by Falls, Bella
“I’m the stronger of the two of us, Jack. I think I can handle it better,” she insisted, crossing her arms in determination.
Her husband opened his mouth to protest, but she stopped him cold with an intent gaze. Holding up his hands in surrender, he gave in without another word.
I raised my hand and waited to be called on. “Why don’t we lay hands on her to help her channel her magic.”
Uncle Jo reached into his back pocket and pulled out another large black square of fabric. “And I’ll have this on the ready to neutralize it just in case.”
“In case something goes wrong and my wife gets hurt,” grumbled Jackson. “No. I don’t like this plan.”
Marilyn took a determined step forward. “It’ll be fine. Have a little faith.” She pushed her husband to the side and held a shaky hand over the glass. After waiting for the rest of us to touch her on her shoulders, she closed her eyes. “Here goes.”
I held my breath while her fingers inched closer to the orb. Once her skin contacted the surface, she drew in a long breath. As if something wrenched her closer, her palm wrapped around one side of the crystal ball and she brought up her other hand to cradle the other side.
“Mary, don’t,” protested Jackson.
The hairs on my arms stood on end, and a palpable wave of power brushed over me. If we needed proof of the object’s magical lineage, we were getting first-hand evidence.
Marilyn’s breathing quickened into a pant. She groaned and threw her head back. “I see…I see…”
“What?” Jackson called out. “What visions are you having?”
She shook her head back and forth. “No. It’s too much. Stop!”
“Uncle Jo,” I hissed into my kin’s ear while Marilyn’s husband tried to pry his wife’s hands off the surface of the glass.
My uncle got Jackson’s attention. “I’m going to have to let go of your wife to cover it up. In three, two, one.” Moving with lightning speed, he draped the black cloth over the crystal ball and used it to help remove Marilyn’s hands one at a time.
When she broke free, she cradled her hands to her chest and fell back into her husband’s waiting arms. Uncle Jo wrapped the object up tight with the new neutralizing fabric before folding the one I’d used before around that as well for good measure.
“I told you it shouldn’t have been you,” Jackson griped, holding onto Marilyn tight. “Now look what it’s done.”
The kind woman managed a slight smile despite her clear struggle. “I’ll be fine, really.” She glanced up at me. “It’s definitely real. And now, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to get it out of my house.”
Jackson cleared his throat. “But, Mary, if it is real, then maybe we should—”
“You get that thought clean out of your head, Jackson,” interrupted his wife. “I want it out of here.”
Without being asked again, Uncle Jo gathered up the plastic bag and headed out of the room. I lingered behind, very concerned about the aftermath of her efforts.
After Marilyn assured me she would be okay, I dared to ask question knocking around in my brain. “When Ms. Myrna used it, she did look a little weakened, but nothing like you’re going through. Why the difference?”
Marilyn exchanged a knowing glance with Jackson and shrugged. “Hard to say. But if you think Myrna might not be doing well, I can check in on her this week to make sure she’s fully recovered.” Blowing out a long breath, she stood up. “I’m sorry to send you on your way like this. We must seem like the worst hosts in the world.”
“You’re not at all,” I reassured her. “How much do we owe you for your consultation?”
“Nothing,” insisted Jackson. “We like helping our friends. Both old and new.” He stuck out his hand. “You tell your uncle not to let so much time go by before we see him again. And let your daddy know we send our regards.”
I shook his hand and assured him I would. With embarrassed awkwardness, I left the room and saw myself out of their house. Uncle Jo sat in the truck with Bobby sitting on his lap, waiting for me. A whole lot of doubt and uncertainty about the confirmed magical item we were transporting back to our place rattled me. In stunned silence, I got in and pulled my belt buckle over me.
A knock on the window startled both of us, and Uncle Jo rolled it down to speak to a breathless Jackson.
“If you don’t have a buyer in mind or find that you need someone to take it off your hands, you give me a call.” He handed my uncle a card with a phone number scribbled in pen on the back.
Uncle Jo assured him he would and started the truck. I couldn’t help but watch Jackson staring at us the whole time we backed out of his dirt driveway. It took ten miles under our tires and a run through the drive through window for some greasy fast food before either of us spoke.
“When we get back, we’ll need to store that in a secure place until we can take it out to our island safe,” Uncle Jo admitted, his eyes flitting to the plastic bag sitting on the floor between us.
Other than agreeing with him, we didn’t utter another word the rest of the drive back to the family homestead. No doubt we both got caught up in the myriad of questions our consultation brought up.
If crystal balls were so rare, then where had this one come from? How did Myrna get her hands on it in the first place? And why would Jackson ask us to give him a chance to own it if his wife was so clearly against keeping it?
As if knowing my stomach churned with unease, Bobby shifted and laid his head in my lap. I scratched him between his ears, soaking in the comfort he offered and ignoring the wet spot his pool of drool left on my lap.
Chapter Five
M y nerves jangled on edge by the time we made it back to our place. Uncle Jo honked the horn twice as we drove by the house to alert my dad to our return. By the time we pulled up to the storage barn, I was ready to unload the truck and take a break.
