Witches Under Way (33 page)

They walked silently down the street for a bit.  Lauren finally elbowed Elsie.  “A good negotiator often uses silence, but you’re killing me here.”

“It started with my Silly Jar.”  Elsie felt the need to lay out her logic—she’d been oh-so-wrong on her ideas for Lizard in the past.  “Somebody put in that I should take a ride on Caro’s bike.”

“I’m pretty sure I know who that someone was.”  Lauren pulled open the door to Romano’s.  “And I’ve seen your sparkly new wheels, so obviously it was a good suggestion.”

“It let me be a little girl again and fall in love with my shiny new ride.  A child’s first taste of freedom.”  Elsie looked sideways at Lauren.  “Nat would have known that.”

Lauren just grinned and led the way to a table.

“I got to go back and find a piece I missed—and then it felt like so many of the pieces attached to that one just kind of fell into place.”  With a speed that still left her breathless.

“Nat’s a very smart cookie.”

Yes.  And that was a debt Elsie would gladly spend her life repaying.  Starting now.  “I want to find that same thing for Lizard.  The piece that went wrong way back at the beginning.”

“Ah.  The deal you’d have to go looking for.”  Lauren’s eyes sharpened.  “No, wait.  You already know what it is, or at least you think you do.”

Elsie nodded.  She did.

Lauren looked at her for a long time.  And then reached for the bread basket.  “I think the owner of Gertrude Geronimo has very good instincts.”

Message received, loud and clear.  It had better be the new Elsie making this call.

~ ~ ~

Jennie laughed as her phone buzzed with a message for the third time in ten minutes.  She felt like a master spy, or the ringmaster at a circus—she still wasn’t sure which.

Lauren again, asking if she wanted a great deal on shoes.  She shook her head, chuckling and replied. 
No, but Elsie could use some.  Is she still with you?

Of course.

It was a strange day.  Her interns had apparently switched placements.  Jamie reported that Lizard was currently in Nat’s beginner yoga class, doing a passable downward dog and occasionally forgetting to scowl.  And while he wasn’t willing to share any hints at all, clearly he knew what Lizard’s dare for Elsie was going to be—his glee was coming through even via text.

He also thought Lizard was right—“dare” was exactly the right word.  Which didn’t reassure Jennie terribly much.

So Lizard was hanging out at Spirit Yoga, and Elsie was shoe shopping with Lauren, following the ingestion of copious amounts of noodles.  No way that was coincidence.

And neither, she thought, looking up as visitors landed on her couch, is that.

“Good afternoon, my dear,” said Vero brightly.  She stood up from the couch and kissed Jennie’s cheek.  “We’ve come to offer our moral support.”

“Nonsense.”  Melvin chuckled, still on the couch.  “We’ve come to see all the fun of the Great WitchLight Dare.”

Only in Witch Central could a vague idea turn into an audience event in less than a day.  “I didn’t give Elsie and Lizard any timeline on their assignment.  It could take them a while to come up with their ideas for each other.”  That didn’t sound convincing even to her—clearly things were already on the move.

Melvin touched his pendant and smiled.  “I don’t think it’s going to take much more time at all.”

No one in their right mind argued with Melvin and his pendant.  “Okay.”  Jennie shrugged, rolling with the inevitable.  “Has anyone invited us to dinner yet?”  The better cooks in town would be eager to save her guests from her less-than-stellar cooking.

“Of course.”  Vero went to the couch to give Melvin her arm.  “Jamie’s ready to beam us up whenever you send him the bat signal.”

Jennie was pretty sure Vero had her pop-culture wires crossed, but nobody in their right mind argued with Vero, either.  And Jamie could probably read bat signals as well as anything else.  She paged her husband too—he’d be delighted with the reprieve from her cooking.

Chapter 23

It was a three-ring circus at eight o’clock in the morning.  Lizard was beginning to seriously regret telling a soul what she’d planned.  And apparently the two souls she’d told had assembled half of Berkeley to watch.  There was an impressive and growing crowd milling around the big warehouse near the Oakland Harbor.

