The Amulet by Alison Pensy Read Free Book Online Page A

the
festival spread out in all its enticing glory before them. There
were hundreds of tents, housing vendors of all descriptions, and,
from this angle, they could see at least two stages where bands
were playing live music.
    “Where do we go first?” Amy asked, looking in
all directions.
    “Well, we could start off in that direction
and make our way around. We’ve got all day,” Zoë responded.
    “That sounds like a plan,” Faedra agreed.
    They headed off toward a stage where a band
was playing some type of folk music. The band called ‘Hogwash’ had
attracted quite a crowd. People were standing around watching, as
well as, sitting down in the grass. Most were drinking beer. After
watching them for a while, Faedra grinned at her friend Amy who was
wiggling her hips in time with the movement. It had always been
virtually impossible for Amy to keep still if music was playing.
Even in the car she jiggled about in her seat to whatever song was
blasting from the radio.
    A few songs later they decided to move on,
and spent some time glancing at the vendors as they walked past.
There were arts and crafts of all types. Faedra was interested in
the handmade jewelry. Zoë was more into the candles and incense
vendors while Amy was attracted by anything pink.
    “I’m hungry,” Zoë mentioned after they had
been window-shopping for an hour. “Can we find a food tent?”
    “That one over there looks fairly innocuous,”
Faedra said, pointing in the direction of a hotdog and hamburger
stall. She was starting to get a little disappointed; she’d been
hoping to see lots of ‘mystical’ stalls, but not a Gypsy Rose
Lee was to be seen so far.
    They wandered over to the food stall and
tucked into some not-too-awful hamburgers. Faedra always thought it
was a bit of potluck, putting your digestive health in the hands of
a food vendor at an outdoor event. After they finished eating, Amy
wanted to find another stage and listen to some more music. They
all headed off towards the sound of music blaring behind a few more
of the vendor’s tents. Then it caught Faedra’s eye; a sign that
read Runes read by Rose, Let the stones guide you.
    “Hey, I’m just going to go over there,” she
pointed towards the tent she had just spotted.
    “Oh, Fae, don’t waste your money. Everyone
knows they are all frauds,” Zoë cautioned.
    “It’s just a bit of fun, I’ll catch up with
you. I’ve got my cell phone with me if I can’t find you.”
    “Okay, we’ll see you in a bit, but your
wasting your money,” Zoë said, as she and Amy started off in the
direction of the music.
    Faedra wandered over to the tent. Most of the
vendor’s tents were only enclosed on three sides, but this one was
enclosed on all sides, allowing privacy to the person getting a
reading, she assumed. She wasn’t quite sure what to do when she
arrived at the tent. It wasn’t as if there was a door to knock on
before she entered. She didn’t want to be rude and burst in on
someone if they were having their runes read. She stood outside the
tent for a moment contemplating the situation, and then decided she
would just call out. If anyone was in there, they would hear her
and let her know if they were busy or not.
    “Hello?” Faedra called next to the material
that made up one of the tent walls. “Is anyone in there?”
    “Hello,” came the voice from inside, “please,
come in.”
    Faen whined. “It’s okay, boy. You stay out
here. I won’t be long.”
    Faedra did as the voice said and pulled the
material aside to enter. The inside of the tent was exactly as she
would have imagined a Gypsy Rose Lee tent to look like.
There was the strong smell of incense burning, which she saw was
coming from a little table in the corner that also housed the
obligatory crystal ball. Rose was seated at a small card table in
the center of the tent that had a purple, crushed velvet cloth
edged with fringe draped over it. The chairs were just ordinary
plastic folding ones that