by Jim Johnson
I rushed to her and caught her in a big hug. “Hey girl!” I gave her a kiss on the cheek. “This is a nice surprise. I didn’t think I’d see you until dinner.”
She hugged me back and then smiled at both me and Bonita. “I got out of work a little early and went home to freshen up. Thought I’d run into you but you had already left.”
I nodded. “I cleaned and meditated for a while, then came to work.”
She nodded. “I could smell the candles when I got home.”
I frowned. “I hope it wasn’t too strong.”
She shook her head and perched herself on the stool I had been sitting on. “Not really. Thanks for cracking the window. It helps to dissipate the strong scents from the candles.”
Bonita checked the time and then started to close down the cash register and started to work out her receipts. she said, “You might want to switch to cedar candles. They don’t put out as much of a scent.” She glanced at me. “Are you still using patchouli candles?”
I nodded. “I had gotten a bunch on sale and am still burning my way through them. But, I’ll remember to get the other kind next time.”
Abbie grinned. “That would be good. We have to sleep in that room too, you know. I wish we could set up a private spot for you to meditate in, that isn’t our bedroom.”
I took a close look at her, looking for any sign of resentment. I didn’t see any but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
Bonita glanced up from her cash-counting. “I could set up a space in the basement of the shop.”
Abbie and I both stared at her. “The shop has a basement?”
It came out in stereo, and the three of us looked at each other and then laughed like loons.
Bonita was the first to recover. “You didn’t know that?”
I shook my head and moved to lean against Abbie. “I’ve worked here for months. You’ve never mentioned it. And you’ve had this shop for twice that long. I can’t remember how many times I’ve helped you move stuff in and out of the shop and I don’t remember you ever saying anything about a basement here.”
Sheesh, you learn something new every day.
Bonita grinned. “Well, I guess I’m glad that it’s such a well-kept secret.”
Abbie chuckled. “But now that we know, I guess you’ll have to kill us.”
Bonita smiled, but shook her head. “All the same, not that many people know about it, and I’d sort of like to keep it that way.”
I nodded and did the little finger zipper across my lips move. “Secret’s safe with me.”
Abbie nodded, “Me too. Provisionally.”
Both Bonita and I stared at her. Bonita squinted at her and asked, “What’s the provision?”
“That we get to see said basement, of course!”
I grinned. My girl was so smart and clever sometimes. I hadn’t even thought of that. I figured I’d leave well enough alone but try to sneak a peek later.
Bonita smiled. “That’s a fair deal. Let me throw this stuff in the safe.” She stacked up the money and receipts on the cash tray and then glanced at me. “Could you lock up? Then meet me in the back room.”
I nodded, excited to have a little field trip coming up. I locked up as Bonita headed for the back room, and I gave Abbie the quick run-down of closing up the shop—tidy up the shelves, restack clothes as needed, lock the door, flip the sign, hit the light switches.
She glanced at me as I finished up. “You really seem to have this closing thing down pat.”
I nodded. “It’s easy once you get the hang of it.”
“Ever thought about getting a retail job somewhere, like at one of the Pentagon City stores, or maybe the mall at Tyson’s?”
I shook my head. “Nah. I like working here well enough, but that’s because I like Bonita as a boss. The jobs I applied for are all office-type jobs. I don’t want to work the retail detail for real.” I glanced at the back room door, which was closed. I lowered my voice. “I knew some of those mall girls in high school. I don’t know that I really fit in.”
That last was a bit of a lie, but to be honest, the last thing I wanted to do was punch a clock and sit on my butt for half the day, tied to a cash register and a storefront that attracted no customers except the rich and the bored during the week.
Abbie shrugged. “Just a thought. I know we were talking about money earlier.” She patted my hand and smiled. “I’m happy to hear you sent your resume out to some more places.”
I tossed an arm around her shoulder and guided her to the back room. “Yes! Remind me to check my email when I get home. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about bugging my family, sort of going around my brother.”
She smiled and we walked into the back room together. Abbie closed the door on her little safe and spun the numbered dial a few times to scramble the lock, then stood and grinned at us. “Ready to go check it out?”
I returned the smile. “Let’s go.”
Bonita moved over to the storage closet and had me and Abbie help her clear it out. Brooms, a mop, a few odds and ends. I had never given the little nook a second glance, mostly because, well… Because it was full of cleaning supplies. I mean, really, who bothers to look closely at that sort of stuff? Seriously, if I ever wanted to hide something valuable, I’d stick it in with my cleaning supplies. No one would ever expect to see jewelry stuck in a bucket with a toilet brush and bottle of detergent.
Once the nook was empty, I took a closer look in there and saw a metal plate set into the back wall. On closer examination, the plate had a folding lock set into it that, when folded, fit flush into the plate. Bonita reached out and pulled out the latch, then twisted it and pushed in the door. The opening led to an alcove in which was set a narrow metal spiral staircase that led down.
I gaped at it when I saw it. “No way…for real? A spiral staircase?”
Bonita grinned. “Go on, check it out.”
