Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics

by Charles, Susan G.

  “It’s Charles Scott. My name is Charles Scott. You can call me Charles,” he stammered, still a bit shaken by their earlier encounter.

  Susan smiled and stuck out her hand, forcing as much warmth into her large hazel eyes as she could. “I’m Susan Henry, it’s nice to meet you Charles. Okay, so let’s start all over, if that’s all right with you. Now what can I help you with today, Charles? What exactly are you looking to remedy or fix?”

  As Charles continued to shake Susan’s outstretched hand, she could almost feel the waves of frustration and embarrassment washing off him. Charles finally began to relax, and as he did, he explained what was really bothering him, and his main reason for coming into her shop in the first place.

  “Here’s my problem. I have to give a big presentation at work on Monday. As I think you just found out, I have a hard time expressing myself. And it gets even worse when I’m nervous.” Blushing again, he smiled shyly at her, then looked down at the floor.

  Feeling suddenly relieved, Susan asserted “All right then, that is no problem at all that I can’t help you with. I have just the thing for that. In fact, it’s a potion made purely for clear thought and eloquent tongue.”

  “That sounds good,” Charles said, sighing under his breath. “But, it won’t have any affect on other areas of my, life, right?” he asked meeting her eyes cautiously.

  “Oh no, not to worry!” Susan shook her head firmly. “This is an entirely different kind of potion than most we make here – it won’t have you excited at all,” she paused and then added in a thoughtful tone. “Well, at least not about anything but your presentation that you have to do. But you will be very passionate about your topic and you will be self assured as you speak to your audience.”

  He smiled at her with relief growing on his face. “Okay, that sounds perfect. I could really use the help here. My boss offered me a promotion, but he told me that if I blow this presentation, that I’m going to blow the promotion too. So I can’t afford to mess up, you know? There’s a lot at stake here, career wise, I mean.”

  Susan stroked her fingertips lightly along the slope of his arm as he spoke to calm him down and to further encourage him to share. “Don’t worry Charles, you’re in good hands,” she promised him as she continued to touch his arm. With that assurance Charles’s gaze lingered on hers as if he might have something more to say, but he just couldn’t bring himself to speak one more word to ruin the moment.

  Susan turned to begin looking for the potion that Charles needed. At that very moment Susan was a little flustered too as she sought the right potion on the shelves. In fact, she could feel his eyes on her as she looked. It was an interesting sensation, to feel this odd tingling bubbling up inside of her. It was something she had never really experienced before.

  Sure, she found other men attractive, but this man in particular, this stranger for some reason, seemed to have gotten under her skin right away. What was it about him? Maybe it was because of how shy he was with her despite his handsome, athletic appearance. Or maybe it was because his touch was so warm when he shook her hand. No matter the reason, she soon dismissed it as she continued her search for Charles perfect elixir.

  Long ago Susan had resigned herself to a life of isolation, men-wise, that is. Her main focus was always on the shop, her craft, and the potions she, and her sister, created. Most men that she met did not understand this, and some did not even believe in what she did, calling her a liar, or worse, right to her face.

  As an educated woman, a business owner and a lifetime student, she soon realized that she didn’t have the patience, or the time, or the need, to prove herself or explain herself over and over to others. Eventually she just came to the assumption that if she ever did find a lover, then he would be the one to find her instead, and over the years, that had yet to happen to her.

  After a few minutes of proper inspection, once she regained her focus, Susan had located the appropriate potion. She double checked the label, read the instructions on the tiny bottle to make sure it was exactly 100% what he needed, and then smiled as she headed to the register.

  Charles immediately followed her over to the cash register so that she could ring him up for the purchase. She could hear his footsteps just behind her, and she found herself wishing she could think of some way to extend his visit a little bit longer.

  “All right then, are you sure you don’t need anything else, Charles?” she asked hopefully. “Maybe something to help you sleep, or perhaps something for motivation?”

