Chapter 1 #2
Had my neighbors done the same thing this morning when I’d stormed out of the apartment?
Despite the temptation to get the scoop on the argument, I kept walking.
The sweater-vest guy didn’t concern me. I had enough things going on in my own life that I didn’t need to borrow problems from other people.
Besides, Elwood always said my nosiness was one of my least endearing traits.
I’d been trying to curb the habit ever since.
Although if I’d been a little nosier with Josh, I wouldn’t have stayed with the big fat cheater so long.
I’d always known he wasn’t the love of my life, but it’d been okay.
Comfortable. Sometimes it was just easier to pretend everything was fine than to go through all the upheaval of leaving and starting over, right?
So maybe some part of me suspected he was cheating all along, and that’s why I hadn’t snooped.
Nope, I’m not thinking about him. Remember?
With a purposefully lighter step—because damn it, I was in charge of my life, and everything was going to be amazing from now on—I covered the last few steps to my destination and swung open the door to The Mystic Menagerie.
“Hi, I’m here!” I announced and waved my hand through the air, not unlike a magician’s flourish.
At first, I wasn’t sure Elwood heard me over the banging coming from next door. It gave me a minute to study him while he was unaware. Whenever we talked, he assured me he was doing fine, but I was happy to confirm it was true.
My grandfather appeared the same as always.
Gray hair flowed around his tanned face and tangled with his unruly beard.
Charms hung from his neck on thick black cords.
The sleeves of his pastel blue linen shirt were rolled up.
And even without seeing them, I knew his cream-colored linen pants would be rolled up at his ankles, too.
He’d been a hippie in the seventies, and his style remained unchanged.
And, of course, a little mouse peeked out from his shirt pocket, wiggled its whiskers at me, then dropped out of sight again.
Elwood’s love of rodents mortified my mother, particularly when he always insisted on bringing a mouse to all our family functions.
“Declan!” A wide smile lit up his face when his blue-gray eyes met mine. “What a wonderful surprise!”
He hurried around the corner of his desk, through the cluttered displays, and straight into my arms. The hug that followed was everything I could’ve wanted after the day I’d endured.
Elwood’s ready welcome and acceptance soothed my raw edges.
When he finally stepped back, he held me by the shoulders and studied me.
A knowing gleam filled his eyes. “So, it’s happened, has it?”
“What do you mean?” I squirmed out of his grip to pull my suitcases through the door.
“You’ve had a revelation…”
I snorted. “Well, if you consider finding Josh in bed with another man a revelation…”
“So, you didn’t…” Elwood’s forehead wrinkled as his words trailed off. He sighed. “I guess your father was right. I’d had such hopes…”
I frowned. “You mean Mom and Dad knew about Josh? Why wouldn’t they have said something?”
“No. Of course not. Nothing like that.” Elwood shook his head and pulled me into another quick hug.
When he stepped away, the mouse scurried up his shirt to perch on his shoulder, where it studied me with its beady eyes. Then it stretched up its hind legs to Elwood’s ear, as if to whisper in it.
“Although…” Elwood’s gaze caught mine. “Anyone could see that guy was an asshole. You deserved better. It just took you longer to figure that out than I’d hoped.”
Usually, when Elwood made pointed comments about Josh—because he disliked Josh as much as Josh disliked him—I jumped in to defend Josh, but not anymore.
This was new territory. I didn’t know what to say.
Instead, I followed Elwood to his desk in silence, pretending that I needed to concentrate on getting my suitcases safely through the narrow aisles without knocking anything over.
Brooke, one of my grandfather’s unusual friends, stood beside the desk.
She’d been a part of my grandfather’s life for as long as I could remember. When she smiled at me, she flashed her pointy, piranha-like teeth at me. As a kid, I always wondered how she made them like that, and apparently, nothing had changed now that I was an adult.
Seriously, were there dentists who filed people’s teeth for them? Were they implants? She had a whole aesthetic that was decidedly offbeat, so maybe? She even dyed her hair green and styled it in clumps.
Someday I’d ask about all that, but not today.
