2 A Charming Cure

by Tonya Kappes

  “Of course I knew, but I wasn’t going to tell you.” Her voice broke out into a yawn. “That means you can be late to Intuition School. Good night!”

  The globe went black again.

  I threw back the covers. Mr. Prince Charming still didn’t move.

  “Were you on the crystal ball clearance table?” I muttered. Who was in charge here? I certainly wasn’t.

  I grabbed the crystal ball and made my way to the kitchen.

  “Whoa!” Madame Torres was wide awake now. Not looking good, but awake. “You know I get sea-sick when you roll me around like that without warning me.”

  The red light on the coffee pot lit up when I pushed it, letting me know that my hot cup of energy was coming up. The fireflies darting outside my window caught my attention. I didn’t have time to tell Eloise, a Fairiwick who lived on the outskirts of Whispering Falls and Darla’s best friend, that I was going away to school. I knew the fireflies would let her know.

  The fireflies loved to gossip or spy on people. Besides, it was only four days. I’m sure no one would even realize I was gone.

  “I don’t like a back-talking crystal ball. You are going to go to Intuition School whether you like it or not.” The coffee smelled good as it percolated. I held the ball up to the window so Madame Torres could see them playing around.

  “Ah, to be young again and be able to sleep all day.” The globe went black.

  I chuckled. She was right. The fireflies were the teenagers in the village. Just like the pubescent humans, they roam and play all night and then sleep all day. I set Madame Torres down by the coffee pot to leave her with the fresh, awakening smell while I jumped in the shower.

  With a quick wash and rinse, I hopped out when I heard my cell ringing. Intuition School better not be cancelled or I’m going to be one mad homeopathic cure maker.

  “Hello?” I noticed it was Oscar. What in the world was he doing up so early? “Oscar, is everything okay?”

  “It sure is.” I could hear his smile through the phone. It wasn’t unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night when we were teenagers to find Oscar crawling through my bedroom window. We really thought we were being rebellious, but all we would do is go hide under his big Oak tree and eat Ding Dongs until he was sick. I could eat a million and never get sick.

  “I wanted to wish you luck at Intuition School today.”

  “Listen, I’m doing my time and coming back to live my life.” I toweled off and wrapped my robe around me. Even though I gave Helena a hard time about classes, I was a tad-bit excited to find out exactly what I was capable of doing with my “gift”. “I will report back and won’t leave out any details.”

  Since I had agreed to do the fast couple of day course, I had to stay on campus and Oscar was going to look after my cottage and shop.

  It hadn’t been long since I moved here, but the cottage feels more like home than the Cape Cod I owned in Locust Grove. Granted, my parents owned the cottage when they lived in Whispering Falls, so I was sure somewhere deep in my soul the comfort of knowing that was there. It was good to find out that they stilled owned it, just in case I did come back. They were right.

  The little family room had all the comforts of home. The natural wood crown-molding accented the vibrant orange fabric on the chairs and couches. There were two bedrooms, of which I only use one. I thought about putting Mr. Prince Charming in one, but he’s my fairy god-cat and he needs to be next to me like he has been for the last fifteen years.

  “Wake up sleepy head,” I called over to the lazy feline. He was going to Intuition School too. There was no way I was going to leave him behind.

  Mewwwl, mewl. His mouth gaped open into a wide yawn exposing all his pointy teeth, his back arched with his front paws stretched way out in front of him. He did a couple quick circles and lay by down.

  “Don’t get too comfortable.” The clasp on my charm bracelet took a little longer than normal to clip. I guess my eyes really weren’t adjusted to the time. “You are going with me and not leaving my side. And I’m not talking about the bracelet.”

  I played with my charm bracelet. Bella said Mr. Prince Charming had picked out protective charms. There was no better time like the present to be protected. Going to school made me nervous and uneasy. And my intuition told me stay on alert, even though it was only four days.

  With suitcase in hand, charm bracelet clasped around my wrist, Mr. Prince Charming by my side, and Madame Torres neatly tucked in my purse along with my Ding Dong, we were off to school. Something I never thought I would do.

