Lorna laughed. “Good to know I have something.”
“Leave her be, Viv,” Heather said. “She has a lot to process.”
“You find things,” Vivien stated in excitement, as if she’d just discovered the cure for some rare disease. “I bet you’re the reason we found these rings the same day you and I finally met.”
“I don’t think that’s a superpower,” Lorna denied. Of course she was good at finding things. She’d spent a lifetime as a mother with a family who lost things.
Mom, where’s my shirt?
Mom, have you seen my mitt?
Mom, I can’t find my homework. I need it for Mr. So-and-so’s class!
Honey, do we have any mayo?
“I think it’s more of a mom power. When you’re the one cleaning, and keeping track of everything, and maintaining the family schedule, it becomes part of the job to note where things are located.” Lorna’s gaze kept moving back to the corner. There had to be a way to tell if Julia stood in the room.
“That all may be true, but I think it’s more than that.” Vivien moved to check the lobby monitor. Two girls were doing pirouettes on the hard floor in front of the candy display and a blonde woman in a red coat stood near them staring up at the camera. “I think you need to practice using the skill. Once everyone is gone, we’ll send you on a scavenger hunt. I’ll prove it to you. You’re a finder.”
“What’s that lady doing?” Lorna moved to get a closer look at the monitor.
“What lady? I don’t see anyone.” Vivien blocked her vision as she stepped out of the way. “It was probably one of the parents.”
When Vivien moved the blonde was gone. Someone waved the ballerinas over to the front doors and the two girls ran outside.
Heather sighed and pushed up from her chair. She slid open the desk drawer and took out a set of keys. “Looks like that’s the last of them. Let’s lock up and do a sweep for stragglers.”
Chapter Six
“You’re right. I’m magical,” Lorna wryly stated as she threw a hair tie onto the lost-and-found pile she had started on the edge of the small stage. So far, she’d located a set of mouse ears, a pen, a pack of chewing gum, twenty-two cents, and an old cell phone skin that looked like it had been cracked before someone shoved it next to their seat by the wall. She’d been visualizing finding lost objects, which could hardly be considered a parlor trick considering there were always lost items in a theater.
Heather and Vivien sat in the front row watching her work. They both held soda cups from the concession, but Vivien drank wine from hers and Heather had soda and vodka.
Lorna picked up her cup and took a drink. The surprising taste of vodka in her soda overpowered her taste buds. She coughed and patted the center of her chest.
“I added a splash more to help you catch up with us,” Vivien said. “You’re welcome.”
Heather turned to the side and flinched at the empty seats. She held up her hand as if telling someone to be quiet. “Julia says our problem is we asked too broad of a question.”
“Find something that was lost?” Vivien shrugged. “Sounds specific to me.”
“Lorna, try to find something of value that was hidden over fifty years ago,” Heather requested.
“Valuable? Like the take from a bank robbery?” Lorna laughed.
“Yes.” Vivien straightened in her chair and twirled her finger to encompass the theater. “Find that. We need a shopping spree in Italy. I want new shoes.”
Lorna tilted her head to look at the woman’s new designer heels. “I have a feeling you own more shoes than a department store.”
“See?” Vivien tipped her cup at Lorna. “You are psychic.”
“Or perceptive.” Lorna took a deep breath and looked around. “Fine. But this is the last time.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, telling herself to find something valuable and old.
Like the times before, she didn’t have any clue why she began walking. It wasn’t like she felt a pull or some unseen force leading her. She just moved. Instead of into the rows, she turned toward the steps leading onto the stage.
“Valuable and old,” she muttered. “Find something valuable and old.”
Lorna stood on the stage looking out into the theater. She twisted the ring on her finger. The sensation of heat came from above. Her gaze went to the lights she’d helped acquire. They were off, but that didn’t stop the feeling that they shone on her like a spotlight. Heather and Vivien watched her, cups in hand, from the first row.
A faint clapping sounded. Her new friends didn’t move, and the noise couldn’t have come from them.
“Do you hear that?” Lorna turned in a slow circle.
“No,” Heather and Vivien said in unison.
Without being able to explain why, Lorna crossed to the back of the stage. She reached between two of the velvet curtains. Her hand bumped a small lever on a post and she pulled down. It didn’t move. She pulled harder. The lever gave way with a loud metal clank. She heard gears and felt vibration beneath her feet.
Lorna looked at the stage and then up toward the ceiling, unsure of what she’d done.
“What is that?” Vivien asked.
“What did you do?” Heather ran along the front of the stage to the stairs.
“Stop moving,” Vivien ordered. “Listen.”
Several of the floorboards sank into the floor to create an uneven hole close to where Lorna stood. The slats had been staggered to hide the fact there was an opening. The clanking continued.
Heather and Lorna crept forward and leaned over the opening.
“What did you do?” Heather repeated, her voice soft.
“I don’t know.” Lorna peered into the hole. The noise stopped. Nothing happened.
“Viv, give me your phone.” Heather went to the end of the stage to take the device. She turned the flashlight function on and shone it into the floor.
“I think I broke the stage,” Lorna said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
“Of course you didn’t mean to do it,” Heather agreed.
“What’s down there?” Vivien asked.
“I have no clue. I didn’t know there was useable space beneath the stage. When we tried to go in from the sides, we kept hitting brick walls.” Heather lay on the floor to better see underneath.
Lorna returned to the curtains and pulled them back to see the post she’d touched. The lever she’d pulled was just one of three tiny notches in the wood.
“What does Julia say?” Vivien asked.
“She left,” Heather answered. “I think I see something down here. It looks like a track of some sort.”
“Do you want me to pull the next lever?” Lorna asked. “There are three of them disguised as notches in the wood.”
“Do it.” The click of Vivien’s heels announced her presence on the stage.
“Heather?” Lorna wasn’t about to break anything else. She needed this job and it would be hard to rent out the space with a hole in the stage.
“Go ahead. Everyone be careful. We don’t know what’s going to happen.” Heather pushed back onto her knees and nodded that she was ready.