by Lizzie Shane
That could refer to love or to his being in a new town in a new job. “Do you like Haralson?”
“I do. I think this was just the change I needed. Even though I no longer lived in the house where Ruth and I started our lives together, there were memories all over town. Our first date. Our first kiss. I could go through town pointing out the landmarks.” He gestured to an imaginary spot to his right. “The first fight we ever had was right there.” He pointed to his left. “And there’s where we made up.”
Elizabeth smiled sadly at him. “Believe me, I’ve been right there in your shoes. Which is why I packed up my toddler and joined the carnival.”
“Mom still thinks you were crazy for it.”
“I know. She’s mentioned it. About a thousand times. But it’s turned into a life I love. It’s not for everyone. But it now gives me the opportunity to spend winters in Sudden Falls with Ben and Annie.” And the new baby. She didn’t mention that. Elizabeth knew that no matter how nice a person you were, it was hard to be confronted with someone else’s blazing happiness when you were dealing with loss.
“How long until you become a grandma?”
Apparently, Chris had already been told. “Only a few weeks now.” She pulled another card. That was interesting. The Empress. In this deck, The Empress had blonde flowing hair and a peach-colored earth mother dress.
“Tell me about the job. What are you doing? Do you like your new hospital?”
“You’re looking at Haralson General’s newest pediatrician.” He smiled. “My office is at the hospital, so I’ll have regular office hours, but also be the doctor in charge of any pediatric cases coming in through the emergency room.”
“Do you love it?”
“I’ve been here for three days! It’s hard to say. But I think I will.”
“Good. You deserve nothing but good things.” She pulled another card. Speaking of good things: the Ace of Cups. New Love. She couldn’t help but smile.
“Aunt Izzy, you’re a nut.”
“That’s the consensus. But why do you mention it?”
“The smile caused by whatever you just saw in the cards.”
She winked. “You got me.”
“So, hit me.” He leaned forward with the good cheer she loved so much about him. “What does my future hold?”
She pulled a fifth card. Typically, the fifth card was the outcome card in a five-card reading. The three of cups. “Joy,” she said. “Your future holds so much joy.”
Elizabeth felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. Chris been through so much and he was such a good man. She so wanted his future to be nothing but joy and love. He deserved that.
He smiled and reached out to squeeze her arm. “I’m not going to take up a bunch of your time while you’re working. But I wanted to let you know I was in town and hopefully we can get together some evening when you’re free.”
“The carnival is closed Monday through Thursday.”
“I’ll pick you up for dinner on Monday, then.” He bussed a kiss across her cheek, and before she knew it, the tent flap closed behind his retreating form.
Elizabeth heard approaching chatter, the sign of potential new clients. She began picking the five-card spread off the table, one card at a time. The curtains parted as she reached for the third card. The Empress.
“Hello?”
Elizabeth looked up from the image of the blonde Empress with her flowing hair and off-the-shoulder, peach colored dress tied with a pale sage sash, startled to find a young blonde woman, tall with smiling blue eyes. She wore a gauzy off-the-shoulder bohemian peach-colored dress adorned with a wide, sage-colored sash.
“Velcome.” Elizabeth blinked and cleared her throat, and began her usual patter to get the client comfortable and in the right frame of mind. Years of practice made it almost reflex. “Seet. Seet.” She indicated the bench of across from her. “And who might you be?”
“I’m Ellie,” the blonde woman said as she sat down, smiling shyly.
Elizabeth took both of Ellie’s hands in hers. The woman wore no rings, and she bore no white circle where one had recently been. Her nails were unpolished, short and neat. She had several clumsily braided friendship bracelets which she wore on her right wrist, and a sterling silver bangle charm bracelet on her left. The charms include a graduation cap with the year four years in the past, an oval with the numbers 26.2, a jagged half heart that read “best”, which Elizabeth suspected was half of a “best friends” charm set, an aquamarine inside a fish, a puppy charm, and finally, a charm with a bunch of kids on it.
“You work with or near children, yes?” she said, squeezing her hands before settling back on her stool. Between that charm and the childish friendship bracelets, she’d bet on kindergarten teacher. She seemed a little young to have her own kids. But it was better to guess vaguely and get a client to tell you the details herself.
The young woman smiled. “I’m a social worker.”
“And what question can I help you find the answer to today?”
She narrowed her eyes as if the question required a level of contemplation before answering, so Elizabeth helped her along.
“Do you have questions of money, work, family or love?”
Ellie smiled when Elizabeth said “love.”
“Love it is,” Elizabeth said, before Ellie actually answered.
“How did you know?”
She winked. “I’m psychic.” Not to mention, good at reading people. “Let’s start with a card reading, shall we?” Elizabeth picked up the Ellie-doppleganger Empress card from Chris’ reading and slid it into her deck along with the Ace and Three of Cups. With a flourish, she shuffled the deck several times, before spreading the cards out, face down in an arc in front of Ellie. “Please select one card with your non-dominant hand and place it face up. Then I want you to select five more cards and place them face down in front of you, left to right.”
