Chapter 1: The Oracle No One Wants to Talk to

Once upon this one time,

… there was a quaint little city with a Main Street that was very popular with tourists. It had something for everyone.

Visitors could enjoy rare foods, peruse used book stores filled with rare finds, find amazing craft supplies, learn the history of engines at a local museum, be entertained by buskers on the street, and explore artisan shops of all kinds behind every door.

The little street was the perfect place to get lost on for a day because there was something for everyone and the area was incredibly safe.

Yet the little town had a secret: None of the stores were technically for tourists.

Each and every store existed to serve the locals who moved into the flow of Main Street whenever there was something they needed.

There was one shop, however, all tourists adored that all the locals never set foot in unless invited.

Store sign for Flowers, Petals, Wings & More on Main Street
One of the most popular stores on Main Street! (Next door to the store you are reading about.)

Located between the tattoo parlor, Soul Ink, and popular gift shop, Flowers, Petals, Wings & More, was a mystical shop called Peeps & Mutters. Tourists visited the front end of the store to explore earthy jewelry, symbolic decorations, oracle decks, and other woo-woo items that caught their attention.

Peeps & Mutters was more famous for the back half of their store, however, where “readers” of all types told visitors their fortunes and were famous for their uncannily accurate predictions.

There was always a line of curious tourists at Peeps & Mutters.

Yet their reputation was the very reason the locals did their best to never visit the shop until an invitation came that could not be ignored—which always happened, eventually. There was no avoiding it. Yet many locals believed such days could be delayed if the psychics at Peeps & Mutters forgot you existed.

Thus, it was common practice for tourists to lurk, linger, and browse the shop while locals passed by on the other side of the street hoping to avoid catching any reader’s awareness or eye.

This paranoid and superstitious behavior often made Moira laugh.

Moira was known to be one of the most-accurate readers at Peeps & Mutters but she was also one of the least-requested.

Her specialty was detecting imbalanced dharma and karma, and few tourists really wanted to pay to hear about that. They were on vacation and much more interested in hearing about love, fun, and fortune.

Which was fine by Moira. Her lack of tourist traffic kept her open and free to serve the locals.

In this way, Moira was as busy as any other reader at Peeps & Mutters—the main difference being that no one sitting across from Moira really wanted to be sitting across from her.

Sitting across from Moira meant an aspect of her client’s life was about to come back into balance. And few people proactively sought out such balance.

Whenever possible, most people preferred to stay on the benefiting side of an established imbalance and let others carry the heavy counterbalance of a lopsided load.

It was simply human nature.

Yet existence was a pendulum that swung side-to-side, forever seeking rest in the middle. This meant avoidance only worked for so long. And Moira knew this, which was why she never hesitated to call in a local as soon as they came up in a reading.

Locals like Bucky, who currently sat across from her with a face scrunched in annoyance and arms folded into a pout.

“Your timing is terrible,” he grumped. “I could be zip lining over the Amazon right now.”

“You can do that anytime,” Moira replied as she pulled Bucky’s red envelope from her private drawer and pulled out the two cards inside. One card was Bucky’s; the other was not.

“Ha!” he replied. “Says you! Have you seen how quickly they are burning those trees down?”

Moira grew still for a moment—eyes growing distant for a beat before nodding. “I do. Along with the reckoning. But that is not why I asked you here today.”

“Great!” Bucky pouted with an eye roll. “What is it this time?”

“You have a newbie,” Moira said, handing the second card over to Bucky. “Find her and fill her in with all the information on this card before she finds you. This will bring balance to your karma with her and leave both of you free to take different roads.”

Bucky grabbed the card and looked at it—scanning the information before flipping the card over to glance at the blank black. Then he glared at Moira.

“What, no name? Not even a city or a date?” he balked. “I’m just supposed to find some blonde who drives off the road on some random rainy night?”

Moira shrugged. “It’s noted that she only speaks English. That should help narrow things down.”

Bucky groaned, throwing his head back in his seat as he momentarily sulked like a toddler. “Man, so you’re saying that now I also have to cancel my trip to the North Pole to help an American social media influencer? Your prophecies literally ruin everything!”

“In the short term, perhaps,” Moira replied, pulling a red string from her pile and motioning for Bucky to hold out his hand to her. “But in the long term, you all will thank me. Now hold out your hand.”

With great reluctance, Bucky conceded—holding his left hand out toward her so she could tie the red string to his pinky as Moira gave him the instructions she gave everyone.

“This string will connect you to the karmic partner whose card you now hold,” she said as she wove the string into a ring. “There are many types of karma partners with infinite karmic loads that stand in need of reckoning. This string will draw you to this female—both in waking and in dreams. Follow your instincts. Listen to your heart and let nonsense guide you. This is how  you will find your person and resolve your karma before it comes and finds you. Never remove this ring or you will lose your connection with both the soul and the location where you are destined to meet. You will know the foretold day has come to meet her when the string falls off on its own. On that day, follow the nonsense until it guides you to her, share all the information on the card, and your karmic duty will be paid in full.”

“I know, I know,” Bucky groaned. “It’s not my first rodeo, remember?”

“I remember,” Moira replied with a smile as she finished tying off the ring and leaned back in her chair. “But I also know how much you like to forget so you’re always going to get the full speech from me.”

Bucky’s glare turned more playful as she spoke—his eyes dipping a bit as he gave her a once-over. “I’d like to forget how hot you are, that’s for sure. It’s a bit of a torture that you’re such a pleasure to look at, yet such a pain to talk to.”

