by Keziah Frost
“I don’t need to look deep within, Birdie. I’m not like you. I’m just tired of Carlotta bossing everyone around.”
“After fifty years, you’re tired now?”
“Yeah.” Lorraine grinned at Birdie. “Too patient for my own good, huh? I didn’t know how irritating Carlotta was until Mabel came to town. We all have fun now, and no one has to be the boss or grab the credit. It’s—it’s restful.”
Birdie considered. “Why not just talk with Carlotta about her controlling ways?”
“You know Carlotta. You ever had that kinda conversation with her? No! You know why? I’ll tell you why. It’s because she doesn’t listen. She doesn’t wanna listen.”
“Still, I feel bad for her.”
“Don’t. She needs to learn a lesson already.”
“A lesson?” Birdie frowned. “Do you mean a life lesson?”
“If it makes you feel better, you can call it that.”
-37-
As Carlotta’s Ford Fusion rolled along through the countryside, she glanced at Mabel in the passenger seat. She visualized a duel between herself and this short, energetic woman, and did not like the uncertain feeling it gave her. Carlotta liked competitions she was sure of winning, and those were strictly verbal ones. Mabel, for all her many defects, was agile. (I can’t say she isn’t, came the ready phrase to Carlotta’s mind, and she brushed it away in irritation.) Carlotta prided herself on her own excellent constitution, her sharpness of mind and her svelteness of figure, even at eighty-one. But Mabel was one of those robust tomboy types. How would the two of them be matched in a fencing class? If the fencing students were matched according to height, Carlotta would be assigned a taller partner. Still, eventually, wouldn’t Mabel want to work her way to having a physical duel with Carlotta? Wasn’t that what she was up to, after all? In her place, that’s what Carlotta would have been up to. All of these thoughts passed through her mind as she drove Mabel through field and forest and down winding roads, while Mabel jabbered on, frequently punctuating her monologue with the exclamation, “Where is everybody today?”
“This is the country, Mabel.”
“The country makes me nervous,” said Mabel.
Carlotta smiled. Gibbons Corner and its environs were her turf, and it was satisfying to know that Mabel felt off-balance.
“It’s so quiet. Even downtown Gibbons Corner, it’s too quiet for me. At least there’s the train passing through and blowing its whistle. If it weren’t for that train, I think I’d lose my mind.”
“Oh,” said Carlotta, “we wouldn’t want that.”
Mabel agreed, “No sirree.”
As Carlotta turned off Highway Four and onto the serpentine driveway lined with gingko trees, Mabel exclaimed, “Well, I’ll be!”
The Center for Deeper Understanding was a white pillared mansion nestled next to woods on the east and within sight and hearing of the grey-blue whooshing waves of Lake Ontario. Behind the mansion stood apple and pear orchards and vegetable gardens.
Mabel declared, “Well! It’s just like a castle in a fairy tale!”
Carlotta pulled the car into the adjoining lot.
“Just wait until you meet Edith Butler. You’ll love her! She’s… lots of fun.”
In truth, Edith was an old rival of Carlotta’s, and had been a member of Carlotta’s Club decades ago. Carlotta resented Edith’s self-importance and bossy ways.
As they walked across the flat stepping stones reading “Be the change,” and “Breathe,” Carlotta worked on the bait-and-switch that had just illuminated her brain.
“You know, Mabel, the more I think of it, I realize you absolutely have to get to know Edith. She’s sort of a celebrity.” Carlotta searched her imagination for the words that would ignite Mabel’s interest. “She’s probably the most famous person in town.”
“You don’t say!” said Mabel. She was beginning to catch the spark. Carlotta needed to fan quickly, before they reached the door.
“Oh, yes! People come from all over the country to meet her and learn from her, you know. She is a minister of sorts.” Carlotta thought with disdain of Edith’s title: the Reverend Edith Butler. Everyone knew she had just ordered that certification by mail. “She’s… well, she’s a real hoot, that’s what she is. She’s very busy, though. So I don’t see how we could manage it.”
