by Tonya Kappes
“You have to unsubscribe from the newspaper and get that…that…whatever that is back in his bottle!” Madame Torres turned a flaming red, glowing throughout the entire shop. Her purple eyes appeared, taking up all the space in the ball. “Half of Faith’s newspaper stories don’t even come true! She’s just too young to be a spiritualist. She needs to go back to Hidden Hall and work on her clairaudience skills.”
Madame Torres rambled on and on about poor Faith Mortimer’s spiritual gift. Granted, she should be able to hear anything inaudible from spirits, wind, or angels when they are predicting the future. There was one small, well, big problem. She only got half of it right. “And he is nothing but trouble I tell you!”
“Argh!” I was at a loss for words. The man hovered in the air with his arms crossed. I held up a finger. “Wait right there.”
There had to be something in the Magical Cure Potion book…something, anything.
“I knew I should’ve taken those potion classes with all the levels.” This had level twenty-eight written all over it.
“I’m waiting to hear what you want.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice. “Honestly, I don’t think you know what you want.”
My mouth popped open, and my brows drew together. “Great, that’s all I need…another smart-alecky spiritualist to deal with. Trust me, as soon as I figure out how to get you permanently out of that bottle so I can put my protective potion in, the better off we all will be.”
“Amen.” Madame Torres clapped and did spirit fingers. “And good luck with that task.”
“What do you mean?” It was the first bit of advice she had offered up. “Madame Torres?” I questioned the coal-black crystal ball and tapped on the glass. She had gone into hiding. “Fine, be that way.”
Before I could make it around the cauldron and look at my potion book, the front door of the shop flew open blowing in a gust of wind and Mr. Prince Charming ran out. The purple man disappeared into thin air and his bottle magically landed right back on the shelf where I found it.
The bell that hangs over the front door dinged as the Karima sisters bolted in.
“Did you hear the newspaper headlines?” Constance Karima waddled over to the broken bottles with her sister, Patience, closely behind her. “See,” she pointed to the bottles and eyed Patience, “looks like the storm has already started in here.”
“Now, now.” I grabbed the broom and dustpan. I had to defuse the situation before it got any messier. Making sure mister purple man was staying put on the shelf, I kept one eye on him while I swept up the mess he had created. “Mr. Prince Charming did it when he was playing with the hem of the tablecloth.” I pointed out the unraveled red thread. “You saw him dart out the door as soon as you opened it.”
“Yep.” Patience wrung her hands together. She curled her nose, causing her beady black eyes to squint. With her nose in the air, she took big long sniffs. She repeated, “Already started.”
Chapter Two
The headlines in today’s paper were a little strange and making a little morning visit to Faith Mortimer seemed to be in my future.
Faith was young, fresh out of college and starting to learn how powerful being a fortune teller could be.
“Are you going to find out what she’s talking about?” Constance twiddled her little plump fingers. “And can you ask if there is going to be any deaths in the future?”
“Yes, deaths.” Patience repeated, but didn’t take her bulging eyes off the potion bottle on the counter. The purple man’s bottle faintly glowed. She took a step toward it. Quickly, I untied my apron and casually tossed it on the counter, covering most of his glimmer.
“No. I’m not asking about any deaths.” I brushed my hands off, and then crossed my arms.
“Single handedly, you are killing our business, June Heal.” Constance’s housedress swooshed as she shifted to the right, planting her hands on her hips. Her dress hiked up on one side revealing a tattered pair of black pointy-heeled shoes that were warn around the toes, making them a little more round than pointy. “And I mean that literally.”
Patience’s nose curled, causing her lips to furl. Intently she stared at me, making me a bit uncomfortable. They owned Two Sisters and a Funeral Home and handled all the services for all of Whispering Falls and most of the surrounding cities.
I’ve been told that the sisters had a way of making a service feel a little more like a celebration of life instead of the smell of death. Everyone walked away from A Two Sisters and a Funeral services, saying they felt their loved one was there and it was a little…well…magical.
I hadn’t figured out their entire business, but my gut told me that I was about to learn more than I wanted to know.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, but I haven’t saved any soul that was meant to go to the great beyond.” I walked around, taking a few bottles from here and there, replacing the ones that had taken a tumble from the little storm that happened during the mister purple guy entrance.
“You give them all sorts of witchy medicine to prolong a broken heart, gout, or even protection.” Her eyes drew together, casting a shadow on the balls of her cheeks.
“Mm, hmm. Protection.” Patience’s eyes darted toward the front window of the store. Petunia was flailing her hands above her head as she ran down the street. Her empty dog leash that was usually attached to her wrist was replaced with a long rope that reminded me of a cowboy’s lariat.
