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“What’s that?” Sabrina asked.
Luna explained, “It’s when you get vibrations from personal objects.”
“Ooh . . . can you psycho me?”
Luna guffawed. “It’s not psycho. It’s psychometry. Psychometrics.”
“Whatever. Can you do it for me?” Sabrina urged.
Luna looked around the art center. It was getting busy. “Maybe later or tomorrow. I think we’re in for a big crowd today. The foot traffic is already on the upswing.”
Sabrina checked out the courtyard. “I think you’re right. I better get back to my station. Thanks for letting me be your barista.”
“No. Thankyoufor helping out. I promise I’ll do the ‘psycho’ thing for you when things slow down.” She laughed, and Sabrina giggled.
Luna checked the old retro clock on the wall. It was almost two. The morning had flown by. She remembered the old adage “Time flies when you’re having fun.” The more she thought about it, the more she realized how much fun she had had in the past fifteen-plus hours.
Within a few minutes of Luna’s daydreaming, an announcement came over the PA system: “May I have your attention, please. The drawing for the Lincoln Corsair will be taking place in ten minutes. If you haven’t purchased your ticket, please do so now. Pages in green smocks can assist you. Thank you.”
The excitement was palpable. Ellie was right about waiting until after the gala. Many more people were interested in the new center and the chance of winning a $55,000 car. Tickets were priced at ten dollars, encouraging multiple entries. There was a flood of people around each of the pages. Luna asked Ellie about giving the buyers a few more minutes. Ellie agreed to extend it until two thirty and made another announcement. “For your convenience, we have extended the time of the drawing to two thirty. And we thank you for your generosity.” Ellie looked at Luna. “How was that?”
“Perfect. I think you’re going to make a lot of money on this.”
“I hope you’re right.” Ellie smiled. During the next few minutes, there was another surge of raffle-ticket purchases.
“I better give Sabrina a hand.” Luna swiftly made her way over to where two of the pages were being barraged with people. Having to fill out the ticket with a name and phone number slowed down the process. Luna gave Ellie a wave for her to come over to where they were hustling with tickets, pencils, and people using each other’s backs to write on the ticket.
Ellie put her hands up to calm some of the people. They were almost in frenzy mode. “Everyone? Don’t panic.” She smiled. “You will all have an opportunity to finish writing down your names.” Ellie reorganized the mob scene. “Purchase your tickets from Sabrina and Yvonne.” She pointed to the two dazed pages. “Fill it out and then give half of it to Luna.” Luna waved and stepped several feet away from the crowd. Organized chaos. You would have thought they were giving the car away, not raffling it off. When they were down to the last hopeful, Luna took his ticket and put it in the big spinning barrel that looked like a giant hamster wheel.
Ellie walked over to the cage of hopeful entries. “Is everybody ready?”
A huge roar came from the crowd. “Yes!” “You bet!” “Let’s go!”
Ellie grabbed the crank of the cage and gave it a huge spin. She pointed to a small girl holding two fuzzy-looking things in one hand and her mother’s hand with the other.
“Hey, sweetie. Would you like to help me pick a winner?”
The child looked up at her mother with a pleading expression. “Please, Mommy?”
Luna recognized the little girl. She was Avery. The missing child from a couple of years ago. Luna approached the mother and child. The mother recognized Luna immediately. “Oh, Miss Luna! So nice to see you! I pray for you every night and thank God you were there to help find Avery.”
Luna’s eyes began to mist. She squatted down to speak to the little girl. “Hi, Avery. Do you remember me?”
The little girl nodded enthusiastically. She held up both bunnies by their ears. The one from Luna and the one from Gaines.
Her mother smiled. “She is rarely without them at home, but I never let her take them anywhere. They could get lost, and that would be tragic. It’s all I can do to wrestle them from her so I can put them in the wash. It’s odd, but today she insisted on bringing them. She put up quite a fuss, too. She wanted them to see all the pretty things. I figured I could keep an eye on her and her bunnies.”
Luna smiled. “I’m glad you still have your bunnies.” Avery nodded again, even more excited.
Avery held up the bunny Luna gave her. “This is Miss Boo.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Boo.” Luna gave the now-tatty-looking bunny a pat on the head. “And who is this?” She pointed to the other bunny, the one Gaines had given Avery at the hospital.
“This is Marshal,” Avery said with confidence.
Luna let out a laugh. “I didn’t realize she knew he was a marshal.” Luna remembered Gaines’s telling Avery he was a policeman.
“She saw the news coverage. She thinks Marshal is his first name. Marshal Gaines.” Both Avery’s mother and Luna got a kick out of that.
