A Charming Wish (3 page)

“
All in trouble,” Patience
echoed in a hushed whispered, never once taking her eyes off that
ostrich.

Chapter Three

“
Whew! That was close!”
The purple guy stood right behind me when I turned
around.

“
Geez!” I put my hand on
my heart. “You scared me!”

“
You knew I was
here.”

“
I told you he was
trouble.” Madame Torres appeared in the crystal ball. This time,
her hair was tucked up under a bright yellow turban with a lime
green jewel positioned in the middle. Her eyes were lined in black
liner, with thick mascara heavily applied to her lashes, along with
red-rosy rouge and lipstick.

“
If you know there is
trouble in my future, aren’t you supposed to tell me?” I reminded
her of her duties as my crystal ball.

“
You need to send her back
to get fixed.” Mister purple guy whispered in my ear, only it
wasn’t much of a whisper.

“
Oh shut up!” Madame
Torres boomed.

“
You shut up!” He yelled
back. “You are mad because you are stuck in that little round glass
while I can hop in and out of mine.”

He floated in and out of his fancy
bottle to prove a point, a trail of smoke following him.

Madame Torres huffed and her ball went
black.

“
Stop!” I yelled at him on
one of his return trips to his bottle. “If I wanted to police
children, I would have had some of my own.”

“
Ta-da!” He said, sticking
his foot out, arms extended to the side, with a big smile on his
face. “Now you have me. Your wish is my command.”

“
Listen closely,” I warned
him. “I’m not going to wish anything. I’m going to find out exactly
where you came from and return you to your rightful owner.
Where
did
you
come from?”

“
Belur here, and I am here
to serve you, Master.” He stayed in his “ta-da” position with his
mouth wide open in the biggest grin I had ever seen. “You opened
the lid, so now I owe you.”

“
I understand that.” I
took a deep breath. “Belur?”

Pride was on his face as he nodded up
and down.

“
Who had you before me?” I
asked. This way I could give him back to his rightful owner and get
on with my day.

Tsk,
tsk
. He wagged his finger in front of me.
“That is top secret! I can’t tell you that. I’ve been with
diplomats from all over the world. If I revealed all my masters I’d
be breaking the number one genie rule.” He blew on his knuckles and
then polished them off on his small green bedazzled vest. “The
things I could tell you,” he cackled. “Especially all the affairs
and bad dealings I was into when my master was a Hollywood
star.”

“
Great,” I held the bottle
up and faced the opening toward him, “a loose-lipped genie.” I
shoved the bottle toward him.

It sucked him back in, leaving a trail
of purple smoke behind, just in time for the bell over the shop
door to ding again, letting me know someone was there.

“
Adeline, how are you?” I
rushed over to one of my biggest customers; at least she has been
over the past couple of months.

“
I don’t know, June.” She
leaned her small frame against the door, letting out a sigh. She
wrapped a strand of her sandy blonde hair behind her ear. “For some
reason, I woke up this morning and was feeling a little. .
.”

“
Off?” I eyed
her.

She snapped her finger and pointed at
me. “Yes, off.” She smiled, letting those beautiful teeth gleam. “I
knew you’d know what to do. I swear---you are way better than my
doctor.”

I watched her walk around the shop as
she babbled on about how she didn’t like to go to her doctor’s
office anymore because they didn’t get her like I did. But, I
wasn’t so convinced I was ‘getting’ her.

“
You really should go to
your doctor.” I encouraged her. “I’m not a doctor. I just know how
to put herbs together.”

Every shop owner in Whispering Falls
has a psychic power with a magical twist. I just happen to be able
to read what’s wrong with someone. They might think they were
having heartburn, when in reality they were sick from a broken
heart. Of course, I gave them a remedy with a little extra umph in
it from my handy dandy cauldron.

The entire village is
magical.

To an outsider, Whispering Falls was
just a tiny town with a population of five hundred, set in the
foothills of a few mountains in Kentucky. Most people who visited
our little village didn’t know how special we really were, but they
felt the magic while they were here, which was why they continued
to come back for more. Adeline was no different.

The first time I met her, she thought
she needed a little help in the love department, when in actuality
she only needed a little self-confidence.

“
You knew I was ‘off’.”
She rolled her eyes, and then continued to check out the shelf with
the potion bottle sitting on top. “They say it is all in my head.
They make me feel like I’m crazy.”

Her words floated around
in the air, giving my instinct a run for its money. I couldn’t get
a grasp on what was off either.
Feeling a
little crazy?

Hmmm…I had to take that as a clue to
her inward feeling, but what was really going on?

The more she talked, the more my
stomach ached. I had always been able to read someone, good or
bad.

I shook my head and swallowed. Belur
must have put me all out of whack.

“
And I want my remedy put
in
that
bottle.”
Adeline rolled up on her toes, her eyes sparkling as she tapped
Belur’s genie bottle. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Well, not
in person. It kinda reminds me of that really old show. . .” She
brought her finger to her chin and tapped it as if trying to
remember.

“
I Dream of Jeannie?” I
finished her sentence.

She snapped again, “Yep! See, I told
you, you are good.”

Adeline was a great customer, but she
wasn’t the brightest bulb in the room.

“
Anyway, I love it! And
that is the one I want.” She reached out to grasp it.

“
Stop!” I shrieked. She
quickly dropped her hand. “I mean, I’m not sure you
need
anything.”

There had never been a time I hadn’t
given the customer exactly what they wanted. Granted, bottles
glowed when they got the right potion mix, and on occasion, I did
let the customer pick. Since Adeline had been a great customer, she
was used to coming in and picking out a bottle.

