The Curiosity Shop: A comedy of errors about witchcraft

by Francken, Lillian

  If that weren’t bad enough, he quickly opened the display case again and proceeded to touch each and every crystal.

  Cassandra shook her head and then picked up the card near the case. It was instructions on the care of a crystal.

  “Anyone buying a crystal is instructed on its purification,” Cassandra quickly responded, hoping to get Gino to leaves the crystals alone.

  Gino stared at her in disbelief. “All bases covered,” he laughed.

  The frustration was clearly noted as Cassandra could tell Gino was a true skeptic.

  “Not everyone is a believer. That doesn’t stop them,” she said, pointing to the crystals on the shelf as if they were living beings, and then she quickly added, “They all have hidden powers.”

  “You playing me for a fool?”

  Cassandra quickly picked up an amethyst and handed it to Gino. “This would be a good one for you.”

  “I didn’t come here to buy me a crystal so I can live normally,” he said before taking the amethyst from Cassandra. He stared at it for the longest time. “Why is this a good one for me?”

  Cassandra smiled. “Do you suffer from headaches?”

  Gino looked puzzled for a long time before answering. “Yeah, but how do you know that?”

  All she did was shrug. “This will purify and stop negativity,” she said warily before adding, “It will also reduce anger and impatience. Spiritually, it will uplift you.”

  Cassandra’s soft voice had a soothing effect on Gino. Spider slowly walked into the shop. He jumped up on a shelf and watched Gino and Cassandra.

  “I’ll take it,” Gino said and then pointed at her. “It better work.”

  Cassandra took the amethyst from Gino. She picked up another card and handed it to him.

  “You have to follow these instructions or there will be no healing effect for you.”

  Gino stared at the card and laughed mockingly. He followed Cassandra over to the register where she quickly rang up his purchase. He somehow felt he had been duped into the purchase, but for some reason he felt the need to own it and he wasn’t leaving the store without it.

  “That will be $150 for the amethyst,” she said.

  “Shit. You sure sell a line of bull.”

  “You don’t want the crystal?”

  Gino hesitated for a moment as he stared at the crystal on the counter. For some reason he didn’t want to give it up. He looked up at Cassandra and down at the crystal. He then dug into his pocket for two hundred-dollar bills and tossed them on the counter.

  “Naw, I’ll give it a try.”

  Gino glanced around the shop while Cassandra counted out his change from the register. His attention turned to the money in the register.

  “You do a good business here?”

  “It pays the rent.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet.”

  Cassandra handed Gino his change. He quickly stuffed the crystal and the card into his back pocket along with his change. Cassandra turned to him and smiled politely.

  “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

  “Where’s the old woman who runs the shop?”

  “My aunt? She’s upstairs. Would you like to speak to her?” Cassandra asked.

  “Yeah, I got some business to discuss with her.”

  Cassandra stared at Gino for the longest time. She didn’t like him, but it wasn’t her business to like the people that came through the shop doors. For some reason she didn’t think Gino’s business with her aunt was on the up-and-up. She feared he was one of the punks from the neighborhood that the other shop owners up the street talked about, but her aunt refused to discuss what it was. And Cassandra respected that this was her aunt’s business. She was technically an outsider.

  *

  Later, Lucinda slowly came into the shop carrying a tray of cookies and tea. She set the tray on the counter. When Cassandra glanced over she was glad to see she didn’t have the tarot cards again. She didn’t want a repeat of the other day and just looked forward to pleasant talk while she ate her snack. But for some reason Lucinda didn’t seem herself, as she avoided eye contact and conversation altogether. Cassandra was anxious to find out what Lucinda’s visitor wanted with her, and the fact their talk lasted almost thirty minutes really troubled her.

  “Well then, what did he want?” Cassandra finally asked.

  Lucinda turned to Cassandra. “We just talked business,” was all Cassandra said. Lucinda didn’t want to go into Gino’s real reason for wanting to talk to her.

