The Changer Complete Box Set

by A C Wilds

  “You look great. Is that dress new?” I ask, while turning toward my outfit to get changed. She nods with a devilish smile and goes back to applying her makeup. She’s finishing up a smokey eye, which looks fantastic against her green emeralds. I’m a bit of a makeup whore. It’s like a mini Sephora store in my bedroom. To say that we spend a lot of money on makeup is an understatement. That store is Disneyland for women like us, and makeup is the first thing that Noli and I bonded over.

  “Move over, mirror hog,” I say, as I push her with my hip to get in front of the mirror. If I don’t start now, I’ll never be ready in time. A full face takes a while to get just right. I might as well feel as pretty and as put together as possible since I haven’t had a night out in a long while. Makeup helps me to transform from a lonely looking caterpillar into a confident, colorful butterfly.

  “When you're done, meet me in the kitchen. I’m going to start my reading while I’m waiting for you,” she tells me, then sashays herself out of the door. I shake my head and return to making myself look fabulous.

  I finish up the last coat of red lipstick and turn to look at myself in the mirror. I look perfectly put together in my black skinny jeans and Noli’s top. My boots make me just the right height, and I will be able to dance all night comfortably in them. I love my body and how strong it is. I may not have a small frame or be tall enough to be a model, but I’m comfortable in who I am. Giving myself one more admiring glance, I turn and go to find Noli.

  She’s sitting at the kitchen table with her left elbow on the table and her hand supporting her head, while the right hand is arranging cards. “So, what do they say? Are you meeting Mr. Rich, Famous, and Perfect tonight?” I ask her.

  “Not quite. They say that I’ll be meeting someone, or rather two someones, but that I won’t be able to choose from either of them. It’s also not my choice. It’s like they are being put in my path for someone else’s benefit,” she says, while looking at the cards like they’re broken. “I’ve never seen a reading like this before.” She mumbles to herself.

  “That’s confusing and not at all helpful,” I tell her. “Want to read mine now, so that we can go? I don’t want to be out too late because someone promised me yummy brunch in the morning, and I don’t want to miss it,” I say, trying to lift her spirits back up. She looks a little defeated right now.

  “Yeah, sorry…I just…never mind. Let me cleanse the area so we can start with new energy.” She gets up from the table and grabs a smudge stick that was burning in a dish by the stove. She swirls the smoke around her hands and chants in a language I don’t know. She walks across the room and surrounds me with smoke. By now, I’m used to all the Noli weirdness, so I go with the flow and wait until she is seated in front of me again.

  “Place your hand on the deck, and speak your intention,” she states.

  I place my hand on the deck she has in front of her. The cards are well worn and look like they are a treasured possession. They remind me of my favorite book that I’ve read hundreds of times. They’re black on one side with detailed hand painted pictures on the other. Noli said she got them from a great-aunt. They were passed down through her family. The original owner had them commissioned by a fairy princess, or something equally laughable.

  “I, Azra, wish to know if my night at the grand watering hole, Pete’s Bar and Grill, will end in laughter, or frustration?” I question, with laughter in my voice the whole time. It took all of me to get it out.

  “I see what you’re doing here, Azra, but let me tell you something. The cards know! They always know!” She says with a huge smile on her face, and her index finger pointed to the sky.

  We both chuckle as she begins to lay out the spread. She is doing just a three-card spread for past, present, and future. At least this one will be quick. She flips over the past card, and it’s the same card as yesterday. Death. A lot of people think that if the Death card turns up, it means they are going to die, or someone they love will die, but that’s not it. Noli explained it to me once saying, “Death is the symbol of change. One major chapter of your life is going to end to make way for another to begin. For every change we make, a sacrifice must be made. A little piece of you must die for change to occur. The day cannot live on in the night; it must die first and be reborn anew.”

  She flips the present card over, and it’s the same. Death. She doesn’t hesitate and flips the future card over, and again its Death. She keeps her eyes glued on the cards like they are going to change. I give her a minute. “Are you finally going to admit to the trick deck?” I ask her.

  “It’s not a trick deck, Azra. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but this isn’t a trick!” She exclaims. She looks distraught, like this means something.

  “Nol, it’s just a fun thing we do sometimes. If you say it’s not a trick deck, I believe you — no need to get all serious on me. We have a night of debauchery awaiting us,” I declare. I’m trying to keep my voice light and upbeat for her. I don’t want her to be upset by a little game.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry this keeps happening. I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Trust me,” she replies, looking at me with a bit of concern in her eyes.

  I lean in and give her a quick squeeze before I grab my bag and walk toward the door. Noli leaves all the materials on the table and grabs her bag. Pete’s is only about a ten-minute walk up the road, so it doesn’t take us too long to get there. The place is packed with locals, as this is the only bar in town. The music is playing, and the crowd is having a good time. Noli and I walk up to the bar and order a couple of drinks. I get a Cosmo, and Noli gets a Sex on the Beach. Cosmo’s are so 2000’s, but they taste too damn good. I’m not ashamed to like a pink drink.

