Page 114 of The Blue Moon Café & 24-Hour Occult Emporium

“Remind me—do you need one of those for baking?”

“Definitely.” Talula had to smile. “Ovens turn wet dough into delicious fluffy baked goods, like those apple turnovers you like.”

“Then you work on that speech. Leave the oven to your mentor.” Simon hopped off the couch and waddled through the Employees Only door with an air of purpose.

Talula drummed her pen on the legal pad, waiting for the words to come.

That night, acrobats made their debut on the Magic Box stage. Their show was spectacular and went off without a hitch. The only problem was audience capacity. Attendees started arriving by the dozen an hour before sunset to get good spots. By dusk, there was hardly a speck of green for latecomers to claim. Not wasting a moment, Talula and Dahlia (flanked by Simon) handed out flyers and talked about Samhain and the town hall meeting. Emilio and Anna got up on the Magic Box stage after the performance and urged everyone to attend the meeting and show support. Dahlia managed to do a trending social media dance with Kanishka to help spread the word. But there was no telling how many supporters would show up. They just had to wait and see.

Afterward, Talula hit the grocery store with Simon, where they bought industrial quantities of cake ingredients. At home, Talula alternated between working on the speech and researching cake recipes. She fell asleep on top of her covers after midnight, pen still in hand.

The morning of the town hall was, irritatingly, a beautiful one. Talula brewed a strong cup of tea and cooked sun-dried tomato, feta, and spinach omelets for herself and Simon. She set down the plates on the kitchen table. “Any word from Mom?”

“None yet, but have hope.” Simon shook his head.

Talula swallowed down a surge of worry with a big gulp of tea.

Again, the day was spent on recipe research and town hall prep. Talula struggled with her speech. Her mind oscillated between a thousand worst-case scenarios, ranging from her mother being captured again, to Talula being banned from town, to an army of basilisks crashing the town hall meeting. She stumbled over her words, skipped important points, missed vital beats.

After the fifteenth run-through, Simon looked like he was trying to politely smile himself to death. “Take a deep breath and try again.”

Talula took as many deep breaths as she could without hyperventilating. She was so caught up in speech prep throughout the day that she didn’t register the clock. Until her phone’s ringtone shattered her concentration. With a jump, Talula picked up. “Hello?”

“Hey, where are you?” Dahlia’s tinny voice was hushed.

“What do you mean?” Talula flicked distractedly through her yellow legal pad.

“Babe,” Dahlia said gently. “Look at the time.”

Talula looked at her watch. She registered where the big hand was. She registered where the little hand was. She wanted to simultaneously scream and vomit.

Dahlia whispered, “The town hall starts in ten minutes.”

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” Talula hung up and scrambled off the couch.

“What? What is it?” Simon jumped up from a nap, battle-ready.

“It’s time! We have to go!” Talula grabbed her satchel and ran.

“Baphomet’s bulging bollocks!” Simon swore as he chased Talula out the front door and into the night.

After the impromptu jog, Talula carefully crept into the town hall, breathless and sweaty. Pine Hollow town hall meetings took place at the library’s auditorium. That night, it was as full as Talula had ever seen it. The five town council members and a moderator sat at a folding table on the auditorium stage. A standing mic was positioned between the stage and the audience section. Stern anti-Samhain protesters took to their seats, wielding signs and scowls. Talula found a few friendly faces—families who’d come to every Magic Box performance, market vendors who smiled when they spotted her, even Kanishka and her aunties. Talula’s gaze snagged on a perfectly coiffed blond ponytail. As if she could sense her, Kristen turned from her anti-Samhain clique to give Talula a saccharine smile, her blue eyes as innocent as arsenic. Talula turned away to find a man with a dark baseball cap and sunglasses staring right at her. As soon as their gazes met, he looked away. Talula frowned. Pine Hollow was small enough that she recognized faces, but his was strikingly unfamiliar. Before she could make a remark to Simon about him, Talula was pulled into a pomegranate-and-shea-butter-scented hug, her face tickled by loose spirals of curls.

“You made it!” Dahlia said.

Talula sighed into the embrace, her arms wrapped around the sweet dip of Dahlia’s waist.

Dahlia let her go, slowly. “I talked to the moderator; we can plug the laptop into the projector. She says you can have five minutes.”

“That’s plenty of time—” Talula reached for her satchel. Her extremely light satchel. She thrust a hand into the bag, rummaging around desperately. Talula upended it. When only her wallet and fancy lip balm fell out, horror seized her.

“I left the presentation, my speech…” Talula clasped a hand over her mouth, unsure if she was actually going to scream/vomit this time. “I left it all at home.”

Dahlia’s eyes bugged out. Simon let out a whine.

“Attention!” The moderator announced from the stage. “Please take your seats. This special town hall meeting will now commence.”

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