A Pair Of Pears (Completed)

Gypsy

I sit in the garden for a while cuddling up to Gypsy, my grandparents Golden Retriever. For someone who doesn't like alternative styles, I've never been able to work out why she calls her dog Gypsy. I can hear gran in the kitchen carrying on with her baking, grandad is now in the shed making loud banging noises. My mind wanders to last night, and my eyes now fill up with tears as I bury my head into Gypsy's fur. I eat my fruit, sort myself out, and I make my way back indoors. Gran is now sat at the table reading a newspaper and drinking a cup of tea. She shakes her head.
'This town is going crazy, they're opening one of those new age shops on the high street.' She slides the paper across the table as I sit down, holding my stomach trying not to wince as I do so. 
'What's up with you?' she asks, eyeing me up and down. 
I think quick, 'I pulled a muscle on my bike yesterday.'
Gran folds her arms and raises her eyebrows at me. 'You need to start taking better care, Charlotte. Instead of pumping your body full of sugar, maybe if you exercised more you wouldn't pull muscles. I doubt you got much up in the city, did you?'
Here we go again, I think. she's off on one of her rants. I ignore her and look down at the paper. There's a middle-aged woman stood outside a shop, she has short blonde hair with purple tips that stick out in every direction possible. She's wearing a pair of tie-dyed harem trousers and a white vest top. The girl stood next to her is Lily. 
The heading reads: 
'Local Fortune Teller Opens Shop.' 
The article goes on to say how a single parent of one Willow, who previously sold handmade jewellery and seashell trinkets on the market and read Tarot cards from the back of her camper has opened a shop and rented the flat above it in the high street. 
'CHARLOTTE!' Gran shouts.
I jump and look up. 
'This is what I mean! You aren't listening, are you! Forever with your head in the clouds, smoking, and carelessness breaking my ornaments.' Great! I think, what's Mum gone and told her now. She carries on 
'Your mother told me, about your screaming tantrum and knocking it over, it's not acceptable at all Charlotte. I hope you aren't like this at school.'  The oven timer goes off and Gran gets up and goes into the kitchen. I watch her remove Two big cake tins from the oven, she places them down on the side. 
'I need to pop into town while these cool, I don't have enough butter for the buttercream.' I Seize the moment to find out where Lily actually lives as I'm in no fit state to ride my bike.
'Can I come?' I ask. 
Gran nods, 'You can do your own thing mind. I don't want you to mope around after me. I might meet a friend for a drink if she's free.' 
The shop doesn't take much looking for, it sticks out like a sore thumb between the newsagents and the surf shop. The window and door frames around the shop are painted in a deep blue with gold stars, spirals and crescent moons. The sign at the top reads 
'Incense & Peppermints'
Hanging in the windows are several brightly coloured dreamcatchers, there are a few stands where various jewellery items hang, and various trinkets covered in seashells scattered on top of some bright purple fabric. I open the door to the shop and I'm met by the smell of Patchouli incense the smell reminds me of Jackson at the beach and my stomach leaps. One of those little entrance bells that let you know someone's arrived goes off as I step through the door. Willow is serving a customer and wrapping up something in tissue paper that matches the outer paintwork of the shop. She looks up and smiles at me, it's obvious that Lily takes after her. She doesn't look like your average local that you see wandering around this part of the town, but she has one of those faces. A face where you knew that no matter what you told her, she wouldn't judge you. I walk around the shop eyeing up all the crystals, gemstones and assortments of jewellery and Gringo clothing. The bell goes again as the customer leaves the shop.
 'You must be Charlie!' Willow calls across the shop. 
I look at her perplexed. 
'Lily told me about you the other day, she said I'd know you if I ever saw you. Reddest hair I've ever seen!' She says smiling. 
I feel myself blush. 
'Lily is upstairs if you want to go up.' 
