The Witches Of North Shore
7
With the off and on rain storms of the past few days and Joe's crew finishing up the final details in the house while the townspeople painted and cleaned so they could get everything done and get back to other things when the weather cleared I had pretty much been holed up in my office or on the porch with Starr trying to iron out the details for the Gathering and in meetings involving Sanctuary for the last week while I tried to stay out of everyone's way. I was beginning to feel more then a little confined so the next morning when I woke up to sunshine and blue skies my heart soared, I decided to take the day off. "I thought maybe I'd drive up and visit Paul this morning and make sure everything is okey and the storms didn't do any damage." I said over breakfast. "Good, you need to get away" "In fact; why don't you take the jeep and just make a day of it. Drive into Dover and get some fall and wedding decorations and do some PERSONAL shopping while you're out. If you don't want to go alone I'm sure David would jump at any chance to get away for a while." "You both can relax and even stop for lunch somewhere. They're almost done here except for a few minor touchups and some cleaning anyway." "They should be about finished and out of the way by the time you 2 get back and you can use some peace and quiet.'' "Sounds great! Can you send someone to ask David while I get ready?" ***** "Do you want to stop on the ridge first and take the old road or take the main highway and stop on the way back?" David asked as he started the motor. "The main highway I guess, it's quicker. Then we can take the old road back and enjoy the scenery and I'll still have plenty of time to spend with Paul." When we reached Dover, David parked along Covington Ave where all the little specialty shops were and saying he had a few errands to run looked at his watch. "We'll meet at The Cattleman's around 11:30 and I'll buy you a lobster before we leave. Have you got your debit card in case you find something and don't have enough cash?" ***** "We need to make one more stop before we leave. I still have to pick up the cake I ordered from Lu-Ann's and I swear if you get into it ---- well you can finish that, I think." I said as he was putting the rest of my things in the car after lunch. By 3:00 we were on our way home. ***** While I was praying to the Goddess David went up one of the newly cut paths to where the Long Feathers were building a Shrine to the Heavenly Father to pay his respects: and check out everything else they had accomplished since they'd taken on the responsibility as Keepers of 'The Sacred Ground'. When I finished I placed 2 new pillars and candles on either side of the alter and set a bowl and chalice and some of the other things I'd bought at a little Occult shop I'd found on the alter itself. "These are for you Mother I couldn't resist them, and tomorrow when I return I'll bring the rest. Thank you." then I went over and sat down by Paul. "I brought you something too, Love. The cradle is in celebration of the coming of our new grand child and the bride and groom are to honor the marriage of Tina and Danny.You'll notice I have placed 4 new stones in front of you - all clear - that's because I don't know much about these new family members other then that they are gifts from The Goddess and loved dearly." "Isn't that all you need to know?" David said coming up behind me. ***** "Do you need more time?" "No, I promised to come tomorrow to finish up; besides, The Goddess says there's someone waiting at the house and she's very anxious to see me, we need to go." I glanced over at the plates on the camper when we parked - Massachusetts tags. "Did you know about this?" I said and hurried up the steps leaving him to bring everything in. "Where is she?" Starr pointed towards my office while she held the door for David. "I swear her Goddess told her, not me." I heard him say as I gathered Lizzie in my arms. ***** Lizzie had introduced me to The Goddess. She was my first Teacher and the person who had taken me under her wing when I'd first arrived in San Francisco. She'd driven me out to the encampment where her Coven had set up to meet the brothers and sisters and drop the Airstream, then she introduced me to a young Priest named 'Moon' who would be giving us a ride back to The Love Fest. ***** I'm not sure how long we had been talking when we were interrupted by a single knock and the door opening.. "My Heart, you need to let Jo change for dinner, her other guests are arriving and Starr and the ladies from the church are setting the tables now." "Blessed Be Jo, it's nice to see you again." said Ashara handing Lizzie the package she'd carried in with her and embracing me. "We brought you a gift, I know how you are about spending money on yourself. Please wear it to dinner for us." "What other guests?" I said to myself as they left the room. ***** David was siitting in the house alone when I came out of my bedroom in the beautiful gold caftan Lizzie and Ashara had given me. "You are truely beautiful; all you're missing are the flowers for your hair," he said handing me a bouquet from my garden. "Momma Sunflower, may I escort you to dinner? And will you please tell everybody I didn't spoil the surprise so I can get off the hook. Starr's threatening to make me go without supper." I laughed as he opened the door for me. ***** Everyone was finishing their dinner when I leaned over