“Vickie, we might not be able to stay here. But I am trying.”
She touched my hair. I had yet to pull it back up. “I know mom. Don’t sweat it, okay? Home wasn’t that great anyway.”
I smiled at her. She was my wonderwall.
CHAPTER Five
Sven popped in while Vickie and I were downstairs and said he would open today. As I had no complaints, having my fill of Odd Stuff, both literally and figuratively, so Vickie and I bounced upstairs.
We settled down to a game of UNO after she whizzed through her homework. After an hour of game play, we decided it would make a great movie night and were torn between Little Shop of Horrors—her pick—and Corpse Bride—my pick. We played rock-paper-scissors and I won, so Tim Burton and the voice of Johnny Depp filled the living room. I heated a vegetable lasagna out of Mia’s freezer and we ate while curled up on Mia’s sectional. After rinsing the dishes, I rejoined Vickie on the couch and was soon lulled back to sleep, curled around my daughter. Vickie must have dozed off, too, because the next thing I knew Sven leaned over her and whispered my name. “Hmm?”
“Can you come down and take over for an hour, so I can eat?”
I glanced at the TV, which showed the main menu of the DVD, and then at the clock above it that read eight. I carefully unwound myself from the web of Vickie’s ever growing limbs and covered her with a blanket before plodding to the bathroom. Splashing cold water on my face in a feeble attempt at waking myself, I then plodded downstairs to relieve Sven.
I mumbled about the veggie lasagna, and he trotted up the stairs. Today his a tee proclaimed,
As I will, so mote it be
under the leopard print blazer.
I slouched into the chair behind the counter and watched a woman sift through the incense selection, carefully smelling a stick of each before shaking her head and replacing them.
The bell on the door rang out in merry tones, and three women entered the store. The first stood very tall, nearly six foot, with hair about three shades lighter than mine. Slim and reedy, she wore a Christmas-y sweater of snowflakes on a field of blue with little rhinestones at the centers. The next smiled at me, as short and round as the other was tall. Dressed in what I thought of as soccer mom wear—a button down plaid shirt and khaki pants, she was topped with salt and pepper gray hair, heavy on the salt. Her purse seemed big enough to carry a mini van.
The third, I’d met the night before. It took me a second to recognize Wiccan stripper, Julia, since she looked different with all of her clothes on. Her long auburn hair, pulled back in a braid down her back, framed eyes that glittered a clear yellowish brown, like topaz, and her face looked younger washed clean of make-up. She wore a black leather bomber jacket over a tight vee-neck top in pale blue and a sliver necklace of a pentacle hung around her swanlike neck. Jeans and black cowboy boots completed her ensemble.
What is the proper way to greet someone that cut their arm on a beer bottle to keep the vampires from biting you?
“Thanks,” seemed inadequate.
The only other thing I knew about her was that she was a stripper. But, “Hey, it’s nice to see you in clothes,” seemed tasteless.
I settled with, “Welcome to Odd Stuff. Can I help you ladies find anything?”
Julia smiled at me, and her companions followed her to the counter. “Hey, pretty crazy night last night, wasn’t it?”
I smiled back. She was genuinely friendly and I liked her, choice of occupation notwithstanding. I am sure my mother would have listed that under poor judge of character, but, hey, since when had I made choices she would approve of? “Yeah, that’s kind of an understatement. You wouldn’t believe me, but it just got crazier as it wore on.”
“You were with Vance. I believe it.”
I eyed her. I wondered how much she knew about Vance and how much of it was from personal experience. Not that I was personally interested in him myself, but out of curiosity.
The blond Amazon woman laughed. “No one knows Vance
that
well. And let me tell you, quite a few have tried. I had a thing for him myself, oh, about fifteen years ago?” She looked to the older woman, who nodded.
I looked at her closely.
Did she just read my mind?
“Yup.” She nodded. “I am very sensitive.”
I nodded in return, lips tight.
Who are these women?
“We are part of Mia’s circle.”
Okay, well the mind reader thing was handy, but a bit unnerving.
