Page 8

D aisy

Daisy stretched her arms up in the air as she walked down her driveway.

Fields’ Herbals normally opened an hour earlier, just like the rest of the shops in downtown Willowbrook, but on that morning, Daisy couldn’t get out of bed fast enough.

Instead, she rolled over, snatched onto her phone, and gave Tessa a quick call, barely managing to force out the words: sleep in .

Now, it was time to get to work, and a cloud of tiredness still hung over Daisy’s head like a low hanging fog.

“Didn’t you sleep at all?” Tessa called out from the sidewalk. She dressed in an eclectic dress, a thin shawl wrapped around her boney shoulders. Clips resembling flowers pinned her short, spiky hair back and out of her face.

Daisy shrugged, still trying to zip up her jacket. “Thought I did,” she murmured. “Till the alarm went off and I realized I hadn’t had a chance to sleep yet.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Honestly,” Daisy mused, looking in the direction of the slow-rising sun, “I’d kill for a -”

Tessa reached Daisy on the sidewalk, a steaming takeaway cup in her hand. “Coffee?”

“Blessed be,” she whispered, almost snatching the cup out of Tessa’s hand, “You’re a lifesaver.”

Tessa shrugged. “Tell it to the local district Empath Magistrate.”

“Empath Magistrate?” Daisy repeated as they began to walk downtown. “Are you taking the exams again?”

Willowbrook stood as the hub for witches and warlocks on that side of the country.

Men and women traveled miles upon miles to reach their humble town, in order to feel the natural magic that ran through the dirt and trees.

It strung through the neighborhood and woods like a spiderweb, a boisterous power that fueled Daisy and Tessa’s strengths.

While Daisy mastered her tests with flying colors to become a certified potion brewer, Tessa still trained and studied for her final tests.

The Empath Magistrate delivered a license that allows magic users to practice their empathy spells in a business sort of way.

While Tessa could feel out emotions and thoughts wherever she pleased, she couldn’t exactly offer consultations or solutions through the shop before having a certification beneath her belt.

Unfortunately for Tessa, the Empath Magistrate’s tests had been harder than usual that year, and she had yet to pass.

“Maybe.” Tessa shrugged again, a faraway look in her eyes.

Daisy tucked her arm around Tessa’s. “Why don’t we take the day to study?”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Who says you were asking?” Daisy gave her a toothy grin. “As your boss and best friend, I am telling you to work on your studies today.”

Tessa frowned. “Well, that’s nice and all, but what if we get business today?”

Daisy fought back the urge to spitefully laugh.

The flow of patrons and orders at Fields’ Herbals quickly came to a halt over the past few weeks.

Daisy was merely messing around when she went into her office and arcane room to brew tonics and potions.

She wasn’t filling orders or delivering special ingredients to clients.

There was hardly anyone to please in the town, and Daisy didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary on the work day.

“Susy was supposed to work again today,” Daisy said. “I sent her a text saying otherwise.”

“Why?”

Daisy sighed after taking a long sip of her coffee. “Soon, I’ll be paying her hours from my pocket. We can’t afford the help if there’s nothing for her to do.”

When they were about to turn onto Main Street in downtown Willowbrook, a heavy silence spread between them.

The threat of closing the doors to Fields’ Herbals loomed overhead, while everything else their lives depended on lingered in the distance.

Meanwhile, all of Willowbrook seemed to carry on as usual, with the regular early birds lingering on the streets before the rest of the town bothered to wake up.

Mourning doves flew overhead before landing on a telephone pole, just a few inches away from each other.

Daisy lifted her head, her attention caught on them.

Their song carried like the clang of an ominous bell: “coo-OO-oo, coo-OO-oo.”

As she focused on their song, Tessa continued ahead onto Main Street, but Daisy lingered behind.

She finally understood why the world recognized the birds to be in mourning.

Their call was that of a quiet cry, a melancholic weep.

Daisy, despite not being plagued with sadness at all, almost drew a tear as she watched them.

Perhaps it was the natural connection every creature in Willowbrook had.

Perhaps they were a pair of sorrowful birds, and Daisy happened to tap into their pain unknowingly.

