Concrete Summonings

THREE DAYS LATER

Maybelline had brought two black sulfur rocks with her when she packed her bag to leave for the city just a few days ago. They were for emergencies. Big emergencies. For big problems, that required big fiery solutions that she had hoped she would not have to come across. With the right focus and the right intent just one of these babies could create a firestorm that could strip the strip the shine off a diamond. She got them at a garage sale one county over almost a year ago and lied to the man who sold them to her. She said it was for an alchemy project she was working on for school. And he bought it, hook, line and sinker. Even gave them to her for half the asking price. And she had them now, in her hand...

She hadn't talked to her brother in two days. Well, sort of. She hadn't told him what happened. Or anything that happened. It was too much to talk about. She left a text letting him know she was ok. He was supposed to come get her today, but she briefly told him she would be staying. She didn't say how long, and she left it at that with no follow up to his other texts. That was yesterday. And in two days from now, with mounting hotel expenses, she would be almost out of money. And by then Micah would be out of her mother's house and back in school so it would be harder on him to get her. She said she would work it out, but she didn't really know how.

Arnold texted her, too. But she didn't really respond to him either. He offered to take her out to eat somewhere with his family, but she just wasn't in the mood. It was a nice gesture, and in a lot of ways she probably would have really enjoyed that. Not right now though. And after all this she didn't want to call her father. The thought crept into her mind, but it was complicated. All of it was.

She didn't go near the questing board. She didn't even want to think about it. Yesterday all she did was stay in her hotel room and try to catch up on all the sleep she wasn't getting, but of course it didn't come, and she was wide awake with hotel blankets covering up the windows. At one point she just sat in the corner like a rag doll and stared out into the dark. And then she lost track of time.

This morning she managed to get herself out of the room and go down the street to the bench where she would sit at in the morning before she went to the questing board. She just stared over at the spot Billy used to sit at and tried to feel something. She just looked at it, trying to feel something. She wanted to cry or get mad or something, but she just couldn't get anything out. She just sat and sat and stared and stared while people passed by her like she was a ghost and she just did not want to do anything else...

But then, she got up and found herself walking...

She had her staff tight in her hand, and she was sweating. Nervous. A little scared. The next thing she knew she found herself at the store. The store. Nathaniel's Natural Grocery, where this all started. She waited out front before she went in and watched it with a glazed look on her face. An anger rose in her, and she found herself walking in through the front.

She ambled around the store and kept watch out. Sometimes poking at the products on the shelf to give a half attempt that would make it look like she was shopping. She tried to look inside the back rooms and the offices to see if anybody was there but didn't see anyone. No one had even tried to talk to her or ask her if she needed anything. She felt like a ghost here, too. And felt like every person around her was oblivious to everything. She was holding black sulfur rocks in her hurt hand the whole time and was starting to develop a terrible sweat there. Then she made her way to the checkout line.

"Hi." Said the woman behind the counter with an overbearing cheerfulness. She looked oblivious, too. Maybelline didn't even have anything to buy.

"Hi." She said. "I'm looking for your manager. Or the guy who owns the place. I forget his name. Is he around?"