  He smiled at her and lightly laughed as he shook his head in response. “No, I seem to be fine with both of those things,” he said casually and smiled when she grabbed the bottle to put it in a brown paper bag. He seemed to have found a reserve of self assurance from some untapped location deep within him, his voice lowered to the point that it was a husky whisper and drew her attention from the bag as he bent closer to the counter and quietly asked her, “Do you really have a potion here that divines erogenous zones?” His deep blue eyes met hers and held on for dear life.

  Susan was instantly distracted from ringing up his order by the flirtatious question. So much so in fact, that his bottle slipped out of her hand, rolling back onto the front counter. He immediately stopped the tiny bottle and sat it upright on the counter for her. “Well, yes, we do. I haven’t really had a chance to try it myself… but it seems to be quite popular and we do sell a lot of them.” Now it was Susan’s turn to blush, as Charles gave her a sexy smile.

  “Can you tell me how that works exactly?” he asked with interest, still talking to her in that low husky whisper of his. It was something he had never heard of before, and it had piqued his curiosity.

  “Well, it is basically intended to heighten a person’s senses, so that you’ll be able to feel a kind of draw toward the other person’s most pleasurable areas,” Susan explained in a halting voice. When it came to these types of conversations she was usually very matter of fact, but with his dark blue eyes constantly searching for hers, she instantly felt silly discussing such an intimate topic with a stranger.

  “Hmmm, I guess I will have to remember that one then.” He rumbled in a tone that could have been joking, but sounded very serious too. Since she didn’t know him she really wasn’t sure which it was.

  So Susan quickly grabbed his bottle and put it firmly in the bag and rolled down the top. Charles paid her, even giving her a tip for such great service, despite their bad start. When she handed the bag to Charles, his hand closed over hers for a long moment, and he met her eyes, before he pulled away to go.

  “Thanks for everything, Susan. I will be sure to let you know how my presentation goes.”

  “Please do, and come back soon,” Susan said quickly, her breath short. “I mean, to tell me about how the presentation went,” she clarified as he watched her. “Or for any other reason, I mean,” she sighed and realized she was babbling. Giving her a little wave, as the door bell rang happily, Charles walked out of the store, seeming to have a new spring in his step.

  After Charles left the store Susan sat down on the little wooden stool behind the front counter – all alone again. She suddenly realized just how quiet the store really was. With a dreamy sigh she indulged briefly in a little fantasy of her and Charles, and the erogenous zone potion he had questioned her about only moments before.

  They were half way through their journey, when Susan began to chastise herself for her imaginative, yet extremely detailed, dream. Eventually Susan’s face came down to rest on the counter as she sighed at the memory. But the cold feel of the glass startled her back to reality in a split second.

  Looking down the length of the counter, Susan’s eyes were drawn immediately to a little green glass bottle that she hadn’t noticed before, and then frowned as she read the inscription. “Clear thoughts and eloquent tongue” the little label read, in Emma’s elegant, swooping script. Oh, no…. A horrible feeling immediately began churning in the pit of Susan’s stomach.

 
; Oh, no…. If this was the speech potion, then what had she just sold Charles? Oh, no…. Looking around, Susan immediately realized her new bottle of love potion that she had just bottled was missing. Oh, no…. She double checked all of the shelves, and ran to the back to count – only nine bottles of love potion remained back there, still waiting to be labeled.

  “Oh no!” Susan gasped in horror, and ran out of the shop as quickly as she could, the little door bell ringing harshly, as she ran in search of Charles.

  Chapter 4

  Susan ran out the front door of her shop and immediately looked to the right and left. That’s when she saw Charles. Looking just down the street from her shop, Susan clearly saw Charles sitting on a bus stop bench only two blocks down. The brown paper bag with the top rolled down sat at his side, and in his hand, Susan could just see the glint of an uncorked green glass bottle in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

  “Mr. Scott, stop! Charles! Mr. Scott, please don’t drink that!” She yelled out, running like a wild woman down the street towards him as fast as her legs would carry her. “Mr. Scott, stop!” she called out again to him as she ran, now less than a block away.

