by Raven Snow
“No. Ah, I mean, if someone can point me toward the coffee maker that’d be gre—”
“Why didn’t any of you offer her a coffee?” Irene snapped her fingers. “What are you lot getting paid for? Get it together.”
“No, really, it’s fine. I can make my own—” But Irene had stormed off before Rowen could finish her sentence.
A young blonde woman with an ear piece stepped from the corner with her clipboard. “How do you take your coffee?” she asked with a smile.
“I’m fine,” Rowen said quickly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you into any sort of trouble.”
The woman shook her head. “It’s no trouble at all. That’s just how she is. I’m sure she doesn’t even know who it was she was snapping at, if it was even anyone in particular. She’ll forget what she even raised her voice in about a minute. So, how do you take your coffee?”
***
By the time Rowen was finished signing things, she couldn’t help but feel like she should have brought some lawyers of her own. Granted, the only lawyer who was a personal friend was an hours long plane ride away. Still, the whole thing made her nervous in retrospect. It had all felt so normal while the lawyers had been pointing and explaining and reassuring. Now, she suddenly found herself rethinking everything. She wondered if the same had happened to Margo. Not that Margo would ever tell anyone if it had.
Rowen gave Rose a call, letting her know that she was finished. “Good. I assumed you were finished,” said Rose, sounding distracted, like she didn’t really want to be on the phone right now. “Sorry, I’m on a video call with some people who work for WNT. Are you coming by today? They’re making a lot of good suggestions. I might actually need you guys here today, if you can manage it. I know you’re busy with that interview you have tonight.”
“I’m going to swing by Odds & Ends and make sure the help gets there all right. It’s on my way. I’ll be over right after. It might take a little while depending on traffic.”
“Okay, thanks. I appreciate it.” Rose hung up, leaving Rowen to wonder if she had even processed what she’d said. Oh, well.
***
It took Rowen a little while to arrive at Odds & Ends. Things were less crowded today, but the line was still out the door. Surprisingly, the back lot was mostly empty. There were a number of new and very official signs up. Employee Parking, they read. Violators WILL Be Towed. There were a few cars in back that Rowen didn’t recognize. She couldn’t definitely say they weren’t the extra staff Irene had sent over though. Someone had to have put up those signs.
Rowen parked and let herself in through the back. Nadine was sitting in the back, sipping some tea. She looked up when the door opened. “Ah, Rowen! Nice to see you.” She smiled, looking well rested and not the least bit stressed today. That was a good sign.
“I take it you’ve got your extra employees today?” Rowen asked, returning the smile.
Nadine nodded before taking another sip of her sweet-smelling tea “Oh, yes. Thank you for that, by the way. They’re fantastic. Lydia and Norm insist on staying out there. It’s like they don’t trust them, which is nonsense. They’re great kids. So efficient and so polite. They really know their stuff, too! Thanks for this, Sweetheart.”
Rowen shrugged. “It was just part of an agreement between two news sources. It really isn’t a big deal.”
“Well, it is to me. It is to Lydia and Norm as well, even if they won’t admit it.”
Rowen headed into the front of the shop just to check on things. Like Nadine had said, things were indeed running a lot smoother. It looked like Irene had sent four people over. They had name tags on their shirts and smiles on their faces. A couple of them were working near the door. One girl seemed to be joking around with the crowd outside. “I remember you from Indiana, don’t I! Love your spirit, man. I love you so much I’m not going to let you in there until it’s safe. You wanna be able to move around the store, don’t ya? Don’t wanna be a fire hazard, do you?”
The store did indeed have a more manageable crowd inside of it. A guy was fielding the questions of people as they came in. He really did seem to know his stuff. For the little while Rowen watched him, he was able to steer customers this way and that, while the other two members of Irene’s staff helped on a more personal level. Even the shelves were well stocked today. Rowen wondered if they had another person working those.
