by Raven Snow
“I’m fine,” Rose answered quickly. “I mean, I suppose I am sort of trapped, but someone needs to be. I can update the blog most easily from here and, well, I hate to leave the place at a time like this. Don’t worry, I’ll call you if anything happens.”
“They’re crowded around the building then?”
“Like a bunch of zombies.”
It was then that something else struck Rowen. “Did you call your mom or Aunt Nadine? They leave for work about now, don’t they?”
“Oh, no.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll call them now. Just go ahead and call everyone else. I’ll take care of this.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll check back in with you in a bit,” Rowen promised her before hanging up. She immediately called the Greensmith home phone first. It was the one they were most likely to answer if they were still there. Nadine and Lydia both had phones; they just didn’t use them all that often. Nadine didn’t wholly trust them. She had a bad habit of turning them off. She would only turn it on in the event of an emergency on her end. Lydia also had a cell phone. She didn’t distrust it… Or seem to know precisely how it worked for that matter. She had a bad habit of letting it go dead or leaving it behind somewhere. It wasn’t great.
“What’s going on?” asked Eric, coming to stand next to his wife.
Rowen raised a hand to silence him. “I’ll explain in a minute,” she promised. This needed to be taken care of as quickly as possible.
Someone lifted the phone from its cradle. Rowen could hear something fiddling with it, and for a moment there she was very relieved. “Hello?” answered a man’s voice. He sounded tired, a little grumpy that he’d had to answer the phone at all. Rowen’s relief left her. It was Uncle Norm. He worked at the shop as well but usually not until the afternoon. He slept in until then and seldom answered the phone if he could help it.
“Have Lydia and Nadine left for work yet?” asked Rowen. She felt like she already knew the answer, but it was a question that needed asking all the same.
“Hmm?” There was a pause as Norm yawned. “I think so. I’ll have to look… Is this Rowen?”
“Yes, it’s Rowen.”
“Haven’t seen you in a while! How’s it going?”
It was going badly. “Can you just check and see if Nadine or Lydia is there? Hurry, please. It’s important.”
“Geez. Fine. Gimme a second.” There was the sound of Norm putting the phone down. It was an old phone with a coiled, squiggly cord. You couldn’t go very far with the thing. Rowen remembered Margo spending a lot of time seated on the floor across from it, not caring that she was blocking the hallway. Norm returned in less than a minute. “I don’t see their cars out front. Have you tried their cells?”
Rowen sighed. She had a pretty good idea of how that would go, but it still needed to be done. “I’m going to do that now. Thanks, Uncle Norm.”
“Any time. What’s all this about anywa—”
Rowen hung up. She didn’t have time for questions. She would call him back after she got in touch with Nadine and Lydia. Not that calling their cells did any good. Nadine’s phone went immediately to voicemail. Lydia’s phone rang but no one answered, not even after multiple calls. Most likely it was lost somewhere where no one could hear it.
Rowen swore and lowered her cell phone from her ear. She turned to Eric. He was still standing there staring at her, his brows furrowed in concern. “I have to get ready and go,” she told him, hurrying upstairs to change out of her pajamas. She could hear Eric following, his steps landing heavily on the stairs.
“What’s going on?” Eric asked again, while Rowen pulled some jeans on and twisted her unruly auburn hair into a ponytail.
Rowen took a deep breath and did her best to find a succinct way to put everything into words. “Those tourists in town? It seems that UFOs aren’t the only things that they’re interested in.”
Chapter Five
Eric had insisted on tagging along. Rowen wasn’t entirely sure if it was to see all these tourists or if he wanted to protect her. It was probably the latter. He was a good guy.
“How would they know about the shop?”
Rowen was behind the wheel, driving well under the speed limit. She would rather be speeding, but there were way more cars on the road than usual. “It’s a New Age shop,” said Rowen, like that should be obvious. “Even if they don’t know my aunt’s last names, there’s a considerable overlap between folks who are interested in UFOs and those who visit New Age shops.”
“Really?” Eric raised his eyebrows. “I guess I figured they were always two different things. You know, like fantasy and sci-fi.”
Rowen gave her husband a quick look she hoped conveyed her anger. “So, what? You think magic is just fantasy.”
“Not for the Greensmiths, obviously.” Eric raised his hands in surrender. “I mean, obviously I know it’s not all make believe now.”
“Good.”
“But you still don’t believe in UFOs, right?”
Rowen shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess I think they’re out there. Aside from that?” Another shrug. “I figure space aliens finding us or us finding them… It would have to have the odds of everyone in the town of Lainswich winning the lottery every day for a year.”
Eric chuckled. “I think we could pull that off as a community. I mean, I’ve certainly seen weirder things in Lainswich.”
They were getting closer to the shop. Unfortunately, the traffic was thickest the closer they got. There were a lot of people walking on the sidewalks too. They had probably realized already that there wasn’t nearly enough parking space, especially not in a tiny town like this. Rowen could only see the top of the shop sign for Odds & Ends, the New Age shop her aunts owned together. Things seemed to be really congested around there. Rowen turned to Eric. “Can you get out and make sure the no entry sign is up? I think we’re going to have to get in the back way.”