and whispered in David's ear: a minute or so later he excused himself and went into the house. While he was gone I asked for everyone's attention. "When The Goddess told me this afternoon that I needed to wait until tomorrow to do the work up on the ridge and come home I had no idea why but I am grateful. Until that moment I had no idea Lizzie and Ashara were arriving so soon; but I did know another secret and the surprise David has gone in the house to get was actually bought to say congratulations to Andy and Beth." "I had planned to do this at Friday's Board meeting but in honor of everyone here tonight who is so special in my life and the fact that I don't think we could keep David out of it that long anyway....." I added as he set the cake down in front of me, "we'll do this now." ***** "A few of you might already know - and there better be a message on my machine from one of you - Andy asked Beth to marry him. Well for some strange reason she said YES so in honor of Lizzie and Ashara and the marriage of Andy and Beth I thought we'd turn this dinner into a party. What's everyone say?" Everyone hurriedly began helping to clear the dinner stuff while Ron and Roy went out to the barn to get some ice cream from the freezers and Kyle went downstairs to get some wine. As we were finishing we saw a flash of lightening and felt the first sprinkles of rain. " I think this party is moving inside. " Starr yelled as the wind picked up. ***** "All I can say is it's a good thing we decided to take the wall down between the living and dining room or pretty soon we'd be holding these parties in the barn." I heard Andy say to Ed as I walked up. "I hope so. Have you seen Megan and Suzie?" "Yeah, they're upstairs In Suzie's room having their own party, Megan's spending the night you know. You want them?" "Please I'll be in my office." I answered. "Ms Jo, Grandpa said you wanted us. Did we do something?" "No Darlings; I did. I brought you both a present; infact I brought everyone a present but I wanted to give you yours first." I said pointing to the 2 bags on my desk. "Go ahead. They're both the same." The girls squealed so loud when they ripped into the bags that the door burst open and everyone rushed in thinking something was wrong. ***** The rain stopped around 10:00 and the party began breaking up; I walked in the kitchen to make some fresh coffee and found Starr doing dishes. "Leave them! Antoinette will be here at 8:00 and it's her job anyway. It's time you learn you're not superwoman either." "You and Mike might as well stay: there's no point in him driving back down here at daylight to feed the livestock. Let me know when the coffee's done will you, I need to catch Andy and Beth before they can get away." After the guests who weren't staying had left I shooed Andy and Beth into my bedroom to get ready while the rest of us waited. A few minutes later they came out to model their new outfits - a gift from David and Sanctuary. Beth's shirt had a big gold star emblazoned across the back and writing on the front that read 'There's A NEW SHERIFF in town.' She was also wearing a cowboy hat with a badge and sporting a six gun. Andy followed behind her carrying a ball and chain and wearing an apron. Since some of us had to work the next day we all soon said goodnight as the newly engaged couple left to make the drive back to Beth's. Lizzie and Ashara decided to stay in the camper since it had turned into such a beautiful night and David saying he needed to work on his sermon headed into my office. "Whoever sees Joy first in the morning please tell her I have something special for her too. " I said as I went to my bedroom. ***** Bright and early the next morning Joy came running into my office. "Ms Jo can I have my surprise now? Granmomma said I had to wait until later but I just couldn't wait no more. So can I have it please?" "Here you go Sweetie." I said handing her a box that was almost as big as she was. She pulled out the crayons, picture books, coloring books, a ball and some other small things then she came to another box. "It's a baby just like Megan's and Suzie's only littler. Oh Ms Jo,she's the most beautiful doll in the world. She looks just like the Fairy Princess; can I take her outside and show Granmomma and Granpop and everybody?" "Only if you promise me something." I said giving her a big hug, "Promise me before you start playing you'll tell your brothers to come in here." "Oh I will. I promise. Thank you Ms Jo, I love Princess Flower so much." and off she ran. A few minutes later the boys knocked on the door. "I want you both to know I didn't forget you. The girls were easy to buy for but you two - you're almost grown so it had to be something more fitting to your age so I finally settled on these" I said holding up 2 envelopes and noticing just a hint of dissapoint on their faces I quickly went on. "What I decided on I couldn't possibly fit into the jeep so I arranged to have them delivered later today but I think you should take a look so I can call and cancel it if you don't like them - I'll just have to think of something else." The yelp they let out when they saw the pictures of the Electric ATV 3 wheelers was probably heard in Oakgrove: after thanking me at least 4 times they ran off to tell everyone they saw about their great presents that were coming today. A couple minutes later White Eagle and John Long Feather knocked. ***** "Starr do you need anything before I leave?" I