by Tonya Kappes
“Keep your intuition open, June!” Constance reminded me. She pinched Patience.
“Ouch!” Patience winced, rubbing her arm.
“No dilly-dallying.” Constance gestured them to keep moving. “We’ve got business to take care of.”
I shook my head at the sisters and then headed into the Gathering Grove to get the tea I served with the June’s Gems at A Charming Cure.
“I’m so sorry about the sisters.” I practically knocked into the woman they’d scared half to death. “They are harmless, and unless you’re using them for your funeral, I’m sure you’re not going to run into them again.”
“I hope not, then.” The lady smiled and stuck her hand out. “I’m Paris Rush. I’m here with the Audubon Bird Watching Society.”
“That explains all the gear.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Gerald briskly waving his hands over his head to get my attention. “Are you here for a specific species?”
I knew Whispering Falls had many special creatures, but most were unseen to the mortal eye.
“We are here to look for a bird.” She shrugged.
“Not just any bird,” another one of her friends chirped up. Both were dressed alike. “Lucia Bobb.”
I couldn’t see the top of her head because her hat covered it, but the ends of her hair were dyed a bright purple.
“June Heal.” I shook her hand and smiled. “Love the hair.”
“It’s in honor of the rare bird we are here to capture on film.” She patted her vest with excitement and hurried off to put in her coffee order.
“You’d think she was the new member of the group.” Paris rolled her eyes. “I tried to tell everyone not to get too excited about the supposed sighting of the rare bird because they aren’t known to be in the United States, much less Kentucky.” Her brow rose.
“June, I’m swamped and don’t have the tea ready.” Gerald must’ve gotten sick of trying to grab my attention, so he ran over. “When Petunia gets here, I’ll bring it over.”
“No problem,” I told him. I turned back to Paris. “If you have time to stop by A Charming Cure before you leave town, come see me. I’d love to know if you found the bird.”
“Wish us luck.” Paris smiled.
I looked around quickly to see if Mr. Prince Charming had come in to get a few treats from the customers. When I didn’t see him, I headed out the door.
Chapter Three
I stood on the sidewalk in front of A Charming Cure and smiled at the small sign that hung in front of the charming small cottage shop.
Two little windows were covered in moss, and the rest of the outside was covered in the most beautiful wisteria vine. The purple and white flowers grew up and around the front door. Darla had planted these flowers, and they had lived on for years after we’d left Whispering Falls and now years after her death.
Every shop in Whispering Falls was a small cottage with a gate and a very distinctive door. I opened the front gate and headed up the steps to get the shop ready for all of those tourists. I put my skeleton key into the door.
Laa, laaa, laaaaaa.
The faint song blew into the early morning breeze.
“Good morning,” I called over to the two large window boxes filled with Drowsy Daisies, Moonflowers, and a couple of Singing Nettles.
Only in the spiritual world could one hear the beautiful sounds of the Singing Nettles. Their tunes always put a smile on my face.
I twisted the key and opened the door, running my hand along the inside of the shop to flip on the lights.
A Charming Cure’s floor was filled with display tables draped with red cloth, and all tables bore different shapes, sizes, and colors of bottles. Each table’s bottles were assigned to a genre of alignments. One was for feet and all the things you might buy to help with sore feet. Another was for your hands or arthritis. A table of digestive products was very popular. The home spa kits were also big sellers.
The extra little oomph I added to the bottles really made the customers come back for more. That was why my products were carried in the national chain Head To Toe Works across the country, as well as a few stores in the neighboring town of Locust Grove, where Oscar and I had grown up across the street from each other.
The tables also held tiered dishes where all the homeopathic soaps were placed in a very cute display.
I opened the box of June’s Gems and organized them on a plate that sat on a round table next to a small cauldron that would soon be filled with hot tea from the Gathering Grove Tea Shoppe. It was my little way of making customers eat a special treat while they took their time and looked around the shop. Offering snacks also bought me time to feel out each customer to see exactly what was wrong with them.
