by Tonya Kappes
The Santa was ringing his bell next to a red. . .cauldron? I had to do a double take when it was clearly not a kettle. We made our way down to where the carolers sang at the big evergreen that hadn’t been there earlier today, on the lawn of Two Sisters and A Funeral at the far end of town. There was a countdown clock next to the unlit tree. Next to the tree was a big red sleigh with the times listed for visits with Santa.
Mr. Prince Charming beat us there. He stared at me like he was watching me.
“Are you following me?” I bent down and asked him.
He began to dance around my ankles, leaving fur marks on my jeans.
“You are a funny cat.” I bent down and picked him up.
“Welcome to our magical village of Whispering Falls. I’m Petunia Shrubwood, the President of the Village.” The woman spoke above the crowd next to a giant light switch. She had long brown hair that desperately needed a brush.
“Is that a stick in her hair?” Patrick leaned over and asked me.
“Is that a bird on her shoulder?” I asked him and we both laughed.
“We will have a lot to tell people about our honeymoon over Christmas dinner.” He laughed again, making me laugh some more.
“It’s my great honor to host you and your loved ones for what we hope to be an annual event.” Petunia continued to tell the crowd about the town. “All of our shops are open for you. We hope while you are here you will take the time to explore our village and enjoy your stay.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Camille darting in and out of the crowd like she was looking for someone.
I waved my hands over my head.
“Camille!” I called her name and caught her attention. My smile grew bigger and bigger as she made her way through the crowd. “Patrick, this is Camille. She is getting married.”
“Not if I can’t find my fiancé.” There was a worried look on her face. “I’ve been looking for him since you left the shop earlier.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Do you remember seeing a man walk into A Charming Cure when you were leaving?” she asked.
“Yes. He had brown, longish hair.” I used my hands to show her what I meant. She nodded. “Long, blue cashmere coat?” I confirmed that my memory wasn’t gone . . yet.
“Yes. Have you seen him since then?” she asked, with worry evident in her tone.
“I haven’t. I’m sorry, but I can help now.” She accepted. “I’ll be back in a few. You stay here so I can find you,” I said to Patrick.
He gave me a kiss on the lips.
“Don’t miss the lighting. You’ve got five minutes.” He pointed to the countdown clock.
“You go that way and I’ll go this way.” I pointed to the left for Camille and I went right.
The crowd was getting bigger and bigger as the countdown clock ticked down. I walked on my tiptoes to see above the crowd, but I wasn’t tall enough. When I got to Santa’s sleigh, I figured I’d just step up on it and look over the crowd.
I grabbed the reins and hoisted myself up.
“What are you doing?” Constance Karima was standing near the back of the sleigh. Her sister was behind her, sniffing around like a dog. “You need to get down.” There was no room in her tone for negotiation.
“I was just trying to find. . .”
“Three, two, one!” Petunia yelled into the microphone as she pushed the big light switch to ON.
The entire village lit up like somebody had turned on the sun. It nearly blinded me, causing me to lose my balance.
“Get down!” Constance Karima screamed at me. “Now!”
“Whoaaa!!” I tried to see past the spots of lights that were affecting my sight. I blinked a few times. My arms flailed around like airplane propellers before I fell right into the sleigh. “I’m so sorry,” I begged Santa to forgive me when I noticed I’d fallen on him.
My eyes went back to normal as I started to push myself up and help out the jolly big guy. Only it wasn’t the jolly big guy.
“Michael?” My eyes grew as I realized it was Camille fiancé with a knife stuck in his neck.
Chapter Four
June Heal
Izzy, Gerald, Petunia, Faith, and I had hurried down to A Charming Cure to formulate a plan while the Karima sisters had thrown Michael’s body in the back of their ambulance, hauling him off to Two Sisters and a Funeral.
“I warned you. Didn’t you listen to the paper this morning?” Faith Mortimer asked about her editorial comments in the Whispering Fall Newspaper this morning as she wrapped one arm around her waist and gnawed on a fingernail on her other hand. Her long, blonde hair was pulled up into a high ponytail. She had a black ear wrap to keep her warm, though she really wore it as an accessory. “What use is my spiritual gift if you don’t listen?” Her onyx eyes glared at me.
