The Wrong Path - By Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris Page 0,59
who were probably irritated about how obnoxious they were.
Trevor bought her cotton candy, which she happily carried around despite the look on Claire’s face. She loved cotton candy, and she wasn’t going to let Claire take that away from her. She liked it too much.
“Oh my god,” Claudia gasped in delight, coming to a dead stop at the front of the group with Claire. Erin barely missed smacking into her. “It’s a fortune teller!”
Annabelle added her delighted squeals to her friend’s, trying not to roll her eyes. She hated fortune tellers. They were such a waste of money. But she dutifully joined the others in line at the purple tent, covered with cheesy moons and stars. Claire went in first, and she came out snickering. Next was Zach, and then Claudia, who came out rolling her eyes. Annabelle internalized a sigh as she ducked under the golden tassels hanging from the purple cloth covering the door, stepping into the tent.
It was about as cliché as she expected, complete with an old gypsy-looking woman sitting in the center of the circular tent at a dark blue, velvet-covered table. Weird knickknacks that looked like they were from a joke shop surrounded her, hanging on the walls and up on pedestals. She was holding a deck of cards and eyeing Annabelle so seriously that she laughed nervously.
“Have a seat,” the woman told her, nodding at the wooden chair across from her.
Annabelle slowly sat down.
“Is there a question you would like to know the answer to?” the woman asked. “Or would you just like a general reading?”
On the very slim chance that this stuff could work, she didn’t want to know the answer to anything. She was afraid of what she would hear. “Just a general reading,” she requested, smiling hesitantly.
The woman studied her for a moment longer, then shuffled the cards. She held the stack out for Annabelle. “Cut them into three piles. They don’t have to be even. Just wherever you feel they should be cut.”
Okay. This was weird. Annabelle felt along the deck, and though she knew it was just in her mind, she did feel like there were certain places that she should cut the deck. She split the cards into three piles and leaned back, looking up at the woman.
“Tap the piles in the order you feel most appropriate,” the woman told her. “One, two, three.”
This was really, really weird. Still, she felt a pull toward the far left deck, then the right, and finally the middle.
Almost instantly the woman gathered the piles in that order, placing the middle deck in her palm, the right on top of it, and then the left on the very top of the pile. She flipped the cards into two large fans on the table, until all the cards were out of her hands. Then she leaned forward and studied them. After a moment, she frowned and looked up at Annabelle.
“You’re not going down the right path,” the woman told her bluntly. Stunned, Annabelle stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. “The pain in your eyes will continue if you don’t figure out where to turn.” She tapped a few of the cards, walking her fingers down them. “You do know, though. You just don’t want to allow yourself to do it.” She looked up at Annabelle curiously. “You’re afraid of being alone, but you’re not alone. You just won’t accept it.”
Annabelle gaped at her, then stood and hastily drew a twenty out of her pocket. “Look, lady… Some people are really susceptible to stuff like this. You shouldn’t go around throwing out crap like this. You could seriously damage someone’s life.”
As she tossed the twenty on the table, the woman’s hand grasped her wrist. Annabelle gasped and looked down at her, terror running through her veins. She had a vaguely hysterical mental image of a crazy old lady in a gypsy outfit running down the walkway yelling at her. “That’s it,” the woman insisted, her voice low and strong. “That’s the strength that burns inside of you. Use it. There’s nothing to fear. You have others waiting to hold you up.”
A hundred emotions went through her. But before she could formulate any questions, the woman sat back and released her wrist, nodding her toward the door. “You may not believe,” she said, “but the advice is still true.”
Annabelle backed out of tent as quickly as she could.
When her friends saw her, they burst out laughing. “You okay?” Trevor asked, laughing as he