Fool's Moon, page 6
Huffing, Ophelia jumped back up onto the ledge.
The fish—or, rather, koi—named Philomena was still there, face barely out of the water and lips smacking so that she was surrounded by a halo of sparkly bubbles. The rest of her body seemed to be covered in the same pearly white scales as her head, save for a few orangey-red patches that matched the splotch atop her head. And she was BIG … almost as long as a cat, and far thicker. Ophelia could well believe that she was as old as Zuki had said. Though why she’d never notice the fish before, she couldn’t guess. The pond was obviously far deeper than it looked.
Feeling slightly more respectful now, she flicked her whiskers and tried again.
“Uh, hello, uh, Philomena. I’m Ophelia the cat. I live here at the Botanica now with Zuki and the human, Ruby.’
“It is a pleasure to meet you, young cat. If Ruby wants you being here, that’s that.”
Another rhyme? Ophelia paused and glanced back at Zuki. She asked in a stage whisper, “Does she always talk like that?”
“Yes. Now ask your question before she gets bored and leaves!”
“Fine.” Turning back to the fish, who had moved her attention to the nearest water lily, she said, “Philomena, I need your help. My brother is missing, and I need to know how I can find him.”
While the koi contemplatively nibbled on the water plant, Ophelia explained how she and Brandon had been dumped on the street. She told her how Brandon had gone for help while she waited behind, and how Zuki and Ruby had rescued her before her brother returned. And how, after she had spent a week at the animal shelter, Ruby brought her home to live at the Botanica.
“It’s been almost a month now since Brandon disappeared,” she finished, fighting to keep her voice from dropping to a sorry little yowl. “From what Zuki said, we were dumped ten or twelve blocks from the Botanica. So maybe Brandon isn’t too far away. I know he’d never give up looking for me … that is, if something wasn’t keeping him from it. Can you tell me where he is, so I can go looking for him, too?”
What she didn’t ask … what she was afraid to ask … was can you tell me if he’s still alive?
The koi gave a quick spin, sending ripples across the small pond. “A sad story, little friend. Let me think how it will end.”
With those words, Philomena sank beneath the water’s surface, so that only her red cap was visible.
“Don’t worry,” Zuki said when Ophelia began a nervous flick of her long black tail. “She’ll be back.”
Sure enough, half a minute later the koi breached the pond’s smooth surface again. Her round black eyes seemed to take on a silvery cast as she stared somewhere far past Ophelia’s furry shoulder. Then, her watery voice suddenly clear, she proclaimed, “The three golden balls, he wanders those halls. Yes, the boy cat be all right. But finding him, ’twill be a fight.”
With those words, the koi smacked a few final bubbles and then sank beneath the surface again.
“What? Wait!”
Ophelia stared into the pond at the red splotch on Philomena’s head that was all that was visible of her now. That splash of color got progressively smaller as the fish drifted still deeper into the pond’s surprisingly profound depths. Ophelia began frantically pawing at the water.
“Philomena, come back! You must tell me what that means! Where is he? Where’s Brandon?”
“Ophelia, stop,” Zuki cried. “I forgot to tell you, you can only ask Philomena one question a day. She won’t come back until tomorrow, no matter how long you call for her. But she told you what you need to know.”
“No, she didn’t!” With an anguished yowl, Ophelia swung about and leaped from the pond edge. “She talked about balls and halls and fighting, but that doesn’t tell me where Brandon is. I can’t sit around doing nothing anymore. I’m going to go look for my brother, and you can’t stop me!”
On that frantic final cry, she made a run for the courtyard wall and began scrabbling up its rough height.
“Ophelia, no!” Zuki bounded after her, but the cat proved just out of paw’s reach. “Wait,” the pit bull persisted. “If you go running off all crazy like the roosters, you’re sure to get hit by a car before you can find him. There’s a secret way out of the house that Ruby doesn’t know about. Wait until tonight, and I’ll help you sneak out to go look for him. I promise.”
