Candy Canes & Corpses Read online

  The sidewalk was filled with tourists who were all excited about the shops opening for the day and the tree lighting happening that night.

  The banners on the carriage lights had snowflake patterns on them, with Whispering Falls embroidered across the bottom. Vibrant poinsettias spilled from the hanging baskets. Our little magical village had been transformed into a winter wonderland.

  Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding. The sound of a bell echoed as it bounced off the mountains.

  When I heard the familiar sound of Santa ringing his bell, I couldn’t help but smile. It was a sign that it was almost time for Christmas.

  I scurried across the street to put a few dollars in Santa’s red cauldron and say hello to Gerald, our spiritualist who took so much pride in playing Santa. Especially now that he had his own little son to dress in the jolly outfit for.

  “Ho, ho, ho. I know it’s not a kettle, but this is what they gave me.” The voice coming from behind the white beard didn’t belong to Gerald. He smiled showing a deep scar in his right smile line.

  My gut pinged, sending ice through my veins.

  I drew my hand and my donation back.

  “Aren’t you going to put some money in?” He asked, eyeing my fistful of cash.

  “Yes. Later,” I told him as I rushed past him, wondering if I should head straight over to the police station and tell Oscar of my chilly intuition.

  Oscar Park, who was my husband, a wizard, and the local sheriff, and I loved Christmas. Both of us grew up in mortal homes and found out about our true spiritual gifts as we got older. My parents had lived in Whispering Falls. I had moved to the neighboring town of Locust Grove with my mom after my father had passed away. Well, actually he had been murdered along with Oscar’s parents, but that’s something I didn’t like to think about.

  Mr. Prince Charming darted across the street. I winced and held my breath when a car driving very slowly down the road almost hit my fairy god cat. I let out a long sigh of relief when he made it across the street safe and sound.

  My eyes met the passenger’s eyes. A woman. She had lovely black curls and blue eyes. My intuition pinged and reminded me of the pig dream I’d had last night.

  “Roxy Bloom.” The heat of my whisper mixed with the cool winter air, creating a puff of smoke out of my mouth and making me forget about the fake Santa.

  The woman’s face froze, as though she could read my lips and was frightened. She jerked back into her seat and faced forward.

  “I look forward to meeting you.” I thought as the car passed me going towards the south side of the town. No doubt on their way to the Full Moon Treesort.

  “Scat, cat!” The Santa kicked a leg and shook his bell.

  Mr. Prince Charming was standing up on his hind legs batting at the Santa.

  “What’s wrong?” I yelled to the Santa.

  The man looked up at me. I nearly tumbled over when a piercing pain struck me in the gut for the third time.

  Images of a pig floated into my head, making me dizzy. I realized I had had a nightmare about a pig, not a dream. I gulped. Closing my eyes, I inhaled and took a deep cleansing breath to regain my senses. If I didn’t get to my shop and figure out this nightmare quickly, I knew Whispering Falls wouldn’t have a very Merry Christmas.

  “I’m sorry.” I hurried back to the Santa and picked up Mr. Prince Charming. The cape opened in the front and the chilly air whipped up and around me. I cradled my cat closer. “Who are you?” I decided to ask him instead of going to see Oscar.

  “I’m the red kettle Santa for the day,” he said sarcastically.

  “Yes. I can see that.” I smiled and secretly wished I had a potion to give him to make him nice. He wasn’t the jolliest of Santas. “Who hired you?”

  “The lady with long blonde hair.” There was only one woman on the Village Council he could be referring to and that was Isadora Solstice.

  “Izzy?” I asked, shortening her name.

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “That’s her.”

  Hmmm. My eyes squinted as fake smile lines drew up my face. That was unusual since the Village Council always used Gerald. We didn’t want word to get out about our little magical village and relied upon our own spiritualists as much as possible. Things sometimes changed at a moment’s notice, but then there would be a meeting called at the Gathering Rock. She should’ve called a meeting.

  I looked back at Gerald’s shop, The Gathering Grove Tea Shoppe, and swept my face back towards the Glorybee Pet Store, Petunia Shrubwood’s shop. They were married, and both shops were closed.

