Signal to Noise(30)

Mexico City, 1988





SEBASTIAN AND MECHE were both sitting on the floor and leaning over the book, carefully absorbing every word. Daniela, meanwhile, sulked in a corner. She had videotaped some episodes of El Extra?o Retorno de Diana Salazar—the soap opera starring Lucía Méndez about a woman from 16th century colonial Mexico with psychic powers who reincarnates in modern Mexico—and had intended to watch them that afternoon. Meche had invented a mathematics study session, pulled her out of her home and dragged her to the factory. What they were studying was magic and Daniela was not willing to help with their research, preferring to sit on the couch and immerse herself in a bodice ripper with a sexy pirate on the cover.

“But here, what about this part?” Sebastian asked. “An amulet. An object of power.”

“What does it mean?”

“Like witches with wands. Only not that stupid, I guess.”

“Art-ha-me,” Meche said, turning the page of the book. “Dani, aren’t you even going to look at it?”

“Not if it has demons in it.”

Sebastian had found a used book about witchcraft with plenty of extracts from The Key of Solomon. It mentioned a bevy of demons and the garish cover with a bug-eyed woman had scared Daniela away. She insisted she was not going to read it, study it or anything of the sort.

“It’s not Hollywood demons,” Meche said.

Daniela shook her head and Meche rolled her eyes.

“Okay, so objects of power. We can’t be carrying staffs around Mexico City. What can we keep to be our object?”

“I don’t know,” Sebastian said with a shrug. “Couldn’t we keep whatever we want? Whatever matters to us?”

“That’s fine with me. We should keep it a secret. Never tell anyone. Not even each other.”

“Why would we keep secrets from each other?” Sebastian asked, frowning.

“Ugh. Don’t you listen when you speak out loud? Didn’t you just tell us about Merlin and that chick Vivi?”

“Vivien.”

“That one. She figured Merlin’s weakness, tricked him and made him sleep forever.”

“But we wouldn’t trick each other.”

“Yeah, but it feels kind of personal.”

“Fine.”

“I’ll write this thing about objects of power in the grimoire,” Meche said taking her pen and opening the notebook. “Did you hear about objects of power?”

“I heard,” Daniela said.

Meche began writing, neatly labelling the entry with the date and a heading. Sebastian stretched his feet and reached for the large bag of chips Meche had brought. There were also a couple of sodas and some chocolate. He munched the chips loudly and wondered what object he might pick. A book. Would that be too obvious? Where would he put it? He shared his room with Romualdo and that didn’t leave many chances for privacy. There was a loose tile in the kitchen which could be loosened a bit more. Or perhaps he should just tuck it at the back of his closet. Under the bed.

“We still don’t have the money,” Sebastian reminded Meche.

She held the pen between her teeth and nodded.

“Maybe it takes longer to take effect when it’s cash,” Daniela suggested.

“Well, we’re going to need it if we want to buy new clothes and stuff,” Sebastian said. “Are your parents even going to let you go, Dani?”

“Yeah. My mom thinks it’ll be good if I go. As long as I’m back early, by ten. She can pick us up and drop us off.”

“Wanna hitch a ride with Dani?” Sebastian asked.

“I want to stay late,” Meche said. “Can’t we take a cab?”

Sebastian considered his reduced finances. Bagging groceries was not a lucrative operation and a cerillo had no regular wage or contract, just the tips he could gather. On top of that, it was near the end of the month and that meant money was short. He didn’t have cash to splurge on a cab and since their spell hadn’t actually worked yet, he was reluctant to promise a taxi, even if they split it.

“We can take my motorcycle or the bus,” he proposed.

“I don’t want to mess my hair and clothes on the bus,” Meche said.

“We could walk...”

“All the way to Isadora’s house?”

Sebastian did not want to sound like he was cheap. He hated putting his situation into words, so he simply sat on the couch, picking up a couple of records and examining them, hoping Meche might drop the point for now.

Meche went back to her grimoire. After a while she sighed and sat between Daniela and Sebastian.

“Rodriguez is so going to fail me,” she said.

“Why?” Daniela asked.

“Because he’s a freak. Didn’t you see him in class today, ‘Miss Vega, can you tell us one of the important symbols in Anna Karenina and then he kept drilling me and drilling me, like it was the Spanish Inquisition. I did the reading and he still told me he’s giving me a bad mark.”

“I’m not doing too great either,” Daniela said.

“What are you talking about? You always get an 8.”

“Yeah, but my dad doesn’t like me getting anything but 10s,” Daniela said. “And I’m seriously studying hard.”