“You do?”
Ophelia glanced over her furry shoulder to see Zuki anxiously staring up at her, wide mouth open and panting in concern. Once, she would have been afraid of the dog with her broad jaws and shiny white fangs. But over the past two weeks, she’d learned to trust the canine. And, looking down at her, she could see that Zuki’s dark brown eyes were filled with sincerity.
She moved a paw and gave a mew of pain. The pads on all four feet were already raw from the rough stucco that made scaling the wall difficult. By the time she reached the top, her paws might be too scraped and bloodied for her to travel far on the streets beyond. Maybe it made sense to try Zuki’s plan instead.
“Okay. I’ll wait for tonight.”
She managed to turn and leap back down again. Paws stinging, she lay on the cool bricks and gave the sorest of her four feet a rough lick. “Ouch.”
“Here, let me do that.”
Zuki crouched beside her and ran a soft tongue over the raw pads. Since everyone knew that dogs could heal wounds that way, Ophelia lay still and let her lick away the blood. Cleaning her hurt paws was the sort of thing that Brandon would have done for her, if he’d been there.
Despite herself, she couldn’t help a little sad cry. Brandon! Where are you?
“Oh no, poor kitty. What’s wrong?”
The concerned question came from the human, Ruby, who had entered the courtyard unnoticed while Zuki was playing nurse. She tossed a tasty smelling roll of some strange food to the pit bull, who paused in her first aid duties long enough to swallow it in a single gulp. Ruby, meanwhile, gently shooed away the canine and sat beside Ophelia. She dangled a single large shrimp before her.
“Here you go, little girl. I saved this just for you.”
Ophelia’s smooth black nose twitched. I can be sad and full at the same time, she decided.
While Ruby gently scratched her ears, she made quick work of the tasty crustacean. Once she’d finished, Ruby scooped her up so Ophelia was sitting in her lap.
“Now what happened? Let me see.” The human shoved her black spectacles, which had slid down her nose, back into place. Then, gently, she lifted Ophelia’s foreleg and examined it.
“Your poor paws, they’re all scraped. Come on, let’s go inside and I’ll fix that.”
Clutching Ophelia more securely, Ruby got to her feet and started toward the door. Ophelia considered struggling free, but then changed her mind. She might be leaving on her journey to find Brandon tonight, but no reason that she shouldn’t take advantage of the human’s help, in the meantime. And so instead she tucked her muzzle into the crook of Ruby’s arm and let herself be carried back into the shop. Zuki, still licking her chops over the spring roll that she’d swallowed, followed after.
Ruby brought her all the way back into the main shop and carried her behind the counter, to where its far edge was butted up against the wall. There, a short, deep bookcase almost the same height was set behind the counter at right angles to it. The lower shelves were filled with arcane reference books placed deliberately out of customer reach. From what Zuki had once explained, the lady in the big picture on the wall occasionally pulled out and ostentatiously read from one of them when the situation called for it. These volumes weren’t for sale, and Zuki had laid down the law that, tempting as the old leather covers were, no chewing on said books was allowed!
The top shelf had once held an aquarium filled with tiny turtles. Zuki had told Ophelia that Ruby’s second act after “quarantining” the roosters had been to donate the turtles to a local elementary school. Thus, she’d saved the little shelled reptiles from ritual beheading after being purchased by certain of the Botanica’s customers. With the aquarium gone, there’d been enough room for one of those doughnut-style cat beds that Ruby had bought just for Ophelia.
Not wanting to hurt the human’s feelings, she’d lain in the fuzzy pink bed a time or two, though she much preferred the snug and dark reading room and her perch atop the white stone column. But she didn’t protest now as Ruby set her there and then reached for the strange green plant with thick spiky leaves that sat on the counter nearby.
“Let’s put a bit of aloe vera on you,” Ruby said and snapped off the tip of one leaf. “But don’t lick it—you won’t like the taste.”