Some thoughtful witch had illusioned the signs on the building.  She was guessing Aervyn was the culprit, given that they now said
Monstr Truks
.  That might not make Elsie any calmer.  It was, however, doing a good job of keeping the waiting audience in the dark.

If Elsie didn’t take the dare, then this was going to be the suckiest thing she’d ever done to someone else on purpose.  And Elsie was her friend.

You had enough faith in her to set the dare,
said a brisk voice in her head.  Caro, walking up with a flock of ladies from the knitting store. 
Don’t go all wimpy on her now.  She’ll need you to poke her a little.

That had been the idea yesterday.  In the cold light of morning, it was looking insanely stupid and more than a little mean.

“There’s not a mean bone in your body,” said Caro, closer now.  “A few stupid ones, but I’m not seeing any of those poking out today.”

Lizard jolted as warm arms enveloped her in a hug.  They should be saving all the gooey stuff for Elsie.

Caro chuckled in her ear.  “I just don’t want you to puke on me, girl.  Get that backbone of yours straightened up.  I sleep just the other side of the wall from Elsie’s bedroom—you’re not the only one who hears her dreams.”

Lizard breathed—and discovered that her desperate need to puke had eased off some.  “Am I crazy?  Maybe dreams stay inside your head for a reason.”

The look Caro leveled at her was the kind that made grown women squirm.  “Sometimes it’s those things inside your head that need to come out and play the most.”

Lizard wasn’t sure they were talking about Elsie anymore. 

And then the crowd noise doubled, and they weren’t talking at all. 
The star of the show arrives.  Good luck, girl. 
And with that, Caro was gone, melted back into the sea of faces.

Jamie got out of the car first, turning and waving to the crowd. 
Holy shit
, he sent to Lizard. 
Where’d all the people come from?

Frack. 
I thought you invited them.

A few.  I wouldn’t have done this to her.  She’s gonna freak.

She’s tougher than you think,
sent Jennie calmly. 
And obviously more loved than any of us knew, including her, I suspect.  Is she coming out?

Nat’s working on that.
  Jamie looked a little worried.

“That’s your cue, sweetheart,” said a rich voice in Lizard’s ear. 

She turned in shock—for old people who lived far away, Vero and Melvin did a lot of traveling.

“It’s a stage you’ve created for her.”  Vero swept her arm grandly, taking in the crowd, the slightly dingy warehouse, and the morning fog.  “Now you need to ask her to make an entrance.”  She pushed on the small of Lizard’s back.  “Go.  She needs you now.”

Lizard stumbled forward, legs liquid with fear that Elsie might never even make it out of the car.

The first eyes she saw when she ducked her head into the car were Nat’s.  A glance full of tranquil strength, and then she slid out of the seat and motioned Lizard into the car.

Getting in was one of the hardest things she’d ever done.  She looked over at her roommate.  “You going to puke?”

“I don’t know.”  Elsie sounded like one of Scrooge’s ghosts.  “I don’t even know what you want me to do yet, or why, and I’m already terrified.”  She picked at the simple black pants on her legs.  “They told me to wear clothing for yoga, but I don’t think all those people are here to watch me do a handstand.”

Well, that might be one of the things that happened inside the warehouse, but it probably wouldn’t be the audience favorite.  And Caro was right.  If Elsie was going to face this thing, she needed a little poking.  “I’ve been thinking that a lot of those people out there have been going too easy on you.”

Elsie’s head flew up, eyes sparking.  “Too
easy
?”

“Sure.”  Lizard tried to put on her obnoxious delinquent persona.  It was harder than it used to be.  “They’re all treating you with kid gloves.  ‘Let’s see if Elsie can be a little silly.’  Is that what you want at the end of this?  To be silly?”

Her roommate’s face fell.  “I love my Silly Jar.”