As Carlotta put her hand on the ornate golden doorknob, Mabel, who had been frowning, lit up with the flame of an idea.
“Hey! Wasn’t she in the catalog? Isn’t she teaching a class this morning, too? What if we take that one, instead of the fencing?”
“Well…” hesitated Carlotta.
“Unless you’d be too disappointed. Were you really looking forward to the fencing?”
“Oh, no, that’s fine,” said Carlotta hastily. “Let’s see if Edith’s class has room for us.” And although it nearly killed Carlotta to say it, she added, “You’ll see! Edith’s absolutely amazing.”
-38-
The Synchronicity Room was filling with a motley gathering of spiritual seekers, and Carlotta led Mabel to the center of the room where a large table was covered with labeled baskets holding crystals. The labels said: jade, amazonite, moonstone, crystal quartz, onyx, blue topaz, carnelian, among others.
Mabel remarked, “These just look like colored rocks to me,” and she looked back toward the door.
Carlotta, quickly manufacturing false enthusiasm, pulled Mabel by the hand toward the nearest basket. “Oh! But aren’t they pretty colored rocks! Maybe we will make bracelets with them!” She ran her fingers through the light blue stones.
A young woman across the table said knowingly to Carlotta, “Ah! You are drawn to the Amazonite!”
“Oh, yes!” said Carlotta brightly. “I love pale blue, don’t you, Mabel?”
“Well, it’s okay,” said Mabel, clearly wishing she were donning fencing gear right now.
“Amazonite,” said the young woman, “blocks electromagnetic waves. You should put it next to your computer.”
Carlotta, unable to resist such an easy quip, said, “Oh, I just use my aluminum foil hat for that.”
The young woman, not to be distracted from displaying her esoteric knowledge, added, “And of course, Amazonite is also excellent for attracting fairies!”
Mabel stared at the young woman and let out a loud guffaw.
“Carlotta Moon!” crowed Edith’s merry voice.
Carlotta spun around.
Edith, in her typical odd fashion, was draped in a saffron-colored sari over brown slacks and an orange tee shirt, and was hurrying toward Carlotta.
“You go straight to the Amazonite, I see! Ha ha!”
Was the odious woman making fun of her?
“Amazonite is the stone of the woman warrior! Of course that’s the stone that drew you to it. Always engaged in some battle, eh?”
“Edith! How nice to see you again,” lied Carlotta.
Edith’s eyes twinkled with understanding.
“And Margaret Birch!” exclaimed Edith. “I haven’t seen either one of you since your past life regressions. Margaret, you remembered your life as the soldier-poet, Joyce Kilmer, as I recall. I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree, and all that?”
Mabel looked confused but entertained. She had no idea what Edith was talking about, but she was curious. This was good.
“No, Edith, this is not Margaret.”
Edith stepped back dramatically.
Carlotta said, “Let me introduce you to my, uh, friend, Mabel Paine. She’s from Rochester.”
“You wouldn’t kid me, would you, Carlotta?” Edith studied Mabel with astonishment. “So, you’re Margaret’s twin sister? I never knew she had a twin.”
“No,” smiled Mabel proudly, as if looking like Margaret were a stunt she had come up with out of her own cleverness. “We just happen to look alike. ‘Everyone has a double, supposively,’ as they say.”
Carlotta winced at Mabel’s made-up word, but Edith w
as staring at Mabel the way a talent scout stares at the next Big Thing.
Mabel was chattering on. “We just happened to meet our double, that’s all. We’re having a lot of fun with it. I can’t say we’re not!”
“Doubles!” Edith was clearly entranced by the idea. “What potential the two of you have for all kinds of things! I’ll have to think how both of you could help me out here at the Center. Played right, it could really be a magnet for the public, to have psychic ‘twins,’ or something of that nature.”
“Ha! That’s not bad! At least it’s better than that kid Liam at the Art League. His idea was that one of us could commit a murder and disappear. That would leave the other one--up a creek without a lasso!”
Edith and Mabel laughed jovially, and Edith shot Carlotta a look of appreciation for bringing her this diamond in the rough.
