by Tonya Kappes
“She’s,” ahem. I cleared my throat, “It’s not for sale.” I took the crystal ball from her and held Madame Torres close to my chest, knowing I was going to get an earful from my familiar once the woman left.
“Honey,” the woman grabbed Madame Torres by the bottom, “everything is for sale for the right price.” Her lips curled into a grin, her eyes narrowed.
“Not this one.” I jerked away and put Madame Torres under the counter. I pushed the bottle toward the woman. For a minute I thought about making a new potion for her, one that would cause her great stress, but didn’t. “It will be twenty dollars. You need to rub this on your hands and feet in the morning and at night.”
“You mean I don’t swallow it?” she asked, a little disappointed. She dug in her fancy purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill.
“No.” I shook my head and took the money from her. “It will help. I promise. Good luck. Next.” I looked over the woman’s shoulder at the next lady in line.
I had helped the woman all I was willing to help. Her pushiness made me a little uncomfortable.
Chapter Three
“June Heal!” The shop door flew open just as I was turning off the cauldron for the day. Constance Karima bolted in, there was a bite to the wind rushing around my ankles. Her beady eyes stared at me through her glasses. I could see my reflection. Her heavy black cape hit right above her full hips where her fisted hands were planted.
She took one step in the shop and used the heel of her foot to slam the door behind her. The windows rattled.
Rowl! Mr. Prince Charming batted the air and ran under one of the display tables, nearly taking the table cover with him.
“This town has gone mad! Mad I tell you!”
I looked around her wondering where Patience was. One was never without the other. Not that I had ever seen anyway.
“You have to give me some sort of cure for Patience. She has lost her mind with all these candy cane wishes and mortal children dreams.” Her fists pounded the air. Anger made her balled-up cheeks even more red than usual. Her pudgy body stomped in place. “Whoever said this was a good idea has lost it! Who was it?”
I stood in place, watching as she took one, then two steps closer to me.
“Well?” She came eyes to chest with me. Her eyes. My chest. Her chin jutted in the air, eyes lit with fire under her eyeglasses. Her hands planted firmly on her curvy hips.
“Well what?” My voice quivered, almost afraid to ask.
“Who agreed to all this?”
“The Village Council.” I walked around her and flipped the sign to closed. The police station was lit up and I wanted to stop by there before I went home to check on Oscar. “There is nothing wrong with Patience,” I assured her. “She’s a little excited about the bazaar like the rest of us.”
I rubbed my charm bracelet thinking of Oscar. I glanced over her shoulder, looking out the shop window and over to the police station.
He hadn’t stopped by the shop today. Granted, there were so many new visitors in town for the bazaar, he was probably busy strolling the streets but he had never been too busy to stop by, even during our busiest season of the year.
“No one in their right mind would wish all of this stress on anyone! No one!” she protested.
For a minute I thought Patience was in the shop with us. She had a habit of walking around repeating Constance’s last words spoken, but Constance was just repeating herself.
“Listen,” I grabbed one of the stress relief bottles off the display table and held it out to her. “Put a dash of this in your morning coffee. It will help you get through the next few days. Take an edge off.”
“Me? I’m not the crazy one, though I could use a good stiff drink to take the edge off!” She grabbed the bottle out of my hand and stalked out the door.
Lucky for all of us in Whispering Falls, there wasn’t a bar anywhere near here. I watched Constance jump in the ambulance. The siren flipped on, signaling an emergency, but she and I both knew the only emergency was her. The tires of the ambulance squealed as the ambulance made a U-turn. The twirling red and white light fit right in with the Christmas decorations.
The beautiful Christmas wreaths Arabella and Bella had hung up along with the decorations from all of the shop windows put a warming glow on the village. Even Arabella had gotten my window boxes decorated, which I didn’t even notice until just now.
“Are you ready?” I grabbed the bag and Madame Torres from underneath the counter. Mr. Prince Charming popped his head out from under the tablecloth and came out when he saw it was safe from Constance.
