Jingle Spells Read online

  “That looks scrumptious,” he said.

  I pulled out the can of whipped topping. “Care for some?”

  “I’ll hold on the whipped topping this time.”

  Yes, I had sprayed it all over him accidentally once, but it had been an honest mistake. He was still a little scared of the can though. Tom had just picked up his fork to sink it into the flaky crust when the bell above the door jingled, alerting us to a new customer.

  I grabbed a menu and headed toward the young woman.

  “I hope she doesn’t want a burger,” Laura said.

  The woman surveyed the room as if she had no idea where she was or why she was even here. Tom caught me looking at the girl and glanced over his shoulder. Tom tossed his hand up, waving the girl over our way. My eyes widened.

  “That’s Mildred Melton?” I asked.

  “The one and only,” Tom said with a wink.

  “Okay, she is young. Is she even old enough to drive?” I asked.

  “She’s eighteen.”

  “This should be interesting,” I said.

  Mildred stepped over to us. Tom stuck his hand out and shook Mildred’s hand.

  “Mildred, I want you to meet Elly. She will be teaching you the ins and outs of everything you need to know about spells.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Elly,” Mildred said, thrusting her hand toward me.

  “Nice to meet you too,” I said. “Can I get you some coffee? Perhaps a Coke?”

  “Or maybe milk in a bottle,” Laura whispered.

  I motioned for her to stop. Thank goodness I didn’t think Mildred had heard us.

  “Coffee and some of that delicious-looking pie would be great. I’m famished after the long trip,” Mildred said, placing her tote bag on the counter next to her.

  “A piece of pie? Sure, coming right up,” I said.

  I sliced another piece of cherry pie and placed it in front of Mildred. Immediately she sank her fork into the flaky crust. Juicy filling and cherries oozed out from the sides. She took a bite and a moan escaped her lips.

  “Oh, my, this is delicious,” she said when she finished the mouthful of dessert. “Are there any spells in this?”

  “No, only if you ask for it with an order will it come with a spell,” I said.

  “I’ve got to remember that,” she said, punctuating her sentence with a point of her fork.

  This might be a lot worse than I thought.

  “And I thought I was bad when I first started,” I said.

  Tom quirked an eyebrow as if to say, See what you’re dealing with?

  Why in the world would Tom think that I was equipped to handle this type of thing? Nevertheless, I would give it my best shot. Within a minute, Mildred had finished the whole slice of pie. Tom was still working on his.

  “Would you like another slice?” I asked.

  She held her hand out. “Oh, no, one is plenty. Thank you.”

  I reached for her plate and she stopped me.

  “Well, maybe one more slice.” She smiled.

  Tom placed his fork down and then wiped his mouth with the napkin. Next, he neatly set the napkin next to the plate. It was as if Laura and I were transfixed by his movements.

  He took a sip of the coffee and then pushed to his feet. “Well, now that everything is settled here I’ll be on my way.”

  When he turned and headed toward the door, I ran from around the counter and jumped in front of him.

  I placed my hands on my hips. “Are you kidding me right now? Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Unfortunately, I have another meeting in Las Vegas and have to catch a plane.”

  “You can’t leave like this. She’s not prepared. I just met her.”

  “You’ll get to know her quick enough.” Tom winked.

  “Tom, you’re not going anywhere,” I said.

  “Elly, I’ll be back soon. I know you can handle this.” He leaned in and whispered in my ear. “It’s a big mission. I need you to help me out.”

  His lips grazed my ear ever so slightly and a tingle raced across my body. Without saying another word, he stepped around me and walked right out the door. I stared as he walked down the sidewalk.

  A couple seconds later I turned around to find Laura and Mildred staring at me. Now what would I do? I supposed I would have to make the most of it. But what Tom said to me right before leaving had sent a shiver down my spine. What did he mean by a big mission? Now I felt even more pressure not to mess this up. Was this somehow dangerous?

