by Tonya Kappes
“Listen; there is no time for pleasantries. I have a problem. Did you put some type of disappearing spell in the June Gem’s? Because they are gone.” I shut my eyes and prayed a big ole prayer.
“No. Why?” Apprehension dripped from her voice. “Did you eat them all?”
“Okay, don’t judge me. Here is the deal…” I told her what had happened in a quick abridged version.
“June, you know you aren’t supposed to mess with love.” She scolded me like Darla would have. “June!” She gasped.
“What?” I questioned her. My intuition told me that it was not a good gasp.
“When I was talking a walk last night, I saw someone in A Charming Cure with a flashlight. I stopped and looked in the window. It was Oscar.” She paused. I could hear her swallow hard. “He came out when he saw me. He said that he was making sure your shop was locked up because your gate was open when he walked by.”
“And?” I asked, because there was something she wasn’t telling me. I could feel it in my gut.
“I recall he had chocolate in the corners of his mouth. I just figured you gave him a June’s Gem or Ding Dong.” The phone went silent. I mean complete silence.
“Oh no!” I cried out. I knew it was too good to be true. I knew Oscar wasn’t in love with me.
“June, what’s wrong?” Raven frantically asked. “I’m on my way down there right now.”
With my back to the counter, I slid down and landed on my butt. I put my hand up in the air and patted the countertop until I reached the comforting feeling of silver foil. I grabbed it.
Sigh. . .a Ding Dong.
“June?” Adeline got my attention. I had totally forgotten about her.
I jumped up, rewrapped the Ding Dong in the foil, and grabbed five more. Quickly, I put them in the June’s Gems box and got myself together.
“Here you go.” I held the box out with the fake June’s Gems and prayed with all my might.
“Ding Dongs?” Nervously she laughed. “Your cure is Ding Dongs?”
“Yes.” I nodded and guided her to the front door. “Just try it.”
“But. . .” she stammered, but I didn’t let her get any further. I slammed the door behind her.
Seven
Bang, bang, bang.
The door clattered as someone pounded on it.
“Open up, June, it’s Raven!” Her voice raised an octave. “Whatever is going on, I can fix it.”
With my butt still on the floor, I reached up and unlocked the door. Raven slipped in the small crack in the door that I had created, and quickly shut it behind her.
“I can see this is going to require some of these.” She held out a small lime green box with a couple of June’s Gems in it. She sat on the floor next to me, took the rubber band off the box, and then pulled her onyx hair up into ponytail, using the rubber band to hold it in place. “Alright, spill the beans.”
She took a bite of the infamous treat named after me, and the white creamy filling oozed out on one side.
“I really did think that Oscar was in love with me.” I shook my head when she offered me a treat. “But I did it and ruined it.”
“Did what?” She patted my arm, trying to give me any comfort.
“I messed with love.” I hesitated. She blinked with bafflement. “I made a cure to go in those June’s Gems I bought yesterday for a client.”
Raven jumped to her feet.
“I knew it!” Her voiced drifted into a hushed whisper, “No, no. Don’t tell me that when I saw Oscar in here he ate one?”
Slowly I began to nod my head. Shame and fear settled in my soul.
“I knew I shouldn’t have done it.” I buried my hands in my face. “I always listen to my intuition, but I didn’t this time.”
Raven’s black eyes stared at me, but that quickly vanished when she broke out in laughter.
“It’s not funny!” I stood up and held on to the doorknob. The last thing I wanted to do was pass out.
She shook her head. “No. I’m not laughing at you, but you are in a pickle, and, in more ways than one.”
“What does that mean?” I swallowed hard and held back the tears.
“For one thing, the Karima twins are extremely upset with you. They are talking about it all over town.” Her eyes roved around me, and then to the back of the shop. “And that’s all.” She quickly shut her mouth.
“Are you okay?” My brows tilted, looking at her with uncertainty. She was definitely acting strange. Maybe she wasn’t someone I should be discussing this with.
