Dagne snorted and gave her a dismissive flick of her wrist. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not going to end. From everything you’ve told me, he’s just as crazy about you as you are him.”
“Right . . . but he doesn’t know the whole story. He doesn’t know about Lear Transport Industries, or that I’ve been cut off and can’t pay my bills and my neighbor is suing me for all I am worth, which as of this moment, is about $410. He knows I am doing temp jobs, but I think he thinks that is just me having a little fun until I land on a dissertation topic. At least that’s partially true,” she said miserably.
“Hey, money is not everything,” Dagne said, with a bit of a spark. “Lots of people don’t have your kind of money and they manage to make a happy life.”
“I’m not saying it’s all about money, but . . .” She stopped there. There was no polite way to explain that a lot of money really did make a difference in the way people perceived a person. She should know—she’d been Miss Fortune long enough.
“He’s not going to hold it against you,” Dagne continued. “Anyway, we’re going to solve that problem. You may not be an heiress anymore, but you won’t be a pauper, either. At least until you find a real job. Actually, I was thinking of asking Glenn if there might be something in his company you could do.”
“Glenn?” Rachel said, coming to a full sitting position. “You’re still seeing him, aren’t you?”
Dagne shrugged, sipped her wine.
Rachel laughed. “I thought you couldn’t stand him!”
“I didn’t think I could,” Dagne said defensively. “But he is a nice guy and he’s got a really great job selling boats. Big boats. I was thinking of asking him if maybe you could be the boat girl.”
“Boat girl?”
“You know, the one who stands on the boat and points to things.” She glanced at her watch. “Oh geez, I really have to go soon,” she said and stood up. “I’m meeting him at Fratangelo’s later.”
“You’re actually letting him into the ‘hood?” Rachel asked, surprised.
“Shut up,” Dagne said. But she was smiling “Come on; let’s do that spell for your dad.”
“Did you have one in mind?” Rachel asked, gaining her feet.
“Of course. The one that instills kindness in meanies,” she said, walking over to a mirror next to the door to check herself out. “That’s the beauty of being a witch, you know. You can trot the spells out when you need them. So okay!” she said, turning away from the mirror. “This should go real quick as long as you have some dried wisteria and cow dung.”
“Cow dung,” Rachel said thoughtfully. “I think I left it in the basement.”
Dagne was halfway down the basement stairs before Rachel told her she was kidding.
A half hour later, they were standing under the eaves of the garage, shivering from a bone-chilling rain, preparing to do an “anti-misfortune spell,” which Rachel thought was hilarious. So hilarious, she kept giggling as Dagne tried to get the balsam wood to light. But it was too wet.
After several tries, Dagne tossed the match aside. “Never mind. We probably don’t really need to burn balsam anyway. So okay, all we have to do is wrap these stones in the ribbon and stack them. Five separate bundles,” she said, thrusting the stones and the ribbon to Rachel.
“Why do I always have to do it?” Rachel whined, snatching the stones and ribbon from Dagne.
“Because you are the one with all the problems, Miss Fortune,” Dagne reminded her.
“I can’t even see what I’m doing,” Rachel groused as she stacked the five stones they had taken from her water garden and tried to wrap them in the ribbon.
“Would you please hurry up? I’m going to be late for my date.”
Rachel fumbled in the dark with the stones, and finally, freezing and exasperated, she tied them as best she could. “Okay. There they are.”
“Great,” Dagne said. “Give me your hands.”
Rachel put her hands out; Dagne grabbed them and they stood, facing each other, holding hands.
“Turn your face to the moon,” she instructed Rachel.
“The moon? There is no moon! It’s raining!”
“God, just look up!” Dagne snapped. “Okay, here we go. Goddess moon, shine your light and show us the path away from the many misfortunes that surround us. Goddess moon, shine your light and lead us away from the misfortunes that will come. Goddess moon, shine your light, and fill us with your strength to avoid mi—”
The sound of the stacked stones falling over startled them both.
“Toavoidmisfortunes,” Dagne muttered quickly, and they both looked down. The stones had fallen out of the ribbon and scattered around their feet.
“That can’t be good,” Rachel said.
“It can’t be that bad—we got most of the spell in.” Dagne glanced at her watch. “I really gotta go,” she said, letting Rachel’s hands go, and she stooped to pick up the wet balsam.