Rose and Helena Save Christmas: a novella (2 page)

“I’m so sorry,” Taylor began.

Serafine waved a hand in dismissal. “It’s all right.”

Helena gave one final flop and flung the tablecloth off, sending it across the room and right on top of the candle. The tablecloth burst into flames.
 

“Fire!” Helena yelled. “We’re all going to die.” She jumped up from the floor and bolted out of the room through the wall, leaving a trail of tinsel in her wake. Taylor didn’t even want to think about the parts of the ghost that were now exposed.
 

Serafine was stock-still, clearly panicked, so Taylor yanked the burning tablecloth onto the floor and stomped on it until the flames were gone. Thank God she’d worn her hiking boots. She looked over at the psychic, who stood silently clutching the ball.

“I’ll just…we’ll go ahead and leave,” Taylor said and hurried out of the room, her face burning with the flush she knew was there.

Two young ladies stood next to the counter as she exited the back room. She barely glanced at them and gave Purple Hair a nod before rushing to the front door.
 

“Next!” Helena yelled.

Chapter Two

“I smell smoke,” Rose Gardner told her best friend as they walked through the front door of a small shop in the French Quarter. The place was cluttered with candles and knickknacks one would expect to find in the shop belonging to a psychic. While Rose was highly skeptical, her best friend, Neely Kate, was sure to appreciate the ambiance.
 

“That’s incense. It’s just part of the psychic experience, Rose,” Neely Kate said in a good-natured tone, tossing her long blond curls over her shoulder. Despite being well aware that Rose thought the trip was a waste of time, Neely Kate’s enthusiasm hadn’t been squelched. “I
know
I have a special paranormal gift. I just need someone who can see across the veil to help point me in the right direction to find it.”

Rose sighed, unsure why her friend was so desperate for a supernatural gift when she’d seen firsthand the trouble Rose’s had caused. “Neely Kate, you’re wonderful just the way you are. Trust me. Leave it at that.” She stopped in front of the counter, expecting the clerk with purple hair to look up from the cloth bags she was so intent on opening and closing, but she ignored them.
 

“I have an appointment with destiny,” Neely Kate said breathlessly, her cheeks tinged pink with excitement.
 

Rose leaned forward, lowering her voice. “We have an appointment with Madame Serafine. We know we’re early, but my friend didn’t want to wait.”

The girl looked at her ledger. “Neely Kate Colson?” she asked in a bored tone.

“That’s me!”
 

The girl stuck out her hand, still not looking up at the girls. “That’ll be fifty dollars.”

Neely Kate gave her the cash she already in her hand when they heard a loud crash and raised voices behind the curtain that covered the doorway.

“Is everything okay back there?” Rose asked.
 

The purple-haired girl shrugged, continuing her task with the bags.

“I love your hair,” Neely Kate gushed. “I’ve been thinking about dyeing my own hair a fun color.”

Rose’s gaze jerked up to Neely Kate. “Don’t you dare. Ronnie would have a fit.”

“Ronnie wouldn’t even notice.”

Rose shook her head dismissively. “If you believe that, then we need to ask the psychic where we can find your ever-lovin’ mind, because that man has nothing but eyes for you.”

Neely Kate’s own blue eyes sparkled with happiness. But then, being a newlywed and pregnant with her first baby had made Neely Kate the happiest person Rose knew.

“Now I really
do
smell smoke,” Rose said, trying to peer through the crack in the curtain.
 

Seconds later, a young woman with a long black ponytail ran through the curtain, giving a nod before she rushed for the front door.
 

Neely Kate’s head swiveled around as if searching for something. “Who said ‘next’?”

Rose knew the woman hurrying past her hadn’t said a word, and the purple-headed woman was too busy ignoring them. “I think you’re hearing things.”
 

Neely Kate put her hands on her hips. “No, I’m
sure
I heard an elderly woman’s voice, and there were a lot of jingling bells.”

Rose’s eyes widened in concern. “Something must have got shook loose in your head when Tabitha knocked you to the ground last week. Maybe we should call your doctor.”

