A Touch of Magic

Chapter 13: Some of the Whole Truth

I could swear Dawlish was following fifty paces behind. The usual 'here kitty, kitty', prompted no reaction so I sped off into town.

This time, through the window'Of Bit's Bazaar',  I watched Iona serving an elderly man. I waited outside until the soft door bell jangled declared his departure, and grabbed the door before it fell closed.

Shiny things sparkled, and incense burned heavily. I loved it. It was so Gam, and Gladys, and now me.

Iona looked up as she closed the till. "Well I never, Araminta Hardwick. What brings you in here?"

Feeling slightly embarrassed, I picked up a random object from the shelf in front of me, a pink healing crystal. It throbbed on my spiral burn. "What can I buy the woman who could have everything?"

Iona put her hands in the air and shrugged. "Nothing. Love and happiness is all that life is about, all that's needed." She picked up a pen and began to write in a well-used ledger.

I stared. "You sound exactly like the very same friend."

"A wise friend then." She smiled, without stopping writing.

"I suppose so. I don't think she celebrates Christmas, but I feel the need to get her something."

"And you think she'd like something from here? Interesting."

I didn't like the way the word interesting was phrased. "Well, she's very New Aged."

"This isn't just a New Age shop, Minta. This is a serious establishment for healers, pagan, village witches and Wiccan's to purchase equipment and any ingredients needed. But admittedly, the New Age stuff does well with the tourists. And pays the rent."

"Right." I put the healing crystal back on the shelf.

I paused, brain ticking. "Why can't witches magic the stuff they need? Why come here?"

"Not everyone with an interest in alternative healing, divination and spiritual awakening, possesses magical ability. There are some that can, most can't but want to. They use spells to bring magic about." She stopped writing in the ancient book and looked at me. "Which one are you Araminta Hardwick?"

I froze, but just for a second. Smiling I answered, "I couldn't say, Iona. What about you?"

"Oh me," she continued her work. "I'm here to serve. Well, at least whilst Nan is ill." Her brow creased.

"Is this why you want to give up school?" I turned in a full circle admiring evocative objects, as random as they were strange.

"Did I tell you that? Yes. I can run this place and my cousin can go back to Ireland." A firmness in her voice suggested someone, maybe her cousin, felt otherwise.

The old fashion bell on the door rang once more.

"And speak of the devil; Darcy, this is Minta, a friend from school."

The breathtakingly beautiful Darcy smiled. "Nice to meet you, friend of Iona's." She looked shyly away and began to unbutton the first of about twenty buttons on her white wintery coat.

Strangely eager to talk to her, the words rushed out. "I've just come to find a gift for a friend. She's pagan, I think. I've never really asked, but my aunt was, and they were friends, so, I figured..." Weird. I think I was a teeny-weeny bit smitten.

Darcy hung up her coat behind the till, a relic from the eighteen hundreds. "What sort of thing is she interested in?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I'd thought of passing on this amethysts I bought on holiday." I pulled out Gam's Christmas present from my bag. "It was originally for my great aunt, but it looks kind of weak on it's own."