Lost Bird (20 page)

“It won’t cost us our friendship?” John asked.

“I won’t let it,” Oscar said. “Whether
you
let it or not, I can’t answer. I don’t think this would work with anyone but you, but it just…” Oscar stared out the windshield for a moment, his jaw working as he searched for the words. “It just feels right with you, okay?”

Oscar looked at John again. “This just
feels
right. That night we had dinner with her at Golden Corral, my mind kept drifting and I kept thinking how right it felt then, the three of us. Like it’s supposed to be that way. That might sound goofy, but it’s how I feel. Like it wouldn’t feel right if it was only one of us with her.”

John let go of his arm, slowly nodding. “Yeah. Me, too. I’m glad you said it.”

“Anything else you want to say while we’re having a deep moment?”

John smiled. “Try not to feel me up when it gets to that point.”

Oscar stared at him. “You’re a schmuck.” He backed out and pointed the car down the driveway.

But Oscar wore a smile that belied his tone. The smile that told John they were on the same page.

And that gave him a lot of hope.

* * * *

Sachi helped Mandaline fold her laundry and get the sheets put back on the bed. Her friend had decided suddenly that afternoon that she wanted to wash the sheets and towels from the apartment. “You picked a hella crappy time to do this, boss. You realize that, right? We’ve got two dozen people who will be here soon.”

“Which is exactly why I want it done
now
.” She smiled at Sachi. “I don’t have to think about it later.”

“You said you guys aren’t even sleeping here tonight. Why not wait until tomorrow or whenever to do it?” She wrestled a pillow into a pillowcase.

“Because I want it done.”

Sachi quit arguing. It wasn’t doing any good anyway. Until Mandaline had the load of towels and sheets folded and put away, Sachi knew she wouldn’t get anything else done.

It was easier to help Mandaline than argue with her.

Stubborn witch.

Fortunately, Sachi was already downstairs when John and Oscar arrived. John set their covered dish down on the folding table they’d broken out for the potluck dishes. Nervously, Sachi walked over to them and did the hug-handshake dance with them until they all settled on hugs.

“I’m glad you guys decided to come,” she said.

They offered her smiles in return. “Us, too,” they said, glancing at each other before laughing.

It felt good to laugh with them. “Well, grab a seat. It’s very informal. Feel free to join in when we do circle if you want, or not. Totally optional. Most of what we do is just getting together to eat and talk.”

“Why is it called a coven then?” Oscar asked. “I thought that was more formal.”

Sachi shoved back the sadness threatening to creep in. “Julie named it that. Since this is a coffeehouse, she liked the alliteration, I think.
Coffeeshop coven
has a better ring to it than
coffeeshop potluck group
. And we’ve got people from all faiths. Christians, Pagans, Wiccans, Jews—”

“So non-Kosher, nonpracticing Jews are welcomed?” Oscar teased.

She smiled. “Even non-Kosher half-Jew, half-Shinto, Pagan non-Wiccan witches are welcome.” She tapped her chest with her thumb. “And you think
you’re
a mutt?”

He laughed. “I bow to the lady’s superior muttness.”

John smacked him on the shoulder.

“It’s all right,” Sachi assured John. “I refuse to take myself seriously when it comes to my faith. If it’s not fun and doesn’t bring me joy, I don’t want it in my life.”

John’s expression softened. “Sorry. I’m sort of a nonpracticing anything. I think my parents used to be Episcopalian, if that counts.”

“And that’s fine, too,” she assured him. “Whatever floats your spiritual boat, as long as you aren’t harming anyone else, go for it.”

“Is your dad okay with what you do?” John asked.

She shrugged. “He’d sort of fallen away from his faith before he met my Mom. It wasn’t a point of contention for them because they fell in love. She was more interested in love than she was religion. Which, from what my dad says, sort of frosted her family right the frak off, but that’s okay, too.”

“What about her parents?” Oscar asked.

“She was a very late baby. Her parents died when I was just an infant. I’m not close to my aunt and uncle on that side, either.” She rubbed her hands together. “But enough about
that
. Let’s find you guys seats before this place fills up.”

If the laundry hadn’t been a hint Mandaline had something up her sleeve, then her behavior when they finished eating and got ready to start the inside circle part of the evening would have been a massive clue.

Mandaline wore a grin that put Sachi on edge. Brad and Ellis, who’d also attended, looked equally Cheshire-like.

“Whaaat’s up, boss?” Sachi warily asked her.

Mandaline’s grin widened. “Noneyo.”

“Noneyo?”

“None yo’ business,” Brad teased.

Sachi glared at them and leaned in close, her tone low and threatening. “I have the Browning in my trunk. And I have my road witch kit. Do
not
make me resort to da shoosting or da hexing of you three troublemakers tonight.”

Mandaline was the picture of innocence. “Who?
Us
? Up to something?” She flashed a wide, nearly manic grin at Sachi.

“Shit,” she grumbled as she headed back to the group.

Mandaline called the group together for the inside circle. This was the fourth coven they’d had since Julie’s death, not counting the reception party after Mandaline, Ellis, and Brad’s handfasting ceremony. They were all still somewhat emotionally raw and trying to find their new way through it without Julie’s loving touch and guidance.

Approximately thirty people had gathered, fewer than the last one, but a little larger than their average attendance in the summer.

Mandaline, flanked by Ellis and Brad, stood across the circle from where Sachi stood between John and Oscar. Sachi couldn’t see what her friend held behind her back, but it soon became apparent.

Mandaline stepped into the center of the circle and raised one hand to call for quiet, the other still behind her back.

