Helsa had chosen to skip school today so Charlie was pretty much ignored by her peers save for Vaggie and Angel. The three of them had lunch together and walked home together that day, not unusual for Charlie and Angel since they lived in the same building. He ended up becoming friends with Vaggie and Charlie because like them he was a bit of an outcast. People called him the weird kid because not only did he have a fortune teller for a grandmother and a circus performer for a cousin, but he had quirky hobbies which included collecting bugs, cross-dressing on several occasions, and trying to mimic stunts and performances that his grandmother and cousin had done. Charlie liked him because he was interesting, Vaggie liked him too though she found him annoying sometimes.
"Angel why did you choose to wear a skirt today?" Vaggie asked him as they were walking down the street from school.
"Because it looks great on me, that's why." He said stopping to pose. "You got a problem with men in dresses?"
"No but it's forty degrees out here and windy, how are your legs not freezing?"
"Oh..." Angel looked down and his knees which were indeed getting very red from the cold. "Okay maybe a skirt wasn't the best fashion choice for today."
"Ya think? Next time, at least wear leggings."
"So do you ladies wanna go catch a movie or something?" Angel asked.
"Can't, I'm babysitting again." Charlie said.
"And Mom has me on non-stop study hall again." Vaggie said.
"How about tomorrow then?"
"Tomorrow we're both staying after school for tutoring." Charlie said. "I'm having trouble in algebra and she's having trouble in English lit."
"You guys aren't just saying that to avoid hanging out with me, right?" He teased.
"Of course not!" Charlie said.
"I'm joking." Angel laughed. "I know you both got a lot of shit to deal with. Let me know when you guys are free, okay?"
Later on, Vaggie once again left the group to go to her apartment and the remaining two continued on toward the house. Upon arrival, they spotted Mrs. De Luca coming back from the grocery store and she had her hands full of bagged groceries. Naturally Angel helped her carry them inside and Charlie did the same.
"How nice to see you Charlotte." The old woman said. "And thank you so much for assisting me with my bags. Would you like to come in for some tea as a reward?"
Charlie wasn't much of a tea drinker but she didn't want to be rude.
"Sure, I'd love to."
"Wonderful." She turned to her grandson. "Anthony, be a dear and put the kettle on."
Gina wasn't very fond of nicknames and always referred to a person by their full name. She always thought nicknames were silly because what was the point of giving somebody one name but calling them by a different one?
Anyway, after Charlie helped them put away all the groceries in the kitchen, Gina led her into led a dusty little room called the parlor, which smelled of furniture polish. One side of the walls were decorated with paintings styled off the Italian Renaissance while the other side displayed black and white photographs. At the center of the parlor there was a sofa, two chairs, tea table, an old record player, and a shelf full of records. Opera records to be exact.
"Would you like me to put on some music Charlotte?" Gina asked. "Are you a Bocelli fan? Or one of Callas perhaps?"
"For the last time Grandma, no one my age likes opera." Angel called from the kitchen. "It's basically just people howling and screaming for hours."
"Well that so called howling and screaming, is very refined and better for your soul than that vulgar nonsense you listen to you."
"Hey Life Sucks is a great band."
"They write songs about death, abuse, crime, violence, suicide, addiction."
"Yeah, everything that makes life suck. Hence the name."
"I just wish you wouldn't listen to that kind of music everyday. Makes me worried that it's going to give you ideas."
"Don't worry Grandma, I'm not going to off myself or shoot up an entire school. There are lots of things I wanna do in life, and I can't do them if I'm dead or in jail."
Gina stepped into the kitchen to help Angel fix the tea and prepare the tray. In about fifteen to twenty minutes, they both came back into the parlor with Gina carrying a tray set with a pink china, tea-set and a plate of Amaretti cookies. They poured Charlie a cup of peppermint tea in a little pink bone china cup, with a saucer and gave her a cookie to go with it.
"Peppermint and almond-vanilla do make a tasty combination, don't you think?" Gina said sipping her cup.
"Yes ma'am." Charlie said.
"Baldwin! Tea time!" Gina called to her nephew who was in the bedroom down the hall, just across from where Angel's room was. Blitzo came out of the room and sat down in the chair next to the sofa, pouring himself a cup and taking two cookies.
"Thank you Aunt Gina." He said and then looked over at Charlie. "Oh hey, nice to see you again. You're Stolas's other kid, right?"
"In a way. He's not my father though, he's my godfather. Someone to take care of me now that my parents are gone. There was no one else in the family who could do the job."
"So you live with him right?"
"Yes."
"Can you do me a favor then? Can you tell him to stop flirting with me?"
Charlie almost choked on her cookie.
"Excuse me?"
"What are you talking about?" Angel asked.
"I'm always catching that weirdo staring at me when I'm outside and he's always making innuendos whenever we talk. Geez, you go out on one pity date, have rough, bondage sex after having too many to drink, and suddenly he thinks we're an item."
"Ewww!" Charlie gagged, disgusted by the image of her father figure being in such a position.
"Baldwin that is not a subject to discuss at the table or in front of a guest!" Gina scolded.
"Yeah, have a little class, will ya?" Angel said, but then he leaned over and whispered. "Tell me about it later."
"Anthony!" Gina flicked him on the head.
"What? I'm just curious."
"When did you and Stolas become a thing exactly?" Charlie asked.
"I think it was before you moved in and it was when the other kid was with his ex. But I wouldn't call us a thing." Blitzo said.