  The early morning air was brisk. The fog hung just above the tree line as we entered the forest behind my cottage. Using my intuition and Mr. Prince Charming’s lead, I knew we were on the right track to Hidden Hall A Spiritual University.

  We passed the big rock where all the smudging ceremonies in the village take place. A rock I know very well since I’m the master of ceremonies with my homeopathic skills. As a community, we celebrate everything around the rock.

  The last celebration was to welcome all spiritualists to the village. I held a smudging ceremony to clear the way from any negative juju from the past rules. We had a small parade through town and tea at Gathering Grove. Chandra Shango did free pedicures and manicures.

  I love the little cauldron she painted on my thumb.

  Looking back, I gazed over Whispering Falls through a small clearing. My heart swelled. I had never really felt at home until I moved here.

  “Come on,” I sighed and coaxed Mr. Prince Charming along, even though I knew we really wanted to be back in bed and then go open the shop for the day. I continued to repeat the motto I was going to adapt while I was gone, “It’s only four days. What can happen in four days?”

  We came to a sign in the middle of a wheat field. I had never ventured this far out of the Whispering Falls village. The sign had several long wooden arms, each with a finger pointing in a different direction. I set my luggage down next to me and shook my hands out. It was a little heavier than I was use to carrying.

  Meow, meow. Mr. Prince Charming planted his butt next to the suitcase.

  “Listen, I didn’t know what type of shoes I needed to bring.” I rolled my eyes. Who in the world needed a testy fairy god-cat? “A girl can never have too many shoes.”

  “Eye of Newt Crystal Ball School, Tickle Palm School, Intuition School. Oh! Intuition School must be that way.”

  The problem was, the sign pointed in the direction of a big empty wheat field. And there was no way I was going to walk through that! Especially with my new heels.

  I looked down at my new grey jumpsuit. It had been sitting in the closet waiting for the perfect opportunity to be worn. It didn’t make me look like a teenager, and it didn’t make me look like an old lady. It was perfect; comfortable and cute, especially if I was going to be sitting in the classroom all day long.

  But the heels were a different story. I wasn’t use to wearing anything other than my flip flops or tennies, but I couldn’t resist the little added hot pink color that went well with grey.

  “Hmm. . .” I did a 360-degree turnaround, wondering where this Hidden Hall A Spiritualist University was.

  Mewl, mewl. Mr. Prince Charming did a complete circle eight, stopped, looked up at the sign, and back at me.

  “Do you know where we are supposed to go?” Talking to him like he really did know made me feel stupid, but he was my fairy-god cat, so maybe it wasn’t so dumb.

  His tail shot up and did a double pump in the air like he was pointing to the sign.

  “Yep, it says that way.” I tapped the arrow on the sign and, as if magic, a pathway appeared across the wheat field.

  My eyes followed as the path gained momentum and ended at a small yellow cottage that had window boxes under each window that overflowed with Geraniums, Morning Glories, Petunias, Moon Flowers, and Trailing Ivy leaving a rainbow of colorful explosion.

  The awning flapping in the light breeze read Intuition School i
n lime green Calligraphy.

  “I guess it’s time to go to school.” I shook my head, grabbed my suitcase, and followed Mr. Prince Charming up the path.

  I would have never thought that at twenty-five, I’d been going back to school, especially one for spiritualists.

  “You’re late.” The door swung open before I made it to the top of the step of the schoolhouse. The woman’s voice preceded the swift swing of her purple cloak, revealing a much-welcomed face.

  “Eloise!” My nerves gave way once I saw Darla’s best friend Eloise Sandlewood who just happens to be Oscar’s aunt standing at the door.

  Her emerald eyes darkened as she picked at the edges of her short, razor-cut hair. “We didn’t have time to wait for you.” She tapped her watch with her long-red fingernail. “Class started ten minutes ago.”

  She backed out of the way to let me through.

  “I’m sorry.” I pointed behind me. “I would’ve been here on time, but I didn’t know you had to touch the sign to. . .uh. . .”

  Blankly they all stared at me. There was an entire group of college-aged students with their eyes all on me.

