A Charming Wish (6 page)

Before disappearing behind the
partition on the far end of the counter, I took a quick glance
around to see if any customers needed my help. Slowly I inhaled,
letting my intuition take over. Nothing was out of whack, or so it
seemed, which was odd with this many customers in the shop at once.
Everything seemed well with the world, so I flicked the cauldron on
and began to think of Faith.

Biting my lip, I closed my eyes before
running my finger along the line of spices. I had to have a clear
image of Faith in my mind before the right ingredients would jump
out at me.

Mugwort.
I smacked my hands together just as the herb
flashed in my head. Many spiritualists used Mugwort to help promote
their psychic powers, and it was exactly what I needed for
Faith.

“
And a little pinch of
parrot dander, along with a pinch of salt,” I said to myself as I
plucked the items off the shelf and tossed them into the
pot.

With each dash, the cauldron began to
bubble. The glowing substance swirled counterclockwise until the
sapphire colored mixture took on a cerulean tone.

With my hands twirling over the
boiling fluid, I whispered, “Hear today, lead the way. Help Faith
predict the truth today.”

Instantly, the substance stopped and
the cauldron turned off. A faint glow, like a candle, illuminated
the bottle shelf. Quickly I went around the counter and took the
hot pink stout bottle off the shelf.

“
Excuse me.” There was a
gentle touch on my shoulder from a young man that stood about
five-foot-six with thinning light brown hair.

“
Yes, can I help you?” I
held the bottle firmly in my hand. Like a lightning bolt, it hit
me. “Actually, I’m thinking you are looking for…” I tapped my chin
with my finger and started to make my way over to the potions on
the wall. “This.” I took the hair tonic brew and held it out to
him.

He adjusted his glasses so he could
read the label. He’d be a mighty fine looking young man if he only
did a few things to help change his appearance. And from my
intuition, that was exactly why he was there. The look in his eyes
told me I was more than right.

Meow, meow.
Mr. Prince Charming scurried through the door
when it swung open. Bella marched in behind him with my charm
bracelet dangling from her fingertips.

“
I’ll get this all
together and let you know when it’s ready.” I smiled at the man,
and gave a knowing glance Bella’s way, but scowled at Mr. Prince
Charming.

She leaned on the counter, arms
crossed, with Mr. Prince Charming backing her up.

“
I had to get this over to
you fast.” Her eyes darkened with each word that escaped her
mouth.

Hiss, hiss. Mr. Prince Charming batted
his right paw in the direction of Belur’s bottle. I didn’t even
look that way, so Bella wouldn’t take note. But she did
anyway.

“
Mm-hmm…” She gave a
sideway glance, and then nodded to Mr. Prince Charming like she
knew what he was thinking. “Just put it on.” She grabbed my wrist
and clasped the bracelet. She fiddled with it and held my hand in
the air as the bracelet dangled. “Hmmm?”

I shook it. “Yea, something is off.” I
noticed it didn’t sit at the base of my hand like it had before she
put the pendant on it.

Without another word, she unclasped
it, scuffled across the floor, and out the door. I set Faith’s
bottle down. It was more important than ever to get her to take the
potion, even though it was against the village rules. But how was I
going to get her to take it without her knowing?

Belur’s bottle lit up. My eyes grew
big. The last thing I needed was his big ole body dangling in
mid-air with a shop full of customers.

“
Hey, hey, hey,” Madame
Torres shouted from the crystal ball. “You better stay
put!”

Instantly his bottle turned back to
normal and so did my heartbeat.

Meooowl.
Mr. Prince Charming rubbed up against the bundles
of sweet grass for the smudging ceremony.

“
You are a genius.” I
picked him up and snuggled him close.

I could use the smudging ceremony to
get the potion in Faith. I would make a drink for everyone to stay
safe, only her drink would have the potion.

Someone clearing their throat caught
my attention.

The balding man stood at the
counter.

“
Oh, right.” I grabbed his
bottle off the counter and hid behind the partition. Not only did
he need a little hair thickener, he needed a little severed
fledgling finger to help correct his eyes. He would be looking
dapper in no time.

“
Here you go.” Vigorously
I shook the bottle to make sure it was going to start working as
soon as he rubbed it into his elbows. “Be sure to rub it really
good into each elbow every single night before bed.”

He fumbled with the bottle and
adjusted his glasses before holding it an inch away from his nose
to re-read the label.

“
Yep, right there in the
directions. Rub on each elbow before bedtime.” I nodded with a huge
grin on my face. This was where the magic came in. Originally, the
bottle said to use it like gel if the client only wanted to use it
to help with thinning hair.

My intuition told me that he wanted to
help with his overall appearance and automatically the new
ingredients changed the label. Magic.

Chapter Eight

“
Can we go home now?”
Madame Torres was not eager to discuss anything that was going on.
We were in over our heads and I had to figure out a way to get out
of it. Her eyes darkened as she glanced over at Belur. “It’s
closing time and I have no desire to be in here
with him
any longer than I have
to.”

I was shocked to see that
she was right. It
was
closing time.

“
Have you had any other
thoughts about big blue?” Madame Torres appeared as I used the
Cauldron Clean-Up to make my pot shiny and new.

Mr. Prince Charming barely lifted his
head off the stool. He was all curled up and
comfortable.

“
Have I?” When have I not?
I tossed the feather duster around the tables and bottles to get
any dust off from the day. “Of course, but I can’t help but think
the headlines had to do with him.”

Walking into the back of the shop, I
grabbed a few pre-made potions to restock the shelves, plus
straightened a few as I went along. Thoughts swirled around in my
head like a tornado.

