Capricorn Cursed (15 page)

“Pete?” she asked.

The spirit was gone.

 

 

Someone will ask a favor of you.

 

Natasha and Maggie Talk

 

Natasha wanted to sage her music room that night but remembered she had left her sage stick at the booth. She knew if she didn't keep up a regular routine of saging, the ghosts would return to the room and make her nuts.

The crowds in the mall were thinning out, and the flea market was even quieter. Very few booths were still open when she returned. People turned their heads as she hurried down the aisles, her boots thumping as she walked. Her agitation was contagious.

What was up with Gus? Maybe he had felt all those spirits too and couldn't take it. Some people got very ill when they encountered ghosts or other electromagnetic situations.

She found her sage stick, finished the rest of her cleaning tasks, and was just putting the padlock on the latch when she noticed someone watching her. He was a thin, wiry man with a large, bald head. His shoulder and right arm twitched as he stared at her.

“Hello,” she said. “Can I help you?”
Why is everyone so neurotic today?
she wondered.
Now this one is a bundle of nerves as well.

“I'm not too late, am I?” he asked. “I wanted a reading.”

He stood in front of her, trying to pull himself taller, his feet dancing back and forth. But Natasha still towered over him.

“Oh, I don't do readings. I do séances, and I usually don't do them here, either.” Natasha instinctively reached for her amulet under her coat. It was very hot.

“How do I do it, then? Make an appointment?” the man asked. He seemed nervous, but most people asking for a séance were rather nervous the first time and worse at the séance.

“You can make an appointment,” Natasha said.

“You have a place?” he asked.

“No. I'll come to you.”

His face twitched into a smile. He stared at her almost as if he recognized her from somewhere. Of course, he could have seen her almost anywhere. At psychic fairs, at concerts, at clubs. She was all over the place.

“You'll come to me. That's great. Fantastic.” He took the card she held out to him. It trembled in his fingers as he nervously pulled his wallet out from his trousers. He opened the wallet and fumbled as he slid the card in. He shoved the wallet back into his pants.

“Now it's safe,” he said proudly.

“Give me a call,” she instructed. “What's your name?”

“Bob.”

“Okay, Bob. When you call, I'll remember you.”

Bob nodded excitedly. “Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.” She watched as he walked away. A chill crawled up her back.

That wasn't his real name.

Of course, lots of people who went to psychics used a fake name, as if they were doing something
wrong
and might get caught.

The name was one thing, but there was something even odder about his aura.

As she finished locking up, she tried to put her finger on what it was that disturbed her about Bob. She closed her eyes again and tried to see what she had just seen around him.

Rings of blackness.

But that wasn't so unusual in depressed people. Especially right after Christmas in freezing-cold New England. The swells of blackness hadn't troubled her. There was more.

A haze.

A sense that she wasn't seeing his true face.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Maggie's voice startled her.

“Oh, you're still here,” Natasha exclaimed. “I had no idea.”

“Yep, just closing up.” She nodded. “My last client was odd,” she added. “Actually, my last two were odd. One was that weird guy that just left you. And the other was some dude named Jim Hawthorne who was at a séance you did.”

“Oh.” Just the name of Jim Hawthorne sent a chill up her back. “What did he want?”

“I'm not sure. He made me do a couple of throws about you, but I wasn't sure what he was asking or if I was even giving him the right information.”

“Like what did he ask?”

“He's one of those people who just say a name and think you already know what they want to know. You know, because we have nothing else on our minds but that person and all the millions of issues and problems rattling around in their heads. Anyway, when I get those kinds of people, I just look at the cards and try to intuit. But on him, it was really tough.”

“I remember him. There was something about him I didn't like. He creeped me out,” Natasha said.

“Well, he seemed to like you. That's why I couldn't tell if he was trying to find out more about you to ask you out, or what. “

“You'd think he'd just ask.”

“Sometimes they get embarrassed when they know you know people they know. If you know what I mean,” Maggie said with a nod. “Whew.”

Natasha and Maggie walked down the hallway

“What about that weirdo? That little, bald guy. He told me his name was Bob. He came to you too?” Natasha said.

“He told me his name was Tim.” Maggie shivered as she thought back to him. “He was plenty weird. I don't know at all what he was getting at. But he seemed pretty happy with the reading I gave him.”

“Was he trying to talk to the dead?”

“No. Well, he did ask one question about his father, who had recently died.”

“What did he ask?”

“I can't really tell you the details. You know. Ethics and all. I can tell you the response was more of a character study.”

“Maybe he just misses him. He wants me to contact someone. Maybe it's dear old Dad.”

“Perhaps.” Maggie nodded. “Hey, want to go for a drink?”

“Sure.”

Once they settled in at a table at Intuition and ordered drinks, Maggie turned to Natasha.

“Do you mind if I call Weldon and tell him I'm going to be a bit late? We're supposed to meet for drinks.”

“So go to him,” Natasha said. “Why the hell are you sitting here with me?”

“I want to know about Gus! I saw him at your booth,” Maggie said as she pulled out her cell phone. She text-messaged a note to Weldon.

“Oh…you did…” Natasha said, already almost forgetting he'd been there at all. “Yes, he did stop by for a bit.”

“Yes, I'm so curious I could burst,” Maggie said as she pressed Send.

“You know curiosity killed the cat,” Natasha said with a deadpan expression.

“But I want to know what happened.” Maggie leaned forward, grabbing Natasha's arm. “Did he ask you out or what?”

“Why do you want to know so badly?”

“Because it's so romantic!” Maggie's phoned buzzed, and she checked the message from Weldon.

Natasha thought back to her last image of Gus's massive form running from the hotel. The darkness of his emotions, the dying plants crumbling in the lobby. The haunted face of Pete and the other ghosts. It didn't feel at all romantic to her. “Well, he came by to say hi, that's all.”

