The Diviners (The Diviners 1)

A crowd of revelers caromed down the hall, and Theta ducked into the first room she saw. It appeared empty, but as she came around the side of a green wingback chair, she saw that it was occupied by a handsome young man with a book of poems. He was so absorbed in his reading that he didn’t even notice her.

“Must be some book,” she said, startling him.

Memphis looked up to see a striking girl with jet-black hair smoking a cigarette and watching him.

“Walt Whitman.”

“Mmm,” Theta said.

“I’m a poet myself,” Memphis said. He held up his small leather journal. Theta took it and flipped through the pages, opening to a series of numbers written in the back. She raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t look like poetry to me. More like a bookie’s tab.”

Quickly, Memphis grabbed the book back. He gave her the full-dazzle smile that worked on chorus girls and jumpy gangsters. “I’m just holding that for a friend.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“My name’s Memphis. Memphis Campbell. And you are?”

“Just a girl in a nightclub.” Theta blew out a stream of smoke.

“You shouldn’t smoke those. Sister says they’re poison.”

“Your sister’s a barrel of laughs.”

Memphis laughed. “She’s not my sister. We call her sister. Sister Walker. And she could rival a pickle for pucker.” That got a smirk from Theta. It was all the encouragement Memphis needed. “You French? Got a French look to you. Maybe even a little Creole.”

Theta shrugged and tapped the end of her cigarette into a tall silver ashtray. “I look like everybody.”

“Well, I’m gonna call you Creole Princess.”

“You can call me whatever you like. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”

“I’m still gonna keep calling.”

“You’re persistent, Memphis Campbell, I’ll give you that. What are you doing here besides reading library books?”

“Oh, you know. A little of this, little of that.”

Theta arched one thin brow. “Sounds like trouble.”

Memphis spread his arms in a gesture of innocence. “Me? I’m the farthest thing from trouble you’ll ever know.”

“Mmm,” Theta said, walking around the room.

“Why aren’t you upstairs in the club?”

Theta shrugged. “I was bored.”

“Bored! That’s a first. Don’t you know the Hotsy Totsy is supposed to be the swankiest club in town?”

o;Nobody wants to dance with me.”

“I’ll get Sam to dance with you.”

“I don’t want you to make someone dance with me. You know perfectly well what I mean. It might be different if Jericho were here.”

“I tried to get him to come, Pie Face, honestly I did. But he’s pos-i-tute-ly allergic to having a good time. Why don’t you order another Orange Juice Jazz Baby?”

“They’re five dollars!”