  Walking over to the dance floor, we find a spot open enough to dance freely. The music is fast and every bit the modern dance mix from the radio. I don’t even know if Pete’s has a DJ, or if this is just some mix they got off of Spotify. Swaying my hips to the music, I feel the beat in my soul. I’ve always loved dancing and how my body responds so well to the notes. If I close my eyes, I could pretend I’m somewhere else and get lost in the sound. Noli busts out her sexy dance moves, and before long, two of the single guys in town are trying to dance with us. She makes all the right moves grinding against each of them. You can see there’s a bit of a competition brewing. They both look really into her and are vying for who will take her home. Little do they know, that disappointment awaits them because Noli doesn’t take anyone home. Not that she’s a prude, but small towns equal a lot of gossip, and gossip isn’t good for business. You can’t fuck one guy and then another, and expect their mothers to be ok with it, and mothers make up the bulk of Noli’s customers.

  Noli isn’t the only one getting attention. I refuse the first couple of guys because it’s

  weird for me to dance with customers from the diner, but then one guy catches my eye. You can tell he’s not from here. He’s tall and muscular like a football player, a quarterback though, not a linebacker. He has dark brown hair that’s a little too long in the front and looks like he missed his last cut. His face is strong and determined, and he’s staring at me like I’m the last glass of water in a drought. My pulse picks up, but I quickly turn around before he can notice my interest. I can’t allow myself to look at guys like this one. He screams heartbreaker.

  My interest must have gone unnoticed because when I turn back around, he’s gone. I feel a sense of relief and then a pang of emptiness. I wonder if I will ever heal from New York and take a chance on love again. Two years is a long time to be bitter, but when your boyfriend of three years is banging some redhead over the coffee table you picked out together, a little piece of your soul dies. I trusted Sean with my whole everything. He saved me from a life of loneliness and grief. He showed me what it is to love and be loved. I could clearly picture our future together. We’d get married and have two kids. Maybe buy a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, and get a dog. We were good together;
always finishing each other’s sentences, and knowing when the other needed a snuggle. He hurt me, broke me. It turns out that I was naive, and he was an asshole.

  Coming home from the Winter Equestrian Festival early was a disappointment of a lifetime, but finding Sean with that girl was soul crushing. In New York, I was a champion show jumper. It’s what I lived and breathed for. My horse that year tore a ligament after the second month in Florida, so I flew back early. I was full of grief and sorrow because my one chance at showing the equestrian world what I was made of was blown. I needed Sean that day to comfort me, but he was too busy buried inside some random chick. I remember walking in on them having sex in my living room. I didn’t even get to put my bags down, when I was slammed with the image of them in a heated and frenzied tryst. My voice was lodged in my throat, my palms were sweaty, and there was a stabbing pain that went from my stomach to my chest. I was hot and cold all over and nauseous in an instant. My whole world shattered. He was my life, and all that’s left now is a cavernous hollowed shell of a woman I once was.

  I packed up that night and left the next day without speaking a word to Sean. Not knowing where I was going, I bought the first bus ticket out of Penn station and just kept going until I couldn’t go anymore. I ended up in a hotel in Hellebore and got the job at Manny’s. Noli was in the diner that day and asked if I had found a place to live yet. When I told her I was still looking, she asked me to move in, and the rest is history. I had a good life in New York, but this life is quiet and normal, I am dying inside. I haven’t been on a horse in two years. I haven’t smelled all that wonderful musty horse barn air in so long. Looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have left in such a rush, but it felt like my world just ended, and I couldn’t breathe. Escape was my only option.

  I pull myself from this horrible chain of thoughts and notice Noli is cornered in an argument between the two men she was dancing with. I think about the reading she did, and the guys she mentioned. The cards are only a game, so this is just some silly coincidence. I’m standing a few feet away,so I can’t hear them over the loud music, but I see the big burly guy on her right pull something shiny out of his pocket. His face is scrunched in anger, and he looks like he’s going to flip out. The short, stocky guy on her left takes a step forward, putting Noli in the middle of the two men. This is making me nervous. As I’m walking over to grab her away from them, burly guy flings his arm back and opens a knife in his grasp. I stop in shock. Noli doesn’t notice it, and a scream passes my lips to warn her. It’s as if I’m watching a movie in slow motion. The knife is flung from his hand and is slowly flying toward her. My Cosmo slips from my hands, and crashes on the floor as my arms fly up in front of me into a stopping motion. I start to run straight at her to pull her out of the way, when I notice no one is moving. Not a single person or object is in motion. It’s almost like they are frozen in time. I look around, and all the people are stuck. There’s a guy next to me who is in mid-trip, his beer is cascading in an arc toward the floor. Each droplet stranded in time. His face is contorted in surprise, and his hands are bracing for the fall, but it never comes. I feel like I’m in a dive bar version of The Matrix.

