In The Hour of The Sun, On The Day of Silcharde, the Moon a Crescent:

The next morning was bright gold and glittery, as if waking for the first time after a very long dream. I lifted myself from my pillow to meet Artie, stretching in pleasure before burrowing the fluffy coat of her neck into my shoulder and purring profusely. I still awoke with a degree of self-doubt. Had it all been a dream?

I left Artie her food for the morning and drove to work. I suspected I’d see something happen within the next month, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high. The results of magick are usually subtle and ironic.

I drove to work and parked by the still railroad tracks where the cicadas whined in the late summer heat.

As I walked into work again Rene peered out at me. I braced myself to suffer her retribution for abandoning work the other day, but she just hovered by the counter, leaning back lazily by the coffee machines.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t finish the shift yesterday.” I sighed.

“Pfffft!” she spouted. “Dude, don’t even worry about it! Have you heard from anybody what happened in town yesterday?”

“Um, nope… Don't think so.”

“You left right before we had our first summer brown out. Almost everybody on the north part of town was out, so Kurt and I finished what we had and closed up early.”

“Wow!”

“Crazy right!!? And you pretty much finished the bathroom, so we're even there."

The early afternoon was busy but mostly pleasant. Some families with kids came for milkshakes and sandwiches. Some colleagues met after work for an early pint of hoppy craft beer, old friends met and gossiped over tea and lattes. I had gotten into a good rythym ringing up the orders and slinging coffee. I didn’t even notice when Grant came up to the counter. I had another nervous startle at seeing him.

He smiled to me as he drew closer.

“H-hey…” I stuttered, averting my eyes in anxiety. “Can I get you something…?”

"Actually, I just wanted to talk to you… you’re… Sylvia…? Shauna…?”

“Silvana!”

“Yeah, we went to school together right? I remember talking to you but I wasn’t sure when we met.” He tried to tease out.

“Oh yeah, I think we were in a class or two together!” -for three years of Latin five days a week.

"Well hey, look, I just really wanted to apologize for my friend the other day. Ashley and I have known each other since we were in preschool. It's kind of a family thing almost, but she can be a real bitch sometimes."

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"Heh, yeah." I croaked. "Ashley can be kind of a... bitch... I guess."

“Well I’m in town right now before I’m heading back to grad school. I was wondering if you wanted to catch up sometime...”

Holy shit. I froze dumbfounded for a moment. “Y-yeah. Sure. That’d be cool!” I said as I noticed Rene appear from the corner of the counter, grinning.

“Any ideas for what to do? Unless you want to hang out here…” he asked.

Rene’s eyes narrowed on me as she attempted to telepathically bind me to invite him to her jam session, like some psychic Cyrano.

“My friend is doing a jam thing this Saturday night. I guess we’re meeting at Puffer’s Pond around... 5?” I suggested.

“Puffer’s Pond at 5… Sounds cool! I’ll be there!” Grant affirmed.

“Oh awesome!” I exclaimed grinning, my brain having exploded.

Rene slyly slithered a hot cup into my hand.

“Oh, here’s your coffee!” I said offering it to him.

“Ah, I didn't actually order a coffee!”

"Oh yeah, shit!" I exclaimed. "Well uhhh... just!... take it then! It's yours!"

"Well awesome, thanks for the free cup!" smiled Grant as he walked through the booths and out the door. "See you on Saturday, Silvana!"

"You too!" I shouted. "...Grant!"

Grant opened the back door just a crack and peeked back in "sorry? was there something else?"

"Oh no! I was just... you just said 'See you,Silvana' and I just said 'You too, Grant!' like, I just wanted to say your name too."

"Haha, oookay." He said with widened eyes and a slight smirk drawing from the corners of his mouth. "See ya!"

I looked to Rene who met my gaze with serpentine side-eyes.

“Yoooouuuu’re gooonnnaa get laaaaaiddd” she cooed.

“Shut up.”

“Well come on, today you’ve got no excuse not to close up!”

At five, after I had turned off everything and locked up, I walked out to my car with a big, stupid grin on my face and sat down, breathing a deep sigh of relief and feeling the warm and glorious caress of the afternoon heat on my skin. There was no way that Grant coming to see me could have been a coincidence. Something new really had happened to me.

Then I heard a rumbling in my bag on the passenger's seat next to me. I wrenched out my phone and saw on the screen that my mom was calling me. I swallowed a lump in my throat.

“Hey, what’s up?” I answered.

“Hi Honey! Sorry, am I bothering you at work?”

“No, not at all! I just closed up. What's going on?"

“Well, it’s good news! The bank called! They’re going to refinance the loan, so we'll only need to pay a third of what we're paying to keep the house!”

I fell back deep into the seat and closed my eyes. A great relief washed over me.

“Holy shit! Mom, that’s great!”

“Yeah! I just wanted to tell you first thing! I hope you had a great day at work!”

“Thank you so much! We'll celebrate next time I visit. I love you! Talk to you later!"

"I can't wait! Love you so much!" mom said as I hung up.

I collapsed onto the steering-wheel and laughed so hard I almost cried. The hole had been plugged, and the hull of my life was no longer taking in water. No matter what happened now there was a floor under me. Only one day after the pact and I already felt like I had won the lottery.

As the thought dawned on me, blinking red lights and the rail crossing alarm clanged as a train of many multi-colored and beaten decades-old rail-cars tatooed in graffiti of spectacular incantations and sacred hieroglyphs passed me by. I caught sight of its mysteries for only a moment as it had streamed past my eyes like the frames of a flipbook.

When the bellowing behemoth had slouched for souther pastures, I got out of the car and walked onto the tracks where the thrashing of the wheels and the weight of the carriages against the steel still rippled a rhythm across the line and the great strip of grey gravel.

Sitting upon the outer railings of the tracks was a little flattened circular white rock, which spun hypnotically and ceaselessly on its axis upon the reverberating metal track.

I held up the twinkling stone and kissed it in gratitude.