Twice Burned

by David Bergantino

  "Uh, Kirk…?" She let the question hang.

  "Don't worry, kiddos. We're perfectly safe. And almost there."

  Ricky pointed forward, toward a pulsating red and blue glow just ahead on the two-lane highway on which they traveled. "Up there on the right, Kirk."

  "I see it, pal."

  Lance and Colleen exchanged a questioning look. Somehow, this was shaping up to be not as pleasant a surprise as Colleen had expected. She forced herself to relax. Kirk deserved her faith.

  Reaching the blue and red lights, Kirk pulled off the road. Dust billowed under the car from the gravel parking area they entered. The light came from a faltering neon sign above a ramshackle house. As they pulled to a stop, it seemed more like a hut. Shutters hung at odd angles to windows. Tattered lace hung over them on the inside. Arcane symbols decorated the peeling, painted exterior. A sickly yellow lightbulb barely illuminated a porch that seemed unsafe to stand upon.

  "Where are we?" Colleen asked, her voice trembling slightly.

  "Can'tcha read the sign?" Kirk replied, pointing to the neon lights.

  The sign read: Fortunes Told.

  "This is our surprise?" Lance asked dubiously.

  Before Kirk could reply, Ricky asked Lance, "Ever been to a psychic?"

  "Nope." Lance shook his head.

  "Well, surprise!" Kirk shouted, as if Lance and Colleen had walked into a secret party.

  "I don't know…" Lance seemed ready to leave. That would have been fine with Colleen. The whole place looked more than a little creepy. Ricky read Lance's expression and sprang into action.

  "C'mon, Lance, be a sport. It can't hurt ya. I've been to this woman, Madame Xaviera." He spoke her name with a fake Hungarian accent. "She's a trip. This'll be fun, I swear."

  Lance wavered for a moment. Then he looked at Colleen to see what she was thinking. She nodded slightly, showing that, nervous or not, she was game.

  "Okay. Fine."

  "Yes!" barked Kirk. Then he winked at Ricky, told everyone to follow him, and started for the rickety porch.

  "Couldn't you have just bought us cappuccino at the coffeehouse?" Lance asked as Kirk opened the screen door. He almost ripped it off the one hinge by which it was hung.

  Kirk laughed as he pushed the inner door open and they entered Madame Xaviera's domain.

  Chapter 8

  The run-down exterior of the fortune-teller's building did not prepare them for what lay inside. The waiting room was small, but lush. A purple-upholstered couch with overstuffed cushions sat to the left of the entrance. On top of an elegant glass coffee table, a crystal wizard flung his delicate hands to the sky in a gesture of conjuring. Lithographs of occult scenes — effectively moody — hung on walls papered in a gold foil.

  Opposite the entrance was a doorway covered with a beaded curtain. Next to that was a small wooden desk, at which sat a young Indian woman. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, accentuating the length of her slender, brown neck. Crystals dangled and glittered from her earlobes. Her dark eyes flared mysteriously at the sight of Ricky and Kirk. She stood and uttered a single word in a deep, clear voice:

  "Yes?"

  Ricky approached her. "We have an appointment to see Madame Xaviera."

  The woman studied him, her eyes flaring dramatically once more. For a moment she said nothing. Then:

  "Yes. One moment." In one slow, graceful movement, she parted the curtain of beads with her tiny hands and disappeared through them.

  Kirk smiled at Lance and Colleen, who now sat on the couch. "Well, whattaya think so far?"

  "Spooky," Lance told him.

  "Mmmm-hmmm," Colleen agreed with a nod.

  Kirk was pleased with their reactions. "I know. Isn't it great?" Both Colleen and Lance could only chuckle at Kirk's obvious excitement.

  "I'm here all the time," Ricky said, trying to impress the others. Then, in a loud whisper, added, "They love me here."

  Just as he said that, the Indian woman appeared again. There was no doubt she had heard Ricky's boast.

  "Madame Xaviera will see you now," she announced. With one delicate hand, she drew the beaded curtain to one side and motioned for them to enter. Kirk, Lance, and Colleen stood and walked toward the curtain. Kirk entered first, followed by Lance. As Colleen walked into the back room, she heard Ricky's voice behind her, in a hushed tone.

