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The Great Novel Race 2008:

Black Smoke and Distorted Mirrors

by Whitney Garrett

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Chapter 3

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Shaska’s knuckles began to ache and turn red. The straps of her tote bag cut into her shoulder as it bulged making it awkward to hold. Rhapsody shifted his weight from his right paws to his left and then back again. Ever since the incident at their apartment he had been running on adrenaline and had a hard time standing still. Shaska knocked again.

            “I don’t think the old hag’s going to wake up, Rhaps.”

            “Just keep knocking.”

            “We have been knocking for 15 minutes. How long are you going to have me doing this until you realize it’s useless? My hand’s about to fall off!” Shaska’s voice had developed a quiet but strong whine in the past five minutes.

            Rhapsody hissed slightly, “Wait here.”

            Shaska watched until he had turned the corner of the brown brick building, the door of which she was abusing. Once he was out of sight she quit knocking and sat on the stoop with her back resting against the door. While massaging her mistreated knuckles, she glanced around at the dingy street in front of her.

            The Shop was not in one of the better areas of town. While she didn’t need to worry that an unfavorable glance toward the baggy-pants punk down the road would earn her a piece of lead in the gut, she wouldn’t be leaving her purse unattended any time soon. The only street lamp nearby was broken, so the only light came from a neon sign a few doors down. It cast a strange green light onto everything making the street and the alley next to The Shop look especially ominous.

            The windows of The Shop needed a good scrubbing. The sorry state of the windows mixed with the dusty interior of The Shop made it impossible to see inside. The exterior of The Shop was unadorned except for the sign that hung above the door which said “The Shop of Magic and the Occult” in dark red letters. A sign on the door read “Genuine psychic readings inside.”

            The moon shone down on the street. It was not quite full but managed to compete with the neon sign for dominance of the lighting up the street. Though she normally felt a sort of kinship to the moon, that night Shaska felt a strange disconnection with it. Rather than a brilliantly illuminated orb, the moon seemed to be just a distant, cold rock. Shaska watched it longingly when a dark cloud passed in front of it. A lone tear slid down Shaska’s cheek.

            Even the moon has abandoned me, Shaska thought. She jumped when Rhapsody padded up the steps to stand next to her on the stoop.

            “I couldn’t find an open window,” he said, ignoring Shaska’s red eyes. He looked at the door and scratched it with his paw, softly mewing. Suddenly Shaska heard a bolt unfasten and before she could shift her weight off the door she was on her back staring up at an older woman wearing a bathrobe and a scowl.

            “Hi!” Shaska said, smiling her brightest. The scowl not only stayed in place but deepened. “Um, I knocked for 20 minutes-“

            “I didn’t hear you,” the woman cut her off in a scratchy, disgruntled voice. “What do you want?”

            “How could you not hear me pounding away at your door, but you could hear one little cat?!”

            “Maybe you put too much stock into your abilities to drawn attention to yourself,” the pajama-clad woman said in a bitter voice. “You can’t just go waking people up in the middle of the night just because you want someone to give you a little attention. Your mother should have taught you not to be such a spoiled brat!”

            “You know what, old hag-“

            “Old hag?! Did you wake me up in the middle of the night just to insult me?

            “It’s only the middle of the night if you’re old and have to go to bed at seven!”

            “At least I don’t sleep in until 3 in the afternoon! I wake up and do productive things! I earn the money I make, instead of some people I could mention who make a ridiculous amount of money just because she does cheap tricks!”

            “Cheap?! My magic is art! People enjoy what I do! I relieve stress! I-“

            “Tria, Shaska is cursed!” Rhapsody shouted above the two woman, who immediately stopped bickering to look at the cat. Shaska was out of breath, and Tria had taken her hands off her hips.

            “What?” Tria asked. Her voice was laced with concern, but not necessarily for Shaska “Cursed how?”

            “Some kind of bad luck charm, but don’t worry it doesn’t extend to anyone else,” Rhapsody answered, knowing that Shaska was not the woman’s main priority.