“Sure, no problem.” Eric popped the car door open and stepped out onto the sidewalk. He gave her a wave as he closed the door and was immediately enveloped in the walking traffic.
At least all the restaurants around these parts were getting a lot of business. A lot of simple mom and pop stores had put up sale signs as well. They weren’t getting rushed, but they did appear to be attracting steady traffic. That was a lot more than you could say for them most days. Maybe Odds & Ends wouldn’t be so crowded after all.
***
Odds & Ends was, at least, ten times more crowded. There were people lined up outside the door. Rowen couldn’t imagine why. Did they have nothing else to do with their day? She supposed not. There wasn’t a whole lot to do in Lainswich if you were just vacationing there.
Someone had had the bright idea to wheel out a food cart and drive it up and down the line. Rowen wasn’t sure she had ever seen it before. It must have come from one of the nearby restaurants.
A honk drew Rowen from her looking around. At first, she thought it was her that was being honked at, but no. It was Eric. He was standing at the side of the store, his no entry sign in hand. He waved the truck that was half pulled in away. The guy just leaned on his horn again. “Are you kidding me?”
Rowen waited until she was at the back entrance before she laid on her own horn. The guy in the cab of the truck looked back. He threw up a vulgar hand sign. Rowen did the same. Afterward, she rolled down her window and shouted toward him. “You can’t park back there!”
“Why not?!” The man called right back to her.
“It’s not public parking! See the sign?!”
“The sign was broken! How was I supposed to know?! What does it matter?! A bunch of people are back there already! Why don’t you just-”
A car horn behind Rowen cut off whatever the man had been about to say. It probably hadn’t been anything pleasant. “You can go in, but only to turn around!” Rowen relented. She couldn’t just sit here and block the far right lane for the rest of the day. Too much honk
ing made her anxious. Ever since moving back to Lainswich, she hadn’t been exposed to a whole lot of traffic. The town just wasn’t made for it.
Eric reluctantly stepped out of the way with the sign. The truck driver drove on in. Rowen stopped the car next to her husband. She rolled down her window further. “What’s up with the sign?”
Eric held it up so that she could see the thing. “Looks like someone broke the chain. There’s already a bunch of people parked back there, like the guy said.”
“There are no parking signs back there, though.” Rowen remembered the day Uncle Norm had put them all up. Someone had parked back there and dinged his door. Rowen couldn’t imagine why anyone would park back there regardless. It very clearly wasn’t a spot for parking. Rowen raised her eyes as the man from the truck cab passed them by on foot. “Hey!” snapped Rowen. “You said you were just going to turn around.”
The man shrugged and kept right on walking. “And I will,” he said with a smirk Rowen wanted to punch right off his face. “I’ll do it when I get back.”
“Are you serious?” Rowen watched him go, shaking her head the whole while. “What a jerk.” Rowen looked to her husband and waved him back. “Move a little so I can park.” Eric listened to her and took a few steps back. “A little further,” Rowen urged, waving him back a little more.” Eric raised an eyebrow at that but did as he was told.
Rowen turned the steering wheel. She parked sideways, blocking the drive with her own car. “Think we can prop that sign up in here well enough?” Rowen asked, stepping out onto the asphalt. “Clearly the sign alone wasn’t enough.”
“Is there a phase two to this plan of yours?” asked Eric, approaching with a bemused look upon his face. “This seems to me like a good way to get your car keyed… Not that I don’t admire the effort.”
“I’m going to give Ben a call. If he’s not completely swamped, maybe he can send someone.”
***
Rowen took down license plates while Eric rigged the No Parking sign up again. They finished at roughly the same time. To Rowen’s disgust, cars were indeed parked around back. None were in parking spaces. All had ignored the blatant no parking signs.
Rowen used her key to get in through the back entrance. She definitely didn’t want to try forcing her way through the front entrance. As soon as the heavy door opened, the sounds slammed into Rowen. It was a bunch of people talking loud enough to be heard over people also talking loud enough to be heard. “Yikes,” said Rowen. When Eric gave her a confused look and ducked his head down, she had to say it a second time.
“I’ve been to a bunch of cities, lived in cities for most of my life. I don’t think Lainswich was ever meant to be a city.”
“You’ve got that right.” Rowen headed for the front. She only got a few steps in when she spotted a little boy behind the shelves they kept surplus boxes of crystals on. The boxes had been picked over today, it seemed. The shelves were mostly empty. It was easy to catch the movement of the little blond headed child. “What are you doing back here?” Rowen asked, taking a detour behind the shelf.
The little boy was wide-eyed. Rowen wasn’t good at gauging ages. Older than six but younger than eleven, maybe? He was definitely old enough to tell what she was saying. “What are you doing back here?” Rowen asked again, assuming that maybe he hadn’t heard her the first time. “Did you come here with an adult? Do you know where they are?”
The boy’s eyes darted past Rowen to Eric and then back to Rowen again. “I came here with my mom.”
At least they were getting somewhere now. “Okay. Do you know where your mom is?”
The boy pointed to the door that led to the shop proper. “In there.”
