‘Okay,’ she said. He was right – there were no other options.
‘Okay?’
‘OK. I’m out of ideas. But just please… be careful and… and…’
‘I’m not going to screw this up.’ Chase kissed her on the forehead, leaving behind some sticky, cherry-flavoured debris. He ran across the shop and up the stairs. ‘Mum! Dani!’ he called.
Cherry left the shop and instantly found herself pushing through the restless, humming crowd. She took deep breath after deep breath, her chest rising and falling underneath her wool cardigan. Someone accidentally stood on her foot and the pain triggered the prickle in the back of her eyes and the sound in her ears started to wane in and out. ‘Oh, God.’ She let out a sob and there, in the middle of the crowd, she sat down on the pavement, pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her forehead against them. She couldn’t separate out any of the noises until she latched onto the only sound she was waiting for: the bell above the door of Psychic Sisters.
The crowd fell silent.
18
As Rare As A Unicorn
‘I’m not really one for speeches…’ Velina began. She stood on her tiptoes so she could reach the mic that was duct-taped to the front of the lectern. Danior pushed her aside and rested her hands on the edge of the lectern, with her elbows sticking out so Velina couldn’t get any closer. Cherry could only hear their voices and when she opened her eyes the sight of all the yellow flyers made her stomach flip.
‘I, on the other hand, am one for speeches!’ Danior cackled and snorted and the speaker that was teetering on the front of the small podium squealed in response. ‘Welcome one and all, young and old, to our humble shop. For almost four decades we’ve been here, in our little hovel, helping you all realise your greatest dreams and making all your lives brighter with the knowledge you crave but are unable to reach. We can reach that knowledge, however, and so have worked hard for most of our lives giving you, our loyal friends and customers, just what you need.’ Danior licked her lips, transferring more of her lipstick to her teeth, which she then bared to the crowd in a grin. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, today we want to thank you for all the… love you’ve given us by letting those you care about who have passed communicate through us. All we require is a… small donation. Baskets and tea are being passed around. Make sure you find both!’ Danior wiggled her fingers dismissively to her side and Velina produced two wicker baskets from underneath the podium and handed them to the front row of the crowd. ‘Good, good. Keep them moving!’
‘You all right down there, Miss Redgrave?’
‘Oh, George. Hello. Yes. Fine.’ Cherry took the hand he was offering to her and he hoisted her off the floor. Her cheeks burned. She needed to pull it together. She couldn’t fall apart every time something bad happened.
‘You looked comfy down there.’ George gestured with his other hand that was holding a cup of tea. ‘I wouldn’t. Disgusting stuff,’ he said when he caught Cherry eyeing the cup. ‘Not even really sure what I’m doing here but everyone loves something free.’ He took a breath and then said very quickly, ‘Listen… I’m so sorry about the other day. I should never have got into that state and I should’ve listened to you about Chase. It’s not like you to get angry and I should have been a more supportive friend to you and stayed away from —’
‘Actually, it’s all okay,’ Cherry said, her breathing back to normal now. ‘Chase and I have… worked things out. We’ve been talking a lot recently. I think we both misjudged each other.’
‘I see,’ George said, an uncertain smile slowly spreading across his face. ‘Well, good for you… I think. Chase is a… handful.’
‘I know.’
‘Then again,’ he said playfully, ‘you punched him, so I guess… so are you.’ George nudged her with his elbow and Cherry’s cheeks rounded up into a smile.
‘Did you get your job back at the library?’ she asked.
‘Nah. I think that chapter of my life is well and truly over.’
‘Oh, George. I’m so sorry. I thought Sally would be able to get it back for you. She was furious when she left.’
‘It’s not that,’ George shook his head. ‘She did get me my job back but… I said I didn’t want it. I kept thinking about what you said, actually.’
‘Oh, no. What did I say?’ Cherry’s stomach somersaulted again.
‘You said “It’s never too late”. It probably wasn’t an original quote but it stayed with me all the same.’
‘It’s never too late for… ? What now? Do you have a plan?’
‘I’m putting my degree to use! Applying for jobs. There’s one in Truro that looks promising.’
‘Cornwall?’
