Meeting with Miss Galatea Monday at the Haunted Jellyfish for a séance and photo shoot, I confessed to being a little worried. “Aww, no need. I will protect you from anything scary,” said she, smiling. “The spirits are our friends.” As she got me settled in the studio, she said I was pretty, so I figured we were off to a pretty good start.
That’s when the ghost appeared.
I was pretty sure I’d never met a bunnyfish, but her face was familiar somehow. Miss Gala said the bunnyfish ghost was humming a tune. It was all pretty weird, but I wasn’t scared.
Miss Monday’s spirit portrait of Tattler reporter Gigi Lapin with spirit guardian
“This bunny says that she may know where your lost keys are,” said Miss Gala. “Did you lose keys recently?” I told her I’d lost an entire building—the Tattler building, which had been replaced by a hospital without anyone telling me. Miss Gala told me that the bunnyfish ghost, who is apparently my spirit guardian, said that the Tattler would be found where I least expected it. (Which turned out to be true—the newspaper has moved into the old Montgolfier Building, where the doctor’s clinic used to be, just a few steps down Rossignol from the Jellyfish.)
“Maybe it’s at the bottom of the river,” I joked.
Miss Gala said, “No, but she says some things certainly are.”
As a child, she was chasing a frog but fell down a well and hit her head, and ever since then, spirits have been talking to her. “The spirit world has become a place of comfort for so many. But they’re bored. So, one just has to have some patience and a good connection, and they seem more than willing to come and play!”
Miss Lapin’s portait of Galatea Monday, snapped surreptitiously during the séance
I had some questions for my spirit guardian, and what I heard about my ailing crawfish Jimbo shocked me. According to Miss Gala, everyone has a spirit guardian. If you haven’t yet met yours, consider paying her a visit.
Gigi Lapin resides in New Toulouse Bayou with her pet crawfish, Jimbo, who is absolutely not to be given any bourbon.