  Looking at Mildred’s sweet face as she stared at me, I couldn’t imagine how it would be dangerous. She didn’t even look old enough to have been involved in anything dangerous. Had she even been out of high school for a year yet? Laura and Mildred looked terrified. Possibly because that was the expression on my face. I needed to let them know that everything was under control, even if it wasn’t.

  As I made my way back over to the counter, I forced a smile, trying to act as casual as possible. “So,” I said, clapping my hands together. “Where should we start?”

  My comment was met with silence.

  “Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself and what brings you to Mystic Café?”

  She shrugged. “Well, they said my magic is bad and they want me to learn, so they brought me here.”

  I’d learned that much from Tom, but I needed more details.

  “Specifically, what is bad about your magic? Did you accidentally give someone the wrong spell? It’s okay if you did. I did that to someone here. More than once.”

  Laura chuckled.

  Mildred’s eyes widened.

  “It’s okay though. Everything is good now. So tell me about your magic.”

  Laura leaned closer to the counter. She was all ears. It was a good thing we didn’t have customers right now. I would appreciate the business, but I wouldn’t be able to talk to Mildred if we were swamped, which would probably happen in about an hour when the dinner crowd arrived.

  When I glanced down I realized that Mildred had finished the entire pie.

  “I take it you liked the pie?”

  “It was delicious. I hadn’t eaten in a long time.”

  “Now that you’re finished maybe we’d better find out what you’re doing wrong. Why don’t you come back to the kitchen with me and we’ll try out a spell.” I motioned over my shoulder.

  She sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing. What if I make a mistake?”

  “That’s what I’m here for. We have to start at some point. After all, you’re here to learn, right?”

  She released a deep breath. “I suppose that’s why I’m here.”

  Mildred got up from the stool and headed around the counter. I grabbed one of the white aprons with the pink polka dots and handed it to her. “For now, you’re officially a Mystic Café employee. Don’t worry, I won’t make you wait tables too much.”

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Well, only in a pinch,” I said.

  Mildred placed the apron over her head and then tied it around her waist. She followed me into the kitchen with Laura right behind her.

  “Laura, perhaps you should check on the one remaining customer,” I said.

  She frowned but then turned on her heel and headed back toward the dining area. Now it was just Mildred and me in the kitchen.

  “Okay, so we should start with something small.” I clapped my hands together.

  “Like cereal or toast?” she asked with a chuckle.

  “How about a step above that? How about we do my famous biscuits and gravy. Of course, I’m all out of biscuits right now and I don’t want to make any this late, so we’ll just do the gravy.”

  “Okay, I guess,” she said with doubt in her voice.

  I pulled out all the necessary equipment and ingredients to make the gravy. Then I grabbed the gigantic spellbook from the shelves that lined the far-right wall of the kitchen.

  I placed the book down on the cen
ter island and opened it to the correct page. When I first started running the cafe I’d had no clue what I was doing with the book. I’d almost been afraid to touch it. Never mind the fact that the thing was huge. But now I knew where all the spells were and where exactly to flip to in the book. It was no big deal. Maybe I wasn’t so bad at this stuff after all.

  “All right. Why don’t you take a look and get the ingredients for the spell? They’re right over there on the shelf. We’ll see what happens.” I smiled, trying to ease her fears.

  She looked at me hesitantly but then ultimately leaned closer to the book. She studied the page for a moment and then slowly walked over to the shelves, grabbing the bottles.

  “Oh, wait.” I held up my hand.

  She froze. “What did I do wrong?”

  “That’s actually not the right one. You need the one to the left of that.” I pointed.

  She placed the wrong bottle back on the shelf and grabbed the correct one. “See, this is why I’m bad at this.”

  “It’s okay, don’t worry about it. You corrected the mistake. From now on you just have to double check and make sure you’re positive of all the ingredients.”

  Mildred sighed. “But they all seem right, and I can’t get them correct.”