Before we put things out for sale in our second larger barn we used for us and other vendors, we always checked the items over to make sure they were either in good shape or that none of what we’d scavenged had any trace of magic in it. Keeping it separate from the rest of our purchases, I left the crystal ball in its bag sitting in the passenger seat of the truck.
My uncle and I unloaded most of the smaller items into the storage barn as my father joined us. He clapped his hands together, eyeing the bigger furniture pieces. “Looks like you guys had a productive day.”
“You have no idea.” I accepted his open arms and buried myself in his familiar scent, finding comfort in his embrace.
“Hey, hey, hey, butter bean,” he spoke into my forehead after he kissed it. “What’s wrong?”
I sighed and let him go. “It’s a long story. But I guess the short of it is that we acquired something very valuable today.”
“But that’s good, isn’t it? Jo, do you know what she’s talking about?” he shouted at his brother.
My uncle emerged, sweat running down his face. “I do, but let’s get these big pieces moved inside first. My loving niece, how about you take the special package and head on up to the house.”
My jaw dropped. “You want to keep it in there?”
“Keep what? Will somebody tell me what’s going on?” Dad scowled at the two of us.
Uncle Jo chewed on his bottom lip. “No, we won’t be keeping it there permanently. But I’d like at least one of our ghostly kin to weigh in. We’ll need to make a few important decisions before we do anything else.”
Unsure of what our next steps would be, I whistled for Bobby to accompany me and carried the questionable object up to the house. Now that I had a better idea of the gravity of having it in our possession, it felt heavier than before.
The hound popped up on the porch and buried his head in the bowl of food waiting for him. Pulling the token out from under my shirt, I kissed it lightly. “Thanks, Grandpa. We’re home.”
A plume of cigar smoke billowed out of the metal, and the rocking chair creaked back and forth again
. “You’re welcome,” answered my grandfather in a weak whisper.
Too distracted with my thoughts, I opened the front door and walked right in. An electric shock zapped my body, making me lose my breath. I doubled over under the strength of the magical ward, cursing myself under my breath for forgetting.
Great-Granny Josephine materialized out of nowhere. “Ruby Mae Jewell have you lost your ever loving mind? Why would you enter this house without undoing the safety spells?” Her hands flourished in the air, and the pain racking my body lessened.
Over the centuries of our family occupying our stretch of land, the house had changed considerably. Once a simpler farmhouse, it had physical additions built on in different decades to bring it up to more modern standards. But since so many of my kin had either forgotten or refused to move on, the inside dimensions morphed and changed to accommodate the ghostly gaggle. Any protection hexes placed on the house got a little supercharged with their added presence.
Able to draw in breath again without searing pain, I composed myself. “I wasn’t thinking.” I shook the plastic bag in front of me. “Uncle Jo sent me up here to ask for your opinion, and I plumb forgot.”
Granny Jo stopped fussing at me and peered at the bag. “Whatchoo got in there that’s so important?”
“From everything we’ve experienced and discovered, I’m pretty sure this is a genuine crystal ball,” I exclaimed. All the eyes on the portraits covering the walls of the foyer turned in my direction, and I buckled under the pressure of their curiosity. “Is there somewhere we can go so I can show you?”
Once I unwrapped the item and set it up on the dining room table, I retold the whole day’s worth of stories and waited for my ghostly great-grandmother to weigh in. The longer she remained still, the more uncomfortable I got. I could count on one hand the times I remembered her being rendered silent.
The front door opened, and Dad and Uncle Jo’s voices echoed through the house. When they called out to find us, I hollered for them to join me.
“What’s going on?” Dad asked. “Is that what all the fuss is about?” He strolled over to me and bumped my shoulder. When I didn’t bump him back, he glared with concern.
I pointed at the ghost hovering near the table. “I told her all about what we know so far, but she hasn’t said anything yet.”
“That’s concerning. Granny, stop worrying Ruby Mae and share your thoughts,” he insisted.
Our spirited relative rolled her eyes. “Can’t you give a ghost a chance to think?” She blew out a breath she didn’t need to take. “Well, first off, it’s a good thing you got it out of the hands of the mortal human. The fact that she possessed it for any amount of time without word of its existence getting out is a miracle. If she had kept it much longer, I’m not sure how long she would have lasted.”
“You think her use of it might have affected her health?” Uncle Jo crossed his arms. “Based on what I saw it do to Marilyn, I wouldn’t doubt that eventually it would affect someone like Myrna just as much.”
Granny Jo nodded. “Or if the right party figured out what she had before our Ruby did, she might have been harmed anyway. You say your friend Marilyn had a bad reaction to it? Wait, is she the married friend of yours that lives between Smooter and here? She’s a psychic, right?”
“Not a strong one,” explained my uncle. “But she definitely felt the effects of even touching it.”
“Hmm.” Taking advantage of her spectral status, my great-grandmother floated in the air and hovered close to the object. “I’d like to know more before we just stash it away or sell it.”
Dad scratched the back of his neck. “Without one of us with any real psychic talents, how are we going to learn more? Unless you think we should call—”
“Don’t you say that infernal woman’s name in this house. The less that witch knows, the better.” Granny Josephine rematerialized in front of my father with a finger in his face.