“At least she’s occupied.” Gerald parted the display window curtain and peeked across the street to the Whispering Falls police station where Oscar had taken Roxy Bloom in for questioning. “Now, what are we going to do about my Santa appearance?”
Gerald was scheduled to sit in the sleigh where Michael was murdered. Faith was going to take the photos of the children sitting on his lap after the tree lighting, but that was on hold at the moment.
“Speaking of Santa,” I said and turned towards Izzy. “Who was the guy you hired to play Santa this morning?”
“What?” Izzy was a crystal ball reader and her Mystic Lights shop was a cover for her spiritual gift. She lifted her hand, the crystal eye in her snake ring sparkling, and she brushed her long, blonde wavy hair around one shoulder. Her hazel eyes looked confused. “What guy?”
“There was a guy this morning in front of Magical Moments who was dressed as Santa, ringing a bell for the red cauldron.” I blinked a few times to regain my memory. “In fact, he told me that you hired him.”
“I did no such thing.” She drew her hand and laid it up against her black cloak on top of her heart. “The only person who is allowed to play Santa is Gerald. It was his idea and he has to do it. Gerald?”
“Don’t look at me. This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Gerald pulled the Santa beard from his face and curled the edges of his mustache. “Petunia and I have worked hard this year to make it very memorable for little Orin.”
“That’s right, we have.” Petunia bounced lightly on her toes. She reached around and patted the baby carrier she had strapped to her back with Orin sound asleep. “He might be a toddler, but he loves when his daddy dresses up as the jolly old guy.”
“That’s odd.” I glanced back over at Faith. “Do you recall anything about a Santa?”
Faith’s spiritual gift of a Clauraudiance allowed her to hear inaudible things from the spirit world.
“You know, I get so much static in the air with all this snow that sometimes it’s fuzzy.” The lines between her eyes drew together with worry. “Though I did hear something about a fiancé and some sort of boys’ night out.”
Mr. Prince Charming sat up from his pillow on the chair behind the counter and batted the air.
Mewl, mewl. He batted the air towards me. My pocket warmed.
“Fiancé.” I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out the pig charm. “Camille,” I gasped and looked up between my friends. “I had a young woman in here today that wanted some lotion. When I went to make her lotion special,” I put air quotes on special, so they’d know I meant potion, “there was a strong sense she was going to have her heart broken. It was at the same time Roxy Bloom was in my shop. I was so focused on Roxy that I didn’t pay much attention to Camille.”
Madame Torres lit up behind the counter, drawing a shadow over the shop.
“Madame Torres?” Izzy questioned.
“Yes.” I hurried behind the counter, patting Mr. Prince Charming before I disappeared to see what Madame Torres had to say.
When I lifted my hands over her, the edges of my cloak swept back to my elbow, giving me the freedom to sweep my hands over
the globe, bringing Madame Torres to life.
Just like a movie, Madame Torres replayed the scene of Michael and Camille from inside of the shop. Then she showed Camille talking to Roxy at the tree lighting. She wasn’t with Michael.
My mind was such a jumble from the night’s events, I’d completely forgotten he’d come into the shop.
“Michael was here. This afternoon. He came in to get Camille. He said that they had to go home, and she was devastated. He’d promised her a day in Whispering Falls along with the tree lighting. Then,” I took a deep breath before I continued, “Madame Torres showed me Camille and Roxy talking at the tree lighting. Camille looked upset.”
“We find Camille, we find our killer and this will all be over.” Petunia lifted her hand to her hair and pulled out a leaf, leaving a small opening in her messy up do for a turtle dove to fly out.
On cue, Gerald, who was still peeking out of the curtain, grabbed the handle of the door, swinging it open to let the bird fly out into the cold night.