“I’m fine.” She brushed me off and brought her focus back to me. “How do you know he ate them?”
“He professed his love to me and. . .”
The doorknob jingled and then a knock at the door interrupted me.
“June? Are you in there?” Belle’s head waivered back and forth, trying to see inside the shop door window. “I have your bracelet with your new charm on it.”
“New charm?” Raven asked. “Mr. Prince Charming gave you a new charm?”
“No, Oscar.” I unlocked the door, and motioned for Belle to come in. I slammed it after she stepped inside and locked it back up. “And he’s another one who is acting strange. Mr. Prince Charming is mad that I have started a relationship with Oscar. They have never liked each other.”
“Never mind him. He is just making sure you are safe. That’s what fairy god-cats do.” Belle stated a matter-of-factly as she took my wrist and clasped the bracelet around it. “What matters is that Oscar has made the best decision of his life by loving you.”
“It’s not true,” I murmured, looking down at the beautiful bracelet. I found the heart and rubbed my fingers over it.
“Of course it is. He woke me up last night just to get the heart.” She grinned from ear-to-ear. “I thought something was wrong with the shop when I saw that the sheriff’s number pop up on my phone.”
“That was after he ate a love potion I had created for someone else.”
“Love potion?” She drew back and then folded her arms across her chest. “You aren’t supposed to mess with love.”
“Yah, well. . .I did.” There was no way around the scolding Belle was going to give me, so I went ahead and told her the entire truth about Adeline and my need to help her in the love department. As if all the lights in Mystics Lights turned on in my head, I had the best idea ever. “I’ve got it!”
I ran behind the counter and started to grab any and all ingredients that my intuition told me would help break a love spell. Even if it was only a hint of an intuition, I still grabbed it. I had nothing to lose.
“What are you doing?” Belle shielded her face when a big clap of thunder blasted over top the shop. “You have to stop! You are messing with the spiritual world and ruining our Spook-a-Luscious Halloween Festival!”
We all paused to look out the window. The normally ever-so-sunny Whispering Falls weather was making my entire life gloomy and dark.
Without another moment of hesitation, I went back to grabbing more items and tossing them into the cauldron.
“June, stop!” Raven’s dark eyes darkened even more and she lifted her hands. “If you don’t stop, I will be forced to stop you!”
The cauldron bubbled hard and fast as if it was keeping time with the rain that was beating on the street outside. The quicker I threw stuff in, the more the lightning struck outside.
“A little dab of…..and a bit of…..” I brushed my hands together, making sure there weren’t any ingredients left on my hands.
“What is that smell?” Belle was pinching her nose and fanning the air in front of her face with her free hand. “It smells like. . .”
Just then, Belle started to heave as if she was going to get sick.
I had no time to react. The potion was almost done. The swirling, slimy, cobalt elixir completely smelled like earwax and vomit. I had no idea why it smelled so bad, and didn’t care.
“It’s a bad smell because it’s a bad spell!” Raven co
ntinued to watch out the window. She shouted over her shoulder, “I’m not kidding, June, you had better hurry up or I’m going to have to be a Dark-Sider that you don’t want to see!”
As I whirled my hands in the air, my hair thrashed around as if it had a mind of its own. Moving my body side-to-side, I closed my eyes and focused on the most powerful spell I had ever created. Darla came into my mind.
Instantly, the picture that my only living relative, Aunt Helena, had given me of my mom and me, flew off the counter, smashing onto the floor. The round tables that were scattered around the shop began to dance on their legs as the bottle rattled on top.
The clinking was so loud that I threw my hands over my ears, but I could still hear the thunderous claps of lightening outside the shop.
“Enough!” Raven lifted her hands and prepared to stop the cauldron.
As if her words were enough, the cauldron immediately stopped. I fell to the ground in a rage, sobbing to my bitter core.
“Everything that I have loved has always been taken away from me!” I screamed out into the shop. “Now, Oscar will leave me too!”
