13 Bites Volume I (13 Bites Anthology Series)

by Lynne Cantwell

  Tina opened her mouth to ask why, but something in his tone and the way his eyes looked stopped her. “Sorry,” she said.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “I’m sorry that I don’t have any patience. I’ve been searching for Truman for the past few months, and no one can lead me in the right direction. Is there anything that you can tell me about him that might help?”

  “I don’t know anything about him,” Tina admitted. “The first time I ever saw him was at this fair last year. It’s a three-day show, and during the first day he didn’t do a single reading. He just sat there and ignored everyone while he read his books. Some of us tried to say hi and engage him in conversation, but he ignored us too.”

  “He never spoke to you?” Jake asked.

  “Not one word,” Tina admitted.

  “Then how did he know your real name, and that you aren’t really in a wheelchair?”

  Tina shrugged, not appearing too concerned at the mystery. “In today’s world it’s possible to do a bit of web research and find that kind of stuff out,” she said. “When too much information pops up about me, I simply change my name and way of doing things to retain my allure.” She continued to speak about Truman. “You showed up on day two of the fair last year and we were all a bit surprised when first he talked to you, and then he ended up taking you in for a reading.”

  Jake’s frown deepened, but he said nothing.

  “Anyway,” she said. “You were back there for quite a while, which I’m sure you remember, and then after you left he came back to the table and sat down to read. He sat there for maybe another half hour, then he stood up and walked out. I remember thinking he was just going for a bathroom break, since there was still three hours left for the show that day, but he never came back. Didn’t come back the next day, either.”

  “And you never saw him again after that?” Jake asked.

  Tina shook her head. “I expected him to show up at the next show, or maybe the next one after that. He was a strange character, and I vowed that if I ever saw him again I’d approach him and get to know him a bit. But he never showed up at another venue.”

  “What about the others?” Jake asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Have any other people that he gave a reading to come back looking for him?”

  “Oh, I thought I made that clear with my story,” Tina said. “He never gave anyone else a reading, dear.”

  “Damn it!” Jake slammed his hand against the table. Tina winced at the outburst, but said nothing. She could tell that something was wrong, even though she wasn’t certain what it was.

  “What did he tell you during your reading, dear?” she asked.

  Jake closed his eyes and shook his head. “He showed me my future,” Jake said. “He really showed me what was going to happen.”

  Tina felt a thrill of excitement shoot up her spine. Everyone on the circuit knew deep down that what they did wasn’t real. It was obvious from the look on this young man’s face that something different had happened to him, and she wanted to hear about it. “What was it like?” she asked.

  Jake opened his eyes and looked at her. His pupils were wide and there were tears in his eyes.

