Chapter 4

Susana re-entered the house alone, leaving Lily to say her final goodbye to their uncle in private. There was just so much that she didn't know about her own family. Her mother's family, more accurately.

Susana and her older sister, Lauren, had been so small when their mother was killed in that horrible car accident, and the uneasy peace that had existed between their father and their mother's family quickly dissolved into a growing distance. Susana often felt that the only real connection she had to her mother, or to her mother's heritage, was the family name that had been give to her as a middle name at birth. Susana Frye Randall.

It wasn't until she was a teenager that she had begun to understand why the Frye name was rarely if ever mentioned in her house. There was some vague rumor of a coven of Frye witches during the Civil War, and a dark shadow of suspicion had followed the family ever since. She knew her step-mother had been afraid of the Frye curse when she'd married her father; Susana could feel Bitsy's fear even now, as though she were both afraid for Susana and afraid of her. Susana had possessed the gift of second-sight as a child, or had at least appeared to, but she soon learned that any such abilities would not be welcome in the Randall household. Though Susana had puzzled over the Frye family's dark secret and wondered how she might fit in, whatever talents she'd had as a child were gone now. Besides, it was probably all just a fairty tale anyway.

The only real family witch Susana had ever heard of was Lily, now outside talking to the garden. But even that designation was speculation. Lily looked perfectly normal, and though she had some definite personality quirks, Susana didn't feel threatened by her.

Still, there was this mysterious figure of Ol' Tic that had both fascinated her and haunted her worst nightmares since as far back as she could remember. Who was this man? She got the feeling he wasn't the evil sorcerer she had been led to believe.

Susana went to the refrigerator, hoping there was something there that hadn't yet expired. She opened the door and surveyed so many containers of leftovers. She shuddered, thinking of the dead man's ashes outside in the yard. Just a few days ago, he had probably stood where she was, trying to decide what to have for breakfast. She closed the door and started opening kitchen cabinets instead, finally finding a drinking glass, which she filled in the sink. She felt the dull emptiness at the pit of her stomach, remembering that she hadn't eaten in twenty-fours hours. In fact, she'd scarcely eaten at all since her entire department had been laid off Monday morning.

She took a long drink of the cool water, feeling her neglected stomach expand like a balloon.

"Yeah," she said to herself, patting her belly. "We'll definitely need to feed you sometime today." She noticed a collection of take-out menus hanging on the side of the refrigerator, and then remembered the book of matches from the Chinese place down the street. Maybe they'd call up that restaurant, she thought to herself, and order whatever had been Tic's favorite. Lily would like that.

The past few days were finally beginning to catch up with her, and she felt unsteady on her feet. No sleep and little food for three days will do that, she chided herself. She filled her glass again with tap water and crossed the floor to sit at the breakfast table. She put down the water glass and relaxed into the straight-backed chair. Maybe if she just put her head down on the smooth, wood surface, she could even get a little sleep....

Then she saw the stack of cards. Susana didn't know why she hadn't seen them before, as they were the only thing on the table, situated dead center. A stack of oversized playing cards, with one turned face up. She leaned forward to get a better look. No, these weren't playing cards -- the image of destruction that stared up her plainly indicated that. Tarot cards? Though her first instinct had been to recoil, her curiosity got the better of her. She picked up the deck and turned the cards over in her hands, fanning them out in her fingers. She had never seen Tarot cards up close before. Susana leaned back in the chair and started to flip through the cards, one by one. The card called The Tower she left on the table, undisturbed.

Lily came in at last from the yard, headed immediately toward the sink to wash the dirt off of her hands. "The ashes have been mixed in," she announced, whether Susana was listening to her or not. She wiped away a stray tear, confident that her cousin wasn't watching her. Getting herself together, she turned toward Susana with a smile, but was surprised to find her sitting at the table shuffling through a deck of Tarot cards.

"What have you got there?" Lily crossed the floor and took one of the empty chairs at the table. "Are those Tic's cards?" Certainly Susana wouldn't have had a deck of her own? Or perhaps Lily had misjudged her.

"I guess," Susana shrugged. "I just found them in the middle of the table." She continued moving the cards around in her fingers, looking at all of the different pictures on them. She knew that each card held its own hidden meaning, and these had belonged to Ol' Tic. What magic must they hold.

"Oh, and there's that one, too," Susana pointed with her chin at the single card lying on the table top.

Lily leaned forward to get a better look at it. "Oooh. Hmm. That's interesting."

Susana stopped shuffling and looked up at her cousin. Perhaps Lily could unveil the meanings of the cards? "I thought that one looked kind of scary, so I left it where it was."

Lily frowned at her cousin. "So this one was already on the table like that? You didn't draw it for yourself?"

Susana shook her head. "Uh-uh."

"So Tic must had drawn this card...." Lily looked back down at The Tower. "On the day he died?"

