A Charming Wish (10 page)

“
Adeline?” My eyes grew
big and bright. Her hands were folded in her cross-legged lap, her
eyes shut. She opened them and stared directly at me as if she knew
she was in my crystal ball. Pulling her legs outstretched in front
of her, she lifted her chest and torso, her hands above her head,
and with one big exhale she bent forward leading with her chest,
laying completely flat against her legs. “Why are you showing me
this?” I asked Madame Torres, but she shut off.

With a heavy sigh, I went back to find
Aunt Helena happily sipping her tea and eating her
muffin.

“
Find what you were
looking for?” She questioned arrogantly.

“
I must’ve left my Magical
Cures Potion book at the shop.” I lied, not looking at her. “I have
a question about level twenty-eight.”

“
That is one reason I am
here.” Her long pinky finger shot straight up in the air as she
tipped the cup to her lips. After a quick sip, she politely
snickered, “You really shouldn’t be doing any sort of the potions
from level twenty-eight until you come back and take the
Telekinesis course.”

That was one spiritual gift I wanted
to forget.

“
That…”I grumbled,
thinking my day had gone from bad to worse. “Are you telling me
that wasn’t a one-time gig?”

“
I’m afraid not.”
Gracefully, Aunt Helena stood up, the hem of her cloak floated to
the floor.

I would kill for a Ding
Dong.
I thought, remembering how I first
learned I had the spiritual gift of Telekinesis. A time I’d like to
forget. It was when I was a student at Hidden Hall, and in a very
sticky situation.

“
It’s very important for
you to learn how to control your gift.” She flung the cloak
perfectly over her left shoulder. “Especially now that you are the
village president.” She twirled her long finger in front of my
face. “This is not the picture of a strong village president. Now
get in there, get that loony crystal ball of yours, demand that
pitiful sheriff give you back your shop, and lead this community
into finding out who killed that poor Native American.”

Like a good soldier, I straightened up
and felt a little bit of confidence; not much, but some.

“
You are a Heal, and no
Heal ever cowers away from sticky situations.” Her eyes narrowed,
casting a dark shadow down her face. In an instant she was
gone.

Hiss,
hiss
. Mr. Prince Charming arched his back,
running through the puff of smoke she left behind.

“
Why couldn’t I have that
fabulous spiritual gift?” I looked at him as he darted around my
ankles.

She was right; I had to go into town
as if nothing was bothering me. The more I stayed away, the
guiltier I looked. At least that how it was on TV.

Quickly, I put on some other clothes
that were a little more presentable then the sweat pants, grabbed
Madame Torres, and shoved her deep in my bag before Mr. Prince
Charming and I headed down the hill towards Whispering
Falls.

With Two Sisters and A Funeral in my
sights, I ventured in that direction. It was good to see the town
was filled with customers going from shop to shop.

“
June, it’s just awful
that they think you did something to Kenny.” Chandra Shango rushed
outside of A Cleansing Spirit Spa. “He was shady.” She tucked the
ends of her short raspberry colored hair under the edge of her
green turban before she plucked a few of the dead flowers from the
window boxes that made her display windows pop. “What kind of
person ‘blows in with the wind and out with the breeze?’” She
rolled her soft hazel eyes.

“
Thank you so much for
your support.” Gently, I reached out and took her hand. Immediately
she flipped it over and took a fast glance at my palm. I pulled it
away. There was a lot going on inside of me. I didn’t want to take
a chance of Chandra seeing something. I curled my hand into a fist
and placed it on my heart “I’m not going to let that stop me from
serving as village president.”

“
What about that?” She
pointed toward A Charming Cure, which was the shop next to hers. A
big yellow piece of paper was stuck on the front window, completely
covering up my cute potion display table.

“
Closed until further
notice?” My mouth dropped. He told me I had to close for a day. .
.but until further notice? “We will see about that!”

I stormed down the street to take care
of business at Two Sisters.

“
Slow down,” Madame Torres
chirped from the bottom of my bag. “I’m getting motion
sickness.”

I ducked to the side of the
moss-covered shop so no one would see me.

I reached in and pulled her out,
holding her in the palm of my hands.

“
Show me Adeline,” I
demanded.

Madame Torres knew I meant business.
She didn’t fuss as she showed me the inside of the Piggly Wiggly
where Adeline was in the office having a little smooch session with
her boyfriend.

“
Ugh,” I looked away,
trying to give Adeline privacy, but looked back when a small cough
came from Madame Torres. Adeline’s boyfriend walked out of the
office, but another guy emerged from the closet. He was not facing
me, he was facing Adeline. I squinted trying to read her lips,
which I couldn’t do. By the way she was shaking her hands in the
air, and gritting her teeth I could tell she wasn’t
happy.

I put Madame Torres back in my bag
before I crossed the street. I didn’t want to walk in front of
Wicked Good. I hadn’t seen Raven since I had been accused of
robbing the bakery. They could just raid my cottage and see that I
didn’t.

“
How is everything going?”
Bella was cleaning the windows on the outside of her shop. “I’m
sure you heard about the June’s Gems being stolen.” I shuffled my
feet. “Oscar shut down my shop.”

“
June, I’m so sorry.”
There was sadness in her eyes. “Have you talked to
Eloise?”

“
No.” I shook my head.
“She was probably the first person Oscar went to since she was his
aunt. Putting her in the middle isn’t an option.”

“
You’d be surprised.”
Bella swiped the window with the cloth, rubbing off all of the
cleaner. “Even though she is his aunt, she was also your mom’s best
friend. You need to reach out to her during your time of
need.”

“
What does that mean?” I
asked her. She definitely knows something, but what? I still had a
lot of learning to do within this community.