  “It was horrible,” he whispered.

  ~~~

  “Just one ticket?”

  Jake eyes looked tired and haggard as they met those of the gas station attendant. “What?”

  “Most people are buying at least ten or more tickets for this lottery,” the attendant shrugged as he reached forward to scoop Jake’s money and number selection card from the counter. “Was just wondering if you wanted to go back and pick some more numbers.”

  Jake shook his head. His shoulders were slumped, the clothes on his back loose fitting and dirty. “No,” he said. “One ticket is all it takes to win; ten chances aren’t any better than one with the odds of winning.”

  The cashier smiled and nodded, dropping the money into the cash register and placing Jake’s selection card in the lottery machine. With a quick zipping sound the card disappeared and the machine began to make noise as a formal ticket was printed. The cashier grabbed the ticket and placed it on the counter, pushing it towards Jake with a smile. “There ya go, my man. Best of luck to you.”

  Jake laughed bitterly as he looked at the ticket. He didn’t move to take it from the counter. “Luck,” he spat the word like a curse. “It won’t help me one bit if this ticket wins. I don’t know why I still bother to buy them.”

  “You don’t sound too positive, friend,” the cashier said.

  Jake leaned forward and grinned bitterly. He pushed the ticket back towards the cashier. “This is the winning ticket,” he announced.

  The cashier began to laugh, but something in Jake’s eyes stopped him. “How could you know something like that?” he asked.

  “Remember the lottery winner three weeks ago up in Tulsa?”

  The cashier nodded; he remembered hearing about the fifty million dollar winner on the radio.

  “That was my ticket,” Jake said.

  The cashier frowned and shook his head. “The news said a single mom with three kids won that lottery.”

  “She did,” Jake nodded.

  “Then how can you claim it was you?”

  “I didn’t claim it was me,” Jake said. “I’m telling you that it was my ticket. I picked the numbers and bought the ticket, then I gave it to the girl.”

  “What?” the cashier asked. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

  Jake shrugged and looked down at the ticket.

  The cashier looked at it as well and then back at Jake. “She your girlfriend or something?”

  Jake smiled tiredly. “No, she was just a woman at the gas station. Looked like she could use a break, so I gave her the ticket.”

  “Looked like she could use a break? You gonna tell me you knew that ticket was a winner?”

  Jake nodded. “Every ticket I’ve bought for the past two years has been a winner,” he said.

  The cashier laughed loudly, convinced now that he was talking to a madman. “How come you’re not rich, then?” the cashier asked doubtfully.

  Jake’s eyes became sad. He looked around the small store, making sure no one else had entered, then looked back at the cashier. “If I buy the ticket and keep it, it loses. If I buy the ticket and give it away, then it wins.”

  The room seemed to become very quiet, like a dark cloud of fog had descended over them. The cashier looked at Jake first with doubt, and then with sympathy as he imagined how horrible such a thing would be, if it were true.

  “You don’t believe me,” Jake said. “I don’t blame you; I wouldn’t believe me either.”

  “Well, you have to admit that it does sound impossible.”

  “Yeah,” Jake agreed. “Makes me sound like a crazy man. Maybe that’s the point of it all; to make me go nuts.”

  “You have a job?” the cashier asked.

  “Not anymore,” Jake said.

  “Why not? Because you’re wealthy from winning the lotteries?”

  Jake glared at the cashier. “Haven’t you heard what I’m saying? I haven’t won anything. I haven’t got a penny to my name.”

  The cashier nodded towards the ticket on the counter. “You had three dollars a minute ago.”

  “Yeah,” Jake nodded. “I’ve been picking up change from the ground over the past few days and saved enough just in time to buy a ticket.”

  “Why don’t I buy the ticket from you?” he asked.

  Jake scowled in frustration and began to shake his head. “Why the hell you wanna buy a lottery ticket from a bum like me?” he asked. “Just because I make a claim it’s a winner? Are you that gullible?”

  The cashier’s face flushed with embarrassment. “Well, no,” he admitted. “I just thought a few bucks might help you out.”

  “They would have,” Jake said. He shook his head sadly. “No one ever offers to help me, give me a few bucks for some food.” He tapped the ticket harshly, h
is finger thudding loudly on the metal counter. “Instead they want to buy the ticket from me. What were you thinking? A few hundred bucks?”

  The cashier nodded. He’d been thinking forty dollars, but he was too ashamed to admit it.

  Jake waved his hand dismissively before snatching up the ticket. “Doesn’t matter. Now that you’ve offered to buy the damned thing it won’t win for you. I can’t profit from this ability; trust me, I’ve tried.”

  The cashier, realizing there was no hope of getting the ticket now, became more belligerent. “You’re full of crap anyway,” he scoffed. “I don’t know why I even thought about buying it from you.”

  Jake smiled and walked to the door. He gazed outside and nodded, then looked at the cashier. “Yeah, I’m full of crap,” he agreed. He raised a hand and pointed toward the lottery sign. “What’s the pot for the draw?” he asked.

  “One hundred million,” the cashier said.

  The door opened with a muffled ringing from the bell hanging from the top of it. A middle-aged man walked in. Jake smiled and spoke to him. “Hello, sir. I was wondering if you would do me a favour?” he asked.

  The man stopped and looked at Jake curiously. “What do you need?” he asked.

  “I’m doing a bit of an experiment and need your help,” Jake said. He held up the lottery ticket and extended it towards the man. “I am giving away dreams; more than dreams, actually. I’ve giving away a better reality to those lucky enough to be chosen. I’d like to give you this lottery ticket. My only condition is that when you win, you come back to let the cashier over there know you won.”

  The man looked from the ticket to the cashier, then nodded. “Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll do that. Thanks, friend.”

  Jake nodded. “No problem.” He handed the man the ticket and opened the door to leave. He paused with the door open. “Oh, and one other thing. When they interview you on TV, don’t tell them how you won. Just tell them you came in and bought a ticket. Sound fair?”

  The man laughed, there was no way he thought anything positive was going to happen for him with this lottery ticket, but willing to play along. “Yeah, I think I can do that.”

  “Thanks.” Jake winked at the cashier and left.