  “Thank you for filling in for Gerald.” I didn’t have time to assess the situation. I sent a little whisper in the air of good thoughts to Gerald and Petunia. Though the shops weren’t supposed to open for another ten minutes, I couldn’t help but worry something was wrong with baby Orin, their son.

  If that was the case, I was sure Izzy had no other choice but to ask one of the new mortals who lived in the new subdivision at the south end of town. We had opened a new development that included non-spiritual citizens. It was a farm-to-table community. It was really very interesting. There were fifty houses, all built around a working farm. It was a communal farm and we needed different herbs for the items for our spiritual needs. We had to do something when the local government questioned why we didn’t have subdivisions like other towns. The Village Council voted to open up a little plot of land and build only fifty houses. This way, we could use them as a cover for our magical little town.

  “Good morning,” Chandra Shango trilled from the front of her shop, A Cleansing Spirit Spa. She pushed the yellow turban up over her arched brows, and I noticed her fingernails had Christmas trees painted on them.

  “Happy day,” I said as I waved to Chandra from the front gate of A Charming Cure and pulled some dried leaves from the wisteria vine on the trellis. As I touched them, a few sprang back to life, making me smile. I tried to picture what it had looked like when my mom had owned the shop. It was something I had desperately tried to remember since learning this had been her shop, A Dose of Darla, at one time.

  Darla, as she preferred I call her, was my mother and she wasn’t a spiritualist. She just had a natural knack for homeopathic cures. My father was a spiritualist, which made me one.

  “Do you know what’s going on with Gerald?” I asked across the way to Chandra.

  “No? What?” She reached out and touched the Singing Nettles nestled in the flower boxes below her shop window.

  They hummed and stretched their leaves, bursting into song - Jingle Bells - and putting a big smile on my face.

  The Singing Nettles were Darla’s favorite flower even though she could never hear their song. She appreciated their sheer beauty like the rest of the mortal world. If only mortals could hear how lovely they sounded. It was like a true professional choir.

  “The Santa with the red cauldron isn’t Gerald.” I looked past her and noticed Glorybee was now open. Then I shifted my eyes across the street towards The Gathering Grove and saw it was open too. “Strange,” I whispered.

  “Where was the Santa?” Chandra asked.

  “He was right over there.” I pointed towards Magical Moments Flowers, but he was gone.

  “June,” Chandra drummed her fingertips together. “Are you okay this morning?”

  I laughed nervously and planted a smile on my face.

  “You know what?” I shook my head and put Mr. Prince Charming down on the ground. “I need coffee. That’s what’s wrong.” I tucked a strand of my short black bob behind my ear and put my hand in my pocket of the cape.

  I waved her off. I took the skeleton key from the depths of my pocket, leaving the pig charm behind, and unlocked the door to my shop.

  Meow, meow. Mr. Prince Charming darted ahead of me when the door opened. I ran my hand up along the wall and flipped on the lights.

  The front room was filled with all sorts of glass bottles of different shapes and sizes.

  Lamps were scattered throughout
the shop on small tables. Each lampshade was very ornamental and no two were alike. Strands of beads dangled from some of the shades. They made the shop homey.

  The chalkboard on the wall listed the Special of the Day,

  Tiered display tables sprinkled the shop floor with all sorts of remedies on them. I knew the remedies inside were good. Luckily, I think there was enough inventory to open today. I’d been so busy decorating the display window for today’s opening, I’d forgotten to restock some items.

  The back wall was lined with every ingredient I used to create the special blend each customer needed. The bottles were organized in alphabetical order. Dried herbs hung from a clothesline around the room. There were burners, test tubes, melting pots, strainers, muslin cloths, cauldrons, and much more. In a back room behind a closed door, there was a desk, a mini-refrigerator, and a couch that was a good place to catch a quick nap.

  I took my cape off and hung it on the coat tree next to the counter. I moved behind the counter and flipped on my cauldron that was hidden by a partition.

