“There is not much we can do for you.” Mary Ellen levitated in the air with her arms crossed before she floated down and landed on her cute leopard-print cowboy boots. Her long black hair hung over each shoulder in braids.
“There has to be something.” I bit the side of my lip. I wondered if I was ever going to get used to the comings and goings of all the Marys, known as the Elders. They were going to be around for a while since I was appointed the new Village President. That was part of their job. To make sure the transition went smoothly.
There were three elders: Mary Lynn, Mary Sue, and Mary Ellen. They were equivalent to the President of the United States in the spiritualist world. The Village Presidents (me) are like the governors of the spiritual communities.
“I’m having a bit of a panic attack.” I dipped the ladle into the cauldron and took a small sip of the liquid. My nose curled. “Eww.” I shook my head like it was going to get rid of the bitter taste.
“Is it the first meeting as Village President that is bothering you or…” She adjusted her emerald green belt that accented her tiny waist.
“Or what?”
“Or…” Her eyes narrowed, casting a shadow down her cheeks. “Is it Oscar Park you are concerned with?”
“Both.” I sighed, heavily. The thought of being in charge of a community made my head hurt. That Oscar Park had lost all of his spiritual powers and memory of ever having lived in Whispering Falls because of me, made my entire body hurt. Especially my heart.
“He made the decision to stop being a spiritualist to help you.”
“He did it without asking me first.”
“He is a big boy.” Mary Ellen tossed a braid over her shoulder. “And a mighty fine specimen at that.”
I eyed her, letting her know that I didn’t like her comment.
“What is the potion for?” Mary Ellen changed the subject and peeked into the cauldron. She looked at me with a cautious eye.
Did she know what I was up to? I’d take my chance and lie.
“I need something to settle my nerves.” The bitter taste still lingered in my mouth. I grabbed the little jar of honey off the shelf and squirted a little in the cauldron. Stirring the mixture I said, “This should do the trick.”
Normally, I didn’t like to do chants in front of people. This wasn’t a normal situation. Mary Ellen wasn’t leaving and I had limited time before the shop opened.
It was already eight thirty and there was only a half hour until it was time to open.
With my hands back over the cauldron, I waved them back and forth, chanting, ““I am peaceful, I am strong. Though dark may seem so long. For day must follow every night. Everything is all right. I am always safe from harm. The Order of Elders holds me in their arms.”
The roiling mix came to an abrupt stop, letting me know it was ready.
“That doesn’t look like any ole calming potion to me.” Mary Ellen’s brows rose significantly. She stuck her finger in the hot mixture. The entire pot solidified like concrete causing my cauldron to shatter into pieces all over the counter and floor. “Ha! I knew it!”
“My cauldron!” I cried as I dropped to the ground to pick up the pieces that had crashed to the floor. Luckily, what was left was mostly on the counter.
“June Heal,” Mary Ellen stated sharply as she floated in the space between my head and the ceiling and waved a wand over me, “consider yourself on probation! You cannot go against the elders and their rulings. Oscar Park’s powers were taken away once and for all!”
She snapped her fingers. A puff of pink smoke filled the air before Mary Ellen disappeared.
Cough, cough. I put my hand over my mouth careful not to breathe in the pink smoke. I rushed over to the window and pushed it up to let in some fresh air. I couldn’t let the customers think I had a batch of bad cures brewing.
“Probation? Whatever!” I fanned the air as I made my way back to the counter, but stopped when I heard an unfamiliar sound in Whispering Falls.
Construction.
I went back to the window and looked across the street. There was a woman wearing a pair of jeans with a white tight-fitting sweater and black wedge sandals. Her honey-blond hair tumbled down her back in beautiful loose curls. She was pointing something out to the man in the hardhat standing next to her. He used all his might to hammer something into the brick. When he was finished, they stood back and admired the sign.
“Ever After Books.” I smiled at the name. It was a very enchanting name and the store would certainly draw the tourists.
