weird. We're weirdness magnets. But there's been nothing. No haunted houses, no malevolent spirits, no open doors into other realms. It's like the trouble is just building up so it's going to be worse when it hits.”
“Like the calm before the storm?” Maryann asked as scathingly as she could.
“Sure, maybe. It's just, well, weird. That's all I'm saying, I guess. You done in there?”
The redhead nodded.
“You don't think anything's weird?”
She consulted her journal. “Well, one thing's weird. I didn't write down when we met Ryuu.”
“You write that kind of stuff down?”
“I write everything down. I never know what will give me inspiration to write a new song,” she said brightly.
Leah managed to not roll her eyes. “Anything else?”
“Weird? Not exactly, but you're right, Leah, it has been pretty quiet lately. Except for the weather. I think we've gotten rained on at every show. We're lucky the outdoor gigs haven't been rained out yet.”
“Do you think it means something?”
“What, the quiet or the weather?”
“Either or both,” Leah replied.
“Nora would say I think everything means something.”
“I'm not Nora, so what do you think?”
“I think if you're thinking something's off, something's probably off,” Maryann said finally. “I mean, you're not very intuitive.”
“Yeah, I'm always the last to know,” she said wryly. “I guess there's not very much we can do, though, except wait and see what happens.”
“Sometimes that's just how it is.”
Later, two doors down, the other two band members woke up to the sound of a ringtone.
“What in the hell?” Nora mumbled, feeling around for the phone.
Isabella squinted at the alarm clock in the hotel room until she could make out the numbers. “It's five in the morning,” she sighed. They had been asleep for about three hours.
Nora found her phone. “Hello?...What?...No, I'm not in Philadelphia...no, I told you that...no, look, hold on...,” she said into the phone, then turned to Isabella. “It's Mom. Sorry about this,” she said, and went into the bathroom to talk and allow Isabella to try to get back to sleep.
The next time they woke up it was to an alarm and considerably later. They got a quick breakfast and immediately started to pack up.
“Morning, everyone!” a short, pale-skinned young man with sunglasses said to them as they loaded the van. He was wearing a t-shirt with the band's current logo and a pair of jeans. “Isabella, what's with Nora?”
She blinked at him a moment as though she did not recognize him. “Oh, Ryuu. She's just in a bad mood. Today is Sharon's graduation and her mom called to ask her when she was going to get there.”
“Um, that's in Philadelphia, right?”
“You begin to see the problem,” Leah said, overhearing the conversation. “What time was this phone call?'
“Eight in the morning, eastern time.”
“So that would be what, five our time? Well, that explains a lot. We should be extra nice today.”
“I'm extra nice every day,” Maryann said, joining them. “What are we talking about?”
“Sharon's graduating today,” Isabella replied.
The redhead frowned. “Oh.”
Ryuu looked confused. “I don't understand. We obviously can't get to Philadelphia today, but what's the problem? Did Nora want to go?”
The young women exchanged meaningful glances. “Nora's family expected her to be there, I think, even though she told them she wouldn't be able to make it,” Isabella finally answered.
“Well, that's kind of silly of them.”
“Yeah, it is,” Leah said darkly. “Anyway, let's hit the road, roadie.”
“Sure thing!” he said, and resumed helping them pack up their van.
The cargo van was quite large, but only had four seats. Ryuu had a makeshift seat in the back which probably wasn't legal or very safe. Nora was in a bad mood all day, and consequently there wasn't much conversation as they headed to the next show, except to comment that yes, it was indeed raining again.
Two days later, Nora was still in an obvious bad mood. She'd had several more calls with her family than she expected over missing her sister's graduation.
“I really don't understand,” Ryuu said to Isabella as they unpacked at the hotel that evening. “Why is Nora so upset?”
“Because her family is upset at her,” Isabella answered.
“So? Family gets like that and for no good reason,” he snapped, but his anger didn't seem directed at Nora's situation.
“Yeah, yeah, they do. But, they say, blood is thicker than water.”
“I've never heard that before.”
“Really? It just means that people put up with a lot from their family that they wouldn't put up with otherwise.”