Susana leaned forward and studied the side of her cousin's face. "What does it mean? Is it something bad?"

Lily regained herself and managed a quick grin for Susana's sake. "No, not necessarily bad." She turned the card around to face her. "It's a card of change. Big change. Sudden."

"So that's how he knew he was going to die?" Susana's voice caught in her throat. She knew she sounded like a frightened little girl.

"Uh, no, I don't think so," Lily responded slowly. "I don't think this is Tic's card. I mean, I don't think it's about him." She pushed at her teeth absently with her thumb, trying to make sense of the image before her. She knew full well the symbolism of the card, but why was it left here? What sudden shake-up was it warning her about?

Lily slid the card across the table toward her and reached for the deck in Susana's hands. Susana handed her the cards without question. "Let's just put it back in the deck," Lily offered. "For safe-keeping."

Watching Lily add the Tower card back to the deck and shuffle them awhile, Susana suddenly became aware of a feeling of deep uneasiness. Laying her hands on her stomach, she checked in with herself, but soon realized the origin of the disturbance lay elsewhere. Lily noticed the concern on her face and stopped shuffling. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Susana said, withdrawing her hands from her midriff. "I'd thought I was feeling anxious." She glanced around the kitchen and out through the windows, trying to find some kind of trigger, anything. "But now I don't know where it's coming from." Then her eyes came to rest on a pair of metal bowls on the floor in the far corner of the room, and she remembered something she'd seen earlier, but that hadn't registered. Her glance flashed to the backdoor, and she saw it again: a large dog door.

"Lily?" Susana queried as she got up from her chair. "Did Uncle Tic have dog?"

Lily's eyes widened. "Baird! Oh, geez, I totally forgot about the dog." Lily jumped up from her chair and went over to look at the dog bowls on the floor. Both were empty. She picked up one and began to fill it with water in the sink.

"You didn't see a crusty old bloodhound anywhere outside, did you?" Lily asked Susana while she watched the metal bowl fill with water.

"I don't think so," Susana responded as she stood in the threshold leading to the back porch, her eyes scanning the yard.

"He never strays, so he couldn't have gone far." Lily placed the water bowl back on the floor and reached into the pantry for the large bag of dog food she knew would be there. On her knees, she scooped some food into the bowl. Susana was about to step outside, but Lily's voice pulled her back. "You'd better let me go looking for him. He doesn't know you, and who knows what kind of upset he is, with Tic gone and being left all by his lonesome the past few days."

Lily stepped past her cousin on her way outside. "Besides, he's probably holed up under the porch, and there's nothing more treacherous than an upset and cornered animal. Even sweet old Baird."

Susana listened to the rattle of the boards as Lily bounded down the back porch stairs. So Tic had a dog, Susana thought to herself. She wandered back into the hallway, noticing for the first time the hand-carved newel post, bannister, and crown molding, all made of stained and polished cherry. Such an incredibly beautiful house, and so full of light! Standing in the middle of the front hall, Susana's eyes followed the light and shadows playing on the wall as a gentle breeze blew outside.

Then she heard it: a low moan, coming from upstairs. Was there someone else in the house?

"Lily?' Susana called out tentatively for her cousin, though she knew she wouldn't hear. "Okay, then." Susana steeled herself and took a step toward the great staircase. The worst that could happen would be finding a mostly-dead zombie upstairs or a partially disemboweled sacrificial victim. Or maybe the house was just haunted? She wasn't sure which idea she liked least.

She climbed the stairs slowly, stopping mid-way when she heard a scraping noise from somewhere above. She leaned over the bannister and looked down toward the kitchen to see if her cousin had come back inside. "Lily?" she called out again. There was no reply.

"Okay," she said to herself again, and made her way up the stairs.

At the top of the staircase, Susana looked up and down the hallway at so many doors, not knowing where to begin. Then she heard that low moan again, coming from the front of the house. She gripped the wooden railing, her blood turning to ice in her veins. What was up here with her?

She crept down the hallways toward the partially open door. Then the noise came again, stopping her in her tracks. Susana realized that she was standing hunched over, leaning on the railing, and had been tiptoeing down the hallway. "What the hell am I doing?" she demanded of herself. Straightening her spine, she let go of the bannister. "Hello?" she called toward the door. "Is there someone there?"

There was movement behind the wooden door. Something was stirring. Then she heard a padded clicking sound approaching the door. Footsteps? Slowly, the door began to creak open, and Susana again reached for the railing to steady herself. She was prepared for anything, she told herself. Even if it's a vampire back there.

But what she saw instead was the face of an old, tired dog, gazing up at her sadly. Susana placed her hand over her heart in relief, starting to breathe again. "Baird?"

The bloodhound took a few more steps forward, tentatively wagging his tail. Susana leaned down to his level, a sympathetic smile growing on her face. "Oh, honey, it's okay."