  "Uh, excuse me?"

  Colleen stopped and turned, thinking he had addressed her. Instead, she saw he was speaking to the Indian woman. In one hand he held up what appeared to be a fluorescent pink business card. The Indian woman nodded almost imperceptibly and took it from him. After clicking it twice with a hole punch, she handed the card back. Ricky thanked the woman, and stuck the card into his pocket. Before it disappeared, Colleen glimpsed an occult symbol and the words 12th visit free! Ricky caught Colleen watching and smiled sheepishly at her. Colleen raised an eyebrow, then continued through the doorway, with Ricky close behind.

  This new room was as plain as the front room was elegant. In the center was a round wooden table surrounded by five chairs. Four were simple wood chairs that matched the table. One was a thronelike, cushioned chair. The fabric of its cover matched the plush purple couch. Toward the back of the room sat a dresser, the top of which was littered with a variety of fortune-telling tools, among them tarot cards, rune stones, and a crystal ball. Against the back wall was yet another doorway, this one with an actual door rather than beads. The room was utterly windowless. This made Colleen feel somewhat claustrophobic.

  The group approached the table and stood around it, uncertain of what to do next. The beads clicked once more and the Indian woman spoke one last time. "Sit, please."

  Colleen sat to the right of the oversized chair, which was undoubtedly meant for Madame Xaviera. Next to her sat Lance. Kirk sat on the other side of the fortuneteller's chair, and Ricky took the remaining wooden seat. As soon as they were seated, the overhead light from the candelabra fixture above the table dimmed slightly. Expectant silence descended upon the room.

  Kirk opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a sound that came from behind them. Looking toward the rear door, they saw its doorknob turn slowly. Kirk made a gulping sound in his throat for comic effect and Ricky hit him.

  The door swung open. Madame Xaviera stepped into the room.

  "Good evening," she said brightly, in a light European accent. Her exact age was impossible to tell, though she wasn't quite as ancient as Mrs. Wodell. She wore a simple peasant dress, and covered herself with a black knit shawl. Recognizing Ricky, she nodded. "Ah. Yes." Ricky was flattered by her notice of him. Without another word, Madame Xaviera turned her attention to her auguring devices.

  With the fortune-teller's back turned, Ricky leaned across the table toward Lance and Colleen. "Well, well? Isn't this cool?" he whispered.

  "Calm down," Lance said, also leaning forward and whispering. "Nothing's happened yet."

  "Young lady!" Madame Xaviera's voice made everyone jump.

  "Yes, ma'am?" Colleen said, when she found her voice again.

  The woman smiled brightly. "Such a polite girl. Shall I read your tarot?" Madame Xaviera held up a pine box, out of which she produced a deck of large cards.

  Colleen shyly declined. "Oh, no, thank you."

  "Go ahead, Colleen," Kirk urged her.

  "No, you go first," Colleen told him. "I just want to see how it works."

  "Come on, Colleen." Kirk was being gently insistent.

  "Sure, Colleen, take a test drive." Now Lance was encouraging her to go. But Colleen felt uneasy.

  "I don't know."

  Madame Xaviera laughed very pleasantly. "Ah, but the pretty girl must go first. I'll do a simple reading, so you see how it works."

  The fortune-teller's face seemed warm and friendly. She wasn't nearly as spooky as Colleen would have expected. Madame Xaviera's smile finally won her over.

  "Okay… let's do start simple, though. Is that all right?"

&nb
sp; "Of course. Here." Madame Xaviera handed her the deck of tarot cards. "Shuffle these until you feel they are ready, then cut them and place them in front of me in three piles."

  Colleen first tried to shuffle them like a regular deck of cards. But the tarot cards were larger than normal, almost as big as her hand. She quickly lost control of the deck and managed only to scatter the cards over the surface of the table. She suddenly feared that her clumsiness might have somehow «broken» the cards. But Madame Xaviera smiled at her without recrimination, and Colleen gathered the cards back into a pile. Resorting to scrambling the cards on the table before her, Colleen soon restacked them, squared them off, and divided them into three piles in front of Madame Xaviera.

