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Fifi laughed nervously. “That’s the one. So, it looks like one of the water mains in the area kind of ruptured. And flooded the field.”
“Kind of?” My heart dropped so hard and fast I was surprised I didn’t see it flopping around on the floor like a landed fish.
“Okay, it didn’t ‘kind of’ burst. It definitely burst.”
I couldn’t help my sigh. “Fifi, the festival is in two days.Two days.”
All the planning, all the work, organizing everything, and it was going to be for nothing? What about all the vendors? what about the ad campaign we’d been running in town for weeks? It was just now nothing but a total waste of time?Sorry folks, no festival this year, but please be sure to enjoy this soggy field.We couldn’t even reschedule the thing, since it was for the freaking Summer Solstice. It wasn’t like we could move the turning of the seasons.
“Okay, don’t panic. Poppy, I can hear you hyperventilating. it’s okay. Please trust me.”
“How is it okay?” I took a deep breath and tried to force my voice into less of a shriek. “There’s nowhere else to host anything this large. It can’t be moved indoors. The coven has been working on weather charms for a month to make sure we didn’t get rained out, and this happens?”
“I know, I hear you, but it really will be okay, I think.” Fifi spoke fast, the words tripping over each other. “Look, I called in some favors.”
“What sort of favors?”
“Do you remember the dryads and nymphs that took over the old garden center?”
“Sure.”
“Well, I asked them to do what they can. The nymphs are pretty sure they can coax the water to flow down another path after Roy caps the main. And the dryads are confident they can have the field in stable condition before Saturday.”
Hearing that, it was like my lungs unlocked and I could finally breathe again.
“Thank God for you, Fifi.”
She laughed and it sounded like the ringing of bells. Then her tone turned soothing and gentle, like she was trying to comfort a small animal. “This was all more of a heads up. It’s being handled rather than dropping the problem on your plate. I just wanted you to hear about it from me before you found out on your own.”
“Okay. I do appreciate that and your quick thinking.” A couple of deep breaths and the panic receded back to low grade anxiety. “Thank you, Fifi. You did awesome. I really, really appreciate this.”
She laughed. “Oh, no problem. I think it’s all going to go great. I’ll be helping Roy out at the Half-Moon food truck, so I’ll see you there.”
Once she’d hung up, I just sat on the couch for a few minutes. I couldn’t seem to get rid of that thrum of anxiety that made me feel like something was twanging my nerves. Something was going to go wrong; I just knew it—I could feel it. And this sort of thinking—well, it wasn’t like me. I was usually the positive one—the one who looked for the silver linings in all things.
The lack of sleep wasn’t helping, that was for sure. My eyes felt gritty and swollen in their sockets. A couple good nights would have me feeling like my old, perky self, or at least I hoped such would be the case. I just needed to figure out how to get there. Preferably before I alienated everyone with my bad mood and ran my business into the ground.
With a sigh, I flopped backwards onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. How was I ever going to get everything I needed to do done before Saturday? Even if I found a perfect supplier right now, there was no way to get the ingredients I neededandhave time to brew the potions.
I was sunk.
Something banged against my front door, and I jumped so badly, I fell off the couch with a shriek.
I pushed myself up with one hand, shoving my hair back out of my face with the other as the one knock turned into rapid fire pounding that shook the wood door in its frame. Who in the world would be knocking on my door this early in the morning, and why would they be doing it like they were going to break it down?
I grabbed my phone from where I’d dropped it, my heart in my mouth. I was trying to decide if I should call Taliyah, when whoever was outside decided to yell at me through the door.
“Poppy, open this door before I hex it into an armadillo!”
Wanda. It was Wanda.
I scrambled for the door, flung open the lock and yanked it open, only to be facing someone who was dressed like a Halloween ghost, under a gray blanket.
“Wanda?”
She made a sound as she immediately rushed into the safety of my house and slammed the door behind her. Then she threw the blanket off and started trying to smooth the static out of her long dark hair. “What the spell took you so long?”
“I wasn’t expecting anyone,” I said, bewildered. With no real idea what to do, I picked up her discarded blanket and started folding it up. “Why in the world are you dressed like an old-school ghost?”
