2.5 A Charming Potion Read online

  Whispering Falls felt like we were coming home. Everything we learn here, we learn with excitement.

  Mr. Prince Charming darted out the door past Oscar. I watched his tail dance down the hill and disappear into the village over Oscar’s shoulder. There was a pit in my stomach that told me to go after him, but I didn’t, which left me wondering if I should listen to my intuition.

  Nah. It felt much better here in Oscar’s arms than it would to run down a field into a dark town after midnight after a cat.

  As if instinctual, I stroked the back of Oscar’s head, taking in the prickly softness of his short hair.

  He pulled away just enough for us to come into focus. Our eyes met. There was something deep in his soul that I couldn’t pinpoint, at least that’s what my intuition said. It made me nervous. Maybe it was leftover intuition from Mr. Prince Charming.

  “I. . .” I pulled away, not liking the unsure feeling. “I’m sorry to have jumped you like that. It’s just that I’m so excited about Hallow. . .”

  Reclaiming my lips, he crushed his up against mine. My heart jolted and my pulse pounded deep to my toes. I’ve dreamed of being wrapped into his big strong arms, but never thought it would feel this good.

  There was no doubt about the spark between us.

  He ran his hands down my arms and rested them in my hands. He pulled away and pulled me into my house, using his foot to shut the door behind him.

  “I had to come over when I got out of Sorcery class.” He grabbed me like a rag doll and pulled me to him. His scent engulfed me. I didn’t know who this Oscar was, but I was liking him.

  “Are you okay?” I nuzzled my head deeper into his chest, taking comfort there.

  “I had to tell you that I watched and listened to you at the smudging ceremony and it touched me.” He let go and began to pace back and forth between the kitchen and open family room. He gestured for me to take a seat on my orange sofa. “I was listening to you talk about growth, embracing change, and the renewal for life.” His voice trailed off.

  He was so handsome standing there. He took my breath away.

  Breathe, breathe. I reminded myself in fear I was going to pass out.

  He knelt in front of me. His nearness was overwhelming. My pulse quickened at the speculation of what he was going to say.

  Breathe, breathe.

  “You are right. We are in need of a renewal.” He took his hands and placed them on each side of my face. “June Heal, I love you so much. I had to come over and tell you. I couldn’t wait any longer.”

  He held out a small box that read: Belle’s Baubles.

  “Go on. Open it.” His smile lifted his eyes, deepening his tiny crow’s feet.

  “I love it!” The tiny heart charm with three ruby stones glistened. “It’s perfect.”

  “There’s a ruby for you, me, and Mr. Prince Charming.” He pointed to each one, and then looked around. “Where is he anyway?”

  “He has been acting so weird. He darted out the door when you got here.” I put Mr. Prince Charming out of my mind and grabbed my charm bracelet off the coffee table in front of us. “It’s going to look great on here.”

  It did make me wonder what Mr. Prince Charming was going to think. No one other than him has ever given me a charm for my bracelet. Years ago, when I was ten years old, Oscar gave me his mom’s old charm bracelet when he saw that Mr. Prince Charming started bringing me the charms, but since then it’s only been Mr. Prince Charming bringing me charms.

  As part of his fairy god cat duties, he was supposed to protect me.

  I rubbed the heart between my fingers and felt the sharp edges of the gems, hoping Mr. Prince Charming hadn’t known about this before, and that this was why he had been acting so weird.

  “Belle said to bring it in with your bracelet tomorrow. . .er. . today, and she will put it on for you.” He beamed and glanced between the heart and me.

  Shocked by my eager response to grab him and kiss him, I did it anyway.

  Six

  “Mr. Prince Charming?” I yelled out the front door as I tapped the swollen fatigue that settled in pockets under my eyes. “Here kitty, kitty.”

  Who was I fooling? Mr. Prince Charming had been acting strange all night. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was due to the fact that I had been spending more time with Oscar or something else.

  I put my fingers up to my lips, remembering the amazing time we had last night. It was the best start to a Halloween day I had ever had, and it was only going to get better with the excitement of the Halloween festiveness of the village.