“I’m still motion sick from that woman manhandling me this morning.” Madame Torres was no longer her festive holiday self. In fact, her rosy cheeks had turned a putrid green. “You know I can’t take the shake, rattle and roll.” She replayed the scene where the woman with the mother-in-law egg problem shook her to death. “I,” she gagged, “I just might throw up.” Her ball went black.
“I think she’s done for the night.” I put her in my bag and looked down at Mr. Prince Charming. His tail jingled in the air on his way over to the door. I grabbed my cape and flung it around me. “I’ll refill the inventory in the morning.”
I locked the door behind us and stepped out into the cold. The air was nice and fresh. The bitterness ripped through the cape, leaving goosebumps up and down my body. The window boxes glowed with the larger-than-life round Christmas ornaments nestled inside with sprigs of evergreen and holly. In the center of each window box, she had put a "tree" of lush Oregonian decorated with small twinkling white lights. There were even lights and holly all blended in with my wisteria vine. A Charming Cure was ready for the Christmas Bazaar.
I pulled my bag tight to my body and hurried across the street. The police station lights were on and Colton was sitting at the desk with his feet propped up.
“Good evening, June.” He pulled his feet off the desk when I entered the station. The chair creaked when he sat up. “I see your shop is all decorated. Are you going for the big decorating prize?”
“Oh no.” I shook my head. “I forgot all about it until now.” I looked out the window and smiled. A Charming Cure did look lovely decorated. “I can’t even take credit for it. Arabella Paxton did it for me.”
“It looks nice. Ophelia is driving me crazy.” His lips pressed shut like he wasn’t supposed to say anything.
“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything to her.” I glanced around the station, looking for Oscar.
“What’s up?” Colton stood up. His six-foot-three frame leaned against the desk and he ran his hands through his messy blond hair. His eyes drooped on the edges. The puppy look was something Ophelia was attracted to, not to mention his surfer dude style.
“I was looking for Oscar.” I bobbed my head side to side to see if he was maybe in the back where his apartment used to be before he moved in with me.
“Is he not home tonight?” He tilted his head to the side.
“No.” I sucked in a deep breath. “He’s been working so much and I wanted to make sure he was coming home for dinner. I guess the split shift is a little more hectic since the village decided to do the month-long bazaar.”
“The split shift has been great.” He rocked on his heels. “Every other day I’m getting to spend a lot of time with Ophelia, though I do wish this bazaar wasn’t driving her so nuts. It’s all she talks about. In fact,” he hesitated, “I was going to see if Oscar wanted a week off so I could get away from all the drama going on over at the bookstore.”
My heart pounded. There was something really off. Colton confirmed they were working the split shift, but Oscar wasn’t. He was working every day, not every other day nor was he stopping in the shop to see me, not that he had to.
My bag glowed, letting me know Madame Torres had something to tell me. I snugged it closer. There was no way I could pull her out and see what she needed while Colton was in front of me.
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle a
ll the way. Mr. Prince Charming flicked the jolly jingle in the air with the bells attached to his tail.
Colton laughed, grabbing the ringing phone. “Whispering Falls Police. This is Sheriff Lance.” He paused. “I’ll be right there.” He slammed down the phone. “Sorry to cut our visit short. I’ve got a theft in progress at Bella’s Baubles.”
Both of us rushed out of the police station and down the street, weaving in and out of the last minute shoppers of the day.
“What happened?” I wrapped my arms around Bella.
She stood in front of Bella’s Baubles shivering with no coat on. I tried to keep the cutting wind rushing down from the mountains through Whispering Falls off of her but I realized it was her nerves causing her teeth to rattle.
Colton had his flashlight out looking around the crime scene. I looked around to see where Oscar was. I figured if he was out and about making sure the shop owners were okay with the new bazaar shoppers, or keeping an eye on things, he’d get wind of the theft. Plus everyone was gathered around us. Everyone but him.
The snow was falling at a fast rate, it was hard to stand there and not shiver.