So saying, she squeezed the spike until a thick clear gel oozed out of the cut edge. Lifting Ophelia’s paw, she smoothed the gel on her raw pads. It felt cool and stingy at the same time, but Ophelia resisted the temptation to shake it off her paw. If she was going to hunt for her brother tonight, she needed to be 100 percent.
Settling more securely into her bed, she dozed off to the soothing clear notes of a New Age flute playing as Ruby turned on the CD player near the register. Adding to the soundtrack was a breathy rumble as Zuki snored on the floor nearby. But just as she found herself in a dream where she and Brandon were taking turns riding atop Philomena in their old swimming pool, the bells on the shop’s front door jangled.
Ophelia opened a single green eye, just in case. From her corner vantage point, all she could see through the gaps in the shelves was that this new customer was a short, slim female carrying a large canvas bag over her shoulder. As she drew closer, Ophelia could see that the human’s long black fur had been braided into a single fancy tail down the back of her head. And, oddly, something about the way she carried herself seemed familiar. But it wasn’t until the woman reached the counter that Ophelia opened both eyes wide.
Luciana?
“Zuki!” she cried, leaping up in her bed. “The human who just came in—I know her! She’s the old woman’s housekeeper!”
Zuki immediately snuffled awake. “Really? Maybe she found out you were living here and came to tell you where your brother is.”
Could it be? Excitement tearing through her, Ophelia stood poised to leap onto the counter and rush to the woman when a terrible thought stopped her short.
“Or maybe the son decided he didn’t want me to live with Ruby, and he sent her to find me and bring me back!”
Heart beating rapidly, but from fear now rather than excitement, Ophelia abruptly crouched low in the pink bed. Now only her ears and eyes were visible over the rolled edges. Better to wait and see what the woman told Ruby before she rushed over to greet her. And if Luciana tried to stuff her in that bag … well, much as she liked the human, she was going to get a taste of Ophelia’s claws!
“Don’t worry yet,” the pit bull told her. “The humans at the shelter aren’t supposed to tell the old owners where we end up living. Maybe she lives nearby and just wants to buy some candles or something.”
“Maybe.”
Ears flicked forward so that she could hear every word, Ophelia waited as Ruby looked up from her book and greeted her.
“Welcome to Botanica Santa Rosa. Was there something in particular you were looking for today?”
A missing black cat, Ophelia silently answered for her.
But to her relief, Luciana instead replied, “I—I was hoping for a reading?”
Six
Just as her half sister had taught her, Ruby swiftly took in the appearance of this new customer. The faintest hint of a Cuban accent had colored her words, which were more question than request. She was dressed simply, in dark blue jeans topped by a neat oxford-style cotton blouse that was pale yellow with black pinstripes. She looked to be close to Rosa’s age and should have been quite pretty, with her chiseled cheekbones and large brown eyes. But the dark smudges beneath the latter and sharp lines around her pale mouth muted her attractiveness.
Obviously, something was on her mind. Ruby went through the mental checklist to try to narrow the options.
Not sleeping, so bad enough to keep her up at night.
No wedding or engagement ring, so likely not marital issues.
What appeared to be a uniform—healthcare worker, maid?—tucked into her bag, so possibly job-related?
Though old enough that maybe a grown child was involved?
She gave the woman an encouraging nod.
“Yes, we do Tarot readings here. My name is Ruby, and I’d be happy to help you. Would you like the basic thirty-minute session, or do you need something more?”
She ran through the rates with her new client, who gave her name as Luciana. Real name, Ruby decided, mostly since she could see a bit of an embroidered “L” on the uniform peeking out of her tote bag. She noted, as well, that the woman wore a small gold crucifix on a chain around her neck. Not unusual, she’d learned. Many of her Cuban clients supplemented their Catholic faith with a bit of Santería.
Luciana went with the standard session, but as she pulled out a small green purse from the tote bag and went to pay—Rosa always said to get the money up front—the woman hesitated, wallet still in hand.
