Speak of the Devil
“Hello?” Onyx City answered the ringing phone reluctantly. She had been playing her violin and laid the instrument down carefully on the seat of a chair.
“Onyx City?”
“Ye-es. Who is this?
“It’s B. Meigest, of course. Are you busy?”
“Well, actually . . .Wait a minute! How did you get my number?”
“You’re in the phonebook.”
“Oh, right.” Onyx City made a mental note to get her phone number removed from the phonebook as soon as possible. “What can I do for you, B.?”
“I didn’t know who else to call. The Devil is following me around.”
“I am sure the Devil is not following you around. The Devil doesn’t do things like that!”
“He is. First, he came to my office. I ran into him in the hallway. I was thinking about all the things I could do if I didn’t have to work, and suddenly he was there. He said he wanted to talk to me about a grade.”
“Are you saying the Devil is a student in your class?” That doesn’t sound right.”
“Of course I’m not. I mean he was disguised as someone who might be a student.”
“So, how did you know it was the Devil?
“I saw it in his eyes, and he was wearing a T-shirt with the Ace of Spades on it.”
“OK. What happened?”
“He said he wanted to talk to me in my office about his grade, but I said I had to get to a meeting and he would have to come back some other time.”
“Then what?”
“He walked past me, and when I looked back, he was gone. He disappeared! And I thought I smelled something burning.”
“Fire and brimstone?”
“Maybe. Then I saw him again!”
“Did he come to class?
“Of course not. He came to my house. This time he was handing out flyers for a dance school.”
“A dance school? That seems unusual. How did you know it was Devil? Was it the same man?”
“No, this time it was a girl. She had the same eyes though and the strange thing was, she wanted to talk to me about a barn dance they were having for Halloween! And you know, no one ever has barn dances anymore.”
"What did you do?"
"I slammed the door of course!"
Onyx City considered this for a moment. She looked longingly at the violin waiting patiently for her to pick it back up and continue playing. She couldn’t believe she had listened to all this and tried to calculate how minutes the conversation had taken.
“Are you still there?” B. Meigest demanded.
“Uh-huh. I was thinking about all this. You know, this does sound kind of serious.”
“I told you it was!”
“Look, why don’t you invite me over and we can agree about what to do.”
“You want to come over here?” B. Meigest asked confused.
“Yes, I think that would be best. You invite me over and we’ll make a plan we agree on.”
“Why can’t you tell me what to do on the phone? You don’t even know where I live.”
“It’s probably going to be complicated. Just invite me over, and I’m sure we can reach an agreement.”
“You know what, never mind!” B. Meigest hung up the phone a little too abruptly.
Onyx City smiled to herself. She bent down to rummage through the pile of sheet music at her feet. Finding Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata, one of her favorite pieces, she picked up her violin and began to play.