  She watched, seemingly in slow motion, as he put down his newspaper on the bench beside him, sat back in his seat, bent his neck back and raised his hand as he brought the tiny bottle to his lips.

  “Nooooooo…! Please stop, Charles!” She shouted, sped up and tried to knock the bottle out of his hand before he drank it. Instead, she tripped, fell and somehow slammed into him head long knocking both of them to the ground. She hoped no one was taping that move as she felt herself flailing about in the air.

  “That would be the most perfect Youtube blooper ever,” she thought to herself, still flying in mid air. Then there was the sound of a man’s confused yell, breaking glass and an odd mixed sensation of warm liquid, pavement and even pain too – one that shot through only one of Susan’s hands.

  Once all the commotion was over, looking down, she realized that she had only cut herself on the glass from the love potion’s bottle as she tried to right herself on the pavement just by the bus stop. Lucky for her, as it could have been much, much worse.

  Charles was stunned to say the least, as he struggled to get to his feet. “Susan? Are you okay? What was that all about? Did you hurt yourself?” Immediately followed by, ” Mmmm, hey, that tastes like candy… and flowers?”

  He smacked his lips lightly, as he suddenly remembered the potion he had just partially drank, which also distracted Susan for just a moment. Then he glanced over at her again, as he brushed himself off. “Hey, are you okay? Your hand….”

  With a groan Susan realized she had been too late as she tried to stand up herself. Charles had already drunk some of the powerful potion by the time she slammed into him. Staring at the handsome man, herself dismayed, embarrassed and still a bit wobbly from the fall, she tried to explain what had just happened.

  “I accidentally sent you away with the wrong potion just a second ago. Just before you came in I had just brewed a caldron of love potions, and I accidentally put one of those in your bag, instead of this.” At that moment she handed Charles the correct little green bottle, miraculously unbroken after her fall, labeled correctly as “Clear thoughts and eloquent tongue”.

  Charles looked at the little bottle, read the label, then stared at her in disbelief. “So, what exactly are you saying to me?” he asked.

  But his eyes darkened with concern when he saw the bleeding cut on her palm. He was just about to give her his handkerchief to use on the wound, but at that same time Susan brought her hand to her mouth and, unthinkingly, sucked on her cut. Immediately, the taste of the buttery, chocolate and perfumed liquid blossomed on her tongue, overwhelming the metallic taste of her own blood. She closed her eyes enjoying the flavors – and then just a second later gave a second groan as she realized what she had just done.

  “Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!” Susan thought to herself, embarrassed at her rookie mistake.

  At that same time Charles was staring at her as if she had just sprouted two new heads. “That was a love potion you gave me? Susan? I just drank half a bottle of love potion? What happened to the eloquent tongue one I bought from you?”

  Charles sputtered at Susan, his voice halfway between amazement and horror. “How is that supposed to work exactly? So what does that mean? What do I do now?” He blinked, as if he was trying to get a handle on the ever changing situation.

  Susan sighed, took the hand kerchief Charles was still holding in his hand and pressed it to her cut on her hand. She took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts before she began to explain the situation.

  “It’s actually very straight forward, Charles. You simply pour the potion into a glass of drinkable liquid – anything you like will do. Then you drink some, and within an hour or so, make sure that the object of your affection drinks the remainder. If the two people are compatible, then the potion goes into effect. The magic basically allows their potential love and passion for each other to come forth,” she frowned before adding. “It can’t make anyone who doesn’t have the notion to love you, love you, but it can heighten the attraction between two people who do have any kind of chemistry.”

  “Ok,” Charles said, still sounding a bit confused as he shrugged mildly. “But I didn’t mix that potion with anything, I just drank it straight. And then I spilled the rest when you tripped into me, so it should be ok, right?” he looked at her hopefully, thinking he completely understood the situation.

