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Because I realized I was a little nervous. Why, I wasn’t sure, because even though I hadn’t been doing professional Tarot readings for the past few months, I’d been analyzing card spreads since I was in my teens. Maybe it was just the thought of having to do it for people who were my friends and neighbors, or at least acquaintances. Most of the people in the town seemed to have relaxed into my woo-woo ways — it wasn’t as though I’d ever had someone paint “Witch Go Home” on the front of my shop or even demonstrate in slightly less hostile ways that they weren’t entirely happy about having a practicing witch take up residence in their historic downtown. Of course, there were some, like Henry Lewis, who didn’t approve of me for a variety of reasons, but mainly, they just tried to stay out of my orbit.
But I’d promised, so I made approving noises when Josie showed me the table in one corner of the family room that she’d had set up, complete with a black velvet cloth covering its surface and a gorgeous little jar candle that smelled of pumpkin spice flickering off to the side.
“Oh, I’m so glad you like it,” she said in reply to my words of praise. Sitting in the center of the table was a black top hat, something that looked as though she’d borrowed it from the Old Globe Theatre Company’s costume department. “I’ll go around the party now and have everyone put their name in, so when it’s time, you can pull out three and do the readings for them.”
“Or have Calvin pull the names,” I suggested. “That way, no one can say I tried to pick the easy ones.”
Josie put her hands together. Red gems glittered on all her fingers. I had to assume they were fake, but with Josie, you never knew. “That’s a wonderful idea,” she replied. “And it will give everyone a chance to see the two of you together. Speaking of which, you should go ahead and join him. Just be back here at eight-thirty.”
“I will,” I promised, then smiled. “The house looks gorgeous, Josie. It’s so fun to be at a real Halloween party this year.”
The praise made her expression brighten, as I’d hoped it would. After reassuring her again that I would be at the Tarot table at the appointed time, I made my way back to the dining room. Hazel, Chuck, and Calvin hadn’t shifted from the spot where I’d left them, and so I rejoined the little group.
“Everything squared away?” Calvin inquired, and I nodded.
“Yes, and I volunteered you to choose the names for the Tarot readings,” I told him.
He didn’t look overly thrilled at that piece of information…or maybe it was just the way the special effects makeup made his brows look as though they were lowering all the time. To my relief, though, he didn’t protest, only said, “Okay. I’ll do my best. Are there any names you want me to avoid?”
There probably were, but I knew better than to game the system like that. If the universe decided I needed to do someone’s Tarot reading that night, then I’d go ahead and perform the task to the best of my ability, no matter what my personal feelings on the subject might be.
“No,” I said severely. “All you have to do is pull the cards out and hand them over. Easy peasy.”
“But I wouldn’t mind if you pulled my name,” Hazel put in, her greenish eyes glinting a bit.
“I’ll do my best, ma’am,” he replied, doing a creditable cowboy drawl.
“Hey,” Chuck protested with a grin. “That’s supposed to be my schtick.”
We all laughed then, and headed over to the refreshment table so we could load up on the various delicacies Josie’s put-upon caterer had set out. Everything was delicious, including the much-maligned crab dip. Right then, I was very glad that my costume was so flowing and comfortable, and not something a lot more constricting like Hazel’s red brocade corset.
After we ate, we circulated a bit, chitchatting with the various attendees, all of whom heaped praise on our costumes. We responded in kind — I was actually a bit surprised at the quality of the costumes I saw around me, since there wasn’t a cheap polyester getup from a Halloween store in sight — and soon enough, the fateful hour arrived.
Calvin shepherded me over to the table in the family room, where Josie was already waiting.
“All right, everyone!” she called out, her voice carrying clearly over the party chatter. “It’s time for Selena to do her Tarot readings. Calvin has graciously agreed to select the three names out of the hat, so listen close in case yours is called.”
Looking terribly self-conscious even under all those layers of makeup, he reached for the hat and lifted it from the table, then made a show of shaking it a bit to mix up the little scraps of paper inside. Once he was done, he reached inside and drew out the first name.
“Joyce Lewis.”
Joyce gave a little squeal of surprise as her friend Lynda grabbed her by the arm in excitement.
I couldn’t be quite that excited about the whole situation. Not that I had anything against Joyce — she seemed like a lovely person, especially when compared to her curmudgeonly husband — but still, the last thing I wanted was to do some kind of awful reading for her. All I needed was for Chief Lewis to decide that I’d been making veiled threats against his wife or something.
But since Calvin had already read her name, there wasn’t much I could do except smile and go along.
“Terry Woodrow,” he read next.
Well, I could feel a bit better about that particular selection. Brett and Terry Woodrow had never been anything but utterly nice to me. Besides, I had to feel eternally grateful to Brett for saving my life — if he hadn’t come to the Bigelow mansion in the nick of time and stopped Al Loomis with a tricky wrestling maneuver right before the other man tried to shoot me, I might not be here to do Tarot readings at all.
“And the last one….” Calvin rummaged around in the hat, making a show of things to draw out the suspense. Who knew he aspired to that level of showmanship?
With a flourish, he drew out the third and final scrap of paper.
“Danny Ortega,” he announced.
This time, I really had to clamp down on my lip to keep myself from groaning out loud in frustration. I hadn’t even seen the man in question at the party so far, but since his name was in the hat, that meant he had to be lurking somewhere.