  "Very good!" declared Madame Xaviera, as if Colleen had just been a particularly clever little child. The woman picked up the three piles in the order opposite that which Colleen had placed them, and made them one stack again. As she slowly dealt out nine cards, she explained, "I will be reading these cards from my left. The first three represent your past. The next three, your present." She dealt the last three with a flourish. "And these, your future.

  "Are you ready, young lady?"

  After looking at everyone else at the table, Colleen turned back to Madame Xaviera. She took a deep breath and answered, "Okay. Ready."

  "Good!" the fortune-teller proclaimed. Then, taking the first card on her left between two thin fingers, Madame Xaviera turned it over. Placing it back on the table in front of her, she tapped it thoughtfully. Everyone else leaned forward to see what it looked like. The card depicted children playing happily under a canopy supported by four long sticks. Beyond the canopy, a house sat on top of a tall hill. Madame Xaviera smiled.

  "This is the four of staves," she explained, pointing to the post at each comer of the canopy. "This indicates a happy household, built on a firm foundation. See how happy the children are? Everything is right in their world. As it has been in yours in past years."

  "Yes, that's true," Colleen agreed. "I get along with my parents better than most kids I know, I guess." She hoped it didn't show on her face how unimpressed she was by this "revelation."

  "Don't worry, child. You wanted me to go easy on you, so I am." Madame Xaviera laughed good-naturedly. Suddenly it didn't matter to Colleen whether any great mysteries were solved in this reading. She realized she was having a great time.

  Now Madame Xaviera turned over the next card. On it, a woman sat on a throne, holding a yellow circle with a star in it. When Colleen recognized the symbol as a pentagram, she looked fearfully up to the fortuneteller. Only a pleasant smile rested on her lips.

  "That is a coin," said the woman, sensing her fears. "And this is the Queen of Coins. It suggests a woman, or mature girl, with a giving, charitable nature."

  "That's you, for sure," Kirk interjected. Then he looked embarrassed at his outburst. "Well," he said defensively, "you are a giving person."

  "I'll second that motion," Lance offered, much to Kirk's relief.

  Madame Xaviera laughed. "Of course it is you. I sense in you a person others can count on. One who is supportive of others, who gives freely of herself without the expectation of reciprocation."

  Colleen's only answer was to blush.

  "We'll move on," said Madame Xaviera, winking. Her smile faded when she turned over the final card representing the past. Colleen looked closely and saw a young boy or girl waving a sword in the air. She noticed that from Madame Xaviera's perspective, the card would be upside down.

  "This represents the very recent past. You've been having problems lately. With a girl at school, I'd say." Colleen sat up straight in her chair. The woman had her attention now. "Yes, and she's been quite cruel. Striking you, I'd say." At Colleen's look of shock, the fortuneteller needled Colleen gently. "When you play cards, my dear, you should keep a poker face. I may be picking this up by your reactions."

  "But I didn't react until you said something." Colleen was suitably impressed. "It's true. There's been this awful girl at school, picking on me."

  "You see how the card is upside down? This reversed position alters the meaning of the card. Usually the card means something negative. The reversed meaning of this particular card, and your reaction, indicate she's not going to leave you alone unless she's made to by someone more powerful than she. You should tell a teacher, or another adult you trust."

  "I'm sure she'll get bored soon enough. No use telling on her." She saw the dubious looks from the guys at the table. And deep down, even Colleen knew that Vicki wasn't going to let up on her any time soon.

  "Let's see what is going on in your life presently." The next card showed a blond man in shining armor, apparently talking to a fish that leaped from the gold chalice he held. "I see you have a new man in your life."

  Colleen couldn't help but look up at Lance.

  "Maybe," she said coyly.

  "Whoever he is," said Madame Xaviera, feigning ignorance, "he is kind, caring, takes great pride in nurturing others, and is a very sensitive individual."

  Colleen was speechless. Poker face, Colleen! she thought. Don't be so obvious. Then a dark cloud passed over Kirk's expression. Or so she thought. The cloud was gone the next minute, revealing one of Kirk's characteristic goofy looks. The reading had become very embarrassing, Colleen thought. Within moments, she was even more delightfully embarrassed. The next card Madame Xaviera turned over showed two naked figures, a man and a woman, holding hands. At the bottom of the card were the words "The Lovers."

  "Lance and Colleen," Ricky chided. "You dogs!"