Everything stopped shaking, moving and dancing along the floor. It was silent. I didn’t want to look up.
“I think I have completely lost my mind.” I stood up and walked over to my mother’s broken picture frame, oddly aware that Belle and Raven were staring at me. Both too scared to even say a word.
Ding, ding.
“It sure is wet out there.” A soaked Oscar rushed in the door with his key to the shop in his hand. “Why was the door locked?”
Everyone stared at him.
“What happened to your picture?” He bent down next to me and started to pick up the glass. My hands shook. He placed his hand on mine. I stopped and looked deep into his eyes. He asked, “June, what’s wrong?”
“There is something I have to tell you,” I whispered and stood up.
As if on cue, he stood up and left the picture frame alone for the moment. With a slight nod to go ahead, I took him by the hands and began to explain the mess I had caused.
“I understand if you have a change of heart after I tell you what it is that you need to know.”
There was a deep look of concern on his face.
“Yesterday a client came in looking for a love potion.”
“Oh, June.” He dropped my hands and ran his hands through his dark hair. “You didn’t.”
“I did, only it wasn’t given to her.” I paused, and looked down at my feet. I had a sudden desire to eat the entire box of Ding Dongs behind the counter, but I refrained. “I injected the potion into the June’s Gems, the candies that were left at the shop last night.”
Raven stood on the sidelines stroking her brows, waiting to hear what Oscar had to say. Belle stood still, rubbing her hands together.
“No wonder he was acting so crazy.” He laughed. “At least he’s a cat, not a human.”
“No, Mr. Prince Charming didn’t eat them.” I had to blurt it out. “Last night Raven said that she saw you checking on the shop and when you showed up at my door, you had chocolate in the corners of your mouth.”
“I saw some movement in the shop after Sorcery class and decided to check it out.” He pointed to the spot where I had left the June’s Gems. “And Mr. Prince Charming was going to town eating all of them up. They smelled so good, but they were gone. I grabbed one of your Ding Dongs from behind the counter and ate it before I came to see you.”
Then it dawned on me.
Mr. Prince Charming had been acting so weird when I mentioned the word love or anything about love. Instantly, I remembered the Hedge Hog and how Petunia told me that he hadn’t left the Hedge Hog’s hole.
“So you didn’t eat the love potion?” I reassured myself with what my intuition was telling me.
“Nope.” His eyes sprung to life. “Did you think that I told you I loved you because I ate the potion?”
Slowly I nodded and tears streamed down my face.
“I didn’t think there was any way you really loved me.”
“You are wrong, June Heal.” He took my face into his hands. “I adore you. Quirks and all.”
My pulse quickened and my heart leapt with excitement, as he set my mind at ease with the velvet warmth of his kiss.
Before I could say a word, Belle and Raven let themselves out of the store into a street full of children in Halloween costumes. The sun had reappeared and the clouds had parted. Everything was back to normal.
Everything except for Mr. Prince Charming. And there was no way I was going to take on a Hedge Hog.
Eight
It was time to make everything right with the world, even though I wanted to stay in Oscar’s arms forever.
“I guess I need to go take care of my ornery cat.” I pulled away and looked outside.
The Spook-A-Luscious Festival had started without us. It was time to join the crowd. I grabbed my bag and put Madame Torres deep in the bottom.
Oscar took my hand.
“Are you ready?” He asked. There was hope in his eyes. I nodded.
“Hi, Hili!” I yelled over at the face painting station where Hili was hunched over a little girl in a fairy costume, painting the little girl’s face with fairy dust.
“Happy Halloween.” Her brows lifted as she looked at Oscar’s and my clutched hands. This was the first time we had publicly held hands in Whispering Falls. By all the stares and smiles we were getting, I was sure Whispering Falls would not be whispering.
“Cute costume,” Oscar said to the little boy that was dressed as a zombie.
“Move over.” Constance Karima came out of nowhere and gave Oscar the booty bump. She whipped out her stethoscope. Patience was right on her heels with a note pad and pen, at the ready to write something down.