            Tria looked Shaska up and down, sighed deeply, and let them pass her into The Shop. Tria turned the lights on, lighting up a dingy, old store that was packed tightly with odds and ends. One wall was lined with shelves of jars of powders, liquids, and various things that looked like they might have been alive at some point. In the center of the store was a round service desk with a cash register and a huge, dusty inventory book. Behind the service desk and to the back of the door were many bookcases full of old, well-worn tomes. Special-looking boxes filled what little walking space there was in the store, making it necessary to climb over things to move around the store.

            Tria moved to a high-back chair that was near the front of the store and plopped herself down on it, her plump frame filling the chair. Rhapsody leapt onto the matching footstool and settled himself while Shaska moved bolts of brightly colored material from a barstool and sat down. Tria studied Shaska for several mintues before speaking.

            “Well, tell me what happened.”

            Shaska and Rhapsody quickly told her what they had seen, but when Tria asked what ingrediants had been used to make the spell Shaska faltered. Tria gave her a scathing look before turning to Rhapsody who quickly told her what ingrediants had been taken from the cabinet or found missing including the canary. Shaska looked at her hands which were folded in her lap.

            “I’ll lecture you about not being aware of your surroundings in such dire circumstances later,” Tria said, then continued more gently, “but it seems like a fairly simple spell-“

            “That’s great!” Shaska interupted.

            As Shaska began to jump up, Tria continued, “However it’s often the most simple spells that are the most trouble!”

            Shaska deflated, “How so?”

            Tria’s mouth formed a smug smirk, “Well, for instance, this spell cannot be reversed until you know who cast it.”

            “What?” Shaska leapt from her seat. “How am I supposed to find out who cast the spell?”

            The smirk returned, “I suggest you make like Nancy Drew and follow the clues. I suppose you’re going to want to stay here tonight, aren’t you?”

            Shaska nodded, “Can we?”

            Tria sighed then said darkly, “Of course. Why don’t you ask for my right kidney while you’re at it. You’ll have to bed down in here, having all your bouncy energy in my apartment to annoy me is against my religion.”

            “Thank you, Tria,” Shaska grudgingly as Tria started to walk to the backroom apartment, then muttered, “You grumpy old goat.”

            “I heard that,”Tria called over her shoulder.

            “Good night, aunt,” Shaska called.

            “Good night, niece.”

 

            The sun tickled Shaska’s face, waking her up slowly. Just as she was about to pull the blanket over her face, the blanket was removed entirely and she felt whiskers tickling her face. The whiskers were not nearly as pleasant as the sunshine. Shaska groaned and rolled over. This was the wrong move she quickly discovered when a feline belly began smothering her face.

            Shaska pushed Rhapsody away sitting up, “Oh, blah! Now I have fur in my mouth.”

            “You need to wake up. My store opens in a few minutes!” Shaska heard the terse voice coming from behind her. As she turned around she found Tria standing behind her at the service desk. Tria was wearing earthy, loose clothing that Shaska couldn’t help thinking didn’t fit her personality. “Get up. And put all those blankets and pillows back where you found them!”

            Shaska picked herself up and began putting the things away, which translated to throwing them across other objects in the store. Tria flipped the open sign in the window and unlocked the door. Rhapsody leapt onto the desk and started looking through the inventory book.

            “So, does our family have any enemies?” Shaska asked leaning against the desk as her aunt turned on the desk computer.

            “We have a few rivals, but I wouldn’t call them enemies. Our family is the leading magician family when it comes to illusions which tends to breed jealousy, but I don’t know which families would be the most hostile, or which ones would have members in this dimension,” her aunt answered, “Does anyone in this dimension know that you’re a magician? Other than that fake show you put on?”

            “It’s not fake. I use real magic, the humans just don’t know it. And the answer to your question is ‘no.’” Shaska said. “So where do you think I should start looking?”

            “I guess you should check your apartment for clues.”

            Rhapsody spoke up from his perch over the inventory book as customers walked in, “Where’s the book that explains the theory of magic tracing?”