  “Go ahead and place the ingredients into the bowl,” I said.

  She dumped in the spell’s spices and then added the ingredients for the gravy.

  “Great. Now comes the magic wand.” I held up the wooden spoon.

  “That’s a spoon,” she said.

  “It really doesn’t matter that it’s a spoon. I like to think it’s a wand because when I place it in the bowl with the spices and mix them together, it makes magic. So it’s kind of like this wooden spoon is a magical wand.”

  A faint smile crossed her lips. “I like the way you think.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a chuckle.

  She finished dumping the ingredients into the bowl and then she slowly picked up the spoon. Before dipping the spoon in the mixture, she looked at me one more time. I nodded and motioned for her to go ahead. She shoved the spoon into the bowl and started stirring.

  “So far so good,” I said.

  “See, no clouds of smoke. No wind whipping around. Aren’t those signs of when a spell is working?”

  “To a certain extent. If there is too much smoke that is a bad thing,”

  “I don’t have to worry about that because when I do a spell nothing happens.”

  “Interesting,” I said. “When I made mistakes lots of bad things happened, like a lot of wind and sparks like fireworks.”

  “That sounds very bad,” she said.

  “I got used to doing the magic after a while. I had a few burns here and there, but it’s all good now.”

  Mildred was right though. Nothing was happening, which I found odd. I’d thought for sure there would be sparks, pops, bangs, and wind. But there was nothing. How would I know if the spell was working?

  Chapter 3

  Mary Jane O’Donnell walked through the kitchen door but stopped in her tracks when she spotted Mildred. My best friend had been working at the café before I’d even returned to Mystic Hollow. She’d been with me through all the bad magic. Mary Jane had a tendency of being suspicious of strangers. I suppose that was a good thing. She never hesitated to offer a verbal tongue-lashing if she thought someone was out of line.

  As usual Mary Jane’s penny-colored ponytail peeked out from the back of her baseball cap. “Life is Magic” was written across the front of the cap. I’d had the cap made for her. Mary Jane was a connoisseur of hats. I rarely saw her without one.

  “Oh, hello. I didn’t know you had company,” Mary Jane said, eyeing Mildred up and down.

  “Mildred, this is my best friend Mary Jane. She works here at the café as well,” I said.

  Mary Jane quirked an eyebrow. “As well? Is Mildred an employee here now?”

  “Well, I suppose you could say she’ll be working here for a while,” I said.

  Mary Jane frowned. “You mean it’s not permanent?”

  “Well, no, Mildred has to go back to New York,” I said.

  “Oh,” Mary Jane said with pursed lips.

  “I’m teaching her all about the spells for Tom.”

  “Tom was here?” Mary Jane wiggled her eyebrows.

  “Yes, but he had to leave in a hurry.”

  “Typical Tom,” Mary Jane said with a click of her tongue. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Mildred.”

  “Nice to meet you too,” Mildred said in a timid voice.

  “It’s really crowded out there all of a sudden,” Mary Jane said, gesturing over her shoulder.

  “You’re kidding.” I ran over to the door and peeked out.

  Every seat in the place was taken and a line filed out at the door.

  “Wow. What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Mary Jane said. “I thought maybe you made a mistake with one of the spells again.”

  I placed my hands on my hips. “There you go with the spells again.”

  Mary Jane held her hands up. “I’m just saying.”

  “Okay, I guess we need to get to work,” I said.

  “I’ll start taking orders,” Mary Jane said, slipping the apron over her head and securing it around her waist covering her white t-shirt and black pants.

  “Mildred, if you could help Mary Jane with that, it would be great,” I said. “As soon as we’re done we’ll pick back up with the spells. That is if it’s not too late. If so, then we’ll do it in the morning.”

  “I’ll help,” Mildred said softly.

