by Terri Garey
My brain hadn’t made it past her first couple of sentences. “A light? I’ve got a light shining on me?”
She gave me her attention again, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “Sure enough. Don’t you know about the Light?”
Confused, I nodded. If Nellie Belle knew about the Light, then what was she still doing here? “Yes, but I didn’t know it was shining on me.”
Chuckling, she crossed her arms over an ample belly. “Oh, it shinin’ on you all right. You lit up like a star in a spotlight. You somethin’ special.”
Special?
“And I tell you somethin’ else. That Light a sign that no matter what happens to you in this world, you’re going to be all right in the next one, you know?”
I wanted to cry. How nice to hear those words, particularly after the week I’d had.
“Thanks,” I said, in a voice barely above a whisper. “I needed to hear that.”
“’Course you did.” Nellie Belle sat up straighter, putting her arms on the table. “Everybody need a little reassurance now and then.”
“Can I”—I hesitated, having been burned before—“is there anything I can do for you?”
She tilted her head, looking puzzled at the question.
“I mean, is there anything I can do to help you find peace? You don’t have to stay here, you know.”
Nellie Belle laughed again, gesturing at the basket of corn bread. “Honey chile’, as far as I’m concerned, this is Heaven—right here with my boy and my kitchen. I’ll go when I’m ready, but I ain’t ready yet.”
I smiled, relieved. No life-altering task needed to be done today—yay!
“Now eat up,” she said, “before it gets cold.”
I took another bite of ribs, a big one.
“Good?” she asked.
Nodding, I wiped a dribble of barbecue sauce off my chin.
“That’s all I need to hear,” she said, and faded away before my eyes.
Shaking my head, I kept eating, knowing it made Nellie Belle happy. Made my stomach happy, too.
CHAPTER 20
I was halfway to my car when I realized that I didn’t have a car—Joe had dropped me off, and I’d planned on getting a ride home with Evan. But Evan was long gone, and even though I could call him, I wasn’t about to interrupt his romantic evening with Butch. I’d already left Joe a message, and he hadn’t called me back, so I could only assume he was tied up or something.
Ooo, nice image. We’d have to try that sometime.
For now, since the waist on my jeans felt too tight and the day was mild, I decided to walk home. It was one of the advantages of living in the Little Five Points area—the neighborhoods were older but nice, plenty of sidewalks and shade. A half hour walk would be good for me and bring me home before full dark set in. Then I could freshen up, get in my car, and drive to the Embassy Suites for an evening of Wicca wackiness with the ladies of the Savannah Garden Club.
It didn’t take long to leave the shopping district behind and get into the residential part of Little Five. The shadows were long beneath the oaks, but I wasn’t worried—most of the crime occurred near the MARTA stations, just like in any big city with rapid transit. There were plenty of kids playing in their yards in the gathering dusk and plenty of people watching them. I knew these streets like the back of my hand, having ridden my bike up and down each and every one when I was kid.
One shadow, darker than all the others, ran right across the sidewalk in front of me and disappeared into some bushes. A black cat. Crap.
“That’s a sign of bad luck, you know.”
I spun around, knowing that sardonic tone all too well.
“What the hell? Are you following me now?”
“What the hell, indeed,” Sammy said, strolling up as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He was wearing dark red today, a long-sleeve T-shirt shoved up to the elbows, with a black logo of some kind on the front. Skinny black jeans and a lowslung belt. “I saw you through the front window as you were passing Divinyls and couldn’t help but wonder where you were going.” He grinned, completely unrepentant about practically stalking me. “After that, I simply became mesmerized by the sway of your hips. I had no idea I’d walked this far.”
I gave him a disgusted look, letting him know I wasn’t buying it. “Well, toddle on back to the Devil’s playground, hot stuff. Surely you’ve got some CDs to sell.” Spinning on my heel, I proceeded to walk on, ignoring him.