As I walked past each display, I ran my hand along each tablecloth and any wrinkles that needed to be pulled out. The small details made the shop sparkle with the special touch.
My crossbody bag glowed. I took it off my shoulder and hung it on the back of the chair behind the counter so I could take my cloak off and hang it on the coat rack.
I reached into my bag and took out the crystal ball. Madame Torres was illuminated with all yellow, red, orange, and purple lines. The lines parted, and her face appeared.
“Are you trying to tell me something?” I blew my blunt bangs out of my eyes and walked around the partition where my cauldron was located.
I ran my hand along the black bowl and turned on the switch. In only a few seconds, the bowl became warm and ready for the day ahead.
When I walked back to the counter, Madame Torres’s eyes were gaunt, her lips were rosy red, and her skin was pale.
Chirp, chirp, Madame Torres sang.
“Why can’t you be like most crystal balls and tell me what you want me to know instead of beating around the bush?” I asked her and ran my finger along the ingredient shelf behind the counter, stopping at the Star Anise Powder. “Strange.”
I made a mental note about how this particular powder was used to stop misfortune. I’d used this powder only once in my life, and it wasn’t a very good memory. Maybe it would be different this time, but the ping in my gut told me something was lurking.
I glanced around the shop and wondered exactly where my fairy godcat had gone.
“Ahem,” Madame Torres cleared her throat before she started to chirp again.
“It’s much easier if you tell me what you have to say.” I tapped her glass globe on the way back to the cauldron.
As soon as the Star Anise Powder hit the inside of the cauldron, it bubbled into a murky, thin rose-colored fluid. I waited to get the aroma and looked deep into the cauldron when I didn’t smell anything. The smell connected the intended customer to the final potion. This told me who to look for when the customer entered the shop—only this time, lightning strikes and bolts swirled into the mixture.
“Very odd,” I noted and shrugged as I made my way back around to the counter. There, I grabbed The Magical Cures Book, the leather-worn journal written by Darla, my mom.
I glanced up at the framed photo of her and my father on their wedding day. It was the only photo I had of them. My eyes glanced at the framed photo next to theirs. This one was a photo of Oscar and me on our wedding day.
I couldn’t help but smile as I ran my hand over the leather-bound book that Darla had left me. It was filled with potions and her journaling, making me feel somewhat connected to her. It took me a few years to realize this was her way of teaching me after she’d been taken from this world way too early. The book also taught me how smart she was even though she was a mortal married to my spiritualist father.
“Star Anise,” I repeated to myself as I thumbed through the book of cures to see what was in there and how exactly someone would use it.
The book had a mind of its own and flipped to the third eye page. I smiled and felt my bracelet where I’d received a very special third eye charm.
“Binoculars?” I looked at the hand-drawn images Darla had doodled on the side of the page. “C
ampfire?” I questioned.
The click of the cauldron shutting off was its way of telling me the potion was perfectly concocted and ready to be placed in its own special bottle. The sound took my attention away from The Magical Cures Book.
I heard a light rap at the shop door and looked up to see who was there.
The sun was already filtering through the display window in the front of the shop, illuminating all the small round display tables full of my homeopathic cures.
When I noticed Petunia Shrubwood waving at me, I put the book back under the counter and then headed through the shop to let her in.
“It was going to be a beautiful summer day,” I opened the door and greeted her as a nice breeze curled around my ankles.
“Good morning,” she greeted me. Mr. Prince Charming ran in the shop right before we shut the door on him.
He stopped at my ankles and began to do figure eights around them.
“There you are.” I bent down to rub on him. “I’ve been looking for you.”
He let me rub my hand along his back until he trotted off.
The carefree feline jumped up on the counter next to Madame Torres and curled his long white tail over her glass ball.