  Susan slowly shook her head no before she answered him. “You took that potion straight,” she closed her eyes briefly as she knew what she had to admit to him next. “Then the rest of it spilled on my cut hand.” She showed him her cut, which glowed lightly with some of the remainder of the bottles thick, sweet contents, still on it.

  “Even worse, without even thinking about it, I then licked my cut, with some potion still on it. Now, that love potion is really strong, it isn’t meant to be taken directly in such a high concentration. It is always made to be mixed with something else. Believe me, I know this potion well – I make it all the time. Plus, it’s really not meant to be applied directly into the blood stream, or mixed with blood and drank. Ever.”

  Feeling a little desperate and terrible for the error and the accident too, Susan avoided looking at Charles. She was hoping that, maybe in this case, there would be an exception and everything would be okay. But she knew deep down that this was not the case. Instead of meeting his eyes she examined the remains of the broken bottle right beside her. Just as she had feared, both the shattered glass and pavement were completely dry – there was no potion on either.

  “My body absorbed the rest of the potion through the cut on my hand.” She swore, and attempting to get up, took Charles’s hand with her uninjured one as he helped her to her feet. The very instant she touched his hand, she felt a wave of heat rush through her like a pre-menopausal woman in the middle of a hot flash. She immediately broke out in a sweat!

  “We really need to get off of the street. Now!” She warned him with urgency.

  Charles followed her, still slightly confused by her sudden and urgent instructions. “Why do we need to get off the street? What do you mean? I don’t feel any different. I’m fine, really – is something supposed to…” and at that very second his voice dropped an octave and his hand tightened on hers as he suddenly stared at her and said, “Oh. You’re right. We Do need to get off the street. Right now. Come on! Come on!”

  After that, everything just happened so fast that it all seemed almost a blur to Susan. A warm and hazy blur. Susan gasped as Charles did not hesitate to swing one arm under her knees, the other around her body, sweeping her up into his arms and picking her up like she didn’t weigh anything at all.

  Charles then covered the distance back to her potion store in a few seconds it seemed – definitely a lot faster than the pitiful previous attempt she had made only a few minutes before
. If anyone on the street had been watching the pair, they would have assumed they were just two playful lovers, not complete strangers. Susan tried to calm herself down as he fumbled with the door knob with her still in his arms. Finally he opened the door to the shop and carried her inside.

  Charles kept looking down at her as they entered the store, with glances so hungry that she knew he could not wait to have the chance to enjoy. She too could feel the potion’s magic coursing through her veins. No, no, no…

  Already she could feel her heart was beating so fast and loud with longing for the handsome man holding her that she knew with complete certainty what would happen next. Even the subtle touch of his grasp was enough to make her dizzy with desire for him as he continued to hold her in his strong arms.

  Susan tried to do the right thing for both her and him, and she forced her words to go against her desires. “Charles, please, please put me down for a second.” When Charles’s grasp tightened on her, she pleaded again. “Charles, please. Please! Please put me down, I promise this will just take a second.”

  After what seemed an eternity of him simply staring hard into her eyes, he complied, and gently placed her on the ground. Trying to calm her breathing, Susan did her best to quickly flip the stores “Open” sign on the stores front door to say “Closed”. It seemed an eternity but she finally accomplished her goal and locked the door and closed the store, as the heat in the room and in the pair raised inside her small store.

  She knew there was no stopping what would happen next. It was just the magic of her powerful potion taking effect on the two of them. With Charles shadowing her every movement, his hands reaching out to stroke her shoulders, her hair and the curve of her back, she did her best to write a quick note for her sister giving her a heads up on kind of what had happened. It seemed to her to take hours to jot down a few thoughts to her sister. Even so, each one of his touches was now inspiring a new shower of sparks inside her that radiated over her entire body.