Chapter 10 #2
“That’s right, you’re a skeptic. Anyway, here’s the second card, for the present, the Star.
The card of hope and healing. It’s very positive.
Your relationships are healing as well as your body.
Your love life is moving from one of pain to a new beginning, especially next to the Fool.
Success is yours if you just believe in yourself. Is that ringing any bells?”
“Maybe.” Rarity didn’t want to go into the fact that Kevin had dumped her and now Archer seemed to be the perfect boyfriend. The perfect fit. If she’d believe in herself, and them. She gathered her things. “I should go open the bookstore.”
“Hold on a few minutes. There’s one more card in the reading. I know you don’t want to talk about your personal life, and I get that. So we’ll just say that the Star is a wonderful card to have come up in any situation.”
She turned the next card. The Death card grinned up at her. “Oh, my. Not what I was expecting.”
“That looks bad.” Now Rarity wished she’d never sat down. This is what happened when you let woo-woo into your life. It took a life of its own and tried to scare you.
“Not necessarily. It may or may not mean a physical death. Or it may be talking about the body that they took out of your shop. But if that was true, it should have come earlier in the reading. Maybe the death of a situation. Something is going to change with you and a friendship. I can study the cards more. I wouldn’t worry, though, the other two cards are too hopeful for this one to mean an actual death. ”
Rarity thought about Madame Zelda’s reading most of the morning. Had the cards been warning her of a change or of an actual death? Feeling silly, she sighed a breath of relief when Shirley and Darby arrived for their shifts.
“I went over and picked this one up for work. She was going to walk from her house. Can you believe it? What part of dangerous stalker do you not get, Darby?” Shirley rattled on about the morning and what Katie had decided to do with the kids who would overrun the shop on Saturday morning.
“Oh, guess who called and bailed on dinner tonight? I guess I’m happy I wasn’t sitting there waiting for her,” Darby said as she headed to the back room. “Is there coffee?”
“I can’t believe she didn’t do something with the movies.
We probably could have asked someone from the film festival to come and talk about how movies are made.
We should think about monthly themes around the book clubs based on the events we’re hosting or the festivals in town that month.
” Shirley snapped her fingers in front of Rarity’s face. “Are you awake?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t sleep last night,” Rarity said. It wasn’t quite a lie, even though she’d been thinking about Madame Zelda’s reading, not zoning out. “Shirley? Do you believe in the other side? The spirits and the crystals and the vortex stories?”
“You mean the magic surrounding Sedona?” Shirley settled on a chair at Jonathon’s usual table, even though he hadn’t shown up yet.
“Well, you’re going to be surprised by my answer, but yes.
I do believe the veil is thinner here. I believe in God and the stories from the Bible.
If he could perform miracles back then, why would I expect anything different in my day-to-day life?
Or question powers I don’t understand? If God sends me a rowboat, I’m going to assume that it’s going to flood sooner or later, and I’m going to get in. ”
Rarity smiled at her mention of Rarity’s favorite joke where a man drowned after refusing to be saved off his roof by a rowboat, a bigger boat, and finally a helicopter. When the man complained to God at the pearly gates, God told him that he sent all those things to save him, and he rejected them.
So what was the meaning behind Madame Zelda’s third card? And what could she do to make sure a real death didn’t happen? Especially to Darby.
Symbols and signs were easy to pick out. Assigning meaning to them was a lot harder. Especially when they were swirled up in a pretty picture.
“What do we need to do to get ready for tomorrow’s swarm of preteens?” Rarity asked, ready to get out of her head and be busy.
The next few hours were spent getting the club area ready for the group as well as checking out the young readers shelves to make sure they either had the popular books on the latest list or that they’d ordered them.
When Jonathon came in with Romeo and a bag from Carole’s with lunch, they were all ready for a break. Rarity took the sandwich from him and then went back to grab drinks from the fridge. When she came back, everyone was sitting at tables, talking.
She sat next to Jonathon after dropping off bottles of soda and water. “Did you sleep in this morning?”
“I wish. Edith called, and so Romeo and I went walking while we talked. Edith walks and talks too. That way we both get some exercise first thing in the morning, and we’re touching base. Couple stuff, you know.”
Rarity smiled at the idea. “I’m glad you and Edith find a way to still be together after so many years and trips to Sedona.”
“She likes having me out of the house, to be honest.” He waved away her arguments.
“Just wait until you’ve been married for thirty years.
It changes with every decade. Anyway, after that, Drew threw out some possible theories around Mason Pike’s death.
One interesting thing, though, was his house in California was broken into on Friday night. ”
“After he died?”
“About the same time. Which, okay, he announced he’d be out of town on his media so it was a good time to rob him, but they don’t think anything was taken.
From his housekeeper’s notes, everything was right where it was supposed to be.
Whatever they were looking for, Mason didn’t have it stored at the house.
” He ate a chip from the bag he’d gotten with his sandwich.
“So what did Mason have that someone would want bad enough to break into his house?”
“Maybe a screenplay?” Rarity didn’t know how these things worked. “Or do they copyright those?”
“Good questions that neither Drew nor I have answers to. I did hear last night in the men’s room that a producer was taking over the development of Mason’s film we saw last night.
There are some changes they’re going to make before releasing it.
I don’t know if that changes what Mason would have gotten from the movie or not.
” He picked up his sandwich then set it down again.
“However, I would have thought that if the movie needed changes, with Mason dead or alive, it wouldn’t have changed his participation in the funding and rewards. ”
“Okay, so we’re still at the same place with Mason Pike. Nowhere.” Rarity set half of her sandwich down on the plate. “What about Darby?”
“She hasn’t had an issue since the flowers. Maybe her stalker was following the wrong person?”
“Can Drew ask Talia if she had any unwelcome attention in the last few months? If she has, maybe Darby was just in the wrong place, wrong time?” This was Rarity’s favorite theory because it meant that since Talia was here in Sedona and would leave soon, Darby was safe.
“It’s a good theory.” Jonathon said. “And we just got into the stalker idea because of the guy from Scotland who’s already moved on.”
“I’d love to not be babysat twenty-four seven,” Darby added, obviously overhearing the conversation. “I feel less stressed right now. Maybe that’s because no one is watching me with bad intentions?”