CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
“What’s your star sign, my lovely?” she asked, in a smoke-infused croak.
Incense and tobacco drifted through the air, threatening to make me sneeze as I shifted nervously in my chair. “Pisces,” I answered.
The morning after Aidan’s visit, I’d had an unshakeable urge to speak to someone. In many ways, I was glad Tabitha remained out of town. She would have just screamed at me to forgive Aidan in her typical race-through-life-head-on-fashion.
While I was out shopping for food, I passed a storefront. “Clairvoyant-Medium” was hand-painted on the window. Without thinking I rang the bell, and Mary answered.
She looked like anything but a medium. Disinclined as I was towards channeling angels that clinched the deal, and I entered.
In fact, Mary was very down to earth. She swore like a sailor, chain-smoked—much to my discomfort— and had a maternal, straight-to-the-point way about her.
After I handed over all the money I had on me, she sat me down and closed her eyes. For the first time in two days, my mind stilled.
Mary handed me a pack of standard playing cards. They were so haggard and overused that as I shuffled, I thought they would disintegrate.
“Cut them in three, love,” said Mary, lighting another cigarette. “Mm… let’s see. You have an excellent life ahead. But first, there’s work to do. You must trust in life’s many gifts. Let go of fear. The pain you suffered in the past will not be repeated.”
Mary then handed me enormous cards with eye-catching geometric designs. I shuffled them awkwardly. They kept falling out of my small hands.
“Cut in three.” Mary puffed smoke as she spoke.
As she turned over the first card I shuddered at the gloomy image of the Grim Reaper.
“Don’t fret. It’s in your past,” Mary said without looking at me. She turned over another card, which depicted a woman in a shroud. “A woman died. She was close to you. She’s now your guardian angel, my love—your protector, bringing you luck.”
I sat forward. “Could that be my mother?”
“She passed away?” Mary tapped the death card.
I nodded.
She closed her eyes. “That’s her indeed. I feel her presence around you. You have a very strong aura, my dear. I felt it as soon as you stepped in.”
My body stiffened. How did she know this? Spooky.
The next card showed a king on a throne, holding a cup. “Ah… lovely. A water-sign man.” She turned two more cards, one big cup and then another with many cups. “He’s in love with you, deeply and with his soul. The best type of love.”
Warm fuzziness swamped me. I had to remind myself to breathe. A cynical party-pooper chimed in, however, suggesting that Mary probably told everybody the same thing.
“Water-sign?” I asked. Aidan had told me his sign, but I’d forgotten.
“Pisces, Cancer, or Scorpio. What’s your lover’s birthday?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, recrossing my legs. “We weren’t together for long.”
Mary studied me with her piercing dark eyes. “Were?” She frowned. “This is happily-ever-after love. I rarely get this configuration, to be honest.” She turned another card, a giant radiant sun. She tapped the card. “Look at this. I mean, this is about abundance, love that is flourishing. No, my love, it has not ended.”
“Maybe it represents a new person.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s in the present. This man is in your life, my dear. You are already with him. Look here: your heart is taken, as is his. It’s so perfectly balanced. It sends a shiver through me.” Mary cast me a smile before turning over another card.
A freaky image of a devil character appeared, followed by a body breaking out of a tomb. Eek.
“He’s had a difficult past and is trapped by secrets. But he is a kind, generous soul. Always has been. His intentions have always been honorable. Others have wronged him. There’s danger around him. His past is still casting a shadow over his area of happiness.”
My heart was gripped. “Danger?”
“No need to concern your pretty head, he’s protected enough. But there are those who wish to harm him. He must watch his step. You’re in his area of protection. As long as you’re in his life, no harm can come to him.”
“And if I weren’t?” I asked.
Mary’s dark eyes scrutinized me. Her lips curled slightly. “That’s not what I see.”
I left Mary with my mind in a fog. I even forgot to buy food. Instead, I headed straight home and googled Aidan, hoping to find a date of birth. Frustratingly, there was nothing. But I did encounter images of us together. I was in the green dress while Aidan had his muscular arm protectively around me. His eyes radiated that recognizable devouring glint, and my face had a heavy-lidded, blissed-out expression, the look of someone drugged. Mm… yes, drugged on Aidan.
A long, wistful sigh escaped my lips. I couldn’t take my eyes away from the computer screen. We looked so happy together. And photogenic Aidan was magnetic. His presence seemed to radiate off the screen. I saved the images for a screenshot.
For the next few days, I stared at the walls. My tears had finally dried. I was in zombie mode as I recalled over and over again Mary’s predictions. In those words, I sought nourishment, and I seriously regretted that I hadn’t recorded the session. Had I done that, I would have had the happily ever after bit on replay.
A skeptical muscle would twitch every now and then, however, dousing all hope by suggesting Mary had read the prediction from a script. But then, my soul kept asking my mind how was it that Mary had seen my mother’s death?