* * * * *

Lily was downstairs in the hallway. She hadn't spotted the dog -- nor any trace of him -- anywhere outside, and now Susana had gone missing, too. "Susana?" she called out, listening to her voice echo off of the walls.

"Up here," came the muffled reply. Lily raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time. At the top of the staircase, she turned toward the master bedroom, the door standing open. There at the foot of the bed, sat Susana on the floor, with Baird's head resting in her lap.

Susana smiled up at her cousin. "He was in here the whole time," she explained, stroking the big dog's ears. "He misses Tic."

Lily walked into the bedroom and leaned back against the doorjamb. "He's okay, right?"

"Yes."

Lily got down on her hands and knees and crawled over toward the dog. Baird lifted his head and allowed her to stroke his chin. "He's always been a friendly dog, once you get to know him. I'm surprised you two made friends so fast."

Susana laughed. "I gotta tell you, there's something going on in this house."

Lily rested back on her heels and looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, that I nearly got the shit scared out of me, looking for this guy," she said, gently scratching Baird behind the ears. "And then when she shows up, it's like, I don't know, I could hear him speaking to me, inside my head."

Lily looked at Susana quietly and smiled.

"He told me about how he missed his master, how he was afraid, being shut up in the house all by himself, how tired and lonely he has been. That kind of thing." Susana looked up at Lily. "Do you think he's a magic dog?"

Lily threw her head back and laughed. "Baird? Hardly." Lily reached out to pet the dog again. "He's a good dog, sure. But just a regular dog." She caught Susana's glance. "Maybe you're the one that's magic."

* * * * *

Lily was practically running, pulling Susana along behind her.

"Are we late for something?" Susana was nearly out of breath.

Lily slowed her pace. "Sorry," she said. "I'm just kind of anxious to find something out."

Susana stopped and rested her hands on her hips. "Wait." She demanded.

Lily complied, turning to face her cousin, impatient to get moving again.

Susana looked down at her feet and assessed the beating her designer heels were taking. "I just didn't wear the right shoes today."

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Lily responded, beginning ti relax. "Today has been a big day for you. Don't think I don't know that."

Susana nodded her head, looking around at the storefronts. She wasn't sure where Lily was taking her, but she was hoping that lunch might be involved. "Explain to me again," she asked, "The difference between witchcraft and.... umm, wicca?"

"Sure." Lily's face lit up. "Walk with me."

They continued moving forward, past clothing stores and furniture galleries. The mixed aromas of the approaching food court made Susana's stomach leap.

"Wicca is a religion, earth-based," Lily explained slowly. "It comes from the old European agricultural communities, mostly. I'll give you some books, or something. But witchcraft..." Lily took a deep breath. "That's not so much belief as it is action. Witches are people who simply aren't afraid to harness their own power."

Walking alongside her cousin, Susana frowned. "What kind of power?" She knew it was wrong, but her mind flashed back to episodes of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie.

"It's not like what you've seen in movies," Lily responded, as though she'd read her mind. "But just the power of the soul, the power of the individual that each of us has every day. It's about stepping up and doing something instead of sitting on the sidelines. It's about the power of just being alive and having an impact on the world."

"Yeah, see, that doesn't sound Satanic at all."

Lily laughed in surprise. "That's an entirely different discussion. Here we are."

They walked in the door of the Aquarian Bookshop. Susana was at once mesmerized by the vast assortment of crystals and gems, breathing in the perfumed air, but Lily headed directly for the sales counter. "My cousin would like a reading," she said to the woman behind the register. The sales clerk looked over Lily's shoulder at Susana, who was slowly circling a display of feng shui crystals. Lily nodded, "Yes, that's the one."

"Marlena is available," the clerk indicated while making a notation on a clipboard.

"Perfect," Lily replied. She walked over to Susana. "You can come on back. This should be fun."

Lily led her toward the back of the store, behind a temporary partition that had been set up. They found a small woman in her 50s sitting at a tiny card table that had been draped with a sarong. She was reading a romance novel and eating potato salad out of a grocery store take-out container.

"Marlene," Lily prodded gently.

Marlene looked up, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry. Hey, Lily! Who have you brought me?"

"What good is a psychic who doesn't know you're coming?" Susana snorted, immediately wishing she'd kept her mouth shut. "Sorry," she stammered. "That, that was my stupid attempt at a joke."

"Marlene," Lily said. "This is my cousin, Susana. She's new." Lily looked at her cousin suspiciously. "Sort of."

"Okay, well," Marlene began, quickly putting away her lunch and her book into a canvas bag down by her feet. "Have a seat then, and we'll get started."

Susana pulled out the plastic lawn chair at the other side of the table and sat down. Lily began to back away. "I'll just be out in the store, looking around."

Susana looked up at her in slight panic. "You're not staying?"

