“Don’t you have anappointment?”
I let out a hissed curse and scrambled off the couch, Margo groaning her annoyance at me. “Crap,” I muttered. “What time is it?” I looked around for my phone and couldn’t find it. My paperback had slid off my lap and onto thefloor.
Hank looked amused by my chicken with the head cut off routine. “It’s4.”
Thirty minutes. It was doable. The courthouse raising must have depleted me more than I thought. I rarely slept during the day. I yelled athank youat Hank for waking me up and told him to make himself at home. It felt really weird to have a man in the house while I was getting dressed, but I wasn’tuncomfortable.
I pulled a white maxi dress with a long white cardigan and slid on a pair of white sandals. Over my neck I slid a chain with a large chunk of labradorite on the end. I was feeling a little bit ungrounded right now and the stone would help center my energy once I was within the ritual circle. I brushed my shoulder length hair out until it shone and rushed into the bathroom to pop my contacts out. My eyes were tired and gritty. I put on a pair of black framed glasses, brushed my teeth and swiped some peach lip gloss on. After that, I drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. It wastime.
My client today was one I had seen before. This sometimes happened with older people. At a certain age, they began to lose their family and friends. Dolores was in her eighties, a spry older woman with sparkling green eyes and a laugh that sounded like she’d smoked ten packs a day for year. Her first appointment was to raise her dog for her. I’d hesitated because the dog was ten years old, but the accident had been unexpected and she never got to say goodbye. I allowed that one and gave her a discount because she seemed like such a sweet oldlady.
She spent two hours playing with her reanimated pooch before she was able to say goodbye, and before she left that day she had thanked me profusely. I had a feeling if I saw Dolores on the street, she wouldn’t shunme.
But today she was here for a much bigger reasons. Dolores had lost her son twenty years ago in a drunk driving accident. Her son was in a car full of teenagers when a woman coming back from a bar had crossed lanes and hit their vehicle head on. When she told me this, I was appalled. I also wasn’t sure I could help her with it. I had never attempted to raise someone who had been gone for thatlong.
But I couldn't handle the grief in her eyes so I told her I would research and see if I could do it successfully. The last thing I wanted to do was traumatize someone if I wasn't able to bring their loved ones back correctly. Humans were a little bit different than animals. With animals, I didn't need to enact a binding spell. Their souls were pure and innocent. With humans, a binding spell was necessary because I wasn't sure what kind of person they had been in real life. I'd found after a couple of pretty big errors that a lot of times their families didn't know what kind of person they were either. As sad as that was, it was nailed home after I'd failed to whisper the words of binding and the person had tried to force their spirit into a new body, usually one of their loved ones standing tooclose.
I thought the first time it was a fluke or that I had somehow done the raising wrong. When it happened a second time, I realized I needed to always enact the binding spell just in case. Even though I liked Dolores, I would not make an exception to this rule everagain.
She would be able to see her son and talk to him, but she would not be able to touchhim.
When I came out of the bedroom, Hank was nowhere to be found so I assumed he had gone back outside. I poured myself a glass of water and drank it down. The doorbell rang two minutes before the scheduled appointment time. I told Margo to stay in the kitchen because I wasn't sure how she would handlestrangers.
When I opened the door, Dolores was standing there wearing a retro pink suit, white low heeled shoes, and a pillbox hat. She looked adorable. I greeted her with a wide smile and pushed open the door to let herin.
Dolores leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek, leaving me with the scent of her Chanel perfume. I shut the door behind us and Dolores headed straight to the living room, but not before she saw Margo wagging her tail in thekitchen.
Vibrant green eyes widened. "Helen! You got a dog?" Dolores dropped her purse on the couch and went into the kitchen to give Margo a belly rub. My dog abruptly dropped and rolled, her legs swinging through the air. Littlecharmer.
"Have you ever had a dog, Ms.Dolores?"
She made a tsk noise and slowly stood up. "Long ago, dear. When my children were still young. She was an adorable old beagle and had eyes only for my son." She laughed a little sadly at this. "She tolerated the rest of us, but she thought my son hung themoon."
Margo trotted after Dolores as she made her way back to the living room. She sat down gingerly and smoothed her skirt down. "Now tell me, dear, who's that delightfully handsome man outside your home drawingsomething?"
I smiled. "Hank. He's thegardener."
"Well," Dolores said as her voice lowered, "I've got a very disused garden patch I'd love for himplow."
I sputtered with laughter. "Ms.Dolores!"
"Don't tell me you haven't thought about it, girl. If you haven't, you've got something wrong with yourhardware."
I shrugged. "He's prettygrumpy."
"Who cares?" Dolores asked. "You don't need him for hispersonality."
"Oh my god," I whispered under my breath. I could not believe I was having this conversation with an 80-year-oldwoman.
The sound of a throat clearing made me freeze like a deer in theheadlights.
No.Noooooo.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your scintillating conversation about both my personality and your unused garden patch, but I was hoping to borrow Helen for just a second." Hank looked at Ms. Dolores with rampant curiosity. She, in turn, gave him a beatificsmile.
I, on the other hand, must have looked like a vine ripened tomato. I cleared my throat and excusedmyself.
Hank followed behind me. "There's something I need to show you when you get a minute," he said. "It'simportant."