“I was having the best day. New customers bringing in new business, plus the old ones came in. I was so busy that I haven’t left the shop until a few minutes ago when I closed. I was going to go over to The Gathering Grove to grab a cup of Nightfall tea when I noticed,” her voice cracked, a glazed look of despair began to spread over her face.
The pink Christmas trees were gone; the garland around the door was gone. The only thing left was a couple broken ornaments which had been smashed like they were trampled.
“I have no idea who could’ve done this.” She buried her face into her hands.
I bit my lip until it throbbed like my pulse. It felt like ice was spreading through my stomach as my intuition told me this was not the last we were going to see of the Whispering Falls Grinch.
Chapter Four
“I can see why someone would want to rip this happy ho-ho stuff out of their life.” Petunia groaned with a warm cup of decaffeinated tea between her hands as we gathered in Ever After Books after hours while Colton did the best he could trying to find any type of evidence. It was very hard since the entire area was covered in snow.
Ophelia Biblio had a roaring fire in the floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. The large comfy couches were filled with me, Petunia, Chandra, Bella, Ophelia and the Karima sisters. I think we were all stunned. I would call it vandalism more than theft, but Bella insisted they stole her decorations because they were expensive.
I’m not a cop or investigator, but from what I could see from the crime scene, most of her ornaments were smashed and all the greenery was gone. Then again, the thief could’ve been in a hurry, which explained how the garland was ripped away from her door.
“I told Gerald this whole Christmas time makes people crazy.” She rubbed her belly before setting the tea cup on her stomach. “All of this.” She jutted her finger toward the Christmas tree Ophelia had put up next to the fireplace. “Makes everyone nuts.”
“I agree.” Constance Karima nodded her head, giving Patience the wonky eye. The nose of Rudolph, on her sweater, blinked at an alarmingly fast right. “Nuts.”
“Nuts,” Patience agreed and nodded, the antler headband jingled. She had the rounder face of the two sisters. Her eyes were also beady and covered with a pair of glasses. Both had short grey hair curled against their head.
The sisters usually dressed the same in their housedresses, but not today as they were in their Christmas glory.
“You are one of them.” Constance poked Patience in the side.
“Ouch. Am not.” Patience crossed her arms and huffed.
“Are too,” Constance protested.
“Not.”
“Too.”
“Okay, let’s just say that we all agree we aren’t all equipped for this holiday.” Petunia was looking for someone to agree with her while doing her Presidential duties of keeping the peace.
“Truth be told,” Chandra adjusted her red turban with the embroidered holly leaves on top of her head. “I’m kinda liking the new business. I mean,” she gulped, knowing the evil stares she was getting. “I like using my gift to tell everyone how nice their Christmas is going to turn out even though they might be stressed now. I can see a positive change in their mood from the time they come in until the time they leave.” She smiled, pride written all over her face.
“What do you think of all of this, June?” Ophelia asked. She walked over to her tree and adjusted the crow ornaments. They were by far the largest ornaments on the tree. Their long feathers took up a lot of space.
She had decided to use ornaments that reminded her of the bookshop. There were small book ornaments, decoupage pages from books, quotes from authors, the crows and several colored balls. The tree had the lights that were all different colors and blinked off and on.
“I’m not sure.” I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings nor did I want to alarm them by saying I felt like something was wrong and we hadn’t seen the last of the Whispering Falls Grinch. Besides, I was having a hard time figuring out if my intuition was on high alert because of the thief or my situation with Oscar. “I think we make it what it is. We do the best we can and reevaluate at the end of the bazaar to see if it was worth it.”
“You mean because of the budget?” Petunia asked. “I’m sure Oscar has a lot to say about that.”
“Why?” I asked, curiosity overcoming me. I looked at my watch, it was already after eight p.m. and I hadn’t seen him all day.
“What about the prize for the best decorations?” Constance asked, rubbing her hands together.
“That is what you can think about at a time like this?” Bella jumped to her feet, shaking her finger at the Karima sisters. “Shame on you!”
