Ghosts of July (Shamans of the Divide, Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-one

I walked in and found the group pretty quickly. They'd taken up a booth in the back and with a few extra chairs slid over, the entire corner of the room was occupied by this council of legend chasers and goblin fighters. Besides Renn, Skye, and Coyote, there were three more people at the table already near the bottom of their coffee cups.

The waitress in me was tempted to grab the coffee pot I passed by on the counter. Lucky for me, I stopped myself when I realized Coyote had taken the seat next to Renn. I let out a heavy breath and sat in the empty chair next to Skye who gave me a friendly smile as I scooted in and ordered a tall orange juice.

"You must be the ghost talker," an older woman with long silver braids and honey colored eyes stuck her hand out. I offered mine and she nearly ripped my arm out of its socket.

"July," I simply said.

"I'm Billie Whalen and this is my husband Leonard," she was pointing to a man with a neatly braided ponytail down his back. His hair was nearly the same color gray as Billie's. "And this is our friend Silas Yellow Wing."

Silas wore thick glasses that had shaded somewhat on their own in the bright sunlight. Over his head he wore a Navy Vietnam Veteran cap with the name of a ship on it.

"Nice to meet you," Silas said with a wave but he offered no shake. Just as well, my hand was still recovering from Billie's salutation.

"Coyote told us everything you've seen up until now," Leonard spoke. His voice was deep and had a slow, deliberate pace to it. "In all our years together, we've never met anyone like you, July. You must forgive us if we are slow to believe your story. This type of thing usually doesn't happen."

Up until this summer, ghosts didn't happen to me, but wasn't the supernatural more or less the business they signed up for when they agreed to be part of this Continental Divide neighborhood watch dog group?

"What sort of thing?"

Leonard took a deep breath and looked to his wife, probably needing some sort of lifeline. She gave him a half-shrug and he looked back at me.

"I'm going to be blunt for a moment," he said. "People connected to activity on the Divide have always been like us."

Confused, I raised an eyebrow. Old? Lucky for me I didn't say it out loud. Billie came to my rescue.

"He means we're all Native American—First Peoples," she said softly. "We've never had someone with your ability who wasn't a member of a tribe that had a direct link to some of the mythology associated with the Divide. The other members know about you, too, and they refused to believe it. That's why only three of us came."

 Figures. I inhaled slowly and thought about what to say next. Honestly, I just wanted to gather up as much dignity as I had left and leave. First Coyote and now these people. Billie probably sensed something so she patted the back of my hand and gave me a kind smile. I tried to return it.

"Would you tell us about your spirit guide?"

I looked to Renn for help. I didn't even own a cell phone anymore—I was fairly certain I didn't have a spirit guide. Especially since membership to this club had so many rules and requirements. I was probably too non-Shoshone to warrant one of those.

"Ernie," Renn said. "They mean Ernie."

I laughed at that.

"Him? I'm pretty sure he's not a mystical spirit guide. He's too much of a pain in the..." I recovered when I saw that no one else at the table was laughing with me. "He comes and goes when he feels like it. Mostly he wants to gossip about my friends and poke fun at my boring life."