A Charming Wish (7 page)

“
Full pay,” Patience
nodded and repeated. “Mm-hmm…full pay.”

I felt sorry for the poor guy who was
dead, but it was nice not to have the Karima sisters on my hiney
about ruining their lives.

“
We have something we need
to tell you.” Isadora stood in front of Eloise. I glanced over her
shoulder. Eloise’s hands were clasped together up by her nose as if
she were praying. “It’s time, June.”

“
Yes, I’m ready. I have
all the bundles ready to go.” I pointed to the Gathering Rock where
my pile of tools was laying.

“
No, I mean it’s time for
me to step aside and let the younger generation take over.” She
planted her hands on my shoulders. “It’s time for you to take your
rightful position as the leader of the spiritual
village.”

“
That is why I’m here with
the incense.” Eloise gestured to the long chains dangling from her
wrists. “I grew the special herbs to help ease the
transition.”

“
I will tell everyone
about what is going on.” The crowd was getting bigger. “Then we can
continue with the ceremony.”

“
I’m not sure about this.”
There was a deep tug at my gut. It wasn’t a good or bad tug, but a
little nudge telling me that I had to proceed with
caution.

“
Are you kidding me?”
Eloise’s emerald green eyes were electrified. “Your parents would
be so proud and thrilled for you. This is an honor that doesn’t
come along every day. Not in centuries in fact.”

Isadora’s wavy long blonde hair ebbed
and flowed as she nodded her head while listening to Eloise explain
the importance of the opportunity. It wasn’t that I didn’t
understand what an honor it was. It was the fact that I had only
been a spiritualist, a true spiritualist, for less than two years.
There had to be more qualified villagers than me for the
job.

Mr. Prince Charming darted around my
ankles, doing his signature figure eights. Warmth, comfort, and a
sense of security filled my soul.

“
I’ll do it!” I yelped.
Instantly I wanted to take it back. There was an instant message
from my intuition, but it was cloudy. I gulped, trying to catch my
breath.

“
Great!” Izzy clapped her
hands. “Everyone gather around. I’m sure you are wondering why we
are having an emergency village meeting and ceremony
tonight.”

“
Are you okay?” Eloise
touched my arm in a motherly way. “You look a little
pale.”

“
I’m fine,” I lied. I was
far from fine, but I had already committed to this. Something was
off now more than ever. “We need to start.”

The three of us joined the circle of
villagers. I pulled the water and chalice out of my bag, slipping
the vile of Mugswart into my pocket.

Slowly, I poured the water in the
large cup.

“
Tonight we are going to
do things a little different. Then Izzy is going to make an
announcement.” I held the chalice in the air. “Special, special
drink tonight, protect us with all your might.”

As I walked around, I handed each of
them the chalice, making sure Faith was last.

“
Oops.” I looked into the
chalice. “Looks like I need to refill.”

I slipped the vile out of my pocket
and poured it into the chalice before handing it to Faith. She
didn’t say a word, but her dagger stare was enough to let me know
she hadn’t forgiven me for what I had said to her at Wicked
Good.

She took the cup, and like a good
Good-Sider, she drank it all.

The wind whipped overhead causing the
leaves to do a tunnel dance around the meadow. It was nothing like
I had ever seen. It was as if the wind had some sort of
choreographed dance.

“
Did you see that?” I
asked Eloise, pointing in the direction of the dance.

“
What?” Eloise strained
her eyes in the direction I had pointed.

Shaking my head, I started to walk
back over to the Gathering Rock to light the smudging bundle.
“Nothing,” I said, fiddling with my wrist, I wished I had my charm
bracelet.

If Eloise didn’t see it, no one else
saw it either. A sure sign that Faith was right…something was
brewing.

The air was thick and silent as the
villagers waited with anticipation for Izzy to speak. You could
have cut the tension with a knife. Each pair of eyes told a story
of worry. That was what had come from having a newspaper in
Whispering Falls and a Clairaudient being in charge of it. They
focused on Izzy’s words. We all know that we can’t change the
outlook of our future.

“
It’s been a great
pleasure being the leader of such a wonderful community of
spiritualists.” Izzy’s cloak dragged behind her, leaving a trail of
dust clouds as she walked around the circle. Gently, she reached
out and touched every single person who had gathered. The crowd was
so big that it was hard to hear what she was saying from the other
side. “We have seen a lot of changes, going from being a community
of Good-Siders to a community of all spiritualists, including the
Dark-Siders.” She grabbed Eloise’s hand. The two friends smiled at
one another. Their affection was apparent.

“
It’s all because of our
very own June Heal, who was born into this community.” She gestured
toward me. I shuffled my foot in the grass, hoping they couldn’t
see my red face in the dark night that had fallen upon us. “It’s
time. Time to pass the torch to the younger generation. June Heal
is going to be our new council leader who will take us into the
future.”

A round of applause and shouts sounded
out into the night sky. The fireflies fluttered about, creating a
flurry as they shot into the sky forming a thumbs-up.

“
Are you kidding me?”
Petunia Shrubwood shrilled as Gerald put an arm around her to
console her.

She shrugged away so fast, Gerald’s
arm flung up into the air.

“
Um…Petunia!” I yelled.
“Just a few months ago you said I’d make a great Village
President!” My mouth dropped open and slammed shut. I turned to
Eloise. “I think she’s mad.”

Eloise curled an arm around my
shoulder, as the entire community watched Petunia stomp down the
hill toward town.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a
flash. Looking in the direction of the woods, a big figure stood
with his arms crossed. The shadow of the feather headdress lay on
the grass as the moon created a spotlight.

Like a deer, Kenny gracefully leapt
and jumped down the hill toward A Charming Cure.