I pulled back when the woman turned my way and looked directly at A Charming Cure, and more specifically, at me.
I flipped the sign to OPEN, taking a quick peek across the street.
The woman was gone, but the crew was still there putting the awning over the door as the final touch. It rolled down in place, right above the windows.
“Ever After Books.” The purple lettering stood out on the khaki-colored canvas.
“Ophelia Biblio: five-foot five-inches with curly honey-blond hair. Very nice.” Madame Torres read off the new owner’s stats. “From a spiritualist community in Ohio. Single and ready to mingle.”
“Single and what?” I snickered at Madame Torres’s sense of humor. She was sometimes off-handed, but at other times very entertaining.
“That is what her old match profile said.” Madame Torres’s globe glowed with the Make-Me-A-Match dating site for spiritualists. Something I had recently heard about, but had no interest in using.
Apparently it was the newest rage in the spiritual world. After all, it was hard to meet someone that was compatible. You can’t put a palm reader with an astrologer. They’d fight over the sun, moon, and stars all of the time. Generally, we spiritualists were far too busy trying to help others instead of taking care of our own needs.
The bell ding-donged over the door bringing me out of my thoughts.
“Good morning.” Constance Karima greeted me when she walked in with Patience, her twin, not too far behind.
“Speaking of our needs,” Madame Torres mumbled. “You’d better snag you a new man or get on Make-Me-A-Match before you turn out like those two old spiritualist spinsters.” Madame Torres’s eyes filled the globe. “Alone.”
“Shh…” I warned Madame Torres to be quiet. She wasn’t the type of crystal ball that could help you out when you needed her to and be silent until you did. She was far too opinionated for that and she didn’t care who heard her.
“Why?” Constance Karima swayed back and forth on her small feet in her pointy black boots. Her black housecoat hung to her ankles. She picked at her short grey hair. Patience mimicked her sister’s every move.
“Why?” I asked back a bit confused.
“You told me to shush.” Constance narrowed her eyes, casting a shadow down her puffed up cheeks. She eased over and took a good look at the mess from the busted up cauldron.
“Yes, mm, hmm, shh.” Patience had a habit of repeating her sister.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was talking to Mr. Prince Charming.” I lied.
Growl. Mr. Prince Charming let me know his dislike for my comment. On my way over to grab my apron off the hook, I ran my hand down his back to make him happier. Purrr, purr.
I looked at the mess with great sadness. There wasn’t going to be any cure making today or for a while, until I could purchase a new cauldron. That wouldn’t be until I could make it to Wands, Potions, and Beyond. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be anytime soon, since it was at Hidden Hall A Spiritualist University, my alma mater and where my Aunt Helena was the Dean.
It had been awhile since I had seen her and there were a lot of questions I needed to ask. Even though she was a Fairiwick, she did dabble a bit in the unknown, which was just what I needed to find a cure for Oscar.
I smacked the broom on the floor when I realized Aunt Helena could help me with Oscar.
“June Heal, what is wrong with you today?” Constance grabbed Patience’s arm and dr
agged her toward the door. “We are leaving.”
“Wait!” I hollered after her after my odd behavior scared them. I didn’t want them spreading gossip about how I was acting, because it would put my secret cure for Oscar on their radar screen. Evidently, I was already on probation.
“You naughty, naughty girl,” Madame Torres’s voice dropped and a smile crossed her bright red lips, exposing her snow-white teeth when she read my thoughts about asking for Aunt Helena’s help. After all, Aunt Helena would surely help me find a way to cure Oscar Park without skipping a beat. “I love it.”
The twins stopped shy of the door. Nonchalantly, I made my way to the front of the store and gently invited the two of them back in.
“Where are my manners? What can I do for you two lovely ladies this morning?” I took two bottles of hand cream and handed them to the sisters. “On me.”
They snatched up the freebies as if they were a dead body.
“We have a little issue with Patience and the meeting tonight.” Constance reminded me of my first meeting as Village President, and how Patience’s future in the community was on the line.
