Key Weird 03; Key Witch

  Robert Tacoma

  Key Witch

  Key Weird #3

  2006, EN

  Could three sisters be any more misunderstood? Some people in town think the young women running the old hotel are witches just because they cackle a little on poker night. Okay, so sometimes they cackle a lot. And sure they may have to use a little hypnotism when their livelihood is threatened, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re sorceresses. It’s not that they wouldn’t like to turn someone into a newt occasionally. When they were younger there always seemed to be someone looking to take advantage of three girls with an ailing mother trying to run a crumbling old hotel. But with the help of their special teachers they’ve grown into young women who can take care of themselves. Their mother’s dying wish takes them on a quest to another hotel, this one across the country in Key West. But when an old adversary threatens their home and friends, it may be more than they can handle by themselves. They may have to find a real witch.

  Table of contents

  1: Northern California

  2: Key West

  3: Local Color

  4: Plans

  5: Dinner

  6: The Artist

  7: The Beach

  8: Taco Bob

  9: The Grab

  10: Sara

  11: Quarantine

  12: Hurricane Warnings

  13: Mother

  14: Brad

  15: Guests

  16: Witchcraft

  17: Hotel

  ∨ Key Witch ∧

  1

  Northern California

  As soon as the rain left, a heavy fog clocked in for the late shift and went to work settling in over the town of Pine Cove.

  Nestled in the center of the small historic section of town stood an old hotel that had seen a lot of foggy nights. But it wouldn’t see many more. Not much time left for the townspeople to speculate whether or not the place was haunted or to gossip about the hotel’s unusual proprietors. A shiny construction sign out front promised new things, coming soon.

  The Majestic Hotel wasn’t haunted, of course, though it did seem to loom a bit, its tall dark windows looking down on the street below. The few streetlights nearby seemed to produce more eerie shadows than guiding light.

  Other than the occasional car skulking slowly along between the hotel and the brightly lit drugstore across the street, it was a quiet night. There was a little sniffing, sneaking and shuffling going on along the fog-damp sidewalks as the wayward and homeless – dogs, cats and people – did their best to slip by unnoticed on their late-night forays.

  There were plenty of vacancies at the hotel, and the three young women sitting around a small table in the dimly-lit and smoky office storeroom didn’t expect any guests so late. The three were sisters, taking a night off. Some of the more gullible townsfolk believed any women who would run such a haunted-looking hotel must surely be witches. Never mind the absence of nose warts, pointed black hats, flying brooms, or cackling laughter. Well, maybe there was a little cackling, especially on poker night.

  A single bare bulb hung from the ceiling above the poker table. Lydia shuffled cards for the first game of the evening while her sisters sat with their stacks of poker chips and snacks, watching her every move. She could shuffle cards like nobody’s business, but then, that’s to be expected when you’re a magician. The oldest at twenty-one, with big brown eyes and very unwitchlike shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair, Lydia was a looker. But she paled in comparison to her younger sisters, whose concentration now focused totally on her delicate, perfectly manicured fingers. They relaxed only when she set the deck down for the cut.

  “How about it girls? Feeling lucky tonight?”

  Consuelo, a year younger than Lydia, slipped the top third of the cards off the stack, and placed them next to the pile. She was indeed prettier than her older sister, in a fresh, innocent, almost angelic kind of way. Not as tall, some might even say petite, with pixie cut white-blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was smoking a huge black cigar and blew a puff of smoke towards Lydia.

  “Yep, as a matter of fact, I am feeling lucky tonight, Sis.” Then she cut loose a long, loud belch.

  “Jesus Christ, Consuelo! Could you possibly be any more gross?” Lydia leaned back and waved the smoke out of her eyes. “How about opening some windows! You’re going to give us all lung cancer with that thing!”

  Consuelo grudgingly got up. “Keep your hands away from those cards till I get back!” She killed the beer she held in her hand and grabbed another out of the cooler on the floor next to her chair. “Keep an eye on her, Jos.”