  “He’s not one of our suppliers.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  Cassandra was a little irritated with the way Lucinda was purposely avoiding the subject of their recent visitor. Up until that morning Lucinda had been very open about everything. Especially when it came to anything to do with the shop. But for some reason she refused to discuss Gino’s visit that morning.

  “He wanted to sell me insurance.”

  Cassandra did a double take as she sat down opposite Lucinda. She stared at the elderly woman and didn’t get the sense she was lying, but things didn’t add up.

  “He didn’t look like an insurance salesman,” was all she could muster up to say.

  “It isn’t that type of insurance.”

  A puzzled look crossed Cassandra’s face. “What do you mean?” she asked. “There’s only one type of insurance.”

  Lucinda just put a napkin on her lap and then she patted Cassandra’s hand. It was a gesture for Cassandra not to worry her little head about what the stranger was selling. Lucinda smiled sweetly.

  “If I don’t buy his protection plan, my place will be targeted for robbery.” Lucinda said this as if it was nothing to worry about. “Or worse yet, I could get burned out as an example to the others.” Lucinda picked up a cookie and took a bite. “This is delicious,” she said, as if there was nothing to worry about in what she had just relayed.

  Cassandra stared at Lucinda and then asked. “Others?”

  Lucinda just looked to the door and motioned with her hand. “The other shop owners on the block.”

  “That’s extortion!”

  “It’s also the real world.” Lucinda took a spoonful of sugar and added it to her tea. She stirred the tea and seemed to be mesmerized by the swirling mixture. “I thought when the Belzoni brothers were convicted, things would change.”

  “You paid these brothers’ extortion demands?” Cassandra asked, puzzled that her aunt would let anyone extort money out of her, least of all punks who threatened to burn her beloved business down.

  “Oh no. They may have wanted me to, but every time they came on the block, things happened. They eventually left the block alone. But that was then, and now there is this other group who will have to be taught a lesson.

  “What do you mean?” Cassandra asked.

  “Don’t worry about that. It will take care of itself.”

  Cassandra put her cup of tea back on the tray. She got up and walked to the front door. She stood there for the longest time before turning back to Lucinda.

  “And to think I sold him an amethyst to make his well-being better.”

  Lucinda laughed. “Maybe it worked. He gave me three days to decide what I’ll do.”

  “That was generous,” Cassandra said sarcastically.

  “It could have been worse,” Lucinda added.

  “I’m going to talk to Mitch.”

  “And what good is that going to do?” Lucinda said sternly. “They could kill him next.”

  “You don’t know that for a fact.”

  Lucinda stared at Cassandra. “Well, someone did a number on him,” she said as she continued staring at Cassandra. “Now it’s obvious who did that to him.”

  “We can’t just do nothing.”

  “The last cop who tried to stop them got himself killed.”

  Cassandra picked up the tray. Her eyes were tearing up and her voice quivered. “So, you’re just going to roll over and play dead.”

&
nbsp; “I will come up with something.”

  Lucinda glanced over at Spider in the corner and then got up. She walked over to Spider and picked him up. Lucinda could tell Cassandra liked Mitch, even through she refused to admit it to herself. The fact he had a girlfriend meant nothing. Lucinda sensed that the bond between them was not that strong, otherwise he would not have the feelings he clearly had for Cassandra.

  Cassandra turned with the tray in one hand while waving her other hand in anger.

  “Oh yeah! Sure! Maybe if we cast a spell on them, they will go away,” she said as she walked upstairs with the tray.

  Lucinda grinned as she watched Cassandra. She had a mischievous look on her face as she stroked the cat’s back.