“
I really wish I could get
in touch with Kenny.” I hollered over my shoulder as I picked up
the potion I had made for Faith, and then placed it in my bag. “For
the life of me, I have all this spiritual power, but I have no clue
how to reach him.”

Looking around, I searched for a fancy
bottle to put some tap water in. I had to be sure to encourage
everyone to take a sip as a new part of the ritual, as well as slip
in the Mugwort when it was Faith’s turn.

With everything stocked and put away,
I put Madame Torres in my bag. “Let’s go.” The bundle of sage and
sweet grass was ready to be used. I glanced up at Belur’s bottle,
but it was dark.

Meow, meow.
Mr. Prince Charming jumped down and sat at the
door.

“
He must be asleep.” I
nodded toward Belur, because I was sure if he were awake, he’d
create some sort of havoc before we left, or insist he come with
us, which was not going to happen, especially at a smudging
ceremony. “I don’t know anything about genies and don’t want to
know.”

I flipped the light off and locked the
doors behind me. Petunia was sweeping the floor when I looked into
Glorybee’s window on my way to the ceremony. The live tree in the
back of the store was filled with green leaves and beautiful birds
of all shapes and colors. The hedgehog and squirrel were taking
turns batting a nut between the two of them as they sat under the
tree.

There was no sign of the
ostrich.

Tapping on the window, I waved at
Petunia. Her hazel eyes had flickers of gold specs as she smiled
and motioned for me to come in.

“
You were busy today.” She
shuffled around the store with the broom.

“
It was a good day.” I
grabbed the other broom that was leaning up against the counter and
headed over to the cat aisle to help her out. “Did you find the
ostrich?”

“
The strangest thing.” She
put down the broom and started to fill the bird feeders that were
all over the store. A flock of blue jays flew behind her as she
dragged the stepladder along. “That darn ostrich is gone.
Again.”

“
I don’t know much about
ostriches, but where in the world did that come from?” I picked up
a loose feather off the ground. I inspected it as I twirled it
around in the air. “Is this an ostrich feather?”

Petunia put the stepladder away and
came over to look at the feather.

“
Naw, that’s the macaw’s.”
As soon as she said it, the multi-colored bird flapped way up into
the tree.

Ostrich, ostrich, bad
bird, bad bird. Squawk!

“
Don’t mind him.” Petunia
scowled. “I have to learn to watch what I say around that darn
bird. He’s one of
them
.”

“
One of them?” I
questioned, still twirling the feather. I had hoped it was one of
the ostrich’s. Not that it would have helped me with the Mugwort
tonight, but it might come in handy another time.

She leaned in, and so did her up-do.
She whispered, “One of the ones that just showed up.” Her eyebrows
lifted.

“
Oh.” I walked over to the
tree to get a better look at the big bird. “Hey there.”

Hey there, hey there. Bad
ostrich
. He flapped his wings in
delight.
Come to momma, come to momma.
Things lookin’ up, lookin’ up.

“
Poor guy.” I tilted my
head and he mocked me. “He must be missing his mom. I’m sure the
rightful owners will step up soon.”

I looked around for Petunia to answer
me, but the door to the storage room was swinging.

“
What did you say?”
Petunia emerged with her infamous dog leash strapped on her wrist
without a hint of a dog at the end of it.

“
Good evening, June.”
Gerald Regiula walked into the shop. He took off his top hat and
tipped it to the side.

“
Hi, honey.” Petunia
locked one arm in Gerald’s elbow. “It’s a good night for a smudging
ceremony. If you can throw in a little blurb about the owners of
these animals, I’d be mighty appreciative.”

“
We’ll see.” I patted my
bag where the Mugwort and Madame Torres were deep inside. “We will
see.”

I followed Gerald and Petunia out of
Glorybee and up the hill toward the Gathering Rock.

She leaped forward as the leash tugged
on her arm. “Stop that,” she spat at the leash. “I told the
teenagers to keep an eye out for any unusual activity tonight. I’m
not at all happy with the newspaper headlines today.”

Without saying a word, I too hoped
that after Faith took a little sip of the ‘protection water’ the
headlines would get much better.

The Gathering Rock was beyond the lake
and right before the edge of the forest. It was where we held all
of our ceremonies.

Eloise Sandlewood emerged from the
woods with her incense swinging to the right and to the left. Smoke
emitted from the tiny holes in the metal container on each
downswing. Her emerald eyes stood out against the long red cloak
and her short crimson hair.

“
What’s she doing here?”
Gerald cleared his throat before we approached the circle of
villagers that had already gathered.

Normally Eloise didn’t come to the
meetings. She was a Dark-Sider who was more than content to live in
her tree house deep in the woods, taking care of her garden and
doing morning cleansing rituals through the streets of Whispering
Falls as the other spiritualists slept.

She was a Holistic Cleanser. She
cleaned out the evils from villages as well as made many herbs that
supplied A Charming Cure. In fact, Eloise and Darla were best
friends until Darla moved me back to Locust Grove to have a
“normal” upbringing.

With a knot in my stomach, I watched
Isadora sweep across the crowd to greet Eloise. With a few hushed
whispers between them, they glanced over at me. Turning to the
Gathering Rock, I pretended to organize all the herbs and items I
needed for the ceremony.

Trying not to notice them both coming
toward me, I bent down and situated the emerald rock next to the
match.

“
June, can we speak with
you?” Eloise asked with a motherly tone.

“
Sure.” I stood up,
brushing my hands down my jeans to knock off any debris from
crouching down on the ground.

There was a crowd gathered around the
Karima sisters.

“
Oh, he’s a good one.”
Constance rolled up on her toes as the glee in her voice escalated.
“And we are getting paid for a full funeral when there isn’t even
going to be one.”