  “Huh, some psychic she is.” The petite, long blond-haired woman, who looked to be the same age as me, snickered to the other woman sitting next to her.

  “I’m sure she’ll have privileges. I heard the Dean is her Aunt,” the other one whispered back and pulled her long black hair around her shoulder pretending she wasn’t talking.

  “She’s the Dean’s niece?” the blond bimbo asked as her onyx eyes glared at me before she scribbled something down on a piece of paper, and then slipped it into her bag.

  I put my suitcase next to the door, and ran my hands down my new outfit. These girls were definitely more high-fashioned than I was.

  Only four days, I repeated over and over in my head. Four days was easy peesy.

  The waving arms of a girl sitting in the front row caught my eye. “Over here.” Her round face lit up as she patted the stool next to her. She pushed the files and books lying on the table in front of the empty stool.

  I smiled and took my place next to her. Mr. Prince Charming jumped on the stool behind me. “Comfortable?” I whispered, looking at him cross-eyed. I swear he smiled back.

  “Let’s welcome June Heal.” Eloise gave a brief introduction to the class of ten.” She’s just discovered her psychic talents. She lives in the Whispering Falls village. Please be sure to welcome June.”

  My cheeks deepened to crimson as she bought attention to me. I wanted to crawl under the table and blend in with the floor.

  Every one of the girls were very feminine, from their long dark lashes to the very last perfectly pedicure toes. I slid my heels under the stool in hopes they didn’t see my manicured toes I had attempted on my own. . .not a great job. But I was proud of my nails that Chandra had done.

  “Okay, let’s get back to class.” Eloise grabbed the mortar and pestle. She ground and mixed the concoction before she added it to the copper cauldron along with a dash of topaz flakes, cobalt globules, and some mandrake root.

  The frothy, glowing mixture with the color of gold smelled exactly like nuts and grapes.

  “Umm. . .” Collectively the class breathed in the fragrances and continued to write something. Feeling a little left out, I took out a pen and opened my notebook. I doodled a couple of potions I had been working on to help cure my nightmares.

  Luckily, I hadn’t had one in a few weeks, but I wanted to be prepared just in case they ever came back.

  I looked down at the bracelet, touched it and recalled the real Nightmare School.

  “June,” Eloise brought me out of my thoughts, “would you like to test the new potion?”

  Was this a trick question? My eyes narrowed, looking at her suspiciously. “No.”

  The bubbly girl next to me nudged me, taking me off guard and I fell off the stool.

  The class erupted in laughter.

  “I’m so sorry.” The spunky woman jumped off her stool and ran over to help me out. “But you better volunteer. I’m Hili.”

  Hili helped me up and I got back on my stool. Mr. Prince Charming hung his head.

  Really? Was he ashamed of me? Instantly I wished Mr. Prince Charming were only a cat and not my fairy-god cat. I was beginning to miss the days I didn’t feel self-conscious around him.

  Eloise slid across the floor to my table, and stood directly in front of me. “And why won’t you have a little taste?” She smiled, holding the ladle up with the potion bubbling to the top and held it close to my lips.

  “Because it will taste bad,” I said and fanned my hand in front of my nose.

  “You can’t smell the juicy grapes?” The snide question came from the blonde. Her hand shot in the air. “I’ll taste it, Professor Sandlewood.”

  Eloise didn’t wait for her to ask a second time. She scurried over and dumped the full scoop of potion in the girl’s mouth.

  The angelic face so fair and lovely contorted and squished up. Her onyx eyes were as big as the night’s full moon. Suddenly she jerked and her eyes focused on mine.

  “How does rot and spit taste?” I cackled with a smile tickling my soul. I couldn’t help it. She deserved that nasty taste and what was about to come next. “Nighty-night.” I waved my fingers.

  “You are a b. . .” Her eyes rolled back in her head and down she went. Smack dab on the floor, down for the count. Her limbs were sprawled every which way, smoke coming from the stench that oozed out of her pores.

  The room fell silent, as every death eye fell on me. Horror showed in their faces.

