Luke Combs and the Fantastic Journey

It was the last nice day of the year, for real this time, as Virginia Crabble waited for her coffee, outside at Pat’s Cafe. It had been her hangout, her center and her confidant since she enrolled at State three years ago. They mixed in the most exquisite flavors in with their beans, especially this time of year, the pumpkin spice was just to die for.

The light breeze blew her brownish red curls into her face as the new girl barista emerged baring her warm delicious drink. “Virginia?”

“Yes, that's me.”

“Oh, I would have thought you would be older. Here you go.”

For the thousandth time, she cursed her parents for saddling her with this old lady name. She took the cup and breathed in the rich aroma that settled her soul. She canceled the curse, and muttered under her breath that she would head down to the courthouse to change it next time.

For a semester in junior high she tried to go by her middle name, Adelaide, but one fateful post-basketball game ended that endeavor. Donny Jackson had filled her locker with granny panties, through some black magic for Virginia had no idea how he could have acquired so many, leading to her moniker for the rest of her incarceration at Gerald Ford Junior/Senior High School to be “Granny” Crabble.

The bliss in her cup couldn’t erase that pain, only time did. She did get a small manner of revenge on Donny. By senior year her breasts had definitely come in, leading to an overwhelming amount of attention from the boys. She accepted his offer to Prom, and also of his best friend, Adam Drake. A well placed kiss in middle of Ed Sheerhan’s “Perfect” led to both young men bloodied and ejected from Prom. Unfortunately, it didn’t erase the years of pain.

Virginia swallowed a warm gulp of goodness, bringing her back to this moment. She had to get to English class. Work continued on their critiques of Mary Shelley, her favorite author. Virginia had time to finish her coffee, but not much more. She took another drink, when a strange sound interrupted her.

On the next table, a black cat sat, staring at her. Its yellow eyes drank her in, its tail bobbing as it danced to an unheard tune. Then it made that noise again. “Meow!”

Virginia didn’t like cats, or animals in particular. Her favorite uncle, with whom she had spent many a summer with, had been bitten by a prairie dog in front of her and then after a distressing week in the hospital, died of bubonic plague. It puzzled the doctors at the time, who assured her family that unlike in medieval Europe, plague was curable today.

Virginia had stayed as close as she could to him during that week. The Black Death was aptly named, as his skin rotted and turned black, nearly as dark as the dresses his three ex-wives wore at his funeral. Aunt Gloria, his first, had squeezed her with a hug during the wake, and stared into her eyes, saying something that Virginia would never forget, “One day you will have the power to right wrongs, take care. You don’t know whose right you make wrong when you do so.”

“Meow!”

The cat demanded something. Virginia looked at it closely. It didn’t appear rabid. “Shoo, go away.” She waved her hand towards it. It backed off a little, but didn’t jump down.

“Go away you pest.” The cat didn’t listen, but narrowed its beady eyes at her. Virginia took another drink, and the cat approached. Virginia stood, and gathered her things. That damn cat wasn’t going to let her finish in peace.

She walked away, and the cat started to follow her. Virginia picked up a small pebble on the sidewalk, and threw it towards the cat. It only hung back further, but shadowed her to the bus stop. Only when the bus doors closed did she feel safe, the cat staring at her through the door windows. Virginia collapsed in her seat, the serene calm of her morning coffee dissipated by that feline.

***

Virginia arrived back at home, her second floor newly built apartment that she shared with her boyfriend, Travis Dickle. Travis was an agriculture major, a cowboy through and through. A dyed in the wool Luke Combs fan, the only things he spent his money on were boots, belt buckles, and beer. And that beer was starting to accumulate on his midsection.

However, almost all of her friends thought him to be blue collar dream of a man, and he was a good boyfriend. Travis had big wide shoulders, held her with the right amount of strength, and never raised his voice. The Luke Combs took some getting used to, but it wasn’t bad. Just not something sophisticated English Literature girls took an interest in.

He wasn’t home when Virginia got back, which wasn’t unusual. She laid down on the couch, and turned on the TV for a quick nap.

After her eyes closed, that cat crept their way into her dreams. She dreamt it followed her to class, and was waiting for her when she got home. It meowed and meowed, wanting something. She couldn’t escape, no matter what she did. It just kept meowing. “Meow! Meow! MEOW!”

Virginia opened her eyes at that last one. The cat sat on her coffee table, staring at her. “Guess what I found when I got home babe!” Travis sounded proud of himself, for some reason.

Virginia sat up with a start, pressing herself against the couch cushions. “Where did you find that?”

Travis came in from the kitchen, carrying two Busch Lights. “He was just outside the door, rubbing against it when I got here. So friendly. He let me pet him, and started purring right away. No collar or anything. Went right to sit there when I brought him in. Hasn’t touched the water I set out.”