Moira let out a little sigh as she leaned back in her seat. “We’re done here, Bucky. Goodbye.”

“What?” he said, lips pursed slightly as he leaned in to make up the distance she’d put between them. “I’m in town … you’re in town. Why not make a night of it? We could go to the tavern and win some coins. No one would ever expect us working together. Wuddoya say?”

“Not happening.”

“Ugh. Come on, killjoy. Why not?” He leaned in even further, wiggling his eyebrows. “I’ll throw in some free nookie.”

“Pass.”

“C’mon,” he said like a used car salesman. “This is one-time offer. You snooze, you lose.”

“All the more reason to refuse,” Moira replied with goodbye wave. “Off you go now. Good luck finding your karma buddy, Bucky. Hope things work out for you.”

“You’re missing out.”

“Next!” Moira called out with a snap of her fingers, unable to hide a smirk when Bucky disappeared from the chair in the space of a blink, and her next appointment poked his head in.

“Me?” the guy said with the shaky optimism of a newbie who had heard horror stories but was still hoping for the best.

Moira nodded. “Yes, Yukon. Welcome. My name is Moira. It’s nice to meet you. Please, take a seat.”

Then Moira took the next red envelope out of her desk while Yukon did as instructed.

The Color Scheme of a Love Story [Day 6/365]

Today was a writing day of something I hope to have out your way soon. (Wish me luck on that!!!😂)

It’s the tale of two soulmates, and the colors of their souls are mentioned in the story, since they’re fae … and, well, fae are ALL about the color of their auras! They know their color like you know your eye color.

No finished story for you yet, but here’s a novice rendering of their color scheme of their energies tangling.

Orange and purple yin-yang. Tiki and Mowgli

Once Upon This One Time…

by: Sheralyn Pratt

Once upon this one time, I was walking my dog at night. We were going along our usual path at about our usual time. The world around us was fast asleep; the houses were dark and you could hear a pin drop in the street.

Everything was quite usual this night, except maybe just one thing: I’d felt the urge to walk our usual path in reverse, so we were taking our route in the opposite direction.

We’d just taken the first of two turns that would point us back home when, out of nowhere, a voice said, “It should occur to you to be concerned right now,” and it took a moment to realize the voice was just in my head.

But I answered it anyway, saying, “Oh? Why is that?”

“Because of the man in the van.”

“The man in the van?” I asked, eyes searching around. Yet I was passing between a home and a wall of high bushes, so all I could see were a tunnel of leaves and the side of a house.

“Yes,” the voice replied. “There is a man in the van on the other side of this bush. And it should occur to you to be concerned.”

And, so it was that I became concerned and, as I stepped beyond the bush I glanced back.

Sure enough, there was a white van parked in perfect alignment with the tunnel-sized bush in a way that seemed quite intentional, but not red-flag suspicious.

It was quite dark and the nearest street light did little to illuminate the inside of the vehicle. But, when I looked at the outline of the two front seats, all I saw were the outline of the two front seats.

“It’s just a van,” I told myself. “No man.” And the moment I thought these words, I heard the metal-on-metal rat-ta-ta-tat of a car seat reclining – loud as a drum in the still of night.

With the noise, the outline of the driver’s side seat disappeared and the distant street light shone through the back window and into my view.

There was definitely someone in the van. And they had definitely noticed me glancing back for a peek and tried to hide while making the absolute loudest of creaks.

There was really no way to ignore the sound, but I made a go of it anyway.

I kept walking, making it about 30 more feet before I heard the car seat return to its upright position just before the engine started – followed by headlights on full-bright, making it useless to look for the person inside.

I kept walking as this white van from the 20th century – maybe a Dodge Caravan – raced me to the corner. The air felt charged as the man rubbernecked as he passed, then sped down the street with a single tail light doing nothing to illuminate a darkened license plate.

When he reached the end of the street, did a full-stop at the stop sign, belatedly signaled, turned right, and was gone.

As I replayed everything in my mind to make a best guess if all threat was past, the voice added, “Sometimes, it’s good to come at things from an opposite view.”

Then it disappeared as quickly as the van and I was left with my thoughts as I walked my dog home – rarely to walk the same path again.

Days of Change (OUTOT #1)

by Sheralyn

I’ve published over a dozen books but I have never been more excited about a book I’ve created than I am for the Once Upon This One Time (OUTOT or #OUTOT) journal series I’ve bringing your way now.

I firmly believe it is time for people to tell their stories, which is a daunting task for many.

Where do you start? What do you say? What do you include? What do you leave on the cutting-room floor?

I’m going to help you with all this, but you’re going to need some information first — information only you know, and it needs to be stored in ways that you can find and record easily.

That’s what the Once Upon This One Time journal series is all about: Capturing events in ways that make it easy to write about later.

The first journal in the series is: DAYS OF CHANGE. This is a journal you ONLY write in when you experience a notable change in your life. When that happens, you fill in a one-sheet in the journal and that’s it.

Do this each time you have a big change and soon you will have a book that is filled only with days when your “normal” changed into something new, allowing you to see some of the influential days in your life in sequence.

Other journals will record other things, making everything easy to find when it’s time to write your story and I’ll be guiding and sharing things I’ve learned with you along the way.

And I am looking forward to helping you write your story in a captivating way that family, friends, and strangers will love to read.

Start by clicking on the link and getting your copy of DAYS OF CHANGE now.