“Why my left hand?” Ellie asked.
“Your dominant hand is more likely to act with reason. Your non-dominant with intuition.”
“Oh.” She smiled. “Groovy.” She selected the first card.
It was absolutely no surprise to Elizabeth that the card she placed face-up on the table was the Empress.
“This card represents you. The Empress says to me that you are a nurturer.”
Ellie nodded. “Wow. She even looks like me.”
“She does,” Elizabeth said.
Ellie drew five cards from the deck and placed them face-down as Elizabeth had instructed.
Elizabeth reached for the first card and turned it over. “The first card represents your past. Eight of Swords. This is the card of isolation. Of holding people at arm’s length.” She watched to see if this explanation resonated with the young woman.
Ellie nodded slowly.
“The next is the card of your present.” Slowly she turned over the second card. “Four of Swords. You’ve been through a period of contemplation and healing. Needing rest. You might have suffered a heartbreak, and now you’re starting to believe you’re ready to love again.”
More nodding, and Elizabeth suppressed a smile. This girl should never play poker. Her emotions played across her face in glorious technicolor.
“The third card represents that which is influencing your future.” She flipped the third card. “Strength.” Elizabeth felt a chill climb up her neck, which was surprising, because even with the fan going, it had to be over eighty degrees in the tent. “This may refer to your own internal strength, but more likely it refers to someone else who has been through a grave trial and has also now begun to heal.” Elizabeth couldn’t help but think of Chris.
“The next card is the advice the cards have for you.” She flipped the fourth card over. “Ace of Cups. That’s often a card of new love.” Her heart shimmered a little at the look of pure hope that chased across Ellie’s face. This was a girl who deserved love too. Everyone did.
“Finally…” She turned over the last card.
“Three of cups. Joy.” The chill trailed down her arms and legs, overtaking her entire body. She wouldn’t be surprised to learn that lightning had struck the center pole of her tent.
“Are you okay?” Ellie asked.
Elizabeth quickly pulled it together. “Yes, yes. Of course.” She took a deep breath. “I have very good feelings about you and your future.” She gathered the cards. “If you would allow me…” She lifted her crystal ball from the left side of the table, and set it down in the middle of her reading space, swiping at the switch that made the “magic” visible. Clients loved all those swirling colors.
“Place your hands at the base of the globe,” Elizabeth said.
Ellie placed her hands at the bottom of the crystal ball, and Elizabeth saw the swirling colors indicating the “fortune” was being forecast. “You will soon meet your true love,” she said. A vision of Chris as a small boy, his ready laugh, bright blue eyes, and tow-headed curls lighting up any room, formed in her own mind. “I see a tall man. A tragedy has taken away his easy laugh, but it’s still hiding in him—just waiting for the right person to help release it.”
She really felt deep in her semi-psychic bones that this was the woman meant for Chris. How could she make that happen? Sometimes subtlety wasn’t worth the effort. “His name is Chris Evans.”
“Chris Evans,” Ellie murmured.
“Yesss…” Elizabeth pretended to gaze into the crystal ball, but was taken aback when the swirling colors coalesced into the figures of five men, each caught in a torrent whirling colored smoke and chaos as Ellie floated in front of each of them.
She blinked, jerking her gaze up…only to find Ellie staring at her.
“That is…weirdly specific,” the young woman said.
“It is, it is,” Elizabeth nodded, stifling a groan.
What have I done? She was definitely in the “messing with the universe” territory, but now the deed was done. She needed to do something to fix any trouble she’d just caused.
There was a basket on a small shelf at the edge of the tent, and Elizabeth quickly turned to it. In the basket she found what she was looking for, a small jade pendant. Elizabeth hoped that the natural protection and healing qualities of the stone would keep Ellie, Chris, and the men she saw in her vision safe from harm.
“I would like to give you this charm, for your bracelet,” she said, handing Ellie the inexpensive jade orb, with a small hole through the middle attached to a small loop of silver wire.
Ellie smiled, but took the charm. “It’s pretty, but—why?”
This jade charm will bring you, and those you meet, luck, healing and love.” Elizabeth helped her slide it onto the bangle of her bracelet. “Wear it wherever you might meet Chris Evans…” She glanced back at the swirling crystal ball. “And for the next few weeks, wherever you go, true love will follow. You do this, yes? You do this.”
Ellie blinked at Elizabeth’s sudden vehemence, but nodded quickly. “Yes—of course! I will. I promise.” She stood, admiring the jade stone. “Thank you.” She ducked back out of the tent, a smile on her pretty, cheerful face.
Elizabeth blew out a heavy sigh. That…was close. She normally didn’t tempt the universe so much.
Then she turned back to her table, to clear the space for the next reading…and stopped, transfixed by her “fake” crystal ball.
The power switch had never been flipped on.
But it was still glowing.
“Oh...dear,” Elizabeth murmured, her gaze shifting to the tent flap again. “What did I just set into motion?”
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