“First, I need to go to the Treesort to fill the pillows with Mr. Sandman and to make sure Roxy is using the lotion I made for her.” My lashes swept up. “I gave her a dose of extra love so she won’t be snooping around.”
“I think you need to slip her some memory loss herbs, so she will forget about the body,” Faith’s voice held some uneasiness. “The wind whispered how she has been involved in a few murder cases in her hometown of Honey Springs. She has a tendency to want to try to help solve the case when a body is found.” Faith shuddered, “I’m afraid the wind is telling me she’s already got some thoughts in her head as she’s talking to Oscar.”
“Then,” Izzy clasped her hands in front of her and she stared directly at me. “You know what you need to do.”
“I’m calling an emergency smudge meeting at the Gathering Rock.” Petunia’s chin lifted. Her chest heaved up and down. “There needs to be a cleansing. I’ll get in touch with Eloise.”
“I’m already here.” Eloise stepped out of the darkness, making herself known. “This is beyond us.”
Oscar’s aunt was an incense spiritualist. Early in the morning, she’d light special incense and walk around Whispering Falls as the smoke gave way to a cleansing day.
“The smoke had puffs of skulls in them this morning. I gave an extra dose of protection to our citizens and spiritualists, which makes me think the killer is not among us in our community.” Her words made goosebumps crawl along my body.
“This is even worse,” Gerald’s voice was shaky. “It has to be a visitor.”
“Which makes it even more important for me to get to the Treesort.” I grabbed one of the Mr. Sandman mojo bags from the shelf behind the counter. “I’ll get the rooms cleansed and see what I can find out there before I meet all of you at midnight for the meeting.”
“I’ll get the word out,” Faith said, referring to a special edition of the Whispering Falls Newspaper, on her way out the door.
“We will get the Gathering Rock ready.” Petunia grabbed Gerald’s hand on their way out. Baby Orin was still fast asleep.
“I’m going to look into my crystal balls to see exactly who that Santa was.” Izzy swept the edges of her cloak around her shoulder before she disappeared into the cold and dark winter night.
“June,” Eloise put her hand on me, her voice soft. Her emerald eyes popped against her pale skin and short red hair. She’d gone into a trance and I knew she was speaking from the spiritual realm and she didn’t know what she was saying. “Please, be careful. There’s evil lurking and it’s a force beyond our village.” She pulled out a smudge stick infused with mustard seed. “You need to use this during the smudge ceremony. It’ll help ward off any other outside spirits.”
There was a spark between our fingers when our hands exchanged the smudging stick. A memory recoiled from when I was a little girl and Darla. Darla and Eloise were best friends. There was no doubt in my mind they’d bonded because both of them were outsiders to Whispering Falls. Eloise only wanted to be near her brother and sister-in-law, Oscar’s parents, as well as Oscar. But she was a Fairywick, which meant she was part fairy and part witch, an unfavorable combination.
The combination made her a Dark-Sider in the Light-Sider village of Whispering Falls. That’s why she lived deep in the woods on the outskirts of the town. Darla was similar. My father, Otto Heal, a wizard, had done the unthinkable and married a mortal. She gave birth to me and they allowed my father to stay in the town and let my mother open her little cure shop, A Dose of Darla, where the current A Charming Cure was now located. Darla relied on Eloise to give her the special herbs she needed for her homeopathic lotions. Darla didn’t have real potions, only the natural cures the herbs provided.
Still, many of my childhood memories were of Eloise and her giving me lessons on herbs and their special powers. At a very young age, she knew my father’s spiritual gift had overridden my mother’s mortal side and that I was a Good-Sider.
She knew Darla would eventually leave Whispering Falls, so Eloise equipped me with as much as she could when I was a child. When she gave me incense in smudge sticks like she did today, those fond memories flooded over me.
“Thank you.” I gave Eloise a quick hug before I turned to grab the tools I needed for my smudging ceremony.
With a snap of her hand, Eloise was gone.
“Come on, Mr. Prince Charming.” I grabbed my bag, tossing in all the ingredients I was going to need before flinging it across my body. “We’ve got to go to Roxy’s room before she and Patrick get back.”