“We can discuss it at the meeting.” I patted her shoulder.
“But you are one of us, and you understand what it is like when things go awry.” She tapped her nose. My brows furrowed. “Don’t pretend you don’t. After all of those years you lived as a mortal?”
“Yes.” I took them by the arms and lead them back to the door. If I knew they wanted to talk about the charge against Patience of stealing animals from Petunia – which was on the agenda tonight – I would not have stopped them. “If you have forgotten, this is a place of business where our customers can feel the magic, but they don’t really know that we are the ones making the magic. Let’s keep it that way.” I opened the door and held it wide. “Now, I will see you two tonight.”
“Well.” Constance puffed. “I never.”
“Me either.” Patience huffed right behind Constance.
“Be sure to only use a little dab of that cream on each hand.” I could just see Patience covering herself in lotion from head to toe. “A dab will do you.”
Right before I shut the door behind them, Mr. Prince Charming darted right back in.
“Look mommy, a kitty!” A cute little girl with freckles across her nose ran across the store after Mr. Prince Charming, snagging the hem of one of the tablecloths and dragging it along with her.
Crash! The tablecloth fell, sending the bottles tumbling, leaving them broken all over the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” the mother apologized before grabbing her daughter and rushing to the door, only to run smack dab into Ophelia Biblio. “Excuse us.”
Ophelia smiled. “No problem,” She said in a soft-spoken voice. She tilted her head, her eyes flickered with gold specks…mesmerizing.
“Mommy, I was only trying to catch the pretty kitty.” The little girl grabbed her mom’s face with both hands.
“It’s okay!” I hollered after them, hoping they would come back in. “Geez.” I shook my head looking at the mess. Ophelia walked over and stood next to the mess. I held a finger up. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be right out!” I yelled to Ophelia on my way to the storage room to grab an empty box to put all the broken pieces in. I didn’t want her to leave. I wanted the “scoop” on Ever After Books and to ask what types of books she was carrying. Plus, I wanted to welcome her to Whispering Falls. After all, it was my presidential duty to be nosy about the new citizen.
The storage room was more like a little den that had a refrigerator and couch for those potion-making late nights. Unfortunately, I was pretty good at keeping things organized and didn’t have an empty box.
“Maybe I have one out here.” I walked out of the storage room and back into the shop, looking behind the counter just in case I had one there. No such luck. I turned my attention to Ophelia. “I guess I will have to…”
My mouth dropped. The mess had been cleaned up and everything was perfect, like the little girl was never there. Ophelia tugged at the wrinkle in the red cloth, taking the crease right out.
She brushed her hands together. “There you go.” She placed her hands in the front pockets of her jeans, and then rocked back on her wedge heels.
“Th…” I gulped. “Thanks.”
In the year I had been in Whispering Falls, I had never seen anyone clean up so fast, say nothing about putting it back exactly the way it was before.
Slowly I walked around the small table, checking out the bottles that I swore were broken all over the floor.
A faint glow coming from the counter caught my eye. My cauldron was bubbling, almost boiling over with the potion I had made for Oscar before Mary Ellen sent it crashing to the ground earlier.
“How did you do that?” I clamped my hand over my mouth and fixed my eyes on Ophelia Biblio, waiting for an explanation.
“I’m Ophelia Biblio.” Ophelia spoke with a soft, gentle tone that had a treble pitch. She stuck her hand out. I couldn’t help but notice the ring on her right ring finger.
“You like charms.” She dangled her finger. The small gold ring band had a small book charm hanging off of it.
“How did you know?” I asked. My intuition told me she had a kind soul.
She reached out and wrapped her fingers around my wrist. “You are wearing a charm bracelet, plus your cat has a charm dangling from his mouth.”
Chapter Four
“He has what?” My stomach knotted before I even looked Mr. Prince Charming’s way.
When he brought me a charm, it was a sure sign that something good or bad, usually bad, was going to happen.
