Shri

Zelda found herself in Mama Mambo's magic shop on Haight street. She lived close by and loved the stretch San Fran was famous for. Zelda had been to that shop many times. But today she couldn't remember how or why. In a bit of a daze with the intoxicating scent of patchouli swimming in her nose, she examined herself in the mirror in front of her. Promised on the sticker tag was the item description. "Snow white mirror". Zelda had heard of these magic mirrors before and not just from Disney. Magic mirrors had been included in loor for centuries. Special mirrored glass enchanted by blessing, prayer, incantation and the like.

They mainly acted as portholes to other dimensions.

"This must be new'' thought Zelda to herself. She had never seen one in real life. Being that Zelda was a rather materialist practitioner of magic, witchcraft and other dark arts, a path she was born to she coveted items like this and loved the act of purchase and acquisition. She did live a little outside her means but had an uncanny ability to balance a checkbook at the end of the day.

Zelda squeezed the last $100 out of her savings justifying it by the notion of fate, and that it was meant to be with this piece, for her. Plus, at that price it was a steal.

She awkwardly carried the mirror home. A rather large object in comparison to her small frame. The mirror was not packaged. Mama Mambo had simply but carefully covered it by draping an old towel over top. Zelda walked through the streets and up a hill then took a shortcut home through a park that brought her to her back door.

Entering the house she found her mum asleep on the couch, her favorite heated blanket draping her hips. This was not at all unusual. Ever since Zelda's dad had died at the scene of a terrible car crash, the result of a drunken driver colliding with Darryl, Zelda's father. Her mum was never really the same. Darryl was killed on impact but suffering was not saved. After his funeral Sadie, Zelda's mother, succumbed to depression. And as that grief and darkness held her physical suffering followed. Sadie would have phantom pains that doctors could not diagnose. She was eternally tired, spent and sore she ached badly. The only answer she was given as to why was that her condition was psychosomatic. She knew in a way that this was true, but it certainly was no help. She would stay in bed all day making it out of her room only to eat and rest on the couch. Even in her sadness and pain Zelda's mother was beautiful. She was curled up on a worn green velvet vintage couch they had found down the street put out on the curb. But even in their abundance of poverty Sadie was pretty to say the least of her looks. She was shaped like an hourglass and had pale freckled skin, blue eyes and red hair.

Many nights passed with Sadie suffering insomnia. She slept much better when the sun was out. Zelda would find her mum on the couch barely eating and too tired to cook anything. Zelda would do what she could in getting groceries for the two to get by on hoping for granola bars at the food banks she'd frequent because Sadie would actually eat them.

At one of the food banks she visited, there was a 16 year old boy. Just her age to the month. Both Leos as she discovered cautiously flirting as 16 year olds do. His name was Adam, he was handsome,and a light skin tone of ebony. Zelda had noticed him right away and he would coincidentally pack her food boxes even though the church run charity had many enough volunteers. The two would smile sweetly at each other and getting to know him better throughout the days that passed it was Adam's heart of gold that really won her over. They were like magnets to each other and paired up not long after their initial meeting.

Adam helped Zelda create an online dating profile for her mum. Finding herself widowed and without a companion Sadie was not just sick and tired but lonely.

This was how Jacqueline came into their lives. She was a blessing to the little family. A real silver lining. Jacqueline would visit daily. She would sit with Sadie and help with cooking. The three women had magic in common all being born into witchcraft that had been passed down through generations.

Jacqueline was actually the one to provide Zelda with the ritual and spell to open up the porthole in the mirror. Following her instructions Zelda transported herself to Venus through meditation. It worked so well that when Zelda returned to her bedroom and came to after visiting Venus, a beautiful realm where love is paramount and gardens abound with larger than life roses. She had sat by a crystal riverside where she was offered a wish from the Great Goddess of Venus, a benevolent Goddess of love. Zelda wished she could have a crystal of her own. Cold wet water tickled her arm as she reached into the stream and grasped a heavy stone and clutched it tightly. It was then she was sucked back to earth to her bedroom where upon waking in her bed she found it was still in her hand. Opening her eyes she shed a tear in awe of the exquisite gem she held. It was the most deep radiant red ruby she had ever seen in a perfectly smooth polished egg shape. It truly was her most prized possession she blinked hard to make sure she was seeing right. Zelda was still in an altered state when the phone rang. It sounded really far away like through a tunnel echoing from a cave. She searched around with her free hand on the bed in the folds of her messy sheet atop her duvet. She realized as she found the phone her hand was shaking and she was still crying tears falling silently past her temples into her sweaty curls. It was Adam on the phone he was talking to her excitedly, she did not remember saying hello. Adam paused, "are you ok hun? You seem distant." This was too much for her to explain on the phone. Zelda said she was fine. Adam couldn't contain his joy he was calling to give Zelda hope. Hope for her mom and her illness that was going untreated by doctors who thought it was a scam to get pills or just "in her head" like not one but two had said. Adam was listening to a locally based podcast where the topic that week was alternative medicine. He had learned of a retreat in Santa Monica where they have a clinic for holistic healing. Patients lay in sensory deprivation tanks to gently open their chakras. They would be moved next to a warm and rounded room where sound and colored light technology is used to repattern brain waves and neurotransmitter pathways. The only problem was the cost $20,000. But the fee covered as many sessions needed for upto a period of one year. Adam had heard some fantastic success stories and of cases similar to Sadie's.

It was only just hers but Zelda knew she would have to sell the ruby egg. Her stomach dropped and she was tearing again. She needed some air and thanked Adam graciously excused herself from the call and went out back to be in nature breathing fresh air. She lay down on the grass in the park behind her home. Staring at the night sky filled with stars and a moon that was almost full. It was dark and she found herself grieving, her once happy mother, her father dead and gone and her ruby she would have to give up. Zelda tried to process her feelings about all this but they were too big. And she, Zelda's mum was her everything it only made sense to sell the egg she rationalized. "Dammit" she yelled and pounded the earth with her fists. She bent her legs grabbed her knees and pulled herself back upright. Zelda turned to march back home resigned but, something caught her eye. On the bench by the pathway there was a slightly weathered black notebook. With no one around and her curiosity was like a cat and she snatched it up quickly. Out of the pages fell hundred dollar bills and a whole lot of them at that. They fell all around her feet. It was the $20,000 that she needed. Zelda fell to her knees. "Shri Lakshmi Goddess" she whispered, "thank you" grabbing up the bills and some dirt with them she ran home at top speed.

That night Zelda and her mother cried and laughed together. Zelda saw a sparkle in her mum's eye that she had really been missing. Happily it was easy and fast to get an appointment at the "contrast center" Adam and Jacqueline helped put a mattress in the back of a rented van the next day. And the journey to Sadie's healing began.

Sarah Berridge