  ~~~

  “Hey Stan, there’s the customer that came looking for you yesterday.”

  Stan turned to face the door and his blood turned to ice.

  Walking towards him with a big grin was the man from the other day, the one who’d been handed the lottery ticket by that strange guy. Blood pounded in Stan’s ears as the man stopped at the counter. Stan saw the man’s lips moving, but he couldn’t hear the words. It felt like his ears were full of cotton and a cold sweat broke out over his body. He closed his eyes and shook his head quickly, placing both hands wide on the counter to brace himself from the dizziness that travelled through his body. He took deep breaths and tried not to listen to the voice inside his head; the voice that told him he’d missed a rare opportunity, a random encounter with a weird man that could have gotten him out of this slow circle towards the drain of life’s toilet, but instead had increased the speed of the descent into hell.

  Finally the throbbing in his ears faded, and his vision stopped swimming. He looked up at the stranger across the counter and tried his best to smile. “I’m sorry,” he said. “What was that you were saying, sir?”

  The man smiled and said exactly what Stan was afraid he would. “I was just saying that I’m here to fulfill my promise to the man that I made the other day,”

  Stan blinked his eyes rapidly and nodded. “You won,” he said.

  The grin on the man’s face became larger. “Oh, yeah,” he confirmed. “One-hundred forty million dollars, all mine, thanks to that kind stranger.”

  With a heavy thud, Stan slumped against the counter while his co-worker rushed forward to help him.

  ~~~

  “Honey, I’ve got some news to share with you,”

  Jake’s mind raced as he held the phone receiver to his head. He shook his head. “No, Mom, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “It’s important, Jake, and I wanted to be the one to tell you.”

  Jake pulled the receiver away from his head and closed his eyes, hot tears starting to build as pressure formed in his temples and his breathing became shallow. He could hear his mother’s voice coming from the phone on his lap. He waited until it went silent, then brought it back to his ear. He hadn’t heard her say the words, but he remembered Truman’s prediction; the last thing he’d said before his reading had ended. Six years had passed, and every prediction had happened.

  Jake had hoped this one would be wrong.

  “The doctors say they found the tumour early and I have an excellent chance of beating this thing.” Her voice was shaky and afraid despite the optimistic words.

  Jake nodded softly, tears falling freely now. “I’m sure everything will be just fine, Mom,” he lied.

  “I know you’ve been busy, honey, but maybe you can come home for a bit? I think I need you to be with me for this, if you can?”

  “Of course,” Jake stood up and dropped money on the table in the small diner where he’d had a meal. “I’ll be there tomorrow.”

  “Thank you, son.” He could hear the relief in her voice. They hadn’t been able to spend much time together since Truman’s reading; life had pulled Jake all over the world since that day.

  “I love you, Mom,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  ~~~

  Jake arrived at his parents’ house the next day. After a tearful reunion, his parents asked him to stay with them for the next few months, if it was okay with him.

  It was.

  Jake stayed for six months, until his mother passed away in her sleep.

  After the funeral, Jake sat beside her grave, unsure of what to do next. Every one of Truman’s predictions had come true. With his mother’s death, the future was again uncertain for Jake.

  Despite the pain of loss and sorrow, he smiled with relief at the thought of not knowing what was going to happen next in his life.

