5 A Charming Magic (11 page)

“Trouble in paradise,” Madame Torres said the words I was thinking from the depth of my bag. I snuggled her close to me in case someone heard her. The best thing for me was to stay low-key until the wedding was over. Whether it was in a day or in a couple of weeks, I could keep it together with a big smile on my face.

“Yes.” I jiggled my keys in the door of A Charming Cure and looked back before we went in. “I’m not sure why there is trouble, but a good smudging ceremony just might do the trick.”

Mr. Prince Charming darted in, almost knocking me on my butt as my feet got tangled up.

I caught the edge of one of the tables to steady myself. The base of the light rattled, almost falling over. I quickly grabbed it so it wouldn’t tumble and crash my potion bottles to the ground.

“That was a close one.” I glared at Mr. Prince Charming who had taken his rightful spot on the counter with his leg in the air as he cleaned himself. Not a care in the world.

There were times when he was a plain old cat and then there were times he seemed to really get what was going on in the spiritual world. Today he seemed like the old stray cat that wandered into my life many moons ago.

He didn’t seem to notice the disapproving look I gave him for his odd behavior. Or he didn’t care.

“Thanks for almost killing me,” I quipped in his direction when I walked behind the counter to get ready for the smudging ceremony.

Meow
. Mr. Prince Charming did his round-about moves and finally settled in a ball next to the cash register.

The light rap at the door caught my attention.

Ophelia waved when I looked toward the door.

“Hey,” I greeted her when I opened the door. I held it open. “Come on in. I’m just about to get the smudge together for the meeting.”

“Oh.” Ophelia stepped inside and brushed her honey-colored curls behind her shoulder before she unbuttoned her red, full-length coat. “It’s chilly out there.”

I glanced out. The grey sky had taken over the entire village and hung low, almost low enough to touch. The chill rushed in after Ophelia, zipping to my bones. I shivered.

“Get in.” I rushed her inside and shut the door behind her.

“Did you say you were going to be doing a smudging ceremony?” she asked and placed her coat on the door knob before she followed me back to the shop.

“There are some strange things going on around here and a cleansing smudge isn’t going to hurt.” The shelf of ingredients was nice and full from KJ’s visit.

There were so many options to choose from. The dry salt was the first ingredient that touched my intuition when I looked at it.

“I know!” She gasped. “Like the weather.” She droned on about how she and Colton were eating a muffin from Wicked Good on Colton’s break. They watched the grey sky roll in like a tidal wave. “Plus I saw the little spat between the love birds.”

I turned toward Ophelia. Her face was clouded with uneasiness.

“You too?” I could see it. She had worry written all over her.

Ophelia shifted, she bit her lip on the corner.

“Oh come on.” I assured her and turned back to my ingredient shelf. I pulled down the dry salt bottle and set it next to the cauldron. Dry salt was used to drive away negative energy and the way Ophelia and Petunia were acting, there was negative energy in those dark clouds. I was going to brush those away. “Nothing is going on. We are just having some sort of change in the weather pattern.” I gulped, trying to believe in what I was saying. “You know all that talk about the ozone layers depleting and all that stuff.” I waved my hand in the air before grabbing a couple of stalks of sage.

“It just seems a little odd.” She rapped her fingers on the counter. “Don’t you think?”

“I think everyone is creating all this bad energy.” I reached back on the shelf and grabbed some Argentum Nitricum, good for fear and nervousness. It would be a good little additive for the smudge. Oh! The sweet grass caught my eye. It was a wonderful herb to encourage kindness.

“Colton is ready for anything. He even called back to the village in Ohio to see if they were having the same weather.” Ophelia and Colton came from a village in Ohio.

“Speaking of Colton,” I had to change the subject, “did you tell him about the sleeping aide?”

The lavender stalks would be another great ingredient for the village. I plucked a few stalks from the lavender bundle and tied it to the sage before I sprinkled some dry salt and Argentums Nitricum on it.

“No,” Ophelia stressed. “I thought I would just slip it into his chamomile tea tonight.”

I laughed. She was a sneaky one. Then my gut tangled with my intuition. There was a sudden fear and the game of “what if”. What if something bad happened and we needed our sheriff? 