Uncle Jo pulled out his spell phone. “Technically, we are supposed to let her know when we find something potentially big. She is the head of the regional coven. We could bring more trouble onto us if we don’t call her.”
Granny Jo placed her hands on her hips. “Hog wash. Time was we Jewells didn’t answer to nobody. Ebonee Johnson may come from a family line as old as ours, but she doesn’t get to dictate what we do. You put that phone away,” she insisted.
My uncle held up his hands in surrender. “I’m not here to fight, Granny. Just want to make sure we’re covering our behinds in case something happens.”
“What could happen that she needs to get involved? It’s in our house, and if we need to, we can put it in the family safe. Leave it here with me, and I’ll consult with our other ancestors still hanging around and see if any of them can give a better assessment.” She dematerialized from sight to stop any of us from arguing with her.
Uncle Jo wrapped the crystal ball up again in the neutralizing fabric. He and my father got into a heated debate about whether their grandmother was right or not. Knowing how long their discussion could last, I excused myself and made my way to the front porch.
Bobby curled up by the foot of the first rocking chair, probably keeping my grandfather’s unseen presence company. I took a seat next to them and closed my eyes, taking the first break of the day and enjoying the quiet.
The screen door swung open, and my father stomped outside. When he caught sight of me, his annoyed expression relaxed. “Sorry, butter bean. We didn’t mean to chase you out of the house.”
“It’s fine,” I reassured him. “I needed a break anyway, and I’m not the one to be making any of the big decisions.”
“But I bet you have an opinion.” He leaned on the porch railing. “Let’s hear it.”
I rocked in the chair for an extra beat or two, giving the situation some serious consideration. “I think we picked up something that shouldn’t be out in the open for too long. The more we learn about it, the more dangerous it may be to not keep it away from interested parties. It also sounds like we may borrow more trouble than it’s worth to try and turn a profit from it.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Dad’s willingness to listen to me warmed my heart.
I shrugged and rocked. “It’s not really up to me.”
“Sure it is. You’re just as much a member of this family as any of us. And you’re the one who found it in the first place,” he reminded me. “Tell me.”
I pushed myself up and joined him at the front of our porch, looking out over part of our land. “It’s already close to suppertime. If Granny wants some of the other ghosts in the house to try and get more info on the ball, then let’s give her until the evening. Once the sun goes down, one of us can take it out to the family safe to keep it locked away for the time being. After that, we can contact Ebonee Johnson so that we’ve fulfilled our required obligation. But it’ll be too late for her to come here sniffing around and prying into our business.”
My father wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close. His lips brushed the top of my hair. “That sounds like a solid plan. And since you’ve had a rather long day, why don’t you let me and your uncle take care of things.”
“Thanks, Dad.” I leaned my head on against his. “I guess I can go sort things out in storage.”
“Not what I meant. Take the rest of the day off. Call your friends or maybe see if your boyfriend can get off work early.” He placed his hands on my shoulders and marched me down the steps. “Now, git. I mean it.” Swatting my behind for fun, he pointed for me to walk away from the house.
Released from more responsibilities and not wanting to hang around too long in case my father changed his mind, I hustled around the side of the house onto the dirt road that led to my small cottage.
I pulled my spell phone out and sent a quick text. It rang the next second, and a deep voice reverberated in my ear. “Ciao, cara . Everything go okay today?”
My boyfriend Luke only broke the pretense of being a good ol’ South
ern boy and spoke his native language when nobody else was around. “Walter not there with you?”
“Good catch, my love. No, he’s knocked off for the day. Says he needs to get ready for a date tonight.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “Walter’s going on a date?” I screeched, startling a nearby bird into flight. “Yeah, he needs the extra time to get ready.”
Luke chuckled on the line. “That’s exactly what I said. What’s going on with you? Did you pick up a lot of goods?”
My mind raced to figure out how to summarize without saying too much out in the open. “It was…interesting.”
“Uh oh. Should I close up shop early?” he asked.
I would love nothing more than for my boyfriend to come over to my place and help me wash away the lingering exhaustion from the long day. “No, it’s not an emergency. I can tell you when you come over tonight.”
“Or you could skip telling me and just let me help you forget.” He whispered several things in a foreign language.
Despite me not understanding a word, it still made me blush. “One of these days, I’m gonna need to learn Italian properly.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I suspect you can guess some of what I was suggesting.”
My body warmed all over, and I pictured him wiggling his eyebrows at me, his vampire fangs protruding just a little from the flirtatious tone in his voice.
It took me a moment to recover enough to speak. “I’ll call my little coffee coven together, and I can blow off a little steam with them.”
“Good idea. And then you and I can make a little steam of our own later on tonight.” The sound of someone in the background interrupted him. “Gotta go, amore .”
“Love you.” I ended the call and scrolled through my texts to find the never-ending chat thread my friends and I kept active.
With quick fingers, I typed out, “S.O.S. Meet in our usual place in an hour. ”
I continued on the path to my cottage, but the closer I got to home the more exhaustion hit me. Before anyone else responded, I typed out a new request. “Scratch that. Bring food and drinks to my place ASAP! ”