  “What on earth happened back there?” I asked Mr. Prince Charming when I saw him pop his head out from underneath one of the tablecloths. The box of cookies from Wicked Good smelled so good.

  The warm apple cider immediately heated. I arranged the cookies on a festive Christmas plate. I couldn’t help myself and had a cookie on my way to the front door and flipped the sign to OPEN.

  “What is that charm all about?” I eyed him.

  Meow. He darted up to the counter and jumped on it.

  Mr. Prince Charming showed up on my front porch on my tenth birthday. He wore a little collar with a dangling turtle charm. It was missing one of its red eyes. I was so excited because I thought Darla had gotten me a cat. This would’ve been a good birthday present, especially since all of my birthday cakes were cakes from the local grocery store’s bakery that hadn’t been picked up by the customers who had ordered them. Darla didn’t bother crossing out the other person’s name on the cake or removing the CLEARANCE sticker from its box. She didn’t see anything wrong with getting me cakes that were clearly meant for someone else.

  So when Mr. Prince Charming showed up, I thought she’d gone all out for my birthday for one. Only I was wrong. He was a stray that hung around for years. I found out after Darla died that I was a spiritualist and he was sent to protect me since I didn’t live in a spiritual community.

  Long story short, whenever there was danger that I needed to know about, he’d steal a charm from Bella’s Baubles, Whispering Falls’ jewelry store, and bring it to me for protection. I had no idea how he did it. I never questioned the spiritual world I lived in. I simply trusted it.

  “Good morning.” I greeted a customer A she walked into the shop. I straightened out the tablecloths on my way back to the counter, using my hand to smooth out any unwanted creases.

  “I love all of these bottles.” The woman I had seen in the car earlier was standing in front of the far left wall looking at all the bath products. ”Each one is different.”

  It was Roxy Bloom. I felt an instant liking for her that warmed my soul.

  “They are so pretty.” Another young woman with red, shoulder-length hair had come in and started up a conversation with Roxy. “We don’t have anything like this in Locust Grove.”

  “Locust Grove?” I questioned her. “Are you from Locust Grove?”

  “I am.” She nodded, with a big smile on her face.

  “I am too.” I made my way over to her. I sucked in a deep breath and let her awareness seep into me. “Are you getting married?” I asked.

  I felt it in her soul that she wanted a long, happy marriage but had some doubts.

  “Isn’t it gorgeous?” she lifted her ring, assuming that was how I knew she was engaged.

  Her soul spoke to me as I got closer to her and this was how I knew exactly what special potion to make for her. Was it nerves? Was it doubt? That was what I needed to find out. There was definitely something apprehensive about her getting married.

  “Yes.” Roxy gushed about the ring. “I just got married. I’m here on my honeymoon.”

  There was a light tap on the window. I glanced out. The Karima sisters, Constance and Patience, had their noses stuck on the glass, looking in. Both were pointing to Roxy and nodding.

  They were odd, those sisters. They owned Two Sisters Funeral Home and they could sniff out death or someone associated with death in a nanosecond. They were wrong about Roxy.

  When I used my gift to feel what she wanted, all I got was a simple life filled with family and friends.

  “I’m here to find special gifts for my bridesmaids. My fiancé is in the tea shoppe.” The young lady rolled her eyes. “I’m Camille.”

  “I’m Roxy. Nice to meet you.” The two women appeared to really get along.

  “Can I interest either of you in hot apple cider and a cookie?” I moved them closer to the hospitality table to give me time to get their actual products ready.

  They nodded and continued their conversation, while I took the bottles they’d picked, and headed back to the counter.

  “I’ll have your lotions ready in no time.” I hurried back behind the partition and set the bottles on the counter.

  The cauldron bubbled to a slow simmer. I was going to work on Roxy’s potion first since I needed to know what she was all about as soon as possible. I dragged my hand along the back wall of ingredients and when my finger warmed, I knew it was the right one for Roxy’s potion.

  The translucent tonic was sapphire in color and smelled like caramel apple. It was a delightful smell that told me Roxy really enjoyed caramel apples. That is how the magic worked. The special potion took on a smell the recipient loved.