  Chapter 9

  Mitch slowly walked his beat. His ribs still ached from the beating the day before. He had sick time coming but he never liked people thinking he was weak. Plus, he really didn’t want to spend the evening with Rosy. So he chose to go on his beat, talk to the neighborhood merchants, and possibly get a handle on who this new group of thugs were who were moving in on the Belzonis’ old territory. He knew Gino was involved, but he also knew Gino was not smart enough to be the one organizing things. He was just a lowlife flunky. To do it right, he had to get the man behind Gino and forever stop these thugs from preying on the merchants.

  Mitch stood for the longest time under a streetlight watching a group of kids playing kickball. He remembered the fun he used to have as a kid on long summer nights. It was the ball landing at his feet that brought him back to the here and now. Slowly he bent down, winced in pain as he reached for the ball, and then tossed it to the kid nearest him. Under normal times he would have thrown it overhand, but he didn’t think he had the strength to raise his hand, let alone zing the ball as he usually did.

  Mitch glanced around before leaving his position and continued down the street. It would be a long night, he only hoped the painkillers he was taking would get him through his shift. He was fortunate that all the damage done to him was not visible, otherwise he would have a hard time explaining what happened to him. There was just the small cut on his forehead, but his hair covered that.

  *

  The shop was closed for the evening. Cassandra was busy sweeping the floor. It had been a busy day and she couldn’t take her mind off what Lucinda said at lunch. Granted, it was none of her business and in a few weeks she would leave for home, but it bothered her that there were people in this world who could take advantage of an old woman’s vulnerability like that. Or even for that matter, the other shop owners. Why couldn’t they band together and fight the lowlifes of the world? Certainly there had to be something they could do as a collective rather than just sit back and pay out their hard-earned money to thugs who were too lazy to work for a living.

  It was the light tap on the front door that brought Cassandra back to reality. Before focusing on whom it could be, her first fear was that the thug from earlier in the day was back. When she turned quickly and saw the reflection of the cop uniform in the streetlight she breathed a sigh of relief. Cassandra set the broom down and then went over and unlocked the door.

  Mitch could see the concern on Cassandra’s face before she recognized it was him and wondered what that was all about. He had seen her enough times to know a simple knock on the door wasn’t going to scare her.

  “Is everything alright?” Mitch asked as the door opened and he walked in.

  Cassandra nervously walked to the counter and then turned. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

  “You just had a strange look on your face when I knocked,” Mitch said.

  “It just startled me for a moment.”

  Mitch glanced around and then turned back to Cassandra and said. “I saw the light on.”

  “The place needed a cleaning. My aunt likes things looking clean and neat.”

  Mitch walked around the shop. He stopped at a shelf of potions and picked up a bottle; he looked at it for the longest time and then set it down. He picked up another before turning back to Cassandra.

  “It’s an unusual shop.”

  “Hence the name, ‘The Curiosity Shop.’”

  “I’ve been talking to a lot of the people in the neighborhood about your aunt.”

  Cassandra looked suspiciously at Mitch. She was very protective of Lucinda and had defended her for her whole life when the gossip would start. Lucinda previously had moved around a lot. Once she opened this shop a number of years back, the family felt she finally found a place to call home. Cassandra turned and stared at Mitch for the longest time. She could see by the look on his face that this was not going to be an easy conversation.

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Strange things have happened since she’s been running this shop.”

  Cassandra’s face flushed as her anger built. “And your point being?”

  Lucinda had always been misunderstood. Just because she liked dealing in oddities, people liked to label her. It angered Cassandra that it was the ones who never took the time to get to know her, were the ones doing this. People who knew Lucinda saw through the persona that others tried to label her with.

  “Nothing. I just was thinking.”

  “All my life I’ve had to put up with narrow-minded people,” Cassandra snapped as she pointed to the neighborhood outside. “You don’t understand something and right away you want to believe bad things.”

  “I’m not talking bad things.” Mitch defended himself as he turned and walked over to Cassandra.

  “Then what?” she demanded.

  “Mr. Wimmer down the block. He talked about his boy being into drugs and getting involved with the wrong type of people.” Mitch started to say, but Cassandra cut him off before he could finish.