“I’m not sure I trust these guys.” Norm had sidled up to his niece. He was speaking quietly, but the distrust on his face was plain to read. The team from WNT couldn’t have missed it.
Rowen sighed and rolled her eyes. She could see a similar look on Lydia’s face from where she stood. It looked like Lydia hadn’t even noticed her come in. She was working the register, but most of her attention seemed to be on these new people working the store. “Why don’t you trust them? Nadine trusts them.”
“That’s because Nadine always tries to see the best in people. Lydia gets me. She doesn’t trust these guys either. Where was it they came from again? A rival store?”
“Not really. They sell merchandise for WNT. They travel. It’s not like they’re setting up shop here. I don’t think they even sell what you sell here. I think it’s just, like, t-shirts and stuff.”
“Even worse. They aren’t here for long, so they aren’t even beholden to our town’s laws.”
“Don’t quote me on it, but I’m pretty sure that the laws that exist outside of our town still apply to us.”
Norm grunted, not conceding that she had a point. “I don’t trust them,” he said instead, sticking to his guns.
“Well, you and Lydia are welcome to outvote Nadine and send them home.” Rowen wasn’t going to argue with him. “The rest of us need to be at the Inquirer, though. You won’t be getting any help from us if you turn this help away.”
Norm grumbled something at that. He wandered off to help a customer one of the guys from WNT was already helping. Rowen watched him go, feeling fairly confident he wasn’t going to turn these guys away. He needed them, and despite all his complaining, they looked to be doing a good job.
The WNT employee Norm had muscled in on stepped back. He put his hands on his hips and looked around for someone else to help. There was no shortage of folks who might need assistance. His gaze landed on Rowen, however. He went to her. There was still a frown on his face, like he was still annoyed with Norm’s actions and he was transferring that anger straight to Rowen. “Hey,” he said, coming to stand where Norm had beside her. He was a great deal taller than Norm. Rowen was forced to look up at him when he spoke. “You from the station?”
“Huh?” Rowen wasn’t sure how to process those first few words out of his mouth. They didn’t make sense.
“Are you from the station?” The man repeated, a little louder this time, like maybe she hadn’t heard him over all the noise in the shop.
Rowen realized what he was talking about all at once. “Oh,” she said as it dawned on her. “No, I don’t work for WNT. I’m related to the people who own this place. I was just checking in with them on my way to work.”
The man sighed and nodded, like he was disappointed but not surprised. “Yeah, okay. Sorry. Forget I said anything.” He started to walk away, but Rowen caught him by the shoulder.
“Hang on.” Rowen quickly dropped her hand once he had turned and frowned at the hand touching him. “Was there supposed to be someone else here?”
The man nodded. “Yeah, but he didn’t show this morning.”
“It looks like you have things under control here, though.” Rowen took another look around the shop. They really did have the whole place running like a well-oiled machine. She wasn’t sure she saw the problem. “If you need someone to come here and work so you can take breaks I can probably sort something out with my cousins.”
“No, it’s not that,” the man said quickly. “I just wasn’t supposed to be here is all. They said they’d send someone to replace me later, but—” He stopped speaking and
shook his head. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Rowen watched the man go. She watched the frown become a smile as he took his place beside another customer. Rowen shrugged to herself and turned to leave. A tardy employee on WNT’s end wasn’t her problem, she told herself. She did her best to ignore that feeling in her gut that told her, somehow, it was.
Chapter Eight
It was a busy day at the Lainswich Inquirer. Rose had her hands full talking with experts about possible changes to the publication. Everyone sort of just left her to that. Rowen took over for her. She had run the Inquirer back when it had first started. Journalism was one of the first fields she had worked in, so she knew a thing or two about it. It wasn’t like she was out of her element or anything. Rose trusted the paper to her, even during a busy news week like this one.
Granted, there wasn’t a whole lot of news today. There was still plenty to write about, but none of it was breaking news exactly. There hadn’t been a UFO sighting the night before, and people were bored. Tomorrow was Monday. There was a good chance most of them would leave then, go back to their regular lives. Rowen was hoping for that. Even so, Rowen worked like that wouldn’t be the case. She assigned stories and steered Benji and Willow to the camp ground for some interviews.