George nodded. ‘I’ve never been, but as they say there’s a first time for everything.’
Cherry couldn’t help but feel impressed. Who would’ve thought George would take a risk like this? She smiled at him. ‘That’s terrific. I’m really proud of you, George.’
He blushed. ‘Well, it’s all down to —’
He was interrupted by the bell above the Psychic Sisters’ door ringing out again, but Cherry was too short to see what was going on.
‘Who was that? Leaving the shop? Was that Chase?’
‘Er…’ George was taller than Cherry but still had to tiptoe to see. ‘Yeah, I think so. Someone’s behind the podium anyway. Passing Velina… two glasses, I think. Champagne, it looks like.’
‘Ah, yes!’ Danior’s voice boomed through the mic. She swiped up her glass. ‘While you all have our,’ she smirked, ‘traditional tea, we thought we’d have something a bit stronger. We are celebrating, after all!’ She knocked back the glass and swallowed its contents in one. Velina sniffed hers first, as it seemed to have an odd froth floating on top, but after seeing her sister’s enthusiasm, she swallowed her drink down quickly too.
‘Cherry!’
Cherry turned to see Chase hurrying towards her. He swerved and ducked through handfuls of coins and the tea-filled cups. He’d cleaned most of the pie from his face but there were a handful of tell-tale stains on his clothes.
‘Chase! What did you do? I mean how did it go?’ She added quickly, turning her face away from George.
‘My aunt and mother never could resist a drink or two,’ Chase whispered, his lips brushing her earlobe. His hand found hers and he squeezed it. Cherry glanced at George, who was staring straight ahead – but she was certain he’d seen the intimacy between her and Chase.
‘Right! You all came here for a show, so let’s get started, shall we?’ Danior swirled the glittery hem of her dress, showing off her liver-spotted thighs, and sat in one of the black chairs.
‘It’s so cold out here,’ Cherry said, pulling her cardigan around her. ‘I don’t know how they both aren’t freezing in just those dresses.’
‘It’s the evil in their veins. It’s made of the fires from hell. Keeps them toasty warm while they carry out their sordid deeds.’
Cherry looked at him in surprise. ‘Will you keep your voice down?’ she hushed.
‘No, do you know what? I don’t think I will. Excuse me! Velina!’ Chase shouted over the crowd but he tried to mask his face with his hands at the same time. ‘Is it true you can’t actually speak to the dead?’
‘Yes,’ Velina said instantly, nodding enthusiastically. Danior looked appalled. She leaned across the table and slapped Velina hard across the cheek and the crowd gasped.
‘And is it true you’ve been taking everyone’s hard-earned money when they ask you for help, even though you know you don’t have any supernatural abilities?’
‘Yes!’ Danior said, the word sliding off her tongue before she could catch it. Velina leaned over and returned the slap, twice as hard. The crowd was beginning to unsettle, with a few people starting to shout out.
‘Disgraceful!’
‘You’re fakes!’
‘I want my money back!’
‘And, Danior, is it true you used to steal my pocket
money to buy yourself cigarettes?’
‘YES!’ Danior shrieked and Velina slapped her so hard, she knocked the crystal ball off its small gold stand and it rolled off the podium and into the crowd.
‘Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,’ Chase said, a small laugh escaping his lips.
People moved and created a path for the ball as it rolled to a stop at Cherry’s feet. She was suddenly in the direct eyeline of the sisters.
‘YOU!’ Danior pointed a claw and Cherry was sure she was envisioning sinking it deep into her eye sockets. Dani walked back over to the lectern on shaking legs. She didn’t understand what was going on but she had this overwhelming urge to be very, very honest all of a sudden. ‘You think you’re so clever with your little bakery and your ridiculous pyjamas but a SILLY LITTLE CUPCAKE CAN’T STOP ME!’ Danior’s eyes were painfully wide and her eyeliner and eyeshadow were merging to create thick lines above both of her eyelids. ‘Let’s start with Bruce, shall we? Bruce Bunting, are you here?’ No answer. ‘Hmm? Can’t hear you, Bruce? But then again I doubt anyone would be able to hear you over the deafening sound of your wife’s betrayal!’ There was no gasp from the crowd, only concerned murmurs – but whether they were for Bruce or Danior’s mental wellbeing, Cherry couldn’t decipher.