“Mommy! Mommy!” The kid ran away screaming.
“Nope, not near dead at all.” Constance looked at Patience and shook her head.
They both stopped and gave Oscar and me the stink eye.
“Happy Halloween, sisters,” Oscar waved their way, but I didn’t say a word. I already knew their feelings, and getting to Mr. Prince Charming was way more important at this time.
Besides, no matter how much I try to convince them that I wasn’t saving every soul on the planet, they still wouldn’t listen.
“Happy Halloween.” Gerald Reguila trotted down the street with his top hat firmly planted on his head.
He looked like he was headed in the direction of Golly Bee Pet Shop, the exact place I knew I was going to find Mr. Prince Charming.
“It’s a beautiful Halloween night.” The crisp night air whiffed of apple crisp and pumpkin pie as it floated down the street from The Gathering Grove, where Gerald serves the delicious goodies from Raven’s Wicked Good Shop.
“Nice night, indeed.” He twirled the edges of his grey mustache, and then pushed his round glass back on his nose. “Are you headed inside?” He held the door open for us.
“We are.”
“June! Wait!” Raven came running up behind us. Her black hair was still pulled up in the high ponytail and her apron was covered in flour.
I motioned for Gerald and Oscar to go ahead.
“What’s going on?” My nose wrinkled with curiosity on her sudden need to talk to me.
“I…um…need to tell you something.” She gazed over my shoulder and nodded. “I know it’s against the rules to read another spiritualist, but there is a woman who won’t leave me alone.”
I bounced from foot to foot trying to keep the excitement contained, and then fear struck me.
“She wanted to validate that she was there when you were having your little break-down at the shop earlier, but Belle and Oscar was there and I wasn’t sure what to do” She bit the edges of her lips. “She claims to be your mom. She even told me a story about how Oscar used to step on her homeopathic plants that she left underneath every single window in your house.”
I turned away and covered my mouth. I did
n’t want Raven or the rest of Whispering Falls see me fall apart…yet again.
“Are you okay?” Raven put her hand on my forearm, bringing my hand away from my mouth.
“I’ve always dreamed she’d come to me.” I looked left to right, trying to see if I could feel her.
“She’s not here now, but she wants to tell you something.”
“What?” Instantly my stomach knotted like a big ole dump of worry was left there.
“I’m not sure.” She looked around, and then leaned in closer, as if she didn’t want anyone to hear us. “Are you giving me permission to call her back?”
More than ever, I wanted to talk to Darla again.
“Yes,” I assured her.
“Fine. Meet me Eloise’s house tomorrow after work.” She rushed off, leaving a trail of flour dust behind her.
It only made sense that Darla would want Eloise there; they were best friends.
I clasped my hands under my chin and let out a little prayer. I wasn’t sure, but I felt like my face was shining like all the lights in the pumpkins that were surrounding Whispering Falls.
I was going to keep my little secret, even from Oscar. It was special feeling that Darla had sought me out.
“Are you coming?” Oscar peeked out of Golly Bee.
“On my way.” I smiled and held onto the amazing feeling that I might be connected with my mom in just twenty-four hours.
I walked in and instantly heard Mr. Prince Charming before I saw him.
Mewwwwl, mewwwwl.
“Mr. Prince Charming?” I held my hand over my mouth. He was lying on the floor, his long tail waving back and forth, but his face was stuck in the Hedge Hog’s hole.
“He’s been here all day,” Petunia informed me. “He hasn’t moved. I’ve offered him treats, tried to pick him up, but he won’t budge.”
Gerald, Petunia, Oscar and I stood watching my poor pitiful heartbroken cat as I told them the story about me and my love potion gone wrong.
“He did it for you!” Madame Torres yelled out from the bottom of my bag.
“Shh!” I whispered, hoping she’d hear and be quiet. There was nothing more embarrassing than being scolded in front of your peers by a crystal ball.