“I—I’m not sure. These past couple of weeks have been so confusing. I don’t know if I want to know the truth.”
“Trust me, it’s better to know,” Ruby told her, meaning it. “What was that old public service announcement campaign they used to have on television? The more you know … ”
When Luciana gave her a questioning look—obviously, the woman hadn’t spent much time watching the “peacock network”—Ruby clarified. “You need as much information as possible to make an informed decision about anything. And since I’m guessing you don’t want to confide in a friend about this particular problem, the cards let you talk about it to an impartial party like me.”
Her rationale seemed to resonate, for the woman nodded. “You’re right, I need to talk to someone about this.”
She reached into her wallet and paid in small bills, ones and fives. The reading was probably a hit on her budget, Ruby realized as she rang her up. She’d give her a few extra minutes for free, and Rosa didn’t need to know about it. But even as she made the decision, she could almost feel her half sister’s gaze drilling into her back from the oil painting behind her. Shooting the portrait a defiant look, she walked around the counter.
“Come on, let me put the Closed sign up, and then we’ll go into the reading room and see what the cards say.
“Quick,” Ophelia told Zuki as Ruby and Luciana walked off. “Go to the reading room and hide under the table before they get there. I’ll follow in a minute. We’d better hear what they talk about. It might be important.”
“Right,” Zuki barked and scrambled to her paws. “So did you decide yet if you are going to let this human know that you’re here?”
Ophelia shook her fuzzy head. “Not yet. She was always good to us, but now the son is her boss. I have to make sure first that she’s on our side.”
“Well, don’t take too long to decide. She’s getting the short reading, so she won’t be here long. And then it will be time for our afternoon snack.”
A growl that came from Zuki’s stomach, not her throat, punctuated that last observation. Slinking as best she could for a round, forty-five-pound pit bull, Zuki softly trotted from around the counter and down the back aisle in the direction of the reading room.
Ophelia, meanwhile, stayed crouched in her bed, remembering. Luciana had always been kind to the old woman and seemed to like her—which situation, Brandon had once told her, was not always the way it went with humans who were the boss and humans who were the workers.
And Ophelia had been inside Luciana’s little house behind the main house many times before. It had a good feeling to it, almost like the old woman’s bedroom. It was always neat and clean, with soft colors on the walls and on the furniture. And Luciana had pictures of calm and smiling humans in every room, with small candles beneath them that she would sometimes light. The scent would make Ophelia sneeze, but she liked to hear the soft words in Spanish that she didn’t understand but that reminded her of raindrops falling from leaves.
Luciana was a good human, she was certain—but the son was not. And so she would wait for her and Ruby to enter the reading room before she slipped inside to listen. Once she heard what Luciana had to say, she’d make the decision whether or not to reveal herself to the human.
A few moments later, Ruby was gesturing Luciana into the client’s seat in the reading room. Fortunately, the Botanica’s ancient A/C system—read, individual window and wall-mounted units—was working. When the air-conditioning acted up, the comfort level in the reading room could drop like a block of ice, or climb to sauna-like heights.
“Go ahead, sit down,” she said with a welcoming gesture and took the chair across from the woman.
Her foot promptly connected with something large and furry beneath the table. She stifled a smile as a warm wet tongue wiped across her ankle. She should have named the pit bull “Nosy,” given Zuki’s penchant for hanging out around the paying clients.
Aloud, she asked, “Would you like to choose which deck you want me to use?”
Not waiting for an answer, she pulled out a basket which held half a dozen different boxed Tarot sets. She lined them in a neat row on the reading cloth so Luciana could see their illustrations. Their themes varied—angels, fairies, even erotic—including Ruby’s favorite Morgan-Greer. There were at least another dozen decks in a box on the shelf behind her, but she’d long since learned that too many choices made the client nervous.
Luciana glanced over the offerings. “It’s okay, you choose.”