“
You are the village
president now.” Bella reminded me. “You should get to know all of
the citizens in the community.”

She was right. If none of this had
ever happened, I would be making my rounds, visiting with all the
community shop owners and healers in the village. Eloise was the
one spiritualist that walked through the village in the wee hours
of the morning with her incense, cleansing Whispering Falls on a
daily basis. Many times, I would wake up before the rooster crowed,
and see Eloise, along with Izzy, walking the streets for the
morning cleanse.

“
I think I’ll do that,
starting with the Karima sisters.” I smiled at Bella, realizing she
was helping me with my new role.

“
Good idea.” Bella
disappeared back into her shop, followed by a few
customers.

Mr. Prince Charming darted ahead and
up the big concrete steps that lead to the front stain-glass doors
of Two Sisters and A Funeral. I pushed the door open.

I had never been to visit the Karima
sisters, but I figured it was like any other funeral
home.

“
Come on.” I gestured for
Mr. Prince Charming, but he sat on the stoop dragging his tail. He
stared at me for a brief second before he darted down the porch.
“Chicken.”

There was something eerie about being
in a place where there was a dead body, much less two. One of them
I was accused of putting there.

The long wide hallway was dark. The
walls were draped in long deep-red fabric that hung from ceiling to
floor. Definitely, a designing style I had never seen. The pale
yellow carpet with small red diamond designs lined the floors. Four
large heavy ornamental wooden doors, two on each side, were shut.
The massive staircase at the end opened up to a wraparound
balcony.

“
I’m not listening to
you,” Patience Karima’s voice drifted through the air. “I don’t
care what you have to say so be quiet. I have a job to
do.”

Using my gift of instincts, and the
fact I have ears, I followed the sound of her voice to the second
door. Holding my breath, I put my ear to the door to see who she
was talking to.

“
If Constance comes back
here and discovers you, we will both be in trouble.”

Cling, clank,
cling.
The sound of something hitting a
metal tray echoed through the crack at the bottom of the door. I
lay down on the carpet and looked through the crack. The only feet
I saw were Patience’s feet. I would know those black slip-on shoes
anywhere. All the elderly people that came to A Dose of Darla in my
old flea market days wore those. They said they were the most
comfortable shoes. Still, I’d rather go for a little fashion, but I
guess it didn’t matter to Patience’s clients what she wore. They
were all dead.

A feather floated next to her foot,
and then another one.

Ostrich! Didn’t Oscar say the ostrich
from the strays that Petunia was keeping was missing?

I jumped up and turned the knob,
busting through the door. If I could get the ostrich back, it would
be one less crime I had to solve that I was being accused of
committing.

“
Caught ya!” I screamed,
but came to an abrupt stop when Patience was leaning over Kenny’s
body with a tube going in one end and another coming out the
other.

“
June Heal!” Patience
dropped the scalpel from her hand. It landed like a meat cleaver in
her foot. “Ouch!” She hopped around on one foot as she tried to
pull the knife out.

She went one way around the embalming
table while I tried to cut her off the other way. Kenny’s headdress
was losing feathers left and right, and losing them fast. They
fluttered through the air as our bodies created a lot of
wind.

“
Stop!” I put my hands out
in front of me for Patience to stand still. “Let me help
you.”

She squeezed her little beady eyes
shut, and huffed. The hot air coming out of her nose, fogged up her
glass. “Ow, ow. Ow!” She screamed as I pulled the knife out of her
shoe.

“
Let me see your foot!” I
demanded, following her hobbling body to the chair in the corner. I
tried not to look at the dead guy, but it was difficult. He looked
as if he was sleeping.

Patience peeled off her compression
therapy leggings, revealing a tiny spot on the top of her
foot.

“
Help!” Patience screamed
as though she were being killed. “Help me!”

I threw my hand over her mouth. “What
is wrong with you? Stop screaming.”

“
If you think you are
going to put me on that table like you did him, you are crazy!” She
stuttered and pointed, “You’re crazy!”

“
Patience, I didn’t kill
him and you know that.” I stood back and crossed my arms, watching
her with cautious eyes. “You know I didn’t don’t you?”

“
Constance will be back
soon and I have to get my job done.” With her shoe off, she got up
and staggered across the floor to her workstation as if she had
been stabbed nearly to death. “You’d better leave.”

“
Who were you talking to
Constance?” I came here for some answers, but I didn’t know what
answers those were. I was only going on my instincts. “Come on
Constance, I won’t tell anyone.”

She placed her hands on the arm of the
body as if he were still alive. “I have a job to do. And another
one is waiting.” She referred to the out of town body they had
gotten.

“
Patience, aren’t you
tired of living under Constance’s rules?” I asked, trying to get
her to defy whatever she was scared of. Constance always seemed to
tell Patience what to do and when to do it. And if Patience had
some sort of freedom, she might know something that could help me
out.

Patience grabbed her foot and
scrunched up her face like an old prune as if she were in all sorts
of pain.

“
Why don’t you come by the
shop and I will get you some medicine for that?” I pointed to her
little cut.

She bit her lip and shook her head
no.

“
Okay.” I walked over to
the door and turned around, “If you change your mind, you know
where to find me.”

She didn’t look up as I left the room.
I shut the door behind me. There was a lot going on within these
funeral home walls. I had to come back when I could stay longer.
But those bodies gave me the heebie jeebies.

I was anxious to rip that sign off the
door of the shop. It was high time to open A Charming Cure, whether
Oscar liked it or not.

I stood at the top of the
steps of Two Sisters and A Funeral, peering down Main Street at all
the shops and customers. I
was
the village president. I had to find a way to get
answers. Opening my shop would give me the relaxation I needed to
kick my intuition into gear. I started down the first step and
stopped.