The oldest of the trio cleared her throat. “Yes, about that. My name is Delores.”
“Nice to meet you.” I gave a tight smile.
“And you already met Julia.” The Amazon woman smiled. “And I, the Amazon, am more often called Emma Hamilton.”
Heat rose in my cheeks, a sure sign that I was blushing. One of the many flaws to pale skin and hair is the inability to hide blushes to any degree of accuracy. “Nice to meet you all.”
“We came by to remind you that there is a circle tomorrow. I know you must be busy settling in, but we can’t have it without another female. We would be short and it would throw the balance haywire.” Delores threw up her hands with this statement.
I tilted my head at Julia and tried not to think anything dumb while having no idea what they were talking about.
“Tomorrow is a full moon, and we have circles to celebrate them. Honey, I told you…Wiccan.”
Why must everyone in this damned town call me honey?
“I think it’s the hair. I get that a lot, too, and my hair is too light to look like a true honey.” This was from, of course, Emma.
“So, it’s a party and I bring food?”
“Kind of. It is a celebration, but it is more ceremonial than anything I would call a party. Basically, we call on the five elements and then—”
“Five?” I interrupted Julia.
“Yes, you know.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Akasha—”
“Isn’t that the name of the Queen of the Damned…Anne Rice?” Told you, I am up on my pop culture.
“Um, yes. Well, I think she borrowed that. Akasha represents the soul, space.”
I nodded.
What?
“We are making this too confusing for you. I thought that you would know more because of your friendship with Mia.” Emma’s tone was apologetic.
“We are friends. I know she is a witch, and we both kind of did our own thing from there.” Julia looked at me funny. So did Emma.
“I mean, I am cool with it and all,” I tried. Sometimes I wish life had a soundtrack. If it did, though, right then mine would have had the sound of crickets chirping cheerfully to fill the dead silence. Well, not dead silence. That woman was still picking through incense sticks one at a time.
Once, in high school, I smoked pot, but decided it was not my thing. At all. When I went to another party and turned it down, everyone looked at me as if maybe, just maybe, I planned to get them in trouble. Like I was a plant or something, there to narc them all out. This was that moment all over again.
Only now, I was surrounded by three witches trying to decide if I was too normal to have told about their ovals. Or crop circles. Whatever. If they decided I wasn’t, what were they going to do? Turn me into a frog? I shifted uneasily.
“So, you never discussed what she did, or could do?”
I shrugged. “I saw enough to know she was good at what she did.”
And she saw enough to know I was good at what
I
did.
Emma stared at me. “What
do
you do?”
I glared at her. I should have had coffee before coming down. I was never at my best with out my caffeine. “It isn’t important
what
I do.” I crossed my arms over my chest. Like I was going to go into
that
with them.
“No, you’re right.” This time I could read her
mind, solely based on her expression. She was relieved. I guess she really didn’t care what I did, so long as I did
some
thing abnormal. Ironic for me, since I’d spent my entire life trying to be normal
enough
, and here were three woman concerned that I was
too
normal.
“Okay, well.” Julia cleared her throat. “All you do is show up, yes, and bring food. When we have the circle you just listen, stand there, and try to add your energy to the circle. If anyone has any thing they need done, we’ll do it. Then we’ll make some holy water and close the circle.”
I nodded.
They had a priest at these things?
Emma looked vaguely exasperated. “No, but sometimes we have a priestess.”
I nodded again. The return of bobble-head Janie.
Julia reached out and touched my arm. “It will be fun. Since it isn’t a big holiday, its just us girls. It’s fun to celebrate being a woman sometimes. Since you are newly divorced, maybe it will be good for you to remember the power that is yours as a woman. That’s what it is really about—celebrating being a woman, a creator. Celebrating what we are, and all that we can and will be. Mia was right when she said that you needed this anyway. I don’t think you take much pride in what you are.”
Understatement of the year.
The minute I thought it, I looked at Emma. She also lifted a hand and touched my arm. “I won’t pry anymore. We all have a right to our secrets, but you can’t blame me for protecting my sisters.”
