by R. E. Rose
“She took his paw?”
“They were united in the way you and William are about to be, but they weren’t as congenial a couple as you and William. After a few decades into the union their constant bickering turned into battling, and finally, Maisie cut off his panther paw and stole his power. Well, not all of it, yet at one time he was more powerful than she, but with his paw in her possession, she evened out the playing field.
She created Devon with one of the paw’s claw clippings. Of course, you know who Silvio is, don’t you?
“Not really, actually, he always seemed very civilized and decent to me,” I said.
“Of course, he does, he’s courting you and hoping you’ll give him back the paw, or accidentally lose it, or something of that nature.”
“Who is he?”
Just then William walked in.
“It’s time,” he said, with dramatic flair.
“For what?”
“Your initiation.” He looked at me all dreamy and lovingly. A look I’d been dying to see for months. I went to him and kissed him, and then a strange thing happened...
*
...I woke up alone, on the pavement, no longer a disembodied consciousness, and I was in the middle of the hurricane. I staggered as I tried to get up to run, and I could barely keep my balance. It was as if something had taken control of me and sent me on a wild, whimsical ballet. The wind grabbed me and forced me off course, then back on course; it was a crazy, zig-zaggy run the wind made me do. It blew so hard I could hardly take a breath. The clouds ate the sun, and the wind ate my breath, but it didn’t matter. The wind had a mind of its own.
It blew me home.
When I stepped into the house, the first thing I noticed was the black pillar candle which sat on the coffee table, lit. The dark feather lay beside it. The front door blew open, and the candle flickered wildly, but even that strong wind didn’t blow it out. I pushed the door closed. The paw, still hanging from its chain around my neck and trapped beneath my blouse, vibrated a very little. I pulled the paw out and examined it. Sia told me that Maisie had used a piece of the paw in her sorcery when she conjured Devon. She’d used one of the nails from the black claw. I examined the paw closely, and for the first time, I noticed that between the large, soft lump of toes, one nail was missing!
The box that held the paw still sat on the mantel of my fireplace. I took the paw and placed it back inside the box. As I did so, someone knocked at my door.
I moved quietly to the peek hole, but a strong knowing feeling overcame me. I knew who would be at the door. Silvio’s black eye looked back. I hadn’t locked the front door! He knocked again. When he knocked a third time the front door blew open, and the light on the black candle blew out.
Silvio stepped inside.
“I saw you get caught in the hurricane, Jane. I wanted to make sure you were alright,” he said, sounding genuinely concerned.
“Good. I’m good. Thanks. The wind blew me home,” I said, followed by a silly giggle. He looked at the candle. And it lit.
“I sent that to you. Did you ever figure that out?” he asked. “That candle and feather together can show you your magnificent powers. You’re powerful, Jane, even more than Maisie, but you need to practice.”
Before I could even think of a response, I heard a very strange sound come from over the top of the fireplace.
I looked there.
The box with the paw made scritching and scratching sounds like nails on a chalk board. The box waggled around to the very edge of the mantel. I ran to it, grabbed it before it fell. The lid threatened to blow off. I pushed down hard on the lid, not wanting it to come off.
“Jane, bring it to me. If you return my paw then you and I could rule the universe not just Meadowvale,” Silvio said, but he made no move toward the box.
My heart pounded. I heard gushing in my chest, but I didn’t know which rattled more my beating heart or the box that held the panther’s paw. The paw had come to life; it was like trying to keep a determined weasel locked down. Its force became impossible. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold down the lid. Then one of the claws tore through the box and right through some of the wrapping paper that still clung there!
It was only a matter of moments before the thing got out. I mumbled a few spells that came to mind, “Be at peace, go to sleep, pretty dreams are all you reap,” then, “To the grave, be so brave, in dark, damp earth is where you must stay!” But nothing I said affected it. I heard Silvio snort derisively behind me.
“Bring it here, Jane, then all your torment ends.”