I headed down the stairs, nearly hitting my head on the steps because they were so narrow. The steps opened out into one large room, which was about the same size as the main shop room upstairs, only wide open and free of any furniture. There was a sump pump in the far corner, and assorted plastic storage bins and cardboard boxes stacked along one wall. A large, threadbare corded oval rug dominated the center of the room. Various incense scents permeated the air. The whole basement felt warm and inviting, almost home-like. Serene.
Bonita came down the steps behind me and gestured toward the boxes and bins. “That’s mostly storage for clothing and other stuff we sell. Candles, incense, some odds and ends from Miss Chin that never sold and she didn’t want back, but thought I could use someday.”
I turned to Bonita and offered a warm smile. “I had no idea this was down here, Bonita. Is this your sacred working space?”
She quirked up an eyebrow. “Not exactly. It’s a safe place I practice in from time to time, but my sacred space is at home, of course. I have an altar set up there with my most important items.” She gestured toward the basement at large. “This is more of an occasional working space, but honestly, I haven’t used it much lately. My practice has gotten far more personal and intimate. I don’t spend as much time with some of my Wiccan friends as I used to, and some of our communal rituals have gone by the wayside.”
I frowned at the sadness in her voice. “I’m sorry, Bonita.”
She shrugged. “It’s all right. Just changes in people’s lives.” She smiled the smile I knew to mean she wanted to change the subject. “But, the basement. I don’t use it much, and if your practice is getting more involved, I’d say you should make use of it. I can give you my spare key to the shop and that way you’ll have unfettered access.”
I glanced at Abbie. “I told you Miss Chin had been working me a lot lately. Maybe having a space to work in that isn’t our bedroom will make things easier on all of us.”
Abbie nodded, though I caught the look of confusion in her eyes. I glanced at Bonita. “If Bonita gives me the spare key, I�
�ll totally use this space a lot. And the best way to do that is to set a schedule, and having a schedule would mean I’d be home more reliably.”
Abbie nodded. “That’d be useful. Plus, the shop is sort of on the way home from the bus. I could take an earlier bus and meet you here, maybe.”
I smiled brightly and glanced at Bonita. “Sounds good to me. Want me to pay rent or something?”
Bonita snorted. “Of course not. Just keep the space clean and remember to blow out your candles and incense before you leave. My fire insurance isn’t that good.”
We shared a chuckle and then Bonita led us back upstairs. She closed the door to the basement and then we made short work of filling the nook back up with the cleaning supplies. Abbie glanced at Bonita. “I was about to take Rachel out to dinner. Would you like to join us?”
Bonita grinned, but shook her head after glancing at us in turn. “I’ll have to take a raincheck on that. Steven and I already have plans to binge-watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We found an old set of DVDs at a thrift store and can’t get enough of the show.”
I grinned. “Sounds good. Enjoy yourself and give Steven a kiss from us.”
Bonita led us out the back door. “I will. He’ll love that.”
We hugged good night and then Abbie and I walked hand-in-hand to the nearby Mexican restaurant. For the first time in a while, my life almost felt normal. Except that my brain knew better.
Chapter Twenty-Four
AFTER A GREAT DINNER WHERE I carefully thought about nothing magical and avoided discussing anything about being a Beacon, Abbie and I went home, made love, and joyously fell asleep in each other’s arms. In the morning, Abbie woke me up early to fool around a bit more, and while I was groggy from lack of sleep, I was game enough. We finished up and she jogged off to the shower to clean up for work and I laid in the bed under the warm covers, content from the love-play but also in that funky half-awake, half-asleep zone-out.
I barely remembered her kissing my goodbye, and I think I dozed off, but then the alarm on my new phone went off and I pushed myself out of bed, eager to get on with the day. I made short work of breakfast and then took a quick shower, and then pulled on some of my most comfortable sweats and then gathered up my stuff, making doubly sure that the journal, Charity, was with me.
I caught the second bus in to Del Rey because it was snowing and too damn cold to walk, and made it to Bonita’s store before she did. She usually opened up at ten, sometimes a little earlier, but it was barely past eight and she hadn’t arrived yet.
I let myself in the back entrance and locked it behind me once inside. I grabbed a juice box out of the little fridge in the back room and then opened up her small supply closet. I emptied the contents of it quickly, and then reached out and pulled up the latch to open the hidden door.
After a moment’s thought, I turned back and wrote a quick note to Bonita, telling her that I was downstairs, and then left that on the desk.
I headed downstairs with my bag of supplies, and closed the door behind me before I walked down the spiral staircase.
Once on the basement floor, I flipped the light switch and stared at the old rug in the center of the otherwise bare concrete floor.
I paused, curious and maybe just a touch suspicious. I flexed my inner Sight, pulled and plugged a ley thread into it, and scanned the room for any ley energies, thinking that maybe if any were woven into the fabric of the floor, I might be able to detect them much as I had detected them at the Lincoln Memorial.
No such luck. No strands of blue energy, no trace of ley threads here save for the one I had pulled to fuel my inner Sight.
I shut down the sensation and then rolled up the rug and pushed it to one side of the room. I opened up my bag and set up a circle of candles in the center of the room. Given that this room was easily twice the size of my and Abbie’s bedroom, I made the circle wider than the ones I used at home.
