae of her life, but Amalie got a real kick out of all of that stuff, and it would have been a bit annoying to abstain just for the sake of not wasting the diviners’ time.

“Oh,” Amalie gasped, gripping Josie’s hand with a force Josie didn’t know Amalie was even capable of. “We’ve got to go to this one.”

Josie didn’t know how Amalie knew what was in the tent, but she didn’t protest. “Sure.”

The tent was nearly empty when they entered. A couple of people sat quietly on chairs, and Amalie perched herself in the front row of three. Josie sat down beside her.

“Is it some kind of performance?” Josie whispered.

“I don’t know.”

“Then how are you so certain about this?”

“I don’t know. I just am.”

In front of the chairs, a woman in a navy blue satin gown paced, her long black hair cascading over her shoulders, her deep blue eyes piercing the air ahead of her, her lips painted with black cherry lipstick.

Josie felt a little bit underdressed in her deep purple cardigan and black denim skirt, but she was just going to be in the audience, so she tried to convince herself it didn’t matter.

What was she going to be in the audience of? Josie smirked as she imagined the woman in navy blue swallowing sticks of fire.

People gradually entered the tent and sat down. Josie watched Amalie’s knee bouncing beside her in anticipation.

“Are we nearly ready to start?” the woman asked.

Affirmative murmurs leaked from the crowd.

“Good.” She extended her arms in a wide flourish. “My name is Tayla Alabaster, and tonight, the souls of those you love will contact you through me from beyond the world of the living.”

Josie’s breath caught in the back of her throat. She glanced over to Amalie, expecting to see shock, dismay, or despair on her face. Instead, Amalie watched, rapt, her hazel eyes glazed as a donut.

Okay then, thought Josie, maybe Amalie wouldn’t mind hearing from her husband, if that was really what was going on. Maybe Amalie wouldn’t mind someone speaking as if she was Amalie’s husband just to make her feel better.

Josie had seen the medium television shows before. The cold reading, the search for the susceptible, it was all so predatory. A real medium, Josie figured, wouldn’t be as grandiose as some of the TV mediums were, right? Wouldn’t someone like that be a little more focused on delivering a message rather than making a spectacle?

It was the first time during the night she wondered if everything at the carnival was a hoax. For all she knew, the diviners could have been just as phony as the medium seemed. But the diviners gave her advice on nigh inconsequential matters like talking to her manager and fixing her sleep schedule. They didn’t dredge up grief that was mere months old, fresh enough to meet milestones every week of firsts Amalie would have to have without her husband at her side.

It left a bad taste in Josie’s mouth, but she wasn’t about to tell Amalie she was getting exploited if it could provide her some comfort.

“Someone is talking to me,” Tayla declared. “Someone who liked dahlias. Did one of you know someone with dahlias, that you would grow in your garden together?”

An incredulous whisper of, “How did she know?” came from the second row, three seats to the right of behind where Josie sat.

That was rather specific, Josie conceded, unless dahlias were a lot more common to grow in gardens in the area than she realised.

The man who had whispered raised his hand. “My sister and I grew dahlias together until she passed.”

“And her name… I’m getting something with an S… Suzy?”

“Suzy? Are you there?”

Tayla smiled. “Looks like your sister is with us tonight.”

Gasps filtered through the room. Amalie reached over and took Josie’s hand in both of hers.

“Suzy used to like carnivals, didn’t she?”

“She did. She asked to go to one together this year. This one, actually.” Tears filled the man’s voice. “I always found them a bit much, but I wanted to go, for Suzy.”

“She’s happy you’re here tonight.”

“I’m happy she’s here, too.”

Josie dug her nails into the palm of her free hand. There was more than just cold reading going on, and she didn’t suspect the man of being a plant; the agony of his grief was too genuine. She didn’t even listen to the rest of the conversation between Suzy through the medium and the man in the row behind her. She suddenly found that entirely too personal.

When she no longer heard them speaking, and when applause filled the room, Josie followed the crowd in clapping.

“Oh, but we’re not done yet,” announced the medium. “Someone else is in the room with us.”

Amalie squeezed Josie’s hand.

“Marlon is here, and he’s very insistent upon talking to one of you.”

“Marlon,” Amalie exclaimed. “Marlon, I’m here. Amalie’s here.”

“He was your husband, wasn’t he?” Tayla asked. Sympathy dripped from her words.

“Yes.”

“How long were you married? Five years? Marlon tells me you were married for five years.”

“Four and a half,” Amalie replied between growing sobs.

“He says that counts.”

She nodded vigorously, then weakly added, “He would.”

“You brought something he gave you with you today. Can you show us all?”

Amalie stood and lifted her arm up. A woven bracelet made of something that looked a bit like twine rested around her wrist.

“And he gave that to you… he says the last time you went to a craft night together. That’s so sweet.”

“He did. I, um, pottery.” Amalie shook her head. “I tried to make him some pottery, and he made me the bracelet. I haven’t taken it off.”

Josie fished some clean tissues from her sweater’s pocket and handed them to Amalie.

“Thank you.”