Damn that man. For a supposed farmer boy he had a real soft spot for animals. And it started purring when Travis reached over and started scratching its ears. Virginia mumbled, “We...we...can’t keep it. It probably belongs to someone.”

Travis took a drink, and then set it down. “Maybe. I’ll put up a sign at the front door of the building to let anyone know, but he doesn’t look like he has a home. Looks pretty skinny. You have a problem with me taking care of him until someone claims him?”

For the life of her, she couldn’t think of a reason that didn’t make her sound like a crazy person. “No, I don’t. But I’m not a fan of cats.”

“You never told me that. Well, somebody will claim him. But we shouldn’t turn him out in the cold til then. He has no chonk on him to keep warm.”

The cat stared at Virginia, and then arched its back with Travis’s petting hand. It hopped off the table, and went over to the dish that he set out. Virginia leaned into Travis’s side when he turned on the TV. Hopefully it would only be a few days, at most.

***

“Look what the cat dragged in!” Travis’s exclamation startled Virginia at breakfast. It had been two weeks, and not a peep from the multiple signs Virginia put up around the neighborhood. She expected a dead bird, or dead mouse. But it was a twisted bundle of sticks.

The cat deposited it at Virginia’s feet. “Man, Luke must really like you. I don’t know why, you hardly spend any time with him.” It only took a single day for Travis to name the cat.

“I have no idea why.” She shooed the cat away with her foot. It definitely didn’t look like a Luke. Maybe a Damien. Definitely more anti-Christ than gospel writer. And she wasn’t sure if it was a boy or girl cat. Virginia peered down at the sticks. She started to cough from almost choking when she saw the gift.

Travis jumped up and started slapping her on the back. “Are you okay? Just breathe. Go down the wrong pipe?”

She nodded between coughs. She covered the sticks with her foot. It couldn’t be possible. Travis sat back down as the cough subsided.

When he went back to his phone, she looked again. There, written in wrapped vine around the sticks, was the name Lionel. The name of her uncle, and the name of her favorite character in her favorite Shelley novel, The Last Man.

It was Lionel who gave her that book, and started her love for Shelley. It is the reason she chose English Literature, and why the manner of his death horrified her to this day. The character Lionel was the last survivor of a world decimated by the plague.

She was about the ask the cat where they got it, then realized that she knew its answer already. Meow. But there was something going on. “Travis, do you think you could take a cat for a walk?”

He looked up, “Yeah, I bought a leach and harness for Luke. Are you fixing to taking him out?” Travis’s face started to light up.

“Actually I am. It looks like we might be keeping him, so I guess he and I need to feel each other out.”

Travis looked like a kid in the candy store, and offered to harness up Luke. He squeezed and petted him up to the moment Virginia took him outside.

***

First off, Luke was a girl. Virginia watched her pee in the browning grass, squatting in the dirt like she would. After, Luke trotted down the sidewalk with purpose.

It took the first chill wind cutting through her jacket to get second thoughts about this. Being led around by a cat wasn’t how Virginia ever planned to spend her day. But she had to know. And there wasn’t any other way she could think of to find out where that gift had come from.

Fortunately it wasn’t raining or snowing for this journey. Luke wasn’t distracted by squirrels, dogs or other people, gently pulling on the leach. Virginia thought they might be headed to a park or a small stand of trees, but Luke followed to the side walks to a commercial district, and stopped at the door to a Madam Reeves, psychic and fortune teller.

Luke pawed at the door, and meowed. “Okay, Okay. I guess lets go in.” Virginia sighed, and opened the door.

Luke walked right in, unfazed by the blast furnace temperatures or the aromatic assault of incense and patchouli oil. He jumped up on a doily covered table.

A voice crept out from behind a counter. “No animals allowed,” and a middle aged frazzle haired woman stood, “Oh, sorry, its…”

“A service animal. I don’t know why I came,” Virginia looked around, “Maybe I need a reading.”

The woman dropped something behind the counter, “Of course, I give readings. Please, go into the back room, I need to freshen up for just a moment.”

The women moved quickly across the store and disappeared behind a wall of wooden beads. A handwritten sign that stated Come Thru Here for a Fantastic Journey hung above an archway, more fake plastic beads dangling down.

Virginia passed through them, Luke taking position at the side of her leg. There was a large table, two chairs, and a small lamp which rested on the table. A side table held an Ouija board, and decks of cards. Virginia sat down, and Luke started to sniff the table leg.

It felt like ten minutes before the lady joined them. “Sorry about that, you caught me off guard.”

Virginia tugged the leach to pull Luke back from wherever she had got herself into. “Is everything okay? You’ve been gone for a while.”

