“Come along, dear,” Aunt Maxine said. “You better get those groceries home before they go bad.”
Petunia gave Sharon one last glance on the way back to Aunt Maxine’s Cadillac. She didn’t know what she had ever done to that woman, but Sharon certainly had ill feelings about her.
Aunt Maxine gave Petunia the keys and said, “Be a dear and drive me home.”
Petunia’s eyes widened. “I can’t. You know that.”
“Yes, you can. I drive and so should you.”
“But what about the curse?”
“You can’t worry about that, Petunia. I promise you won’t die today.”
Petunia grumbled as she climbed behind the wheel, trying to still her shaking hands. Far too many relatives had died in car accidents, one of the reasons that Petunia didn’t even own a car. “I’d really rather go home first and drop off the steaks and feed my cats.”
“You’d better open up that bag of yours and let Pansy out before he suffocates,” she suggested.
Petunia settled herself into the driver’s seat and opened the bag, but couldn’t find Pansy anywhere. “He’s not in here!”
“Oh, Pansy, where are you?” Petunia called out to him.
“I’m right here,” Pansy said.
Aunt Maxine shrieked, “What on earth just jumped on my lap?”
“Lap? I don’t know, but Pansy is missing. There’s just no way he could have gotten out of that bag.”
“What are you talking about, Red? I’m right here on Aunt Maxine’s lap.”
Petunia swung her head, staring at Aunt Maxine’s lap, but there was no Pansy to be seen. “I-I just don’t know what’s going on here,” Petunia said. “I hear Pansy like I usually do, but I can’t see the blasted cat anywhere.”
“He’s on my lap, I think. There’s definitely something going on here. I’m just not sure what just yet. Drive me home and we’ll sort it out there.”
“Not a chance. I’m heading home.”
“Please, don’t do that. I-I er, I mean ... I have something I really need at home.”
“What, medication?”
“Y-Yes, that must be it. I need my medication,” Aunt Maxine smiled.
Petunia did a U-turn, heading to her aunt’s house on the hill that overlooked Lake Forest, but she had the sneaking suspicion that something was up. She’d never known her to ask her to drive her home before, and when it came to medication, Aunt Maxine had all but sworn off modern medicine. She insisted on making magical potions to cure what ailed her.
Within minutes, Petunia pulled into the drive that was on quite a steep hill. In the winter, it was quite treacherous to maneuver, and if it was icy, it was downright dangerous.
The garage door went up at their approach, but Petunia frowned at the other two cars in the driveway. “Do you have company?”
“It looks that way. I think Hazel and Wanda made a mention that they’d stop by today.”
“Who’s looking after Mystical Remedies?”
“Oh, that nice man, Noah, stopped back by. I lured his dog in the shop with dog treats, and he promised to look after things for me while I was gone for a few hours. Nice man. You could do worse, you know.”
“So you let a complete stranger man the shop? For all you know, he’s snooping around.”
“I’m sure it will be just fine. He’s going to be running for sheriff soon, you know.”
“Believe me, I know. I personally don’t think the man cares for me after Pansy scared his dog today.”
“Oh, no? Are you sure? I was hoping you two could get better acquainted.”
Sure, she did. Aunt Maxine didn’t much care for Petunia’s choice of men, and she wasn’t always wrong on that account, like in Jeremy’s case. She had warned her that Jeremy wasn’t the right type of man to be giving a love potion to, but Petunia didn’t listen and she was stuck with him now, unless she could figure out a way to turn him back into a human again.
Once they were in the garage, Aunt Maxine got out and called, “Come along, Pansy, dear.”
Hazel and Wanda were already inside when they joined them inside, and Aunt Maxine led them into the parlor that had a huge fireplace with frog figurines scattered along the mantle. The room was entirely filled with black leather furniture and antique oak woodwork, including a bookshelf filled with assorted witchcraft books that Petunia hoped were never opened. It was bad enough that one potion book had been opened, which was the root of Petunia’s troubles. She stepped back as her aunt’s cat Princess whizzed past.
