A Charming Wish Read online

  I knew if I told Raven, I could trust her. I had to tell someone before I exploded.

  “A real, live genie?” She sat down, looking out the window while rubbing her hands together. “I’d love a real, live genie.”

  “No you wouldn’t.” I stood up, shaking my head. “He’s clumsy and would have flour all over this place. Besides, he really doesn’t belong in Whispering Falls. He needs to go back. He’s going to be gone by the end of the week if I have to drive him to wherever he belongs.”

  “If he isn’t, I’ll take him.” She didn’t blink.

  I put my hand on the front door of the shop, and then turned around to find Faith and Raven staring at me. “Wait until I get my hands on Kenny for slipping that genie into my bundle like that!”

  I stormed out of the shop and down the street. Isadora Solstice, owner of Mystic Lights, was how I first found out about Kenny when I moved to Whispering Falls, and he showed up at A Charming Cure for payment when I had no idea who he was.

  She was the village council leader. Surely, she’d know how to get in touch with him.

  Chapter Six

  “I’ll be right with you,” Isadora, Izzy for short, chimed from the back of the shop.

  It gave me an opportunity to look around at all the fancy light fixtures and designs she had recently stocked on the floor. There were many different styles. Anything you could imagine and beyond could be found in Mystic Lights, even crystal balls.

  That was how I acquired Madame Torres, or rather she found me. A crystal ball picks their owner, not the other way around. Sort of like cats.

  The first time I walked into Mystic Lights, Madame Torres lit up the shop like fireworks on the Fourth of July. It was the most spectacular light show I’d ever seen. At the time, I didn’t realize I was part of this entire spiritual world, but everyone else in Whispering Falls knew.

  Izzy came to my home in Locust Grove, looking for a homeopathic curist to open a shop in Whispering Falls, only I had no idea she was looking for me.

  “June dear, I’m so happy to see you.” She shuffled from the back. Her normally perfectly groomed A-line skirt was wrinkled and her pointy-toed shoes were more tarnished than usual. “I’ve been meaning to stop by and talk to you about the village council meeting tonight.”

  Tonight? Damn! I had forgotten.

  “In light of the newspaper article, I’m afraid you are going to have to do a protection smudging ceremony.” She tapped the pads of the fingers together. “And another little favor.”

  “Yes, we will get to that favor in a minute.” I held my finger in the air to stop her. There was never a better time to ask about Kenny than now. She brought up the smudging ceremony and he was who I got most of the bundles from. “How can I get in touch with Kenny?”

  Izzy pushed her long blonde wavy hair behind her ears and her naturally pink skin turned abnormally pale. She stepped forward, curling her arm around my waist. “Don’t you worry about him. He blows in with the wind as you need things.”

  She walked me back to the door and opened it with her free hand.

  “We will see you tonight at the ceremony.” She winked and sent me on my way.

  “Wait!” I put my hand in the air. “What was the other favor?”

  “Oh,” Izzy’s mouth formed an O, and then she smiled. “We will discuss that a little later.”

  Before I could protest, the air was filled with Faith.

  “Good afternoon,” Faith’s voice boomed through the air, making me pause. I pushed the door to Mystic Lights open as Izzy pushed back from inside the shop. I had more I needed to ask her. I had to get in touch with Kenny and she was my only hope. Faith continued, “I wanted to make a quick news bulletin that is sponsored by Mystic Lights. Be sure to stop in for a crystal ball tune-up or a new light fixture so you can perform your magical gifts in the bright light.” She cleared her throat. “In light of the recent news, a smudging ceremony will be held at dusk at the Gathering Rock. There will be an impromptu village meeting following. All need to attend.”

  I pointed to the sky above me and continued to push with the other hand. “Did you hear that?” I questioned Izzy.

  Her hair was flinging side to side as she bore down on the door handle to keep me out. “Hear what?”

  “Let me back in.” I grunted.

  “June, I’m busy today.”

  “Did you hear the announcement about the smudging ceremony from the paper?” And by paper, I meant Faith.

  “Oh, no. I don’t subscribe.” When I let my guard down, the door slammed in my face, I could hear the clink of the deadbolts locking one-by-one down the door, followed by the clacking of Izzy’s shoes.

  Yes, there was a storm brewing. And I’m not fully convinced it all had to do with Belur.

  “Shouldn’t you be working?” I turned around to find Petunia questioning me. She had a long stick with a wire hoop on the end of it. Her soft brown hair sat atop her head in a messy knot. A few feathers that stuck out reminded me of Kenny.

  “I am.” I bit my lip. “Sort of. Listen, I’m doing that smudging ceremony tonight and I was wondering if you knew how I can get in touch with Kenny, the guy who brings my bundles to me.”

  Just then, the big ostrich ran across the road and back toward Petunia’s shop, Glorybee.

  Petunia darted off, shouting behind her, “Damn thing! He continues to get loose and I’m going to have to pluck him! And no! I don’t know how to get a hold of him. Ask Izzy!”

