A Quarrel Called: Stewards Of The Plane Book 1 by Shannon Wendtland Page A

room and wafted the
smoke around. She turned to her right, saw the chair with the bundle of clothes,
and paused for a moment, frowning. Then she wafted the smoke over the chair as
well. “Be a dear and open your closet for me, so that I can get in there, too.”
    I obliged, while mulling over the fact that she had paused
in front of the chair. I had always taken the saging of the house as some sort of silly ritual we all put up with to make Gram feel
better, but now I had to wonder if perhaps there was something more to it, or
more to the point, something more to Gram .

 

14. TARA
    “Geeze,” I said, trying to absorb the whole story, “that’s
crazy-scary.” I skipped a step to catch up with Melody’s stride. “Hey, slow
down a little. Be kind to the vertically challenged.”
    “Sorry,” she said, absentmindedly, slowing down. “I’m just
all worked up. I’m half afraid to go to bed in my own room tonight.”
    “But you said Gram saged the
house, right?”
    “Yeah, she did. But I don’t really believe in that stuff.”
    “Well, you should,” I said, suddenly irritated. “The ghost
of your brother knocks a photo off of your wall and some sort of
old-hag-succubus thing tries to suck your soul out at the same time that Sam is
dreaming about the exact same thing happening to you… Good Lord, Melody, what’s
it going to take to convince you that there are things in this world that can’t
be explained?”
    She didn’t say anything, and that worried me a little. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be pissy .
I’m just… I don’t have any answers for you. I don’t know what to say either.”
    “I know. That’s why I wanted you to go see Esme with me.
Because she said that thing about the journey of my soul or whatever, and now
look at all the crap that has happened in the last couple of weeks. It’s
freaky. And she’s the only person I can think of to ask.”
    “Besides your Gram, you mean.”
    Mel shrugged. “I’m not sure I’m ready to tell her everything
that’s going on. I don’t want a lecture about messing with things I don’t
understand, and I really, really don’t want her to worry about me. She’s got
enough going on with Gramps being so sick.”
    “I feel ya , Ophelia.” We stopped on
the sidewalk to the shop and stood idly outside the door. We were a few minutes
early; Esme didn’t open until 11:00.
    Despite the fact that it was early July, the morning was
unseasonably cool. Texas summers came in two flavors, hot and hotter. Luckily
for us, it was raining more than usual, so the summer so far was only hot, and
this morning was downright lovely. I studied the blue sky above and was
irritated by the white stripes marring the perfect azure expanse. “Why do they
have to do that?” I said. “Can’t they fly higher or something? Those stupid
stripes are wrecking my sky.”
    Melody shrugged. “Modern technology; where
would we be without airplanes? That trip to London we’re planning for
after we graduate? Pretty much gotta fly if we’re
going to go.”
    “I know. But still.” The lock turned on the door behind us
and I saw over my shoulder Esme through the glass pane, smiling and waving for
us to come in. “Sure you’re ready for this?”
    “Ready for what?”
    “Just do me a favor. Esme is a really nice lady. Try to leave
your skepticism at the door. You can be as doubtful as you like later when
we’re walking home, but for now, just be polite, okay?”
    Mel nodded. “I’m not new, Tara. Besides, it was me that
asked to come here today.”
    I smiled. “Yes, it was. Finally.” We went inside.
    While Esme and Mel sat at the little reading table in the
back, I kept an eye out for customers. Esme trusted me enough to put me behind
the counter, and I was really honored. Besides, I could hear the whole
conversation from there; it was going to take an act of will not to interject
every other sentence. This was Mel’s tale to tell. I was just a supporting
character at