by Tara Taylor
Annabelle interrupted my thoughts. “Later this afternoon, we will get down to business.”
Business? What business? What else do I have to learn but the cash register?
She opened the brown book, which was almost like an extension of her arm. “I have clients until noon.” She tapped her forehead. “Oh, dear, I forgot to order the sandwiches for lunch.” She picked up the phone and pressed numbers.
“You don’t have to buy me lunch,” I said, a wee bit shocked.
“Believe me, you will need it,” she stated before talking into the phone receiver. “Andrew, it’s Annabelle. I need to order some sandwiches.”
She listened for a few seconds, then she put her hand over the receiver. “You like turkey?”
I nodded, still surprised that she would buy me lunch.
She ordered the sandwiches and hung up the phone. “After we eat, we’ll start with cards.”
“Cards?”
“Girl, I’m going to shock your system. I’m in your life to help you get on your path, and there’s no time like the present. Don’t worry, I will be gentle for the first little while. I’m going to start you on oracle cards. If you are going to follow your life’s path, we might as well not waste time.”
“Okay….” Honestly, I did wonder what she did in her readings. And how she did them. So I had to admit that I was a bit intrigued.
After she showed me how to use the cash register, which was easy, she pointed to the appointment book. “I am going to the back room to get mentally prepared for my readings. When my clients get here, I want you to show them where I am. But knock. Don’t just come in.”
“Are you in that pink room?” I asked.
Her lips curled upward in a smile that lit her entire face. “Yes,” she said, almost laughing, “in the pink room.”
“I like those chairs.” I smiled back, secretly thrilled that the woman did have a sense of humor. I thought about my slippers at home and how they would match. I had always liked pink fuzzy things.
“They were a gift from a client,” she said. She turned and walked toward the back, but halfway there she turned around, faced me, and frowned, shaking her head. “I keep hearing the word Paul.” She shrugged. “I’ll leave that with you.”
As soon as I heard the door to the pink room shut, I glanced around the store at all the angels and stones and cards. Paul? What was she talking about? Why would his name come up? I’d only met him once.
Although I was alone, in a weird kind of store, I felt comfortable, almost as if I’d arrived home. I went behind the counter and sat on a stool, waiting for someone to come in and buy something. I picked up a beautiful purple stone bracelet and twirled it around my finger, liking the feel of the smooth stones. It would make a good Christmas present for Natalie.
I put it back and stared out the windows. I wondered when my first customer would come in. When no one walked through the door, I jumped off the stool to walk around the room. I stopped in front of the shelf with the card decks. Something pulled me toward them. I shoved my hands in my back pockets and rocked back and forth.
Illustrations of angels, fairies, goddesses, pretty flowers, and even wild animals like bears were all over the decks. I was immediately drawn to a box with a purple angel on the front. I grinned. Angelic Messenger Cards. The angel on the front of the box was flying downward like a superhero, cutting through the air, heading toward something. I liked that she looked as if she were on a mission. I pulled my hands out of my pockets. Slowly, I reached out to touch the box, the heat drawing me in. My fingertips tingled, like they had been zapped by some sort of electricity.
I almost had the box in my hand when the bell on the door tinkled. I jumped back and dropped my arms to my side.
“Hi,” I said in a chirpy, forced voice. I sounded as if I were five again and I’d been caught red-handed at the cookie jar.
“Hi,” replied a blonde woman. She sported bangs and had her hair tied back in a ponytail. I tried to gauge her age—early 40s perhaps. Someone who definitely worked out and took care of herself but didn’t go to extremes with makeup. A natural beauty.
She looked around the store, never really stopping to look at anything for any length of time. Even from where I was standing, many feet away from her, I could see that she looked almost scared.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Um,” she said. “I’m here to see Annabelle.”
“She’s in the back.” I quickly went behind the counter and opened the appointment book. I read the name, then looked up. “You must be Karen.”
She nodded.
“Follow me.”
“Thanks.” Her voice trembled.
We went into the back, and I could hear Annabelle playing her violin. Did she always play before one of these readings? I gently knocked on the door.
“Karen, come on in,” she said.
How she heard me knock over all that music was beyond me.
“Thanks,” said Karen. She opened the door and disappeared, shutting the door in my face.
A huge part of me wanted to put my ear to the door and find out what Annabelle was going to say to this Karen woman, but … I made myself go back to the front.
Ten long minutes later, the bell tinkled and a man with salt-and-pepper hair and a runner’s build walked in. I smiled. “Hello,” I said.
He smiled back. “You’re new.”
“I just started today.”
“I’m looking for a present for my wife,” he said. “She loves angels.”
My throat dried, and I swallowed. The guy wanted me to help him pick out a gift for his wife? I hopped off my stool and moved toward him. Annabelle had tons of books on angels.
“Angels, eh?”
He gave a big nod. “Yup.”