  “I did.” I ran behind her toward the Whispering Falls sheriff’s department, holding my arms straight out just in case I got lucky and got a handful of feathers. “I need one of those feathers!”

  We had the ostrich pinned between us and the sheriff’s door was behind him.

  “Do not look at his beady little eyes,” Petunia’s hands were out as she stood inches from the bird, ready to pounce. Slowly, she swayed back and forth as if she was about to launch, but I knew it was now or never.

  I leapt toward the feisty bird, grabbing a whole lot of nothing and falling to the ground. The bird took off and Petunia jumped over me.

  “What did you do that for?” She screamed, as she twirled the big stick over her head, trying to rope him like a bull-roper would rope a bull.

  The ostrich and Petunia show was much more fun to watch as she swung her stick in the air, hoping to get the metal loop around the big bird’s neck, but to no avail. The bird did a couple quick side-steps and Petunia lost him.

  “What was that?” a voice asked behind me.

  I jumped up as Patience Karima scared the living crap out of me. There was a deep-set curiosity in her eyes.

  “It’s one of those stray animals that the paper had reported. Somehow, we are getting an abundance of strange animals, including that ostrich.” Off in the distance, we could see Petunia flailing the stick in the air as soon as she was close enough to wrestle the feathery creature. He was much quicker than she was.

  Petunia darted to the left; the ostrich darted to the right. Petunia’s messy up-do began to fall. A Blue jay flew right out of her hair, leaving a trail of twigs to follow.

  Petunia plopped on the ground as if she had given up. The ostrich stopped, focusing his beady eyes on her as though they were playing a game. His feathers gleamed in the sunlight, dancing in the wind, teasing me as if someone was eating a Ding Dong in front of me and didn’t offer me one.

  “I see that you have a fresh soul to bury.” I said to Patience as I pointed toward the hill at the end of Main Street where Two Sisters and a Funeral was located.

  The spiritual world believed that if you kept your dead on the outskirts of the town, it would send their souls out into the world and not into the village to be stuck in the in-between. Petunia was all too familiar with the in-between souls, as they come back as animals. But not these strays. They were plan ole animals that apparently showed up overnight.

  “Mmhmm.” Patience was aloof. “Constance wants me to go to A Cleansing Spirit Spa to g
et some natural nail polish. He has a lot of tobacco stains that we can’t seem to get clean. He was a tobacco farmer. So, best we can do is cover it up.”

  “He obviously isn’t local.”

  “Naw.” She shifted her plump hips to the right, leaning a little closer. “It’s only a one person viewing. That’s it. No funeral. Nothing. They didn’t have a lot of money, but we are desperate. We jumped at it since you’ve been taking all the business.”

  “Now listen here,” I shook my finger in front of her face. “I didn’t do any such thing.”

  “Patience!” Constance called out from the front entrance of The Gathering Grove Tea Shoppe and tapped a finger on her nails. Her eyes lowered, giving me a glare to remember. “The polish!”

  Patience didn’t need to hear anymore. She scurried off without another word and Constance disappeared back inside The Gathering Grove.

  “Why aren’t you working?” Oscar Park sauntered out of the police station looking mighty handsome in his blue Whispering Falls sheriff uniform, his sorcery wand sticking out from the baton holster. His crystal blue eyes clung to mine. He had two cups of coffee, one in each hand. “I got you a coffee and stopped by to give it to you.”

  I took it along with a kiss.

  “You aren’t going to believe, the strangest thing happened,” I took a sip, “but I can’t talk about it now. Not only do I have to get ready for the smudging ceremony, I have to find out how I can get in touch with Kenny.”

  “Who’s Kenny?” Oscar asked, showing a little bit of his jealous side. Which I didn’t mind because it was kinda of cute on him.

  “He’s that Native American who delivers all of my bundles. You know,” I waved my hand in the air, “the one who blows in with the wind and out with the breeze.”

  “Vaguely.” He smiled. I looked away in a desperate attempt to resist the captivating grin. There was no time to play boyfriend, girlfriend. I had to get Belur out of Whispering Falls and fast. “I can see other things are on your mind. I will see you later tonight.”

  He nodded toward A Charming Cure. I glanced over. There was already a line six customers deep. Trying to find Belur’s real owner was going to have to wait until after work…after the smudging ceremony.

  Chapter Seven

  A Charming Cure was busy. As soon as one customer left, another customer walked through the door. One after the other, they filed in, picking up the bottles, reading the labels and placing them back on the table.

  They seemed to know what they wanted and my intuition didn’t go off like an alarm, which told me that everyone was in tune with their souls and real needs. That made a good day for me.

  Every once in a while, I’d glance out the shop’s front windows to see if Mr. Prince Charming was anywhere around, but I didn’t see a flitter of a white tail anywhere. He knew I would pester him about the new pendent charm, and I will.