  Seeing neither hide nor hair of Mr. Prince Charming, I got ready and headed down to A Magical Cure with my charm bracelet and Madame Torres in my bag.

  “Hold on!” Madame Torres turned a bright yellow, then appeared in the ball. Her flaming red hair curled around the ball, framing her rosy red checks and bright orange lips. “Have you forgotten that you have made a potion that is a no-no in the magical world?”

  I brought her up to eye level and stared in. “A no-no by whose account?”

  Granted, I didn’t know all the rules, but I knew most of the important ones, and yes, I did know, but I could plead stupid. After all, I’ve only known about my spiritual gifts a few short months. They’ve had a lifetime to learn the in’s and out’s. Surely, they’d give me the same courtesy.

  “You aren’t that dumb.” Madame Torres’s eyes zoomed in and focused on me. “I’m telling you, I don’t have a good feeling about today.”

  “Tell me what you think is going to happen,” I demanded to know.

  “I can’t pinpoint it. It’s just not good. And your cat knows it.”

  Without another word, I dropped her back into my bag.

  If Mr. Prince Charming knew it, then he should’ve given me a charm to protect me. That was what he had always done, so why stop now?

  Oh, well. I sighed. There was no use in thinking about it now. Adeline would be here any minute to get her June’s Gems and I’ll gladly hand them over.

  The town was already abuzz with visitors taking in the Halloween scenes.

  “Good morning, Karima sisters.” I waved, and noticed they were letting people try out the coffin’s they had decorated the front yard with.

  “Nope, not even near death.” I overheard Constance whisper to Patience as she helped someone out of the coffin. Patience wrote something down on a notepad. Constance glared at me. “Not such a great Halloween for us!”

  “No, not us!” Patience echoed and continued to write.

  “It’ll pick up.” I politely smiled. They knew as well as I did that I didn’t make potions to make people live longer. I only made people think about what they were putting in their bodies during time of stress.

  “Hello,” I chirped to Raven as I walked past Wicked Good Bakery.

  “Good Halloween morning,” she said, over the screams of the children in costumes that had surrounded her. Her eyes roved around my body as if she was looking for something.

  The plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies with a Hershey Kiss on top looked exactly like the witches hat Raven was wearing.

  “June, did you give out those June’s Gems yet?” She questioned.

  I shook my head.

  “Don’t!” She yelled over the screaming toddlers. “I’ll explain later! Use Ding Dongs.”

  Without a word, I stomped on down the street. Was it already all over town that I had injected a love potion? Who would’ve known?

  “Happy Halloween!” Belle smiled from outside of Belle’s Baubles. “How was your night?” The glint in her eye was bright as she watched with anticipation for me to spill the beans, when she knew exactly what type of bean needed to be spilled.

  “Hmmm. . .” I pulled the little heart charm out of my bag, “Are you talking about this?” I dug deeper in my bag and pulled out the bracelet. “And this?”

  I held my palm out with the charm Oscar had given me, and the bracelet dangled from the fingertips of my other hand
.

  I couldn’t help but smile at the turtle charm that meant protection, the Celtic knot symbolized insight, a dog charm that helped keep evil spirits away and the owl that helped me gain wisdom. And soon, the heart. The heart that symbolized the bond between Oscar, me, and Mr. Prince Charming.

  “Yes!” She squealed, and adjusted her shirt. No turban. Bella’s round cheeks balled up through her grin, exposing the small gap between her two front teeth. Her long blonde hair framed her face, and cascaded down her small frame. There was no way she was any taller than five foot two. “I was thrilled to hear about his love for you, even though the two of you were already written in the stars.”

  She twirled her hands in the air as if she was creating some sort of invisible love spell, and then she held her hands out. I placed both of the items in her hands.

  “I’ll have them ready tonight.” Her dark eyes cast down to her hands. “Are you happy?”

  Sheepishly, I smiled. It wasn’t long ago that you weren’t allowed to date another spiritualist if they had a shop or were a part of the community. I had a shop and he was the only police officer in town. This could’ve been a major conflict, according to the rules.