‘We have to stop this,’ Cherry whispered urgently to Chase, who had paled now things had taken a turn for the worse. ‘This is exactly what we didn’t want to happen.’
‘We’re too far away,’ Chase said. He and Cherry tried to push their way towards the front but the crowd, so engrossed in what was going on on stage, weren’t budging. Cherry and Chase looked at one another, defeated. How could they stop this? They’d promised Sally they were going to help her, not ruin her.
‘What about, Margie? Is she here?’ Danior was on a roll. ‘Because Bruce, did you know that if you ever wanted to leave your cheating wife, there’s a lonely widow waiting over in the dress shop who would happily have her sloppy seconds!’
Cherry looked around until her gaze fell on Margie’s glistening eyes, just a few people away. Cherry squeezed Chase’s hand, then wriggled her fingers out from his and tried again to elbow her way through everyone to get to her but Margie started to push forwards, moving away from her. She was having better luck than Cherry and was moving at a faster pace than Cherry was.
‘Wait! Margie!’
‘AND I’ve not even got to the good bit. SALLY LIGHTBODY! Are you here?!’
‘Stop it!’ Margie raised her voice louder than Cherry had ever heard her speak before but it still wasn’t loud enough to cut through Danior’s wailing.
‘Because I think everyone should probably know that SALLY LIGHTBODY…’ she paused, savouring every word, ‘HAD AN AFFAIR! She CHEATED on Ron. Remember Ron? Dearly beloved by all! A wonderful man who loved Sally more than anything and yet she had ANOTHER MAN!’ Danior screamed.
‘STOP!’ Margie shouted. She’d made it to the edge of the podium and was staring up at Danior. The crowd hushed so Margie dropped her voice, feeling exposed. ‘You are embarrassing yourself.’
‘I’m embarrassing myself? Haven’t you heard all the things I’ve said?! This whole town has embarrassed itself!’
‘Yes, I did hear what you said. Every word. But not a thing you said has shocked me.’
Danior’s face fell. ‘What do you mean? You can’t possibly —’
‘I already knew it all,’ Margie said.
‘So did I,’ Bruce said, appearing beside Margie but not quite able to meet her eye. Suddenly, voice after voice rose from the crowd.
‘And me.’
‘Me too!’
‘We’ve known for ages!’
‘No… this isn’t possible. How could you have known?!’ Dani shook her head furiously, unblinking.
‘Think about it, Dani.’ Margie’s voice was clear and confident. ‘We’d all be blind fools if we didn’t see all the things that were happening under our noses. These things aren’t secrets because nobody knows; they’re secrets because… we don’t talk about these things out of respect for one another. It’s not for us to judge what Sally did, nor should we interfere en masse in what’s going on between Bruce and his wife, and it’s no one’s business how I feel about —’ she coughed, ‘— how I feel. If I want to talk to someone about it, I will, and so will anyone else, but we’re not gossips. We don’t talk about people behind their backs, filling other people’s heads with half-truths when we don’t have all the facts. We live and let live. We don’t interfere. We’re not entitled to each other’s private lives and just because we accidentally heard something or someone let something slip, it doesn’t give us the right to stick our oars in.’
Danior took a step back from the crowd, clutching at her heart.
‘Margie’s right,’ Bruce said. ‘People will ask for help when they need it and we’ll offer it when things get bad. But most of all, we don’t hold our mistakes against each other or bring them up to win a cheap point in a nasty argument.’
Danior took another step back, her breathing shallow.
‘Saying that, and forgive me, Sally, but I need to clear your name just a little.’ Margie scanned the crowd until she found Sally. In a moment Sally understood that Margie knew what she’d kept hidden all these years. She nodded her consent that yes, Margie could tell everyone the truth.
‘Ron had a secret too. Something he didn’t want anyone to know and his reasons for that were his own, but the truth was that Ron was gay. And I know you loved him, Sally, but no one is judging you for seeking physical comfort elsewhere, because yours and Ron’s wasn’t that kind of love. I just wish he felt he could’ve opened up to us, his friends, and that you didn’t have to spend all these years thinking we would think any less of you.’