Damn.  Okay, poking was officially done—she couldn’t take it anymore.  Time for plan B.  Lizard reached out for Elsie’s hand.  “Your Silly Jar rocks, but it’s only the beginning of what you can do.  You’ve got real guts in you.  You didn’t start out so hot, but you’re totally amazing now.”  Cripes.  This was getting way too gooey, but she needed to finish.  “You could stop now, and it would be cool and everything, but I just don’t think you’re done.  There’s more in you.”

Elsie stared for a long, long time.  And then asked one question, her entire mind holding its breath for the answer.  “What else do you see?”

Lizard breathed out.  It was going to be okay—she knew the right words now.  “Daring.  You could be daring.”  She reached for the car door and pushed it open.  “And there’s a whole crapload of people out here waiting to cheer you on because they totally love you, Silly Jar and all.”

She stepped out of the car—and clutched the door to hold herself up as Elsie stepped out to thunderous applause.  That had been way, way too close.

~ ~ ~

Vero had a lifetime of experience watching stage entrances.  She’d seen them from stars and terrified understudies, first-timers and singers well past their prime.  She knew how to read the signs and tell-tales, the tiny indicators that even seasoned professionals couldn’t hide.

She knew to watch the hands.  Elsie Giannotto had Italian blood running in her veins, and Italians believed hands were the eyes to the soul. 

She’d seen Elsie’s hands hanging onto her piano as music slammed into her heart.  She’d seen restless fingers traveling the folds of an uptight skirt and a floaty yellow dress.  She’d seen those hands at rest, and leading arms up to the sky as passion soared.

But when Elsie stepped out of the car, eyes skittering around the waiting crowd, Vero saw something she’d never seen before. 

Two fists.  Italians also knew how to fight.

Delight beat in her heart, and she gripped Nat and Jennie’s hands more tightly.  “She’ll be just fine now—our Elsie’s found her courage.”

Jennie snorted skeptically.  “Her mind’s still a scattered mess.”

Sometimes minds were the last to know.  “Her soul is going to lead today, not her brain.  The lovely Natalia has taught her how to do that.”

Nat’s breath came in quick gasps.  “Maybe we should reserve judgment until she actually hears the dare.”

Ah, yes.  The lovely Natalia knew what was coming.  Vero squeezed her companions’ hands one more time and tried to impart the sense of destiny she read in her student.  “Fortitude, my friends.  She’s ready for this—we’ve all had a part in bringing her to this moment.  Now we’re simply breath for her wings.”

Elsie’s audience sensed the beat of destiny too—Vero could feel it.  After forty years on the stage, she knew these moments.  They brought either standing ovations or career suicide.  She wouldn’t permit thoughts of the latter. 

Someone had opened the side doors, and people began filing into the building, a buzz of awe filtering back from those who had made it inside.  Lizard grabbed Elsie’s hand and positioned her in front of a big loading door.  “Wait here.  I want everyone to get inside first.”

Now the fists were gone.  Elsie and Lizard stood hand in hand in front of the enormous door and waited for it to open.  It was the last thing Vero saw as she ducked inside—and the first thing she saw as the door swung up and finally revealed what lay behind.

“Welcome to Trapeze Arts, everyone.”  Lizard pulled Elsie forward and projected her voice so everyone could hear.  She gestured toward the back of the crowd, where three people in tights stood up on some kind of platform.  “Those are the trainers who work here—Elliot, Colleen, and Abe.”

She turned to face her roommate and pointed to a bar hanging far above their heads.  “This is my dare for you, Elsie Giannotto.  I dare you to fly.”

Dozens of people watched Elsie’s face.  Those who could also watched her mind and heart.  Vero watched everyone else.  There was Helga, hands pushing on air, sending strength.  Marion, standing beside her warrior-firm—and clutching prayer beads in her hand.  A gaggle of children who had arrived on bikes, here to cheer Gertrude Geronimo’s rider down her next hill.  Thea, holding a tiny babe, with a whole neighborhood ranged behind her.  And the ever-familiar faces of Witch Central, breathing hope into one of their own.

Elsie saw none of it.  She stared only at a solitary trapeze hanging quietly down from the ceiling.

And then the entirely unexpected happened.

She ran.  Straight for the ladder to the sky.