“We’ve all gone through a lot of changes the past several weeks,” Mandaline said. “Some, unfortunately, tragic. Some positive. And some simply were. Unfortunately, there are those in our midst who are resistant to change.” Mandaline focused the force of her brown gaze squarely on Sachi, who felt supernova heat bubble up into her cheeks.

“It is time, therefore,” Mandaline continued, “to once again call out to that great deity we’ve previously invoked.”

She produced the large, pink jelly dildo with the suction cup base, licked the base, and stuck it on one of the tables with a
plop
where, much as it had when Sachi first produced it several covens ago, it slowly wiggled and waved back and forth at everyone with slightly obscene undulations.

“Hail, Dildous!” Mandaline chanted as she raised her hands to the ceiling.

The room exploded in laughter as Sachi crossed her arms over her chest, one hand covering her eyes. She let out a low groan.

I. Am going. To fucking. Kill her.

Everyone else chanted, “Hail, Dildous!”

I should have known that thing would come back to haunt me.

Mandaline was on a roll and building up steam. “Once again, tonight we offer up chants to the great god Dildous, for guidance in love and lust, and for hopefully getting those who desire it laid as often and well as they wish it. Hail, Dildous!”

The group, still laughing, attempted to respond with, “Hail, Dildous!” A few people had laughed so hard they were now coughing.

Sachi peeked through her fingers. Both Oscar and John were grinning and laughing with everyone else.

Greeeat.

“Oh great and mighty Dildous,” Mandaline continued, slowly walking her way around the circle, “we ask for help. We ask for love. We ask for healing. We ask for orgasms! Please, rain your celestial vibrations down upon us. OmmmMMMMM!”

The group, the ones who weren’t laughing or choking over laughing, picked up the humming. “OmmMMMM!”

Sachi dropped her hands and forced a smile, glaring at Mandaline until her friend stopped right in front of her.

“Nice,” Sachi whispered. “Thanks.”

Mandaline simply shrugged, the smile still on her face and hands in the air, as she turned to the rest of the group. She sliced her hands down, indicating silence.

“Oh great and mighty Dildous, god of the mighty O, we beseech you this night to grace us with your generous presence. So mote it be!”

A chorus of, “So mote it be!” resounded through the room, the participants erupting into applause and hoots of approval.

Mandaline stepped into the center of the group and curtsied to them, her peasant skirt sweeping the floor as she did. Then she motioned for silence again. “And now, I pass along the primordial scepter to its next caretaker.”

She went to yank the dildo off the table, but the suction cup base wouldn’t let go and she nearly pulled the table over. More laughter ensued as she wrestled with it, finally using her fingers to peel the suction cup base off the smooth surface. Before Sachi could turn and run, Mandaline had grabbed her arm and slapped the pink jelly dildo into her palm, closing her fingers around it.

“Enjoy it in good health,” Mandaline softly teased as more people laughed and cheered.

“It’s still unused, I hope,” she snarked.

“Yep. I had to wash the dust off it this afternoon.”

“Well thanks for that. I guess.”

Mandaline made the rounds of the room, visiting with people, while John and Oscar stared at the dildo.

“Is that a hint?” Oscar asked.

Sachi started to shake it at them, realized how plain wrong that seemed, and transferred it to her other hand, which she hid behind her back. “She’s just giving me payback from a few weeks ago when I pulled this stunt on her.”

“Ah,” John said. “I thought maybe she was giving her seal of approval.”

“Same thing. I’ll be right back.” She quickly wove her way through the crowd and dumped the dildo onto the shelf under the cash register, where Anna was taking her turn manning the till tonight.

Anna bumped hips with her. “Payback’s a witch.”

“Yeah,” Sachi grumbled. “I’m gonna get that witch, all right.”

Sachi had a duh moment a few minutes before they were to call for the closing circle outside that would end the evening.

“You know, we don’t have to go home when this is done,” she told John and Oscar. “The apartment upstairs is vacant tonight. We can go up and, you know, hang out. Watch TV. Whatever.”

Both men eagerly nodded. “We’d like that,” John said.

“We can spend time together without keeping Aunt Tammy awake,” Oscar said.

“Or my dad,” Sachi added. Although, he’d had plans that night with coworkers and said he wasn’t sure what time he’d get home.

Not that she would have minded having her own house all to themselves, but it might have been a little awkward if he’d walked in on them in the living room—or overheard them in the bedroom. And she didn’t want to spend the entire night nervous that he might do just that.

Once they conducted their final circle and ended the evening, everyone hugged and the cleanup began. Twenty minutes later, it was just Mandaline, Brad, Ellis, Sachi, John, and Oscar.

They’d moved Damiago and Pers to the house earlier that afternoon. As Brad and Ellis bid them good night and headed to the car, Mandaline leaned in and hugged Sachi.

“Have fun,” she whispered in Sachi’s ear before stepping out the back door and offering a last wave good night.

Sachi locked the back door behind Mandaline and waged a nuclear-class war within herself between leery and longing, desire and dread, anxiety and anticipation.

Then she turned and stared down the hallway. John and Oscar stood there, looking as anxious as she felt. Even their auras flickered as a reflection of their nervous state.

They didn’t want to do anything to hurt her, mentally, physically, or emotionally, of that she was certain.

Her clit kicked fear in the nuts and sent it packing as she walked toward them, determined, for once in her life, to take charge of her destiny without letting fear make the final call.

She took their hands and held them pressed against her chest, so they could feel her racing heartbeat. “I’m nervous, too,” she managed.

Immediately, their expressions softened, their auras calming. John and Oscar both gently squeezed her hands.

“If you’re not comfortable with this,” John said, “it’s okay. We don’t have to do anything tonight. If all you want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV, we’re good with that. Really.”