“Oh, yes. We call them police now,” I said, making a mental note to look up the Hermandad.
“Police, police, police,” I heard Rafe mutter to himself as he zipped around the room, looking at items on various shelves
Ignoring him, I turned back to Luna.
“He knows about the flip-flops,” I said.
“Well, yes, but unless they were some rare brand of flips, pretty much everyone in Tequila owns them,” Luna pointed out.
I thought back to the pair I had been wearing. They weren’t the cheapest brand, as leather was better in theheat of Tequila Key and wouldn’t melt on the pavement like cheaper flip-flops did. Still, there wasn’t enough to distinguish them from every other pair in town. I blew out a breath as the hammering of my heart began to slow down a bit.
“I think I’m okay. Unless I dropped something along the way.”
“Did you?”
“I don’t know! There was a lot going on,” I said, my heart picking up speed again.
“Why don’t you throw some cards on this?”
Luna had a good point. Being psychic was such second nature to me that I often forgot to use my skills to my own personal advantage. I pointed a finger at her.
“You may have redeemed yourself for dumping Rafe on me,” I said as I crossed the room towards my shop.
“I knew I’d get back into your good graces somehow,” Luna called after me.
“Let’s see if you can stay there,” I said over my shoulder as I stepped to a shelf tucked away in the corner of my shop. This was my shelf of personal instruments, things I used only for my own readings. I prefer to channel with items that only I have touched. Instinctively, I reached for one of my favorite tarot card decks, one featuring Boston terriers as the characters drawn on them. What can I say? I’m a sucker for Boston terrier-branded merchandise.
Instead, I found my hand hovering over my pendulum. A pendulum can be made of anything tied to a string; you use it by swinging it back and forth for the answers youneed. My pendulum was given to me by my mother and featured a beautiful quartz skull at the end of a delicate chain. I loved my pendulum, as it always provided me with the answers I needed –good or bad. Pendulums are good for giving me yes or no answers, as well as allowing me to channel my energy so I could actually get a vision or two of the future.
“Ohhh, a sparkly skull. I love it,” Rafe breathed from over my shoulder and I jumped.
“Damn it, Rafe, would you please not do that?” If I had been a cat the fur on my spine would have been standing straight up and I’d have jumped across the room.
“Sorry not sorry,” Rafe shrugged, and I turned to glare at him.
“Excuse me? Where did you hear that phrase?”
“From the talking box. With all the people in it? A woman kept saying ‘sorry not sorry’ while another yelled at her. It was quite fascinating. Though in my day, women dressed like that were only found in the most indiscreet of places. If you get what I’m saying…” Rafe leered at me, his eyes sparkling with delight.
“Rafe, were you watching Shahs of Sunset on Bravo TV?”
“Ah, yes. I think that was the name. Then they kept flashing some sort of lines crossed over each other in a square with the words ‘sorry not sorry’.”
That stumped me for a second, then I smacked myself in the forehead.
“Hashtag sorry not sorry.” I just shook my head. How could I explain to a ghost the direction our society hadtaken in the past few hundred years? This was his first time seeing a television. I wasn’t about to try explaining Twitter or the Internet to him.
“Rafe, go bother Luna. I need some alone time, please.”
“But I want to watch you do magick.”
I blew out a breath and counted to five. Who actually counts to ten anyway? Meeting his eyes, I reached out my hands as though I was going to push him away.
“Go. Away. Now.”
“Fine,” Rafe flitted away while muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “Bitch has an attitude.” It appeared I would need to restrict his television viewing. Maybe I could install one of those programs on the television that forced him to watch only educational shows. Bravo TV probably wasn’t the best slice of society I could expose him to.
Okay, I admit: I love Bravo. But only because I’m a student of human nature.
