by Rose, Rhea
“Not so fast, factotum.”
I bit her. Omg! I wanted to spit and scratch and my scalp prickled.
She released me. “George,” I screamed and lobbed the ring of keys at him. He missed them and they slid across the floor hitting the farthest wall.
Emilia stepped out of the back room and picked up the ring of keys.
Maisie rubbed her wrist. “Bring those here, Emilia.”
Emi looked at me.
I waved her over. “Bring them to me, Emi,” I said.
She looked at Maisie who waved her over. “Bring them here, Emilia. You know where they belong.”
Emilia didn’t listen to either one of us, instead, she walked between the two of us, and Maisie and I followed her. “Stand back,” Emi barked at us. So we did.
“I’m going to drop this ring of keys on the counter and whoever gets it first gets it.”
“A face off,” I said.
Emi held the keys up with me on one side of the counter and Maisie on the other, opposite each other. I kept my eyes on the ring of keys. Emi held them very high. She began to count, “One,--
I snatched the ring out of her hand. I had them! I looked at Maisie. She gave me a little half smile. I looked at the Hierophant. He was wringing his hands.
“Quick, tell me how I use them,” I said to him.
He shook his head, swung it back and forth and continued to wring his hands. “There’s no quick,” he said.
Get the Star card now! Sia meowed into my mind. I saw it at the other end of the room and went directly there and nearly picked it up. That would have ended everything! I’d be back inside the card.
“Go ahead, Jane. Pick it up,” Maisie said encouragingly.
It’s alright. If you hold the ring of keys you won’t go inside the card. Touch her. She will!
I didn’t know what to do. I really hoped Sia was on my side, but at the moment, it looked as if William and Maisie were lovers and little Sia was their love child.
“Emilia?” I looked at her for guidance, but she didn’t know anymore than me. She only shrugged. I looked at the Hierophant. Pick up the star card, George. He shuffled over, the chain dragging to the side of him and did as he was told. He retrieved the card. “Hold on to it,” I said.
He nodded and held it with both hands.
You need to be very careful right now, Jane. Your decisions will impact us all.
And then it came to me. In all of this running around, the tarot cards had never really been used for what they were designed. A reading! “George, gather the cards. Leave the Star on top and leave your card on the floor.”
Ever obedient, George did what I asked. I picked up his card and took the deck from him. He still held the Star card.
I hope you don’t intend to do a tarot reading! We don’t have time for that. Get those keys working and get everyone back into their cards!
Said Sia, who shouted in my head.
Touch Maisie with the card now!
So I did.
*
She didn’t put up any kind of fuss, but stood with her hands in her pockets and disappeared into the card. It made me wonder how trapped she really would be in there.
Sia sat on the counter licking her paw. Now Emilia. Sia said.
I looked at Emilia. I hated to send her back. I liked her a lot and knew she was smitten with me. It was an awkward friendship, but it worked for us. She seemed to read my mind because she said, “Don’t leave me in there forever. Take me out for a walk sometime.”
“I will, Emi,” I said, and then incredibly her orange belt turned red! “Em, look-- your belt!”
“It’s not always about physical prowess. Sometimes changing a belt color is about doing the right thing at the right time,” Emilia said.
I flipped through the deck and found the death card with its silhouette.
“How about a hug?” Emi asked.
I hugged her and then touched her with the card. Her sword fell to the floor.
“Oh, wow,” I thought that would go with her.
It was me and George, Sia, the tarot deck and Emilia’s sword.
*
“That seemed too easy,” I said to George.
“You’ve become very, very powerful over the last few months. You probably don’t realize yourself how strong you’ve become.”
I considered that for a moment.
Then I had the strong urge to lay the cards out on the counter. I organized them in such a way that the absent majors were altogether and the twenty-two majors lay vertical and some horizontal on the counter top.
Devon kept making faces and making lewd gestures, so I turned his card over. I arranged all the major cards so they formed a pattern of sorts. The pattern was subtle but I knew when the card was in the right position. I got a very strong feeling to stop sliding the card around, then chewed my lip until I felt what I can only describe as a body stutter, almost a sneeze but more of a nasal raspberry, if that made any sense, like a stifled ah-choo. This small but intense force blasted out of me, but the feeling of release feels so good. The cards didn’t budge, but the vortex of magic I’d created was palpable. George came over, dragging his chain and he placed the ring of keys down on the counter beside the cards.
“Now,” he said. “You’ve created a vortex. Take the keys and place one on each card.”
“But how do I know whose is whose?”
“Hover the key over the card if it feels warm then you’ve got the right key and card.
And so I began.
*
I had two keys left. One was the Star card key and the other George’s Hierophant key.
“You have a choice,” George said. “Put your key on the Star card. When you make your final magical act, you will replace Maisie in the deck and take over her role as the deck’s guardian, if you keep the key to yourself, you’ll be free, but all the magic that you’ve garnered will be lost. You’ll be free to resume your life as it was before you became fated to the deck.”
I looked at George and hoped he spoke the truth. He was, after all, the Hierophant, if anyone spoke truth, he would.
I looked at Sia.
“What about Sia?” I scratched her head, but she didn’t look up from the licking she gave her paws.
I will return to the Cheshire society.
I had two keys in my hand. I held one over the Hierophant card and it became very warm. I placed it on top and George disappeared. The chain fell to the floor with a bang and so did his golden ring.
