Bonus: A Helping Hand

Jade helps a neighbor when she hears breaking glass.

Written by Ashley McAnelly

Featuring the voice talents of Abbey Konzen and Natalie Hitzel

Produced by Scott Thomas

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Though things have gotten better, I still can't sleep. When this happens, I avoid my phone or computer and grab a book and some calming tea instead, until I'm finally drowsy enough to try again. Well, usually I avoid the screens. I know they stimulate me and keep me up even longer, but some nights I'm wide awake and could use some time to catch up on work. Sam has talked me into looking to expand our services and supplies, though still up on the fence which way to go first. Roz does seem like she's going to take up my offer for her to have a booth to sell her glasswares from in our store. But I would need more than that if I actually want the store to survive the next decade. Tonight is a book night, though I'm itching to grab my computer and look into a 3D printer to create my own knick-knacks to sell. But I also have to know how they are getting the sharks to attack people in the thriller I'm reading. I look up from the book to the window beside me. I doubt I'll actually see anything, but I swear I heard something. I give it a few more seconds before I return to my book. Okay, nope, that's definitely something. Not my store by how far off it sounds, but one of my neighbors up the hill is in trouble. I put my book down, slip my shoes on, and step out onto my tiny porch. I'm about to holler for Sam to call 911, but I remember that she's not here. She's off gallivanting after ghosts with Eric. The sound is coming from one of the shops up the hill. A small plume of smoke is rising. Shit. Vera, I think. She doesn't answer, and I have a bad feeling about it. By the time I get there, the vandals are gone, but the night is glowing with the flames of the fire that is spreading through Veera's shop. I hope the firefighters get here in time to stop it from spreading to the other buildings on either side of it. As the storefront comes into view, I see Vera. She rushes out of the building with a handful of things, coughing from the smoke, and then makes a beeline back inside. Shit, what the hell is she thinking? I run as fast as my skirt will let me to the burning building. I don't see her through the smoke billowing out through the broken window, and she doesn't respond. I take several breaths of clean air and charge in behind her. I hold my breath so I'm not immediately choked up by the smoke, so the heat is the first thing to get me. I'm able to swallow some of the energy from the flames and push it away from my path, until I see Vera down the back hallway, collapsed on the floor, hugging another box of shit she was trying to save. I don't see any fallen debris on her. The smoke must have done her in. The smoke burns my eyes as I lay down in the narrow hall with her and position myself to roll her over onto my back. Thank God she's as skinny as a stick. Since it's easier than I thought it would be to pick her up, I grabbed the box she was clinging to as well and make my way out. The fire still licks and bites at us, the smoke completely engulfing the building as I guide us through. My lungs are about to burst from holding my breath, but I clear the threshold and hit the pavement before I gasp for air. I get us to the other side of the road before I put her down and start a CPR. Vera sits up into my arms as she catches her breath, but as soon as she sees her store, she freaks. She clutches at her neck and then pats herself down, searching for something.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Oh no, no, no, no, no! I have to go back! I have to go back and get it!

SPEAKER_01 4:44

I hold her in place by the shoulders, refusing to let her get up. You already went in twice, Vera. You got two boxes out, and I carried out the last one you went back in and almost died for. Surely we got the really important shit already. I point to the box beside her to hopefully calm her down. She pushes me away and starts going through it until she pulls out a necklace. A huge golden palm with an evil eye in the center hangs on the chain. Her whole body relaxes once it's in her hands.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Thank God. Thank you, Jade. My my oh my god, my grandmother would be rolling in her grave if I let this perish.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

I think your grandmother would rather you've been alive than save that. Wouldn't it have survived the fire, anyways?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

I I wasn't willing to chance it. I should have known better than taking it off at the store, anyways. Look what's happened. But at least you were here to save me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I help her to her feet and stand beside her, watching her shop burn down. You think this happened because you took it off? Before she can respond, the firetruck rounds the corner. Right behind it is the first responder. Come on, they need to check you out.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

I'm not the only one who ran into a burning building. They need to check you out, too.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

I roll my eyes, but we both head over to the first responder as the firefighters do their job. The police eventually get there and take our statements. The firefighters are able to quickly assess that someone targeted the place and started the fire. I wondered for a moment if the arsonists were the same kids that used to mess with me, or if it's some other Uber Christians who went all thou shalt not suffer a witch on her. They know not to mess with me by now, but Vera is fresh meat. The first responders gave us a once-over, but we had to wait on the ambulance to get there to check us out too before they let us go. Not that we went anywhere. Even after all the help left, I don't move because Vera doesn't move. Instead, we stare together at the blackened hole of the storefront. The smell of charred books and oils, which must have made up the bulk of what she sold. Some crystals and jade figures survived but are covered in soot. So glad this is not my nightmare, but now I've made it my problem to help her through hers. So, do you like your welcoming party? My mom and I dealt with our fair share when I was younger. And hell, I still had a few kids try the same thing to me a few years back. You caught them? They were stupid enough to try to do it with me right there watching them talk about it by the window. Vera steps into the empty street towards her shop.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