“Hey, Brooke, how are you?” I returned her smile as I stepped around the sizable puddle she was standing in. Where her skin was damp, I swore it was iridescent. Perhaps it’d rained before my arrival, and the hot sun had already dried the streets.
I hoped she hadn’t peed on Elwood’s shop floor.
“I’m no longer called Brooke,” she said, lifting her chin.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“Tulip,” she said with a sharp nod. The skin on her neck fluttered weirdly. I tried not to stare. “I decided Brooke was a bad name. It would be like you being called Apartment instead of Declan. It doesn’t sound right. I live in the water. I shouldn’t be called the same thing.”
“Tulip. I like it.” I wasn’t sure what else to say to her because her words made no sense. Was English her second language? That might explain why she got her words mixed up. Although she didn’t have an accent…
“You didn’t tell me you’d chosen your name. How wonderful. Tulip is a beautiful name for a beautiful mermaid,” Elwood said, smiling proudly at her as the mouse chittered excitedly. Elwood glanced at me. “She’s been experimenting with a few options.”
Was mermaid something people called other people now?
Like dear or love or princess? Then again, Elwood was always saying kooky things like that—as if magic and magical creatures actually existed.
It was part of his charm. I never took it too seriously.
I couldn’t. Even now, my father’s voice was in my head, telling me magic didn’t exist. When anything seemed outlandish or bizarre, he’d taught me it was just a trick of the light, a surrender to suggestion, or wishful thinking.
Tulip giggled, although with her, there was always a bit of a gurgling sound that accompanied it. She leaned close to me. “So, you’re having boy trouble?”
As a grown man, could I claim boy trouble? I nodded anyway. “Josh cheated on me.”
Tulip nodded. Her pale face pinched in a somber frown.
“I understand completely.” She waved her strangely webbed hand toward the wall.
“Winston dumped me last week. I wanted to lure him to my pond and drown him, but Elwood said that’d be wrong.
Said everyone would know I killed him and that I wouldn’t do well in prison because they didn’t have a pond there.
” She sighed, as if that was a huge inconvenience.
“You aren’t supposed to say things like that, remember?” Elwood said, patting Tulip’s hand. “People don’t always understand.”
“Winston? Who’s that?” I asked, pretending Tulip hadn’t confessed to wanting to murder her ex.
“The man who bought the place next door,” Elwood said. “He’s been a menace ever since he got the keys.”
As if to prove the point, a resounding bang shook everything in the shop. On the next bang, something crashed to the floor on the other side of the room. Elwood scooped up his broom and dustpan and hurried over to where the accident had happened. His sandals slapped against the tiled floor.
“With all this rattling about, I won’t have any inventory left,” Elwood complained as he pushed a few pieces further back on the shelves.
Honestly, I couldn’t see where the broken figurine had fallen from. So, I didn’t think Elwood needed to start worrying about a lack of inventory quite yet.
Every surface in the shop was brimming with anything and everything you might expect in a mystical shop.
There were candles, crystal points, scrolls, herbs, colorful concoctions in exotic-looking bottles, books on magic and witchcraft, tarot and angel cards, runestones, tarnished-looking mirrors, little pouches, teeth, animal skulls, feathers, figurines, various iron and ceramic bowls, and who knew what else.
It would take a lot for him to run out of merchandise. He had too much for the space he allotted to his store. But a quick glance at the back of the store told me he still hadn’t encroached on the meeting space yet. That just showed how much he valued providing that space to the community.
People rented it out for all kinds of reasons, including nonsensical things like angel card readings and seances.
But my grandfather’s true passion was in the support group meetings he held every week, where people got together and discussed their problems. They’d dubbed themselves misfit monsters for reasons I didn’t understand.
But I’d always liked knowing Elwood had people he could turn to if he needed help, especially when my parents and I lived so far away.
“Every time they bang about over there, the displays jiggle around,” Elwood continued as he bent to sweep up a broken dragon figurine.
“I wish they’d finish already. I swear, if I didn’t know better, I’d think they were searching for the treasure Old Xalvador always went on about.