Every card but one had a key on it.
I considered that I hadn’t begun to explore this realm of magic that I’d stumbled into. I felt there was so much more for me to know and figure out, but I really hadn’t learned enough to figure out this time around whether I should return myself to the card and let Maisie teach me how to be the witch I am, as she is. Now, I know what I am and what my purpose in life could be. I held the key over the Star card, I felt it get warm, burning hot, “Aaaah, I screamed and dropped it!” But it didn’t fall directly onto the card it fell into the space beside it. My heart raced, I gulped. That scared the crap out of me. I carefully picked up the key and slipped it around my neck. “Now, what?” I feel I haven’t completed this process by not putting my key on the Star card.
“I choose my freedom, Sia. How about you?”
And then in a complete reversal of the events that took place when I threw the deck at Devon’s butt--then all the spirits shot out like fireworks and took over the lives of people similar to themselves in Meadowvale --The spirits, still at large, shot in through the front door, each one speedily returned to the deck.
It was done and when it was done there was a looming silence.
Sia walked over and nuzzled me.
Take back the keys, put them on the ring and lock them up someplace where no one will ever find them. Do the same with the tarot deck.
I did what Sia told me to do. I didn’t touch the Star card until I had all the keys back on the rings.
I knew where those keys were going, in that safety deposit box, at Koldwell, never to be taken out again. When I looked at Sia, she’d already faded. Only her beautiful smile and eyes remained a few seconds longer and then she was gone.
With some effort, I pulled out theknowitall journal from beneath the counter and began to make my latest entry.
*
In an hour I still hadn’t written everything out. I still retained a little of the magic required to write in the journal. I wondered what would happen to the shop, now that Maisie was locked in her card.
*
Two hours later I finished my last entry in theknowitall journal. I slid it back under the counter then I heard the faintest sound of a toilet flush! Oh, no. I touched the keys at my neck. I put my hand over the tarot deck and slowly slipped it into my Gucci. I stared at the doorway to the backroom.
It was her.
“How can I help,” Maisie asked. She smiled widely. “I’m Maisie Price.”
Was she kidding? I didn’t know what to say.
“Would you like a tarot card reading?” she asked.
I guess I looked like I was about to vomit because that’s how I felt.
“Are you all right?” She sounded genuinely concerned.
“No.”
Just when Maisie had me convinced that she didn’t remember anything that had happened before this moment, she held up the Star card. “You’re my final catch,” she said.
My fear turned to anger and I held my ground. “No,” I said, “You’re my final catch!” And then I lost my resolve and quickly moved sideways toward the door, shaking my head no. “No thanks,” I said and I hurried out.
Outside, in the entrance to the shop, a street person looked like he was sleeping off a bender. He had a brown paper bag with the neck of a wine bottle protruding out the top. I quickly stepped over him.
Beyond the shop, it was another beautiful sunny day in Meadowvale. I decided then and there that I wasn’t going to date for awhile. I wanted to give that part of my life a rest, until I figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of it. My walk past my condo took me by the dry cleaning store. It looked busy. Young boys skateboarded by me, never taking a second look.
I decided that I would go to the bank and put the deck of cards and the keys in the safety deposit box.
At Koldwell, I saw Glendie working; she was friendly and let me into the vault where the boxes were. She didn’t seem to have any memory of our adventures together. The box was empty. None of the small trinkets that Barkman placed inside it were there. I lifted my skirt to check my thigh and the tattoo was gone!
“You want to go bowling tonight?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll go home and feed Sia and meet you there.”
“Who’s Sia,” she looked truly puzzled.
“My–plant,” I said lamely.
*
When I got home, there was no Sia. And my place was a mess, like a herd of rats had at it. I tidied before I got ready for bowling, picking up all the wine glasses, beer bottles, cigarette butts and remains of nibblies. I gathered everything by the edge of the kitchen sink where the strong urge to organize the mess into a pattern on top of the counter took hold; I began to push things around, like a magician playing the shell game. Finally, I got things in an order that felt right and began to chew my bottom lip. The body shudder took over, and I blew the biggest raspberry sneeze ever. The instant I sneezed, I closed my eyes, and when I reopened them I saw a business card sitting on top of my arrangement.
I picked it up and read it.
William Tell, Financial Advisor, Koldwell Bank.
I put the card in my Gucci, checked my necklace of unusual things and felt for my mini-tweezers; they hung there. I decided that on my way to the bowling alley, I’d stop by Koldwell and visit the ATM and get some cash. Then I’d pay William a little visit and find out where my cat went.
The End
If you enjoyed this book or any of The Final Catch books and would like to read more work by Rhea Rose (while the next 3 books cook in the cauldron), find her short work at Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/504710
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/205313
The Final Catch: A Tarot Sorceress Series
Click here to find the first three books in, the Final Catch: a Tarot Sorceress Series
Rhea E. Rose
Other Books By Rhea E. Rose
a.k.a. Rhea Rose and R.E.Rose
Pandora’s Progeny: Speculative Short Stories
(Picture books)The Box, Rainbow Socks and the Carousel
Princess Mya and the Dust Fairies
(The following books are coming soon to an Amazon page near you!)
Book One: See Jane Charm
Book Two: See Jane Hex
Book Three: See Jane Spell
Book Four: See Jane Jinx
Book Five: See Jane Conjure
Book Six: See Jane Ensorcel