“All right, well let’s go back out there and find your mom.” Rowen stepped to one side and motioned the boy on ahead of her.
The boy didn’t budge. “I can’t,” he said, in a very matter of fact way. “I’m looking for my sister. We’re playing hide and seek.”
Eric groaned. He had never worked retail a day in his life. She had. Rowen took a deep breath and did her best to keep a smile on her face. “Well, are you sure she’s back here? People aren’t allowed back here except for the staff, you know. Did you read the sign on the door?”
The boy nodded. So he was old enough to read and understand what it was he was reading. “But it was too crowded out there for hide and seek. So, we came back here.”
Eric pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Rowen just took another deep breath. “All right. Well, tell your sister-”
“Sara.”
“Tell Sara that the game is over for now. You can’t play back here. Let’s go find your mom.”
“But…”
“No buts. I’m sorry. That’s just how it is. Olly olly oxen free!”
“Come out, Sara!” called the boy. “I guess the game is over.”
The small blonde girl that emerged from behind a box was crying. She was very fair skinned, so the red ringing her eyes really stood out. “But Mom said we could play.” She sniffled.
“Come on, kids.” Rowen herded the both of them from the stock room and through the room where Tarot readings were sometimes done. No one was staffing the Tarot room today. Most likely, everyone was busy out front. Besides, Rowen’s mother was the one with the gift for Tarot, and she wasn’t in town.
Stepping through the beaded curtains confirmed for Rowen just how packed the place was. Nadine was running the register up front, sour faced people standing in a winding line in front of it, their arms full of varying knick knacks and oddities. Even more people were milling about. It was like trying to navigate the mall on Christmas.
Rowen looked down to the kids. “Do you see your mom?”
“Mom?!” called the boy.
“Mom!” echoed the girl, as loud as she could.
“What’s your mom’s name?” Rowen asked the kids.
They looked at one another. Sara shrugged. “Mom?”
“I don’t know how to spell it,” said the boy.
“That’s not— Oh, nevermind.” Rowen raised her own voice. “Hey! Anyone here missing two kids?! Sara and—” She looked down at the boy.
“Roswell.”
“Seriously?” Rowen cleared her throat. “Roswell! Sara and Roswell?!”
A woman approached after a few minutes. She was a skinny woman with a tank top, a sunburn, and feathers woven haphazardly into her hair. There was already a frown on her face. Her eyes narrowed into a scowl as soon as she came into view of her children. The scowl wasn’t aimed at them though. “Let go of my children,” she snapped.
So she was going to be one of those types of customer. Fantastic. Rowen glanced back at her husband. “We never had our hands on the kids.”
The woman waved her hand like that didn’t matter. “You might as well have! You announced their names for everyone to hear. What if someone calls them by name and lures them away, huh? That’s a good way to get a child kidnapped, you know.”
Eric, apparently, couldn’t stand being silent any longer. “First off, they told us their names without us even asking. Secondly, they were playing hide and go seek in the stock room. That’s another good way to ensure something bad happens to your kid. Did you want us to just shove them out here without finding you and hoping for the best?”
“So you work here?” The mother’s tone was a scandalized one. “Why not page me to the front?”
Eric shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Page you to the front? Have you seen the size of this store? There’s no paging system.”
“Well, that sounds like something this place should invest in,” the mother said with a huff. “And, besides, I’m sure they weren’t causing any harm in the stock room. They’re good kids.”
Rowen spoke before Eric could. “I’m sure they are. They’re still not allowed in the stock room, though. A kid unsupervised back there could hurt themselves.”
“That sounds like a safe
ty hazard. Maybe you should take care of that after you fix the paging system.”
“There’s a sign on the door that says employees only.”
“My children can’t read that!”
Roswell frowned up at his mother. “Yes, I can.” His mother gave him another huff, grabbed both of her children’s arms, and stalked away, muttering to herself all the while.
“What was wrong with her?” asked Eric, shaking his head as he watched her go.
Rowen threw up her hands. “It’s hard to say. Some people are just like that. They don’t want to be in the wrong and take their anger out on people they feel are inferior to them, like shop staff and restaurant servers and stuff. My mom and aunts always told me it was parts of the subtle body that got blocked up. They took in too much negative energy. They just needed to center themselves and shield every day. Me? I just think some people are jerks. I mean, some people just have bad energy any which way you look at it.”
Eric smiled and started to say something, but a sudden pair of hands on Rowen’s shoulders grabbed his attention first. She spun, shrugging the hands off only to come face to face with Aunt Lydia. She brought a hand to her chest and took deep even breaths, trying to calm down.
“Sorry, did I startle you?” Lydia didn’t look like she was particularly sorry. Her eyes were wild, and her frizzy graying hair was frizzier than ever. She didn’t wait for a response from Rowen before continuing. “Can you take over for me for a minute? I need to run to the bathroom. I haven’t been able to get away from these people.”
“Um,” Rowen began, needing a moment to process what had just been asked of her.
“Hey,” said a heavy-set man coming up to Lydia. “Do you have any—”
“She’ll take care of you.” Lydia indicated Rowen before hurrying toward the door. “Sorry,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll be right back!”