I gulped and slowly turned to Mr. Prince Charming. There he sat as if he didn’t have a care in the world as he dragged his long white tail along the counter. Just as Ophelia had said, there was something silver sticking out of his mouth.
Meow, meow. His cry was more pathetic than normal causing him to drop the charm in between his front legs. He picked up his paw and licked it off before he raked it over his ear.
“About that...” The shop door flew open and Bellatrix Van Lou, Bella for short, stood at the door. She pointed toward Mr. Prince Charming but withdrew once she cast her eyes on Ophelia.
Bella smiled, exposing the gap between her two front teeth. Her checks puffed out with a crimson touch. She shook her head, her blond hair floated around her face, casting a shadow around her smoky eyes.
“How rude am I?” Bella swept across the floor with her hand extended. She looked up at Ophelia. Bella was considerably shorter, standing at five-foot two-inches. Even in her laced-up pointy red shoes, she was still short. With style and ease, Ophelia took Bella’s hand. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea we were in the presence of a new spiritualist.”
“Ophelia Biblio.” Ophelia nodded. “You are the astrologer in the community and owner of…” She tapped her long skinny finger on her temple. The book charm swayed back and forth from her ring with each tap. “…Bella’s Baubles.” Her eyes lit up with a sparkle as pride showed on her face.
“Yes. How did you know?” Bella tilted her head. There was intrigue on her face and her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to figure out who Ophelia was.
“I’m the owner of the new bookstore across the street.” Ophelia moved her finger from her temple and pointed toward the window.
Bella’s and my eyes followed the line of Ophelia’s arm, hand, and finger and looked across the street where the construction crew was no longer anywhere to be seen. There was only a line of people forming out the door of Ever After Books.
“That was fast.” I gawked over Ophelia’s shoulder. “There was just a crew there.”
“What can I say? They work fast.” Ophelia’s brow lifted. “I guess I must go. Talk to you soon.” Ophelia turned on the balls of her feet and pranced out the door.
“I…I…” For a moment, Bella and I stood there with our mouths open, unable to put into words how Ophelia had affe
cted us.
There was something mysterious, yet comforting about her presence that was unexplainable.
Purr, purr, Mrrow. Mr. Prince Charming brought our attention back to the charm he had dropped on the counter.
Ahem. I cleared my throat. “I guess you may know something about that.” I nodded toward the charm, almost afraid to pick it up.
Ding, ding. The bell over the door jingled when a handful of customers walked through the door.
“That is exactly why I came by.” She took me by the arm and walked me back to the counter, away from the customers. “I’m a little on edge with the charm he choose.”
Neither of us picked up the feather charm, but we both stared at it, both afraid to pick it up as though it was going to make us disappear or something worse.
“I love all my charms. I really do.” I picked up Mr. Prince Charming and held him close. “But every time you give me one, it means that my life is about to get very complicated.”
Rowl. He jumped out of my arms and darted underneath the table that had crashed and burned only a short while ago, only to be quickly put back together.
Nervously, I chuckled and picked up the charm. My intuition told me the angel wing charm might have something to do with Ever After Books.
“Tell me,” I said, holding the charm to the light so I could get a better look. It wasn’t any different than the charms I had seen the Hollywood stars wearing around their necks in the gossip magazines that lined the counter at the Piggly Wiggly in Locust Grove. “What is the meaning behind this chosen charm?”
Bella reached over and unclasped the bracelet from my wrist and held her hand out for me to drop the charm into her open palm. “Really, there isn’t a bad meaning, just another protection. The meaning is sent from above, offering you guidance.” Her voice trailed off.
I looked over at the picture hanging on the wall. Aunt Helena had given me a picture of Darla, my dad, and me from when I was a little girl, and I couldn’t help but think that Darla had a hand in Mr. Prince Charming picking out this charm.
“Then it’s about me being the new Village President.” I protested, and ignored my gut, which would probably come back and bite me in the butt. That was what generally happened when I ignored my intuitive gifts. “And Darla had something to do with it.”
A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) Page 2
