Pisces: Teacher's Pet

by Sèphera Girón

  Adele never tired of looking around the ceremony room. Hundreds of candles in sconces around them flickered brightly. Pots of incense hung from huge wrought-iron hooks in the walls, some of which resembled the claws of giant beasts. The walls were paneled, and the ceiling had several stained-glass motifs. Enormous paintings of the founders of Hermana stared down at the circle from the walls.

  Adele always appreciated that her spot in the circle was away from the gazes of the founding twin sisters and their twin husbands. Their eyes always seemed to follow her wherever she went. She knew one of set were the great-great-great-great-somethings of Lucy’s and that the mansion had been in the family since the founding of the town.

  Ellie had arrived and was almost done changing into her hooded robe. Adele quickly shed her clothes and donned her own robe, keeping her satchel around her neck. She was careful to put the obsidian ball and the key into one of the deep pockets of the robe.

  Lucy had already taken her place on her throne and held a wand. She waited until Adele was in place in the circle before she addressed the women.

  “Merry meet, sisters,” Lucy said. “It is with great joy that I welcome you to the full moon circle. The Solstice will be here in a mere ten days and we just had the time change. These are all welcome signs of spring.”

  “Huzzah,” the women chorused.

  “Winter has its purpose, but these old bones welcome the lengthening days and the hopeful warmth of the changing weather. Soon it will be spring and Hermana will be in full blossom once more.”

  “Huzzah,” the ladies sang.

  “Our Pisces sister, Adele, has just welcomed her fortieth birthday. As she passes into the next phase of her life, let us celebrate the chapter she has lived and anticipate the chapter she has yet to write.”

  “Huzzah,” the ladies cheered.

  Lucy stood and carefully walked down the stairs to join the circle on the large red carpet. “What is it you wish for tonight, Adele? Love, like the others? Or perhaps something else?”

  “I...” Adele wasn’t too certain what Lucy was trying to say. “I thought there was a pact that for the year we would each focus on love for each other, since none of us had it.”

  “Yes, we did do that,” Lucy said. “But I’m giving you a choice, in case you’ve changed your mind.”

  “What else do I need? I have my store, which I love, and my classes, which I love. I just started a new relationship with Devin. I don’t want to cast a spell on him. I want things to just do what they’re meant to do, if you know what I mean.”

  “We could do an open-heart, open-mind spell where if it’s meant to be with Devin, it will be, but if not, someone else will come along.”

  Adele nodded. “That’s the one.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want something else? Like protection? Aren’t the auras bothering you today?”

  Adele looked up at Lucy, and her aura was a fiery red. The welcoming purple hues had vanished. She realized she hadn’t been looking at any of the women directly all night. How quickly she was adapting to her new ability, no matter what it meant.

  “Protection from what?” Adele asked.

  “You know what,” Lucy said.

  “But I don’t want to break the spell, the circle, the rhythm or whatever it is you call it. I want to do love too,” Adele said.

  Lucy gave her a dismissive look and turned to the circle. “The wisdom of the forty-year-old dictates that we will do an open-heart, open-mind spell. It is good for all of us in many ways.” Lucy smiled.

  She walked over to one of the large altars laden with ceremonial tools, herbs, and candles, and retrieved a bowl of sea salt. She returned to the circle, then took small pinches of it, setting it around the circle at the ladies’ feet. It was a slow and painstaking task, as she hobbled and crouched. The women all looked at each other, wanting to help, but knowing they would be brushed away if they offered. Silence was required in the circle, and the vibration pattern was being set for the spell.

  Adele watched the rainbows of auras meet and swirl near the ceiling. Ribbons of red and orange shifted while threads of black and gray swept through and twined around them. The women sang while Lucy tended to the laying of the salt.

  When she was done, she hobbled back over to the altar and returned with a small vial and her wand. She returned to the circle and passed it to Natasha, who easily opened it for her. Lucy poured a drop on her finger and dabbed her third eye. She passed the vial to Natasha who did the same, and around the circle it went as the ladies hummed and sang.