said a couple hours later. "I can't think of anything right now and David or I can handle anything that comes up - he's in the library finishing up his sermon so he should be handy - besides whatever it is will keep. You want some lunch before you go?" "No, I thought maybe I'd pack something and see if Lizzie and Ashara wanted to go with me, you said David's in the library? ***** "Hey you, I separated the stuff you brought in last night and the things in the boxes on the desk need to go in the truck to take back up on the ridge, by the way can you ride a 3 wheeler?" "Yeah I heard. Thought you were going to do some 'personal' shopping. What time are they supposed to be here anyway?" ***** John was waiting by the drum circle when we pulled up: he unloaded the truck then took Lizzie and Ashara on a tour of everything that had been added since the last Gathering while I unwrapped and sorted the things I had bought. "Oh Jo. Everything is so beautiful and peaceful. You couldn't have chosen a better person to take care of this place." Ashara said when they returned. "I'm afraid I can't take credit for that; seems The Goddess and The Great Spirit had a pow-wow and arranged for his family to break down practically on our doorstep and he chose us." "Here, you two can start with these." I said handing them a bag of light catchers and chimes in the shapes of pentagrams, stars, moons and other symbols. "Just hang them around wherever you feel led." "John, those 2 boxes are for you; you'll know what to do with them and I'll start on the garlands for the gazebo." When everything was done we enjoyed our meal and scattered the leftovers to the animals then the 3 of them walked the area with smudge stixs and performed a blessing while I said good bye to Paul. ***** Starr and I were finishing up with the days work. Most everyone had left for the day and it was going to be a quiet evening with just my house guests and myself. "Joe called he wanted to know if you wanted him to cut a check for John and the boys or if they were on Sanctuary's payroll like Kyle and Ed?" "By the way speaking of the Long Feathers. The boys want to know who the third bike belongs to. I told them I'd see if I could find out and let them know since they all left almost as soon as you got back from the ridge ." "Call Joe back and tell him we'll take care of it and ask him what he's paying the other men so there's no discrepencies, just in case, also get an estimate of hours on everyone.Then you and Mike go on home I'll finish up. Oh, and send Antoinette home too if she's still here will you? Tomorrow we can work on payroll." ***** "Here's those things you asked me for Starr." Joe said stopping by the office right before lunch; Thought you might want to know there seems to be a gap between the hours my men have claimed and those of most of the men we hired from town.The figures don't match what Little Joe's got written down either." "What kind of gap?" I asked coming out of my office. "Supposedly the locals are working a lot fewer hours. Who's supposed to be keeping track of the volunteer hours anyway?" Starr answered looking up from the figures in front of her. "I see. Don't worry about it Joe, just make your payroll out for what they say they worked -unless it's more then you've figured and tally the difference for Starr will you. We'll take care of it." "You got it and Ms Jo you got a minute?" "Go on to lunch, Starr. We'll be there in a minute." I said as Mike walked in. ***** "Does anyone else know this yet?" I asked after he'd finished telling me about what he'd discovered when they began working on the church and annex. "No. I told Joe not to say anything until I spoke to you first - I realize it's their church and Pastor David's home but you're the one paying for it." "Well Sanctuary is; but pull your crew for now if you have somewhere else you can use them and let me talk to David. He can explain it Sunday to the congregation and you'll have their answer on Monday. Is that it for now?" "Actually I have what I hope is some good news. We should be finished here Monday - Tuesday at the latest, your people can take care of anything that's left and I can get my people started on that house over in Ballard. We should come in under budget even after the final payroll and expenses. What do you want done with the material and money that's left?" "Let me get back with you on Monday about that, too; and you can go ahead and tell David and Kyle if you'd like." I said as my phone rang, I let it go to the machine with the other messages I hadn't answered yet and walked out with Joe to grab something to eat. ***** "Hi, Ms Jo this is Penny, Ashara's daughter. I can't seem to reach Mom or Lizzie and I was wondering if you'd give them a message. Tell them a caravan of about 8 of us and our families are planning on heading your way Monday. Hope you have plenty of room. Give them my love. Bye." "You wouldn't happen to know where Lizzie or Ashara are would you?" I asked sticking my head out my door after I listened to the last message. "Ashara's in the store with White Eagle helping her get it set up so we can get it open and I think Lizzie's in the Commnity Center helping Paula and the other ladies." "Thanks." "I'll go over the bills with you and sign checks when I get back if you're ready." I said heading outside. ***** "Penny called the house, Ashara, she said she couldn't reach you on your cell - here. Hey, it looks fantastic in here you