The Three Truths of Katie Talmadge
by Teagan Oliver

Chapter One

"Today, we are talking with Mistress Serene, a renowned psychic from Salem who specializes in past lives and future loves. Tell me Mistress Serene, who was I in a past life…"

The over-hyped voice of the radio announcer droned in the background as Katie Talmadge finished unpacking the second of several flower boxes that had come in with the morning shipment. Her stomach rumbled reminding her that in her haste to get to the flower shop she’d missed her usual toasted bagel with cream cheese from the corner coffee shop.

"Well, Phil, in a past life you were a whale living in the icy waters of the North Sea."

"Ha," Katie muttered to the empty workroom. A whale in his past life. Who was she kidding?

"And my destiny?" the speaker intoned, obviously enthralled by Mistress Serene and her psychic insight.

"Phil, I see a woman in your future. She is tall, blond, and very beautiful."

"Yeah, right," Katie muttered again. They never saw a short, overweight woman with a bad case of the frizzies. Next, they’ll be talking about Ouji boards and tarot cards.

"Next, Mistress Serene will be taking more of your calls and she’ll be using the tarot deck to see what your future has in store."

Maybe she was the one with the psychic ability.

She knew what her future held and it didn’t include calling a radio station to be told that in a past life she’d been a whale, or a bug, or the Queen of England. Her life was just what she had in front of her. Her little shop and her flowers. Destiny, past lives and magic were for those who didn’t have a clue about living life day-to-day.

She switched off the radio and reached for a blue and white vase on the shelf. She had other things to think about with the pre-Halloween excitement barreling through Salem like a Nor’Easter.

She picked up a piece of wet, green foam and began stuffing it into the bottom of the vase. It stuck and she pushed harder, mushing the wet, crumbling mass down with her fingers until it was lodged in place. Excitement at Talmadge Flowers was in serious short supply.

Now, if only her customers would ask for something other than mums. Katie pulled another bucket filled with the bright colored buds from the cooler and started stuffing them one by one into the vase. But the stems refused to submit to her creativeness, the blossom twisting and bowing, hanging like some spiritless weed.

"Darn," she muttered to the empty room. Mums should be outlawed. They should be discarded to the same disreputable category as dandelions.

But it was fall and mums were as common as houseflies in an open window. Just once, she wished someone would ask for something different, something unusual. Anything but mums. With refrigeration, shipping, state-of-the-art greenhouses and the new Millennium they could have any kind of flower ever imagined. Instead, her customers only wanted the predictable standby.

"What we need is color, some vibrancy, something that says warmth, comfort and happiness." She eyed the drooping petals and listless mass of greenery and moaned. "It doesn’t look like we are going to get that today."

Katie stuffed the last stem in place and turned to set the arrangement inside the cooler, sliding the door shut with her hip. The ancient refrigeration unit wheezed as the fan kicked into gear. The grinding noise was getting worse and the just yesterday it had stopped working while she was out. If she hadn’t made a quick stop back to pick up another arrangement she could have lost the entire case of flowers. She was going to have to get someone in soon to look at it.

Her stomach rumbled again. But right now, she needed to get something to eat.

She surveyed the mess littering the top of her worktable. Only four more orders to go and she could call the delivery service to schedule a pick up for them.

"Too bad I don’t have a Cinderella around here to clean up this mess. She’d come in handy right about now with her sweeping skills and her fairy godmother." She wiped her hands on her apron and went in search of the broom. She could really use a dose of fairy tale magic, right now.

She found the broom stuffed in the corner and picked it up, sweeping her way back across the floor.

"If I did believe in magic it wouldn’t be wasted on finding a prince charming. I’d use it to hire someone to help with the shop. Maybe someone to help with the arrangements, or make deliveries." But while she was at it, she might as well wish for some tall, dark and handsome stranger to come and sweep her off her feet. Either way, there was no chance it was going to happen anytime soon.