  Lucy began the spell, holding her wand in the air, invoking the elements and the spirit guides to watch over them and protect them.

  When she was finished opening the circle, she began the spell. The women chanted along, and Adele concentrated on having an open heart and open mind. Yet thoughts of Devin kept creeping in.

  She didn’t want the spell to be about him, and she kept pushing his image away. But his dark hair and blue eyes mocked her as she thought about opening her mind.

  Devin’s image faded into the mural of Harmoni. The world shimmered before her, and as her mouth chanted along to Lucy’s incantations, her mind yearned to go there once more.

  “Adele,” Lucy’s voice was calling to her. Adele turned her attention back to the circle and saw everyone staring at her. Of course, in circle, you were supposed to drift off to a degree, but still you had to come back.

  “Adele,” Lucy said again.

  “I’m sorry,” Adele said. “The incense. It’s so strong, it’s making me stoned or sleepy or something.”

  It was true. The smell was so strong it was beginning to nauseate her. Still, that didn’t excuse her wandering mind.

  “Adele, do you agree?”

  “Oh my,” Adele said, realizing the question. She quickly thought about the spell, and how they’d done it with the other girls.

  “Yes, yes, I agree,” Adele said, nodding. Lucy smiled and resumed the spell. Adele vowed to stay more grounded, to listen carefully to the words Lucy spoke and be fully engaged in the circle.

  Lucy preached more about the power of unconditional love and attracting it into their lives. She reminded Adele about the other two components to the love spell: Gwen’s astrological charts and Ellie’s feng shui. Each discipline would activate another to complete the strength of the spell.

  * * *

  When the circle was closed, the women turned to each other and hugged. They laughed and talked quietly as they changed from their robes back into their street clothes.

  A huge buffet had been prepared in the dining room, and the women hurried in to partake. There was a large assortment of food: meats and cheeses, breads and cut-up vegetables. As always, the staff brought out a large birthday cake while the ladies sang. Adele noticed with delight that the cake was chocolate with more chocolate on top. She eagerly ate two pieces, not caring that she was blowing her New Year’s resolution and every other resolution besides that.

  “We have to make an appointment, you know,” Ellie said as she stood beside Adele, munching on cheese and grapes.

  “Are you around tomorrow? I can get one of the staff to come in. They’re always begging for extra hours.”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay, then, tomorrow it is. I have to go into the store in the morning and make sure I’m there for close. So how about after work? In the evening sometime?”

  “That’s perfect for me,” Ellie said. “Don’t forget to have lots of garbage bags handy. We’re going in for a total cleansing.”

  “I have lots. I’m not sure how much you’ll convince me to part with, but I’ll give it a shot.”

  “No worries,” Ellie said, reaching for more grapes.

  Adele eyed the cake, her stomach grumbling. The chocolate smelled so rich and inviting. It invaded her nostrils, teasing her to have just one more little taste.

  She couldn’t help herself. She cut a third piece and hoped no one would notice. She quickly ate it, savoring
the rich chocolate frosting for last. As she was licking the last of the gooey sweetness from her fork, Gwen approached her.

  “When should we get together for the charts?” Gwen asked. “It won’t take long. I have everything ready to go. I have to get back to New York by Wednesday.”

  “We could do lunch tomorrow,” Adele said. “I have an hour or so. Will that be enough time?”

  “Certainly,” Gwen said. “An hour should give us time to cover the high points.”

  “Then lunch it is,” Adele said.

  * * *

  The next day, Adele and Gwen sat across from each other in a large burgundy booth at a diner near the beach. Adele had been surprised the little restaurant had been open so early in the season, but the owner was eager to get back into business. Adele spent most of the conversation staring intently at the menu or fiddling with the salt and pepper shakers. Gwen’s aura was harsh, but she didn’t want to say anything about it to Gwen. At least, not just yet.