Margo hadn’t shown up. That wasn’t much of a surprise. Rowen tried to call her several times throughout the day anyway. It felt like she should keep her updated on everything that was going on. After about the fifth time calling her, she gave up. Her phone wasn’t even on. The later it got, the more unlikely it felt that she would still be asleep. Most likely, she was waiting until dark to respond to any phone calls. Once it was dark, the streets would be clear and the work day would be mostly over. She could claim she was still tired from the interview the night before and that no one had told her she was needed at the Inquirer today.
Speaking of interviews, Rowen’s was coming up. She had been avoiding looking at the clock the whole day. Once the sky began to darken, it was hard to ignore however. Even so, it was Rose who finally said something.
“You should get going.” Rose took the manila folder from her cousin’s hands. She had been walking it to the scanner. “I’m sure they’ll want you in hair and makeup soon.”
“What? You mean I don’t look great like this?” Rowen smiled and patted the messy bun on top of her head. She was kidding around, but Rose must have seen through it.
“I know you’re nervous, but it’ll be fine.” Rose put her hand on Rowen’s back and nudged her toward the door. “It was the right decision to agree to this. We’ve already gotten a lot out of it.”
“Well, I’m glad about that at least.” Rowen hoped Rose was right. She still didn’t feel completely confident about her decision.
***
Rowen headed out as per Rose’s wishes. It wasn’t like she could just not show after signing all those papers. If she waited much longer, she was sure folks from WNT would start calling. They would demand to know where she was. Rowen didn’t want to think about what might happen if she broke her contract.
Her phone did end up ringing while she was stuck in traffic near the campground. “Hi there!” said a chipper voice when Rowen answered. “I’m Veronica, Irene’s assistant. Is this Rowen Greensmith?”
“Yeah.” Rowen cleared her throat. “Yes, I’m on my way. I’m about a block from the campground. I’m just stuck in traffic a bit.”
“I see!” Veronica continued to sound upbeat. “If you’ll give me a landmark, I’ll send someone to park for you. I’d like to go ahead and start prepping you for the interview, if you don’t mind.”
Rowen glanced at the clock. There were still a few hours before she was expected to sit for her interview. At least, she thought that was the case. She hadn’t expected to need to be prepped. It defeated the candid nature of journalism in her mind. Then again, it felt like something she should have expected now that Veronica mentioned it.
***
A man came and took the car from her. She tried to explain to him how the emergency brake stuck and how the lights didn’t turn off automatically. He nodded and smiled and rushed her out of the car like he knew all this already. Rowen was reluctant to just leave the car to him, but there wasn’t a whole lot to do about that. Surely WNT would fix things if he wrecked or drained the battery. Maybe she just needed to have more faith in people. With a sigh, she zipped up her windbreaker and headed for the campground.
There weren’t as many tents crowding the place. Maybe some people had already gone home. Surely, a lot of these people had jobs to get back to.
Not that that meant the place wasn’t still crowded. Rowen had to pick her way around tents and through packs of people chatting away about government cover-ups and chemicals in the water. There was a strong odor of body odor and stale beer on the wind.
The space where the WNT team was set up was more bearable. They had a perimeter in place. A short young woman with a clipboard looking out over the crowd had to be Veronica. She grinned and waved to Rowen when she saw her. The smell of fresh flowers and citrus wafted down from the open door she was standing in. “Sorry to make you walk all this way!”
“It’s fine,” Rowen assured her, climbing the stairs. “I prefer it to driving out in all that traffic.”
“Oh, I hear you,” Veronica said, her tone still incredibly upbeat. She struck Rowen as a little fake, though that wasn’t much of a surprise. It was probably her job as Irene’s assistant to be agreeable. Rowen couldn’t bring herself to think less of the woman for doing her job.