I placed my jacket and most of my stuff outside the circle, against the far wall, and took just the journal into the circle with me. I realized that if I had set up the circle ahead of time, I could have probably fired up the candles when I’d walked downstairs by flexing the ley energies.
I’d have to ask Bonita if she’d be willing to let me leave a permanent working space set up down here. I suspected it was a lot to ask—I suspected she wouldn’t want her basement to be wholly taken up by my little working circle. A friend’s gift can only go so far.
Still, I’d have to ask. If she couldn’t give me a permanent space to work, maybe Miss Chin would, though I have to admit the thought of having a training space out from under the watchful eye of Miss Chin had its appeal. Sometimes it was nice to be able to work without thinking I’d be graded on it.
I sat cross-legged in the center of the circle and laid the journal on the floor in front of me, then rested my hands on my knees and closed my eyes.
I centered my thoughts and attentions, and then slowly reached out my consciousness toward the ley grid, and plucked out a couple of threads to weave into my warding circle.
I called up power to light the candles, and in my mind’s eye I sensed the dozen candles making up the boundary of my little circle blaze to life, adding their soft yellow-orange glow to the lighting in the basement. Almost in unison, I sensed the latent matrix within the crystal around my neck spring to light as well, adding its pure glow to the effort.
Now at the center of a ring of light, I gathered more ley threads and started to weave them together into a protective ward, remembering what Miss Chin had taught me. I started small and worked my way up to a small but stable warding dome consisting of swirling blue energies tinged with my silvery aura glow. Since it was just me and the journal within the circle, I didn’t feel like I needed a large ward.
So I made it a low-hanging dome, using the circle of candles as the outer, widest boundary, and then arcing the dome up over my head and just a little bit underneath me, through the floor. Miss Chin had reminded me that negative influences and forces could work in three dimensions, and had encouraged me to make sure my warding energies were around me at all levels, and to not rely on the ground or the floor to block any possible threat.
Once I felt that little mental click that suggested the ward was in place and secure, I took a moment to test the edges of it, to be sure there were no gaps in my weave.
The first ward I had constructed a few weeks ago had leaked like a colander, and Miss Chin had been quick to prod me through those gaps until I managed to fix it, piecemeal, like plugging multiple gaps in a dam made of mud. I learned to construct better wards since then and had practiced somewhat diligently over the last couple of weeks.
Which meant I had sort of half-assed it, but my intentions were sterling.
With the ward firmly in place, and confident that we wouldn’t be disturbed for a while, I focused my attention on the journal in front of me and reached out and opened it up to the place I had marked with a frayed red and white Borders bookmark.
Almost as soon as the covers and pages fell open, the various inks made of blue energies on the pages spiraled inward and coalesced into the forms of Charity’s lips.
She smiled at me. Welcome back, Beacon Rachel.
I smiled at the formality. “Welcome, Beacon Charity.”
She tittered. Not really a true Beacon any longer. I am more of an advisor now.
“Is that a formal Weaver role?”
No, just informal. The Weavers, as far as I remember, are made up of Beacons, Wardens, and Menders.
I nodded. “I know of a Warden and myself as the Beacon, but I don’t know any Menders.”
Charity’s smile turned into a frown. The three usually work together within a given area, much as the Muses of old worked together in threes.
My mouth turned into a similar-looking frown. “Really? Interesting. I wonder if Miss Chin, my Warden, knows anything about a Mender working around here.”
It would well be worth asking her, perhaps.
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br /> “I’m sure. So, what should we work on today?”
How much time have you spent in the Holding?
“Not long, though it was hard to tell how much time I spent in there at all. Time was sort of weird, and I didn’t think to check the clock when I went in or when I came out.”
Understood. We can work on developing your internal clock. When I was a Beacon I found it useful to have a time gauge so that I didn’t accidentally spend too much time in the Holding and end up missing something important in the prime world.
“What about electronic devices?”
The image swirled, which I took to mean a confused expression. I am not aware of what that is.
I tapped myself on the forehead with my palm. “Of course. Electronics didn’t exist in your time. It’s a, uh, device that…well, never mind.” I had no idea how to explain electronics to a presence inside a book. I shook my head. “I’ll just have to experiment, but not with my new phone. I’ll get something else to take with me that runs on batteries.”
Very well. When would you like to get started?
I shrugged. “How about now? Wait!” I held up a hand. “Let me go get something battery-powered and then I’ll be ready.”
I stood up and shifted the energies to create a gap in the warding dome, and rushed out and dropped my cell phone on my stack of stuff, and then rummaged around in my satchel for a little battery-powered calculator. It wasn’t much, but it was electronic and it still worked. My theory was that if one electronic thing worked in the Holding, then it was likely something else would.
Now that I thought about it, I think I had my cell phone on me when Malcolm and I went into the Holding to face off against the Spinner and rescue my grandpa’s soul, so maybe electronics could work in there.
I returned to the warding dome and closed the gap with a wave of my hand and a quick weave of ley energies, and then settled back on the floor with my legs crossed underneath me.