  ~~~

  “Were you here last year too?” Jake asked. He’d returned to the psychic fair that first year looking for Truman but hadn’t bothered to come back since.

  Truman looked exactly as he had seven years ago. Same outfit, same plain table. Was that the same book, even? He didn’t look up from his reading; instead he just reached out and tapped the sign.

  Jake frowned for a moment then felt his cheeks flush with anger. “Are you friggin kidding me?” he asked. “I’m not here to get a reading. I made that mistake seven years ago. I’d lost hope of ever finding you again, but something led me here today. I had no idea the fair was on, and now my next surprise is to see you sitting here as if no time has passed at all.”

  Truman placed a finger inside his book and closed it. He looked up and squinted slightly at Jake. Then he nodded. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “I remember you. How’s things?”

  Jake’s face turned crimson with rage. “How’s things?” he said through gritted teeth. “How’s things? Things are a goddamned mess is how things are. Ever since I got that reading from you my life has been a nightmare!”

  “Oh,” Truman said.

  “Oh?” Jake leaned forward and smacked the makeshift sign off Truman’s table. It struck the neighbouring booth, knocking a more ornate display facedown. “I tell you my life has been a train wreck since I got a reading from you and all you can say is, ‘Oh’?”

  Truman stood up.

  “I came to you for a reading!” Jake screamed.

  Truman nodded.

  Jake looked around. People nearby had stopped what they were doing to look at him. Jake realized he’d lost control and did his best to calm down. “You ruined my life.” Jake whispered.

  Truman was silent for a moment.

  Finally he spoke. “Did I force you to come here seven years ago?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Did I ask to give yo
u a reading?”

  Jake shook his head.

  “Did I tell you I was different from the rest of these pretenders?” Truman’s hand swept out to indicate the other exhibitors.

  “Yes,” Jake admitted.

  “That’s right,” Truman shook his head in disgust. “Yet you still wanted a reading.” He jabbed his finger forcefully at Jake, tapping him in the chest with a thud. “You sat across from me and hoped to see your future. Well, smart man, what did you think of your future? How did you like knowing what was gonna happen to you?”

  “I didn’t,” Jake said.

  “That’s right,” Truman snapped. “You didn’t. Just be glad I didn’t show you more than six years’ worth. Imagine if it continued until you died. What fun that would be, knowing what was gonna happen for the rest of your life until the end of your time here on this planet. When you read books, do you skip to the last page to see what happens?”

  “No.”

  “Then why would you want to do that with your life?” Truman shouted.

  Jake thought about that for a moment, and then he asked “What was the point to all this?”

  “I have no idea,” Truman said with a sharp laugh. “Maybe there is no point. We always have to find meaning in everything that happens. I have no lessons to share with you, Jake. I’m sure that hundreds of ‘points’ have appeared during your little adventure, but that’s for you to see… or not.” He sat down and propped his feet up on the table. He opened his book and began to read again. “Now pick up my sign and get outta my face. Unless you want to know what the next six years are gonna be like for you.”

  Jake looked around. People glanced away quickly to avoid making eye contact with him. He walked over and bent down to pick up the sign, then placed it on the table beside Truman. A flood of emotions surged through him, but he knew Truman was right; he’d asked for this. He couldn’t blame anyone but himself for what had happened.

  He started to walk away.

  “Jake?”

  Jake turned and looked at Truman. “Enjoy the rest of your life,” Truman said. “Be happy for the unknown. Live here, and not in the future.” He shrugged. “I think those are the main lessons, if there are any at all.”