I nodded at her.
Fair enough.
The older woman, Delores, touched my arm, too. “You have a right to be what the God and Goddess made you. Quit blaming yourself for that which you are. Take pride in it. There are no mistakes in Creation. Everything has its purpose, whether we see it or not. Fire destroys forests, but allows young trees to grow. Is the fire evil for destroying or is it cleaning for new growth?”
“Delores is empathic. She can sense what you are feeling, not thinking,” Emma explained before I could form a thought.
I looked down at their hands on my arm—one young and free of any blemish, one old and gnarled, and one in between. If I wasn’t mistaken, my arm tingled. “Yeah.” Emma smiled. “Your aura was dim. We just gave you a little boost.”
Oh, hmmm.
They left and picky incense lady came to the counter with her selections. She looked to the door and then back at me. “Be careful of those women.”
“Okay.” I flipped through my notebook for prices.
“They are funny, if you know what I mean.” Her eyebrows were near her hairline, and she shook her head at me.
“Yeah, I picked up on that.”
This from a woman who is blowing twenty bucks on smelly sticks.
~
Sven came back down, trailed by Vickie, PSP in tow. Vickie claimed the windowseat and proceeded to get lost in some game. Sven took over the counter, and I dusted things. There were quite a lot of things to be dusted in a store like Mia’s. I randomly picked things up as I went and tried to decide how they might be useful. Mostly, I was in the dark. I fiddled with a huge selection of rocks and herbs. Some of the herbs seemed useful, like chamomile and aloe. Others, like feverfew, had no use as far as I knew.
The rocks were mostly just pretty, but some looked uglier than common driveway gravel. Mia told me once that each had a purpose, but I could think of none offhand, other than making jewelry or paving driveways.
While I hung out in the back room and played with crystal balls and fancy cups, Vickie’s laughter rang out from the front. I peered through the beaded curtain to see what caused her to laugh. Still seated in the window, a tall, lean form perched opposite her. Vance, talking to my daughter.
Which bothered me. My daughter should not be talking to the walking dead.
Any
walking dead. I moved quickly to the front. “Hi.” Positioning myself between them, my smile felt fake and forced.
“Hi.” Vance looked at me in a way that made my toes curl a little, and I mostly ignored it.
“Vickie, isn’t it your bedtime?”
“Nope. I have fifteen minutes. Mom, do you know Vance?”
“Yeah, we met last night.”
“Did you know he can beat all the levels on Final Fantasy?”
“No. He didn’t mention it.” I looked at him. Somehow, the contradictory image of him playing video games tainted the image of big, bad vampire.
“I enjoy technology.” He looked a little sheepish.
“Uh, huh.” I quirked my eyebrow at him.
“Mom, can I take Vance upstairs and show him the rest of my games?”
I tried to say with my eyes that I thought she had gone off her rocker, but my telepathy skills sucked. “No.” I have no idea why I thought the child would let it go at that. Nothing in all of my years with her suggested she would just blindly obey me.
“Why not?”
“Since when have I let you talk to strange men?”
“My teacher is a strange man. You told me to talk to him. Also policemen, and—”
“Yeah, well, not Vance.” How do you explain to a kid that she can’t invite bloodsuckers to see her video games on a school night? The subject was one of the many things you think you won’t ever wonder about when you have a kid. Kind of like when she was younger and I had to tell her, “No, we don’t drink from the toilet.” As an adult, there are things we just know. Kids have to figure all of that stuff out.
She gave me the mom-is-an-unreasonable-ogre look, and I could feel Vance looking at me. Sven walked by us without sparing a glance. “I got the store covered if you want to go up for awhile,” he said in passing. I glared at him as my daughter caught my arm and up the stairs we went followed by a vampire.
I gritted my teeth. “Sit down,” ordered Queen Vickie. “I’ll go grab my stuff.”
We sat. Vance touched my arm. “Why does this bother you?”
I glared at him some more. “Why would I want my kid talking to
you
?”