EXCERPT FROM...

NIGHT MAGIC
by Lynn Emery

The next morning dawned brightly. As usual for Louisiana, the late September weather remained balmy. But for Savannah, everything seemed to go wrong. She was tired and irritable from a restless night of trying to clear her mind of Paul. The blouse she wanted to wear had a ripped seam. The skirt she put on missed a button at the waist. Fuming, she dug through the bottom of her closet for the sandals she planned to wear, but they seemed to be playing hide and seek. Finally dressed, she avoided her aunt, not wanting to answer questions about last night. She left as if in a big hurry, calling out that she would just get a donut on the way to the shop. A huge knowing grin stretched across Tante Marie’s face as she stood at the window watching her leave. Savannah felt even more annoyed.

At the shop, the figures she tried to double check kept dancing around, refusing to add up. Every time she punched them into the calculator, a different total flashed annoyingly on the screen. About an hour after she’d arrived, her father came in. She gave him a distracted “Good morning’ and continued to mutter under her breath at the way everything was going wrong.

“Cher, I been watchin’ you for a while. You got your mind elsewhere. Sure thing not on what you doin’.”

“There is nothing on my mind. These invoices are illegible and not in any order. Why you haven’t fired that bookkeeper I definitely do not know.” She looked at the calculator display hopefully, then groaned at the result. Flinging several pieces of paper to the floor, she covered her face with her hands.

“Cher, every time you try to total up the supplies I bought for making my statues, you pick up a different set of invoices,” her father argued. “This one, for instance, is for souvenirs I got at market. This pile is sales receipts for Marie’s gumbo file mix and stuff, this pile— ”

“Okay, okay. I’ll start over.” Savannah restacked the papers without looking her father in the eye.

At the sound of the bell, she started up to herd the early shoppers away until they opened in another hour.

“Poppy, you left the front door unlocked again. You’ve got to be more careful. This isn’t the same small town it was twenty-five years ago.”

“Hold on, now. You’re safe, it’s only a harmless engineer.” Paul held out both arms as if to show he was unarmed.

“Mornin’, T-Paul. How you feelin’ today, man?” Antoine slapped him on the back. His grin was wide as he glanced at Paul and then at Savannah significantly.

 “Pretty good, shaping up to be a beautiful day.”

 "Sure enough, sure enough.” Antoine took a deep breath. His grin began to fade when he noticed that Savannah was not sharing in their good humor. “Well. I got some… stuff to take care of, in the stockroom. I’ll be in the back, out there…” His voiced trailed off as he did his best to fade into the background.

“You okay?” Paul frowned. As he reached out to touch Savannah’s shoulder, he could feel her stiffen.

“Sure, fine.” She stared straight ahead.

“Did I do something to upset you last night? I thought, I mean, we seemed to connect.”

“Yeah, well maybe that’s the problem. We connected too hard and too fast.”

“Listen, I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you. But with you so near, so damn fine, I just reacted.” He tried to put his arms around her, but she moved away.

“I’m not looking for any kind of relationship right now, understand? There are a lot of other things I want to concentrate on, like my career, or what’s left of it. My experience working for a big law firm left a bad taste in my mouth, but I haven’t given up on practicing law yet.” Savannah could feel her resistance slipping as she stared into those remarkable eyes. She wanted to erase the concern in them.

“I do understand. I’ve got a few life issues to resolve myself. We can take it as slow as you want. Hey, since we got off to a bad start, let’s take it from the beginning. Hi, my name is Paul. What’s yours?” He reached out his hand. Refusing to be ignored, he grabbed hers and pumped it comically.

“Savannah, all right? Savannah.” She laughed in spite of herself. “Just don’t break it. I need those, you know.”

 “That’s much better. I meant what I said about taking it slow. This thing is too important to rush.” Paul folded his hand in both of his as he started into her eyes.

 Her gaze traced the strong curve of his jaw and lingered on his sensuous lips. A surge of heat began at the base of her spine, the same heat that had so easily kindled last night. Searching his face, a calmness spread over her that no other man had inspired. She couldn’t deny that being with Paul made her feel she’d finally found her place, a place she’d not even known she was missing. This made finding it even more marvelous.

As they began to exchange small talk, continuing the game of a first meeting, Antoine peeked at them. Since he didn’t hear any shouting or loud thumps, he figured Paul must be safe. He went back to sit at his desk and began straightening up the invoices. He whistled a sprightly zydeco tune as he worked.

 “I’ll come by later at around twelve-thirty- how does lunch at Lafayette Park sound?”

 “Great. I’ll pick up the sandwiches from Snooky Boo’s.” Snooky Boo’s was little more than a one-room shack that served up the best old-fashioned homemade sandwiches for a song. It was at the edge of the small business district, situated perfectly for truck drivers and blue-collar workers on road crews.

“You got it.” He waved happily as he walked off with a bounce in his step.

“Bye.” Watching him move away, Savannah stood on the sidewalk for several minutes enjoying the view. She sighed deeply at the sight.

As she turned to go back into the shop, something made her look to her left. A block away, standing at the end of the street that led to the museum, was LaShaun. Even at that distance, Savannah could feel her malice curling out like a water moccasin. LaShaun traced something in the air. The smile on her face was anything but friendly. Unable to look away, Savannah felt her sense of calm drain away with each movement of LaShaun’s hands to be replaced by a sense of chilly dread. She wanted to back away, to run, but something held her rooted to that spot. LaShaun nodded as if to acknowledge her effect on Savannah, then left. Savannah stood at the door, gazing after her, rubbing the raised flesh on her arms. Breathing shakily, she went inside.