that. Sherry can have my weird spiderweb energy if it makes her feel special. I don’t want it. I just want to sleep.
The woman gestures at the cards. "Take them and shuffle them as much as you feel is necessary."
I grip the cards and study them. They feel a little waxy but well-used, and the spiderweb on the back of each card seems to gleam as if shiny. I shuffle the cards lightly, flicking them a couple of times before cutting twice and then offering them back to her.
She taps a spot on the table, and I put the stack of cards there. "What's your first question?" she asks, watching me with intent eyes.
I think. I have so many but there's one that keeps rising to mind over and over again. "Who is it I heard? The strange man?"
The fortune teller nods slowly. I can see Sherry staring at me, but I ignore her. I have to, because if I feel silly, I'm going to get up and leave and I need to know what this woman sees. I keep my gaze on the fortune teller and watch as she carefully picks up the first card from the deck and sets it down on the table.
It's a dark-haired man on a throne.
"The King of Pentacles," she says, looking thoughtful. "That's a strong, assertive man. One of power and ambition. He's someone that stops everyone in their tracks when they see him. He's…" She thinks for a moment. "He's like a force of nature. Takes over everything in his path."
I blink, staring at the card. It's a man. What she says matches the voice I keep hearing but…I still don't know who it is.
"Are you dating someone?" Sherry asks, amused. “And you didn’t tell me about it? You hooker.”
I shake my head. There’s no one.
"Be silent," the fortune teller hisses at Sherry. "This is not about you."
My friend gasps and shrinks back.
Well, crap. I give Sherry an apologetic look and then turn back to the fortune teller. "I don't…I don't know this man. There's no guy in my life like this."
The woman tilts her head. "Are you asking who he is to you?" At my nod, she turns over another card. "The Lovers."
The card has two people standing apart, a man and a woman. They're both naked. I can pretty much guess what this is about. “You sure this is my fortune?”
"If he's not a lover, he will be soon," the psychic murmurs, ignoring my question. “The cards don’t lie.”
"But…how? I don't understand." It can't be someone at work, and I don't do much outside of work. Especially not lately. "Where am I going to meet this guy? I keep going to his apartment and there’s no one there. There’s never anyone there."
The fortune teller turns over another card. It's a woman, floating in midair, with a green wreath around her. "The World, reversed."
"What does that mean?"
She puts a finger to her chin, thinking. "When The World is right side up, it means that a journey of knowledge is coming to an end. The circle is being completed." She traces her finger around the wreath on the card. "But for you, the journey is just about to begin."
2
When we get back to the office, Sherry doesn't speak to me for the rest of the day. She’s either mad because the fortune teller was rude to her, or she thinks I’m crazy. I'll take her out for lunch tomorrow and apologize up and down. She'll forget all about it, other than teasing me at the next office happy hour. Now that I’ve had a few hours to stew on the reading, it does sound a bit like the usual “you're going to meet a man” schtick. As we left, Sherry filled my ears with how gullible I was to fall for it.
Maybe it was a silly thing to do. I don’t care. I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere.
A man. Like a force of nature.
The lovers.
You're about to begin a journey.
Those thoughts repeat in my head over and over again as I shut down my computer at the end of the day and gather my things. More than that, though, I keep thinking of what she said about my…glow, or my aura, or whatever she called it. My spiderwebs.
You're about to begin a journey.
I wonder what that means. What damn journey? I've lived in the city all my life. I've worked at the bank for five of those years, and went to