“Aaaaaachhoooo!” Madame Torres’s nose turned beet-red. “That’s it! I’m allergic to cats, and you need to get rid of him now!” Her red Medusa hair flowed beyond the boundaries of the glass ball.
It was no secret my fairy godcat and my crystal ball didn’t get along, but I needed them both. And she wasn’t allergic to cats.
“Mewl! Mewl!” Mr. Prince Charming smacked her with his paw and then jumped off the counter and darted underneath one of the tables, nearly taking the red tablecloth and all the potion bottles with him.
“Will these two ever get along?” I rolled my eyes and walked over to the wall, where I dragged my finger down the line of empty bottles to find the perfect home for the Star Anise Powder potion.
“Apparently, he came in this morning when I opened. I found him sitting in the tree.” Petunia’s brown hair was pulled up in an overflowing messy bun. Flowers were stuck in the mess of locks. She had a leash dangling from her wrist but no dog on the other end.
Petunia owned Glorybee Pet Store and had the spiritual gift of animal reading, so it was very natural Mr. Prince Charming would want to be around her.
“I told him to come on while we went for our walk so I could just drop him by. And your tea.” She had a bottle of tea from the Gathering Grove Tea Shoppe.
“Thank you. That was so kind.” I had really good friends here, and I loved our small village. “Can you pour the tea into the cauldron on the table next to the June’s Gems?” I asked her since she was still near the front of the shop. “I’m trying to figure out how my gift is going to help someone that’s having misfortune.”
Yes. “Gifts” was how we referred to our little magical village. All the shop owners had a talent, and their shops were their cover-ups. It wasn’t like we could tell the world that our little town was magical and filled with potions, wizards, talking snow globes, grinning cats, and singing flowers. We’d all be burned at the stake.
Owning A Charming Cure allowed me to create magical potions that customers had no idea they needed. It was my way of helping the world one person at a time. Today, Petunia was taking a spirit dog on a much-needed walk, so I couldn’t see anything attached to her leash. She could, but I couldn’t.
“Where is baby Orin?” I asked about her toddler, who really wasn’t a baby, but he was a baby to all of us in Whispering Falls. My hand continued to go down the shelf of glass bottles.
The lime-green hourglass one glowed when my finger touched it, so I knew this bottle was meant for the potion in the cauldron. I couldn’t explain how these things worked. It was just the way it was.
“I just left him at the tea shop with Gerald.” She picked up one of the lavender soaps and lifted it to her nose. A bird popped out of her hair and sang a few chirps. “Yes. I like it too,” Petunia said to the bird.
I smiled and watched her have a little conversation as the two looked at the soap. I had no idea what they were saying, but Madame Torres lit up and began to chirp.
The bird flew from Petunia’s messy up-do, flying around the shop until it finally landed on top of Madame Torres.
“My, my, your crystal ball must be saying something to my little friend.” Petunia hurried over to the counter. I followed closely behind her, grabbing The Magical Cures Book on my way. “What are they saying?”
“I have no idea.” I looked behind my shoulder at them as I walked back behind the partition. There, I could finish the potion before I had to open the shop for the day. “She’s been making bird noises all morning.”
I plucked the cork lid off the bottle and held it over the cauldron. The liquid poured up and into the bottle like a streamline fountain. I placed the cork in and set it next to The Magical Cures Book. Darla had left me with all the combinations of homeopathic cures, only mine had magic and hers didn’t.
“Your shop is fully stocked and ready to go for today.” Petunia continued to walk around.
“I have to get everything ready for Faith Mortimer. She’s going to work for me today while I head back to Hidden Hall to clean out my classroom for the summer break.” I noticed the time on the wall clock that was located above my parents’ wedding photo. “It’s almost time to open.”
I reached over the counter and grabbed the feather duster, walking around the shop and knocking off any dust the sunlight was making visible. I took a lot of time and effort into making the shop cute and inviting.
I noticed a few customers were already lined up on the steps when I swiped the duster around the door.
