Chapter Twenty

Pearl Before Swine

Salinger

From the moment Pearl entered Cold as Stone, it was obvious she had been successful. Not only was she so angry her cheeks were an abused red and her fingers trembled as she came across the room to me.

“Is Antony here?” she whispered hoarsely.

“Yeah. I think he's out back smoking one of those things you make him.”

“Okay. I can't see him,” she said, pulling her mouth into a distorted line. “I need you to take my bag and give what's inside to Veda. Can you do that for me, preferably without letting Antony know what you've done?”

“Is there anywhere I can hide it?”

Pearl opened a cupboard under the cash register and stuffed it inside. She gave me the key and managed to leave the store before Antony came back from his smoke break.

When he finally did come back, he looked around and said, “I think I'm done for the day.”

We were not finished, but I agreed because I wanted him to leave. “Yeah, go ahead. I'll stay here and clean the brushes.”

Antony strode out of the store muttering, “Great. Great.”

I went to wash them in the bathroom sink. I had just finished when I heard the tinkle of the front bell.

Back in the showroom, a woman stood on the mat by the door. She had long black hair that lay perfectly straight and her clothes were a faded, sad blue. Lost was the word to describe her. She could have been in her twenties or her forties. If I had to spot her in a lineup of suspects, she would be easy to identify. She was a witch who had once possessed a lot of magic, but now, almost all of it was gone.

“Can I help you find anything?” I asked with the customer service voice of a Shoe Locker salesman rather than that of a mystic.

Her gaze leveled me. “You. I came to find you.”

Maybe she had a bit of magic left. I felt myself being assessed by her. I said nothing and let her look at me. I had no secrets. Actually, because of my work for Veda, I had never felt better about myself and I met her eyes with confidence.

The strength of her stare ebbed and her eyes wandered to examine other things, although with far less interest. Obviously oblivious to what was on the shelves, she said, “You must remember, she has always been alone and will not fit in with others. Not right away. She needs time to trust. She will need time alone.”

I swallowed. This was a prophecy and I needed to listen.

“Never allow her to think you don't love her. When you can't think of what to say to her, always say you love her. Say it as many times as the sea shifts the sands.” The woman seemed to be struggling with her ability to speak. “Say it as many times as the wind moves the leaves. Say it forever.” Then her eyes suddenly clapped on me and for a second it seemed to me that flames danced inside them. “He's coming,” she hissed.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I turned and saw Antony's car screech into a parking spot. I heard the bell on the door move, but when I turned to see which way the woman had fled, she was completely gone. Antony slammed his car door shut. He raced to the front doors to open them, but they were locked. Antony cursed and jabbed his fingers into his pocket to retrieve his keys.

I didn't move. I wasn't afraid of him, so I wiped my hands and braced for the moment he would actually be in my face, but it didn't come. Antony's key fit the lock, but the doors were tied with something.

“Salinger! Let me in. Why won't it open?” He obviously couldn't see the cords.

I played stupid. “I dunno what happened, man,” I said as I pretended to look over the knots. It was a knitted thing with cables down it. It was a mix of charcoal and green. I liked it.

“Let me in!”

“Give me a second. What did you come for anyway? Maybe I can grab it for you.”

Antony took a step back and fumed. “What did you do to Pearl?”

I cleared my throat and prepared for it. “I told her your room was messy and she would be a very good girlfriend if she cleaned it.”

“You sack of...” The last word was muffled a bit through his clenched teeth. “The messy room was a spell.”

“I know. It's meant to hide things, but guess what? It's time for you to give back what doesn't belong to you.”

He seemed confused for a moment. I went back behind the counter and got the bag Pearl had brought me. I opened it up, showing him the books.

“I didn't steal those. They were in the garbage,” Antony explained.

“Uh-huh. Do you think that matters to Pearl?”

His come-back was quick. “This doesn't have anything to do with Pearl.”

“She broke your spell only to find out that you are still hung up on Veda.”

“Open this door!” he hollered.

The knot was getting bigger and tighter. That woman who had come to the shop had enchanted it. But why? Why should she want to save me from Antony's wrath?

“I can't,” I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders. “Doesn't matter anyway. I won’t give them back. You don't get to have Veda and if you don't move quickly, you're going to lose Pearl.”

“You have more relatives to drum up?”

“Who needs relatives? Pearl's a minor and she doesn't need a new man to realize she doesn't want you.”

Antony backed away from the door and spat on the ground. He wasn't listening to me. He was cursing, but I did hear him say one thing under his breath. “You sound just like Veda.” He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to steady himself. Finally, he turned to me and said in the icy voice of ultimate rage, “Open that door!”

“I don't think I can. The cord binding the door shut keeps getting bigger and tighter.”

“So stop it, you half-wit.”

“I'm not the one who started it.” I looked at the knitting and gaped. “I've never seen magic work this hard.”

“Who put it on the lock?”

“I don't know. A woman who came in.”

Antony smiled a twisted amused grin. “If it was who I think it was, maybe it would be better if you stayed in there.”

Knowing something I didn’t, Antony left the shop undisturbed and went back to his car. I watched him get behind the wheel. Once there, he adjusted the rearview mirror, so he could get a better look at himself. He checked his teeth, put on a pair of sunglasses, and popped a piece of gum in his mouth. He flipped me the bird before he sped off.

It didn't take a genius to figure out he was on his way to see Veda.

I checked the knot on the front door. The length of the knit was getting eaten up in the knot. I touched it and could actually feel the yarn constricting and tightening like a wooly snake.

I checked the back door to see if there was a way out. The knob didn't budge. Something was wrong. There was a spell on this building meant to keep others out as well as me in.

At first, I didn't know what to do.

Resigning myself, I changed the open sign to closed and picked up Pearl's bag. It didn't enter into my mind to think about warning Veda that Antony was coming to see her. Making a call would have been easy, but I didn't think of it. I had to work out what I needed to do to make the knitting on the front doors untangle itself.