We hurried over to get a better look. I opened the shades fully and we glued our noses to the glass.
“Is that a…” Patience Karima pushed her glasses on top of her nose.
“An ostrich,” I gasped, unable to take my eyes off the plush feathers. “I need one of those feathers.”
“What?” Patience snarled.
“Come on!” I tugged on Patience’s arm to get her to follow me.
“I’m not going out there.” Constance declared. “I need protection!”
We all stood there in awe.
The ostrich was getting the best of Petunia as they darted around and around in a circle.
“What are you doing, sister?” Constance toe-tapped her shoe and crossed her arms.
Patience was jabbing to the right and then to the left, looking as if she and the ostrich were in some sort of battle.
A bird and several small sticks flew out of Petunia’s messy up-do as she tackled the feathery beady-eyed bird to the ground and threw her legs over the body of the creature. The ostrich jumped up and darted around as Petunia rode it like a horse, guiding it back to Glorybee.
“I guess that is one of the animals Faith was talking about.” I referred to Faith’s little newspaper report. “Ostrich,” I sighed, making a mental note to stop by Glorybee. I did need some cat supplies, and maybe I could score a couple of ostrich feathers while I was there.
I could easily redo that level twenty-eight potion.
“Yep. All coming true.” Constance shook her finger in my face, and drew near. Her eyes looked deep into my soul. “I’m telling you, June Heal, you’d better get this village back on its feet or we are all in trouble.”
“All in trouble,” Patience echoed in a hushed whispered, never once taking her eyes off that ostrich.
Chapter Three
“Whew! That was close!” The purple guy stood right behind me when I turned around.
“Geez!” I put my hand on my heart. “You scared me!”
“You knew I was here.”
“I told you he was trouble.” Madame Torres appeared in the crystal ball. This time, her hair was tucked up under a bright yellow turban with a lime green jewel positioned in the middle. Her eyes were lined in black liner, with thick mascara heavily applied to her lashes, along with red-rosy rouge and lipstick.
“If you know there is trouble in my future, aren’t you supposed to tell me?” I reminded her of her duties as my crystal ball.
“You need to send her back to get fixed.” Mister purple guy whispered in my ear, only it wasn’t much
of a whisper.
“Oh shut up!” Madame Torres boomed.
“You shut up!” He yelled back. “You are mad because you are stuck in that little round glass while I can hop in and out of mine.”
He floated in and out of his fancy bottle to prove a point, a trail of smoke following him.
Madame Torres huffed and her ball went black.
“Stop!” I yelled at him on one of his return trips to his bottle. “If I wanted to police children, I would have had some of my own.”
“Ta-da!” He said, sticking his foot out, arms extended to the side, with a big smile on his face. “Now you have me. Your wish is my command.”
“Listen closely,” I warned him. “I’m not going to wish anything. I’m going to find out exactly where you came from and return you to your rightful owner. Where did you come from?”
“Belur here, and I am here to serve you, Master.” He stayed in his “ta-da” position with his mouth wide open in the biggest grin I had ever seen. “You opened the lid, so now I owe you.”
“I understand that.” I took a deep breath. “Belur?”
Pride was on his face as he nodded up and down.
“Who had you before me?” I asked. This way I could give him back to his rightful owner and get on with my day.
Tsk, tsk. He wagged his finger in front of me. “That is top secret! I can’t tell you that. I’ve been with diplomats from all over the world. If I revealed all my masters I’d be breaking the number one genie rule.” He blew on his knuckles and then polished them off on his small green bedazzled vest. “The things I could tell you,” he cackled. “Especially all the affairs and bad dealings I was into when my master was a Hollywood star.”
“Great,” I held the bottle up and faced the opening toward him, “a loose-lipped genie.” I shoved the bottle toward him.
It sucked him back in, leaving a trail of purple smoke behind, just in time for the bell over the shop door to ding again, letting me know someone was there.
“Adeline, how are you?” I rushed over to one of my biggest customers; at least she has been over the past couple of months.
“I don’t know, June.” She leaned her small frame against the door, letting out a sigh. She wrapped a strand of her sandy blonde hair behind her ear. “For some reason, I woke up this morning and was feeling a little. . .”
“Off?” I eyed her.
She snapped her finger and pointed at me. “Yes, off.” She smiled, letting those beautiful teeth gleam. “I knew you’d know what to do. I swear---you are way better than my doctor.”
I watched her walk around the shop as she babbled on about how she didn’t like to go to her doctor’s office anymore because they didn’t get her like I did. But, I wasn’t so convinced I was ‘getting’ her.
“You really should go to your doctor.” I encouraged her. “I’m not a doctor. I just know how to put herbs together.”