I pulled the box closer to me. I held it tightly against my body, wrapped in my arms. I walked toward Silvio, struggling to keep the paw from bursting out. I moved to the couch. I saw Silvio step toward me, anticipation in his eyes; he licked his lips.
“Stay back!” I warned him. He took a step back, but his eyes got darker, smoke began to exit his nostrils and stream out from between his teeth, as if he’d just exhaled after smoking a cigarette.
Flames shot from his ears, and I smelled burned hair. I put my hand into the box and screamed as the claw dug down into my flesh. I screamed again. I put my other hand in and grabbed the wretched thing. With both hands bleeding, I pulled it free, but it was like trying to hang on to a wild cat. I fell to the floor and wrestled with the horrible thing. Its force pulled me in Silvio’s direction.
And then a stream of foreign words sprang from my lips; the words spurted from me like a severed artery.
“Cesare certaman, sancturaium, speluncam obscuro creatura – stop the struggle and seek sanctity in your cave, dark creature,” I said that three times and the paw relaxed a moment.
I took it right over to the candle and stuck the paw’s dried pad over the flame. I don’t know why I did that, but something inside me told me to.
“No-o-o!” Silvio screamed. He flew to the candle and kicked it over, setting the carpet on fire. He grabbed me and grabbed the burning paw. “You stupid, bitch. You don’t know what you’ve done.”
He grabbed the claw from my hands and raked me with it on my face! I flew into a raging wild woman, but he’d already fled out the door, leaving nothing but his sulphuric stench and a trail of dark smoke behind him. The black, panther paw was gone.
I phoned William and, teary-eyed, told him what had happened. He listened without interrupting then gave me quick direction.
“Jane, find your rhinestone bracelet and put it on. Come back to the carnival but arrive here through the Cheshire dimension. It’s the only safe way to get here.
“The storm is still raging. Come to the main tent and bring that black feather with you! I’ll meet you here!” he said, sounding very anxious.
I ended the call and stared at my phone. Then, I ran to the fridge and found the rhinestone bracelet in there sitting on a saucer. I thought of Sia and how I’d completely lost track of her whereabouts in all this crazy.
I snapped on the bracelet having no idea how I’d maneuver through the Cheshire dimension on my own to find my way to the Carnival’s big top!
In moments, I realized that I needn’t have worried because my cat Sia waited for me on the other side. It was peaceful and calm here. I didn’t really want to leave this realm. I walked toward Sia, following the steady bright green of her eyes.
“Finally,” she said, once I’d caught up to her.
“Hello to you, too.” But there was no time for chit chat with the cat. She scurried off, and I hardly kept up. Running through the Cheshire was much like running through permanent twilight city streets, like moving through the heavy smoke of a fire but without the choking feeling.
“Is the entire Cheshire bleak and bleary like this? Really who would want to be part of this world?” I asked Sia when I stopped for a quick breather. Sia looked at me like I was the dumbest thing she’d ever encountered.
“Of course not! You’re not initiated; once you are, the Cheshire becomes, to your eyes, the amazing magical world it reall
y is. It’s like looking through rainbow glasses when you’re here. In fact, those that visit here from the mundane dimension and experience the real Cheshire often without careful guidance get addicted and stuck and lost here.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“So, I should go through with the initiation?”
“Well, you know what they say.”
“Not really.”
“Great gain brings great pain, or some such thing,” she said.
“But –”
“You are the most chicken witch I’ve ever met,” Sia said, rather cruelly.
“Well, I find it difficult to accept that I’m some sort of magical being and a witch has always been a negative label.”
“Whatever. We need to go into this building.”
We turned into a black tower, and Sia led me to the elevator. Once inside the lift, she told me to push the penthouse button. The elevator light came on then, and we took a long leisurely ride to the top.
“Now listen carefully,” she said, looking at me with her green eyes, like spinning planets. Sia explained the hurricane weather, and what I had to do about it. I didn’t like what I was hearing, but when she finished talking we were at the top of the tower, which seemed to have brought us to ground level at the fair, and it was time to step out into the fairgrounds. The hurricane had only got worse!
