Needing to process everything that had happened today, I tucked everything away again, including my Power Ring, or whatever it was. I hurried downstairs and started setting out the antipasto salad I had prepared earlier, along with fruit and the crusty bread Sam favored. I had just grabbed a bottle of wine and two glasses, when she walked in.
Looking over the spread on the snack bar, where we usually ate dinner, she laughed. “Honey, I’m home. You know, Roxie, I could totally get used to this.”
“It’s the least I could do. I know I should probably go to my house, but—I just can’t. Not yet, anyway.”
“We’ve talked about this. You don’t need to go anywhere, right now. Let me go change really quick before we eat,” she said, already heading for the stairs.
“Sure, no problem.” I opened the bottle of wine and filled our glasses, then sat down to wait. Looking around, I realized I hadn’t seen Elmer all day. I wondered if he was expecting me to learn everything from Rosemary now or if he would continue my lessons, too.
Through most of dinner, we made small talk. Knowing how she was going to react, I waited until we were nearly done before telling her about the safe.
“That A-hole! I’ll see if I can get a manifest of what he had on his person when he was taken in. The gun? That’s huge. Neither of you ever got your concealed carry permit, right?”
I reached for another piece of bread, tearing off small bites, mostly to give my hands something to do. “No. It was one of those things we were going to do but just hadn’t gotten around to.”
“He won’t be getting that back, then, not without a fight and cutting through a lot of red tape. Not when he was caught carrying without a permit right after assaulting you. Even that hotshot lawyer he hired won’t be able to fight that.”
Relief flooded me. “I still have to go to the bank and take care of the joint accounts. I hate this.”
“Like I said before, just don’t do anything crazy like empty them unless you set up an escrow account for the money. You know how it will work through the divorce proceedings.”
I did. I just never thought I would be applying that knowledge to myself one day. At least all of our bills were on autopay. There was enough in our main account to handle several months worth before I needed to worry, unless Steven drained it.
Luckily, I kept the money I inherited from my parents estate in a separate account just in my name. I had used a large chunk of it to buy my Jeep Wrangler. Steven had grumped about that account and my ‘selfish’ purchase for close to a year. There wasn’t a huge amount left, but it would be enough to carry me through the rough times I knew were ahead.
I snapped out of my musings when Sam tapped my arm.
“Sorry. What’d I miss?”
“I was asking what your plans were for next weekend. Where did you go?” she motioned to my head.
“Just . . . trying to figure everything out. Bills. The accounts. What happened. You know—everything.”
“Rox, you are going to come out of all of this just fine. Better than just fine, even. How many times do I have to remind you who your lawyer is?”
I nodded absently. She was the best. I did know that.
I could tell she was itching to tell me something more but she waited until we were cleaning up before speaking what was on her mind.
“Before you object to what I’m going to say, please just hear me out. After talking to you this morning I started thinking maybe it would be easier if you had some help over at the house. Tess agrees. We both freed up our schedules for next weekend so we can be there with you to get everything cleaned and packed up. We’ll take pictures of all of it, of course, before and after shots, for any legal reasons that may come up. Oh, and I’ve also talked to Annie, she’s going to do all of the big cleaning. She even offered to help with any painting, if it needs touch ups or whatever. She’s excited to help.”
Annie had been Sam’s housekeeper since before she renovated this house, having cleaned for her back when Sam leased a loft downtown near the office. She was only a few years younger than we were and was not only a hard worker, but she often kept us in stitches with her stories. The woman was a serious man-hater and we loved it. We had adopted her into our group immediately. Tess had been inducted shortly after.
“What? I’ll pay her. I’m grateful for the help, but I know she could use the money.” Annie was a single mother with a special needs child.
Sam lifted her brow at me. “You want to argue it out with her?”
Definitely not. The woman was both proud and fierce. She might be tiny but she could take me in an unfair fight. I knew she fought dirty.
“I’ll make it up to her somehow,” I conceded. And I would, even if it meant slipping cash into her purse or dropping groceries off at her home.
I wasn’t the least bit surprised at everyone’s willingness to help. The four of us had been there for each other through several major crises. It wasn’t that long ago that we had all rolled up our sleeves and moved Tess from her apartment into a house. It still made me tear up, though. After the crazy last couple of weeks I’d had, I really wished I could share everything with them. Or even just Sam.
Chapter 12
Before I headed up for bed, I grabbed a glass of water from the fridge. It was purified water, run through a reverse osmosis system, so I figured it should be okay to use tonight. Sam had already gone up to her room and would be up preparing for whatever was on her docket tomorrow morning. Opening the sliding glass door to the deck, I looked up to check the moon. It was a fairly clear night and the nearly full moon hung low in the sky. I sat the glass on one of the little tables that sat to one side of the door and stepped back inside quickly, relocking the slider behind me. I felt a little foolish doing this, but here I was. What was the saying? If I read it on the internet, it must be true?
As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I looked around one last time for Elmer. Should I be worried about him? He had been in a funk since seeing Rosemary. If she was willing to help me with learning what I needed to know to survive with my new ‘abilities’, maybe he should really start thinking about going to be with Birdie. I made a mental note to talk to him about it.
