by Tonya Kappes
“That’s the problem. If you try to do the spell, you will destroy the spiritual world, not just the one you live in.” The words left my mouth, as I searched my mind for any intuitive inkling left in my body. I was fresh out of intuitive notions. Maybe some quick talking common sense would kick in.
“Unfortunately for you, I’m willing to take that chance.” Her brows drew together in an angry frown. “I’m a very quick Teletransporter. Since Faith was allergic to the Rosary Pea, I quickly slipped in the ladle after she pushed you aside like a mutt during Intuition Class when your ever-so-wonderful Eloise offered you the sleeping potion. Just like I added a little Rosemary Pea to Eloise’s cleaner.”
Hili moved around the room in swift motions. Never once did I take my eyes off her.
“It really is a shame, for a moment I really did believe that you and I could be friends.”
“Yeah, well this little stunt proves we can’t.” I made the crazy sign with my finger.
“Oh shut up!” She bent down and pressed her pointy little nose to my nose. “You are nothing but a little psychic.”
She straightened up and pranced to the other side of the room.
“My daddy always said I was going to leave a mark on this world.” She brushed her hand along the picture of the two them framed on her wall that I had been concentrating on.
“How did Eloise fit into your grand scheme of things?” There had to be some way to outwit her. A white flash caught my attention. Without moving my head, I looked out of the corner of my eye. Mr. Prince Charming was doing figure eights around someone that I couldn’t see.
Gus. Instantly, I felt much better knowing that he was there. He had to be teletransporting back and forth between Aunt Helena and me, giving her updates on what Hili was doing.
“For a professor, she really isn’t that smart.” Hili firmly planted her hand on her hip, while she flailed the other one about. “I guess you heard that your precious little professor is really---Just. Like. Me.” She shot me a twisted smile.
She reached beneath her cape and suddenly it appeared.
“Jeez!” I held my hands in air and tried to press myself up against the back of the couch to make a little more room between me and Hili’s magic. . .gun.
“Oh, yeah.” She waved it around like it was her casting wand. “This is my magic. I might not be able to find out the real Ultimate Spell, but this ultimate guy will do the job.”
Out of the corner of my eye I could see a faint light coming from my bag. Madame Torres?
My heart jumped, thinking that the spell Hili had performed on the magical world was dissolving and coming to an end. After all, she really wasn’t that powerful yet and her spells were just temporary. But she could do a lot of damage in that temporary amount of time.
“I’m going to check my potion. Now, don’t you go anywhere.” She aimed the gun straight at my forehead with smug delight. “Don’t you try to go running off, because I will use this little tool of magic.”
She disappeared into the small room.
Quickly I pulled my purse to me and grabbed for whatever was glowing. It was the extra bottle of protective potion that I had made for Faith.
In a split second, I screwed off the top and threw it at Hili as soon as she walked back into the room.
“What are you doing?” She stormed over with the gun pointing at me. The potion spilled out of the bottle in mid-air and sprayed all over her, just as the picture I had been concentrating on flew off the wall and smashed into her side temple.
A gun shot rang out.
The blast was so loud that I raised my hands up to my cover my ears from the pain. Only it wasn’t pain from the noise that I felt, it was from the blood gushing out of my arm. That was the last thing I remember.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“June? June?” The sweetest voice besides Darla’s that I had ever heard, called for me to open my eyes. “I think she’s coming to.”
Slowly I let light creep in between the creases of my lids and let them adjust until I could fully open them.
“Her eyes are open.” Oscar shielded the glare of the overhead lights; his smile was from ear to ear. He leaned down and whispered in my ear, “I’m so glad you came back to me.”
I started to talk, but my mouth was dry.
“Don’t. Anything we have to say can wait.” His lips brushed against my ear, and his words wrapped around me like a warm blanket. “I just want you to get better so I can take you home.”
Slowly I nodded and blinked, letting him know I felt the same way.
“Thank you, Oscar.” Mr. McGurtle stood at the foot of my hospital bed. “After the little gunshot wound to your arm, I was afraid you were a goner. But with a little nudging from the Dean, she let Oscar come.”
Aunt Helena stood on the other side of my bed. There was satisfaction on her face. She reached down and brushed my bangs down with her long fingernails. “Yes, Oscar will have to come to school too. But I think I’ll let Mac give him private sorcerer lessons until you are all better.”
I had forgotten about the gunshot and most of what had happened with Hili, but the more awake I became, the more I remembered.
I reached for Oscar.
“Is Eloise okay?” I asked. He touched my trembling lips with one finger.
“Everyone is great. You did it.” He leaned down. His lips touched mine like a secret whisper.
Beeep, beep, beeeeep.
The monitor reflected the thumping of my heart.
“Okay you two.” The doctor came in and made his way in between Oscar and me. “You have plenty of time to do all that when Ms. Heal is out of here.”
There was collective laughter throughout the room. Even I let out a little laugh. Oscar’s sweet kiss was exactly the cure I needed to get well.
The doctor did a couple more vital tests before he told us that I was free to go home.
“Home as in Whispering Falls?” Or was I going to have to stay at Hidden Hall and finish up my last couple of days?