“
But it speaks to me, just
like you say, ‘pick a bottle that speaks to you.’” She reminded me
of what I tell every single customer who walks through the door of
A Charming Cure. “Plus you said I was ‘off’.”

I took her by the shoulders and
steered her away from the counter.

“
I did say that, but you
don’t need a potion today.” I smiled and shook my head, my bob
swinging back and forth. “You need to do yoga.”

“
Yoga?” Adeline’s eyes
popped open. “Really?”

“
Yes.” I dropped my hands
from her shoulders and put them in the Namaste pose. “Sometimes we
have to bring our core and body back in alignment. You are ‘off’,
just ‘off’.’”

I didn’t know how I did it, but she
fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

“
Where can I do that?” I
thought she was gone, but she stopped shy of the door. “Is there a
yoga studio in Whispering Falls?”

“
No, but I bet there is
one in Locus Grove,” I said. She had a good point. There had to be
some spiritualist who did yoga. I wondered why no one had opened a
shop here.

“
Why don’t you come with
me?” There was a mysterious look in her eye as she looked between
the bottle and me. She was making it awfully hard for me to read
her.

“
I don’t have time.” That
was the truth. What little time I did have, I wanted to spend it
with Oscar, the sheriff of Whispering Falls and my one true love.
“Besides, who would watch the shop?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but you
have to have a life for yourself.”

Little did she know, I did have a life
outside of this shop…only it was with Oscar.

“
I’ll check it out and let
you know.” She rolled her shoulders forward and then backwards,
following up with a few neck rolls. “Just thinking about yoga is
making me feel better.”

“
I bet it is.” My eyes
squinted as I watched her walk out the door. I muttered, “Something
is off with
me
today.” I peered out the window to see if Mr. Prince Charming
was around, but the only sight I saw was the Karima sisters
standing across the street watching the shop, as if they were
policing it or something.

“
You need to march right
over to the Mortimer’s and find out what
tha
t headline is all about.” Madame
Torres’ voice was low and demanding.

“
Aww. . .give Faith a
second chance.” I continued to look out the window and down the
street. My gut wasn’t giving me anything. Nothing. Nada. Maybe I
could use some yoga.

“
They didn’t give the
witches of Salem a second chance when they were hung or burned at
the stake.” Madame Torres spat back. She wasn’t going to let up
until I found out just what was going on.

“
We don’t live in Salem.
We live in Whispering Falls.” Quickly I pulled at my charm bracelet
on my wrist. I tapped the dangling silver baubles, hoping there
wasn’t a storm brewing. And if it was, at least I’d have my charms
to keep me safe. “Is there something in my future I should know
about? I’m feeling a little strange and I can’t pinpoint
it.”

“
Yeah, get old Alibaba out
of here.”

“
I can hear you!” Belur
shouted. The lid of his bottle shook from the vibration.

“
My bad. Get Alkazam out
of here.” She tried again.

“
Not my name! And you
could use a trip to the Lancome counter at a mall.” He wasn’t going
to let her have the last word.

“
Big purple butthead!” The
crystal ball looked like it was on fire, just like one of those
projects in a glass blowing class.

“
Really? Big purple
butthead?”
Belur cackled, sending Madame
Torres in an all-out tizzy.

“
You nogoodsonofa…” Madame
Torres’s words ran together. Her gritted teeth and bright red lips
were the only visible part of her face in the globe. I grabbed her
with one hand and my bag with the other, stuffing her deep
within.

“
I won’t have this, you
two.” I didn’t feel well and I wasn’t their parent. I had to get
over to the Mortimer’s to figure out if there was something about
to happen, and if Belur has anything to do with it.

Chapter Four

“
Yoo-hoo! June!” Bella Van
Lou owner of Bellatrix Baubles, Bella’s Baubles for short, was
walking down the sidewalk toward me, waving her hands in the air.
The balls of her cheeks looked even more round than usual as her
smile exposed the gap between her two front teeth. “I was just
coming to see you.” She dangled something from her fingertips. “Are
you not opening the shop today?”

“
I am. I’m just running
down to Wicked Goods Bakery to make a quick visit with Faith.” I
used my old skeleton key to lock the ornamental gate in front of A
Charming Cure.

Oh no.
I wanted to look away when I realized she was holding a
charm. A charm that had to be from Mr. Prince Charming.

“
I have a little gift for
you from Mr. Prince Charming.” She flung her long blonde hair
behind her shoulders and let it cascade down her five-foot two-inch
frame. She held out the charm for me to take. “I have to say, he
was adamant about this one. It’s a little different from most of
the charms he has given you.”

Reluctantly, I took the purple stone
encased in a silver mesh. Instantly, I knew it meant
protection…strong protection. But, from what? Mr. Prince Charming
definitely didn’t like Belur and obviously, Madame Torres didn’t
either. It had to be something to do with him and I had to get in
touch with the Native American who delivers all my grasses for the
smudging ceremonies that I perform for the group.

“
It’s a rose quartz
pendent that will need to be put on your bracelet.” She reached out
and touched my dangling charms from my wrist. “Immediately,” she
said sharply.

Immediately
? That word caught my
attention. I glanced up to find her eyes downcast.

“
Have you been feeling
alright?” Bella swayed back and forth, her eyes assessing me. “I
mean, you look great. Are you letting your hair grow out a
little?”

I was stupid. Bella’s spiritual talent
was astrology and she could read the stars and gems.

“
I’m assuming I need
protection from something?” I wasn’t going to beat around the bush.
“Any ideas as to what that is?”