But anyone with sense knew he exaggerated when he got into his cups. ”
“Treasure?” Oh. That sounded interesting.
Much more interesting than talking about Josh or thinking about Josh or anything else having to do with Josh.
“But… didn’t he have a gift shop called The Kooky Nook, that everyone called the Nook?
I remember Mister X having t-shirts for tourists, Funko Pop figures, and bobble heads. But nothing I’d classify as treasure.”
“That’s right. It doesn’t matter what Winston calls it when he opens his fancy wine store.
It’ll always be the Nook.” Elwood dumped the shattered glass into the trash can behind his counter.
“As for the treasure, there isn’t any. It’s hogwash.
All of it. He said he lined his walls with gold, but that’s about as likely as my toenail clippings changing into rubies. ”
The phone rang just as there was an unexpected lull in the banging next door.
“Now, give me a minute to answer this, then we’ll get your bags upstairs, and we can talk about what you’re planning,” Elwood said.
As soon as Elwood was distracted, Tulip leaned in close. Her scent reminded me of seawater. She must have eaten sushi for lunch.
“I’d happily take care of Josh for you. I’ve never met him, so no one would connect me to his disappearance.” She batted her eyelashes at me.
“Oh, uh…” Was she suggesting killing him? “No… I don’t think that’s necessary… I wouldn’t want to put you out.”
“Oh, but it wouldn’t be a problem—”
The door to the store swung open, and Tulip snapped her mouth shut.
A massive man with black curly hair and a tanned complexion walked in, leaving a trail of sawdust in his wake.
His gaze darted from left to right as if he were casing the place.
He swallowed hard. And if it wasn’t so disgustingly hot outside, I’d almost think that walking in here had made him sweat.
“What is he doing here?” Tulip snarled.
“Who is it?”
“Jim Walton, Winston’s contractor…”
“Oh…”
Since Elwood was still on the phone, I decided I’d better see what the man needed.
“Hi, can I help you?”
“Yeah… I…” The man wiped his hands on his worn jeans. “I need a gift for someone. My girlfriend’s mother. She’s into this… uh… stuff…” He picked up a long quartz point and turned it over in his hand.
Elwood’s display had a variety of point types, and Jim selected one of the larger rock crystal points.
It was approximately seven inches long, six-sided, and translucent.
The edges appeared sharp, but they wouldn’t cut.
Although, I supposed if someone wanted to hurt someone with one, they could. But that was true of most things.
“I don’t get it, but can you recommend something?” Jim glanced at the price tag and grimaced. “Something less expensive?”
“Do you know what she already has?” I asked, plucking the crystal from his hands and placing it back on the shelf. I remember being reprimanded by Elwood as a kid for touching the crystals. You weren’t supposed to do that unless the crystal was yours. It threw off the energy or something.
My grandfather’s call ended just as the contractor left with some rune-inscribed wind chimes. I’d managed to ring up the sale with only a little help from Brooke—I mean, Tulip. She wasn’t a regular employee at The Mystic Menagerie, but she covered shifts for him from time to time.
“Can’t say I’d expected to get a sale from him,” Elwood said, watching the contractor head next door.
“So, what was that call about?” I asked. “You look like you found out a band of imps has infested the attic.” When I used to visit as a kid, that’d been one of my grandfather’s favorite sayings. Being back in Ravenstone with him had reminded me of it.
“It’s even worse than that,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Leon wants to hold an emergency festival meeting tonight to talk about the mess Winston’s renovation is making. And he’s decided he’s holding it here.”
“Here? No!” Tulip shrieked and stomped her foot in the puddle under her, splashing water on my shoes. “Tonight is our misfit support group meeting. And I need support.”
“I know, Tulip,” Elwood patted her hand. “But the library is closed because of a broken water pipe, and it sounds like this won’t be the type of conversation to have in the pub where the tourists can hear.”
Tulip huffed out a breath and crossed her arms. “Winston ruins everything.”
Elwood passed me the old skeleton key to his upstairs apartment. “Go on up and get settled. I have to call the misfits and tell them our meeting is postponed.”