“And? Jeez, Natasha, you have to stop being so coy.” Maggie pushed Natasha's arm. “So, what happened? You guys gonna get jiggy, or what? Do you still like him? Huh?”

“I think we're going to see each other again. He kind of wasn't feeling well and left.”

“Oh. That sucks. Hope it was nothing you said,” Maggie joked.

Natasha sipped her wine. “You know, Maggie, I'm not very good with men. Sure, I'm great with the advice and all for others, but personally, I'm just not good with men.”

“Natasha, I'm sure you're fine.”

“No. I'm not good at all. You see, I went for so long with no men. Just being single. Hanging with my girls. Doing my work, the circle. I feel pretty complete without a man in my life.”

“And now Gus has come in!” Maggie squealed. “You're so lucky.”

Natasha put down her wineglass and stared sternly at Maggie. “It's not that. It's not that at all. There's Craig.”

Maggie's mouth hung open for a moment. “Get out!” she said in her best Elaine-from-
Seinfeld
impression.

“Yes, I like two guys.” Natasha hung her head. “I'm so confused. I don't know what to do. I went from nothing to too much.”

“Oh.” Maggie nodded. “I see where this is going.”

“No, you don't. You have no idea what's going on. Now listen, here's the thing. I met Gus New Year's Eve. We fooled around a little but not a lot, you know? Then I had to hurry off, and we never traded numbers. He must have asked around about me because he knows where I live.”

“It's not like no one knows who you are in Hermana,” Maggie said.

“I know that. But still, he took the effort to find me. He left me a bouquet of black roses on my birthday. He said he's been by but I never answer the door.”

“Well, it's true. You don't. I've dropped by myself and can't get you to open up that door until you're done practicing or sleeping or whatever the hell it is you do all day long.”

Natasha nodded. “But, Maggie, I'm in a quandary. I've been jamming with Craig, and I really like him. He doesn't have the animal magnetism Gus has, but we enjoy music. He's a fantastic guitar player, and he doesn't have such a huge ego that he's impossible to jam with. Our music is so beautiful, a lovely give-and-take kind of thing.”

“So keep playing with Craig.”

“But now I'm sleeping with Craig.”

“No! Are you sleeping with Gus too?”

“I told you, I've barely even seen the guy at all. We made out New Year's Eve, and since then there's been nothing.”

“How's Craig in bed?”

“He's fantastic. God, it's like we're meant to be together. He plays me like he plays his guitar. It's just that…”

“What?”

“Well, he's a small, little man, and I like my guys big and strong, like Gus.”

“Then go for Gus.”

“But Craig is so attentive. I can't jam with Gus.”

“Then go for Craig.”

“But I…I don't know if I can be with Craig for long. I don't know.”

“Well…what's wrong with two guys?”

“I'm not a two-guy kind of girl, Maggie. Hell, I'm not even a one-guy kind of girl, I don't think.”

“Nonsense. You can juggle a couple of men for a little while 'til you get to know them both a bit more.”

“It's so stressful already and it's just started.”

“Well, let's think about this. What signs are they?”

Natasha laughed. “You're never going to believe it. They're
both
Gemini's. How crazy is that? I can't even pick one of them based on a sign!”

Maggie laughed and shook her head.

“Wow, you have your hands full. Well, why don't you take your own advice? Open heart and open mind and see where it takes you.”

Natasha sighed. “Yes, open mind, open heart. I guess I'll just see what happens next.”

 

 

You may have some difficult decisions to make today.

 

Natasha Makes a Choice

 

Natasha woke to the wind howling outside her windows. Another snowy day in Hermana. She didn't want to get out of bed. The chill in the room made her pull the covers up, and she debated whether she would go out at all. But then she remembered she was supposed to go see Craig's band play that night with Maggie and Ellie.

She dragged herself up and over to the shower. She ignored the ghostly chatter around her as she lathered up with her scented soaps.

Craig.

Gus.

It was so weird to be attracted to two men at the same time.

She washed her hair and applied conditioner to it twice in the hope of drowning out any of her natural smells with the flowery aromas.

Once she was finished in the shower, she dried herself off and powdered her body from head to toe with floral-scented talcum.

She applied makeup to her face, staring at her dark eyes in the mirror. The wrinkles were starting to show again. Not only did she have her constant hunger to worry about, but she had to do something about her looks too. When her looks started to fade, she was pretty sure she didn't smell so hot either.

She spritzed a large dose of perfume over her naked body and into her hair.

Another birthday come and gone. At least on this one, she was lucky enough to have a full moon and a circle. How often would a girl be lucky enough to have that happen?

The women were happy to use her birthday as an opportunity to redefine themselves and their love goals. She wondered if and how the new theory of combining Gwen's charts and Ellie's
feng shui
with a birthday would activate romantic love.

She had to make sure she had Ellie over sometime to
feng shui
the rest of her home. Once her makeup was set and her clothes fastened and buckled, she went over to her computer. She checked her horoscope and saw that “changes were in the air.” The horoscope both amused and annoyed her.

Wasn't there always some kind of change in the air?

She read through her emails, mostly junk, but as she was about to close them, one caught her eye.

She pulled it up and saw it was from Gus.

 

Hello, Natasha.

I'm sorry I had to run off the other day. I got your email from your business card at the booth. I hope you don't mind. I would really like to see you again sometime. I promise I won't run away.

Gus

 

Natasha smiled, reading and rereading the email as if she could find a hidden message snuggled among the words.

She imagined that him finding her email and taking the time to write was indication enough that he was still interested. She wondered why he didn't phone her, but she imagined that maybe he was embarrassed about his sudden exit and he didn't want to put her on the spot if he should call and she wanted nothing to do with him.