“Where’s your boyfriend?” he asked, speeding up to walk alongside me. “Is the saintly doctor off saving lives? Finding a cure for cancer? Donating blood, perhaps?”
The way he asked told me he already knew the answer, damn him.
I kept my mouth shut and kept walking, refusing to play.
“He seems to like playing the hero, doesn’t he?” Sammy admired the trees as he walked. “Particularly when there’s a lovely damsel in distress involved. And Lisa certainly is lovely, in a smart-but-sexy-librarian kind of way.”
That got my attention, as he knew it would.
“Why must you be such an asshole?” I asked him bluntly.
He shrugged, raising his hands, palms up. “It’s what I do.”
Fuming, I made up my mind to keep walking, faster now. What was Joe doing with Lisa?
Before I’d gotten three steps, he was beside me again. “Don’t you want to know where they are?”
They? “No.”
“Don’t you care if she’s trying to steal him away from you?”
“No.”
“Don’t you think I know when you’re lying?” He laughed, an ironic chuckle that raised the hair on the back of my neck. “Hello…Father of Lies here.”
“If that’s the case, I pity your children,” I bit out, still walking.
“Oh, Nicki,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re so fiery. Such spirit. It’s hard to resist.”
“Try, would you?” I was shouting now, not caring who heard. “Would you just try?”
He stopped, and I couldn’t resist glancing over my shoulder at him—just to give him a dirty look, of course.
Why did he have to be so damned hot, and so damned cool at the same time?
“And don’t think I don’t know about your good buddy Sally Starshine or whatever her name is,” I said, aggravated beyond reason. “She can send me all the bad-luck mojo she wants. It’s not going to change a thing.”
He burst out laughing. “I had nothing to do with that,” he lied, the big liar.
“But you’re not denying you know who she is.”
He shook his head. “I’d be foolish to look a gift horse in the mouth, even when the horse looks more like a donkey.”
I just glared at him, wishing I had the nerve to smack him, just once.
“But let’s not change the subject,” he said, smiling. Standing in the middle of the sidewalk, he shoved both hands in his pockets. “They’re at the Blue Heron, on Piedmont. A life-or-death emergency requiring copious amounts of alcohol, I’m sure.” He shrugged. “I do hope Lisa doesn’t require mouth-to-mouth.” And then he turned and walked back the way he came.
“Bastard,” I muttered, but I wasn’t sure, even in my heart of hearts, if I was talking about Sammy or Joe.
“Joe is not that kind of guy, Nicki.”
I’d called my sister Kelly before I’d gone half a block.
“Then why is he at a bar with another woman, and why is he not answering his phone?” I was whining, and I knew it, but I couldn’t seem to help it.
“I don’t know. Why is he at a bar with another woman and not answering his phone?” Kelly had that tone in her voice that reminded me of my mother. Calm down, Nicki, and think about this rationally. “Did you have a fight or something?”
“Not a fight exactly, but he did get mad over the Tina Cowart thing earlier today.” I’d given her a brief rundown of the events at Tina’s trailer already. “And by getting suspended from his job—which is my fault, no matter how you look at it.”<
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“It’s not your fault. It’s the hospital’s fault,” she said, dismissing my feelings of guilt over that issue completely. “Who’s the woman?”
My lip curled automatically. “She’s the lawyer who represents the hospital. She claims she’s on his side, but she really just wants to get in his pants.”
Kelly laughed. “You’re jealous.”
“Am not.”
She just laughed again, harder this time.
“Gee, Kelly, thanks a lot. I call you up for emotional support, and you just laugh at me.” I was ready to hang up on her.
“Oh, c’mon, Nick. Joe’s crazy about you. He’s not going to cheat on you with some woman lawyer. He hates lawyers.”
“You haven’t seen her,” I said morosely. “She’s not bad-looking.” In a smart-but-sexy-librarian kind of way, dammit. “And she told Joe point-blank that she was attracted to him and that he should break up with me because I was bad for his career. I heard her myself.”