“What on earth is wrong with that cat today?”
Aunt Maxine shrugged. “She’s a cat, need I say more?”
“Good point.”
“Open that bag and let me have a look. There has to be a reason we can’t see that cat of yours now,” Aunt Maxine said.
Wanda adjusted her spectacles. While she was taller than any of them, Hazel was quite the opposite, being both short and wide.
Petunia proceeded to remove the contents of her big bag that consisted of little more than her wallet and quite a few spools of yarn. “There’s no clue in here.”
“What’s in that bottle at the bottom?” Hazel asked. “Is that what I think it is?”
The bottle was pulled out and the top was missing. “Oh, great. It’s spilled all over the bottom of the bag,” Petunia said.
“No, it didn’t. It spilled all over me,” Pansy said.
“That’s strange. I can still hear Pansy, but I can’t see him.”
A table rocked precariously for a few moments and picture frames hit the floor. “Tell your cat to stop jumping on the tables. I don’t want everything I own to smash into pieces.”
“Well, it’s not my cat. That’s Jeremy, remember? I only turned him into a cat by accident.”
“And that’s not all you’ve done,” Wanda added. “What was in this bottle?”
“V-Vanishing cream,” Petunia choked out.
“Well, that explains it, then. It’s made him invisible,” Aunt Maxine said. “And you’ll simply have to make him un-invisible.”
“No, I can’t. I’ve sworn off potions, remember?”
“We know,” Hazel and Wanda chimed in unison. “That’s why we’re here today.”
Petunia’s eyes narrowed. “I hope this isn’t some kind of intervention.”
“Sorry, dear, but you left me no choice, really,” Aunt Maxine said. “You’ve turned a man into a cat and you need to fix that.”
“You tell her, Aunt Maxine,” Pansy said.
“I hope you know that they can’t hear you, Pansy,” Petunia fired back. “I just don’t trust myself to make another potion. I’m just not good at it,” she told her aunt.
“Looks like you made quite the vanishing cream,” Hazel said. “I’d love to use that on one of my ex-husbands.”
“Which one is that?” Wanda asked. “You have quite a few.”
“At least I don’t kill all of mine off like you, dear.”
Hazel and Wanda spent the next few minutes trading barbs until Aunt Maxine said, “Enough, already. We’ll help Petunia out to un-vanish the cat for starters.” She moved to the bookshelf and took off a rather dusty book.
“I-I don’t think it’s a good idea, Aunt Maxine. Should you really be messing with witchcraft when you don’t even know what you’re doing?”
“It’s just a potion book like the one back at the shop. There’s no harm in opening a book, now is there?”
“I’m not so sure, but I like Pansy more if he’s visible.”
Aunt Maxine carried the leather-bound book and set in on a table in the dining room. The table was black with a sheer cloth sitting overtop it, and when the book was opened, a breeze blew through the room, moving Petunia’s hair.
“Great. I thought you knew better than to mess with that stuff.”
“Listen now, Petunia. Anastasia Cuza told me to never fear opening any of these books if you do so with a pure heart, which we all have here today. We just need to find the righ
t spell—I mean, potion.”
Petunia sucked in a breath. She just hoped that her aging aunt hadn’t crossed over and dabbled in witchcraft now. The pages were carefully moved since the book was quite old. From the look of the yellow pages, all of the spells and potions were written with a quill pen, of that Petunia was sure.
“Here’s a potion for an un-vanishing spray,” Aunt Maxine said, pointing it out. “All you have to do, dear, is mix the ingredients.”
“Except that I’ve sworn off potions, remember?”
“For any potion to truly work, you have to believe it can,” Wanda insisted. “I’ll grab the sandalwood incense.” She grabbed the incense from a cabinet that had many different scents and brought them back to the table while Hazel brought an empty spray bottle from the kitchen, handing it to Petunia. “We have faith in you, girl.”
Petunia’s shoulders drooped. “Fine, but I’m doing it under protest. I have more important things to attend to today.”