“Yes, Whispering Falls.” The doctor shuffled out of the room
“So Hili didn’t figure out the Ultimate Spell?” My eyes darted around the room, taking in everyone’s expression.
“No. You killed her.” Aunt Helena’s expression grew still. Just like the rest of the room. “Don’t you remember?”
I shook my head. The last thing I did remember was the blood dripping down my arm and hitting my shoe.
“You hit her over the head with the picture frame.” Mr. McGurtle seemed to know all the details. “How did you get to the picture frame anyways?”
Mewl, Mewl. Mr. Prince Charming lifted his head off my pillow. Our eyes met. He knew as well as I did that my new power killed Hili. A new power I was going to keep under wrap until I knew how to really use it.
“Let’s just say she’s pretty quick with her hands.” Gus responded to the question, letting me off the hook.
“No matter what you did, it saved our lives.” Faith’s faint but steady voice called across the room.
Oscar moved and the entire room came into focus. Faith and I were sharing a room in the Hidden Hall hospital.
Raven gave a slight wave from the other side of her sister.
“I used the potion from your book, and it brought her right back to life.” Raven walked over with the Magical Cures Book in her hand. She laid it on the bedside table. “I can never thank you enough.”
“Or me,” Faith whispered in the background before she closed her eyes to take a catnap.
“Seriously, one day you have to tell me what happened in the cottage dorm.” Raven reached down and squeezed my hand. “After all, we are going to be running a shop in the same village.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“This would’ve never happened if I was the Dean.” Gerald said with a smug look on his face as he twisted his mustache around with his fingers.
“Well, you aren’t.” Aunt Helena scoffed back just before the Whispering Falls Grand
Re-Opening Parade started down Main Street. Her scar grew a burnt red.
After the stunt Hili had pulled on the spiritualist world, it caused business to go downhill. The lush Kentucky bluegrass had burnt up, but with the help of some new spiritualists in town and a chant or two, the grass was greener than ever.
We had to find a way to bring visitors back to our little spiritual world in Kentucky. With a new shop in town, and everyone feeling their best, we knew a grand reopening would bring the customers in masses. And it worked.
Main Street was lined with some customer faces I recognized and some I didn’t. There were already lines formed in front of every single store, including A Charming Cure.
“What do you mean?” I asked Gerald as he helped me into the back of the green machine. When they asked me to be the Grand Marshal of the parade, I asked Gerald to drive for me since he loved the green machine as much as I did.
“This grand reopening, because I would’ve stopped Hili before she let the communities get in a state where we had to battle back.” He took his top hat off and threw it on the ground.
“You listen here you old geezer!” Aunt Helena’s cloak flew open and her finger flew out, sharply pointed at Gerald’s head. “It’s about time I make it even after all these years.”
“Don’t you think you made it even enough?” Gerald smacked her hand away, just as a spark flew from it and hit the window of Belle’s Baubles.
“Stop it” Belle screamed, running out of her shop, exposing the space between her two front teeth. She planted her legs apart with each arm outstretched. Aunt Helena on one side, Gerald on the other. “I knew this day would come. But this is a joyous day. Can’t we all get along? Haven’t we all been through enough?”
I got off my perch in the back of the green machine, and jumped out.
“Let’s bury our differences for once and for all.” I begged the two of them. “Exactly what is this all about?”
Hiss, hiss. Mr. Prince Charming batted at Aunt Helena.
“You too!” I pointed at him.
Meow, meow. He did figure eights around my ankle. In the distance I could see Oscar clearing the street so the parade could start. I wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to be able to hold off the big crowd. Plus, I was anxious to get back to my life.
“Your Aunt and I were once. . .” Gerald cleared his throat, “an item. After I found out she was going to be going to Hidden Hall A Spiritualist University as the Dean, I became a little upset.”
“A little?” Aunt Helena leaned in. The scar on her face was the reddest I had ever seen it. She ran a finger down it. “Do you see this?”
Oh my! Excitement built up inside me. Was I finally going to learn how she got that scar?
“Yes.”
“He gave me the wrong direction to Hidden Hall on purpose and I was jumped by a Dark-Sider who wanted me to give him the Ultimate Spell. He cut me and left me for dead!” She drew her cloak around her.
“But I found you and you were okay.” Gerald sighed with exasperation. “As a matter of fact, because of it, I was banned to perform any magic other than tea leaf reading.”
“You deserved it!” Aunt Helena didn’t take her eyes off him and stomped her red-heeled thigh high boot on his top hat.
“You!” He shook his fist at her.
But her look was distant as if she was thinking about the accident.
I leaned in and whispered, “Are you okay?”
“He’s out there somewhere. “Her gaze broke, her face clouded with uneasiness. “I’m waiting for the day to avenge what he did to me.”
“That was forty years ago. Can we please move on?” Belle pushed her long blond hair behind her shoulders and put her arms back down to her side. She looked between the two of them. “Okay?”
“Fine.” Gerald picked up his hat and shook out the crease Aunt Helena’s boot had made.
“Fine.” Aunt Helena folded her arms across her chest and turned away from him, giving him the cold shoulder.