By the time I finished my nighttime routine and finally climbed into bed, I was so tired I was positive I would fall asleep before my head hit the pillow. Surprisingly, even with the insanity I had experienced since coming home from the hospital, I hadn’t had any nightmares since regaining my memory of Steven’s assault. I usually slept like the dead, except for the twice a night trips to the bathroom because my bladder seemed to be shrinking with age. I grimaced. Perhaps ‘like the dead’ wasn’t the best analogy. With that thought I drifted off.
The next morning, I woke earlier than normal. I could hear Sam getting ready to leave. I thought about staying in bed but my morning bladder was worse than my midnight bladder. I got up and took my time getting ready, so as to stay out of Sam’s way. She wasn’t a breakfast person—or a morning person, for that matter—or I would have been only too happy to have it ready for her before she left. Goodness knows I had done it for Steven for the better part of a decade, even when I still worked full time.
When I finally heard the garage door close, I grabbed the Power Ring, as I now called it in my head, and went downstairs. I almost didn’t make it past the coffee pot, but I told myself this would only take a minute, and the coffee would still be there when this task was done. Once again, Elmer was nowhere to be seen. As I opened the door to the back deck, I noted he wasn’t sitting out there, either. Seeing the glass sitting on the side table made me pause. Had the water sat long enough under the moon? Would this even work? For that matter, would I even know if it worked?
Rolling my eyes, I picked up the glass, dropping the ring into it. Holding it up, I looked at the ring. It didn’t look any different. Neither of the articles had mentioned how long the cleansing took. Or maybe I hadn’t read enough of the articles to get to that part. Bringing the glass—with
the ring still in it—back inside, I sat it on the counter while I fixed my coffee, adding a generous amount of creamer.
“What are you doing?”
I squeaked and jumped, nearly spilling my coffee. “Annie! What is it with everyone trying to scare the living daylights out of me?”
“Who else has been scaring you? It can’t be Sam—you can hear her coming from a mile away. I think she starts talking before she even enters a room,” the tiny brunette asked, amused. Her trademark snarky t-shirt read ‘I’m actually not funny—I’m just mean and people think I’m joking’. She came over and hugged me. “How are you feeling?”
“Er, no one. I’m feeling better, thanks. It’s just—” I stammered, hugging her back. “I’ve been overly jumpy lately, I guess. And I thought I was alone. Didn’t I hear the garage door shut already?” I thought for a second. “Hey, don’t you normally come over earlier in the week?”
“Sorry. I really didn’t mean to scare you. It’s not like you don’t have good reason, right? That was me shutting the garage door after I came in. I got here just before Sam left but I was trying not to wake you,” she explained. “I had to switch my days this week because of Cammie’s physical therapy schedule.”
“Oh, is everything okay?” I asked, immediately concerned. Cammie, Annie’s daughter, had cerebral palsy. It was a mild form but still required regular physical therapy.
“Yes, she’s fine. Her regular therapist is out right now, so she’ll be working with a substitute for a while, is all. She said to say hello and that she hopes you are feeling better, by the way. That hug was from her, too.” She looked at the glass on the counter curiously, then back at me. “So, what’s this?”
Crap. How was I supposed to explain that I was recharging a crystal ring in water that had sat out under the moon overnight? “Um, that. I read something about soaking some types of crystals and gems. The ring has been sitting in my safe for a long time so I didn’t know if it would get brittle or anything. You know, like crystalware has to be soaked every so often?”
She nodded slowly, “I remember my mom used to soak her crystal in water with a little vinegar. She said that the vinegar would restore shine. I don’t think I’ve ever heard about doing that with jewelry, though. And I don’t know if it would affect the metal band. Probably depends on the metal.”
“Oh, well, I just figured it wouldn’t hurt.” Hoping it had been in the water long enough, I dumped the glass in the sink, catching the ring deftly as it dropped out. I slid the ring on my left ring finger, where my wedding band used to reside. “Do you want any help?”
“What? No, I’m good, thanks. Hey, that ring is gorgeous!”
Annie had too much pride to let anyone who wasn’t an employee help her, but she was always the first to be there for anybody else. Sam had convinced her several years ago to start her own cleaning company. It was small, but it had made a huge difference in her income. The biggest benefit was how much more time she now had for her daughter, though. She could have had one of her employees clean Sam’s house, but Annie continued doing it herself.
“Thanks. It was my mom’s. Or my grandma’s maybe. I’m not exactly sure. How about a cup of coffee. It’s still hot.”
“That sounds great. Let me just go get started and then we’ll talk more over a cup.” She headed through to the laundry room. In addition to managing the housekeeping and general household shopping, she also handled all of Sam’s laundry, even the dry cleaning drop-offs. Sam called Annie her off-site household manager and would be lost without her.