“She said that in front of you?” Kelly was aghast.
“No, not really.” I really didn’t want to go into the eavesdropping session that Crystal had so nastily arranged. “It’s complicated. But I heard her. She also told Joe that he should sue me for libel or slander or something like that, and the hospital would be more supportive over the inquiry into Crystal Cowart’s death if he did. That part she said right in front of me.” The bitch.
“Okay, it’s official. We hate her guts.”
I smiled for the first time since I’d started walking. That “we” made me feel better, even if Kelly was in Savannah, and I was in Atlanta. Having a sister might actually have some advantages, after all.
“Thank you. Now what do ‘we’ do about it?”
“Hmm…you could drive to the bar and pour a drink on her head.”
I laughed out loud. “Not my style.”
“You could go home, put on some sexy lingerie, and leave a very naughty message on Joe’s voice mail that you’re waiting for him with some whipped cream.”
Much more my style, but the timing was bad.
“I can’t. I have to go meet Bijou and the ladies of the Savannah Garden Club at their hotel for a cleansing ceremony or some such nonsense.”
“Oh, it’s not nonsense, Nicki,” she said seriously. Should’ve known she’d be on Bijou’s side when it came to the psychic mumbo-jumbo stuff. “Those women know what they’re talking about. Wicca is meant to be used for good, but there’s obviously a wicked witch somewhere. Let them help you. What could it hurt?”
I rolled my eyes.
“You’re rolling your eyes, aren’t you?”
“No.”
“You’re such a liar.”
“So I’ve been told.” I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder, just to make sure Sammy wasn’t still following me.
“It’ll be okay, I promise.” She had no basis for promises like that, but it was sweet of her to make it, nonetheless.
Belatedly I realized that I’d been so busy whining about my life that I hadn’t even asked her about hers. “So what are you doing tonight? It’s a Friday night—you shouldn’t be rambling around The Blue Dahlia all by yourself.”
“Spider’s coming over any minute. We’re going to have a picnic on the lawn and do some stargazing. He’s got a really big telescope.”
I burst out laughing. “Is that what he calls it?”
She burst out laughing, too. “No! It’s an actual telescope! A great big one!”
At that point I was laughing so hard I barely managed to choke out, “I’m happy for you,” before I gave up trying to say anything at all.
After that, it wasn’t so hard to head on home and stop worrying about Joe and Lisa. For the time being, I was going to trust him.
Innocent until proven guilty, as a lawyer would say.
CHAPTER 21
After a quick in and out of the shower, a change of clothes, and a glass of wine to soothe my nerves, I was still tempted to drive to the Embassy Suites via Piedmont Avenue, but I resisted. It was out of the way, and I refused to give Sammy the satisfaction of knowing he’d gotten to me. He’d seemed to know everything else, dammit. There had to be a good reason why Joe was with Lisa, and I was sure he’d tell me all about it later.
Absolutely sure.
I could hear laughter coming from behind the door of Room 223 before I ever raised my hand to knock. Those little old ladies were obviously having a good old time in there, but so what? I’m sure it wasn’t every day they got to hold a mini “Golden Years” convention to ward off the Evil Eye.
“There you are, dear.” Bijou was smiling broadly as she opened the door. She enveloped me in a hug, which I returned. That was followed by several more hugs from various ladies, which I didn’t mind; hugging was the equivalent of a handshake among Southern women. The buzz of conversation never stopped, punctuated by comments like, “Oh, this is going to be so exciting!” and “Isn’t she just darling? Look at that figure!” and “Does she have a boyfriend? My grandson would be perfect for her!” all of which were spoken as though I were deaf.
Luckily, my glass of wine at home had been big enough to leave me mellow but sober, and I ignored the comments with good humor, smiling at everyone as if this truly were a garden party with my grandmother.
“Now you come sit right over here, dear,” said Grandma Bijou, “and we’ll explain what’s about to happen.”
