at the same time. She loved her free spirit and how nothing could bring her friend down. She also loved that she was very honest, sometimes brutally,and that if she had something to say she wasn’t afraid to let it out. She felt sorry for her though because she knew deep down that Drew was struggling with a past that she probably hadn’t even told God about.
Drew would never talk about her personal life even to her though, her closest friend. She didn’t have to be a psychiatrist to tell that something was wrong. Even she knew that Drew wasn’t fooling anyone with the tough girl rebel routine. She was hiding something that Liza knew she desperately needed to get out. Besides, the girl was 25 years old. It was time to grow up. Maybe finding out that life doesn’t always just pick itself back up when you knock it down was what her friend needed.
“I love this apartment. It looks out over all of the nosey people in the city.” Drew whined. “I can walk to work. Depending on which way the wind is blowing I can smell the garbage from Bourbon Street or the bakeries at Jackson Square. Who could ask for a better place to live?” She stood over the balcony looking out at the buildings that surrounded her. She had never roamed far from the city. It was where she felt that she belonged. She had no intentions of leaving.
“Well, I for one have only stayed with you three nights and am already sick of the smells down here. I love you, Drew, but I am ready to go home to my little suburb across the Ponchatrain. It is quiet there and I don’t have to worry about how close I carry my purse or if someone is going to puke on my shoes.”
Drew snorted at that. “It isn’t that bad here, if you aren’t a tourist that is.”
“No, it is great really, just not every day for me.”
“I guess I could always go back to tending bar at Boudreaux’s. He nearly fell to the ground weeping when I took the job at the gallery. If hewasn’t gay I would swear he was in love with me.” Drew cooed, batting those eyes again making Liza roll her own.
“Do you think he would give you your old loft back, the one that you didn’t ever sleep in because you lived right over the bar and partied every morning until 6 or 7?” Liza asked.
“Good point. I couldn’t live there and still work at the gallery. I’d never make it to work.” She said chewing on her nail, contemplating another cigarette. “I still need to find a part time job though. I really need to buy my own place. My credit isn’t the greatest in the world though.”
“You are rambling. Why don’t you go back to fortune telling? You are great at reading tarots and palms.” Liza suggested.
“Because the last few times I tried to read other people’s tarots I kept coming up with the same cards. I seriously doubt that girl Cookie from “the corner”, a computer geek, and a bakery chef are going to all end up with the same fortune. Then I tried to read them for myself and guess what? The same exactcards!” Drew said as she got up and walked towards the balcony rail again.
“Did you remember to shuffle them?” Liza laughed. Drew just glared at her, making her friend take her a little more seriously.
“Well, what were the cards?” Liza was always very interested in Drew’s other worldly ventures though she never could tell if Drew was taking it seriously herself or not. Coming from her Nana’s “witchy” world she knew all about tell-tale signs of the future and sometimes how the past opened doors for the future. Drew may not have believed in what she practiced, but Liza did.
“Ten of the Major Arcana, which is really strange; The Wheel of Fortune, The Fool, Hermit, The Moon, Chains, The Lovers, Death, Judgment, Justice, and The Sun. The meanings aren’t exactly what they sound like.” Drew said when she saw the horror on Liza’s face. “At least, they aren’t supposed to be.”
As she watched a couple walk by holding hands and noticed that the poor boy had been suckered into buying one of the crazy ladies roses down the street, she thought to herself that there was one card that bothered her more than any of the others, even the Death card, and