  “What would you like?” The waitress, the daughter of the owner, stood before them. She looked barely eighteen and wore a faded pink, cotton waitress outfit complete with square, white apron and name tag: Lisa. For a moment, Adele thought about the old TV show Alice, which she used to watch in reruns as a teenager. She thought about the pink uniforms and how odd they always seemed on such a bunch of smartasses. Well, smartasses for those days. These days, those gum-smacking women would be considered rather vanilla. The girl before her was worldlier than the seventies single mom and her friends: the horny loose girl and the neurotic whackjob.

  “I’ll have a club sandwich and an iced tea,” Adele said.

  “I’ll take a chicken Caesar salad and coffee,” Gwen ordered. “Oh, and some water too, please, Lisa.”

  “Okay,” Lisa said as she scribbled down her notes. Lisa’s aura was a faded pink, much like her uniform.

  “Here they are,” Gwen said as she pulled out several scrolls of paper from a large duffel bag. Some of the larger ones were in cardboard tubes with words written on them in magic marker. She pointed to the titles on them.

  “This one is the year at a glance. That one is a month by month. There are several documents that explain the moon phases and Venus transits. You’re heading for some really good times, Adele.”

  “Thank God for that,” Adele sighed.

  “Excitement, even. Love is prominent this year. It’s a good thing we all did that spell. It’s the perfect timing for you to fall in love.”

  “Even the stars say so?”

  “Definitely. You’ll see when you go through the charts.”

  “I can hardly wait. But what do I do when it says love is signified? That doesn’t always mean I’m going to be wildly in love with someone who is wildly in love with me, does it?”

  “Well, luckily you’re a Pisces. You already believe in love, and that’s half the battle. Those are times when you need to really open yourself up to all possibilities. Try not to judge and don’t listen to those that judge you.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “There are days marked when you’re going to be feeling more sensitive. Moody, sad, intuitive, nauseatingly happy.”

  “I seem to go through all those emotions in an hour sometimes. Probably getting close to menopause.”

  They both laughed at the thought.

  “Maybe yes, maybe no,” Gwen said. “You’re a bit young for menopause, although there is that whole perimenopausal thing. You’re going to be facing some major challenges very soon.”

  Adele sighed and fingered one of the scrolls. “What kind of challenges?”

  “Mars and Mercury are in places on your chart where you are heading for some dark times. Miscommunication and temper tantrums. Neptune’s energy in your Piscean sun sign doesn’t help because you won’t see reality clearly.” Gwen’s eyebrows furrowed into a frown.

  “Well, that doesn’t sound too good. I’m going to have some good loving but everything else is going to suck? Is this what you’re telling me?”

  “Something like that. Be careful of people you meet in the next while. Some don’t have your best interest at heart.”

  “Does that include people I’ve recently met, like since my birthday?”

  “It very well could. The stars show specific patterns and energies, but I’m not always able to calculate the specifics. I would say to be careful with Devin, since you’ve only just met him. Since your birthday, right? That’s what you were getting at?”

  Adele sighed. “Yes, since my birthday. So much has happened since my birthday. Do you think he’s a bad connection?”

  “It will take a bit of work for you two. Taurus and Pisces, earth and water, often make mud. But maybe you can roll around in it together.” Gwen winked.

  “Naked-wrestling mud baths. Doesn’t sound that bad.” Adele grinned. “But I do hear what you’re trying to say.”

  The waitress returned with their food. Her face was flushed and her hands trembled. A darkness clung to the pink, faded aura.

  “Did you hear?” Lisa asked them as she set down their plates. She retrieved ketchup from the nearby table.

  “Hear what?” Gwen asked as she pulled out her napkin and set it on her lap. Adele did the same, though she always felt it was silly in a place as casual as the diner.

  “There was another body found. This morning. This time a woman.” The waitress’s eyes were wide. “I just found out from the cook. He saw it on the news in the kitchen.”

  “Good Lord,” Adele said. “Was it the same M.O.?”

  “I don’t know. There’s no information. It’s like the last one. No one knows what happened.”

