Smokey Jo

Although her given name is Josephine, Smokey Jo has not been called that since she was a child. A small brown gnome of a woman barely 4 feet tall, she is heavy set but light on her feet, with mischievous eyes that shine like black buttons. Coppery skinned with a little of the Lowland look to her, she has wild curly dark hair streaked with gray. No one knows where Smokey Jo came from—the most popular tale is that she was a foundling left on Aubergine's stoop by gypsies traveling through the area long ago. This was common in the days of magic as little people were thought to bring either good or bad fortune to their benefactors.

Since she arrived, Smokey Jo been Aubergine's constant companion at the Potluck. As a child she was known as a fire starter who could not keep her hands off the tinderbox and delighted in playing in the coal bin. Once, quite by accident, she lit her hair on fire and ended up singeing her brows and ever after became known as Smokey Jo.

Nowadays, Smokey's whimsical ways and wry expressions accentuate her wrinkles. Unlike the other girls who became part of the circle of twelve, Smokey Jo was not called to Aubergine so much as just always a fixture at Potluck Yarn. Able to read Aubergine's moods, she is patient and loyal to Aubergine alone, which has always made the other girls wary of what they say around her. Smokey can be gleeful and impetuous as a child which often gets her into trouble, although she tries to avoid danger, as it upsets her greatly when events go awry.

Known as the second of the twelve, Smokey is the mistress of the dye shed and it is she alone who is entrusted with the great pot. When the twelve were still the twelve, she alone would light the fires and fill the dye pot days when that night the circle would convene. For years now, she has been trying to convince Aubergine to call the circle of twelve once more, even though all know not everyone will come.

Smokey has no knowledge of the magical lore of the crystals, for as a gnome given by gypsies, she has her own mystical power. She has the scent of wood smoke about her and sometimes seems to disappear in a curlicue of smoke or wisp of fog, only to reappear in the garden or back alley behind the dye shed.