Once Upon Another Time Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jettie Woodruff

  Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Note

  Author’s Note

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locations are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, dead or alive are a figment of my imagination and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s mind's eye and are not to be interpreted as real.

  All rights Reserved.

  Copyright © 2017 Jettie Woodruff

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.

  ISBN:

  Edited by: Tiffany Landers, Landers Editorial Services

  https://www.facebook.com/LandersEditorialServices/

  Dedication

  Our Tribe SisStars. This one is for you!

  Tiffany! What the H would I do without you?

  Monica, best lil buddy in the world!

  Dally and Brissy, you make my heart light up!

  Trace and Jeagar, you’re so funny!

  Nikki, Zack, and Josh, my inspirations. Don’t ever think you can’t. You can.

  Jettie Woodruff

  Chapter One

  Friday was just like any other Friday, until it wasn’t. It was a beautiful day to walk to lunch, and an even better day to get out of the office. I swear, everyone there needed Zoloft today, but it was their own fault. We all had the same deadline. That’s why I was enjoying the warm sun, and they were not. Thank God, for weekends, I thought as I crossed the street, hoping to find a food truck on my way to a little bookstore I liked to visit once in a while. Not that I would do much. Hence, the reason for the bookstore.

  My favoriteswerethe out of print books, the ones you couldn’t just jump on Amazon and download. There wasn’t much outside of work and home I did for entertainment, and I was more than okay with that. After the week I’d had, a nice book and a bottle of wine sounded like the perfect Saturday. Maybe I would even take it down by the lake and enjoy the view.

  Jay-walking across the street, I stopped in the middle for a passing Moped, frowning at the odd storefront, then hopped the curve in confusion. It was closed. My store was gone, the bookstore sign painted over with purple in preparation for a new name.

  “Where did it go?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Glancing to girls passing in front of me, I waved them by. “Sorry, not you.”

  As I got closer to the vacant bookstore, a chill took over my body from my toes to my nose, and I felt a cool breeze crawl up the back of my neck. I shuddered the chill away and cupped my hand over my eyes to see inside. It was dark, but not pitch black. There were dimly lit lights and candles around the room that didn’t make sense. But then I saw a lady not much older than me, maybe even a little younger. She looked right at me and waved at me to come inside.

  Unsure if it was me she wanted to come in, I looked over my shoulder for someone else, and back to her. “Me?” I questioned with my thumb pointed tomy chest. Again, she waved me in, nodding with a friendly smile.

  Cautiously, I opened the door and stepped in.

  “Don’t be shy. Come in. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Again, I looked behind me. “Me?”

  “Yes, come in, come in. Have a seat right here. I’m going to grab my crystal ball.”

  I watched her long skirt flow as she spun on her heels and walked to the back, but I didn’t sit at the odd shaped table. Instead, I looked around. The bookshelves no longer held books, they weren’t in rows, and they held things I didn’t understand. Except for some fortuneteller my childhood friend and I had gone to at the county fair back home, I’d never been around this sort of thing.

  While the weird little lady searched for her crystal ball in the back, I looked around in a state of interest at the esoteric items on the shelves. I’d never seen anything like it. There were medieval swords, dragons, and pyramids. Stopping at a glass display case, my interest piqued. I picked up the glass wand from the shelf, studying the familiar talons holding a sapphire stone in place at the end. When I spun the sapphire, the stone lit up into a bright glow,which caused something else to spin:something inside my mind,or perhaps from another place. That’s what it felt like. From out of nowhere, a little boy I used to play with was thrown into the loop, and I was there. With him. My childhood friend, Royal, who I hadn’t thought about in years. It was so real. Like I was right there watching us.

  We’d snuck into town to see the circus when we were just little kids. Really little kids. Maybe five or six. We could only find two-dollars and fifty-two pennies, and that wasn’t enough to get in. But it was enough for the fortune lady to tell us which bingo card to pick so we could win five bucks. That was enough to get in, buy a balloon, and ride the elephant.

  “My dad said fortune tellers aren’t real. He said they just want to take your money. We should just buy ice cream and go home. You’re going to get us in trouble. Again.”

  “Why you always blaming me? I didn’t make you come. And they are too real. Remember on A Christmas Carol movie?”

  “Yes, huh. You did make me come, and that wasn’t a fortune teller. It was theGhost of Christmas Past. That’s not even the same thing.”

  “Stop being a party-pooper all the time. The way I see it we gots two choices. We can either go buy stupid ice cream like we always do, or go in this tent and take a chance on more. Don’t you want more, Royal? We ain’t gonna ride no elephant with two bucks. It’ll work. I promise.”

  When we walked into the tent, a little white-haired lady was humming from the back. She was dressed in a long, purple skirt with yellow moons all around the bottom, and a patch over her eye.