Without another word, Gerald offered me a hand to get back in the bed of the green machine. Oscar started the sirens on his police car. It was time to throw out the big bucket of candy to all the customers waiting for the magic of Whispering Falls to come into their lives.
“Oh get away.” Aunt Helena stomped as Mr. Prince Charming did figure eights around her ankles. “I’m in no mood to forgive two people in one day.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. No one could refuse the charm of Mr. Prince Charming.
With the parade underway, I waved and threw out candy to everyone.
“Over here!” The children called out for me to throw candy their way. “Over here!”
I waved and tossed it out as quickly as I could. With each passing face, I could already tell which customers were going to visit A Charming Cure for whatever ailed them. There were some with heartache, money troubles, joint pain, and secrets. I was ready. I was ready to get back to my life of helping people fix what they didn’t even know was wrong with them. And keep them coming back for more.
A dark shadowy figure caught my eye when I was scanning the crowd. When I looked back to find the figure, it was gone.
My mind recalled the first week I moved to Whispering Falls, I had seen that same shadowy figure in the street right in front of Gollybee Pet Store. Recently I saw the figure near the Gathering Rock.
Was someone keeping tabs on me?
I shook the notion. Whispering Falls was filled with all sorts of characters. It could have been anyone.
“Come by when you are done!” Raven shouted from her new shop in town, Wicked Good Bakery. Her long black hair was beautifully pulled up in a neat ponytail that hung over her left shoulder. She wiped her hands down her baking apron that had the Wicked Good logo printed on the front. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“Great! I love surprises!” I shouted back and threw her a wad of candy from my candy bucket. Only it hit the stripped blue and pink awning that hung just above the hot pink ornamental wooden door, and then landed in the cupcake in her hand. “Oops! I never said I was a good throw.”
She shook her head before waving back and disappearing into her new shop. The new shop that was right next door to The Gathering Grove.
“I guess you won’t need the green machine to go into the bakery in Locust Grove.” I shouted into the window of my old El Camino. Gerald could contract with Raven and they’d do a great business together.
“Oh, we do for the ingredients,” he shouted back. “Remember, there’s not a grocery store in Whispering Falls. . . yet!”
Yet. That always seemed to be the answer. . . yet.
I continued to wave as the Grand Marshal of our short little trip down Main Street. I looked behind me, noticing all the other shop owners waving to the crowd as well.
Whispering Falls was back to our normal, happy, magical community. My soul sighed with delight as the bright warm sun beat down on my uplifted face.
Even the Karima sisters were behaving. Most of the time they were running around trying to assess the health status of customers and spiritualists, with a secret hope that their funeral business was going to pick up soon.
“Hear ye, hear ye, and read all about the Grand Reopening in tomorrow’s edition of Whispering Falls Chronicles.” The voice rang above the crowd, catching my attention. “Whispers can be loud if you listen closely!”
A hand waved a newspaper above the heads of the crowd. I continued to wave as I watched for on opening in the people to see who the hand belong to.
“Hear ye, hear ye.” There was a little opening right before A Charming Cure. “Get your first edition of The Whispering Falls Chronicles.”
My mouth dropped when Faith Mortimer appeared, profusely waving the paper in the air. Her long blonde hair was long gone into a short razor cut, almost completely covered by a pageboy hat.
“Hi, June!” She ran over and threw a paper in the bed of the green machine. “Enjoy!”
I picked up
the paper and the headlines read: Wicked Good Bakery now open on Main Street, and Whispering Falls Isn’t Whispering About The New Newspaper In Town.
There couldn’t be a better addition to the community than the Mortimer sisters. They were welcomed with open arms.
We pulled back around to stop where we had started. In front of Belle’s Baubles.
“Thank you, Sir.” I took Gerald’s hand getting out of the back of the green machine. “You were a very good escort.”
“Why, you are so welcome.” He did a little bow. “Would you like a spot of tea before you head to man the big line outside of A Charming Cure?”
We looked down the street. Not only did A Charming Cure have a line, but every single shop did. Even Wicked Good.
“You know what.” I held my hand in the air. “I think I’ll take a rain check. There’s someone I need to see.”
I ran across the street, noticing Faith was already taking pictures and jotting some notes on her journalist pad. Her new job suited her. And she looked very happy and healthy.
“Wow,” the word popped out of my mouth as I pushed the big pink wooden door open and walked inside Wicked Good.
The lime green walls looked amazing against the jars of candy that lined them. The cake stands on each table had the most amazing assortment of cupcakes I’d ever seen.
The black and white checker floor lead the way to a room filled with Victorian style dining furniture. The menu had any dessert you could ask for as well as any tea that was sold at the Gathering Grove.
“So?” Raven snuck up behind me. Her hands were behind her back. “What do you think?”
“I. . .” The words were stuck. “I’m shocked. It’s amazing.” I ran my hand along the old Victorian tables she had rehabbed in an off-white finish. “Beautiful, Raven. Absolutely beautiful.”
She brought her hands in front of her. “Today’s special, June’s Gem.” There was a chocolaty round treat on the plate in her hand.
“Is that what I think it is?” My mouth watered at the thought of a homemade Ding Dong.