  Now that the dinner crowd had arrived we had to pause our spellcasting lessons. I was still trying to get the remnants of dried ketchup out of my hair. At least I would be in the kitchen most of the time and not waiting on the customers. They would probably think my appearance was terrible.

  As busy as things had gotten I was glad that Mary Jane and I had decorated the café for Christmas last week. We added a large decoration on the window of Santa Claus in his sleigh with all the reindeer. Presents tumbled out the back of the sleigh as he swooshed through the air. Also, we had put snowflakes sprinkled around the window along with twinkling lights. I thought it looked absolutely adorable.

  We had also added a Christmas tree in the far corner of the dining area. There were all kinds of decorations that we had all pitched in and brought. Mary Jane brought several food-themed items like a cheeseburger, fries, and milkshake ornaments. Which I thought were a perfect touch. I hoped to add more of those over the years. We also put presents underneath the tree because it added a festive touch. Though they were just empty boxes wrapped in pretty paper.

  Also for the holidays, I had special menu items. Festive red velvet pancakes and holiday cheer cinnamon rolls. A new recipe I made of peppermint bark pudding and my special gingerbread men cookies. Not to mention the ham wrapped in puffed pastry. The customers seemed to enjoy the dishes a lot and it made me happy to add the items to the menu.

  Christmas tunes played throughout the café. I liked to think the music made everybody have a bit of Christmas spirit. Mary Jane had decorated the chalkboard menu board out front, adding ornaments and pictures of holly. Mary Jane probably enjoyed Christmas more than me. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her walk through the door wearing a Mrs. Clause outfit.

  It was a whirlwind of activity as I helped Mary Jane take out the food and made sure that none of the orders were incorrect and they didn’t have bad spells attached. Mildred just helped with serving the food. Thank goodness I had her to help.

  Mildred stepped over to me and pointed. “Do you see that man over there?”

  I followed her gesture as she pointed out the man. He sat in a booth across the room with his back facing the wall so that he had a good view of the entire room. His bald head shone like a beacon under the glow of the blinking Christmas lights. He wore faded denim and Army boots. The room wasn’t cold, but apparently, he still
felt a chill because he wore a large puffy green coat. He wasn’t looking at us or anyone else right now. Instead he stared down at his plate. He had ordered the fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy.

  “What about him?” I asked.

  “He gives off a strange vibe,” Mildred said.

  Just as she said that he looked up right at us as if he had heard her. There was no way that was possible. We were too far away. Plus, the room was noisy. Nonetheless, Mildred and I looked away. I didn’t want him to think we were talking about him.

  “What do you think is wrong with him?” I whispered as if he really could hear us.

  “He’s been watching me and everyone else,” Mildred said.

  “Well, he is sitting alone, maybe he has nothing else to do. He might be bored or lonely.”

  “He has this strange energy around him whenever I go over there.”

  “Magic?” I asked.

  Could that be possible? Maybe I would have to go over and check this out.

  “I don’t know about magic. I just have a weird feeling about that man. It’s just the way that he’s watching me gives me the creeps.” Mildred said.

  “I think we should just confront him and ask why staring,” Mary Jane said from over my shoulder.

  Apparently she’d slipped up behind me without me even noticing.

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. What if it just makes him act worse?” I said.

  “How could it be worse? He’s already staring. He can’t stare even more,” Mary Jane said.

  “What if he’s mean and does something to hurt us or he could destroy the whole café.” I lowered my voice in case someone was listening to our conversation.

  “All that just because he’s watching someone?” Mary Jane raised an eyebrow.

  “I guess that would be a slight overreaction. Still sometimes people can do crazy things,” I said.

  “He’s probably just infatuated with Mildred,” Mary Jane said.

  “True.” I said.

  “Lucky me,” Mildred said sarcastically.

  “If we confront him and tell him to get lost, he’ll know what a creep he is and get out of here.” Mary Jane glared at the man.

  He was still watching us. The slight smile on his face told me that he might even be enjoying this.