magical cures 07 - a charming fatality (7 page)

Chapter Eight

I knew this wedding was going to be a big deal and if there were a way around it, I would do it. I was envious of the couples that could do a destination wedding by going off to some exotic island or the couple who could simply go to the Justice of the Peace and get married in a small room at the courthouse.

Not in the spiritual community.

Weddings were a big deal. Especially when two spiritualists come together. Petunia and Gerald had showed me how big their wedding was and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

Since my parents weren’t here, I knew Aunt Helena was going to make sure it was done the Heal way and that included the spiritual side of events.

“June.” Aunt Helena sat at my kitchen table when I got home after saying my goodnight to Oscar. “I had to come straightaway.” She stood up and unfurled her arms. The sleeves of her cloak hung nearly to the ground. “Come.”

“No. I’m fine.” Her voice was bland. “I’m not a pawn in this little game between you and Eloise.”

“It’s not a game.” The words dripped out of her mouth as if she really meant them. Only I knew better. “You are my only remaining niece and I have to see to it that you have the wedding of your dreams. A proper wedding that includes all the Order of Elders, all the Presidents of all the villages, all the dignitaries throughout the different colleges, and the teachers. . .”

She rambled on and on about all the fancy people who I didn’t know but I let her and took out Madame Torres.

The globe glowed fiery red. Streaks of purple and yellow burst throughout the glass in little waves of lightning. Madame Torres appeared. The lime green turban propped on the top of her head. Her eyes grew large and liquid, melting into a wavy scene playing out at Head To Toe Works headquarters in the factory near the new conveyor belt. As the scene played out, it showed Burt in some sort of argument with someone—a shadowy figure. The person’s back was to me but one of my bottles was visible in the clutches of the person’s fisted hand and another in Burt’s hand.

I grabbed the globe and put it back into my bag.

“Aunt Helena, you must go.” I reached my arms out to the side and created a big fake yawn. “I’m tired and we can talk about this in a couple of days.” I pointed to the clock. “Look at the time. It’s late and I have to work tomorrow.”

“We all work tomorrow.” Her brow cocked as she watched me suspiciously. “The wedding isn’t causing all of your strange behavior. What is really going on with you?”

“Nothing.” I opened the door and secretly thanked the world for the spiritual laws. Rule Number One in particular. It deemed that no other spiritualist could read another spiritualist. Meaning Aunt Helena couldn’t try to figure out what was really bothering me.

Those bottles and me getting there to put a spell on them.

“No need for a door.” She crossed her arms around her and in a blink of an eye and a puff of blue smoke, she was gone.

I took Madame Torres back out of the bag.

“Tell me who seeks me.” I gave her a specific order. Could the shadowy figure have been Tiffany and there was an argument between her and Burt about me, otherwise they wouldn’t have been holding the bottles.

Madame Torres’s globe stayed black.

I set her on the kitchen table and with a loud voice demanded, “Show me Head To Toe Works Headquarters.”

“I tried earlier,” Madame Torres spoke with an attitude. “
Phewt, phewt
. Wasn’t important to you then so it must not be important now.” Her face rippled as it floated inside the liquid globe.

“Are we really going to have to go through an argument?” I planted my hands on my hips. “I’m in no way, shape or form wanting to worry with you. I will throw you in the bottom of my bag until further notice.” Nothing happened. Her ball stayed black. “Or I can drop you off at the Locust Grove Flea Market tomorrow and let someone else take you home.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” She appeared. She glared at me with a burning, reproachful eye.

“Oh, I would.” I knew that one would get her goat.

She was my crystal ball and she was created specifically for me. If she was taken or given to someone else, she would spend the rest of her life suspended in the unknown and simply be a snow globe.

“Fine!” She spat and showed me the inside of the headquarters, sort of like a virtual tour.

There was nothing there and everyone had seemed to go home, even Burt and Tiffany. I was sure I would hear about their spat in the morning during one of our meetings, but for now, there was one thing for certain. No one was there and it was my signal to drive over there and put the spell on those few hundred bottles before they were shipped out.

