"We're going to need something stronger than wine," Eloise said, a heaviness suddenly weighing her down.
"And what's with the flowers of warning?" Ursula nodded to the flowers deceptively wrapped in beautiful brown paper.
"We all got a bouquet of these beauties on our front porches today," Crystal said. And they all knew what the flowers meant. So lovely were the small red buds but so loud was their meaning. They were a warning. A threat.
Eloise lifted the bouquet to her nose and pulled back sharply at the smell of copper and gasoline.
"And something else," Tilly hedged with a wariness on her face and a look around the other three women. "Someone left us a note about a strange visitor from Florida here to get revenge on Eloise."
Eloise froze. Ursula looked at her and immediately put her arm around her, pulling her stiff body into hers. When Eloise didn't say anything, Ursula's eyes connected with hers in a silent conversation. Eloise nodded and Ursula urged everyone to take a seat and the moment the last woman sat, the three candles on the coffee table made a poof and spitting sound then suddenly lit, their flickering flames like a beckoning to settle in.
"I love how strange this house is," Jen said.
"We've successfully hexed people, we sense when something is going on with each other, and all smelled the same honey butter an hour ago." Tilly's voice was calm and she made eye contact with all of them. "I think it's safe to say thatweare strange."
Ursula then told them about the man from Eloise's past while Eloise sat silently, staring at the candles, a ghost in her mindand her body still stiff. Her right hand was in her pocket, fingers stroking the two items she kept there as she fought off the ghost.
"Ladies, I think it's time," Crystal announced once Ursula finished.
They all shared looks, secrets had been stored in each of these women, dusted with a little magic. They gathered what they needed and then Kelsea and Jen kneeled in front of a very still Eloise.
"Honey, we're going to go to the graveyard. Do you want to come?" Jen's voice was smooth, calm.
Eloise looked at her blankly, her thoughts not there with them. "What?" she asked, blinking confusion from her eyes.
"Hey, Little Mermaid. We're going to go hex the sonofabitch. You in?"
And then she was there, present with them again. Her eyes blinked once, twice and then she shook her head upsetting the cobwebs and demons. She looked at the drink in her hand, took a fortifying sip and then said, "Yeah. Let's do some witchy shit."
"That's my girl," Jen said as they helped her up.
Drinks were made by Crystal, her careful hand stirring each old fashioned with blackberry syrup and blackberries soaked in Eloise's favorite spicy bourbon.
Flashlights, a full picnic basket, and jars of moonlight were grabbed as they made their way through the backyard and the woods to the Lost Souls graveyard.
The moon was starting to relight herself. Only a sliver of her was visible, but the black velvet sky was clear and the stars made themselves a little brighter as the six women stood under their watch and raised crystal tumblers into the air.
Crystal lit a fat black candle before tipping it to light Tilly's, who then tipped hers to light Kelsea's and on it went until the circle held six women with six burning candles and six almost-empty crystal glasses.
"We ask for protection. Surround this land, surround these women. From the earth we pull your goodness and your riches offered to us without pause. And we give back to the earth our goodness."
"Is this a real spell?" Eloise whispered to Jen who shrugged as she held out her glass to Kelsea who walked around with the blackberry syrup in one hand and the bourbon in the other, refilling glasses.
"Crystal could probably bring someone back from the dead," Jen whispered.
Eloise's eyebrows raised as she nodded her head in agreement. In her pocket she carried the items Crystal had charmed for her weeks ago.
A black willow leaf and a coin squatted in her pocket or her leather tote as personal sentries. When she'd gone to Crystal secretly, the wise woman asked for the objects without pause, wrapping her steady hands around Eloise's and a moment later, they were heavier and smelled like crisp winter and her dad's cologne.
They all sat on the ground and passed around the bowl of bourbon-soaked blackberries as they talked and laughed.
"So, what happens now?" Eloise asked and the women all smiled, happily, imbibed and loose.
"No idea. We never followed any kind of ritual before."
"Yeah, we mostly did it as a joke," Kelsea said then pointed to Jen laughing. "Joke's on this one because she still can't say the word 'cat'."
Laughter spilled out of mouths full of blackberries and lemon drop pie. The air around them was sticky with its sweetness and Eloise breathed it in deeply.