Suddenly, I heard the word purse. Purse? I scanned the room. And then I saw it: a little black purse with beautiful purple angel wings hand beaded on the front.
I walked over and picked it up. “What about this?” I turned and smiled as I showed the purse to the man. It had a nice, long gold chain and a pretty clasp.
He took it and turned it over a few times, touching the beading. “I think this will work,” he said. “I got her some clothes, but I wanted something small, too. I’ll give this to her first and let her think I didn’t get her anything else.”
I laughed. “She’ll open this and think it’s the most perfect gift. She won’t want anything else.”
“You’re quite the salesgirl.” He grinned at me. “I never would have picked this.”
Neither would I, if I hadn’t heard the word purse in my head.
I rang the purse up, placing it and the receipt in a purple plastic bag that had Annabelle’s Angels scrolled in white across the front.
The man picked up the bag, gave me a little wave, then left the store. I couldn’t help smiling to myself. That had been fun.
Two ladies came in next, and for some reason, I said hello but didn’t get off my seat because I could just tell, from all my years of clothes shopping, that they wanted to browse and touch. I lowered my head and tried to sneak glances at them, hoping they wouldn’t think I was spying on them—I just wanted to be available if they needed my help. The tall woman with flaming red hair liked to touch everything, and the tiny, short-haired brunette kept her arms crossed and bobbed her head to say whether she liked the product or not.
Time ticked by, and the women chatted as they edged their way around the store. Finally, after a good ten minutes, they stopped in front of the cards.
They stood there eyeing the decks until the redheaded woman looked my way. “What can you tell us about the cards?” she asked.
“Um. What would you like to know?” I slipped off my stool but didn’t move from around the counter. What did I know? Not a damn thing.
Help me.
“Well,” said the brunette, “what are the differences between the cards? Some are called oracle and others are tarot.” She picked up two different deck
s and showed them to me.
Suddenly, the bell tinkled and a heavyset woman with a head of gray curls limped in. A wave of relief flowed through my body. She had arrived at exactly the right time.
“Hello,” I said.
She glanced at the two women, then back at me. “I have an appointment,” she whispered. “For a reading. I’m just a little early.”
“That’s great,” I said. Immediately, I went back to my safe spot behind the counter and looked at the schedule. “You must be Stella.”
“Yes,” she said.
Just then, Karen came out from the back, walking as if she was in a daze and wiping under her eyes as if she had been crying. What had happened in there? My heart suddenly ached, and I put my hand to my chest. I could feel it beating right through my blouse.
Shaking her head, Karen looked right at me and said, “That woman is amazing. Unbelievable.” Her eyes welled with tears.
“That’s good,” I said. Again, my heart pained. If Annabelle was so amazing, why was Karen crying?
Annabelle told me she liked to have a ten-minute break between readings, so I turned to Stella and said, “Why don’t you look around? Annabelle will be ready in ten minutes.”
The two women who had asked questions about the cards had each chosen a book and a few other little items, and they came over to the counter. And here I thought the job would be boring and I just needed to learn the cash register. Happy for the distraction, I rang in their stuff and put it in bags. “Enjoy,” I said.
They left, and Karen left, too, and now I was alone with Stella.
“I’ve never had a reading before,” she said. “I’m excited. I’ve heard Annabelle is the best in the city.”
“That’s good to hear,” I said.
We chatted for a few more minutes until I heard the violin playing. Guessing that was my cue, I took Stella back and knocked on the door. Once she was locked in the room with Annabelle, I went back to the front.
The steady stream of traffic in and out of the store for the next couple of hours surprised me, but I was happy for it because it made the time go by so much faster. Before I knew it, my watch said it was 11:45 and my stomach was growling. Annabelle was on her last client. She had told me she would be done by noon and, if the sandwiches came, to pay for them from the cash register. Alone for the first time since Karen had shown up for her reading, I walked around the store, straightening things. I lined the books up and hung up fallen angels.
I had only covered half of the store when the bell tinkled.
When I looked at the customer, I stared wide-eyed.
Finally, I said, “Hi.”
Chapter Seven
Paul was standing in front of me holding Styrofoam sandwich containers.
He gave me a big, lopsided grin and nodded. “Indie.” He sounded as shocked as I felt. “Do you work here?”
“It’s my first day.” I pointed at him. “Paul. Right?”
“You remembered,” he said.
I nodded. It looked as if I had just made his day.
“It’s my first day at the deli, too,” he said. “This is my first delivery.”
I held out my hands to take the sandwiches from him.
Once he had given them to me, he glanced around the store. “Wow,” he said. “There’s some interesting stuff in here.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know much about it.” I walked over to the counter with the sandwiches. “How much do we owe you?”
“I think it’s on the bill stapled to the outside.” In two strides, he was at the counter.