A woman appeared between the crack in the curtains. She looked exactly as Rose expected from a psychic—dark hair with silver streaks and unusually pale skin that made her look like a vampire. But it was the crystal ball she held in her hands that added to the effect.
 

Neely Kate shivered, trying to contain her obvious excitement, and the clerk rolled her eyes.
 

The older woman cleared her throat. “Are you my seven o’clock reading?”

Neely Kate rushed around the corner of the counter and extended her right hand. “You must be Madame Serafine. I’m Neely Kate Colson, but then you probably already knew that since you’re a psychic and all.” When the woman didn’t take her hand, Neely Kate lowered hers, undeterred. “I have so much to ask you.”

“You’re welcome to come back, but there’s been a…mishap.” She glanced up at the girl at the counter. “Gina, can you help clean up the mess in the back?”

“Not right now. I’m sorting through the new inventory.”

The way the psychic’s brow lowered made it look as though she wanted to reprimand her employee, but decided it was a waste of time. She rolled her shoulders in defeat and turned around, disappearing behind the curtain.
 

Rose and Neely Kate glanced at each other before Neely Kate followed. They walked through the curtain and stopped when they entered the room. A table in the center of the room was split in the middle and folded inward. A pile of ashes that looked like pieces of fabric covered a small section of the floor. Tarot cards were scattered everywhere. When Serafine said there was a mess in the back, she wasn’t kidding.

“What happened here?” Neely Kate asked.
 

“Don’t ask,” Serafine grumbled as she pulled a chair free from the rubble and sat down. Neely Kate did the same and set her chair in front of the elderly woman. Rose stood to the side of Neely Kate, taking in the skulls sitting on shelves on the walls. One thing was for certain: Serafine’s decor added to the overall experience.

“What answers are you seeking today?”

“I want to know if I have any supernatural gifts. My best friend, Rose, has visions of the future, and I know that I must have a gift, too.”

“Hmm…I’m not sure if I can see that.”

Neely Kate pouted in disappointment. “Can’t you at least try?”

The woman shrugged. “My best chance was with the tarot cards…” She glanced at the blackened cards on the floor. “I can read your palm and see if I can find your answers there.”

Neely Kate held out her hand, flipping it palm side up. “Okay.”

The psychic held Neely Kate’s hand in hers, her index finger trailing across the etched lines. “You have a very strong lifeline, which means you have good health.”

“That’s true,” Neely Kate murmured. “I’ve been in excellent health.”

“What are you talking about?” Rose asked, her thinly veiled skepticism breaking loose. “You were sicker than a dog for the last month and a half.”

The blonde shot her friend a glare. “I wasn’t sick. That was morning sickness. From the baby.”

“It’s not called sickness for nothin’, Neely Kate.”

The psychic stopped tracing and looked up at Rose with narrowed eyes. “Your negativity is affecting the reading.”

Rose wanted to point out that the lines on Neely Kate’s hand would be there no matter Rose’s attitude, but she bit her tongue and offered an apologetic smile. Neely Kate really wanted to see the psychic, and Rose was determined to make sure her friend was happy. Even if Rose thought the woman was full of poppycock.

“I see trouble in your future, and sorrow.”

Neely Kate’s back stiffened, and Rose put a hand on her shoulder.

“You will overcome an obstacle but face another in its place.”

“What does that mean?” Neely Kate asked in a trembling voice. “Is it about the baby?”

Rose’s stomach twisted into a knot. Neely Kate’s grandmother claimed to be able to read tea leaves, and although she got most predictions wrong, she had told Neely Kate on multiple occasions that she would lose her baby, and her friend was anxious.

The psychic moved to another part of Neely Kate’s palm. “Your marriage line is strong but the lines for children are unusual…”

Rose stiffened as the edges of the room grew dark, and she felt the familiar tingle in her head, announcing an oncoming vision. They were always unwelcome and mostly inconvenient, but she’d learned long ago that fighting them was pointless. She always saw them from the eyes of someone close to her, and while they were sometimes embarrassing, she had no choice but to let the visions happen and deal with the consequences later.
 