  The third sister gave one quick nod of her head. Her determined look did not change, nor did she take her eyes off Lydia’s hands. As usual, they didn’t play for money, they played for a day off from the hotel they’d owned and operated for over a year since their mother passed away. It had been a tough time.

  The sisters were older than their years. They’d had to grow up quick. There always seemed to be someone looking to take advantage of three girls in a crumbling old hotel with an ailing mother.

  Consuelo opened a window and drew in a lungful. “Ah, Paris in the spring! Such a bouquet greets my hungry nose! A hearty base of car exhaust! The surprising strength of unwashed wino! The tangy top-note of dog poop!” She brought more air to her nose with fluid motions of her muscular hand while looking back at her sisters.

  Lydia gave her a generous eye roll.

  “Yes, dear. We’re so happy you’ve discovered Dollars and Scents on television.”

  Consuelo shrugged, and puffed on her cigar as she walked back to the table. Lydia selected another chocolate cookie out of her bag of treats lying next to the cards. Despite her strength, Consuelo envied her talented sisters and could never resist the chance at a dig.

  “Hitting the choc pretty hard tonight, Sis. You still upset about Barry?”

  Lydia slowly guided the cookie toward her mouth with only one finger, her middle finger, and it was aimed at her taunting little sister. “It was mutual. We decided we needed to see other people so our relationship could mature.”

  Her two younger sisters burst into laughter. Despite her maturity and street-smarts, Lydia had a well-known history of falling for the absolute wrong guy and getting hurt. Barry turned out to be not only a total jerk, but married. The surprising and embarrassing married thing was revealed by Barry’s cousin, who ran a detailed and unflattering account of the break-up in the society column of the local newspaper.

  But the laughter stopped abruptly when Lydia’s hands touched the deck of cards.

  “Five card draw, ladies. Death, the Devil, and Deuces are wild. Bet heavy, and don’t be shy.”

  They studied their cards with keen concentration. As usual, they used a tarot deck to play poker. It made it a little more interesting. Never knew when you might get a royal flush, or find out you were going to be lucky in love, or come into some money, or die.

  Lydia peeked over her cards at her youngest sister. Talk about looking like a witch. With big dark eyes and raven hair, Josephine bore a strong resemblance to Elvira. At nineteen, she’d filled out to a stunning likeness of the Mistress of the Dark.

  Lydia was trying to read Josephine’s poker face when Consuelo cracked her knuckles and set some cards face down on the table. The lithesome blonde tended to be just as perky and cheerful as she looked, but her hands were shocking if you looked close. They were not just muscular, but scarred and callused from years of martial arts training. As part of her next long beer belch Consuelo said, “Three.”

  “The little lady with the manners of a pig takes three.” Lydia flipped three cards out so fast they looked like one. “How about you, Princess Bug-breath,
any cards?”

  Josephine could speak, but not very well. She had a heartbreaking stutter, especially when she was excited, which was most of the time. Despite her beauty, Josephine didn’t have many boyfriends. Part of it was the stuttering, but it was mostly due to her unique talent for identifying edible insects and then eating them on the spot. That kind of news spread quickly in a small town. She smiled sweetly and held up fingers for two cards in a way that looked suspiciously close to the British gesture for sticking it.

  “And two cards for our demure little entomologist. Dealer takes one.” Only after Lydia placed the remainder of the deck on the table did her two sisters finally take their eyes off her hands and look at their own cards.

  Consuelo looked confident. “Open with a fiver.” She tossed a chip on the table. “You know, Barry may be dumb as a rock, but at least he’s real.” She shot her younger sister a look. Josephine ignored the dig and didn’t even glance up from her cards as she dropped a five dollar chip on the table, then another. The dark-haired beauty had gardener’s hands. Though they were slender and delicate, there was usually a dirty fingernail or two.

  “C-call f-five and raise f-f-five.”