“Sia, I can’t walk here. The wind’s too strong!” When I looked back at her, she was clinging by her claws to a flap of material that looked like it might once have been a flag. Her eyes looked insane. They became three times their normal size and shot beams of light into the swirling darkness of the wind. She seemed to focus on one area of the fairgrounds, and then in moments, I saw why.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, but soon enough I recognized Gaia, the white elephant, and on her back, held tightly in place by Gaia’s large trunk, Lady Lucilla! Their presence lit up the dark. They came forward like a monolithic tank of illumination, a bubble of protection surrounded them because the storm couldn’t blow even a single strand of Lucilla’s hair out of place. They moved very slowly, rhythmically, a walk that was hypnotic.
When they reached us, they stopped. Gaia’s trunk released Lady Lucilla’s waist where it presumably held her in place, and then the long, animated trunk reached down for Sia. She grabbed the sweet little cat and gently lifted her to the lady, whom Sia nuzzled like she was her own mother. The two made quite the glittery pair.
“Hey!” I yelled. “A little help here!” Gaia stretched her long white trunk in my direction and gently encircled my waist.
Up- up- up, I went! I landed behind the lady and Sia. We wasted no time on small talk. Gaia turned around and headed back into the windy fray.
Had I known what was to come next, I probably wouldn’t have climbed so readily aboard the big white elephant. Gaia headed back to the big top and when she got there the flaps to the tent opened wide – very slowly – and methodically and with great determination, she wandered in.
They were all there.
The men from my lucid dream in their dark oily capes and hoods, Maisie, dressed like a sparkling diva from “the caves of all crystals.” Even Devon seemed to have dressed up for the occasion because he looked absolutely civilized in his Ralph Lauren long sleeve, guru collar and tails. All of the arcana characters gathered in the three rings of the circus tent.
In Circus Ring One, I recognized Malcolm, the magician, handsome in his formal top hat and black tails and cummerbund. Next to him stood the Gottschalks, Mr. and Mrs. They looked as good as could be expected. Mrs. Gotschalk had her plump, sausage form wrapped in a beautiful Dior, and her husband looked a little more disheveled, but still somewhat princely. They were the Empress and Hierophant of the deck.
Still in Circus Ring One, I noticed the Emperor, Christian Whitman, wearing a long cape with Egyptian-like pictographs and hiding behind him, Cassie and Drake, the Lovers, dressed in hyper-punk elegance, with shiny, silver studs everywhere that caught the overhead lighting.
The rest of the circus ring held members of the Razors’ gang; they were a mixed bag of motorcycle thugs and well dressed glossy-photo magazine type-men.
In the third circus ring stood the Silver Bullets who practically dressed in costume with black leather jackets, silky, silver vests and black urban kilts.
In Circus Ring Two stood Shane Apollo, looking all handsome and decked out in his fireman parade gear, definitely a gorgeous Charioteer, and next to him stood Barkman Moore from the Strength card. His tattoos popped and glowed on his biceps under the tent lights. Those tattoos continued to hypnotize me.
I looked away.
Beside the two beautiful men stood the old Hermit, and next to him, Temmie, the ingénue from the temperance card! Justine Daliday, the cop, in her red royal serge stood next to a guy whose posture suggested he was just hanging around, but whose attire identified him as one of the guests in this gathering. He wore his tie loose and over his shoulder. It was Vince Cabrera. I think Maisie had finally put him in the Hanged Man’s card. Poor Vince, but he was a jerk. He deserved his place in the cursed tarot deck. These were all of the characters from the major arcana.
Emilia stood in the center circus ring along with a few others. She looked incredible. It was the first time I’d ever seen her without her swords and knives. She carried something that covered up her hands; it looked like a bouquet of flowers! What a trade I thought, flowers for weapons, how positively, peace, love, groovy of her.
