Page 75 of A Seer and Present Danger

Unfortunately for Aggie, I knew how to tell a person no and stick to it.

She got huffy about me not helping her find the cursed bear. I pointed out that she didn’t own the bears and I didn’t own them either.

Taking a bear out of the box would be stealing.

But if she was right and one of those bears was cursed, then I needed to find it and give it to Bertie to deal with.

So, I called Dusi. She had been cursed for most of her life. She should be able to tell me if a bear was cursed, or if Aggie was just making things up.

The community center was busy as could be. Two dozen people filled the space, working hard to get everything sorted.

“Piper.” Dusi crossed the room toward me. She wore her mirrored sunglasses, a bright turquoise scarf over her snakes, a sweater, and long skirt. She nodded toward the clipboard in my hand. “Is that the list?”

“Yep. Every box that has a bear. I think most of them are stacked over there.”

We both stared at the section of the stage crowded with boxes.

“I don’t suppose they are grouped together?” she asked.

“Mostly. We sorted by age, so the bears will be in the younger kid section. And since we did it yesterday, they should be the ones with the blue labels.”

She pushed up the sleeves of her sweater. “Let’s get digging.”

We were both strong, her from her art and sculpting, me from working a physical job for hours, so it didn’t take us long to move the boxes out of the way and uncover the row of blue labels.

Those we set to one side. They had numbers that indicated which box was packed with what, and once we found the first box in that system, it was pretty easy to find the other twenty or so we needed.

“Here we go.” I sliced the tape with a box knife and pulled the first bear out. “What do you think? Did we get lucky on the first try?”

She frowned and gave the bear a little squeeze. “Not cursed.”

“Okay. Here’s the tape. I’ll open the next one.”

She sealed up the box while I got to work digging out the next bear.

“This one’s okay too,” she said.

“Two down an only a few dozens more to go!”

She reapplied tape to the box. “Do you think Aggie is telling you the truth about dealing in cursed objects?”

“Yes. Totally. She had this look on her face like she knew she could make money. If one of these bears is cursed, I’d feel awful giving it to someone. But if they aren’t cursed, and she was lying so she could make a buck off of old teddy bears? Well, then all we’ve wasted is a little time.”

“Does she need money?”

“Working in a diner isn’t exactly high living. But I like it.”

“Do you think Aggie likes it?”

“Not like the rest of us. I think she would have stayed in the antiques business if she’d had a choice. How about this one? Cursed like Pandora’s box?”

She squeezed another bear, shook her head, and retaped the box. “I don’t know how cursed Pandora’s box might be. Once open, its curse was released.”

“So maybe it’s just a pretty box now?”

“Who said it was pretty?”

I shrugged. “Isn’t it?”