Every shop owner in Whispering Falls has a psychic power with a magical twist. I just happen to be able to read what’s wrong with someone. They might think they were having heartburn, when in reality they were sick from a broken heart. Of course, I gave them a remedy with a little extra umph in it from my handy dandy cauldron.
The entire village is magical.
To an outsider, Whispering Falls was just a tiny town with a population of five hundred, set in the foothills of a few mountains in Kentucky. Most people who visited our little village didn’t know how special we really were, but they felt the magic while they were here, which was why they continued to come back for more. Adeline was no different.
The first time I met her, she thought she needed a little help in the love department, when in actuality she only needed a little self-confidence.
“You knew I was ‘off’.” She rolled her eyes, and then continued to check out the shelf with the potion bottle sitting on top. “They say it is all in my head. They make me feel like I’m crazy.”
Her words floated around in the air, giving my instinct a run for its money. I couldn’t get a grasp on what was off either. Feeling a little crazy?
Hmmm…I had to take that as a clue to her inward feeling, but what was really going on?
The more she talked, the more my stomach ached. I had always been able to read someone, good or bad.
I shook my head and swallowed. Belur must have put me all out of whack.
“And I want my remedy put in that bottle.” Adeline rolled up on her toes, her eyes sparkling as she tapped Belur’s genie bottle. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Well, not in person. It kinda reminds me of that really old show. . .” She brought her finger to her chin and tapped it as if trying to remember.
“I Dream of Jeannie?” I finished her sentence.
She snapped again, “Yep! See, I told you, you are good.”
Adeline was a great customer, but she wasn’t the brightest bulb in the room.
“Anyway, I love it! And that is the one I want.” She reached out to grasp it.
“Stop!” I shrieked. She quickly dropped her hand. “I mean, I’m not sure you need anything.”
There had never been a time I hadn’t given the customer exactly what they wanted. Granted, bottles glowed when they got the right potion mix, and on occasion, I did let the customer pick. Since Adeline had been a great customer, she was used to coming in and picking out a bottle.
“But it speaks to me, just like you say, ‘pick a bottle that speaks to you.’” She reminded me of what I tell every single customer who walks through the door of A Charming Cure. “Plus you said I was ‘off’.”
I took her by the shoulders and steered her away from the counter.
“I did say that, but you don’t need a potion today.” I smiled and shook my head, my bob swinging back and forth. “You need to do yoga.”
“Yoga?” Adeline’s eyes popped open. “Really?”
“Yes.” I dropped my hands from her shoulders and put them in the Namaste pose. “Sometimes we have to bring our core and body back in alignment. You are ‘off’, just ‘off’.’”
I didn’t know how I did it, but she fell for it, hook, line and sinker.
“Where can I do that?” I thought she was gone, but she stopped shy of the door. “Is there a yoga studio in Whispering Falls?”
“No, but I bet there is one in Locus Grove,” I said. She had a good point. There had to be some spiritualist who did yoga. I wondered why no one had opened a shop here.
“Why don’t you come with me?” There was a mysterious look in her eye as she looked between the bottle and me. She was making it awfully hard for me to read her.
“I don’t have time.” That was the truth. What little time I did have, I wanted to spend it with Oscar, the sheriff of Whispering Falls and my one true love. “Besides, who would watch the shop?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but you have to have a life for yourself.”
Little did she know, I did have a life outside of this shop…only it was with Oscar.
“I’ll check it out and let you know.” She rolled her shoulders forward and then backwards, following up with a few neck rolls. “Just thinking about yoga is making me feel better.”
“I bet it is.” My eyes squinted as I watched her walk out the door. I muttered, “Something is off with me today.” I peered out the window to see if Mr. Prince Charming was around, but the only sight I saw was the Karima sisters standing across the street watching the shop, as if they were policing it or something.
“You need to march right over to the Mortimer’s and find out what that headline is all about.” Madame Torres’ voice was low and demanding.
“Aww. . .give Faith a second chance.” I continued to look out the window and down the street. My gut wasn’t giving me anything. Nothing. Nada. Maybe I could use some yoga.
“They didn’t give the witches of Salem a second chance when they were hung or burned at the stake.” Madame Torres spat back. She wasn’t going to let up until I found out just what was going on.
>
“We don’t live in Salem. We live in Whispering Falls.” Quickly I pulled at my charm bracelet on my wrist. I tapped the dangling silver baubles, hoping there wasn’t a storm brewing. And if it was, at least I’d have my charms to keep me safe. “Is there something in my future I should know about? I’m feeling a little strange and I can’t pinpoint it.”
“Yeah, get old Alibaba out of here.”
“I can hear you!” Belur shouted. The lid of his bottle shook from the vibration.
“My bad. Get Alkazam out of here.” She tried again.