  Consuelo kept at it. “At least Barry’s got something for a woman, unlike Josey’s little BEN.” Josephine slapped her cards face-down on the table the same instant as Consuelo. Both women stared at each other with pure white-hot hatred filling their eyes. Lydia calmly slipped two aces out from under the cookie bag and into her hand. She concentrated on arranging her cards and ignored the stare-down going on between her two snarling, teeth-baring siblings.

  Consuelo started to waver and looked as though she might lose consciousness. Lydia was about to say something when Consuelo broke it off by looking down. As soon as she did, Josephine smiled a satisfied smile and picked up her cards. Consuelo looked dazed. Her cigar had gone out, so she carefully put it in the ashtray. “I sure wish I knew how she does that. I just about peed my pants.”

  “She doesn’t even know how she does it. You’re getting better though. I’d say you lasted almost thirty seconds that time.” Lydia reached into the bag of cookies and as she did, slipped a six and a four under it. “I’ll see your ten and raise ten.”

  The other two groaned and dropped in more chips.

  “Full house, ladies, aces over queens. Anyone beat that? Didn’t think so.” Lydia showed her cards and gathered up the chips. “I sure am feeling lucky tonight. Another game?” She ignored the looks she was getting from her sisters and gathered up the cards to play again.

  “I’m going to miss this place.” Consuelo said as she re-lit her cigar and launched into a coughing fit.

  “Consuelo, we’ve been over this. It’s time. Besides, you’re going to love Key West, we all are I’m sure.” Lydia shuffled the cards.

  Josephine started hitting her gagging sister on the back. Lydia took advantage of the distraction to make a few adjustments in the deck as she dealt out the cards.

  “Same game ladies. I guess I’ll miss this place a little myself. But you remember, mother said we’d know when to go, and we should just do it when the time came.” She finished dealing the cards and the rest of the deck went on the table.

  “Josephine! Take it easy!”

  Josephine had gotten into it, and was really pounding on her sister’s back. As soon as she heard her name, she immediately stopped and picked up her cards. One of her hands disappeared under the table.

  Consuelo was wheezing, trying desperately to draw a breath.

  Lydia glared at her youngest sister. “Geez Josey, you gotta learn some control! You do that to a normal person, you could hurt somebody!” Josephine stared at her cards and looked embarrassed. She seemed to be stroking something in her lap.

  Lydia was still looking at Josephine while ignoring her other, hyperventilating, sister. “And just what do you have under the table?”

  Josephine’s hand under the table immediately stopped moving. Her eyes looked panicked.

  “N-n-n-nothing!”

  Lydia still hadn’t picked up her cards from the table. She gestured to Josephine.

  “Give it to me!”

  Josephine frowned, then shrieked, throwing a piece of old fur coat across the table at Lydia. Out of the corner of her eye, Lydia thought she saw movement by her cards just as the moldy fur hit her in the forehead.

  She held the fur up between a thumb and forefinger. “Ah gross, Josey! You’ve got to stop petting things!” She flipped the old piece of fur into a trashcan half filled with Consuelo’s beer cans.

  Consuelo seemed to have made a sudden recovery from her coughing fit. “I still think she just needs a man to pet.” She looked at her cards and flashed her best sunny smile.

  “T-t-two.” Josephine looked defiant.

  “None for me!” Consuelo was smiling like a finalist for homecoming queen.

  Lydia looked at her cards. “Dealer takes three.” She wondered how she had gotten such a lousy hand. She gave Miss Sunshine a look while dealing the cards.

  “Like I was saying, Mother said we’d know when it was time to leave here. And we just can’t argue with the money Mega Drug coughed up.” For once they were all in complete agreement.

  ♦

  There was a corporate game going on that the sisters had come to know only too well. A game of greed and juvenile one-upmanship that was sweeping the country. Two drugstore chains were building multi-million dollar stand-alone stores in prominent locations everywhere you looked. Each time one company built a new, state-of-the-art store, the other company would quickly build a competing store directly across the street. With interest rates low, drugstores started popping up everywhere. Successful businesses, homes, churches, even hospitals were bought out and bulldozed to make way for the huge modern drugstores.

