Ergo, the Ogre

Welcome to the daily Three Things Challenge.
Use your imagination and creativity using one, two or all three words that may or may not be related. There are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre, though please keep it family friendly.

Tag your responses with 3TC, #threethingschallenge or TTC, and you can add Di’s logo if you wish.

Your three words today are:
CLUE
SIGNAL
SEANCE

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Jeremy’s twin died at birth. It would have been a boy, and his name would have been Max. That was sixteen years ago, and he felt a strange, nagging loss — more so now than ever before.

Lately, he thought about Max all the time, what he would’ve been like, adventures they would’ve shared, secrets they would’ve kept, if he thought Jeremy’s marble collection was dorky, as well as his herd of pet rocks, what his voice may have sounded like, if he liked liver …

Jeremy wondered why this was happening now, all of a sudden. He wanted to talk to his parents about it, but the few times he’d brought up Max before, his mother broke down in tears, while his father would disappear to his ‘man cave’, locking the door behind him.

If Max had something to tell him, why didn’t he visit Jeremy in his dreams‽ That made the most sense to Jeremy, but who knew what made sense in the afterlife‽ If he only had a clue, an inkling of what was going on with Max. He knew something had to be.

Finally, Jeremy confided in his best friend, Joe. Joe was a smart guy, hopefully he’d share some insight with his friend.

Joe listened intently to Jeremy’s problem and suggested they hold a seance. If Max had anything to say, a seance would provide the perfect venue.

“I dunno, man.” Jeremy said. “Have you ever done one before? I haven’t.”

“Well, no.” Joe admitted. “But I’ve read a lot of books about it and saw a couple of movies.”

“What if we’re bugging him? I don’t want to piss him off.”

“To me it seems that he wants to communicate something to you. Why else would he be on your mind so much?”

“True,” Jeremy nodded. “But shouldn’t we have someone there who knows what they’re doing?”

“Yes, we should.” Joe agreed. “I’m gonna ask my cousin. She’s facilitated a few seances in her time.”

“The hot one?” Jeremy asked hopefully.

“No,” Joe laughed. “A different one. Her name is Tanya.”

The seance was set to take place on that Friday evening at Tanya’s apartment. Time past slowly for Jeremy and Joe, but Friday finally rolled around as it always did.

They were seated at a round, wooden table in the middle of Tanya’s living room. She must’ve brought it in for just this occasion as it certainly didn’t fit well. There was also a fourth person there, a friend of Tanya’s named Grace who was also an experienced medium. Tanya closed the blinds, lit a candle and turned off the lights. She then asked everyone to be quiet and clear their minds.

Next, they held hands as Tanya tried to make contact. Nothing happened but the air felt thick, somehow. After about fifteen minutes, a gentle breeze wafted through the room. It was warm and smelled of magnolias. It felt comfortable and familiar, like home only better, to Jeremy. His heart felt full yet broken.

“He’s here,” Tanya whispered. “Max, is there something you’d like to say to your brother, Jeremy?”

Silence. And then, the almost non-sound of something rolling around on the wooden floor. Jeremy felt it stop at his right foot. He was afraid to look.

The candle suddenly went out and Tanya got up to turn on the lights. She was sweaty and looked exhausted.

Jeremy looked down at the floor, where he saw a marble. Not just any marble, but a rare, handmade German snowflake. He stared at it in disbelief.

“Does that mean something to you, Jeremy?” Tany asked.

His eyes welled up. He didn’t trust his voice, so he just nodded. Everyone was waiting for him to speak so he cleared his throat and hoped for the best.

“It’s, it’s a marble. A marble for my collection that I’d been hoping for forever.” Jeremy sniffed. “It’s very rare and wicked expensive.” Then, he could no longer hold the tears back, and he let them out.

Tanya went over to hug him, and he hugged her back, hard, and cried all the tears that he’d saved up inside for his brother.

“I miss you, Max. I miss you so much.” Jeremy clutched the marble as if he’d never let it go.