Eloise poked her head in and smiled with raised eyebrows. "Very medieval. I love it. We need to get you a bearskin rug, and if only we had a castle hound."
Casper bumped against Eloise, and she laughed, running a hand over his very tall, wiry head, and leaned down to kiss the wolf. "Only kidding, big guy."
His brown eyes closed as he leaned all of his weight into her, knocking her off balance onto the floor.
She let out a grunting noise of distress as Ursula chastised the dog, and Tilly reached down to help her up. But then Lady Macbeth and two of her kits, who were now nearly full-grown pounced on her, pulling out a guttural laugh.
"It's fine. I'm fine," she said, waving away Tilly's hand. "I'll live down here now. It's going to take me at least eight minutes to get up, and with-" a waving black and white striped tail, garbled her words as a raccoon sat squarely on her chest.
"Oh hey, Jen texted that she has our booth assignments for the festival tonight," Tilly said, looking at her phone. "Ursula, you're with Bess on the tunnel of freedom lights. You're at the strawberry and peach shortcake booth with Carmen Frederick," she pointed to Eloise, who was still struggling to get a raccoontail out of her mouth, "and I am at the sparkler booth with," she squinted, reading the full text. "They're still finding a volunteer."
Eloise groaned again, though this time from her assignment and not being pushed over by a six-foot hound. "Not Carmen Frederick," Eloise said as she spit out raccoon hair from her mouth. One of the kits curled up on her chest while Lady sat on her stomach, petting Casper, who decided to lay in the middle of the hallway next to Eloise with his big head on her thighs.
"She's not that bad," Ursula said as she sat down on the floor, putting her back to the wall.
Tilly stepped over the pile of Eloise and furry creatures to sit next to Ursula.
"Uh, last time I went to the pharmacy to pick up an antibiotic for that insane sinus infection I had, she told me to just make a potion in my evil cauldron."
"Noooo," Tilly said. Eloise nodded.
"Yeah, that wasn't very nice," Ursula conceded.
Carmen Frederick and her husband had five children, were often seen in town exhausted and harried, rushed, and the epitome of overwhelmed. Her husband worked an office job in the town over,r and he had the air of a man who had to brace himself between sitting in his car when he got home and walking in the front door.
"Hey, do you guys think Crystal is hiding a whole life of secrets from us?" Tilly asked it. The question. They all had it stored behind their teeth since the mysterious women had shown up in their town.
"Yes," Ursula and Eloise said in unison.
A feeling of something sliding into place filled Tilly. Eloise smelled sweet basil being cut and Ursula knew that there would be a new row of dalmatian peach foxgloves in the far right back corner of her garden, tucked behind the overgrown cucumbers.
"Alright, need to get up," Eloise said. "Up, furballs." When none of them moved she sighed. "I might be stuck here. Will someone bring me a peach thumbprint cookie?" she called as Tilly and Ursula got up.
That night was celebrated with fried food, bonfires sprinkled around the town, laughter, and music, and eight women with various forms of red, white, and blue spirit worn on their bodies and in their hair. Of course, hands were full of celebratory foods.
Tilly always went for the cheese curds that were fried with blue-colored dough, a marinara, and ranch on the side. Ursula and Eloise shared a footlong corn dog in the same blue fried dough. Kelsea and Bess each had a peach shake-up and a bag of popcorn, Carol carried a cupcake with fresh summer berries on sparkling white frosting, Crystal and Jessica had street corn with firecracker salsa.
Eloise stopped, her nose scrunched. Ursula asked her what was wrong, and Eloise said she smelled something odd. Her auburn hair shifted over her shoulder as she leaned her head, weighing the scent, with closed her eyes before she opened them and then shrugged.
Everyone had learned to take her particular sense of smell seriously.
"I need to get to the shortcake stand," Eloise said. "I got it set up with all of the shortcake and prepped fruit, and thankfully no sign of Carmen. Think she'll bail?"
"Doubtful."
Eloise's look of hope fell at Tilly's response.
"Jen running around with Cora?" Jessica asked.
Tilly nodded. "I swear she's going to run herself ragged if she's not careful."
"Said every woman about their women friends in the history of the world," Crystal replied with a knowing look. The other women silently wondered just how much history Crystal knew of, and if it was first or second hand knowledge.
"Good luck at your stations!" Eloise said as she waved and walked down the street.
"Save me some peach shortcake!" Tilly called. They each branched off to where Jen had assigned them, and Tilly was reading the map, looking for tent 43 when she felt something. It was a light tapping inside of her mind; not unpleasant, but she was pulled from the map and stopped walking, causing someone to bump into her.
Apologies and hand-waving ensued until that odd feeling dissipated and she reoriented herself. Tent 43. Right. She looked up to get her bearings once again and saw that she stood directly next to what she was searching for. A navy blue tent with white stars and a beautiful display of balloons; silver balloons and ones shaped like exploding fireworks. The twinkle lights dancing and blinking along the top of the tent added a sparkle of charm.