“
I’ve got to go!” I held a
hand up, knowing I had to catch him to give him Belur. It was my
only opportunity to give him back until the next time he blew into
town. My little whisper in the wind must’ve summoned him and he
came!

“
No! Don’t follow them!”
Bella cried out, almost sounding in pain.

I did it anyway.

The fog was starting to roll in for
the night. It was hard seeing in front of me as I ran after him.
The only light was the small streetlights that dotted Main Street.
The only sound was the stampeding of the crowd running after
me.

“
You can stop following
me.” I stopped walking and turned around to face the villagers.
“I’ll be back before the ceremony.”

“
But you are the village
leader. We thought you were taking us somewhere.” Constance Karima
shouted from the group.

“
You are supposed to
dismiss us, like Izzy does.” Chandra Shango held her perfectly
manicured hands in the air, reminding me I needed to go to
Chandra’s shop, A Cleansing Spirit Spa, to get my nails
done.

“
Dismissed!” I threw my
hands in the air. Not only did I have to figure out the level
twenty-eight potion, now I had to learn and abide by all the rules
of Whispering Falls. Little did they know that I was good, no,
great at altering them to fit my own spiritual needs.

I was going to have to rethink this
whole village leader thing.

“
Help!” Someone screamed
from the direction of A Charming Cure. “Murder!”

Murder?

I darted off in the direction of the
blood-curdling scream with Mr. Prince Charming on my
heels.

Hiss, hiss.
He took off in front of me, leading the way with
the crowd not too far behind.

“
What is with all this
fog?” I swept my hands in front of me. The fog parted. We saw
Adeline standing at the steps of A Charming Cure along with Petunia
and Gerald. A pair of feet were sticking out from the opened front
door of the shop… Kenny’s feet.

“
Sister, it’s our lucky
day,” Patience gasped, “it looks like we got us another
one.”

Chapter Nine

“
Let’s go over this one
more time.” Oscar stood over a distraught Petunia, who was sitting
on the stool next to the counter. I wasn’t sure if she was crying
from finding Kenny in the doorway of my shop, or from the pain of
the crow’s claws that was perched on her shoulder. “You got upset
at the smudging ceremony and ran down the hill to get
away.”

She nodded and a few twigs fell out of
her messy hair.

“
And you tripped over his
feet as you were running to Glorybee?” Oscar wrote on his little
notepad.

Anxiously, I paced back and forth,
getting a couple of glimpses of Kenny. There was a crowd gathered
outside of the shop. Isadora and Eloise watched the Karima sisters
as they did their thing to prepare Kenny’s departure from the
doorway of A Charming Cure. I had to wonder if there was some sort
of ceremonial procedure this community needed to do before they
whisked him away.

“
We will be back.”
Constance assured us as Patience tripped over Constance’s feet.
“Sister! Can you please stay at least one foot behind?”

“
One foot behind.”
Patience repeated and opened her hands to span one foot between her
and her sister.

There was a faint glow from Belur’s
bottle. Did he know? Did Belur really belong with him?

“
I’m just a customer of
June’s.” Adeline threw her hands up in the air. “I walked up and
saw her,” she pointed directly at Petunia and then at Gerald, “and
him standing over
him
.” She pointed back to Kenny.

“
You didn’t see anyone
strange or suspicious running from the shop?” He questioned poor
Adeline.

“
No.” She shook her head.
Her pupils were dilated as she stared at Kenny. She couldn’t take
her eyes off him. Blindly she pointed toward Petunia and Gerald.
“Just them.”

Cough,
cough
. “Don’t look at me.” Gerald took his
top hat off and held it to his chest, drumming his fingers on top
of it. “We didn’t do anything. I was comforting my sweet Petunia.”
He placed a hand on Petunia’s shoulder.

“
What about her?” Petunia
glared at me. “It’s
her
shop.
She
was the one asking around how to get in touch
with him.”

“
Me?” My mouth dropped.
“You think
I
killed him? When? I’ve been with you this whole
time.”

“
Not all day.” Petunia
huffed, crossing her arms.

“
I think it’s time for you
to go.” Oscar shut his notebook. “Petunia and Gerald, I’ll be
filling out the report and dropping by to see you two tomorrow. You
are free to go.”

“
I didn’t do it.”
Petunia’s teeth were clenched.

“
Come on. Let Oscar figure
this out.” Gerald placed his hat back on his head and helped
Petunia up.

“
He’s her
boyfriend
, Gerald.”
Petunia reminded him as if he didn’t already know. “I want another
officer on the case,” She demanded, running over to Izzy. Petunia
dropped to her knees with her hands clasped in the air. “Please,
Izzy.”

Gently, Izzy took her by the hands and
pulled Petunia to her knees.

“
It’s out of my hands,
dear.” Izzy looked lovingly into Petunia’s dark eyes.

“
But you are the village.
. .” Petunia dropped her hands when she realized that Izzy was no
longer in charge. Slowly she turned back around. “June?”

Rushing to her side, I embraced her,
crow and all.

“
I know you couldn’t have
done this. Just like I didn’t do it.” My intuition told me
something wasn’t right. “Oscar will figure all of this
out.”

Out of nowhere, the old Two Sisters
and A Funeral ambulance roared down the street, lights flashing and
horn blaring as if nobody saw them.

“
Outta the way.” Constance
pushed the gurney through the crowd. “Got a dead body we need to
get.”

“
Yep, body we need to get
to.” Patience kept her eye on the prize.

I looked out the shop windows. Every
single spiritualist had moved from the smudging ceremony circle to
the front of A Charming Cure. Faith’s smug smile caught my eye. Our
eyes locked.

“
Told ya.” A smile crossed
her face as she mouthed those two little words before she rotated
on the balls of her feet and sashayed toward Wicked
Goods.