guys. Have you come up with some sort of barter or merit system for the customers yet?" "We think so. The simplest way is an even exchange 'dollar for dollar' - Ms Starr suggested we set a flat rate of $10.00 dollars credit an hour for each volunteer hour worked and give everyone a voucher for how ever many hours they want to spend. I'll turn the accounts over to her at the end of the week and she will put it on the books, we're going to use the prices that were marked on the items when we bought them and base future sales on this - as for barter we'll give even or fair trade value based on the same plan. Does that sound fair?" "Sounds more then fair, have you got enough stuff or do you need to make another shopping trip before you actually have everything ready to open?" "Can we let you know later?" they both said together. "Sure, White Eagle, we need your family to attend tomorrow's Council Meeting and dinner if you can, we can discuss everything then. Starr will have paychecks ready by then too." "Give me 10 minutes and then come in." I said when I got back to the house. I went in and called the bank. ***** "Sarah, Hi. I need you to draw up the paperwork or whatever that will authorise Starr to actually sign checks and handle Sanctuary's finances and fax them over to Barker and Sons for their signature. I'll send her up there in the morning with David so he can sign for Sanctuary, will that be alright?" ***** "Did you get the volunteer hours from everyone yet? I know what's here for John and the boys can't be right, even Joe shows more. "Joe told you there was a gap. What do you want to do?" "Okay, sign off on it with Joe's figure's for them and anyone else with the same problem and then give them the difference in value in credit vouchers for donations toward the building fund or for clothing or food or whatever they want to use it for and I'll have David or Andy make sure everyone gets them. Also get the list for the rest of the volunteers and do the same thing. The Long Feathers will be at the Council Meeting tomorrow evening and are going to be asked to join the staff so that should solve one problem." "You and David need to make a trip to the bank in the morning so you can sign the papers allowing you to handle the finances and sign checks for Sanctuary. Here's a withdrawal slip for $1000 for petty cash. Now where is our payroll and at least an estimate of hours. Unless everyone's going on salary." "I vote for salary and say 100 hours a month for each person in credits - except for Antoinette, here are her hours as of yesterday. Klye's already asked me to discuss a fair rent value on their room and board and other things like gas, clothing etc so he can pay you." The Long Feather's too want to pay you for their house and the lumber and stuff we sent up to make it livable as well as the clothes and things the kids got." Starr said. "As for the wages how's $250 a week tax free for each of them, including the boys until school starts, plus room and board and other perks sound; we can get away with it Steve says because we're non profit so technically its part of our expenses and not actually wages especially if we pay in cash and vouchers and write it off as day labor and don't put any names down. We'll have to write checks until we can make arrangements to withdraw enough from the bank every other week to cover payroll and things. David may even be able to take care of that tomorrow especially since I don't imagine John and them have an account. What is going to be the pay schedule?" "Joe's paying everyone tomorrow right, so let's pay everyone tomorrow too if that's okey and every 2 weeks. Get the checks made out and I'll sign them. After you pick up the petty cash in the morning make an envelope up for Megan and Suzie with say $25.00 in each envelope; they're a big help and give Joy a couple of dollars too so she won't feel left out. I'm going out on the porch and relax." "And Starr, don't forget your's and Mike's." ***** "You want to tell us about this Caravan of Witches from North Shore who are headed our way?" I asked over the Pot Roast I had put on that morning. "Let's just say we're going to need space for 3 or 4 campers plus tents by next week and that many more by the weekend before the Gathering along with a Power Source and somewhere to set up the booths and a Ritual Circle - preferably permanent since some of us will be seeking permission to remain." "Your crews were thoughtful enough to install compost toilets and solar showers in the new extensions they added to the bunkhouse when they did the repairs so that's no problem and Kyle has assured me if the council agrees he can arrange to supply any materials and equipment we need at cost. Ashara and I were planning on asking to attend the meeting tomorrow to ask for permission - I should have known you had already been told everything." "Well you were going to be asked to attend anyway and I did already know you guys were staying: as for the rest of this, start keeping track of everything you do and how many hours you donate to Sanctuary and we'll make you the same offer we make all the volunteers. We may be doing The Mother's work here but my guides say I should remind everyone it may be a labor of love but we're still a business. Get Starr to explain everything to you in the morning and have her draw up the contracts for the Gathering. Welcome home, both of you."
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