Also, in the center ring, Silvio, from the tower card, or so I thought at the time, and next to him a gentleman I didn’t recognize, but dressed in an amazing silver, shimmery suit and a moonstone around his neck.
“He’s from the Moon card,” someone whispered to me, over my shoulder. For some reason, the figure wearing the moonstone stood out from the crowd. His or her face was masked; even so, there was something oddly familiar about this character.
They all looked very formal. And next to him, shockingly, stood Glendie, sparkling in gold, like she wore a sunbeam for a dress. She even had a little tiara on, and every time she moved her head that tiara caught any and all light in the tent and sent it zinging around the cavernous interior like minute laser beams. She looked like a golden Statue of Liberty.
She, too, held a bouquet of flowers. There appeared to be a man and woman presiding over this very auspicious occasion. The man looked like a judge, and the woman beside him looked quite worldly.
As Gaia, the Lady Lucilla, Sia and I approached the large group, I saw a huge, shiny black panther step out of the mix. Gaia walked over to the panther and lowered her trunk before the cat. Then Lady Lucilla slid down it like it was the escape slide on a Boeing jet.
She stood beside the panther and turned to look up at me, where I was still sitting on her elephant. Her white and glittery form contrasted with the panther’s black shine. The pair made quite a striking couple. Lady Lucilla’s lovely Bali-like hands waved me down to join them. Gaia kneeled so that the slide to the ground wasn’t as far for me.
When my feet touched the ground, the panther had become William, the man. He looked incredibly handsome and overdressed for any occasion. Beneath his dark jacket with tails, he wore a silk and silver waist coat with a blue scrunched knot at the neck. His trousers had small, almost imperceptible pin stripping that matched the darker jacket.
He took my hand and led me over to the man who looked like a judge and the woman who looked like a representative of the Miss World Contest. She wore a modern sari and had a banner draped across her. The banner came up across her hips and belly and disappeared over the left shoulder. Her skirt, held up by a clever wrap beneath her gold and jeweled belly button, flared at her bare feet. Her toe nail polish, a deep maroon, almost black, looked like liquid. She looked like a beautiful mermaid from the waist down. Her dark, loose hair was filled with miniature twinkling rhinestones, star chips. Her hair flowed over shoulders to her back. Her full red lips a
nd black brown eyes were perfection.
William stepped between Emila and Glendie, and pulled me with him. Both women moved apart to let us stand between them. We faced the Judge and the worldly woman who looked like they were about to anoint William, and then it hit me. This must be William’s final stage in his initiation into the Cheshire.
Wow, what an entry I’d just made.
“William,” I said, “I’m not dressed for this moment.” I looked down at my garb. And somehow, magically, like Disney was involved in the process, I transformed.
From my feet to my head, I watched as my outfit appeared in quick stages. I metamorphosed to become a Star Princess. My shoes glittered with rhinestones, my white chiffon gown, puffed out at the back and hung much shorter at the front showing off my legs and ankles. An off the shoulder wrap encrusted with pearls and more crystals, offset my cinched waist. My hair went into an upsweep, and when I put my hand up there, I felt a small star-shaped tiara tucked up into the hairdo. I, too, held a bunch of flowers. They smelled like roses and carnations and baby powder.
I looked at William. “What’s going on?” I asked. “Is this your initiation ceremony?
“Yes,” he said. “In a way, it is.” He took my hand.
No one said anything to me as I scanned the crowd of people, and caught Christian Whitman glaring in my direction. I felt a jolt in my heart. He looked just as nasty he had in my dream. I trembled hoping his head wouldn’t shoot off and land in my arms. I turned back to William.
“William, darling, what’s really going on?”
It’s your initiation, too,” he said. He looked all dreamy eyed. Again, that look I’d never before seen on William’s face (well, once before.) That look I’d always dreamed of seeing in his eyes was there, but this time that look of mooning love made me feel weird.
