Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Drugstore Witchcraft

NEW

Agnes shook her head and held the folded newspaper in the air over her shoulder.

"Gillian!" she bellowed. "Come have a look at this!"

Gillian sighed, turned off the water at the kitchen sink, and wiped her hands on her skirt. "What?" she asked, taking the paper from Agnes.

"Look at it."

The Times was folded open to a story about a young woman found dead in her apartment. Twenty-three years old and no explanations. Her landlord found her in her bathtub, with the showerhead still running.

"That's terrible," said Gillian. "Do you know this girl?"

"No. Look at the photo."

The photo showed Kaycee Hargrave - the friendly face of the local police - and the building's owner standing in the bathroom, pristine tiles and sunny window in the background. At least they'd been tasteful enough to remove the body.

"I'm not sure what you're wanting me to see here."

Exasperated, Agnes huffed and pried her massive frame from her chair. She grabbed the paper from Gillian and pointed at the shampoo bottles barely visible in the grainy photo.

"You see?!?"

"Shampoo. So what?"

"Suave fresh scent shampoo. John Frieda Stay Red. Do you realize all the herbs and extracts they've got in shampoos nowadays? I can't even get bloodroot in Mexico anymore. But Suave? Oh, they've got it, no problem. These seculars have no idea the fire they're playing with. In this girl's shower alone, you'll have bloodroot, watermint, ginger, even tobacco. She cast a death spell on herself while washing her hair!"

They were both uncharacteristically quiet for a moment.

"Shampoo..." Gillian said thoughtfully.

Agnes cackled and wedged herself back into her chair.

"My girl, we are back in business!"

 

6 comments:

Dan Garner said...

Hey stranger...good to see your work again. The time was sort of set by Rachel at Stone's Throw...they normally close at 4: in the afternoon every day. It's possible that they might be extending hours soon...you should call her.

Darling Niki said...

Cassie, my dear, this is really good. I am still waiting on that best-selling book of yours! ;)
Can't wait to read the rest of THIS story!
Love you

Dustin said...

Great post. I really enjoyed that. Can't wait to see more!

Unknown said...

Interesting. More please. And surely there's some part of you that's not camera shy. A toe? A finger? A beauty mark?

Michael-Ann said...

This post left me to ponder what an enchanting style of writing you have.

Always enjoy reading your wordage. Like your other reader commented, I'm now waiting for your book too!

Katie said...

Now that was just brilliant! Clever and funny, too. :o)