by Tonya Kappes
The gorgeous flowers in the pot didn’t get their morning drink of water, but Arabella’s feet did as she stood there in shock when her eyes fixed on the bird charm.
I’d love to say that I loved getting little charms from my fairy godcat, but the truth of the matter was that every time he gave me a charm, it meant that I needed protection or someone I loved needed protection. It wasn’t necessarily a great thing.
I’d already received over twelve charms from him, and I collected those on the charm bracelet I wore as a reminder that no matter how great things were going, evil was always lurking around.
“Let’s go.” Izzy had already made it across the street and wrapped her hand around Arabella’s elbow bend.
“Thank you,” I said to my friends.
The sound of our black pointy laced-up boots and the swoosh of our A-line skirts was enough for the tourists to part and give us a straight shot to Bella’s Baubles.
“I’m telling you, I saw a Spangled Smoky Momoko!” The excited voice caught my attention. It was Paris. “It was in that shop down there, and it flew out.”
I stopped in front of Bella’s Baubles, the quaint cream cottage with a pink wood door adorned with different colored jewels, and looked across the street, where Paris was talking to a group from her Audubon club.
All the club members faced the direction where she was pointing, which just so happened to be Glorybee, Petunia’s pet store.
“Her!” Paris’s finger dragged across the street and pointed at me. “She saw it! She’s the store owner!”
The excitement from the crowd caused them to run across the street and throw a mob of questions at me.
“How did the bird get into your shop?”
“How many times have you seen the Spangled Smoky Momoko?”
“Can you describe the bird?”
“What colors was the Spangled Smoky Momoko?”
“What is your name?”
“She doesn’t know.”
“We have no comment on any sort of Spangled Smoky Momoko.” Izzy grabbed me with her other hand and dragged me and Arabella through the gate of Bella’s Baubles, marching us up to the jeweled door. Then we entered the shop.
“I was expecting June.” Bella’s round cheeks balled up through her grin, exposing the small gap between her two front teeth. Her long blond hair framed her face and cascaded down her small frame. Her smoky eyes twinkled with laughter. “But what do I owe the pleasure of Bella and Izzy?” she asked and drummed her fingertips on the glass counter, where all her fine gemstones were displayed for her customers.
“It appears this new charm is going to be sparking a lot of interest.” I uncurled my fist and dropped the charm on the counter.
Before I could bring my hand back, Bella had quickly unclasped my charm bracelet and held it up.
“Freedom and strength, as well as harmony with fellow creatures,” Bella’s words fell from her mouth as her eyes took on a trance-like state. “Only, it feels much more than that.” Bella tsked as though I should know better. “June, haven’t you been listening to your crystal ball? Your fairy godcat?”
“Oh, June,” Izzy gasped.
“Even I know when to listen to my flowers.” Arabella gave a smug look. Her long hair flowed down the back of her black tee, which she paired with a pink crinoline knee-length skirt. She was a flower spiritualist. When a customer of hers picked a flower, she could tell a lot about them, even their future.
“I think this has something to do with Petunia.” Bella picked up the charm and dangled it in the air. Her spiritual talent was astrology, and she could read the stars and gems. “I feel there’s a certain spirit that needs to come forward in the form of this…” She twisted her hand in the air. “Spangled…” she fought to find the name.
“Spangled Smoky Momoko,” I said because the name would be forever tattooed in my memory.
“Yes. That, dear.” Her eyes drifted over our shoulders when her door opened. “Sisters.”
The Karima sisters stood in the doorway.
“The ghost said you found the Spangled Smoky Momoko.” Constance Karima waddled up to the counter. Her eyes focused on the bird charm. “And I see Mr. Prince Charming has struck again.”
“Struck again,” Patience repeated and bounced on her feet with delight. “Yes. Again.” Her thick fingers reached out to touch the charm.
“Aaa. Aaa. Aaa,” Bella scolded her as she wagged her finger. “This is for June.”