  Luckily for us, the rules had recently been changed. A lot of rules had been changed. When I first moved to Whispering Fall, Fairiwicks and Dark-Siders weren’t allowed to own shops, only Good-Siders; and now, Whispering Falls was leading the way in Spiritualist Communities by opening up to everyone.

  “It does feel good.” I looked deep in my soul to see if my intuition was telling me anything. Everything felt good with Oscar, but something was ‘off’ with Mr. Prince Charming. Chalking it up to my new relationship was easy, but still didn’t fit into my gut feeling of his off-behavior. Oh well, he’d come around.

  I jumped out of the way of a few children running down the sidewalk dressed in their best ghoulish costumes.

  “Happy Halloween,” they chanted.

  “Happy Halloween!” I yelled back, reminding me that I had to get to work. I was expecting Adeline to pick up her June’s Gems any moment. “Bye, Belle.”

  “Happy Halloween, June.” The twinkle that once resided in her eyes had dulled, leaving me with a bad taste of intuition in my mouth.

  I nodded, putting the feeling away and continued my way to A Charming Cure. Everything did feel right to a point, but something was just off. Nothing I could explain.

  “Happy Halloween, June.” Isadora Solstice waved her gloved fingers in the air. Her A-Line skirt had little witch hats printed all over it, and her pointy black hat with the orange fuzzy trim added to the look she was going for. . .a good disguise to her real persona, a Crystal Ball Spiritualist.

  “Nice outfit.” I taped my shoes together as I continued to walk up the street.

  Mystic Lights looked a tad bit scary to me. An orange glow projected through the store windows where Izzy had replaced all the clear bulbs in her lighting shop to orange bulbs.

  “We should talk about the Karima sisters later,” Izzy chirped from the top step of the shop.

  I nodded and continued. Izzy was the head of the village council, and I was sure the Karima sisters had complained about their theory that I had a hand in keeping people alive longer.

  Rolling my eyes, and when I was almost to the shop, I waved over at Petunia at Golly Bee Pet Shop. She was handing out animal treats to all the visitors who had brought their animals.

  “Mr. Prince Charming has been acting awfully strange today.” She pointed into the store. There was my crazy fairy god cat hanging out near the hedgehog’s hole by the living tree. “He hasn’t moved for the past hour.” She shrugged.

  “I’ll be over when I get a break.” The last thing I needed was a diva fairy god cat. Madame Torres already gave me a hard time; I didn’t need it from him too.

  As I dug deep into my bag for the keys to the gate for A Charming Cure, the Drowsy Daisies and Moonflowers hanging from the window baskets from underneath A Cleansing Spirit Spa stopped me dead in my tracks.

  Darla, my mother, would’ve loved all the Halloween decorations, me being a homeopathic spiritualist, and my relationship with Oscar. I wrapped my arms around my midsection. The pit in my heart felt like a heavy rock.

  I would do anything to see my mom one more time, or even get a validation from her that this was the path I for which I was chosen.

  “What’s wrong with you on this fine Halloween morning?” Chandra Shango waddled out of A Cleansing Spirit Spa. When she stopped just outside the door, she shifted her weight to one side and her turban to the other.

  “Oh, nothing.” I gave a half-smile. Without me saying a word, I was sure Chandra knew exactly what I was going through. She knew Darla when my parents lived here. I was only a baby, but still, she knew her.

  “Hey, kiddo, this is your first Halloween.” She dangled her hands in front of my face. Her nails were painted orange with black pumpkin faces on them. “I’ll give you a freebie.” She raised her eyebrows.

  “Umm. . .maybe later.” I jammed the key into the gate hole. There was no way I was going to fall for that old spiritualist trick. She wanted to read my palm. Sneaky psychic!

  Once inside the shop, I looked back at the door half expecting Mr. Prince Charming to run in, but he didn’t. He was mad. It looked like I was going to have to go over to Golly Bee on my lunch and drag him back home.