  “So it was Lucinda’s fault? Is that what you are saying?” Cassandra snapped.

  Mitch looked defenseless as he held up his hands for her to stop. All he did was smile when realizing Cassandra was assuming what he was about to say. He just shook his head and then raised his eyebrows while holding up a finger.

  “No. But the kid stopped in here one day and hasn’t been the same. He’s in Junior College now and he spends his weekends helping his old man and the people around the neighborhood,” Mitch said and then hesitated for a moment while glancing around the shop. “You might have seen him around. They call him JoJo.

  “He’s the boy who cleans up out back,” Cassandra said with a curious look, not knowing where Mitch was going with this.

  Mitch nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.”

  “I just thought my aunt hired him to keep the back in order.”

  “Two years ago that kid was rotten to the core. A few visits in this place and he’s a choirboy.”

  “So, what’s so bad about that?”

  “Nothing. It’s just not natural,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at Cassandra. “And then there’s Mrs. Osborne. Who never was able to conceive. Then suddenly she became pregnant after visiting this shop a few times.”

  Cassandra just stared at Mitch and laughed in disbelief. The absurdity of it was unbelievable. Cassandra set the broom down and then turned back to Mitch.

  “And my aunt caused all of this,” she said, waving her hand while shaking her head. “I think you’re forgetting what it takes to get pregnant. My aunt had nothing to do with that part of it.”

  “But, Mrs. Osborne said...” Mitch tried to say but got cut off.

  “Sometimes the power of suggestion has greater strength than any of the potions on these shelves.”

  Mitch turned away from Cassandra and glanced around the shop at all the stuff on the shelves. Granted, he was a little curious, but he was yet to be a believer. Even though everyone around him touted all the good work Lucinda did with simple potions.

  “Are you saying, it’s all in the mind?” Mitch argued with a curious look.

  “Yes. They believed in themselves first and foremost. They themselves made it happen. My aunt had nothing to do wi
th it except maybe giving them hope.”

  “Makes sense,” Mitch finally said. It was that thought that made him feel better about the old woman who ran the shop.

  Mitch was not a believer in the occult. Although he was raised with a few strange beliefs. He never walked under a ladder, or when a black cat came near him he never let it cross in front of him, or if he knocked the saltshaker over, his first thought was that company was on its way. He laughed to himself, thinking that although he didn’t believe in witches, he certainly had superstitions that were tied to witchcraft.

  Cassandra turned and walked over to the light switch by the counter. She quickly flipped the switch. An eerie aura came over the shop in the dark. The streetlight outside added plenty of light for Mitch to see. This was a clear indication that their conversation was over with.

  Cassandra stared at Mitch for the longest time before speaking. “If you don’t mind, it’s been a long day and I’d like to go upstairs.

  Mitch stood there just staring at her in the dark. She was beautiful with the crop of strawberry-blonde hair. She almost appeared like an angel, illuminating the darkness of the shop. He slowly walked over to where she stood; he so wanted to cup the bottom of her chin with his hands and devour the warmth of her body. But all he could do for now was just stare into her hazel-green eyes longingly.

  Mitch suddenly remembered the dream he had and wondered why this woman affected him as she did. Up until a few days ago, he was perfectly content with his life. Granted, he and Rosy didn’t always see eye-to-eye on things, but he was able to tolerate their differences. Now it was like he saw Rosy in a different light, and the things that never bothered him before were driving him up the wall now. He longed for his old life back and was no longer willing to settle for putting up with the antics she pulled to get her way, just to have a woman in his life. Life in general, he realized, was too short to just settle so you weren’t alone. It was that thought that had been weighing heavily on his mind of late. He had been thinking about his mother and how happy she was before his father passed. Mitch wanted a woman who had that kind of love for him. But he knew Cassandra was only there for a short time and feared there was no way to change her mind about leaving in a few weeks.