Typical, thought Sylvia when she saw Jeanine run through the mall near the Eiffel Tower and step on her sandal. That girl always gets clumsy around a cute boy. And would, of course, just go off with him like a homeless puppy begging for a treat. Sylvia was surprised that Jeanine didn’t fall into more mishaps on the regular. From her vantage point in a gazebo, she could see that their body language communicated mutual interest and the man with the long hair lacked the markers for premeditation. She adjusted the scarf to drape around her. A breeze looped on her sunglasses distracting her. She almost missed them as they head out. She barely caught them enter a cafe, a restaurant of questionable sanitation by Sylvia’s standards. They settled in on at an outdoor table. Typical, animals can fly over and poop in her food, doesn’t she know that?

Sylvia stepped into a store across the street which had a window with a convenient view of the sidewalk table. She’d already been in once before. It smelled musty and smokey. Cedar ash and some other film seemed to cling to corners and the older books with faded and worn covers. Marie’s Curiosities was a cross between a new age store and macabre antiquities dealer with some gardening cross-over. There was a corner near the register that housed home-developed, organic fertilizer.

She smoothed her hair with a finely manicured hand then held up a lock before her eyes; the color just wasn’t right yet. It needed to be darker she noted before tossing the lock of hair back over her shoulder. At least, it was finally the right length.

She looked around for a more comfortable way to situate herself rather than stand the entire time it took them to eat. She found she was comfortable in the cluttered bookstore with its cozy, built-in seat in front of the window. Though dimly lit and decorated in muted browns and light blues, it was clearly a book store empty of patrons. In the front window was a pillowed and convenient place to sit and read while observing the diners.

She pulled out her phone. Before she could, register that it was calling Marie appeared again.

“Excuse me,” Marie’s straining voice originated from her right, “Can I get you anything else?” The accent was thick, but she was speaking English.

Sylvia resented that she was so apparent in her American-ness, but very appreciative that she wouldn’t be forced to try to speak French. It hadn’t been one of her strong subjects in school. She did remember one rule from that class, “Don’t handle anything if you don’t intend to buy it. Let the shopkeeper present it to you.” Sylvia didn’t want to offend the keeper of hiding place, so she just grabbed a book from a shelf within reach. “I’ll take this. Do you mind if I relax here for a while?”

The old woman shifted her narrow, lashless, blue eyes knowingly between from the window to Sylvia before patting her on the shoulder, “Of course, stay as long as you need.” Together, their eyes travelled to the cover of the book Sylvia held. “How familiar are you familiar with spelling?”

Sylvia recognized the symbols on the book; it was a book about ritual magic for witches. “A little,” she found herself saying, having remembered seeing a hand-written book of magic that had been handed down for a couple of generations.

“So, it’s a Druid King you watch?” Marie followed Sylvia to the seat at the window. She leaned into the window blocking Sylvia’s view for a moment.

“Huh?”

“The young man with long, shiny hair with the girl with even longer, darker hair?” The woman, who barely reached Sylvia’s shoulder, leaned toward the window as if those few inches would make her sight clearer. She was nicely, if conservatively dressed, but she smelled of cooked cabbage.

Sylvia noticed that there were other patrons sitting and people watching. “No, that man.” She pointed to a guy with sunglasses and short, almost-shaved, brown hair flecked with shocking blue strands. He was of narrow build and probably quite tall. He was attractive enough to attract a girl too shy to talk to him.

“That is Nicky. He is very dangerous. You do not want his attention.” The woman chuckled and walked off.

The woman was right. Sylvia didn’t want Nicky’s attention. She turned her head to watch Jeanine glance at her phone. She turned it off, uncharacteristically ignoring the call and allowing the new guy to draw her attention. Jeanine was always ready to take someone’s call and lend a hand if they needed it, and so no one called her unless it was important. Sylvia shifted trying to loosen the coiling tension along her shoulders as Jeanine allowed this stranger to corrupt Jeanine’s loyalty to her friends.