I reached for the bill at the same time as he did, and our fingers touched. Immediately, I withdrew my hand, surprised at the tingles that ran through my hand, into my arm, and to the rest of my body. They weren’t the same tingles I had felt with John—his had been electrically charged, and these were, well, these were just pleasant.
He laughed awkwardly, then read the bill. “Looks like you owe $12.65.”
With my head lowered, I rang in the bill, and the cash register popped open. I pulled out the money, looked up, and tried to smile as I handed it to him, unsure whether I should tip him or not.
He took the money, then I pulled out a toonie and gave it to him, thinking I would just replace it later and not let Annabelle know I’d given him money.
“What’s that for?” he asked.
“A tip,” I replied.
“Oh, okay,” he said. “Thanks. Well, I better get going. I have a few more deliveries to do, and then it’s back to the deli to clean up.”
“A multitasker.”
“I just do what the boss asks.”
I nodded. “Me too.”
“Well, see yah,” he said.
“Yeah, see yah.” I lifted my hand and gave him a little wave.
He was almost at the door before he turned and said, “You want to go for coffee sometime?”
For some reason, I didn’t hesitate and just blurted out, “Sure.”
“I’m off at four.”
“Me too,” I said.
“You want to go after work?”
“Tonight?”
He shrugged. “Any night that you’re free. There’s a Starbucks just a few blocks down.”
I thought about my evening. I had zero plans. “Okay. Let’s go tonight.”
He grinned. “I’ll pop by when I’m done.”
The bell tinkled as he left. As soon as he was gone, I reached into my purse for my wallet, getting a toonie and putting it into the cash register. Not more than 30 seconds later, Annabelle and her last client entered the store from the back room.
“Oh, good, the sandwiches arrived,” she said. “Did you pay the delivery guy?”
“Yep,” I answered. I eyed her. She had to have known they had hired a teenager and his name was Paul. That’s why she had said his name earlier this morning. Something jabbed me.
She can see and hear things too, yah know.
Annabelle said good-bye to her client, and when the door shut and we were alone, she sighed, her shoulders sagging. “Three is all I can handle in a day,” she said. “I used to be able to do more, but recently, I’m just so tired. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
I flipped open the sandwich containers. “You need to eat,” I said. I patted the second stool behind the counter. “And sit.”
“Aren’t you a doll? It’s rare that someone waits on me.” Annabelle took her sandwich and sat beside me. She took a bite of turkey, lettuce, and tomato that was stuffed between slices of super-fresh multigrain bread. “They make the best sandwiches.” She nodded her head in approval.
“Could I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
I picked at my sandwich for a second. “When people die,” I started, “and don’t leave the earth, they become ghosts, right?”
“That’s true.”
“How does someone get rid of a ghost?”
“Ahh, so you have one hanging around. Man or woman?”
“Woman.”
“Where?”
“She’s in our apartment. It’s such a sad story. I feel so sorry for her, even though she’s kind of mean. Her son died, and she never recovered from that.”
“She probably hasn’t dealt with the fact that he died, or she would have been more than willing to walk through the light to be on the other side.” She wiped her mouth with the napkin and put her sandwich down. “I can give you methods to rid her from your apartment. I’ll put together something for you by the end of the week. Some of the things you need are on back order, and they won’t arrive until Thursday. Plus, I don’t want to overwhelm you today, on your first day at work, and we have other things to do. Just ignore her.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
That would be hard to do. Annabelle was treating the ghost like nothing, and I knew that Sarah and Natalie were waiting for me to do something. “Um,” I continued, “I’d appreciate any help you could give me. And so would my roommates.”
&nb
sp; “Sure. Ultimately, though,” Annabelle said, “she has to make the decision to leave the earth. You can get her out of your apartment, but she will have to make the effort to walk through the light.”
“Can I help her do that?”
“You can most certainly try.”
We ate for a few seconds in silence before I got up the nerve to ask another question. I didn’t want to keep bugging her, but I just had so many things that needed answering. “What’s the difference between tarot cards and oracle cards? Two ladies asked me.”
Annabelle put down her sandwich and closed her Styrofoam container, even though she’d only eaten half. “Tarot has a lot of structure. There are always 78 cards in the deck, and they’re divided up into 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana,” she said.
To me, that information sounded like a foreign language.
She got up and threw her container in the trash. “Oracle cards don’t have quite as much structure, and to me that makes the work harder in the beginning,” she continued. “But it’s easier in the long run if you learn by using them. So I will start you on oracle cards. Every deck is different, and there is no set pattern to the cards. But, sweetie, the cards are only for practice. When you start doing readings, you use your senses.”
“Okay,” I said.
She patted me on the back. “I know this is going to be a challenge for you, Indie, but I know you can do this. You are going to do wonderful things for people because of your generous soul.”
I didn’t know how to answer her, so I took the last bite of my sandwich and shut my sandwich container.
“Now, I need a smoke before we begin,” said Annabelle.
“You smoke?” I would have looooved a cigarette.
