Ch. 2 - There In The Cards
Left alone running Dr. Facilier's Voodoo Emporium for the evening, Tiana didn't wait long for company. When she heard her first customer knock at the purple-painted door she quickly opened it only to find her best friend Charlotte panting for air in her calf-length pink dress. The dark-haired girl let in the excited blonde who stared at her pale and wide-eyed.
"Tiana, what are you doing here?" Charlotte tried to glance around her. "Getting your fortune told? I've been looking everywhere for you. This is the last place I'd expect to find you."
"I got a new job," Tiana explained quickly, feeling bad that her friend had been searching for her.
"Oh, where at?"
"Here! I'm running the voodoo shop now, and doing tarot-readings."
"Tarot readings?! Oh, Big Daddy gave me some allowance money. I'd like to get a reading from you," Charlotte said, her hair bobbing up and down as she bounced up and down on her shoes.
"Of course! Come on, sit down here!" Tiana gestured to the other chair at the table welcomingly as she sat across from her friend.
She splayed the cards across the table and let Charlotte choose one.
"Oh, a suitor in your future," Tiana said with an air of mystery.
Charlotte squealed and bounced up and down in her chair. "Oh, ain't that just peachy! What a fun card game!"
The high-spirited blonde girl hugged her mysterious dark-haired friend good-bye before she left, paying her her fair share of Big Daddy's cash. "Oh, you're so talented, Tia! Can't wait to hear from you when you get off from work!" she called before slipping narrowly out the door.
...
The next customer who snuck in the door was very handsome, and also about the same age as Tiana. Tan and dark-haired, with an invincible smile on his face.
"Come in!" Tiana called.
"I'm not from around here," he said as walked in. "But, you read fortunes, no? Similar to back in Maldonia."
"Yes, I'm running the shop while Dr. Facilier is out, but I'd be happy to give you a reading. Please, sit down!"
He took the chair across from Tiana, gazing at the ebony beauty now with her black hair loosened around her. While she had a mysterious expression on her face, he had a direct and inquisitive stare and a lilting smile.
"I'll shuffle the deck," Tiana said, "and then you can pick a card-"
She was in the act of shuffling the deck of cards when suddenly - a single card flipped out of her hand and onto the table. She looked down at it mortified. That had never happened before.
"Which card is that?" he asked curiously.
He snatched the card away from Tiana before she could grab it.
"The lovers," he read off the card, then made a face of utter amazement. "It means true love!" he proclaimed. "It's there in the cards!"
Tiana gaped with her hands splayed out on the table.
"That is all the more of this I'll be wanting," he continued, rising to his feet, dropping the card back on the table, and sticking his hands into this pockets. He pulled out some cash but made a disappointed face. "Huh. I seem to be a bit short but perhaps -"
"You'll be working a job here next at Dr. Facilier's Voodoo Emporium if you're not careful," Tiana warned.
"Perhaps I could repay the rest with dinner? You and I. At the seafood restaurant."
Tiana's face brightened. "I think that'd be swell. What's your name?"
"Naveen. And yours?"
"Tiana."
"Beautiful. I'll meet you there when you get off work tonight. How about it?"
"Delighted." Tiana rose to her feet and accompanied him to the door. "I get off as soon as Dr. Facilier gets back in."
"Dr. Facilier?"
"I used to call him the Shadow Man."
"The voodoo man. Right. Perhaps I can talk to him a bit later and get you some free time off. Anyways, I'll see you tonight at the seafood restaurant."
Before she could say anything he pulled her into his arms and embraced her warmly. A firm hug. "Thanks, Tiana. For everything." He was out the door in a moment with a slam.
Tiana stared at the door a moment, not sure of what had just happened but more light-hearted than she had ever felt before. The purple door re-opened and she half-expected it to be Naveen returning, but to her sudden dismay it was the Shadow Man.
"Just like I said," he reproached her in a dark and sinister voice. "You've got a gift." He entered and hung up his top hat. "Shouldn't have let him get away without full payment though."
Tiana frowned. "He paid all he had. I let him go. Please-"
"You let him go?!" Dr. Facilier demanded with his hands thrown out in the air. "I could have had him working for me!" He pointed a slender finger at Tiana. "Now you'll have to pay off his debt in his stead." He approached her, arms out in an almost friendly gesture. "You're working for me now, little Miss Tiana."
"What about my wages?" she asked, thinking hopefully of her dinner date at the seafood restaurant.
The Shadow Man looked at her as if she'd outsmarted him. Then his face cracked into a grin. "I didn't say exactly how I'd pay you for working for me. But tell you what, how will this do . . ?" He walked past the things in his voodoo shop and selected something in his hand. Then he held it out to Tiana. It was a vial full of a purple-colored substance. Tiana took it to read the label, looking at him skeptically.
"Voodoo love potion?" she read. It was purple with tiny lavender flowers and red from rose petals. She eyed it a moment before saying, "I'll take it."
"Consider yourself repaid for a hard day's work then." He stuck a finger at her again. "But I'll be wanting to see you again. Same day next week?"
Tiana agreed with a nod of the head before pocketing the tiny bottle in her dress pocket and escaping out the door. However as she left she could hear his words...
Dr. Facilier gripped his hand into a fist. "You're working for me now, Tiana. Paying off the debt for that prince of yours. Just like I said, a fairy-tale heroine. You belong to me."