AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That last comment was accompanied by a twist of her mouth, showing me exactly what she thought of those suburbs. And I couldn’t really blame her. I ventured out that way to do my necessary shopping, but the Phoenix sprawl felt like a vast complex of big-box stores and housing tracts filled with homes that all looked exactly alike. You could probably say the same thing for big chunks of Southern California, although the impression I got from Phoenix wasn’t quite the same.
Anyway, I understood Hazel’s desire to stay in Globe. I felt pretty much the same way, even though I’d only lived here for a couple of months. There was a lot to be said for a town where everyone knew everyone else, where people didn’t feel the need to lock their doors and pretty much the whole town showed up for any special event that might be going on…although I had to admit their attendance at said events probably arose from a need to find something amusing to fill their time. A hotbed of wild nightlife the town definitely was not.
“Well, who needs men anyway?” I asked before sipping some chardonnay.
A knowing glint entered her eyes. She knew all about how Calvin had disappeared on me…and she also knew not to mention it directly. “They’re definitely more trouble than they’re worth a lot of the time.”
We clinked glasses, and went on to discuss other subjects. Even so, I knew in the background, my posts on Instagram were getting more comments, and my tally of followers was continuing to creep up.
And I still didn’t know what the heck to do about it.
* * *
Sure enough, when I checked my phone after I got back to my place, I’d edged up a little past a hundred and ten thousand followers.
This was getting ridiculous.
Archie emerged from the second bedroom. I could tell from the way his tail was whipping back and forth that he wasn’t too happy about me being so late to feed him dinner. However, he took one look at my face and apparently decided it wasn’t worth the argument.
And thank the Goddess for that. While it had been good to sit and chat with Hazel, now I was feeling tired and cranky, and just wanted a peaceful evening.
Of course, that was before I made the mistake of looking at the comments on my last post.
I love ur rituals! Are U doing anything special for the solstice?
Globe seems like a magnetic place. What does it offer for the New Age visitor?
Ur smokin’ hot. I’d like to —
I deleted that one right away, even as I marveled how social media — and the internet in general — made some people think it was okay to act like complete jackasses when they’d probably never behave that way around someone in real life.
However, the first commenter’s words made me remember that I’d planned to do something showy for the solstice. I was thinking a bonfire — as long as I could get approval from Willis Dale, the local fire chief — and maybe some live music. There were probably some kids from the local high school orchestra I could cajole into that sort of activity, especially if I promised them a nice payday for their efforts.
And the second commenter seemed interested in coming to Globe. Josie would like that. Of course, the only true “New Age” activity in the town was shopping in my store, although I supposed I could cobble something together, maybe some kind of vortex tour. No, we weren’t in Sedona, but, as I’d discovered, the rocks around here had their own kind of energy. And there might also be the possibility of getting a tour of the San Ramon Apaches’ tribal lands, although I wanted to push that idea away as soon as it occurred to me. Anything that involved getting close to Calvin’s orbit probably wasn’t a good idea.
Still, the solstice celebration idea probably had some legs.
A notion struck me, and I scooped up my phone and headed into the living room. The fireplace had brand-new glass doors, thanks to Brett Woodrow, Josie’s nephew and the town’s busiest contractor. A few months earlier, Lucien’s disciple Violet Clarke had gone crashing through the previous fireplace doors, thanks to Archie launching himself at her head when she tried to attack me, but now everything was put back together again.
However, it wasn’t the doors that motivated me, but what was behind them. Since it was way too hot to even contemplate having a fire, I’d gotten a set of faux logs with little carve-outs that allowed you to place tealights inside. It was a fun way to get the flicker of real flames inside the fireplace without any of the heat of an actual fire.
I thought I’d get the tealights going, then do a short video of their flickering flames, accompanied by a brief caption about a fire ritual on the solstice. That would be enough to pique some interest, but because it was an Instagram story, it would disappear after twenty-four hours.
Five minutes later, the video was posted, and I felt like I’d been active enough to satisfy my followers for the evening. Afterward, I settled on the couch with a bowl of reheated soup and watched some TV, figuring I’d done my chores for the day.
For a psychic, I was completely falling down on the job when it came to envisioning what was about to come next.
4
Down on the Ranch
“I have the most wonderful news!”Josie exclaimed.
Since I wasn’t doing inventory that day, I was behind the counter at the store, wearing a black tank top and one of my sparkly black skirts. A couple of customers had come and gone — not bad for a Friday morning — but still, it wasn’t as though I’d experienced a mad rush on the place following the video I’d posted the previous evening.
“Yes?” I asked, trying not to sound too guarded. The response to my solstice announcement had seemed oddly muted, and I was now trying to second-guess myself. Maybe I’d only been a one-day flash in the pan, and all those instant followers had already moved on to the new hot thing.
Then again, I’d gained another twenty thousand followers overnight, so it wasn’t as though some algorithm had dropped me off a cliff. If that was even how these things worked. I’d be the first to admit that I was pretty hazy when it came to the nuts and bolts that drove social media behind the scenes.
