We did not speak as Lois lowered the lights, partly because of the solemnity of the occasion and partly because we were sore about Gary walking out on us, saying he wouldn’t take part in such hokum. But we leaned in over the table as Lois sat down again. Alice arched her fingers over the planchette.
There was a wait. “Oh!” said Phyllis, less a word than an exhalation of breath when fingers and planchette began to move around the board.
The letters came slow at first. S. U. B.
Janice pushed back from the table. “If it spells ‘Submit’, I quit.”
Six of us breathed “SSSsshhhh!” in unison.
And then the message was spelled out for us. We stared.
“SUBSCRIBE NOW JUST 10 GOLD FOR NEXT 66 COMMUNICATIONS GOOD BYE”
Alice shook her head. “Everything’s monetized these days.”