  The health food store across the street from the Majestic Hotel had been demolished just a few months earlier. A shiny new Jack’s Drugs now stood in its place.

  The financial negotiations with Mega Drug were difficult at first, but eventually resulted in the sisters receiving a very substantial amount for their old hotel, which they used to purchase a small hotel in Key West, Florida.

  ♦

  “You know, maybe we could have held out for more money. Ten to play.” Consuelo dropped two five-dollar chips on the table.

  “No, the money is more than generous. You just want them to send more muscle to convince the little hotel girls to sell out cheap.”

  Lydia couldn’t help but smile at the memory of the tough guy who came around to scare them into selling out at a ridiculous price. She threw in ten to make sure Consuelo wasn’t bluffing.

  Both the other young women seemed to be thinking about the big man from Detroit too. They grinned mischievously and squirmed in their seats like little girls.

  The first time he came into the hotel, Lydia was at the front desk. He smelled like aftershave and garlic.

  “You one of the broads supposed to own this place?”

  Lydia smiled across the desk, sizing the guy up. No ring, early forties, big rugged guy, dressed good. Probably a scam, but not a robbery. She stayed within easy reach of the baseball bat under the desk.

  “That would be me!”

  She gave him a little flutter with the eyelashes and smiled shyly.

  “Well, you get an offer for this old place you might want to take it. Place like this old hotel could all of a sudden start having problems, you know? Could get unhealthy here, lose some value fast. You understand what I’m saying here, sweetheart?” He looked at his watch.

  Lydia did her best to look confused.

  “I think so. Are you with the health department?”

  She couldn’t believe those bastards were pulling this. Now she knew why they made such a lowball offer for the hotel.

  “No, little lady, I’m not with the health department.” He’d obviously decided she wasn’t too bright. “I’m just giving you some friendly advice here. It might be better for every
one if you just go ahead and sign those papers you got last week and take the money. That’s a lot of money for a young broad like you. Get smart and take the money so I don’t have to come back.”

  Lydia took a step back and held a hand to her forehead like she was about to faint. She was still trembling when the man looked over his shoulder as he walked out the door. Lydia ran to the window and checked out his car as he drove away. She clapped her hands and let out a little squeal of delight before running off to find her sisters and tell them the news.

  They turned down the drugstore’s offer again the next week, and the man came back. This time they were ready.

  As usual, Consuelo was the bait. Her perky, sorority-sister looks lured the man into the basement after he’d forcefully mentioned that if they didn’t sign the papers he was going to burn the hotel to the ground, with them in it. After the man had been properly secured, they checked his car. Sure enough, the big greaseball had two cans of gasoline in the trunk, along with a nasty-looking sawed-off shotgun.

  Three days later the man looked a little dazed as he came out of the basement, but there were no outward signs of what he’d been through. The three sisters solemnly escorted him to the front door. He gave them a long understanding look – a mixture of devotion and blind fear – before he walked back to his car.

  Early the next week, the CEO of Mega Drug called. In a shaky voice he apologized for any misunderstandings, and assured them a check would be hand delivered to them for twice the appraised value of the hotel before the end of the week. With the money thing settled, the sisters went looking for a new home.

  ♦

  Josephine slid a ten dollar chip to the center of the table, then another. She raised an eyebrow in challenge.

  “Too rich for me.” Lydia dropped her cards and folded. The other two sisters stared at her for a second, Lydia rarely ever folded.

  Consuelo dropped in a chip. “I’m in. Let’s see ‘em, Bugs.”

  Josephine spread out four threes and the Devil.

  “Shit.” Consuelo threw down her three queens and pair of eights. “And I suppose if you should somehow win tonight you’re going to spend your day off with Ben?” Consuelo made some lewd gestures with her hands and contorted her face in mock ecstasy.