They followed Petunia as she went into the kitchen and found a pan, filling it with water. She then added the herbs that the recipe called for.
“What else could be more important than doing this today?” Hazel asked.
“Oh, I found a dead body. Helen Patterson. You know, she—”
Before Petunia could say that Helen lived behind her neighbor, Noah, Wanda’s face paled. “Oh, no. That’s not too good for you, dear. I bet the sheriff thinks you did it.”
“What makes you think I did it?”
“Well, you were both dating the same man, and you never cared for the woman.”
“How does everyone in town know Jeremy was seeing both of us when I didn’t even know at the time?”
“Are you sure, dear? Because if you didn’t know, then why did you give him that love potion?” Hazel asked.
“I don’t know. I just made an error in judgment. It’s wrong to whip up a potion and give it to anyone. I’m not even sure I should make this potion.”
“Go on dear, it’s already boiling,” Aunt Maxine said.
Petunia grabbed a hot pad and set it aside to cool. “Fine, but this really is the least of my worries. I need to find out who killed Helen Patterson before the sheriff has a mind to arrest me for the crime.”
“And why would he do that without any hard evidence?” Aunt Maxine said. “Unless he finds something more solid to go on.”
“Cora stopped by and told me a black car with racing stripes was parked in Helen’s driveway. I wonder who it was.”
“Looks like you have your first clue,” Hazel said thoughtfully.
“It’s not much of one, but I’ll have to ask around.”
“You should ask that handsome neighbor of yours to help out. He has a law enforcement background,” Aunt Maxine said.
Hazel and Wanda stood at attention now.
“He’s too busy manning your shop,” Petunia said. “Besides, I don’t need him to solve this mystery. I can do that all by myself.”
“Aww,” Hazel said. “I’d sure love to help out.”
“Petunia doesn’t need our help, she’ll do just fine all on her own,” Aunt Maxine said.
Petunia wondered if she’d be able to figure out who had wanted Helen dead. It certainly never entered her mind to kill the woman. She poured the contents of the now lukewarm pan into the spray bottle, giving it a gentle shake. “Now, where is that cat?”
“Stupid human, I’m over here.”
“Human? You’re sounding like a cat more and more all the time. Show yourself.” Petunia took to spraying the air where she thought the cat was, but soon, items on the table came crashing on the floor.
“Please hurry, dear. Pansy is wrecking the place.”
Petunia was in motion spraying the air randomly, chasing after the mess he was making. She thought she had him finally cornered and sprayed like a woman possessed until little by little, Pansy’s black fur came into view.
“Stop that. Cats hate water, remember?”
“Oh, I know.” She continued to drench the cat until Aunt Maxine took the bottle away from her.
“That will be quite enough, but be a dear and help me pick up.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Petunia apologized all the way to her house as Aunt Maxine drove them home. “I didn’t mean to drench you like that.”
“Well, seeing as how you made a potion that didn’t backfire, you might as well try to figure out how to make a potion to turn me back.”
“I’m not so sure, but I’ll think about it.”
“Are you two conversing right now?” Aunt Maxine asked.
“How did you know?”
“As I’ve told you before, you need to learn to control your facial expressions. Sometimes I think you’re having a spasm.”
Petunia and Pansy were dropped off at her house and once Aunt Maxine drove off, she thought, Drat! But Aunt Maxine was in a hurry to relieve Noah since he had been kind enough to mind the shop while she was gone. Petunia had forgotten all about speaking to her about the batch of tea she had made back at her shop and how every time she sneezed, that bubbles appeared. Well, at least she didn’t forget the steak she’d bought. After the day she’d had thus far, she was determined that no matter what, she’d never go back into Norm’s Meat Market—unless she went incognito, that was.
Her mind then began to travel back to how poor Lucy Winters had such bad arthritis that the poor dear could barely move. Surely, she would be a good candidate for her herbal salve and she just had to give it a try. What was the worst that could happen?