  He had to realize that he wasn’t the only one who could give me charms. He was going to have to accept my relationship with Oscar, even though he never had.

  Home, I thought, looking around the shop after I flipped on the lights. The small circular tables that sat around the shop floor were decorated in floor-length tablecloths, and adorned with stands of beautiful potion bottles, filled with homeopathic cures. It felt so good to build something so amazing.

  Ding.

  I looked over my shoulder when the bell over the door dinged.

  “Happy Halloween,” I said to the young man.

  He was around six foot tall with straight blonde hair and bangs that hung just below his brow, his green eyes set deep in his skull, leaving big dark bruised looking circles under his eyes.

  He mumbled something that was inaudible.

  He reminded me of a young Oscar. I remember when Oscar was a teenager, and every time I opened my mouth, he would grunt and roll his eyes.

  “Is there anything I can help you with?” I took a deep breath.

  Here is a college student who doesn’t believe in psychics and has heard about the shop. He is stressed and having a hard time sleeping. At least that was what my intuition told me.

  “Let’s see if I can help you.” I gestured him over to the wall where the beauty supplies were. I had a lot of middle-aged women who came in looking for sleeping aides as well as a natural Botox. “Are you a college student?”

  He nodded.

  “Are you a little stressed over mid-terms?” Even though I didn’t go to college, (well I did go to Hidden Hall A Spiritualist University to hone my skills) I did know that this was crunch time for most students.

  He nodded.

  “Are you sleeping?”

  He shook his head.

  “Cat got your tongue?” I snickered. Apparently, he didn’t find it funny by the ‘you are an old lady’ look on his face. “Hey, I’m just twenty-five.”

  “What?” He grunted.

  “Nothing. You need to sleep, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “Fine, look around and I’ll fix up something using this…” I held out a small blue bottle with stars on it. It was the most masculine one I had.

  “Sleepy time?” His brow cocked up. For a second I thought his lip was going to follow along with a little hip shaking and a tune from Elvis, but it didn’t.

  “I think you need to get a few good nights’ sleep and it will help you with your stress.” I wanted to tell him to trust me, but most teenagers didn’t trust anyone over twenty. “I’ll be right back.”

  Teenagers! I rolled m
y eyes and hid behind my little partition on the counter where my good ol’ cauldron was located.

  I put in a pinch of Aconite, which was traditionally used when help was immediately needed. I then added a dash of Kali phos, a biochemical tissue salt well known for its positive benefits on the nervous system. I finished with a shake of Nat sulph, which helps to support natural feelings of security and well-being. The swirl of the mixture caused the cauldron to immediately bubble into a murky, viscous silver substance.

  Hmm. . .I needed something to calm this potion down.

  I ran my fingers along the back wall of natural ingredients until I felt a spark all over my body.

  Chamomilla, duh! It was probably the most common ingredient that is used to relax the nervous system and support healthy, restful sleep patterns, and is particularly useful for nighttime use.

  Cough, cough. The sweaty, stinky smell of feet engulfed me. Yes. . .teenagers.

  With the silver taking a turn to a translucent substance that turned crimson in color, the cauldron shut off letting me know the potion was completed.

  Carefully, I took the ladle and scooped up a dollop. With the potion bottle top off, I held the ladle over top the opening and let the cure drip in. The blue bottle glowed red as the liquid settled in the bottom.

  “Here it is.” I made my way around the partition, and Adeline’s box of June’s Gems caught my eye. The opened box.

  “Thanks, what do I owe you?” He dug his hands into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a wad of what looked to be singles.

  “Nothing.” I shooed him away and went straight back to the box of June’s Gems that were all gone.

  “Oh my!” I picked the box up and tilted it to the side in case Raven had put some type of disappearing spell in them.

  Ding. The bell over the door caused me to look up.

  Adeline.

  “Hi, June.” She had a little bit of a giddy up in her step. “I’m so excited to see what you came up with.”

  “Um. . .hold on a sec.” I disappeared behind the partition with the empty box and took the phone out of my bag, dialing Raven.

  “Happy Halloween,” Raven chirped through the phone.