Page 27 of Having the Time of My Midlife

“Until we meet again, darlings!” Carl yelled as the queens galloped away a couple hundred feet then disappeared in a rainbow-colored sparkling mist.

Candy Vargo was still staring at the sky. “Fuck,” she muttered.

“What?” I asked.

“Welp, if the Higher Power was pissed that the Four Horsemen were here, the sky would have gone back to normal when they left.”

I looked up. The sky had not gone back to normal. In fact, it looked more threatening. Fuck was correct. “Okay,” I said, doing everything in my power to stay calm. “Let’s go back inside and figure out the rest of the message. I have a Higher Power to visit.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

The queens were gone,and I felt their absence acutely. I’d kind of hoped they’dprocurea home in my sleepy Georgia town and stay forever. That wasn’t going to happen. Crossing my fingers, I hoped I would see them again. Glancing out of the window, my stark reality came roaring back.

The sky had grown scarier, and the time to move was now.

I just didn’t know how.

Tim pulled out his notebook and started talking. “Now that we’ve solved what the significance of three means, I believe we should tackle the rest.”

“I agree,” Carlie said as he stood by the window and watched the sky. “The sooner the better.”

When we’d come back in, Charlie had fixed the front door with a little magic. That was welcome. The temperature had dropped dramatically. Alana Catherine slept in Jennifer’s arms on the sofa. My human friend dozed right along with her. The communication with Pandora had clearly exhausted my baby. The thought of taking her with me to the Higher Power’s plane was not good. My mind raced to figure out a way around it.

I couldn’t come up with one.

Candy Vargo paced the room in agitation. Gram, Mr. Jackson, Lura Belle, Dimple and Jolly Sue floated en masse right behind her. Gideon stood as still as a statue next to the fireplace. His expression was unreadable, but his clenched fists at his sides gave his tension away.

“Tim, please read the message,” I said, hoping I sounded normal but knowing I probably didn’t.

“The game is a riddle. Three must play to win and break the evil spells,” Tim read aloud. “The show will go on and the wheels will turn. The answers are questions. The price must be right or the innocent will pay. In the end the choice will be on the strongest. The strongest shall emerge the victor. Anything is possible. You just have to believe. Time is running out.”

Closing my eyes, I nodded and let my mind wander. Hell, the first couple of lines sounded like game shows—Wheel of Fortune,JeopardyandThe Price is Right.That was absurd. There had to be deeper meanings. For the life of me, I couldn’t think of one. However, it was interesting that the word riddle kept coming up. Steve had said it and then Alana Catherine had communicated it to Pandora.

“Only parts of it makes sense to me,” I said, twisting my hair in my fingers. “The time is running out part is pretty freaking clear.”

Candy Vargo, chewing on a toothpick, sat down on the floor crisscross applesauce. It was bizarre. She looked up and me and patted the floor next to her. “Wanna join me, asshole?”

“Not really, but I will.” I sat down next to the insane woman and waited to see why we were sitting like this. “Speak.”

She offered me a toothpick. I took it.

“You speak,” she countered. “Get all that shit out of your head. Can’t muddy the waters when you don’t know what’s lurking beneath.”

I took a deep breath and let it rip. “I don’t know where I’m going or what to expect. I’m fully aware that I’m supposed to take Gram and Alana Catherine with me. I don’t want to. I’d rather go alone. Risking them makes me sick. I’ll be worried about protecting them and might screw up the mission. Not to mention, I don’t know how to bring them with me. Honestly, what I’d like to do is rip the Higher Power a new asshole, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s probably a bad plan. I’m seriously concerned about Steve, Sam, Sister Catherine, Agnes, Birdie and John. I have no clue what a tear in the Light means, and I have even less of a clue how to fix it. Right now, I’d like to puke.”

Candy Vargo flipped me the bird and grinned. “Slow down, mother fucker. First, you’re goin’ to the Higher Power’s plane. You’re gonna slow your fuckin’ brain down shortly so you can go to sleep and get there.”

“What if I go to the wrong place?”

Charlie spoke. “You’ll focus on where you wish to be, not where you want to go. Don’t think in a linear fashion. Human reasoning rarely works with magic.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “I’ll wish to be where the Higher Power is. Not about a place per se.”

“Excellent,” he said. “You’re getting the hang of this Immortal stuff.”

“From your mouth,” I muttered with a weak smile.

“Next on the list,” Candy said. “You ain’t got no choice about who goes. Alana Catherine spoke and we’re gonna listen. So, wipe that shit about goin’ alone right out of your pea brain. As for how to do it, we’ll get to that in a bit. Also, I’d suggest not attacking the Higher Power. It won’t fuckin’ end well. You feel me?”

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