  “Right,” Adele said. The waitress went off to another table to take an order and share the news. Adele was reminded of a bird that flitted from branch to branch, chirping and pecking, always busy. She spread mayo on one of the sandwich slices and thought about the birdlike creatures in Harmoni. She leaned over to Gwen. “Did you hear about the other body?”

  “I heard there was one,” Gwen said.

  “Well, I heard from someone, in strict confidence of course, that the body had no marks, wasn’t drowned, and was all collapsed in on itself, as if it had been sucked dry.”

  “Like a vampire,” Gwen said with wide eyes. “Nata...”

  “No, not like a vampire. There wasn’t blood lost. No strangling. No holes. Nothing to indicate how the guy died.”

  “Do you think it’s the same with this new corpse?” Gwen asked.

  “I don’t know,” Adele said. “But I’ll know soon enough.”

  “Well, pop me an e-mail if you find out anything. I can try to see what’s going on it the charts for Hermana as a whole.”

  “That would be cool,” Adele said as she ate her sandwich. “Boy, this hits the spot.”

  “Mine’s good too,” Gwen said as she munched on her salad.

  “Is there anything else I should know?”

  “It all should be right there in the charts,” Gwen said, looking over at the scrolls. “If you have any questions, call or e-mail.”

  “I’ll be sure to do that.”

  They ate in silence.

  “Gwen, do you have a boyfriend?” Adele asked.

  Gwen shook her head. “No, there’s no one.” She took another bite and lifted her hand to indicate she wanted to speak. She swallowed. “Here’s one thing that’s kind of weird. You know how I travel a lot? All over the world?”

  Adele nodded.

  “Well, I keep thinking I run into the same guy over and over again. It’s really weird. I’ll be in Argentina, then in Switzerland and again in England, and I keep thinking I’m seeing the same guy. I never talk to him, but he’s there, at the airport, on a subway car or something.”

  “Wow, that’s very weird,” Adele said, allowing herself to look up at Gwen’s aura. It sparkled with sliver-gold intensity, but as she spoke about the mysterious man, flashes of red and orange danced in the sheen.

  “I think so. I wonder if we
’ll keep seeing each other and if we’ll ever talk. It would be so cool to actually talk to him after all these little contacts.”

  “Why don’t you talk to him? Just say hi. Maybe he’s noticed you as much as you’ve noticed him.”

  “Well, it’s my job to seem really outgoing, as a flight attendant, but in reality, I’m rather kind of shy. And I might just be having some kind of déjà vu.”

  “You never know. This world is weird. And often what we see has nothing to do with what really is.”

  “I hear you on that,” Gwen said, finishing her salad.

  Adele checked her cell phone. “Oh my, it’s late. I really need to be getting back to the shop.”

  “I have a lot of stuff to get to today myself,” Gwen said. “It’s been great to see you again.”

  “You too,” Adele said as she threw down some money. “This should cover everything.”

  “Thanks,” Gwen said.

  “No, thank you,” Adele said as she gathered up the scrolls and put them into her bag.

  As she hurried back to the store, she remembered she was supposed to have garbage bags and other cleaning supplies for Ellie that night. She stopped at a corner store and picked out a few items she thought she might need. As she was perusing the various types of sponges available, her cell phone rang.

  “What are you doing?” Devin asked.

  “I’m buying things like garbage bags and cleaning rags. Why?”

  “I was just thinking about you and wondering how you are,” his soft voice said. Adele’s heart raced, and she almost forgot she was shopping.

  “Oh, I’m doing much better now you’ve called,” she said. “Are you bailing on class tomorrow or something?”

  “No, not at all. Actually I was hoping you’d want to get together after class. Just thought I’d save that awkward ‘student asking teacher out when the coast is clear’ moment.”

  “Devin, you’re too much. As a matter of fact, you may be interested in coming over tonight. I’m having my house worked on by one of Hermana’s finest feng shui artists, Ellie. She’s coming over around seven and we’re going to clean and rearrange, though God knows how she’s going to do that with all these paintings lying around. However, if you’d like to come and check out what she does, please feel free.”