I thought I was in the clear, you know? A few months in after my grand opening, and nothing like this had happened. I had some Christian hate mongers come in when I first opened, but then nothing, so I thought it would be fine.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Don't take this the wrong way, but are you a practitioner or just a palm reader?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

I have some psychic abilities, but my main practice is palm reading. I don't practice witchcraft.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

So you didn't have the building warded.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Against evil spirits, yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Not all evil spirits, apparently. I didn't think the living would The living will kill you quicker than the dead. Never forget that. Vera nods, but she doesn't look at me. She's looking at her building, and I know that look. One time my mother wore it. I was four. The Christian community around here seems to have zealots pop up in almost every generation, or at least idiot kids who think that's the way to get rid of the devil. The look on my mother's face as her store was set on fire is one of my earliest memories. It's the look of utter despair when you've lost something you've put so much time and effort and hope into. Building fires are bad no matter what the building is, but I rank small business fires as bad as house fires. Your whole life is there, and you have to watch it all burn. Some are able to recover from that. My mother did. Hell, I think it's why she kept it open even when it would have made sense just to give it up. She refused to let the hate mongers think they won.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Were you staying here too, or I've got an apartment over on Albert Pike, but most nights I'm here late. I fell asleep in my reading room and woke up to the smell of smoke.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

You're lucky the smoke woke you up. Some people just sleep while they suffocate. She finally looks at me.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

If it's not too much of an imposition, would you mind sitting with me for a bit longer? I'm not ready to be alone yet.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Why don't we go back to my place? I can get you something stronger than that bottle of water the EMT gave you.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

We make the trek down the hill to my apartment. For a while, our footsteps on the pavement are the only sound. I feel for her, but I'm not going to pity her. I didn't like her to begin with since she believes in palm readings, but it's exactly that kind of negative thinking that led some asshole to do this to her shop. That and her reality has been my nightmare for a while. And hell, Charles and his damn magician managed to breach my wards and burn my reading room a few years back. But at least it wasn't the whole store. It's so much harder a task to face when it's a complete startover with nothing. I don't know if I could do it if it happened to me. We may fundamentally disagree on our paths of divination, but we are both just trying to make a living by helping people.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

You inherited your store from your mom, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah. Though since she died before I turned 18, my uncle managed it for a while. He ran it into the ground, and I had to start with basically nothing but the building. And it wasn't in the best of shape.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Was running the store what you really wanted, or did you do it for her?

SPEAKER_01 10:45

You know, only one other person has asked me that. It was my Aunt Beattie who took me in after my mom died. It was a bit of both. I mean, what book loving teen doesn't want to run their own bookstore?

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised your shop has survived eBooks on Amazon.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Me too. But in ways, we do have a community that helps to support us. Did you feel anything as you passed over the threshold?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Hmm, not really. I assume I should have been able to pick up on your wards.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

I continue to walk into the living room and she follows. Mine are meant to be subtle, so only a certain level of ward should be picked up on the radar. In case anything that wants to hurt me can sense them, they only sense a weaker ward. That way they're overconfident and get their ass handed to them once they break that first level.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Smart. And you must be pretty powerful if you're able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Wards and energy magic are my strong suit, but it's taken years and years of honing. And honestly, I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Well, maybe you can teach me enough so that this doesn't happen again.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

I'm happy to help any way I can. Speaking of, I would be happy to lend you one of my spare back rooms or a corner in the store for your palm reading.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Really? Are you sure? I I I wouldn't want to impose.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Us heathens have to stick together when the persecution starts. You're welcome anytime. As long as you're fine with me making fun of palm reading.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

I guess I'll take the help. As long as you're fine losing tarot customers to my palm readings.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Nice. If you're that confident, I'd love to see you try. Though I should warn you that I have my fair share of skeletons in the closet that like to jump scare me every once in a while. Trouble comes knocking more often than I would like. I'm not gonna hide that truth from you.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Well, what if I said I had my own skeletons that come and knock into? Are you sure you want more trouble on top of yours?

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Do you need me to tell you exactly what the trouble is?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

I can ask the same question to you.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

I don't need to know until shit hits the fan.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Then I don't need to know yours until that time either.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

I think we can get along just fine then.