“It is. I must apologize again. I haven’t introduced myself. I am Madam Reeves,” her voice raised ever so slightly, in an obvious attempt to add weight to what she was saying, “psychic and medium. And you have come here for a reading?”

Virginia had never done anything like this before. “Well, to be honest, my cat led me here.”

“Your cat?” Madam Reeves couldn’t hid the tremble in her voice.

“Yeah. Its was my boyfriend’s idea to keep him. I’m pretty sure this cat was following me before. She mostly just stares at me. But today he brought something to me. I can’t believe I’m saying all this.”

Reeves shook out her shoulders, “That's not unusual. Cats bring home all sorts of things.”

“Yeah, but this was a bundle of sticks with my uncle's name on it.”

Reeves look like she choked for a moment. “Probably some practical joke by your boyfriend.”

Virginia shook her head. “No. He isn’t the type. And I never told him my uncle’s name. Anyway, what’s next. Do we need the Ouija board, or some Tarot Cards?”

“NO...oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. How about I get the deck?” Reeves stood and shuffled over to the table with the decks. She picked one up, and took her time to get back to the table. She started shuffling, fumbling the cards several times.

“Do you need some help? I’ve never done this before, but I think that you should be able to shuffle the cards better. Is there something you aren’t telling me?” Virginia started to feel a shiver crawl up her back.

A voice came from behind Virginia, both frightening and familiar, “Its because mediums are forbidden to read witches.” Virginia turned around in her chair. Aunt Gloria, stood in the doorway, dressed in a black dress complete with shiny dark heels and blood red lipstick. She looked exactly the same as she did at Uncle Lionel’s funeral. “Madam Reeves, give us the room.”

Reeves moved quickly, exiting through another beaded doorway. “Witch? What are you talking about?”

Gloria sat in Reeves’ chair. “You. Are. A. Witch.”

Virginia slumped back in her chair. “Witches don’t exist.”

“Of course they do, my dear. Who do you think they burned at the stake? I see your familiar found you.”

“My familiar?”

Gloria chuckled softly, “Yes. A witch’s familiar is one of the most important things she has. It is a shame your mother never told you any of this.”

“My mother?”

“Yes, you descend from a bloodline of witches. Possessors of powerful and dark magic. All the women in our family have it, as do others.”

Luke chose that moment to jump into Virginia’s lap. Far from being a moment that terrified her, the comfort of Luke’s warm body curled up in Virginia’s lap felt better than any pumpkin spice latte. “How is this possible? What happens now?”

“Now? You must decide what you are to do with it. You can live a normal life like your mother, grow old and die. Or you can embrace it, become everything you are meant to be. You get to keep the familiar either way.”

“My mother never had a cat.”

“Oh she did. She asked me to sever the bond when you were born. I must confess, I just moved it to the next generation. And I waited. I moved here when you did. I’ve been watching you. I know everything about you. I know what your favorite book is, and your favorite character. I figured it would get your attention. I told Madam Reeves that she needed to let me know when you came through her door.”

“Why did Luke lead me here?”

“Your familiar needs a better name. And because I had Madam Reeves create your gift. I wasn’t going to let you waste your life not knowing.”

Virginia found herself absently petting Luke, the purring radiating through her body keeping her nerves calm. She knew that she should be panicking, but those thoughts were only in the background. “Is there a downside?”

Gloria smiled, “To a normal life? Yes. You would be denying yourself what you are.”

Virginia shook her head, “No, to being a witch?”

“Oh. Well the chances of being burned alive are a lot less now. They do worse things now. You have to be careful. But you do get to live forever, if they don’t catch you. Fortunately for you, they think the last witch died in 1953. Poor Bonnie Heady.”

“What happened to her?”

“Gas chamber. Its much more difficult to get away with child sacrifice these days.”

Virginia gulped. “Child sacrifice?”

“Powerful magic requires high prices. Bringing someone back to life and undoing another witch’s work needs blood. But you probably will never need to do that. I wouldn’t worry about it,” Gloria stood, and straightened out her dress, “Take the week. You can choose anytime, but why wait. You will know where to find me to begin your training.” She started to walk out the back door.

Something popped in Virginia’s head as Gloria passed through the beads. “What happened to Uncle Lionel?”

Gloria stopped. “He died. You know child, some wrongs needed righting. I’m sorry that hurt you, but his comeuppance came. Someday you will realize that you and I are special. Others are not. He didn’t get to be the one who decided when things were finished. You will see that, you are one the who has that power,” she then resumed walking away.

Luke stood in her lap, and stared at Virginia. She stroked her ears. “You know Luke, there are some things that need righting, are you going to go with me on the journey?”

“Meow!”