Signal to Noise(27)

“Who’d know,” he said with a smirk.

“What?”

“You can read.”

Meche punched his arm and Sebastian chuckled.

“I still don’t understand what we are doing,” Daniela said, holding up a bunch of record sleeves in her hands.

“We don’t know either,” Sebastian said.

“Oh.”

Daniela blinked, then looked at her records. They had been at this for more than an hour and he sensed that soon enough Daniela would ask to go home. If they were going to figure how to cast a spell a second time around, they had to do it quick.

“Okay, let’s try Money’s Too Tight To Mention,” Sebastian said. He was out of other ideas.

They crowded around the portable record player, holding hands tight, just like last time. The little beat began and then the chorus, “We’re talking ’bout money, money!” But nothing happened. The room remained cold and still.

“Ugh,” Meche said, falling back against the floor. “What’s wrong? We’ve done obvious songs, not so obvious songs...”

“We can try Material Girl again,” Sebastian suggested.

That had been the first song they’d attempted to use. A second try might not amount to anything, but Sebastian did not know what else to pick. Meche rubbed her hands against her eyes.

“Okay,” Daniela said, sounding chipper. “Let me find it one more time.”

Sebastian sat down next to Meche, bumping his sneaker against hers.

“Hey, we have time to get it right,” he said. “We’ll wish for the money, wish for the—”

“I so wanted to get a decent dress that’s not like two sizes too big,” Meche muttered. “And maybe get rid of the pimples... somehow.”

“They’re not that bad,” he said, trying to be kind, though they were bad. Meche often had pimples all around her mouth and smack in the middle of her forehead. She tried to hide them with her bangs, but it didn’t help. “Just f*cking hormones.”

“Gee, Doctor Soto, you think?”

“Don’t be annoying.”

Meche bumped his shoe back and turned to look at him, frowning. She looked very solemn, but a grin was about to break through, shattering her sour expression.

“Ouch!”

Sebastian raised his head. “What’s up, Dani?”

“It’s hot!”

“What’s hot?” Meche muttered, taking a long pause after each word.

“The record.”

That was about the weirdest thing he’d ever heard.

“Records are not hot,” Sebastian said.

“Wait,” Meche said, sitting up at once. “Hot?”

“Yeah.”

“Which one?”

Daniela looked at the floor, at a record sleeve next to her foot. Meche scrambled forward and lifted it very carefully.

“Dead or Alive.”

“You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),” Meche said. “Sebastian, touch it.”

“Alright,” he said.

He didn’t expect it to really burn him, but as soon as he touched it Sebastian felt like he was handling a potato that had been pulled out of a boiling pot of water. He thrust it back into Meche’s hands and she set it down on the floor.

“What’s that?” Sebastian asked.

“I don’t know,” Meche muttered.

She knelt down, took the record out of the sleeve. Her fingers hovered above the shiny, black vinyl surface, very carefully.

“It’s very warm. It’s like... there’s electricity here.”

“There can’t be.”

Meche pressed her index finger against the record and a little blue spark actually shot up. She laughed. Daniela pressed both hands against her mouth. Sebastian just raised an eyebrow.

“You know what this means, right?” she told them. “It’s not just any record. Some of them have power and some of them don’t. Look, feel it.”

Sebastian and Daniela both knelt down. He carefully touched the edge of the record. Another blue spark shot up.

“You think?” Sebastian asked.

“Look for other records which feel warm,” Meche said.

Daniela began to go through one of the cardboard boxes. Sebastian grabbed another box, his fingers dancing over the sleeves, pulling some out, leaving others in its place. Nothing, nothing... and then bingo. A sleeve that itched his palm. He pulled out a single. It felt like a warm tortilla, just wrapped in a cloth.

“Hey,” he said. “This one’s the same.”

“What is it?”

“Billy Idol,” Sebastian said. “Dancing With Myself. Touch it.”

Meche extended her hand, carefully setting it against the sleeve. She nodded very slightly.

“I feel it.”

“It’s... is it beating? Can you feel it?”

It was very weird. A sensation similar to the one you might get if you pressed your palm against your chest, over your heart. A little thumping.

Meche frowned. “I don’t feel the beating.”

“This is the one, Meche,” Sebastian said. “The one for our money spell.”

“Are you sure?”

“Oh, yeah.”