Edith glanced at the clock on the wall, and moved quickly to the center of the room. “Let us begin!” she declared, and she motioned the milling crowd to the chairs set in a circle.
“If you brought your own crystals from home, take them out now. If you need to use our crystals, just go on up to the table and grab four or five that call to you.”
Carlotta, Mabel and several others returned to the table, while the rest remained in the circle, pulling stones from pockets and purses. Carlotta hesitated as she looked at the baskets, wondering what weird Edith could mean by suggesting the rocks would “call” to her. She grabbed five of the prettiest ones. Mabel, though, followed the example of others, who ran their hands through the air above the stones, back and forth.
A bearded man said to Mabel, “You’ll feel warmth from the stones that are yours.”
Mabel smiled coquettishly at the bearded man as she gathered her five specimens.
In the seated circle, one young man was saying, “Some of my crystals didn’t want to come today.”
“Oh, I hear you,” said a heavily tattooed woman with straight black hair. “Sometimes, you just can’t get them to cooperate, no matter what you do. You have to listen to their wishes, or they might just stop helping you.”
“Oh, I know,” replied the young man. “Since I’ve had my crystals, my third eye is getting stronger.” He massaged the area on his forehead, between his two visible eyes.
“That is so cool,” approved another young woman. “My third eye is helping me with every little decision lately! Yesterday? I’m, like, at the grocery store, shopping with my third eye, just trying to pick out some cereal? And my third eye is like, no, no, and no. Like, I’m not feeling any of these. I swear, I had to leave without buying any cereal.”
The group laughed in support, and nodded sagely. They’d all been there.
Once everyone was seated again, Edith instructed: “Let’s put our crystals together in the shape of a heart, in energetic vibration, so they can enjoy each other and draw energy from one another.”
The black-haired woman contributed, “Sort of like a play date—for crystals!”
The group laughed in appreciation.
“And now,” said Edith, “for those of you who would like to, let’s express our thanksgiving to the stones.”
Immediately, voices around the circle began to speak up, in turn:
“Thank you, crystals, for sharing your energy with us.”
“Let our stones be filled with the healing energy of the universe.”
“Thank you, crystals, for your spiritual gifts.”
Edith’s crystals class covered the topics that had been outlined in the course catalog: an exploration of the conscious being within stones, the meanings and uses of each type of crystal, the practice of using crystals to communicate with the dead, as well as a general Q and A session on anything the participants had been wondering about concerning their rocks.
The woman who had informed Carlotta of Amazonite’s power to attract fairies, now brought up a relationship problem.
“I have a deep connection to my amethyst. Like, we’re in sync. But there’s a real communication problem between my turquoise and me.”
As Edith guided her student toward understanding and resolution of this issue, Carlotta glanced sideways at Mabel. Was she drinking the Kool-Aid?
-39-
Queen sat on the white comforter on her bed, her feet tucked beneath her, reading The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate Di Camillo. Her lips moved as she read, and her finger ran across the lines on the page.
“What are you reading?” asked Hope, from the doorway.
Queen held up the book cover, as if needing to save her words.
“Is it good?” asked Hope.
Queen looked at her, unspeaking, and Hope imagined her thinking, Now, would I be reading it, if I didn’t think it was good?
Queen’s empty pink backpack hung from a hook on the wall. She had unpacked all her worldly belongings: one pair of pajamas, three outfits, the book she was reading, a notebook and a pen.
Hope thought with affection that Queen’s coke bottle eyeglasses were just like the ones worn by Norbert. Those glasses, combined with her tiny body and her thin face, made her look fragile and vulnerable. But when she spoke, there was a determination about her that reassured Hope. As Norbert had predicted, Queen was a young lady who knew her own mind.
Hope came into the room and sat on the end of Queen’s bed.
“So, how did you sleep?”
“I slept.”
Hope had no idea what else to say to this little girl.
“How did you sleep?” asked Queen.
Ah. She’s meeting me halfway now.