She points towards a set of bohemian-looking curtains covering an open doorway, as I get closer I notice they're made out of long strips of colourful rags knotted onto a curtain rail. I go out the back and make my way upstairs, slowly, to minimise the pain in my stomach. The walls are painted a sunshine yellow, a few of the stairs have half full boxes of bric n brac and the smell of Patchouli still hangs in the air. There's loud music playing, as I get closer to the top of the stairs I recognise it as Can't Stop by Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I have to knock loudly a few times before Lily opens the door. 
'CHARLIE!' She shouts as she flings her arms around my neck. A shooting pain soars through my stomach, I manage to hold in my cries and Lily doesn't notice.
'Come and help me!' She says taking my hand, 'I'm sorting my room out.' 
I follow Lily into her bedroom, it's painted a deep purple and one of the walls is covered with posters of female musicians. Against one of the other walls is a large stack of half full cardboard boxes. 
'Give me a hand Charlie!' Lily says, pulling some deep red curtains out of one of the boxes. As she lifts the curtains up I noticed a dark blue photo frame in the box, it's been decorated with yellow star-shaped stickers that have aged and are peeling at the edges. I'm expecting it to be a photo of Lily and her mum, or even Lily and Jackson. I can make Lily's mum out in the photo, you can't miss her with that hair and her crazy clothes. It looks like she's sat on the beach with a man, though, the photo looks quite old. Maybe this is Lily's dad, I bend down to pick the frame up, but I'm interrupted. 
'Girls!' Calls Willow loudly. 
I jump, which makes the muscles in my stomach clench and a surge of pain hits me, I wince. Lily, who is now stood up in the window notices, she raises an eyebrow in my direction. 
'I've closed the shop for lunch, fancy some?' Willow asks.  
Lily's still looking at me, to break the silence I reply 'Yeah, sure! I only had fruit for breakfast.'
I follow Lily and Willow through to the other room, where the kitchen connects with an archway. The walls are white but have painted gold stars and moons on them. There's no TV, instead, every wall has an overflowing bookshelf up against it. There's no proper furniture either, just big floor cushions and a coffee table in the centre loaded with candles and crystals. 
'Sit down.' Lily says, 'I'll get us some drinks.'
I hold my stomach as I lower myself down to the floor. Lily returns moments later with two glasses of water and a slice of lime floating in the top of each glass. Lily places the glasses on the floor and lowers her voice. 'Mum doesn't let us have anything else, she says it's all full of chemicals.' 
I take a sip from the glass; the water doesn't taste too bad. Willow walks in with a tray that has Three bowls on. The bowls are jam-packed with some sort of rice and bean concoction, Lily wipes some of the crystals on the table out of the way so Willow can place the tray on the table. I enjoy the rice and beans. We finish and there's the sound of someone banging on the door of the shop downstairs, all three of us peer out the window as if we are children hiding and not wanting to be seen. I recognise Gran's floral blouse and groan. 
'It's my gran.' 
Willow stifles a grin. 'I know lovely, best see what she wants hadn't we!'
 I follow Willow and Lily downstairs into the shop and Willow lets gran in. Gran's eyes widen as she looks around the shop clearly unimpressed, Willow turns to look at Lily and they both silently laugh behind their hands.
 'I knew you'd be here' she says.
She picks up a purple scarf covered in pentagrams and then quickly drops it back onto the table as if she'd picked up something dirty. 
'Are you ready? I need to finish these cakes for this party you are going to.'
Willow steps forward. 'I'm going to the party with Lily, we could always take Charlie if it's ok with you? Your house is on the way; we could pick up the cakes then?'
Gran lets out a deep breath and shakes her head. 'Fine!' She walks out of the shop, she doesn't say goodbye. 
Willow opens the shop back up and Lily has to work a couple of hours at the emporium. In between customers, Willow shows me how to make a dreamcatcher and read Tarot cards. She shows me how to do the Five Card Spread. My cards say that times are changing, and a storm is brewing. I take it with a pinch of salt, how can cards know my future.