“ Daisy! ”

Hands grabbed onto her biceps moments later, yanking her forward. Daisy stumbled, her attention finally pulled out of the skies and into the world around her. Tessa loomed behind her, her long and nimble fingers still latched onto Daisy’s arms.

“Come look at this,” Tessa whispered, then dragged her forward and around the corner.

Daisy blinked. They were only a few doors down from Fields’ Herbals , but there was an extraordinary line that stretched all the way down the sidewalk.

Daisy had been too focused on the power lines and the birds to have even realized the commotion.

Girls of all ages, and a few gentlemen, jittered around excitedly, a quiet hum of their mingling filling the air.

What in the world?

“C’mon,” Daisy murmured, twisting around the line to quickly jog to the storefront.

Once they reached the front door, Daisy was shocked into stillness. The line… it was stretching out from her store! Tessa gaped beside her.

“There must be a mistake,” Daisy whispered to Tessa. “They must have the wrong store.”

“I’ll figure it out,” Tessa told her, looking as confused as Daisy felt.

Tessa stepped towards the first young girl in line. “Good morning!” Tessa said in a friendly voice. “What’s with this line behind you? Are you all really here for Fields’ Herbals?”

The girl grinned enthusiastically. “The local news was raving about Daisy Fields’ skincare products! I thought I’d come early to get myself some before you ran out, but it seems like the entire town had the same idea.” She leaned forward eagerly. “You still have some of it, don’t you?”

This can’t be happening.

Daisy pressed a hand to her chest, feeling the excited beat beneath. “O-Of course,” she finally said. “And I can make plenty more!”

The girl clapped loudly. “I can’t wait!”

Daisy was caught in a trance, unable to move from her spot on the sidewalk.

Her eyes trailed down to see the line still growing, more and more people hurriedly taking their place as they eagerly stepped forward to get into the storefront.

Daisy felt a tremble rush through her. When was the last time Fields’ Herbals had that many people inside?

When was so busy she had a line of sweat along her brow?

Her memory came up blank. How was it that a simple story that aired on the nightly news would set the gears in motion for a drastic change in the business?

“Daisy!” Tessa said from the door.

Running forward, Daisy pulled out her shop keys and unlocked the doors, trying her best to hold the shakes within her.

Before they slipped inside, Tessa snatched onto her hand and gave her a tight squeeze followed by two more.

The motion was simple and mundane, though it brought a wave of calming energy over Daisy’s frantic mind.

Suddenly, it was all doable and standard, as if she handled that sort of busy each and every day.

Daisy mouthed the words thank you to Tessa.

Her friend shrugged, though a pinkish and pleased hue took to her cheeks.

The next few hours went by in a frantic blur.

The moment they flipped the sign to ‘open’, patrons from all over town filtered in and out of the storefront.

Some went straight to the counter for personalized skincare products while others took the time to mosey around, glancing over the aisles and picking up a few tonics here and there.

Before they even reached halfway through the day, Daisy left the counter for Tessa to man and took to her arcane room, working double time to replace all the low products in the store.

As she worked, Daisy’s mind raced a million miles a minute.

“I should’ve called Susy,” Daisy whispered to herself at some point during the day, though she didn’t have a second to spare to retrieve her phone.

By the time the sun began to set, the shop grew as quiet as Daisy was used to.

She stood behind the counter as an amber glow took over the storefront, not a soul in sight.

Groups of people still lingered in downtown Willowbrook, window shopping and deciding where they should eat dinner.

Daisy glanced through the front to see a few patrons with familiar brown bags in their hands, the classic Fields’ Herbals logo printed in the middle.

Daisy couldn’t stop the tired smile from pulling at her lip.

Tessa curved around one of the aisles as she swept. “Boy, am I beat,” she said. “I can’t remember the last time I really needed to clean around here.”

“Tell me about it,” Daisy said as she popped open the cash register.

Pulling the bills out, Daisy retrieved her calculator as she began counting through their sales.

She reached triple digits sooner than expected, and once she hit four digits, Daisy began to feel short of breath.

There was enough money in there to fix the divot in the floor, and then some.

Daisy could order more supplies and ingredients without tainting their final profit.

Somehow, the margin of their sales was more overwhelming than not making a single dime.

“T-This is unbelievable,” Daisy murmured.

Tessa poked her head up. “What is it?”