Chapter Nine

The Head To Toe Works shopping bag with my uniform was still on the floorboard of the Green Machine. I wasn’t looking forward to wearing the outfit tomorrow, nor was I looking forward to putting the little extra oomph in all of those plastic bottles tonight.

The security station had a faint light on and when I pulled up, I noticed a different security guard from this morning. It wasn’t Ronald. Too bad I couldn’t just get through because the guy had his feet propped up on the desk, hands folded, and hat over top of his eyes.

I beeped the Green Machine’s horn and he nearly fell out of his chair. He slid the window open and I rolled mine down.

“They are closed.” He cleared his throat.

“I work here. I’m June Heal, the new employee. Ronald knows me.” I smiled happily.

“They aren’t open at nights. There is no reason you should be here.” He didn’t budge.

“I have to get a new size for my uniform in the morning.” I grabbed the bag off the floor and held it up. “You know how Tiffany and Burt can be if things aren’t just right.” I laughed nervously and used my other finger to make the crazy sign around my ear.

He harrumphed and tilted his head down to look further in my car.

“Is that a cat? A real cat?” He flicked on his flashlight and shone it on Mr. Prince Charming curled up on the dash.

“Yes.” I planted another smile on my face. “Can you please let me in?” I thought asking nicely might help, but I was losing my patience.

“No can do.” He stood back up and placed the tips of his thumbs in the belt around his waist. “Sorry. You’ll have to see Mrs. Rossen in the morning.”

He slid the window shut and took his seat back in the chair.

“This is when I wish I had Gus’s gift,” I whined and put the car in reverse. It didn’t bother Mr. Prince Charming any.

When I looked back to go in reverse, my bag was glowing. I pulled out of the Head To Toe Works headquarters and pulled off on the side of the road.

“What’s up?’ I asked Madame Torres after I pulled her out of the bag.

“There is an open entrance on the loading dock if you can get in there.”  She was actually trying to be helpful. “But you must first smudge the area from which you seek.”

“Oh crap.” I had totally forgotten to try to smudge the plant like Eloise had told me to do. “I’ll do that. But how am I going to get in?”

“That’s for you to figure out.” Madame Torres’s face took up the entire globe. “I’m just here to give general information.”

I took a deep breath to keep me from saying anything mean. When I had been mean to her before, she would just shut off and pout.

“Technically since I didn’t start today, the smudging should be fine.” I was really regretting that I didn’t somehow get to smudge Head To Toe Works headquarters. I thought back to the little time I was in there, I’d been surrounded by so many people that there was no time.

Slowly, I drove around the fortress of the headquarters. There was a brick wall all the way around with barbed wire on top. There were trees planted in front of the wall as if it were to make the wall look better.

I parked the car a fair distance away from the security gate entrance between two trees on the side of the road. The Green Machine would be covered by the shadows the moon had created from the trees and no one would see my car.

“Come on.” I leaned back in the seat and looked at my ornery cat.

He simply yawned, stretched his front paws out in front of him and put his head back down.

“I guess I’m going in alone?” I asked as though he was going to answer me. He didn’t budge. I grabbed Madame Torres and stuck her in my bag. “She’s going with me.”

There was one thing I didn’t like. Being in the dark alone. Alone in the dark in a big building was even more terrifying. I ran my hand over my charm bracelet and said, “Anything that was sent to harm me, I turn into my good.” I grabbed my kit of homemade goodies.

I left the car windows open halfway for Mr. Prince Charming and darted across the street when I felt like the coast was clear. Who was I kidding? It was well past ten o’clock at night and no one left their houses after nine in Locust Grove. The headquarters were so far out of town; no one would be driving these roads at night.

It was easy to walk behind the trees and trace along the brick wall. Every once in a while I would glance up at the barbed wire to see if there was a break. Finally, there was. It wasn’t the best break, but it looked like the end of one wire and they had to add new, so it wasn’t exactly matching, making the break a little less prickly.