  How is this happening? Who is doing this? I turn around in a circle looking for movement, or any indication that someone is doing this, but no one is moving except me. Then I see it, the knife is inches from Noli’s heart. I rush over to reach her, wasting no more time. I pluck it out of the air, and throw it to the floor. Before I can examine the scene more, or think about what just could have happened, everything starts back up again. The pulsing music is so intense that I double over from the ear crushing pain. I glance up at Noli and see she is no longer paying attention to the two idiots, who are now looking around confused. Her eyes are all on me. The thought suddenly occurs to me that I am the one who did this. I somehow hit a virtual pause button in the space-time continuum, and I have no idea how the fuck I did that.

  Security guards come barreling over and grab the two men by their necks and escort them out. She doesn’t even notice that they leave. I don’t even want to think what would have happened if I hadn’t stopped time, or whatever it is that I did. I’m dizzy, and my stomach doesn’t feel quite right.

  “How did you get over here so fast, Az?” Noli asks me, with a bit of a shocked look on her face. I notice that her makeup is starting to smudge from all the sweat on her skin.

  “I was standing here the whole time, Noli,” I say, not ready to confess to her that I may or may not have stopped time.

  “No, you weren’t. The last time I saw you, you were over there dancing and looking like you were having a semi-good time. Then these two dickwads got into it because they thought that I was going home with one of them, and the next moment I’m looking at you almost puking your guts up on this floor. Something isn’t right,” she says, sounding exasperated. She is flustered and scared, but I still can’t tell her. It’s crazy. I don’t even know what happened.

  “I’m not feeling too good, so I’m going over to the bar to get a glass of water and cool down. I’ll be back in ten,” I say, walking away without waiting for her response. She yells after me, but I ignore her.

  “Azra, wait a minute,” she says, grabbing my arm. “What the fuck just happened? You can’t run away from this.”

  I don’t want to talk about this. I can hardly believe it myself. I stopped time and was able to save my friend. What if she thinks I’m crazy? I can’t come up with a reason why this happened. People do not stop time. It’s scientifically impossible, so how was I able to do it?

  “I’m not running; I need a glass of water. You’re ok, right? You don’t need anything?” I ask her. I’m starting to get dizzy again. I feel like all my energy has been zapped out of me.

  “I’m fine, a little shaken up, but fine. I’m going to go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face. I’ll meet you at the bar. Don’t leave from that spot,” she commands me. I nod to her and walk over to the bar.

  It’s crowded over here, people are standing all around, but I manage to squeeze myself in between two guys and get the attention of the bartender.

  “I’ll have a water please,” I say. He nods and goes about fixing it for me. I look over to my left and notice the hot guy from earlier. He’s now standing right next to me looking down with interest. He’s so much taller than me. It’s like I could fit right under his chin if I hugged him. What? Where are these thoughts coming from?

  I hope he doesn’t talk to me. Please don’t talk to me. I want to close my eyes and make a wish that he won’t talk to me. He would be so hard to resist. His build is even more impressive close-up. He looks more like a farmer than a quarterback now. He has stubble along his jaw and great big blue eyes. He’s every girl’s wet dream.

  “Hello,” he says. Damn it! Why does the universe hate me?

  “Uh... hi,” I squeak back, because really what else am I going to say? I have no game. Sean was my only boyfriend, and I met him at a homeless shelter while serving food. There was no pick up lines, just a conversation that led to coffee.

  “Come here a lot?” he questions with a smirk. Like he knows how cheesy that was, but couldn’t resist saying it anyway. Against my better judgement, I decide to keep talking with him.

  “No, actually I was dragged out tonight by my best friend. What about you? You're not from here, so what brings you to Pete’s?”

  “I’m just passing through while heading down south to a conference for work. I’m staying at the Hellebore Inn, and the front desk said this was the only place that was open for food and drink at this hour.”

  “Yeah, this small town doesn’t have much in the way of tourist attractions. Just mostly working-class families. Pete’s is the only bar in town,” I say, noticing the bartender is back with my water. I pick it up and take a sip, relishing the fresh taste as it runs down my throat. A moan escapes my lips before I can catch it. I must have been thirstier than I thought.

  “Seems like you’re really into
that water,” the handsome guy says, with a bit of a laugh in his deep husky voice. It’s a good laugh too, almost like pure happiness could come from that laugh.

  “Guess so. I was doing a lot of dancing before and must have built up a thirst.”

  “I know. I was watching,” he says with so much smolder in his eyes that I feel like my body could ignite. I suddenly feel boiling hot and flustered. As I go to grab my water again, a wave of nausea hits, and I have to crouch down to prevent myself from puking all over this guy’s shoes.

  “Hey, are you ok?” he asks, while bending down to my level — a look of concern on his face. Being this close to him, and looking him in the eyes, is doing nothing for my strength. He’s beautiful, and it’s taking all of me not to lean over and kiss him.

  “Yeah, I’m ok., Can you just hand me my water?” I ask, as I close my eyes for a second to get my bearings. It takes him a bit longer than expected to bring me the water. Maybe he didn’t know what glass was mine? But he finally comes back down and hands me the glass. I take it from him and begin to down the whole thing in a single chug. I wipe my mouth on the back of my hand and stand up. I still feel dizzy and now a little light headed. I look around for Noli, but I can’t find her anywhere. I attempt to take a step, and my legs almost give out from under me.