“I told you this was not a good idea, but nooooo.” Petunia took the cup off of her stomach and placed it on the end table next to her. Her nose curled at the Santa figurine sitting on the table. She put her hand out for Bella to help her up. She pushed up to stand. “Noooo.” Her lips formed a big round O. “No one wanted to listen to the Village President.”
One of the crow ornaments wasn’t an ornament. It flew off the tree and landed on Petunia’s shoulder, losing a few of its feathers on the flight down the aisle.
The Karima sisters, Chandra, Bella and I watched as Petunia waddled to the door of the shop.
“If there is anything I can do to get rid of this mess,” Petunia ripped the tinsel off the door that had fallen down, landing on her face, “I would!” She threw the door open and swayed side to side on her way out into the snowy street.
My phone chirped from the bottom of my bag. The others busied themselves talking about how the holiday cheer was anything but cheery as I read my text from Oscar.
“Are you okay?” Ophelia asked.
“I’m fine.” I shook off my feeling of sickness. My intuition was having a battle deep inside me. Oscar had said he was snowed in at his house in Locust Grove. He said he was checking on the house to make sure the plumbing wasn’t going to burst with the cold temperatures and now the snow was too deep for him to get back.
One part was telling me something horrible was brewing in Whispering Falls while the other part was telling me something was wrong with Oscar.
“You don’t look fine.” She sat down, drowning out the others. “It’s this stupid holiday, isn’t it?”
“No.” I did my best fake giggle to not give off any clues that my intuition was on high alert.
“You can admit this all sucks. In fact,” she leaned in and whispered, “I told Colton I hated it. That tree was originally decorated with crows, witch hats, spell books and sage sticks. He told me I had to change it.” She sucked in a deep breath; her long honey hair fell over her shoulder.
Over the next thirty minutes we didn’t talk about the bazaar, we tried to come up with ideas for the coming year to improve our economy.
&nb
sp; “Ladies, we must be going.” Constance and Patience stood up.
“Must be,” Patience repeated and wrung her hands, “going.”
“We will be over to your place first thing in the morning to get a protection mojo pouch.” Constance tapped my arm. “And it better be good,” she warned.
“Better be,” Patience pushed her glasses up on her nose. The two sisters crept down the aisle and out of the door.
“Those two.” Chandra didn’t have to say another word because we knew exactly what she meant.
The Karima sisters didn’t worry about anyone but themselves. They had a mind of their own and did their own thing—right, wrong, or indifferent. It didn’t matter how much protection I put in their mojo bag, it would never be enough for them.
“I’m going to be heading out too.” I held my bag close to me. I knew I wasn’t supposed to read other spiritualists because it was against rule number one of the village. No other spiritualist can read another without permission. It was our job to create our own path. But my own path included me. . .and Oscar. Right? If he was up to no good, I needed to know.
I rubbed my ring finger where my mom’s engagement ring from my father hadn’t been taken off since Oscar proposed to me. Surely he couldn’t be doing something to hurt our future. He was definitely hiding something.
“I’ll go with you.” Chandra grabbed her cloak off the arm of one of the couches and flung it around her. “Thank you for the lovely evening of friends.”
“Nothing lovely about it.” The crease between Ophelia’s eyes deepened. “We were here to discuss the thief. Nothing got accomplished. All it does is take Colton away from me even more. Especially since Oscar is in Locust Grove.”
“About that.” I stopped, wanting to ask her if Colton and Oscar’s schedule was still the agreed upon shared shift. How did she know Oscar was in Locust Grove? Had he called Colton before me? Did Colton tell Ophelia he had to work longer tonight?
“Hurry! Come quick!” Petunia shuffled through the door. “I was cleaning up the mess those puppies made in the window and I saw someone run by with a bunch of Christmas stuff! The moonlight followed them like a flashlight! In the woods!” She pointed. “I’m not sure what I really saw. I just saw something and garland was flapping in the wind.”