Chapter 13 #2
And the kitchen… oh, the kitchen. I could spend a fortune on ovens, coolers, and other equipment.
I’d drooled over industrial kitchen websites for years, checking out all the latest products was my guilty pleasure.
The only thing I hadn’t quite figured out was whether I’d have a place for people to sit and eat.
It made sense. Sort of. But then I’d need coffee makers and wait staff and…
well, I wasn’t sure I wanted that. I liked to bake, but I didn’t necessarily want all the restaurant-ish stuff, too.
A small town like Ravenstone didn’t really need yet another place to sit down and eat. It already had Lily’s coffee place, Rue’s café, Gideon’s pub, and a few other places, too. Besides, if I supplied Rue with baked goods, I wouldn’t want to compete with her, too.
Ha! It was like I was actually considering this crazy idea.
“Are you almost ready?” Elwood asked.
I glanced down at the box I’d been filling. I tossed in a few extra decks of angel reading cards and taped it closed.
“Yep. Let’s go.”
When we arrived at the festival grounds, it was even busier than it had been in the morning.
Earlier, I hadn’t seen many overtly magical displays and booths, but there were more now.
We passed several tents decorated with fairy lights and wispy-looking fabrics that boasted how the vendors had powerfully accurate tarot readings or could find solutions to all your problems with palm readings, and so much more.
It was hard to keep track of all the signs and promises.
Even the regular Ravenstone vendors had added more magical messaging to their booths in the few hours since I’d been gone.
Avery had good luck wreaths now, whatever those were.
Mei’s banner said, weaving love into everything you make is like magic.
The quilt lady said her blankets had feelings sewn right in.
I had to do a double-take on that one. Was she suggesting the blanket could make someone feel happy?
For real? I didn’t understand how they could fulfil a promise like that.
Then again… it could be magic. A couple of days ago, I would’ve dismissed that as impossible, but now I wasn’t so sure.
“Where’s your table?” I asked as I dodged people. I was glad Elwood had a cart we could stack several boxes on at once so we wouldn’t have to navigate these congested paths too many times.
Elwood kept walking, so I followed. He didn’t stop until we arrived at a booth close to the stage that Jim had been building earlier. I didn’t see Jim or his crew around now, but they were probably busy in other areas of the park.
“Hey, I was thinking…” I said as we rearranged the orientation of the table under the tent to suit Elwood’s preference. “The festival doesn’t start until tomorrow, right? Does that mean we have to haul all this stuff back to the shop tonight?”
Elwood shook his head. “There are both human security guards and magical wards active at night. It’ll be fine.”
I was curious about what magical wards entailed, but standing in the middle of the festival grounds didn’t seem like the best place to ask for details. What if a non-magical person overheard us?
We’d just started unloading the boxes when Leon scuttled over. His face was red, as was the top of his shiny bald head. He’d need to put some aloe on that tonight, or he’d never survive the weekend. He should think about leaving the sweater vest at home, too, or he’d drop from heat exhaustion.
Leon glared at me for a moment, and I half-expected him to complain to Elwood about our conversation the day before, even though he’s the one who tried to get Elwood thrown in jail.
But instead, he straightened his shoulders and adjusted his sweater vest before angling his body away from me and toward Elwood.
“We have an empty table,” Leon said, motioning to the empty stall beside us. “We can’t have an empty table.”
Elwood blinked at Leon like he didn’t understand why Leon was talking to him about the problem.
When Elwood didn’t say anything, Leon inched closer. “Because of Winston…” he whispered. “He was supposed to have a display with some of the wines he was going to carry in his store.”
We all turned toward the space then. A moment earlier, it’d just been an empty table. Now, it felt eerily symbolic.
“You should take it,” Leon said to Elwood. “You can drop off your payment for it next week.”
“I don’t need another table.”
“Is this about money?” Leon asked. Why was he always so fixated on the idea that Elwood was broke? “Fine. You can have it for free. We can’t have an empty table.”
Elwood sighed. “Can’t we put out a couple more chairs under the tent and a sign to invite people to sit there? It’s going to be hot and sunny. People will be looking for a place to sit in the shade.”
Leon looked dubious, then he slowly nodded. “I suppose that could work. Are you sure you don’t want another table?”
“I’m sure.”
“Very well. I need to find Jim. Get him to get that organized.” Leon glanced around at the crowd. “I don’t know where that man is hiding. I haven’t seen him for at least an hour or more.” He glanced down at his wristwatch. “I don’t have time to run around looking for him.”
Then Leon charged off into the crowd, presumably to look for Jim. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be Jim, but I guess he was getting paid to be at Leon’s beck and call this weekend.
After we finished arranging the product, I took a few pictures of it and a few of the other booths.
I was supposed to be helping with social media for the festival committee, so I should probably start.
I posted a few of the pictures to generate some pre-event hype.
It was all I could do for now, but I hoped to be better prepared for the next event.
I returned to Elwood’s stall to find him staring blankly at the display.
“Elwood? What’s wrong? Did we forget something?”
“Something doesn’t feel right.” He rubbed his arms. “Are you sure you don’t feel it, too?”
I tried to open my senses, but I was probably doing it wrong because I didn’t feel anything particularly noteworthy.
Unless that itchiness along the back of my neck was what he was talking about.
Honestly, though, that might just be my shirt label irritating my skin.
I shrugged and turned to my grandfather for answers.
“I think I need to smudge the tent…” Elwood frowned. “Maybe the whole festival grounds.”
Well, then… that didn’t sound good. Was that because the killer was wandering around? Or was something else going on that we didn’t know about?