  Slowly I stood up, clapping, and cheering all at once. “Whoo hoo!! What’s her name?” I nudged Hili.

  She leaned away from me. Even her eyes showed fear. “Umm. . .I don’t think you should be laughing.”

  “Why?” I shrugged my shoulders. “She’ll be fine. What’s her name?”

  “Faith,” Hili whispered, not looking at me. She leaned back as if she didn’t want to associate with me anymore.

  Everyone stared with disbelief.

  “What?” I circled around the room giving every one of them eye contact. They ducked away from me as if I were some wicked witch. “Eloise gave her a sleeping potion. She’ll wake up soon. It smells wonderful, but tastes nasty. Eeck.” My tongue darted in and out as if I was trying to get a bad taste out of my own mouth.

  “You mean Professor Sandlewood?” The black-haired girl next to Faith didn’t seem to worry about her friend as much as she seemed to worry about my relationship with Eloise. “Or are you on a first name basis?” Her eyes glowed with a savage fire.

  Hiss, Hiss. Mr. Prince Charming didn’t like her tone.

  Chapter Five

  Eloise. . .er. . . Professor Sandlewood dismissed class early on account of sleeping beauty. According to Eloise. . .er. . .Professor Sandlewood, that was a lesson in itself. You can’t judge a potion by the smell. That was why they worked so well. Someone could slip you a potion that tasted like chocolate, but had a death wish inside.

  The entire class freaked when she passed out, but what kind of student were they if they didn’t use their intuition in Intuition School of all places? The sleeping potion was one of the easiest potions out there. According to the potion book that went along with class.

  “June, not everyone is born with the intuition gift like you. You are a natural.” Eloise straightened the bottles on her desk. She strained to pick up the copper cauldron.

  “They have to have some type of intuition.” With both hands on one side, I helped her empty the pot in the sink.

  “Just because you are born into a family of psychics or Fairiwicks doesn’t mean you have the ability.” The sleeping potion slid out of the cauldron and oozed down the drain. She nodded toward sleeping beauty that was still laid flat-out on the floor. “Faith Mortimer is a prime example.”

  “Is she a Fairiwick or psychic?” Really, there wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the two worlds. Fairiwicks
were recently welcomed into the Whispering Falls village. They were a product of an interracial relationship between a witch and fairy. Eloise and Oscar were both Fairiwicks. Me, I was a psychic, but for some reason I felt a little magic in my tippy toes. But this was all so new to me. I had no clue as to what my abilities were. I relied on my intuition to guide me.

  Just like the sleeping potion. I’d never made it before, but I had skimmed through the class book and most of the ingredients were pretty simple. As I had watched Eloise mix it, my intuition put them together creating an image of a pillow in my head.

  Images were powerful to me and when one vividly came to my mind, I paid attention.

  “She’s a Fairiwick from the East coast.” She smiled. There was a wicked glow illuminating from her emerald eyes. She tapped her temple. “She’s not very intuitive. That’s why she is here.”

  Eloise cleaned the cauldron. I made it a point to watch. Working with cauldrons was unfamiliar to me, but I had begun working with the one at Charming Cures. They were much faster than the test tubes I had used in Locust Grove.

  She used a towel to wipe the remaining ooze and then a dead man’s finger to scrape the sides. She sprayed a mist from a bottle that I had never seen.

  “Why am I here?” My intuition was my greatest gift that I knew of.

  She fanned her hand over the cauldron and with her eyes closed she chanted, “Around the spirits, aura, and dreams, make this cauldron clean for its means.”

  A thin substance rose with grey oddiments and dissipated into the air.

  “Now then,” Eloise said as if nothing was going on. She rubbed her hands down her apron. “Let’s talk.”

  She grabbed my suitcase, glanced over at Faith, and wrapped her other hand around my shoulder guiding me out the door. Mr. Prince Charming followed.

  “What about her?” I pointed to sleeping beauty.

  “The teenagers will watch over her.” The day had given over to nightfall and the fireflies had already gathered near the window. “They love to really bother people after they pass out during intuition class.”

  We walked back down the pathway to the sign. Behind us, the path disappeared with every step we took.