  “I’m scared. What if she’s a witch?” Royal whispered.

  Honestly, I was thinking the same thing, but I didn’t say so. For one thing, I couldn’t call Royal a big baby if I was being a baby too. For another thing, I didn’t have time. The lady turned around when a chicken squawked and ran around the tent, stopping right smack dab in front of us. I’d totally forgotten about that chicken. It scared the living crap out of us both. I grabbed Royal, he grabbed me, and we both screamed.

  The lady with the white, silky hair tossed her head back, laughing hysterically at our expense, then suddenly froze, staring at us like we were little aliens or something. “Oh, my God. Little people, twin flames. I’ve never met children twin flames before. Come, come in. Sit. I’ll tell you your fortunes.”

  As always, I was the one who had to speak. My bodyguard was too busy hiding behind my back. “Ww-we just want to know which card to pick at bingo, so we can win five bucks to see the show.”

  “I see. How old are you?”

  “I’m five and a quarter, and Royal is five and half.”

  “Where’re your parents?
”

  Royal and I glanced at each other, and he nodded, wanting me to tell her the lie we’d made up in case anyone asked that question. It was on the tip of my tongue, the story about my grams being in the car waiting for us because she had broken her leg, but I couldn’t say it. Something about the lady’s blue eyes forced me to tell the truth. “My grams thinks we’re at the pond fishing. We just wanted to see the circus. You gonna call the cops?”

  “Heaven’s no, child. I was a latchkey kid once, too. Come, have a seat. I just got a new tarot deck, and I feel guided to let you both pull a free card.”

  “We didn’t snatch no keys,” I scoffed with both hands on my hips and plenty of five-year-old attitude.

  “What? Oh, no, I wasn’t accusing you of snatching any keys,” she laughed. “Latchkey, it means you’re left unattended a lot.”

  Royal and I looked at each other again, not really understanding, but we didn’t speak. We just stood there, waiting for her to tell us which bingo card to pick so we could win the five bucks.

  “Never mind. Come, choose a card. I opened them especially for you.”

  “Will you still tell us what bingo card to get so we can win five bucks?” I asked while Royal and I looked over the deck, trying to choose the best card for our fortune. I took my good old time choosing mine, hoping she was going to tell me there was a pony in my near future. The cards were jet black with twin eagle talons grasping a glowing sapphire stone.

  “I’ll make sure you see the show, sweetie. Pick a card.”

  “Ummmmm, this one,” I said, pulling the middle card from the deck.

  Royal picked the very first card, and we turned them over at the exact same time. For a second, I thought the lady was having a heart attack.

  She grasped her blouse like it was restricting her breathing or something, gasping and then holding the air in her lungs. “Oh my, oh my. How can that be? Oh, my God. I have to sit down. I’m sorry. I’m just so overwhelmed with all this. You pulled the exact same card, and there are never two of the same card in a deck. How can that be? Your energy together. It’s—it’s. Your auras together are... they’re magical. Like a rainbow collided with the stars. I’ve never seen the likes.”

  Again, Royal and I gave each other the same look, both thinking the same thing:should we run? We took a sidestep toward each other until our shoulders touched, still holding the cards between our fingers and the air in our lungs.

  We jumped, taking a step back when she suddenly recovered from her episode, snatching the card right out of my hand. “Let me see the card. Six of Cups. Wow. What a special card to pull.”

  “How’s come?” I questioned.

  “Sit down, I’ll tell you all about it.”

  “We better go,” Royal countered, already pulling on my hand.

  I pulled away from Royal and climbed upon the stool. “Don’t you want to know why we got the special cards?”

  “Come, son. It’ll only take a moment.”

  “Then you’ll tell us what’s the right bingo card?”

  “I’ll do better than that. I’ll give you each five dollars. That’s how honored I am to be in your presence. You’re both very special. You’re even more special together. You see, this card has a little boy and alittle girl, just like you two. They’re playing in a sandbox with six cups. There’s an innocence about them. Just like you. Do you know what they’re doing?”

  Royal and I looked at the twin cards and shook our heads, both engrossed in the story.

  “They’re making memories. Now, you see the same couple in the back, looking back through all that time, only they’re older and frail now. There’s all this space between them. Space represents time. Here you see them playing and having fun, but way back here, you see them on the bench like they’re looking back to when they were whole. When they were one.”

  “Well, what’s that mean?”

  The lady with the mesmerizing eyes leaned over, waving us closer with two fingers. We closed the distance between us because we thought she had a secret to tell us, but it was something dumb we didn’t even understand. “It means you must stay true to yourselves. Be big in every situation, and you’ll always be the authentic you. Nothing will keep you apart. Don’t let this space in time separate you. You’ll always be better together. Remember that. Okay?”