“Are you saying I’m in trouble?” I asked, always cautious when Bella said things like this.
“You, my dear, have been chosen to figure out exactly why the Spangled…” Bella fought for the name.
“Spangled Smoky Momoko,” I helped her out.
“Yes. That.” Her checks balled, her eyes focused on me. “You must find out why this bird has descended upon our village before the crow flies at midnight,” she said in a very mysterious voice.
Immediately, she grabbed the charm and put it on a jump ring. She took my bracelet and found the perfect spot for the new bird charm.
“Crow?” Constance drew back.
“Oh, seester,” Patience’s words drew out in a fearful tone. “The crow.”
“The ghost said that same thing about the crow flying.” A sheer fearful look crossed Constance’s face. “I’ve got me a ghost that’s got to go!”
The sisters hurried out of the shop, leaving a trail of cold air where they stood. The hairs on my arms stood above the goose bumps.
“What about the bird? It’s not a crow.” I gulped, turning back to Bella. “Madame Torres has been doing this coo-coo sound all morning.”
She walked along the back of the counter toward me, holding the bracelet taut. My hand shook when I held out my arm for her to clasp it on my wrist.
A flicker of fear permeated my intuition. Something was very wrong. Whether or not the Spangled Smoky Momoko had to do with Paris, I did know one thing. The ghost. The Karima sisters’ ghost had everything to do with this rare bird. But how?
“You must rely on your guides to help you.” Izzy’s lashes swept up, leaving a shadow deep in her eyes.
“This is for you, June. We need you.” Arabella didn’t make me feel any better. “All the guides are saying it’s you who has to help us.”
I ran my hand over my bracelet. It was warm to the touch. Panic rioted within me, and I knew I would need all of these protection charms if I was going to get down to the bottom of the ghost.
Chapter Five
“It appears to be some sort of bird thing,” I told Oscar over the phone on my way back up the hill toward our cottage where I had to track through the woods to get to Hidden Hall A Spiritualist University. “I’m not exactly sure what is going on, but the guides are restless, and the Audubon Society is pretty determined to figure out where this bird has gone.”
“You said the bird, this Spangled Smoky Momoko, was with Petunia this morning?” he asked as if he were in investigation mode.
“Yes.” I looked down when I felt Mr. Prince Charming brush up against my skirt and dart up the hill ahead of me. “I really can’t do anything right now since I’ve got to go clean out my classroom for the summer break.”
“What time will you be finished?” he asked.
“Around noon. Faith is watching the shop for me.” After I’d left Bella’s Baubles, I hurried back to A Charming Cure to check on Faith and grab my teacher’s suitcase so I could carry back all my potions from the classroom and store them at the shop for the summer.
I hurried past the cottage and smiled when I saw the Green Machine parked in the driveway. I didn’t drive the old El Camino much anymore, but every time I looked at it, a warm fuzzy feeling came over me from the fond memories.
Warm and fuzzy was better than cold and scared, which was how I’d felt this morning after Mr. Prince Charming had dropped the bird charm at my feet.
I heard an odd silence on Oscar’s end of the phone.
“Before the crow flie
s at midnight, huh?” He broke the dead air.
“Yes.” I realized then he’d not listened to a word I said about Faith working at the shop for me and how I’d be finished by noon. “You’re going to look into this, aren’t you?”
“Do you know exactly what that phrase means, June?” he asked in an emotionless voice that chilled me to the bone. “It means there’s going to be a secret meeting. I think you need to call a smudge and let all the spiritualists know what is going on so they can keep their eye out for any sort of meeting.”
“Oscar, you’re scaring me,” I told him. A long, brittle silence followed.
The fog hung just above the tree line as we entered the forest behind my cottage. With Mr. Prince Charming leading the way, I knew we were on the right track to Hidden Hall A Spiritual University.
We passed the big rock where all the smudging ceremonies in the village took place, a rock I knew very well since I was the master of ceremonies with my homeopathic skills. As a community, we celebrated everything around the rock. Maybe Oscar was right. I needed to call a smudge.