Lily looked down at Marlena for guidance. "You're welcome to stay, if she would like you to," the psychic said as she pulled her own deck of Tarot cards from a dark velvet bag. Susana noticed that these cards were larger and looked different than the one's at Tic's place.

"Yeah, okay." Lily pulled up a spare chair from against the back wall. "Usually, the reader is alone with the petitioner," Lily explained. "But I'll stay if you want." She settled in next to her cousin, though slightly pushed back from the table.

Marlena placed the deck of cards at the center of the table, face-down. "Have you ever had a reading before?" she asked Susana.

Susana shook her head. "No, but I've seen it done before, once or twice."

"I want you to pick up the deck of cards, and keeping them face down, just shuffle them a few times," Marlena instructed.

Susana complied, then placed the deck back on the table.

"Good," Marlena encouraged her. "Now, using your left hand, I want you to cut the deck into three piles, moving right to left. And they don't have to be three equal piles."

Susana reached for the cards and did as she was told.

"Okay," Marlena smiled at Susana. "Let's see what we've got, then." Marlena turned over the top card for each of the three stacks. Susana watched in a kind of numb blur. The first card was the Two of Swords, followed by The Priestess, and the Eight of Cups. Susana heard a satisfactory smile from Lily.

Marlena looked up at Lily with raised eyebrows. "I'm surprised you're not reading her cards yourself."

Lily leaned back in the chair and stretched her legs out in front of her. "Oh, you know," she replied. "I didn't want to read my own expectations into her cards."

"I know how that is," Marlena responded. She gathered up the cards before her and started laying them out in a grid pattern that Susana didn't quite follow. All sorts of cards were coming up, with both engaging and frightening drawings on them. Then she saw one she recognized: The Tower. She still didn't like the look of that one.

"Ooh, there's that card again," Susana said glumly.

Marlena rested her fingertips lightly on top of the card. "It doesn't have to be a bad card, you know. But it does mean big change. We'll take a look at it in the context of the other cards, alright?"

Susana sat back in her chair and waited. Marlena seemed to be counting the cards laid out in the grid, back and forth, up, down, and diagonally. Lily leaned over to Susana. "She's looking at how the different cards relate to each other," she explained quietly. "But you've got good cards, so don't worry."

Susana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she got up this morning, she'd had no idea that she would inherit an ante-bellum estate, participate in a Wiccan funeral rite, nor communicate psychically with an old dog. Having her Tarot cards read, while a completely new experience as well, just seemed to fit with the weirdness of the day.

She opened her eyes again and found Marlena looking at her. "Let's talk about what we've got," she suggested.

Both Susana and Lily leaned forward, studying the cards on the table.

"You've got the High Priestess, representing yourself. She's a highly intuitive person, one who represents potential and mystery," Marlena began. "She is associated with the goddess Artemis, the protector of animals and a great healer."

"Yeah, that's why you could talk to Baird," Lily commented. "Did you know you were an animal communicator?"

"A what?" Susana blinked at her cousin. "Wait a minute." Susana held a hand to her head, then looked back up, her gaze shifting back and forth between Lily and Marlene. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a veterinarian."

"Well, that could be something..." Marlena replied.

"No," Susana insisted. "I mean, that's what I said, because I knew what they wanted and needed. The animals. I knew."

Lily nodded. "And then what happened?"

A bitter smile played across Susana's lips. "My step-mother. That's what happened." She couldn't believe what she was revealing to these two women whom she hardly knew, but the rest of her life had already fallen apart earlier in the week, so she might as well go for total upheaval.

"Okay," Marlena said, looking back down at the cards. "See here, the two of swords, with the knight of swords, positioned as they are.... I'm seeing someone in your life, a family member, who has been rather blunt and authoritative with you. So you've felt you needed to block your own emotions almost, or that you've at least maintained an uneasy stalemate with this person, and within yourself."

Susana snorted. "Yeah, that would be Bitsy."

"But you've got a lot of cards here pointing to new beginnings, letting go of the past and of the expectations that have held you back," Marlena added. "The Hanged One, The Fool, The Moon. Major arcana cards like these are more immediate." Marlena rested her fingertips on the cards and squinted at the various combinations. "The advice these cards are giving you is to trust your intuition, and trust what's going on around you. A lot of change swirling around."

Lily chuckled. "You got that right."

"Just have faith. And here, the eight of cups.... This is a journey into yourself, leaving behind the rat race, though you've also got to slog your way through feeling burned out."

"Yeah," Susana said shyly. "I lost my job on Monday."

Lily turned to her in surprise. "Did you really? I mean, I know that sucks."

Susana looked down at her hands in her lap. "It was a buy-out. My whole department is gone. Without warning."

"You're beginning to feel this influence here," Marlena tapped on the face of The Tower. "But it's not done with you yet. The is a time of major shifting, but it's only uncomfortable if you resist it."