  "Shut up, Ricky," Lance told him defensively.

  Madame Xaviera stepped in, first giving Ricky a withering glance. "Your friend has been here enough to know this card means more than what he's implying," she told Lance. "It means a deep, intimate, loving relationship, not simply carnality. Reversed, it would suggest lasciviousness and vice. But it is right side up. And personally, I think it's a beautiful card."

  Kirk rolled his eyes.

  "And now," Madame Xaviera announced, "the final card of your present."

  Colleen's breath stopped in her chest when she saw the next card. A skeleton sat atop a skeletal horse, trampling people, leaving corpses in its wake. At the bottom of the card, one word: "Death."

  But Madame Xaviera's smile did not falter. "Now I am certain this is your first reading. Everyone fears this card, but in its proper position, it portends good things. Only reversed would it mean death, destruction, hopelessness." With a thin finger she pointed out a detail in the card's background. "See the sunrise? What this card shows is not death, but the end of one situation and the beginning of a new one." Then she leaned close to Colleen and whispered, although everyone at the table could hear. "And judging by your previous two cards, it looks like a very wonderful new beginning indeed."

  Prophecy or not, Colleen liked what she was hearing.

  "Now we see what the future holds." Madame Xaviera turned the next card. Her frown returned, this time with alarming intensity. The woman's eyes seemed glued to the card, which showed a group of people striking each other with staffs. Colleen looked from the scene to the fortune-teller. The room became utterly silent. Even Kirk had stopped fidgeting.

  "What is it, Madame Xaviera? What does it mean?"

  The fortune-teller took a deep breath. "A battle. And a fierce one at that." She wasn't speaking so much as intoning. Real darkness echoed in her voice for the first time. "Five of staves, reversed. You will be caught in the vortex of a great conflict. Friends, loved ones, others, will be lost."

  "So much for 'happily ever after'," joked Kirk. Colleen looked sharply up at Kirk, but it was Madam Xaviera who raged at him.

  "I am not joking here. A shadow has fallen upon you. All of you!" Kirk sat back in his seat as if he was afraid she'd strike him. Fiercely Madame Xaviera flipped over the next card. "And your opponent. King of Swords, reversed. Cruel, powerful, merciless. The sight of him will cause you despair." Her voice rose in pitch. Ri
cky leaned forward, captivated by the fortune-teller's bizarre behavior. Madame Xaviera swept the room with a fiery gaze. "And he will touch all of you!"

  "The torch bearer!" Colleen whispered under her breath. Madame Xaviera heard her.

  "Yes. There will be fire. And there will be blood." She placed her hand on the final card. "And there will be…" Madame Xaviera quickly turned the card over, slamming it to the table in front of her. When she removed her hand, everyone at the table gasped, even Madame Xaviera. The card before her, which represented Colleen's future, was Death.

  Reversed.

  Chapter 9

  "That's impossible!" cried Madame Xaviera. She held the Death card between two fingers as if she were holding a dead rat by the tail.

  "What do you mean?" asked Lance. Colleen was too terrified to speak.

  The fortune-teller threw the card down onto the first Death card. She gestured at them agitatedly, as if demanding an explanation from Lance. "There's only one card of each in a tarot deck. Only one Death card. Impossible."

  "Maybe it got mixed in from another deck accidentally," Lance offered.

  "I don't have another deck!" Lance could feel the woman's hot breath on his face from the force of her reply. Then abruptly she rose and crashed through the beaded curtain. The beads swung violently in all directions for several seconds. No one spoke. From the front room, they could hear sounds of a hushed argument.

  "Uh, guys," Kirk finally said. "I think it's time to go."

  "Please," begged Colleen. "Can we?"

  "Good idea," agreed Lance, who stood.

  Pushing their chairs away from the table, the rest of them rose to their feet. Madame Xaviera suddenly appeared at the doorway among the beads. She had calmed down somewhat.

  "You are leaving, of course." She seemed resigned. "I understand." She stepped aside to let them pass.

  Out in the front room, the expression of the Indian woman had not changed. If she had just argued with Madame Xaviera, she showed no sign of it. Her eyes merely blazed characteristically as they passed. When they reached the door, the beads clicked behind them. The fortune-teller watched them go.