* * *
Later in the evening, Petunia couldn’t find Pansy anywhere. That was just fine with Petunia since she really didn’t want Pansy knowing that she had planned to give her latest concoction to Lucy to try out. With salve buried in her oversized bag, out the door Petunia went. Lucy lived but two short blocks away and she passed Noah’s, who happened to be just pushing his dog into his house. Unfortunately for Petunia, Noah spotted her passing by and flagged her down.
“Hey, Petunia. It took me over two hours to catch Melvin.”
Petunia stopped and turned to Noah. “Is there a point?”
“Yes, I think you owe me, as I see it.”
“And why exactly would that be?”
“Well, first you found a body on my property and then your cat scared my poor dog half to death and it took me two hours to catch him, like I just told you.”
“It’s not like I planted the body there myself, you know. I mean, if I was some kind of mad killer, I’d have made sure the body was left far from my house, like near Lake Forest.”
“That might be, but your cat Pansy sure upset Melvin. First your cat got into my house and the next Melvin was gone.”
“That was much later and after the fact.”
Noah scratched his head. “What’s a guy got to do to get you to have dinner with him, anyway?”
“Well, for one, it might be good if you didn’t act like I owed it to you. I’m sorry about Pansy getting into your house, but I really need to get going. I’m late for an appointment.”
“How about dinner at six? Certainly you’d be free by then.”
Petunia’s hands went to her hips, and her foot went to tapping. “What makes you think I want to have dinner with you anyway?”
Noah sighed. “I was just hoping to get to know you a little better, since I see your cats getting into my house at some point again. It would be a whole lot easier, I think. Anyway, is six a good time? I saw a great restaurant in town when I was chasing Melvin. It was an Italian place. Mario’s at six?”
“Fine. I’ll be there, seeing as how I’ll never get to my appointment unless I agree, but dinner is all it will be.” Petunia whirled back up the sidewalk and obviously, Noah was satisfied with her agreement about dinner since he neither followed her nor made a further comment. Why had she agreed? It certainly didn’t have anything to do with the fact that Noah was one of the most gorgeous men she’d seen in quite some time. No, definitely not!<
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Petunia strolled along and almost ran headlong into Cora, who narrowed her eyes as a Petunia sneezed, sending bubble to swirl in the air as she passed. That Cora sure was a fickle bird. One moment, she was parked on her porch supplying information about Helen Patterson’s supposed male visitor, and now it was business as usual. Had she been fishing for information, hoping that Petunia would share some minute detail so that she could go straight to the sheriff’s department to rat her out? Well, Cora would have to try harder than that to get Petunia to incriminate herself, especially when she had no reason to feel guilty at all—except that she’d turned Jeremy into a cat, and nobody outside of her Aunt Maxine and her friends knew about that. She had completely forgotten about her little problem with sneezing and really needed to speak to Aunt Maxine about it, but when she had been over at her place, Pansy’s invisibility was the highlight of the moment. Jasmine tea and bubbles just didn’t seem like they fit together, but Petunia smiled as she glided up the walk at Lucy’s New England-style cottage.
When she knocked on Lucy’s door, it took a very long time for Lucy to answer and with a few more raps, Lucy eased open the door. “You need to give an old gal like me more time to get to the door before you keep knocking like a woodpecker on an oak.”
Petunia eased the strap of her purse off her shoulder. “Sorry, but I brought you something.” She pulled out a small tin can, which was filled with her latest healing salve that she was scared to death might not help at all, but after seeing Lucy having a time of walking at the meat market, she just couldn’t not let her try it out.
Lucy snatched up the can, and smiled. “Why you standing out here? Come inside.”
Petunia walked inside and it was obvious that Lucy was hurting very badly as her house was very unkempt with clothing and newspapers piled on the sofa and chairs—so out of character for Lucy.
She had to turn her head quick as Lucy dropped her trousers as she rubbed the salve on her legs. “Please, take it easy with that stuff. You should only need a small amount.”
“I know, but my legs really ache,” she said, globbing out quite a bit more than Petunia would recommend. Gee, now she was really worried something might go wrong since the salve was quite strong.
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