“A few minutes early won’t hurt.” I shrugged at Petunia and flipped the sign to Open. “Good morning,” I greeted them after I opened the door. “Welcome to A Charming Cure.” I held the door for them. “Let me know if you need any assistance.”
There were five customers in all. They had to have come from the tourist bus because they were all dressed in the same gear.
“I’m here!” I felt a slight push back on the door when I tried to close it. “I’m sorry I’m late.” Faith Mortimer pushed through the door when I took a step back and let go of the handle.
She smiled and pulled her long blond hair around one shoulder. Her onyx eyes glistened. Faith was a delight. She was young and full of energy. She was one of those women who could pick up on anything very fast, so I felt comfortable with her running my shop for a few hours.
I twirled around on the soles of my laced-up black boots, nearly knocking down a customer.
“I’m so sorry,” I apologized.
“You have to have one. They are delicious.” Faith had grabbed the plate of June’s Gems and shoved it in the customer’s face.
“The Karima sisters asked you strange questions, and now I tried to knock you down,” I apologized when I noticed it was Paris.
“It’s fine. Just an unfortunate misfortune.” She turned, and my gut clenched.
“Misfortune?” I saddled up to her.
She smiled. “I say that about everything when something doesn’t go right.”
In that moment, I knew the Star Anise Powder potion was for her.
“I’ll be right back.” I put up a finger and hurried back to the counter to grab the specialty.
“I’m Paris Rush,” I heard her introduce herself to Petunia and Faith.
“I’m Petunia Shrubwood, and this is Faith Mortimer. Welcome to our village.” They nodded at Paris.
“I’m sure you’ll find a lot of neat creatures in our woods,” Faith said.
“Audubon?” Petunia’s hot pink A-line skirt swayed with each step she took in her pointy-toed black, laced-up boots, focusing on the tourist, interrupting us.
“Yes. We are a chapter in the global National Audubon Society. We protect birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas, using science, advocacy, educat
ion, and on-the-ground conservation.” Paris sounded like she was reading off a brochure or something. “We believe there is a rare bird in your area. We’re here for a few days. We all have a section of the woods to comb through to look for the bird for a recording and get it into the rare bird database.”
Rowl! Mr. Prince Charming’s mouth opened in a growl as his body curled up, making a huge hump in his spine. His hair stood on end.
The bird flew off Madame Torres. Mr. Prince Charming pounced into the air to try to catch the bird.
“Spangled Smoky Momoko!” Paris screamed, frantically feeling around for something in the fanny pack she was wearing.
“Spangled what?” Petunia’s mouth fell open as she watched the bird glide past her hair and out the door when another customer came in.
“That’s the bird!” Paris pushed past everyone and darted outside.
“Wait! You forgot your lotion!” I hollered after her, dangling the bottle from my fingers. It was too late. She was gone.
Rowl! Mr. Prince Charming batted at the air, dropping something from his mouth.
Petunia and I looked at each other with big eyes when we both noticed he’d dropped a bird charm on the ground.
Chapter Four
A flurry of activity arose among Faith, Petunia, and me, and no one would notice but us three.
Petunia had darted out the door after the bird right behind Paris. Faith pushed me out the door, knowing full well I had to go see Bellatrix Van Lou, Bella for short, from Bella’s Baubles.
Carefully, I traipsed down the steps of A Charming Cure and took a left on the crowded sidewalk, weaving my way between the tourists so as not to run into them. Bella’s Baubles was the first shop when you drove into Whispering Falls, which meant that it was located farthest from my shop.
The faster my feet carried me, the tighter I gripped the charm.
“Yoo-hoo!” Isadora Solstice hollered across the street when I passed. “June!”
I simply held the charm up over my head.
“A charm?” Arabella Paxton, owner of Magical Moments, stood outside her shop with a watering can. “Oh dear,” she quipped when I held the charm her way.