A few minutes later, she joined me again and we caught up over coffee. We both commiserated over men—her experience with her ex-husband had been as bad as mine. Worse, really, when I considered Cammie, too. His abuse was to blame for Cammie’s cerebral palsy. He had admitted to becoming frustrated and shaking her to try to get her to stop crying while Annie was at work. He had often been verbally abusive toward Annie herself, but had never gotten physical and she’d never thought he would hurt his own child. She was brave enough to divorce him after that and was awarded full custody. Her whole life revolved around her daughter now. Since then she had become a card-carrying member of the man-hater’s club. We often joked that she would be handing out flyers and holding meetings soon. Her typical response was that all women’s problems start with men—menstruation, menopause, and mental breakdowns. Not necessarily in that order. She usually followed that up with saying that if she ever ran into her ex again, it had better be with her car at 60 mph or faster. And that she was glad she had Sam as a friend and a lawyer. She could keep us in stitches for days.
When she needed to head back to the laundry and get started on the rest of the house, I excused myself to go back up to my room. I wanted to see if I could find any reference to the jewelry in some of the other journals.
I started with the journals first, after putting on the ring that I decided I would officially refer to as the decoder ring in an effort to make this feel more normal and less . . . not normal. Flipping through the first one, not actually taking time to read the details of each event, I noted how casually everything was written. It was almost as if reporting about supernatural beings, or ‘Others’ as they were referred to in most of the journals, was on par with what happened on any regular day for most people.
Dear Diary, I saw a vampire today at the market. Oh, and I think Carla Sue has a new recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie.
I groaned. Were jokes really the way to get through this? How was this my life now? Oh yeah. Steven. And maybe genetics.
A page recounting a witch sighting caught my eye. It happened nearly sixty years ago, according to the date next to the entry. As I opened the journal up fully, my thumb brushed the date and my bedroom disappeared.
I looked around, not recognizing my surroundings. Glancing down at my feet, I saw I was still in my socks. Great. No shoes. Oddly enough my feet weren’t cold.
Seriously? This is what goes through my mind when I’m—
That thought was interrupted when I noticed a young woman’s face peek around from behind a huge tree. I studied her for a second, thinking it was odd she didn’t notice me. And that she seemed rather familiar. Frowning, I followed her gaze over to a building—a parsonage I think it was called. A woman had just walked out of the building and was making her way down the steps. She looked around and then started walking in my direction.
I froze. Should I hide? I looked around, noticing the headstones. A cemetery? I took a casual step toward one of the larger stones, thinking I could either duck behind it or try to look like a grieving relative. In my socks. Ugh. Yeah, I should hide.
Ducking behind the headstone, I watched. The woman wasn’t paying any attention to me at all. In fact, neither of the women were. The first one had pulled back around her tree, staying out of sight, but still trying to observe the newcomer. I stiffened as the second woman got closer and I was able to get a better look at her. Her features were . . . skewed and kind of fuzzy around the edges. It almost looked like her face was a mask, just not a very good one. She started to pass between the tree the girl was behind and my hiding spot, when she stopped abruptly. What was she doing? Was she sniffing the air? From my angle I could just barely see the young woman. She looked scared.
The second—I wasn’t sure what to call her now. Not a person, for sure. Was she Other? Suddenly, it clicked and I knew. She was a witch. She looked straight at the tree hiding the young woman and her expression changed. She looked excited and . . . predatory. As she took a slow step toward the tree, I looked all around me. There was a small branch that had fallen next to the headstone. I went to grab for it but my hand passed right through. Crap. I quickly stood up. I could see the full-blown panic on her face as she looked around for somewhere to run.
“Hey!” I yelled. The girl didn’t react to my voice but the witch’s head snapped back in my direction. Her eyes scanned the area, passing right over me. What? Could she not see me? The young woman took that oppo
rtunity to sprint toward a car parked a couple hundred feet away in the small parking lot next to the building. The witch crouched and turned her attention back to her prey. I could almost see her gathering herself to chase her prey.
Heck, if she couldn’t see me anyway, what did I have to lose, right? I took a step toward the witch and yelled again. “No!”
She started and spun back toward me again, perplexion written clearly on her face. She sniffed the air once more and then, still not seeing me, turned back, leaping forward to chase the girl again. The girl herself was really hauling butt, making good time getting away. If I could just stall the witch for a little longer, I think she might just make it.
“I. Said. No!” I yelled, bringing my hands up this time. I don’t know what made me do it or how to explain what I did. I only knew I needed to do something.
One second the witch was moving, facing away from me and running after the girl, the next she was sprawled on the ground. She jumped up and whirled, looking in every direction around her, a snarl on her already distorted features. Perhaps non-features might have been a better description, I thought, shuddering.
By this time the girl reached her car and jumped into the driver’s side. It was a rather bright green VW Beetle. The original style, not the newer kind.
Seeing the girl was safe, I returned my attention to the witch. She was walking around in a circle, making odd signs in the air with her hands, sniffing the whole time. Just as she turned in my direction, the car squealed out of the parking area and—
SEEING DEAD THINGS: A Paranormal Women’s Fiction Novel (Roxie’s Midlife Adventures Book 1) Page 9