Slowly I eased back to the ingredients so I wouldn’t alarm Ophelia and grabbed a couple stalks of juniper to add to the bundle. Juniper was a great herb to use because it will help us help ourselves and with everyone going a little coo-coo, it wasn’t going to hurt to cover all the bases.

“Let me know how it works. We don’t want him to be flat out cold. We want him to just sleep deeply enough not to snore.” I picked up dry salt and added a few more dashes, just for precaution.

“Are you ready?” I asked and grabbed my box of matches that were stored under the counter along with my feather from Clyde, Petunia’s bird. It was a long full, thick tail feather that was perfect to sweep the smudge smoke into the crowd so they could receive the full effect of the powers of the ceremony.

“I am.” She grabbed her coat and swung it around her shoulders. She quickly buttoned it up. “You probably need to grab your coat.”

“Good thinking.” I went to the back of the shop and grabbed it before we left.

On our way around the shop and up the hill, I decided to use the time to ask her about Arabella.

“Have you gone by Magical Moments?” That was my way of getting some gossip from her.

“I did.” Ophelia was tight lipped.

“And?” This was proving to be harder than I thought. Ophelia Biblio was fairly new to the community and I wasn’t sure how much she did gossip, but what young girl didn’t? I needed someone on my side and it might as well be her.

“She has some great style.” There was a spark in her eye. So…young women like style and Arabella had plenty of that. “She has some great ideas for Petunia’s shower.”

There was no sense in trying to dig for more dirt on Arabella. She might not be all evil, but she wasn’t pulling the wool over my eyes. Someone sent those flowers and it wasn’t me.

“Like what?” Haphazardly I asked, bringing the bundle closer to my body as the night air whipped around.

“She said she has some really cool edible flowers that will float in a punch bowl that she’s making. And…” Ophelia went on and on about Arabella and her
great
ideas. Her voice drifted as my eyes caught sight of the Gathering Rock.

The dusk light was much darker than normal. It looked like someone had started a fire in the middle of the gathering space.

The Gathering Rock was where we held all of our village meetings. It was a safe and sacred place for all spiritualists to gather. The focal point was a big rock that stood at the front of the gathering space, which was a wide open space for us to have chairs, benches, or stand if we wanted to.

Most meetings weren’t attended by all, but tonight there seemed to be a crowd. Their voices immediately dampened to a hushed whisper when they saw me and Ophelia walk up.

“Good evening.” I looked everyone in the eye as I approached and smiled.

There was a desolate feeling lingering around the space, making it difficult for my head to clear for the ceremony. Everyone was feeling the heavy blanket that had covered Whispering Falls.

The council, which included Izzy, Gerald, Petunia, and Chandra, was already seated at the front of the Gathering Rock.

I was particularly interested in Gerald and Petunia. Petunia had her back to Gerald who was begging her to look at him. Leaves were falling out of her hair by the second.

“Good evening.” I laid the bundle on the table and grabbed the gavel so I could hit it on the rock and bring the meeting to order.

“You are going to talk about the unfortunate weather we are having, right?” Izzy asked.

In other words she was telling me to make sure I was positive and didn’t alarm anyone.

“Of course I am.” I turned and banged the gavel on the rock. The crowd took a seat. Even the ones who normally stood the entire meeting took a seat on the ground or found a vacant chair. “The monthly village meeting of the Whispering Falls community is now coming to order!” I shouted and banged the rock several times.

The echo of the gavel bit the silence of the air. I hit it another time for good measure…or stalling for time.

“Good evening.” I laid the gavel back on the table. “As you can see we are having some sort of weather pattern coming through the valley and settling in a bit.” I turned and picked up the smudge and feather.

“Weather pattern?” someone from the crowd asked in a sarcastic tone.

I swallowed, trying to ignore them, but who was I trying to kid? I was amongst a group of spiritualists who knew something wasn’t right. Try as I might, it was still my duty to keep everyone calm and at peace so we could continue to have a solid village.