I sank down on a chair, which had been placed in the middle of the floor, wondering how so many women managed to fit in one hotel room, suite or no suite. I glanced around, and with a start, realized what I’d failed to recognize earlier at the store—there were thirteen of them. Wasn’t thirteen supposed to be an unlucky number?
“First, we’ll sweep all negativity from the room, then we’ll cast a symbolic circle of protection.”
Uh-huh.
“We’ve actually decided to cast two circles,” Bijou went on, quite seriously. “One of air, and one of earth. Estelle, here”—one of the women waved at me from the couch—“will lead us in the Rede—”
Which is where I interrupted her. “You mentioned this before. What the heck is a reed?”
“Not a ‘reed,’ dear, a ‘Rede.’”
Uh-huh.
“R, E, D, E. A code of ethics, if you will.” This from one of the women sitting on one of the two beds.
“Words to live by, so to speak,” said another.
“Oh.”
Bijou went on, unperturbed. “After negativity has been banished, and protection attained, we’ll move on to the casting of a warding spell.”
“A warding spell.” I didn’t bother to ask what a warding spell was, just repeated her words like they made some kind of sense.
“To reflect the Evil Eye back upon the one who cast it,” piped up an old lady, whose name (I thought) was Betty.
Over in the corner, I heard a familiar grunt, and glanced that way to see Odessa, ensconced in the room’s one wing chair. She held a wineglass, half-full. It looked completely out place in her pudgy fingers.
“That would be great,” I said loudly, eyeing Odessa as narrowly as she did me. “Maybe I should write it down.”
To my surprise, the corner of Odessa’s lip curled into what might have been loosely interpreted as the beginnings of a smile, if she’d been capable of smiling. The curl was gone as quickly as it came, though, so I dismissed it as a figment of my imagination.
“You don’t need to write it down,” Bijou said placidly. “You just need to believe it.”
And there lies the root of the problem.
“Okay,” I said cheerfully. “Let’s do this thing.”
My grandmother gave me a warning look, and I knew she was onto me. She was a sensitive, after all, and my false cheerfulness wasn’t fooling her a bit.
“Try, Nicki,” she murmured. “Just try.”
I winced, hating to hear my own words come back to me—I’d said the exact same thing to Sammy barely an hour before.
“Pearl will use her besom to sweep negative energy from the room before we begin.”
I couldn’t help myself. “Her what?”
One of the women got up and went to the closet, where she pulled out—of all things—a broom. A very old-fashioned one, too. It looked like a tree branch, with a bundle of twigs tied to the end.
“My besom,” Pearl said, smiling at me. She held the broom with its bristles pointing toward the ceiling. “It’s a handmade broom that’s been consecrated.”
I just nodded and tried to look duly impressed, not knowing what to say.
“All right now, girls,” said Bijou. “Time to get down to business.”
There was a general tinkle of wineglasses as they were gathered up and put down on a table by the door, and a flurry of anticipatory noises as thirteen elderly women got themselves settled on the two double beds. The only one who didn’t move was Odessa, who took another sip of her wine and held on to the glass.
Then Pearl flipped her broom over, and began to make sweeping motions over the rug.
“Sweep out evil, sweet out doom,
Round and round and round the room.”
I couldn’t help but notice that she didn’t actually touch the floor with her besom—those twigs must be pretty delicate. She moved along, loosely covering the whole room, between the beds and by the window.
“Out with darkness, in with light,
Only good be here this night.”
A grin threatened, but I kept it under control. Everyone was watching Pearl, and they all looked so serious.
“We banish ill, we banish thee,
And invoke the Law of Three.”
Pearl hardly had the look of a witch—she looked like she’d be more at home baking cookies than anything else.
“Thrice around the room I go,
Thrice above, and thrice below.”
On her third trip around the room, she stopped by the door and opened it wide.
“Besom, besom, lady’s broom,