Tayla Alabaster approached Amalie and lifted her chin. “There, there. You’re very fortunate. Your husband is here with us. And there’s something he wanted to say to you.”

Amalie listened like her life depended on it. For all she knew, it was the last message from Marlon she would ever get.

“He says, ‘I’m so proud of you, Amalie. You’ve been so kind, despite how much losing me has hurt. I admire your generosity. Don’t lose it even though I’m gone. I’m always here watching over you.”

Amalie doubled over as her sobs wracked her body.

Josie ran a hand across her back to try to comfort her.

“Thank you, Ms. Alabaster,” Amalie said. “Thank you for delivering his message. I miss you, Marlon. I really miss you.”

Marlon was the last spirit who had anything to say during the session, according to Tayla. Audience members drifted out of the tent, chatting about Suzy, about Marlon, about Amelie and the man. Some spoke as if they had just been to a particularly cathartic funeral. Others spoke like they had just finished an entertaining movie.

Josie didn’t speak at all. She hadn’t expected much from the medium. But whatever she had just witnessed was something more than what she used to see on the medium TV shows she’d watch on days off from school, sitting on the couch binging episode after episode while eating pieces of toast cut up into squares. Josie felt she had witnessed something mystical, something meaningful, maybe even something sacred.

She watched as Amalie left her seat and approached the medium, engaged in reverent conversation, then produced a bunch of bright bills from her purse and enthusiastically handed them to Tayla. Of course. It was her generous spirit, and Marlon was watching.

Josie wondered if anyone was watching her. Maybe her grandmother? She hadn’t seen her grandmother in thirteen years, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear her wisdom one more time. She stood and walked toward the medium.

“I’ll catch up with you outside,” she told Amalie. “There’s something I need to ask Tayla about.”

“Of course.”

With profuse thanks to the medium again, Amalie departed from the tent.

Tayla fixed her attention on Josie. “Good evening.”

“How did you do that?”

“Ah, are you a skeptic?”

“No, no. I’m Amalie’s friend. I just wanted to know how you reached Marlon, because if there’s a way I could hear from my grandmother…”

Light flickered through Tayla’s eyes. “Of course. In fact, I can see right now if she has a message for you.”

“Will you really?”

“Of course. I take pride in connecting spirits with their loved ones.”

Josie didn’t know how she had ever doubted the medium. “Thank you.”

“It will be even easier if I connect to your energy. With you and I metaphysically connected, your grandmother will be able to find us quite easily.”

“How do we do that?”

“Here.” Tayla led Josie over to her chair in the front row. “It’s not hard. There are just a few simple steps. First, the eyes are the window to the soul, aren’t they?”

“Yes, I suppose.”

“So we’ll need to connect ours.”

Josie stared deeply into the woman’s eyes. Her irises were filled with the ebbs and flows of darker and lighter colour, like watercolours on a piece of paper that was much too damp. Josie found it difficult to hold eye contact for so long, but the longer she did it, the less she realised what she was doing, and the easier it became.

“Very good. Just like that. Now, the next step is that we need to attune ourselves to the spirit world. Our vibrations are much too high right now. We’re much too active. Let’s breathe slowly, together.”

In, two, three, four. Hold. Out, two, three, four. Josie followed the rhythm the medium set without question. Marlon had departed recently, and it seemed that Suzy had, also. Maybe it would be harder to speak to Josie’s grandmother without making it as easy as possible, as she had been gone for a while.

In, two, three, four. Hold. Out, two, three, four. In, two, three, four. Hold. Out, two, three, four. In, two, three, four. Hold. Out, two, three, four.

Josie lost herself in the pattern. It had to be working. Her eyes on Tayla’s, the slow, even breaths. She felt like she wasn’t quite tethered to Earth, so she had to be connecting with the world of the spirits.

“Close your eyes now and sink into this feeling. You’re doing so well. I can already hear your grandmother’s voice. But it’s distant, so you need to connect even deeper.”

Josie closed her eyes.

Tayla placed a hand on Josie’s head and brought it down to her knees. “Drop. Sink. Deeper. Don’t question it. You listen to me, because I’m your medium. Deeper and deeper down. No thoughts, just receptivity.”

A small sound of affirmation escaped Josie’s lips. It was all she could manage. She was so far away. Any semblance of thought was so far away. She drifted in darkness, like she herself was a ghost, and the medium was reaching out to her through the veil.

“Now, listen to me very closely. You’re going to do exactly what I say. When you leave here, you’ll forget entirely about our conversation. You’ll believe you left shortly after your friend did. Do you understand?”

“Mhm.”

“Good. It’s so easy to forget. You’re so good at forgetting. None of this is important. You don’t need to consciously remember any of this. Your unconscious mind will remember anything you need. Later, when you see this tent, you will return.”

“I’ll return,” Josie mumbled.

“You’ll believe you’re entering of your own will, and you will attend my show.”

Josie would have nodded her heavy head if she could have found the strength in herself to move.

“Now before you go, and before I wake you up, I want you to do one more thing.” Tayla Alabaster lifted Josie’s head up in both of her hands so she could stare directly into her face.

“Hmm?”

“Tell me everything you can about your grandmother.”