"May we please change the subject?" Gina asked, taking another sip of her tea to calm her nerves.
"Yes." Charlie said. "Before I'm tempted to pour bleach into my eyes."
"Prudes." Blitzo muttered.
"Watch that mouth young man." Gina warned. "Remember you're not a minor like Anthony, so I can legally kick you out."
"Sorry Aunt Gina."
"Now Charlotte, would you like me to read your tea leaves?"
"My tea leaves?" Charlie replied.
"Yes dear, they'll tell me your future."
"How?"
"Well first drink your tea, but not all of it. Just enough to where the leaves remain."
Charlie took a big swallow of the tea but was careful not to take in every last drop. Then she passed Gina her cup. Gina peered shortsightedly at the black tea leaves in the bottom. She pursed her lips.
"Oh my Charlotte." She said after awhile. "You are in terrible danger I fear."
Charlie gave her a frightened and confused expression.
"Oh give me that cup Aunt Gina." Blitzo snorted. "You're off your meds again."
"I'm off my meds?!" Gina protested. "Last week I saw you flush yours."
Blitzo looked into the cup carefully.
"Alright don't worry kid, it's good news." Blitzo assured her. "There's a tall, sexy, beast in your future."
"A what?" Charlie said, now more confused than frightened.
"Oh really Baldwin." Gina scoffed. "Which one of us has more experience in fortune telling and magic?"
"Hey I worked in a circus and they had a fortune teller, so I know a few things."
"Do you know that you're holding the cup wrong?" Gina turned it to the right. "See? Danger."
"What do you see?" Angel said looking over her shoulder.
"I see a hand, no a claw I think." Gina said.
"I see a giraffe." Blitzo said.
"You think a giraffe is sexy?" Angel said with a raised eyebrow. "You're a bigger freak than me."
"Up yours, drag show!"
"Don't call me that!"
"How about the technical term then? Transvestite."
"We've been through this a hundred times, I am not a transvestite! I'm a gender neutral dresser! I like to wear fashionable clothes and I don't believe clothes should be directed to a specific gender. If I look good in a suit, I wear a suit. If I look good in a dress, I wear a dress. Get the picture, freak show?"
"You know I was not in the freak show! I was a skilled acrobat."
"And a clown! And clowns are freaks! Freak show! Freak show! Freak show!"
"Drag show! Drag show! Drag show!"
"Freak show!"
"Drag show!"
At that moment Gina seized both of them by their ears and pinched hard.
"Owwww!" They both cried out in pain. "Okay! Okay! We give! We give!"
"Anthony, Baldwin." She said in a calm tone. "What have I said about arguing?"
"If it must be done, do it in private. Never in public or in the presence of company." They said simultaneously.
"And?"
"And no calling each other mean names."
"That's right, and now that I've calmed you both down, what are you going to do?"
"Go to our rooms, think about what we've done, and apologize to each other later."
"Good boys." She released their ears. "Go on now, I'll call you when dinner is ready."
She dismissed them to their rooms and finished the remainder of her tea before speaking again.
"I'm sorry about that awkward situation Charlotte." Gina said. "They're really nice boys, they just tend to forget their manners."
"I understand." Charlie said. "But about that danger you mentioned? What am I in danger from?"
"It didn't say, tea leaves aren't reliable for that kind of thing. They're good for general, but not for specifics."
"What should I do then?" asked Charlie, who was slightly alarmed by this.
"I'm not sure. If I only knew what it was that..." She trailed off as she glanced toward the kitchen window, seeing the many fallen, colored, leaves covering the grass. "Oh no...It's Autumn again. That means...Wait right here, I know something that might be able to help."
Gina stood up from her chair and into a third room that was located in the hallway, obviously her bedroom. While she was in there, Charlie got up from the sofa and decided to take a look at the photos hanging on the wall. Half of them showed Gina as a young woman with her husband, her sister, and her two children. The other half showed Angel and Blitzo as children, she smiled at how cute they both looked at that age. But then she saw something that puzzled her very much. Among the photos of Angel, there were photos of a girl about twelve or fourteen years old and she resembled Angel a great deal.
"Here we are sweetie." Gina said coming back into the room, and placing something into Charlie's hands.
She had given her a book. A most peculiar-looking, one with a hard cover the color of red-wood and evergreen designs of leaves and vines. She opened the book and skimmed through some of the pages, finding that each one had a detailed illustration of a strange creature.
"What is this?" Charlie asked. "A storybook?"
"It looks like a regular storybook, but don't be fooled. It's actually a guide."
"A guide?"
"Or handbook or a manual, or whatever you want to call it, the point is this book maybe your only chance of escaping whatever danger is in your future."
"What do you mean?"
Gina sighed.
"I'd like to tell you the whole story but you'll probably think I'm insane just as the police did. My own grandson doesn't believe me either so I doubt you would. Still for your own safety and the safety of Mr. Goetia's little one, I'll give you these bits of advice. If anything unusual happens, this book will have all the answers. Don't go out after dark without a trusted adult present, and whatever you do, don't cross the bridge."
"You mean the one in the field?"
"Yes. Stay away from it, especially at night."
Charlie wondered why so few of the people in this town made any sense. She sometimes wondered who they thought they were talking to. Gina seemed like she had a good head on her shoulders but in this moment, she sounded a little off. But ever the polite one, Charlie accepted the book, thanked Gina for the tea and cookies, then left the flat to go home.