A Charming Potion (2 page)

I wanted to make sure I was getting the right vibe
from my intuition. Her heart was hurting and she wanted me to fix it, only love
was a touchy subject when it came to psychics.

“Oh my! These are delicious.” Her eyes popped open
after she took her first bit of the chocolaty heaven. Tears dripped down her
face.

“I know they are good, but they aren’t worth crying
over.” I pointed out.

“No, no.” She waggled her finger in the air, and
then wiped her face. “My boyfriend would love these.”

I handed her a towel from behind the counter. It was
all I had.

Her mascara smudged down her face with each wipe. I
took the towel back and took over. She looked up with her sad eyes, and asked,
“How do you stay so thin eating these?”

“I have to work really hard it,” I lied. I laid the
towel down and tucked the flipped-up ends of my black bob behind my ears. I
admit that I’m thin and have been lucky enough to have never had to worry about
my weight. But I’ve always hated those people who said that they can eat
anything. “I should probably eat more veggies, but in a time of need, you just
have to have a treat.”

I held my treat up in the air, and then took another
big bite.

Ding, ding.
The bell over
the door dinged let me know there was another customer coming in.

“Welcome.” I greeted them with a mouth full of the
delicious cupcake. “Let me know if I can help you.”

The women nodded and proceeded to pick up a few of
the bottles to check out the labels.

“And I’m absolutely in a time of need,” she leaned
in and whispered.

“Let’s get to business.” I stood up and walked
behind the counter. “You love orange sickle, so this will do.” I grabbed the
orange peel ingredient and hid behind the partition. Before throwing it in the
cauldron, which I didn’t want her to see, I said, “Go over to the wall display,
under the love tab, read the labels and pick a bottle that you feel speaks to
what is going on inside of your heart.”

She didn’t say a word. She got up and did exactly as
I told her.

Making a love potion was really against my core
intuition. If love happens, it happens. And if this little cure I concoct makes
her feel better…so be it.

“Oh, you picked out a beautiful one.” I referred to
the clear glass bottle with the glitter swirls all over it. The cork was what
made the bottle amazing, though. It had the tiniest jewels glued all over the
top.

“It just. . .”

“Spoke to you?” I interrupted again.

“Gosh, you are good.” She smiled, revealing the most
perfect teeth.

“See, you can smile.” I smiled back. Unfortunately,
I knew I couldn’t help her. A spiritualist never gets in the way of death or
love. I had to tell her. “But I have some bad news.”

“You can’t help me?” She asked. “You never even
asked what is wrong with me.”

Ohhh
. . .I forgot that little part.

“That’s the bad news.” I lied again. “Tell me what’s
hurting? Stomachache?”

She shook her head.

“Earache?”

She continued to shake her head no.

“Gout?” I knew it was none of these, but I couldn’t
give away my real gift of knowing.

“Heartache?’

“Yes!” She jumped up and clasped her hands in front
of her. “Sort of.”

“Love department?” I interrupted her.

This time her eyes really did pop out. She gasped,
“I heard you were good, but you are
good.
”

I didn’t disagree.

The other customers strained their necks to hear
what we were talking about.

“I think he’s going to dump me.” She went into a
full-blown meltdown.

The nerve. And on Halloween
? There was no
way I could let her leave. I knew I had to help her.

“We can fix that.” I patted her arm and confirmed,
“Come back tomorrow at 8 am. I will be open and will have the homeopathic cure
that will change everything for you.”

“Oh, June!” Her tears stopped better than the Hoover
Dam holding back all that water. “You are a life saver. I knew you could help
me.”

“What name should I put on the order?” I realized I
hadn’t even gotten her name.

“Adeline.” She smiled before she darted out of A
Charming Cure with a little more giddy-up in her step.

Hiss, hiss.
Mr. Prince
Charming let his feelings be known.

“What?” I questioned him right before Madame Torres
lit up like a spotlight. “Are you still mad about the love thingy?”

“Not a good idea.” Madame Torres appeared. Her
purple eyes had turned crimson with a glow of yellow around them. “You know
that you aren’t supposed to mess with love, especially on Halloween.”

“Well, I can’t believe someone would dump their
girlfriend on Halloween.” I turned the ball around so I didn’t have to look at
her. I knew the rules. I knew I was crossing the line.

“You forget,” Madame Torres rotated her head to look
at me from the other side of the ball, “I’m round.”

“Yard sale!” I glared at her.

We have an understanding, Madame Torres and I.
Crystal balls are like cats. They pick their owner, not the other way around. I
knew something was strange when I walked into Mystic Lights for the very first
time and the ball glowed in all sorts of crazy colors. Little did I know that
it was going to be
my
crystal ball. A snarky one at that.

Since she was so nosy, loud, and bold, I threatened
to take her to a yard sale and sell her. I’m her owner, and if I got rid of her
she’d never be able to speak again.

It shuts her up every single time.

“I’m going to tell you that I told you so.” She
crossed her arms, her lips aglow like fire. Then the ball went black.

Sticking my tongue out at her, I pushed her to the
side.

“That’s mature,” Madame Torres chimed from the black
ball.

Three

I didn’t bother cleaning up the shop when the last
customer left, because I knew my day wasn’t over. I had to get some June’s Gems
from Wicked Good Bakery.

My dear friend, Raven Mortimer, made June’s Gems in
the likeness of my favorite Ding Dong. It would be the perfect treat to inject
with the love potion for Adeline’s main squeeze. She said he loved Ding Dongs,
and June’s Gem was the closest thing.