“I’d like to start the meeting off by doing a little cleansing smudge.” I chose to ignore the heckler and light the bundle. Slowly I walked up and down the space, swerving in and out of the spiritualists with the smoldering herbs while fanning the smoke with the feather.

I chanted a few words of encouragement. Nothing special. Just something that came to my mind as I walked around smelling the fumes and trying to cleanse the earth. Arabella sat in the back corner on the ground with her eyes closed.

I turned the bundle to where I had put the sweet grass. If anyone needed to be kinder and have a better attitude, it was her.

Cough, cough.
Arabella glanced up at me. Her eyes were barely visible through all the smoke I had swept over her and around her. There was enough smoke around her to look like she was smoking a pipe.

“I never,” she gasped and stood up. “I never have seen someone screw up a smudging ceremony.”

There was an audible gasp over the crowd. Everyone’s mouth was open and all their eyes were on Arabella Paxton, though we could only see the whites of her socks, as she stomped back down the hill.

With a little check in the score box for me, I smiled and made my way back up to the front of the Gathering Rock to start the meeting.

“First I would like to congratulate Petunia Shrubwood and Gerald Regiula on their engagement.” I clapped my hands together encouraging the other spiritualists to do the same. “And I would like to invite you all to an open engagement party tomorrow on Main Street.”

“Engagement party?” Petunia’s eyes lit up. It was the only thing not looking a little peaked on her entire person. She clasped her hands together and turned her body toward Gerald. “That’s so much better than a bridal shower.”

“Whatever makes you happy.” Gerald nodded. The happiness was obviously not shared by the scowl on his face. “When did you say this was going to happen?”

“Tomorrow.” Before the word left my mouth, a clap of thunder cracked over the village followed up by a few streaks of lightning. “And we better get this meeting started.”

The sky was getting darker and scarier by the second. We made a couple of amendments to the rules, which included Rule Number Three. That was the rule where only one shop owner per couple or household. Whichever way you looked at it, it was dumb.

“All in favor say ‘yea’.” I smacked the gavel. The crowd roared. Just for legality’s sake and to cover all the bases, I asked, “All not in favor say ‘nay’.”

There was silence.

“This meeting is now adjourned.” I banged the gavel several times.

It didn’t take long for the crowd to scatter. With the sounds in the sky, I was about to scat myself. That was before Petunia and Gerald started arguing…again.

“This is ridiculous.” Petunia stomped out from behind her chair. “We have been waiting years for this.”

“Exactly.” Gerald threw his hands in the air. “That is what I’m saying! What is the hurry? Why don’t we make sure we do this right?”

“Right?” Petunia questioned him. She looked at me.

“I’m Switzerland,” I joked and put my hands in the air. There was no way I was going to get in the middle of the argument. I pretended to get all my items gathered up and not pay any attention, but I was all ears.

“And, and…,” Petunia stumbled for the right words, “what do you mean by the right time? It is right. Right now!”

“But you have had no time to plan the wedding that you deserve.” Gerald was trying to pull out all the cards he could, which made my gut wonder why he was doing this.

To my understanding, I had thought men didn’t really care too much about the planning of the wedding. That most of that was girly details and they just showed up for pictures and the “I do’s”. In this case, there was something not right with Gerald working so hard on getting Petunia to delay the big event.

“What do we need?” Petunia shook her head. She looked Gerald over with a critical eye. “All of our friends are here. We have a great florist who will do whatever it is we want. The law is now on our side and we have houses to live in. You. You are the delay.” She poked him in the chest. Even in the glooming night-time grey,
my ring
glistened with each jab she made.

A clump of Petunia’s hair fell to the ground.

Gerald watched with sheer fright on his face. He looked at Petunia and then over to me.

Petunia looked down. Her mouth opened, and then she snapped it closed.

“I…,” Gerald seemed to struggle for the words, “I’m sorry dear. We can do whatever you want.”

“Hello you two.” Out of nowhere Arabella appeared out of the dark shadows. Suddenly a moonbeam darted out of the black sky like a spotlight. A spotlight on her. My eyes widened. A smile curled up on the corner of her mouth.

Gerald shifted between his feet. He was a little too fidgety for me. I watched out of the corner of my eye.