I shimmied up the tree (luckily I was good at it since Oscar was my childhood best friend and he was always climbing trees) and propelled myself on the top of the wall. Carefully I jumped over the barbed wire and landed on the other side. If only my cat was here because he would’ve been proud of me landing on my feet.

Madame Torres was right. Off in the distance, butted up to the back of the building, were several eighteen-wheel trucks that I was sure were ready for tomorrow morning’s shipments to go out.

There wasn’t any movement, so I decided to run over by staying in the shadows of the night. When I heard some voices, I planted my back up against the building and slid my way down until I could get a good look at who was there.

There were two more security guards outside on the steps leading from the building smoking. After they put out their cigarettes, I heard one say he was going to keep the door propped open so not to put the alarm back on.

After giving them a few minutes to get back inside, I decided to make my move. With my bag across my body, Madame Torres deep inside, and my kit in my grip, I kept my hand around my other wrist to make sure my charm bracelet was there and headed inside.

“Show me the security guards,” I said to Madame Torres once I felt like I could safely pull her out after I found small space in the warehouse.

Her ball whirled and twirled like a tornado until it calmed. The men were in a room where they were eating and drinking while watching the late show on the TV.

“I guess that will occupy them for a while.” I stuck her back in my bag and found my way up to the front of the building where Tiffany had brought me in this morning.

I put the kit on top of the counter where Tiffany had gotten my clothes from and opened it. I took out the smudge stick Eloise had given me and used my matches to light it.

"Air, fire, water, earth. Cleanse, dismiss, dispel." The smoke moved away from me as I used the large eagle’s feather to push it up and into the air as I continued to chant, "Air, fire, water, earth. Cleanse, dismiss, dispel."

It was a basic cleanse for the space I was going to occupy. There was always some type of bad karma in buildings but if I was going to work there, I needed all the bad ju-ju to go away and this wasn’t going to hurt.

I traced the path Tiffany and I had walked since I knew I would probably be working within those areas. Since I wasn’t sure how to get to my office from where I was, I left that for now, but I knew I would be on the line, keeping a close eye on my product, so I headed there.

Slowly I walked down the stairs, fanning the smoke as evenly as I possibly could so it would form a barrier over the co-packing part of the plant. I was happy to see the new belt for the bottles I had chosen was moving, but wondered who was running it.

The thought crossed my mind that Tiffany had someone stay longer to get the product started, but my bottles were still in the boxes I had sent them in and the cheap plastic bottles were packaged and ready to go.

There was no way I was going to bother with stopping the new belt because I had no idea what I was doing, and no one was around. I put the smudge stick out, happy with my progress and walked over to the packaged bottles Burt had okayed for my stress free line and opened it.

“Gross.” I took out one of the plastic bottles. The cheap container really did dull the product making me more stressed. With my other hand, I took out Madame Torres and set her on the ground and I took a seat next to her. “I’m going to need your energy.” I told her and held the bottle in my grip and lifted it up into the smoky room. “Any stress that you hold must go. From inside out and outside in, stress be gone while rubbing in.”

I sucked in a deep breath and let the energy run through my fingers that Madame Torres was giving me. I wasn’t able to cast many spells but with the help of my smudging and intuitive gift, I was able to do some.

One by one, Madame Torres and I held each bottle up, saying the same thing over.

“Last one.” I was so tired of chanting. I had no idea what time it was, but I was sure by the time I made it back to Whispering Falls, I was going to have to turn around and come back. But it was worth it. Each product that Burt insisted had to go out needed to go out with the intention.

“What in the hell are you doing in here?” One of the security guys fanned his hand in front of his face. “Who are you?” His eyes slid over to the still moving belt with nothing on it.

“Hi, I’m June. I work here. I’m sure if you call Tiffany Rossen, she’ll say it’s okay I’m here.” I stood up and tried to hide Madame Torres from being seen.

“What’s all this smoke? And why is the machine running?” He kept his hand on his security belt. Though he didn’t have a gun, he had a billy club. He walked over to the machine and smacked a couple of the buttons on the side like Tiffany had done this morning.