“It’s a little chilly out there.” I quickly shut the
lime green door behind me. I looked back, watching the dried leaves dance
around each other with each whip of the wind. I didn’t know if it was Hallows
Eve night or if my intuition that was telling me something was lurking in the
air.

I tried to put the feeling out of my head and
replace it with images of the children who would be going shop-to-shop tomorrow
night, getting treats dropped into their little jack-o-lantern buckets from all
the residents in Whispering Falls.

“Get in here.” Raven brushed her hands down her
Wicked Good apron before she pulled her long black hair into a low-slung
ponytail. “It feels great out. Just like Halloween.” She rubbed her hands
together, and then gestured toward the glass counter. “Good afternoon, Mr.
Prince Charming.”

Mr. Prince Charming trotted in with his tail waving
as though he was in a beauty pageant. I followed him inside and rubbed my hands
up and down my arms, and then folded the collar of my fur vest down.

“Oh.” My eyes lit up looking at all the yummy
cupcakes decorated with googley eyes, vampire teeth, and spiders. “I absolutely
love what you have done with the place.”

The lime green walls looked amazing against the jars
of candy that lined them. The cake stands on each table held the most amazing
assortment of cupcakes I’d ever seen.

The black and white checkered floor lead the way to
a room filled with Victorian style dining furniture.

“I need to buy five June’s Gems.” I tapped the glass
where the sweet treat was located.

“Five?” Her heavy black lashes that shadowed her
cheeks flew up. “Okay, what’s wrong?”

Not that it was unusual for me to get a June’s Gem,
but five was a steep order, even for me.

“Nothing,” I protested. I really didn’t want to tell
her the truth because she knew just as much as I did that it was taboo to mess
with the heart, good or bad.

Hiss, hiss.
Mr. Prince
Charming stood on his hind legs and batted at my bracelet, reminding me that
interfering in this love thing wasn’t a good idea.

“Hush,” I hissed back, and ignored the fact that he
was batting at the only thing that really protects me from any type of evil
spirits---my charm bracelet.

The day he showed up on my tenth birthday with a
turtle charm dangling from his collar, I knew he was special. It wasn’t until I
had moved to Whispering Falls that I found out I was a spiritualist and he was
my fairy god cat. And he had been giving me protection charms to keep me safe.

That didn’t matter now. He was all bent out of shape
about Oscar and me, and now the love potion. He bolted out the door.

“What’s with him?” Raven tilted her head. We watched
him bolt down the street and into Golly Bee Pet Shop. Nervously she bit her lip
like she always did when a new spirit comes to her.

I shrugged. There was no way I was going to tell her
about Oscar and me. No one knew, because we had decided to keep it on the down
low until Halloween was over.

“Anyway, you never know who is going to want to eat
one of those tasty treats tomorrow.” I smiled, trying to cover up any type of
lie.

She eyed me suspiciously and didn’t say a word. She
was a Dark-Sider, so I knew she had a good feeling that I was hiding something.
But in my world, the fewer people who knew what you were up to, the better.

“Here you go.” She handed the hot pink box with lime
green bow, that was filled with the tasty goodness, over the counter. Her eyes
danced over my face as if she was trying to read me or someone else. “I hope
they are put to good use.”

“You don’t. . .” I swirled my finger at the box,
“…see anyone around me do you?”

Raven’s spiritual gift of being a medium was
something that made me green with envy. I’m always asking her if she sees
anyone around me, just in case my mom or dad did happen to seek me out.

“No, I’m so sorry.” She reached out and touched my
arm. She gave me ‘the look.’ A look I knew all too well. The
poor June lost
her mom and dad
look. But I graciously smiled. I did have a great life and
didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me.

As I said, Whispering Falls had a little touch of
magic in everything. We knew the outside world was hard enough to live in. We
just helped them cope with it a little better.

I grabbed the box. “Great! Thanks for the treats. I
will see you tomorrow for all the festivities.”

I rushed out the door before I was going to give
away any more details. The last thing I wanted was to be brought up in front of
the Village Council, the elders in the community. There were many rules to follow
and Halloween wasn’t the time to be testing them.

The quicker I got to A Charming Cure and injected
the potion for Adeline, the faster I could get to the Gathering Rock for the
annual Halloween Smudging Ceremony, where I had to make sure the community was
cleansed and ready for the sacred night.

“Excuse me.” I darted in and out of the crowded
sidewalk trying to get to the shop. It was unusually busy. I was sure everyone
could feel the enchantment in the air.

“Business must be good, June Heal.” Constance Karima
sounded snide.

The Karmina twins brushed passed me and continued to
keep up with my stride. Their arms pumped back and forth as their short legs
tried to keep up.

“Um, hmm. Must be good, June Heal,” Patience Karima
chirped over my left shoulder. I didn’t dare look at her because I knew her
green eyes would be glaring at me. And quiet frankly, she scared me sometimes.
There was just something creepy about someone who constantly repeats everything
you say.

“Good evening, sisters.” I waved my hand in the air,
carefully keeping the box of June’s Gems balanced with the other one. “I can’t
complain.”

“Well, we can.” Constance’s five-foot plump body
stopped like a dead possum in front of me. Her grey hair was in tight little
curls all over her small round head. She pointed her rather stout finger at me
and shook it. “Business hasn’t been the same since you came to town with that.
. .that. . .”

“Not the same,” Patience chuckled nervously and
wrung her hands together as she firmly planted her feet on the other side of
her twin sister.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I made my way around the
Karima’s and down the street toward A Charming Cure.

“You can’t heal the world, June Heal!” Constance
yelled from behind.