“You had a nightmare last night.” His words stopped me in my tracks, and I turned around, looking back over Whispering Falls through a small clearing. My heart swelled. I had never really felt at home until I moved here, and I couldn’t imagine it coming under attack from whatever was looming.
“I didn’t wake up,” I told him when I tried to recall what the nightmare was about.
It’d been a long time since I’d had a nightmare. Something I thought was long gone.
“What happened?” A pulsing feeling within me demanded more.
“You were making bird calls,” he said, causing me to breathe in shallow, quick gasps. “You didn’t wake up and you weren’t fighting it like you usually do, so I let you ride it out.”
“I don’t remember.” It was very odd for me not to remember the nightmares. “If I can’t recall, maybe I wasn’t learning something.”
“June, you and I both know when you have a nightmare, it’s a way of giving you clues to something evil lurking.” He was right, only I wasn’t ready to admit it.
“Izzy and Arabella told me it was my job to figure this crow thing out. I was hoping they were wrong.” When I came to the wheat field, I parted the tall wheat.
Some of the stalks vibrated in a wave motion. I knew it was Mr. Prince Charming, making his way to the middle of the field, where the sign with several long wooden arms, each with a finger pointing in a different direction, was the gate to the University. It was a secret passage and only the spiritualists knew where it was in case a mortal might find it.
I set my suitcase down next to me. I’d brought it to bring back some ingredients and the extra potions I’d made over the school year with my students.
“Meow, meow.” Mr. Prince Charming jumped up on his hind legs and swatted the sign.
“Listen, I’m going to look into some things while you’re gone. You call me as soon as you get finished cleaning your classroom.” Oscar wasted no time. “I love you and be careful.”
“I love you too.” I took a step back when the sign’s wooden arms glowed with the names of schools. “Eye of Newt Crystal Ball School, Tickle Palm School, Intuition School. Intuition School.”
I tapped the arrow on the sign that led to Intuition School. Like magic, a pathway appeared across the wheat field.
My eyes followed as the path gained momentum and ended at a small yellow cottage that had boxes under each window overflowing with geraniums, morning glories, petunias, moon flowers, and trailing ivy, leaving a rainbow of colorful explosion.
The awning flapping in the light breeze read Intuition School in lime-green calligraphy. I couldn’t help but smile when it came into view. Even with all the uneasiness going on behind me, I knew ahead of me was a group of young women and men who were eager to learn, and it felt good that I had a hand in shaping the future spiritualists.
“Let’s go.” I picked up the suitcase and walked along the path.
“June!” the familiar voice called behind me.
Swiftly I turned, my A-line skirt making a swooshing noise.
“Chandra.” I put the suitcase down and held out my arms to greet my dear friend and palm reader, Chandra Shango.
She owned Cleansing Spirit Spa, a wonderful cover for her true gift.
“Don’t you look great.” I grasped her hands and held them out to the side to get a good look at her.
She had short raspberry hair partially covered by a golden turban, with a blue jewel situated in between her brows. The blue cloak she’d chosen to wear was printed all over with a constellation in the same shade of gold as her turban.
“Your nails.” I brought her hands up to my face and took a good look at her nails, painted with gold moon and stars.
“I wanted to talk to you, so I thought I’d keep you company while you cleaned out your classroom.” Chandra gave me a steady gaze. “Especially since I heard what happened this morning with that bird.”
I let go of her hands and bent down to pick up the suitcase.
“What did you hear?” I asked her.
“I heard how the woman in your shop went nuts about Petunia’s bird.” Chandra was a tad bit… well, a whole lot nosy. “I can’t believe how she followed Petunia into Glorybee and threatened her.”
“What?” I almost stumbled over my own feet when I heard what Chandra had said. “She threatened Petunia?”
“Petunia called Oscar at the station. Didn’t he tell you?” Her eyes held a glint of wonder.