The room faded and she was at a door, turning a lock. The gnarled fingers told Rose the vision was through Serafine’s eyes. Something jabbed into her back.

“We need to go back inside,” a man with a deep, menacing voice said, pushing the pointed object hard into her coat.

“I don’t have anything you want,” the psychic said, her heart racing. “My employee already made the night deposit.”

“It’s not your money that I want.”

The vision gave way to the dark room and Rose blurted out, “You’re going to get held up.”

The psychic looked up from Neely Kate’s palm, her eyes wide. “What?”

Rose grimaced. She always blurted out what she saw, an annoying tic that got her into more trouble than she could shake a stick at. People never believed her, but the woman claimed to be psychic, even if Rose had her doubts. Maybe she’d be more open to the idea. “I see visions.”

Serafine’s jaw drooped.

“And I just saw a vision of you being held up by a man with a gun.”

The psychic stood up and glanced at the collapsed table, then back at Rose. “Get out.”

Neely Kate bolted out of her chair. “What?”

“Get. Out.” The woman pushed Neely Kate toward the door while Rose backed up to stay out of her path.

“But you haven’t finished my reading!” Neely Kate protested.
 

“I’ve had enough weirdness for one night! First a ghost! Now visions!” Serafine pushed them through the curtains and turned to the clerk. “Gina, I’m closing up early. Go home.”

Gina looked up in a panic, more emotion than Rose thought her capable of showing. “But I’m not done counting the gris-gris bags.”

“I don’t care!” Serafine shouted. She snatched one out of the clerk’s hand and shoved it at Neely Kate. “Here, take this. On the house. It will offer you protection and it’s obvious you’re going to need it.” Then she pushed them outside and locked the front door.

“But you didn’t finish my reading!” Neely Kate shouted.
 

Serafine flipped the Open sign to Closed.

“Open the door!” The blond woman pounded on the glass with her palm. “You didn’t finish! You ripped me off!”

Rose grabbed her arm. “Neely Kate, she’s not going to change her mind. Let’s just go.”

Neely Kate turned to her, her eyes wild like a rabid dog trapped in a corner. “This isn’t right!” she shouted, pointing to the door. “She took my money and stopped while telling me about my children! And I won’t even get into the fact that she didn’t tell me about my supernatural gift!”

People on the street were openly staring, including the shopkeeper next door. Rose was surprised they’d noticed, given all the other strange activities she’d already seen in the few hours they’d been in the French Quarter since arriving in New Orleans earlier that afternoon. “I know, honey, and I’m sorry. We’ll find another psychic tomorrow. I promise. She’ll be even better.”

Her friend crossed her arms.
 

“I’m sorry I had a vision and ruined everything.”

Neely Kate’s face softened. “It’s not your fault, Rose.”

“I know, but I still ruined it for you. Not to mention I think someone’s gonna rob Serafine and she won’t listen to my warning.”

Neely Kate’s mouth pursed in irritation. “Well, serves her right, then. Let’s go.”

She let Rose drag her back to the hotel, and while her anger had faded during the five-block walk, it still simmered beneath the surface. When Rose shut the door behind them, Neely Kate pulled out her phone. “That woman ripped me off and I’m not going to stand for it.”

“What are you doing?” Rose asked as she pulled up a number on her phone.

Neely Kate’s gaze jerked up, putting her hand on her hip with an indignant glare. “I’m getting justice, that’s what I’m doing.” She held the phone up to her ear and was silent for a long moment, then she broke loose. “Madame Serafine, you stole my money! I don’t know how you do things here in the fancy city, but in Henryetta, Arkansas, that makes you a crook. We don’t stand for that nonsense and know how to take care of people like you. I’m staying at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel and I’m giving you until tomorrow morning to do the right thing and pay me back. Leave my money at the front desk or I’ll be forced to do something neither one of us wants.” She hung up, blowing a long breath out of her mouth.