“I think you’re in just the right place to get the energy you need.” Daisy squeezed her shoulder.
Nora sighed, and they stood in the back while the room slowly filled up. There were several groups of young women, girls that none of them knew, and then, much to Daisy’s surprise, a group of moms from the school. But the real shock came when one of the women from Soraya’s church came in. She looked a little bit intimidated but made a beeline for Soraya.
“Kristi?”
“Well.” Kristi was looking around a bit nervously, like Soraya had that first day. “Since you work here, I thought I would see what it’s all about. Also, since the church is ... I don’t think it’s going to make it. There’s been a big divide over everything, over David and how John handled it and all of those things, and it’s just ... It’s never going to be the same.”
“I know how hard it is to lose your community,” Soraya said.
“I know.” Kristi was almost whispering, like shame had stolen half her voice. “I’m really sorry. I was so ... prideful. I just thought I knew the way everything worked. I thought I knew who was good. Who wasn’t. I thought I was being kind by coming to your house and telling you all of that. I thought it was tough love. But it wasn’t. I didn’t listen to you. That’s what I keep feeling so upset about. How uncurious I’ve been for so long. So I’m here. Being curious.”
“I can relate,” Soraya remarked. “But I’m glad you’re here. Maybe we can have coffee sometime.”
“I’d like that,” said Kristi.
The room was filled with laughter and conversation, and everyone took their seats around the table. Aggie was at the head, and she stood, her long white hair hanging freely, her eyes sparkling. “Welcome to our first tarot night. This is the night for all of us to explore our intuition. To tap into our needs, physical and spiritual, and to offer help to one another in whatever form it might take.”
A woman wearing a blue blazer and a pencil skirt slipped into the room and sat down at the table.
“That’s my lawyer,” Nora whispered.
“All are welcome here. All your hopes are welcome here. All your fears. Tonight, we are filling this space with good energy and sharing it with one another. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be tears or there won’t be difficult conversations. But we are making this place safe for all of that.”
Aggie picked up a piece of palo santo, the slender chunk of wood glowing bright as she touched it to a candle at the center of the table, a stream of smoke that smelled sweet and fragrant filling the air.
“I banish all negative energy. I call all good energy to us. That we may give and share and hope. I ask that only truths come into this place. That all lies be expelled. I ask for protection from any energy that seeks to do us harm, I ask for only good to be done here tonight. I ask for peace. And so we begin.”
Aggie had a small station set up for making flower crowns, and Soraya had a space where she could talk to people about tea blends and remedies. Nora was helping with simple spell bags.
Daisy pulled a deck of tarot cards to her, and soon there were different groups rotating through her space, taking readings. She was nervous at first, afraid she was going to say the wrong thing. Tarot was interesting, because you couldn’t control it. While she was well studied in the cards, she didn’t know what would come up, how it might relate to the person across from her, or if what she was saying was completely wrong or not.
But she surrendered to it. To her intuition, rather than a detailed plan. To the idea that she did have magic within her. It had to be true, didn’t it?
Zach had fallen in love with her from the first moment he’d seen her.
That thought made her stomach feel hollow. Zach. He loved her. He hadn’t said it, but right then, with her hands hovering on the tarot cards and all the shared wisdom in the room, she felt it.
She felt a voice in the air telling her to accept it. Not to push it away. Because life was strange and miraculous, and there was so muchthat couldn’t be understood, including the timing of all this. Except maybe it was the path she had to be on to get here.
Jonathan was an integral part of her story. They had created the three most wonderful kids she could have asked for. He had helped her at different points in her life. And he had given her baggage. It had all come together to make her who she was. To make her into the woman Zach admired.
The woman who appreciated him so much.
She could never regret it, or wish that things had unfolded differently, because if even one thing had changed, would she be who she was now?
Sitting here, in the full knowledge of her own magic, with Soraya and Nora and this wonderful apothecary, she smiled as she finished her reading.
The woman who sat across from her next looked like she was near tears.
“I’m Daisy. What’s your name?”
“Angela.”
“What do you need help with?”
Tears slid down her cheeks. “Everything.”
“I’m sorry,” Daisy said. “Do you have a question for the cards? I can suggest a simple past, present, future spread.”