‘But it’s so wrong,’ Danior whimpered. ‘They were married. She shouldn’t have —’
‘Like you’re such a saint!’ Margie whipped around to face the podium again. ‘These things are never black and white. Feelings and friendships and relationships – they’re complicated. Even when things are going well, it can still be so messy.’
‘Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,’ Bruce offered, ‘And by the sounds of it, you two have been chucking bricks.’ Bruce shook his head and laughed at his own joke.
Danior took one last step back and her heels slipped off the back of the podium. Flying backwards, her arm caught the Psychic Sisters shop window and it shattered, shards of glass raining down around her. The crowd gasped and pushed forwards but Velina screamed, ‘LEAVE HER!’ No one had noticed the tears pouring down her face. She clambered down off the podium as best she could in her ill-fitting dress and helped her sister to her feet, Danior’s arm streaked with blood.
‘Leave us. All of you,’ Velina said, opening the door to the shop.
‘You’re all terrible people!’ Danior wailed, wrapping the ends of her headscarf around her hand and arm. ‘You keep dreadful secrets and act like saints but I know the truth! I know the truth! I know the —’
Velina slammed shut the door, cutting off Danior’s voice. The crowd remained stagnant, lost without someone or something to look at and listen to. A flock of sheep without a shepherd.
‘Is that really who we are?’ whispered the girl with black lips. ‘Are we terrible?’
‘Of course it isn’t!’ Bruce exclaimed.
‘Well… it is… and it isn’t,’ Margie said, facing Bruce and the rest of crowd. ‘We’ve all done stupid things. Bad things, even. Things we aren’t proud of but…’ Margie tried to push herself up onto the podium but her arms slipped.
‘Here…’ Bruce interlinked his fingers and opened out the palms of his hand. Gratefully, Margie put a hand on his shoulder, placed her foot into his hands and he hoisted her onto the podium to stand before the crowd.
‘Where was I?’
‘We’re terrible people!’ Chase called out, some residual Honesty still left in his system.
‘Thank you, Mr Masters. No. We
’ve done stupid, ill-advised things but that doesn’t make us bad people. The fact that all of the things disgracefully announced on this stage today were secrets we hid from each other doesn’t mean that we’re bad. We just weren’t ready to share them with one another.’ She turned her kind eyes to Sally. ‘And even when you think you’ve done a bad thing and it isn’t a bad thing at all, it can still make you feel remorseful.’
‘What does that prove?’ Sally said, her cheeks wet and burning.
‘Do you think bad people feel remorse for the things they do? No. We feel bad even when we haven’t done anything wrong! We feel shame and we feel lonely. And we try to be better because we don’t want the world to think we’re terrible people because deep down, we know we’re not. We just… we just…’
‘Fuck up?’ Chase offered again. Honestly.
‘Exactly. We just fuck up.’
‘Nice one, Margie,’ Cherry whispered in Chase’s ear, linking her arm through his.
‘Everyone’s getting their mojo back,’ Chase said. He watched tiny spots of light begin to appear above people’s heads.
‘You can see that?’ Cherry said in a low voice. ‘Their happiness is coming back?’
‘Happiness. Hope. Even Horniness! You name it. They’re just not depressed any more.’
‘Hey, no one was depressed. Just a bit…’ Chase raised an eyebrow. ‘OK, perhaps,’ Cherry sighed.
Chase watched the lights transform as Margie kept talking. At first they were just little blobs of gold, blue and pink but then they took shape and became Hope, Acceptance and Pride.
‘We’re people. As much as we try to be perfect something is always going to go a little bit awry somewhere along the way. While we should accept whatever consequences come our way as a result, none of us should be defined by our mistakes, nor should we be subjected to ridicule by some silly little ninny in a dress that, I promise, did not come from my shop.’ Margie laughed. ‘We’re human. That’s all there is to it!’ Margie shrugged, suddenly embarrassed and very aware that everyone was staring at her. The crowd whooped, cheered and clapped as Margie accepted Bruce’s hand and delicately climbed down from the stage.
All That She Can See: Every Little Thing She Bakes Is Magic Page 16