The trailer door closed behind Rowen. The interior was about what she had expected. There were several cheap desks that had been set up. Some personal touches were here and there, but mostly it was just your average, quickly assembled workspace.
“Take a seat.” Veronica motioned to a chair in front of a desk. She must have noticed the way Rowen was looking around, taking in her surroundings. “Sorry for the fold out chair. We won’t be here for long. Hair and makeup is much more comfortable.”
“It’s fine,” Rowen assured her.
Veronica settled down behind the desk. She began flipping through the pages on her clipboard. “All right. Let’s see what we have here,” she said to herself. She brushed back the bangs of her short blonde hair and pushed her glasses up along the bridge of her nose a bit. “There shouldn’t be anything new here that the lawyers didn’t already have you sign.” She took a couple of pages from the clipboard and turned them so that Rowen could see. Taking a pen from her shirt pocket, she tapped certain bullet points she must have thought needed special mention. “There’s, of course, no talk about witchcraft unless prompted. Let Irene lead all that. We don’t want to spook the audience.”
“I thought they were here to get spooked.”
Veronica chuckled. “Our audience is eclectic,” she said, keeping her opinion on the matter inoffensively vague. “You’ll be sure to let Irene lead the conversation, though. Right?”
“Sure.”
“Great. Now, when she does ask questions about witchcraft, play up the whole good witch, white witch angle. I’m not sure what term you would use here.”
“Witch,” Rowen said with a shrug. “Just witch. It’s not really… a binary thing.”
Veronica nodded like that made perfect sense. “Well, if Irene asks, do be sure to mention that you’re, you know, good. No mention of black magic or Satan or anything like that.”
“All right,” said Rowen, slowly.
Veronica looked up with a smile. She must have caught the mild annoyance in Rowen’s tone. “I know all this stuff is so poorly worded and such a hassle. Just bear with me for a little longer.”
Rowen just nodded and smiled. That seemed to be what Veronica was most comfortable with. “It’s fine. Go on.” She proceeded to nod at each bullet point Veronica pointed to. It seemed like she was around just to be a sounding board for Irene. Rowen was pretty sure she could do that. Maybe that was why Margo wasn’t b
ack today. Rowen couldn’t imagine Margo not giving her two cents every time the opportunity presented itself. Heck, she might have out-talked Irene. At the very least, she had probably thought of herself as some kind of co-announcer for the evening.
A knock on the door put a stop to Veronica’s pen tapping and underlining. She stopped talking and looked to the door. “Come in,” she called.
The security man who had stopped Rowen the night before stepped in. His eyes lingered on her for just a moment before looking to Veronica and saying what he had come to say. “We have a slight problem out here. Do you have a moment to give me a hand? Seems there might have been a scheduling mix up.”
Veronica frowned but nodded. “Yes, of course.” She picked up her clipboard and stood, making sure to put on a smile again before addressing Rowen. “It’s about time we got you to hair and makeup anyway. I’ll swing by to run over the rest of this with you later.”
Rowen was herded out of the trailer, closely followed by Veronica. The security guy was already back outside, doing his best to keep the problem of his in one spot. Rowen froze on the stairs. The problem looked an awful lot like Margo.
Margo caught sight of Rowen not long after that. “Rowen?” She ignored the security man’s protests, stepping around him to intercept Rowen as she came the rest of the way down the stairs. “What are you doing here?”
“If you ever bothered to turn your phone on, you’d know.” Rowen was still a bit annoyed Margo had decided to give herself a day off without really talking it over with anyone.
Margo crossed her arms over her chest in one smooth, petulant motion. “Sorry, but I needed my beauty rest. I was up the entire night before, and I have to do it again tonight… At least, that’s what I was told.” Margo took a moment to scowl at the security man. “Now they’re treating me like some kind of intruder. This is ridiculous. I can’t believe you treat your guests like this. The lack of communication between you people is seriously lacking. This is just a mess. You should all be ashamed.”