  “Now that we have that in there,” I whispered and turned back to the shelf, running my finger down it one last time. “Where are you?” I asked for the right ingredient to warm the pad of my finger at my touch. “Rue.” I smiled when I felt the warmth. “Of course.”

  I plucked the Rue herb from the shelf. It was perfect for Roxy’s love potion. Not only would it make her feel head over heels in love, it would also ward her off from any sort of nosing around, which was what the Whispering Falls Newspaper had whispered in the air this morning.

  “Just a few sprinkles.” I uncorked the top of the bottle and held it over the bubbling cauldron. “One, two. . .”

  “You better put in at least ten more,” said Madame Torres, my crystal ball, who was sitting next to the cauldron. The black ball turned gray and then a deep purple with green lines running through it before she appeared. Her big face floated deep inside of the glass globe. Her eyelids were painted white, her cheeks green, and her lips the brightest red. The turban on the top of her head had a jeweled Christmas tree at her third eye. “Protect yourself. Protect Whispering Falls.”

  “She doesn’t seem so bad.” I went ahead and put a few more dashes of Rue in the boiling water. I picked up the ladle and stirred it slowly. “Besides, I’m working on a potion for her.”

  Madame Torres floated closer to the edge of the glass. One big eyeball magnified as she twitched it back and forth.

  “Now what?” I questioned my nervous-acting crystal ball.

  “Where’s the four-legged dirty thing?” she asked about Mr. Prince Charming. “Why can’t he give you valuable information other than a pig?”

  “As I recall, you only told me to protect myself and Whispering Falls.” I jerked my brow towards her and continued to stir the potion in the cauldron. “I’ll go see Bella to find out exactly what the pig means.”

  ”Mmmhmm…” Madame Torres drew her eye back, bringing her full face back into focus. Her face started to fade into the purple swirl. “There will be trip to Locust Grove with Roxy on your heels,” her voice trailed off as the waves of the liquid inside her globe swooshed back and forth, hitting the sides.

  “Roxy? I doubt that,” I said with a sigh, giving the potion one more dash of Rue. “One could never be too ca
reful.”

  I left the cauldron to finish the potion while I went back out to the shop floor to see exactly which bottle Roxy would choose.

  “Roxy?” I called. The two women still had their heads together as though they’d been friends for a long time. “Would you mind picking out a bottle from the wall over there? The one you picked out isn’t big enough,” I lied.

  Underneath the chalkboard with the daily special, which just so happened to be a happy potion disguised as Candy Cane Lotion, was a shelf full of ornamental bottles, each unique in design and color.

  “Sure.” Roxy eagerly walked across the shop. It didn’t go unnoticed that Mr. Prince Charming had shifted himself to watch each step she took. “These are all so pretty. How do I pick?”

  “I suggest you take your time. This is special for you,” I encouraged her. “Pick them up and let them sit in your hand. You’ll know.”

  It was truly magical how the bottle picked the recipient. They couldn’t see it, but the bottle would give a faint glow, letting me know it was the right one.

  “This one really speaks to me.” Roxy gently grabbed a pale brown glass bottle in the shape of a heart. The screw-on cap was cream and there were cream-colored ceramic butterflies attached to the front of the heart. “Is that silly?” She asked when I went to take it from her.

  “Absolutely not.” I offered a reassuring smile. “It’s your special lotion and it should be in a special bottle that you love.”

  “Then, this one is it.” She let go of the bottle, letting it rest in my palm. There was a small shock between us. “Oh.” She giggled. “Static electricity.”

  “Mmmhmm.” I nodded. “Something like that.” I turned and headed back to the cauldron, but not without leaning down to whisper into Mr. Prince Charming’s ear first. “Keep an eye on her.”

  Although I didn’t feel like there was anything evil about Roxy Bloom, there was something I did find curious about her. Maybe it was the newspaper article this morning that had warned us about her.

  The cauldron had already turned itself off by the time I got back to it with the bottle. I unscrewed the lid and held the bottle over the cauldron. Like a funnel, the potion zipped up into the bottle.