“Great!” said Hope. It wasn’t that her sleep was that great, but it was great that Queen was talking.
“So, tell me a little about yourself, honey.”
Down came the wall. It was almost as if Hope could see iron bars come down over Queen’s irises.
“What do you want to know?”
Hope took a chance.
“Actually, I want to know why you couldn’t stay in your last foster home. The caseworker didn’t really tell me much. What happened?”
“Oh, that.” Queen poked out her lips. “Usual thing.”
Hope waited.
“I was too hard to keep track of. She said I was not her kind of kid. Said I was too smart for my own good…. I left a lot.”
“You mean, you ran away?”
“Just for a day, sometimes, when she bossed me.”
“Where would you run to?”
“Lie-berry,” said Queen, in a tone that said, duh.
“Is that the worst thing you ever did, run away to the library?”
Queen studied Hope a moment before answering.
“One time I hit a caseworker.”
Hope pictured this skinny, little girl hitting a caseworker—for example, one as substantial as Thundercloud. She had to suppress a smile. Hope wrinkled her eyebrows together, seriously.
“Now, why did you do that?”
“Didn’t like all her questions,” said Queen, with meaning.
-40-
Edith’s class moved on to the important topic of How to Cleanse Crystals. As Edith explained, this may be done in a variety of ways, including smudging them with sage. The disadvantage of this method is that it leaves the stones smudged—with sage. Edith’s favorite crystal cleansing methods were those that used sound: the bell, the gong or the drum. The sound vibrations cleansed the toxic energy that the crystals absorbed.
“It’s a miracle-fact,” she assured the gathering.
Carlotta put the tips of her fingers to her temples. This phrase was not her idea of meaningful speech.
Edith produced a bongo drum from beneath her chair, and began to beat out a rhythm, as the group gazed at the rocks lying on the floor in heart formation, visualizing the cleansing that was taking place. Thump thump, thump thump thump. Thump thump, thump thump thump. Thump thump… Even Carlotta began to feel the hypnotic effect of Edith’s drumming, as it went on.
Mabel rose, and the spell over Carlotta broke
. What was her guest going to do, here, in public?
Mabel began to dance, spontaneously, slowly, around the crystals. Edith’s drumming began to speed up, and Mabel danced faster. She danced away from the circle, and she danced back in again. She turned her back to the group and shook her hips vigorously. The bearded man and the black haired woman were the first to their feet, to join in Mabel’s dance. One by one, the entire class—minus Carlotta and Edith—were up and dancing, eyes half closed. Then the dancers joined hands, and as one graceful body, moved clockwise and then counter-clockwise around the heart shape on the floor. At last, Edith’s drumming began to slow, and with her rhythm, she led the dancing to a smooth stop.
The group embraced Mabel, gently, and Mabel was suffused with joy.
Carlotta stared.
Before the entire group, Edith praised Mabel: “Some people have the inborn gift for calling in the Nature Spirits. Mabel Paine, you have the purest energy I have encountered in many a moon.”
After the class broke up, Carlotta was torn between satisfaction on progressing toward her goal of getting rid of Mabel, and envy that Mabel was once again singled out as the most special person in the room. She dallied outside so that Mabel and Edith would have a chance to talk one-to-one. If only Edith would hook Mabel in, and Carlotta would have her Club to herself again.
When Mabel emerged, Carlotta congratulated her on her immediate popularity at the Center for Deeper Understanding.
“Goodness, Mabel, you made quite an impression on Edith Butler.”
Mabel chuckled. “That Edith said the strangest thing! She said she wanted to keep me! Keep me, as if I were a stray cat or dog! She wants me to join her somehow, working at her Center.”
“That’s wonderful, Mabel! What an honor! What, uh, fun you will have, right? You know, ‘Try anything once,’ as you always say?”
“Aw, no. It was fun to try for one day. I told her that. I said, I had a ball, and I can’t say I didn’t. And I told her I’d try to get you to come back with me to take that fencing class some time. But I told her, I said, I can’t spare the time to get involved in working here, Edith. Because I’m real busy with my Club.”