Amethyst didn’t let the customers pick the room they wanted. Her gift of Onerirocriticy; dream interpretation, helped her. She told me once that she dreamed about each of her clients and knew exactly what they needed from her before they even got there.
“I asked you about the Santa when Roxy and I were cooking.” Amethyst reminded me while I was getting the Sandman potion ready. “I had a dream.”
“A dream about the Santa and Roxy?” I jerked around, knocking the bed into a deep rocking motion.
The honeymoon bed hung from thick grapevines. The honeymoon suite was amazing. It was located in the tallest tree in Whispering Falls. From the bottom, it appeared to be a ton of stairs to get up there. Thanks to magic, you were at the top in five steps. It amazed the guests, but they took it for what it was worth and didn’t question. The magical feel of the community overtook their sense of logic and let the love flow.
“No. Nothing about her.” Her body stiffened.
“What?” I asked, shooing Mr. Prince Charming off the bed. “Did you remember something?”
“Patrick and Roxy are on their way back and she’s telling him they are going to figure out what happened to her friend Camille’s fiancé,” a soft gasp escaped her. “Hurry.”
“I have to be calm,” I let her know she didn’t make my nerves even more jumpy. “Steady the ropes.”
She grabbed them and held the bed still while I climbed up and sat down in the middle with my legs crossed. I held the piece of smoky quartz, focusing all my thoughts on the grounding energy of the stone, letting go of all troubling thoughts Roxy laid upon me.
“The moon is up, I hold its piece, the silver dust will guard my peace,” I chanted with my eyes closed. I held the stone in my right hand and flicked my wrist in slow clockwise circles, repeating the chant two more times, “ The moon is up, I hold its piece, the silver dust will guard my peace. The moon is up, I hold its piece, the silver dust will guard my peace.”
“Hurry,” Amethyst’s voice broke my trance. Her back was to the door.
“Fine.” I crawled out of the bed just in time to sprinkle a little Sandman dust across the pillows, smooth out the comforter, and throw all the stuff back in my bag.
“What’s going on here?” Patrick Cane stood at the threshold of the door cradling Roxy in his arms. He put Roxy back down on her feet. Both of them stared at us.
Their two dogs hurried over to Mr. Prince Charming b
efore he darted out the door and Patrick stopped them from following him.
“Turndown service.” Amethyst twirled back around with a tray filled with cookies and hot tea. “There’s so many guests. June is so gracious to come help me with the bedtime service for the guests.”
“Yes, I hope you enjoyed your evening.” I ran my hand down my bag and swept across the floor towards the door.
“Are you joking?” Roxy shook her head. “I’m so sad over the death of Michael that I just can’t even. . .”
Patrick reached back over and dragged his wife to him.
“We just had someone die in our town and I think it’s bringing all of it back up for her. We were hoping to get away from death on our honeymoon, but it appears that it’s just followed us.” He stroked his wife’s curly hair as she nestled closer to him. It looked like the lotion I’d made for her earlier was doing the trick.
Now if she’d only lay her head down on her pillow so we could get on with our smudge ceremony without worrying about her.
Amethyst and I bid them a quick goodnight before we made our exit. The moon hung high in the sky. The teenagers fluttered around.
“I told you to go play somewhere else for a few days. Go to the clearing on the outskirts of town near Locust Grove,” Amethyst told the lightning bugs. The darted around her before they flew off. “Teens, they never listen.”
Teenagers in the spiritual world came back in the form of lightning bugs. True to the insect, teens stayed up all night and slept all day. It was a perfect form for their spirits to come back as.
“Roxy noticed them right off.” Amethyst’s eyes slid up the trunk of the tree just as the inside lights of the honeymoon suite turned off.
“Let’s just hope Roxy is asleep.” I sucked in a deep breath and turned to follow Mr. Prince Charming out of the forest and up the hill behind the shops where the Gathering Rock was located. “I’m going to snow them in for good measure.”