Ryuu frowned. “But why put up with it? Why doesn't she just do her thing and not talk to them ever again?”
“Because she wants to be a part of her family, so she puts up with them, even when they're being demanding, even when they're being unreasonable. Why are you asking? Does your family not like you being a roadie?”
“Um, well, they haven't said anything.”
“Some of us get lucky,” Isabella said, looking at Maryann, who could not hear the conversation. “Some of us have more understanding families than others. Anyway, don't worry about Nora. She'll get over it, especially since we've got that festival on Saturday.” She consulted her phone about the weather forecast. “Assuming we don't get rained out.”
“Um, I'm sure it will be fine,” Ryuu said, oddly looking a little flushed. Isabella didn't notice. “Here, let me get that stuff,” he said, and quickly got back to work.
“Speaking of family, I think I should call my grandmother,” Isabella thought.
Nora's troubles with her family actually caused the other two to have the same thought as Isabella, and that night they all made some long overdue phone and/or video calls. After some awkward conversations and unexpected revelations, Leah knocked on the door that joined her and Maryann's room to Isabella and Nora's. “Hey, can we talk before bedtime?”
“Sure,” Isabella said.
In a few minutes, they all congregated in Isabella and Nora's room.
"Soooo, this is going to sound like a weird question," Leah said, "but when did we get a roadie?"
"We've always had a roadie," Maryann answered.
"Yeah, but, did we always have a roadie yesterday?"
The four looked at each other.
"You know, I've kind of been wondering about that too," Nora said. "I don't really remember when we picked up Ryuu."
“I don't either, and I didn't write it down,” Maryann said.
"And I don't remember why we thought we needed a roadie," Isabella said.
"He's been really helpful," the redhead countered.
"Yes, but we've been tricked or manipulated or enchanted and I don't like that," Nora shot back.
"Ladies, let's be calm here," Isabella said. "Something is going on. We don't even know if Ryuu is the cause. He could just be caught up in something.”
“Okay, I suppose that's true. So how do we figure that out?”
“Divination!” Maryann chimed in. “I'll get my cards.” She rummaged around in her luggage and pulled out her favorite tarot deck. “I'll make this easy. First, who is being affected?” The card she flipped up was the Eight of Coins. “Oh, that's us. That's good. See, that's a craftsman hard at work. Okay, next, what is going on?” She flipped up a reversed Moon. “We're being deceived.”
“I think we guessed this, Maryann,” Nora said dryly.
“And who or what is the cause?” she said, and flipped over the Page of Swords, reversed.
“Isabella?” Leah asked.
“Oh, no,” Maryann cut in first. “Isabella is obviously
the Queen of Swords in any of my readings. This is a spy, and someone who is afraid of something. And the only new person in our lives this could be referring to is Ryuu,” she sighed.
“Why would someone be spying on us?” Leah asked. “And hauling our gear?”
“I don't know,” Isabella said, “and we need to talk to Ryuu and find out what's really going here, and why he's deceiving us and what he's afraid of. I wonder if his presence explains all the strange weather."
"Well, you know, climate change," Leah said.
"Not that kind weather stuff," Isabella sighed.
"I agree. Something very strange is going on with the weather,” Nora said.
“Swords are also the suit of air. And it's been quiet,” Maryann added. “You know, no ghosts or spirits or anything at all.”
“That's true,” Isabella said thoughtfully. “I haven't been approached by any spirits for at least a couple of weeks, if not longer. I wonder if something about Ryuu is keeping them away.”
“I don't like it,” Nora said. “I mean, I like it quiet, but I know that's weird in and of itself. And I don't like the weather. You know that the festival may be canceled because of bad weather. Right now it's looking like it might end up a hurricane."
"Does that happen in Washington?" Leah asked.
"Not often," she answered.
"We should be really careful," Isabella said. "We don't have any idea what we're really dealing with here and it managed to cast a pretty powerful spell or something on us. The only reason I started thinking something was wrong was because my grandmother Ami was asking about Ryuu and I didn't have any answers. And usually I'm really in tune with weather changes but I sure haven’t been lately."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Maryann said. "I told Mom and Dad and they were