  Royal and I agreed, hopping down from the stools to be on our way. “We are already always together,” I said matter of factly with my hand opened, holding her to her promise. It was the truth. Ever since we were just toddlers, Royal and I were together.

  I blinked, losing the vision when the lady from the back called out, still in search of her crystal ball. “What the heck did I do with that thing? Sorry, I’m still trying to get settled in. Oh, don’t touch the wand on the shelf. I’m not sure what’s going on with it right now. It’s being a little dramatic.”

  Hurriedly, I placed the glass wand back onits pedestal, feeling a little freaked out. What the hell just happened? I asked myself. Pretending like I had never touched the wand, I continued to look around the store, trying to wash away the strange memory I’d just had of a kid I hadn’t seen in years. The dark shelves now rested along the outside walls, holding things like shiny stones, incense, weird lamps made from salt, and things you would expect to see on a Harry Potter movie. Psychedelic tapestries hung on the very back wall with elephants, eyeballs, stars, and the sun.

  The lady walked out from the back and picked up something from the floor in front of me, slapped the shelf holding the wand, and smiled. “Come, child.”

  My eyes left the glass ball she held in her hands for the fallen sign she’d stuck back onthe shelf: Please do not touch. Feeling the weirdness, I suddenly felt the need to get out of there. “I’m sorry. I think you have the wrong person. I don’t have an appointment. I only came here for the bookstore.”

  “You’re always right where you’re supposed to be,” she countered with an open hand, directing me toward a bright yellow chair with purple moons. “Come, sit with me.”

  I don’t know why I listened. I just did, because, just like the lady in my memory, she told me to. Maybe I was afraid not to. Like she would put a spell on me or something. Again. Like on Harry Potter. That’s about all I had to go on. Fortunately, fantasy books were never my forte. Harry Potter was about as cryptic as I’d been, and that was only because I’d raised two teenagers when the movies were popular.

  Cautiously, I moved to the seat across from the lady, but I didn’t speak. I couldn’t speak, really. This whole thing was just a little creepy for me, but I didn’t feel like leaving was an option either. The thoughts to get up and walkout weren’t even there. All I could do was watch, frozen in a space I didn’t try to control while the white ball lit up and turned blue. The ball of light rested on bright white silk, a candelabra covered in shiny gems held three white candles, all flickering in unison, and six stones in different colors rested just above my folded hands.

  “Are you ready?”

  “Rea-ready for what?” I stuttered.

  The lady with long, horse-like hair, tilted her head and smiled, brushing a collection of hair from her shoulders to her back. “I’m sorry. Let me explain how this works. I never know what I will see, nor can I control how long it will last. What I see is coming from you and the energy you’re carrying right now.”

  That scared the hell out of me for unknown reasons. I didn’t know what energy I was carrying right now. Royal’s. That’s what it felt like. My state of mind felt…altered. And that was before she added her input. Cautiously watching her, I let her place her hands over mine. First, she closed her eyes, took three long breaths, then asked someone for protection for the both of us. While her eyes were closed, I looked around the empty room to see who. As soon as her hands left mine, I noticed a warm sensation run from my wrists to my fingertips. Like something warm flowed through them. It was the strangest feeling ever. Looking atmy opened palms to see what it was, I felt a tingling sensation at the tips of
my fingers, but nothing was there.

  “You’re bored,” the crazy lady unprofessionally stated.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You have a lot of space where you haven’t really done anything.”

  I snorted but didn’t speak. Not that I would know what to say anyway. This lady didn’t know me or anything about me. Like I had time to be bored. Whatever.

  The lady gasped again, her eyes opening as she looked into the glass ball, glowing with a bright blue light. Her jaw fell, and her hand covered her mouth.

  “What?” I questioned, more curious than I wanted to be. I didn’t even believe in this kind of stuff, yet it was kind of hard not to.

  “You have someone coming in.”

  “Coming in?”

  “Yes, it’s what you came here for.”

  “I came in here because I have someone coming in?”

  “Yes. That’s right, child.”

  “I came here to get a book,” I reminded myself more than her.

  “You came here because it’s time, and you don’t want this space anymore."

  “What space? What does that mean?”

  “All this space and time you’ve wasted. The journey is only the path. It’s in the destination where you will find the oneness.”

  “What destination?”

  “Your twin flame.”

  Trying to tell myself to shut up and go back to work, I continued with the silly questions, my heart pounding at the mention of the twin flame term. That was the third time in my life I recalled whereI’d just heard the same expression. Once, when I was a little kid;next, the vision I’d had just had about when Royal and I were at the fair; and now, her. Even though every logical bone in my body told me it was a mere coincidence, I continued with the questions. “Okay, well who is my twin flame?”

  The kooky lady glanced to her watch and stood, dismissing me just like that. “Only you can answer that question. That’s it. That’s your message.”