“He didn’t mention it.” My mouth went dry. “He asked me about the crow and all that business about midnight.”
Chandra stopped dead in her tracks and brought her hand up to her chest.
“Before the crows flies at midnight?” she asked and fluttered off in a ball of anxiety as she waved her hand. “That’s not good, June.” She moved faster and faster, flailing her arms to the side. “We have to call a smudge, and we have to cleanse the Treesort.”
“Treesort?” I questioned her reference to the only bed and breakfast in the village.
She stopped right in front of the cottage and turned around to face me. I watched her eyes widen with concern.
“Yes. I had a vision when a customer came in.” She gulped and held her hands out, palm side up. “When the crow flies at midnight, she will die.”
“Who will die?” I asked.
“The customer.” She clamped her jaw tight and stared.
Chapter Six
“Ah, you’re here.” My Aunt Helena stood in the classroom, an armful of different ingredients in a basket dangling from the crook of her elbow. She’d been walking around to the large three-person tables to collect anything left over from the school year. “I wasn’t sure if you were coming to clean out your classroom due to the issues going on in Whispering Falls.”
“Issues?” I sat my suitcase down and took the basket from her, finishing up the job she’d already started.
“Chandra.” Aunt Helena was dressed in her usual head-to-toe black underneath her black cap that hung past her knees. She nodded at Chandra before she swept a hand in front of her, pointing the polished red nail on her finger at Mr. Prince Charming before he had a chance to growl at her. “You, you make any problems here, I’ll banish you from ever coming with June.”
Mr. Prince Charming gave her a look before he jumped up on the teacher’s desk at the front of the room and watched her every move.
The two of them had a history, and I never truly understood it, but there was a mutual love of me between them, which forced them to get along.
“Please, make yourself at home,” she told Chandra.
“Issues?” I asked Aunt Helena again.
“You mean you’re going to make me tell you how I know Mr. Prince Charming brought you a bird charm and how Chandra can see there’s an imminent death lurking.”
“The way I see it”—I set the full basket on the desk, picked up my suitcase and opened i
t, and began to place the leftover ingredients in it as I continued—“I can head back to Whispering Falls after this and do a nice smudge. Not to mention stay up late at night to keep an eye out for any crows.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a solid plan, but it’s a start.” Aunt Helena drummed her fingers together, making clicking noises with her long nails. “Well, what is your gut telling you about the ghost?” She swept her long red hair over her shoulder and picked at the ends.
“It’s interesting because the Karima sisters can’t tell me anything about the ghost. It appears to be following them around with no purpose but bugging them.” With all the potions and ingredients safely in the suitcase, I retrieved the cauldron cleaner from underneath the desk.
“That’s where I see the death. I’m not sure, but I feel as though the ghost isn’t fully a ghost but on the verge.” Chandra told her tale while I sprayed the cleaner in the students’ cauldrons and wiped them clean.
The students had already cleaned them after their last class, but you never knew who was coming to take a summer session or even if they cleaned them thoroughly. It was never a good thing to mix any sort of potions with another intended potion.
“I was in the Gathering Grove this morning, and I couldn’t help but shake one of the bird watcher’s hand when I noticed an eerie feeling.” Chandra’s tone became chilly, so much so that she did a shimmy that started at her shoulders and waved down her body, finishing at her toes. “The only other time I get a chill with an eerie feelings is death. But…” She held up a finger. “It wasn’t the bird watcher’s death.”
Her words were riddles that I couldn’t understand.
“That’s why I believe if I do a smudge and keep vigilant for a crow at midnight, we might be able to stop it.” My words made Aunt Helena and Chandra draw back. “Think about it. We’ve never had time to save a life after we’ve predicted danger. Maybe that’s why the ghost is here. I got the charm. Plus, the saying about the crow and midnight means there’s going to be a secret meeting.” I twirled my finger around the three of us. “We are all gifted enough to keep an eye out for any sort of meeting.”