  With a little time between each customer, I had to make a potion for Faith. I had a lot of concern over her lack of accuracy in her spiritual readings from her gift of clairaudience. Since I encouraged the Mortimers to move to Whispering Falls, I felt somewhat responsible for them, especially Faith. I felt a little pressure to make sure she started getting her readings as accurate as possible. Especially if she was going to have the whole community up in arms.

  Before disappearing behind the partition on the far end of the counter, I took a quick glance around to see if any customers needed my help. Slowly I inhaled, letting my intuition take over. Nothing was out of whack, or so it seemed, which was odd with this many customers in the shop at once. Everything seemed well with the world, so I flicked the cauldron on and began to think of Faith.

  Biting my lip, I closed my eyes before running my finger along the line of spices. I had to have a clear image of Faith in my mind before the right ingredients would jump out at me.

  Mugwort. I smacked my hands together just as the herb flashed in my head. Many spiritualists used Mugwort to help promote their psychic powers, and it was exactly what I needed for Faith.

  “And a little pinch of parrot dander, along with a pinch of salt,” I said to myself as I plucked the items off the shelf and tossed them into the pot.

  With each dash, the cauldron began to bubble. The glowing substance swirled counterclockwise until the sapphire colored mixture took on a cerulean tone.

  With my hands twirling over the boiling fluid, I whispered, “Hear today, lead the way. Help Faith predict the truth today.”

  Instantly, the substance stopped and the cauldron turned off. A faint glow, like a candle, illuminated the bottle shelf. Quickly I went around the counter and took the hot pink stout bottle off the shelf.

  “Excuse me.” There was a gentle touch on my shoulder from a young man that stood about five-foot-six with thinning light brown hair.

  “Yes, can I help you?” I held the bottle firmly in my hand. Like a lightning bolt, it hit me. “Actually, I’m thinking you are looking for…” I tapped my chin with my finger and started to make my way over to the potions on the wall. “This.” I took the hair tonic brew and held it out to him.

  He adjusted his glasses so he could read the label. He’d be a mighty fine looking young man if he only did a few things to help change his appearance. And from my intuition, that was exactly why he was there. The look in his eyes told me I was more than right.

  Meow, meow. Mr. Prince Charming scurried through the door when it swung open. Bella marched in behind him with my charm bracelet dangling from her fingertips.

  “I’ll get this all together and let you know when it’s ready.” I smiled at the man, and gave a knowing glance Bella’s way, but scowled at Mr. Prince Charming.

  She leaned on the counter, arms crossed, with Mr. Prince Charming backing her up.

  “I had to get this over to you fast.” Her eyes darkened with each word that escaped her mouth.

  Hiss, hiss. Mr. Prince Charming batted his right paw in the direction of Belur’s bottle. I didn’t even look that way, so Bella wouldn’t take note. But she did anyway.

  “Mm-hmm…” She gave a sideway glance, and then nodded to Mr. Prince Charming like she knew what he was thinking. “Just put it on.” She grabbed my wrist and clasped the bracelet. She fiddled with it and held my hand in the air as the bracelet dangled. “Hmmm?”

  I shook it. “Yea, something is off.” I noticed it didn’t sit at the base of my hand like it had before she put the pendant on it.

  Without another word, she unclasped it, scuffled across the floor, and out the door. I set Faith’s bottle down. It was more important than ever to get her to take the potion, even though it was against the village rules. But how was I going to get her to take it without her knowing?

  Belur’s bottle lit up. My eyes grew big. The last thing I needed was his big ole body dangling in mid-air with a shop full of customers.

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Madame Torres shouted from the crystal ball. “You better stay put!”

  Instantly his bottle turned back to normal and so did my heartbeat.

  Meooowl. Mr. Prince Charming rubbed up against the bundles of sweet grass for the smudging ceremony.

  “You are a genius.” I picked him up and snuggled him close.

  I could use the smudging ceremony to get the potion in Faith. I would make a drink for everyone to stay safe, only her drink would have the potion.

  Someone clearing their throat caught my attention.

  The balding man stood at the counter.

  “Oh, right.” I grabbed his bottle off the counter and hid behind the partition. Not only did he need a little hair thickener, he needed a little severed fledgling finger to help correct his eyes. He would be looking dapper in no time.

  “Here you go.” Vigorously I shook the bottle to make sure it was going to start working as soon as he rubbed it into his elbows. “Be sure to rub it really good into each elbow every single night before bed.”

  He fumbled with the bottle and adjusted his glasses before holding it an inch awa
y from his nose to re-read the label.

  “Yep, right there in the directions. Rub on each elbow before bedtime.” I nodded with a huge grin on my face. This was where the magic came in. Originally, the bottle said to use it like gel if the client only wanted to use it to help with thinning hair.

  My intuition told me that he wanted to help with his overall appearance and automatically the new ingredients changed the label. Magic.

  Chapter Eight

  “Can we go home now?” Madame Torres was not eager to discuss anything that was going on. We were in over our heads and I had to figure out a way to get out of it. Her eyes darkened as she glanced over at Belur. “It’s closing time and I have no desire to be in here with him any longer than I have to.”