            Shaska knew that humans couldn’t hear Rhapsody, but it always put her slightly on edge anyway when he spoke when humans were near. Shaska looked around at the customers. There were a couple goth girls who were dressed so extremely that Shaska wondered if they weren’t new to the gothic scene. There was a woman browsing the wall with all the jars who looked like she was still stuck in the glory days of hippies. They looked like the usual people you would find in The Store. However, there was a handsome, if not nerdy-looking, young man who had an overwhelmed look on his face. He looked out of place in his normal clothes, short brown hair, and his black-rimmed glasses.

            “Magic tracing?” Tria answered Rhapsody thoughtfully. “It might be on the third shelf back, but it’s pretty high up.”

            “Can you show me?” Rhapsody asked jumping down from the counter.

            Shaska was still wondering what the young man was doing in a store that usually only attracted the wicca-enthused, when he gave Rhapsody a weird look. Wait. Did he hear Rhapsody? No. That’s not possible. Is it? Shaska thought.

            “Hey, Rhapsody, wait. Say something when this guy walks by,” Shaska whispered.

            Rhapsody cocked his head, but complied with the strange request. As the guy walked past Rhapsody said in a loud, clear voice, “How about this weather we’re having?”

            It was almost comical the way the man whipped his head around to look at Rhapsody in shock. His attention draw elsewhere he plowed right into the stacks of boxes. He yelped in surprise then pain as he fell to the floor bringing several boxes down on top of him.

            Tria rolled her eyes, having missed the man’s reaction to Rhapsody. “They never look where they’re going, these young people today. He was probably texting someone.”

            Shaska smiled sympathetically knowing her aunt’s aversion to text-messaging, though her mind was somewhere else. “Did you see that?”

            Rhapsody nodded solemnly, “We should keep an eye on him.”

            Shaska nodded, moving to help him up, “Hey, are you okay? You don’t know how many times I’ve tripped in this store. My name’s Shaska. What’s yours?”

            “Cal,” he answered accepting her hand to help him up off the floor.

            “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem a little out of place here.”

            Cal looked sheepish, “Yeah, this really isn’t my kind of thing, but my girlfriend really loves this store, so I thought I’d try to get her something for her birthday.” Cal glanced at Rhapsody. “Um, this might be an odd question, but…did your cat just…talk?”

            Shaska laughed charmingly, “I’m an amatuer ventraliquist, and sometimes I throw my voice to freak people out and make them think that Rhapsody (that’s my cat) spoke. Fun, huh? Sorry my little joke made you take a swan dive!”

            Cal laughed with her, “Wow! You’re really good! You really had me going!”

            “So, maybe I can help you pick out something for your girlfriend. What’s she into?”

            “Tarot, I think?”

            “Well, my aunt has some great books and sets on that second bookcase back there,” Shaska said pointing.

            “Thanks,” Cal walked back to the bookcase she had indicated, though he looked back over his shoulder before disappearing among the books.

            Shaska’s smile melted and she furrowed her brow, “That was weird. Is it possible that some humans can hear you?”

            “Not to my knowledge, but perhaps there are exceptions,” Rhapsody said, “He seemed genuinely surprised to see a talking cat, but if he’s our suspect he may be a good actor. Either way, we should go check out that book on magic tracing.”

            “Magic tracing?” Shaska asked following Rhapsody. They passed by the stack where Cal searched for the birthday present. He raised his eyes from the book he was looking at as they passed.

            “It’s a technique that lets you track a magic aura. Every time a magician uses magic they leave some of their aura behind. So we could use the aura left at the apartment to track down the perpetrator.”

            “Oh,”Shaska said nodding. She looked around at the books in the third row.

            “There it is, “Rhapsody said looking up.

            “I see it,” Shaska stretched her arm out to reach the book, but it was on one of the top shelves. She placed her other hand on the shelf trying to push herself closer to the book, but it was still out of reach. She grunted from the effort when the book started coming closer to her. Actually all the books were coming closer to her.

            Shaska’s eyes widened in horror as she realized ALL the books were coming toward her. The whole bookcase was falling down on top of her.

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