She spread the cards on the table, forming
three columns and three rows from left to right. A total of nine cards were
there, all facing down. The woman, wearing a wine red shawl and several rings
and bracelets on her arms, passed both hands over the cards and seemed to be
talking in a strange language. Her clients were two girls, around twenty years
old, who looked at her with eyes open and an expression of fear but also
looking forward to her next words.
The woman then did a sudden movement and asked
one of them which card to flip over. The young woman indicated one and she
complied, revealing the card of death. The woman then did a speech, explaining
the deep meaning of this card. She asked several questions too, ranging from
past relationships to dead family members. In less than twenty minutes, she
flipped over all the cards and told the girl it all meant she was going to have
an unexpected surprise very soon but that she should be weary as someone may be
there to betray her. The girls looked at each other and, after paying, they
went out giggling, discussing their results.
The reader waited for them to be far and then
called for her assistant, a young woman that looked a lot like her, in order to
ask her if more people were waiting. The young girl told her that no and that
her lunch would be done in just a few minutes so she could use the time to eat
something. The card reader’s name was actually Suzanne and she had been a
pharmacist for some time but that job had made her unstable, cranky and bored
with life. She had always wanted so much more from everyone and everything and
a pharmacy would never fulfill her dreams of grandeur.
So one day, she overheard some women talking
about going to a woman that read the crystal ball in a fair and she decided to
go. The woman was a big sham but she learned that people would decide to
believe in anything if it’s well presented to them. Before becoming a card
reader, Suzanne had been a very practical and skeptic person. In one second,
she could debunk any stupid thing people believed in and that had earned her a
friendless life and a difficult interaction with men and even with her parents.
So after seeing all the glitz and mystery of
the crystal ball reader, she decided to become Madame Zelda, a mysterious seer
that had come all the way from Romania to help souls in need to find their way
by reading the cards of their life and other things. Her business, located in a
small store in the city’s downtown, was very successful from day one. She had
hired her niece Amanda to be her assistant and to give away fliers to every
nearby college. Suzanne knew that the younger people were especially prone to
believing anything so she knew that was the way to start.
Six months had passed since that and her
strategy had worked. Lots of giggling girls came in and decided to get their
cards, their coffee and even their cigarettes read. Suzanne did everything and
anything and people would buy what she said and even if they didn’t, she knew
very few would tell anything to her face. People were strangely polite when
referring to something as plain and simple as the arts of divination. But the
point was that they always came.
A she ate a bowl of pasta with meatballs with
her niece, Suzanne realized they looked very much alike: their hand were both
skinny, their skin the color of olives, big bushy hair and big brown eyes. She
asked her niece what would she like to be when out of school and she told her
that she had a dram of becoming a nurse. She wanted to help people and thought
the best way was to care for people’s health. In the long run, she might even
become a doctor but that wasn’t going to be decided just yet.
Suzanne then asked her about her sister, her
niece’s mother. She was not the best mother in the world, that’s for sure. She
had the traces of all the women of the family: beautiful heavy smokers but
convulsed souls inside. After all, they had a recurrence of mental issues in
the family and Suzanne’s sister Amelia apparently was the prime example. She
was always thinking of things that helped no one and had never really cared for
her daughter. In part, that was why Suzanne had decided to accept Melanie in
her home for her last year of school. She didn’t regret her decision so far.
Melanie proved to be different than her fellow
female family members: for such a young girl she knew very well what to do and
what not to do and how to do the things she wanted for herself. After all, she
was only sixteen and about to step out of school. Suzanne had already spoken
with her sister about Melanie’s education but Amelia had assured her that there
was more than enough money for that. The girl was the daughter of a very rich
man that wanted nothing to do with them and paid handsomely every month in order
to keep them away. And it worked perfectly for all of them so there was more
than enough money to pay for her nurse education.
Suzanne often liked to go out with her, shop
around or to the movies. They were both lonely girls, no real friends around
and Amelia had never grown fond of her own daughter, always seeing her as only
her source of money. It was true and obvious that Melanie felt much more at
home with Suzanne than with her own mother. They had fun together and they both
learned a lot about each other in only the first few months of living together.
They would share magazines and talk about boys, and fashion, and the future.
And they both loved to finally have someone to hear them.
Suzanne’s
life as a young woman had been exactly the same, if not worst. She had very few
friends because she wanted so much more from life. She was not happy with the
crumbs she received from both her family and her present, she had always wanted
more. She left home after refusing her father’s orders to study in order to be
secretary. He thought there were roles and jobs for women and other for men and
that she had nothing to do in a hospital, even if most nurses were actually
women. He said he knew that she wanted to become a doctor and he didn’t agreed.
So she left and never went back.
Years later, she attended her father’s funeral
and her mother refused to speak to her. After ten years, she still wasn’t
speaking to her as if it had been her that had been harsh to her daughter. But
that was the way it was. She was one of those women that live for the man they
marry and in that moment, she was lost. She nothing and she felt empty and
alone. It would take a few more years for her to become closer to her daughters
and when she finally did, death came for her too. Now, it was only Suzanne and
Amelia and even if they didn’t agreed on their life choices, they called each
other every so often to ask how the other was doing and if they could be of any
help.
When she finished eating, Suzanne grabbed a
metal box and organized what was inside. Melanie, who hadn’t finished eating,
stared at her, looking all the types of cards she had inside, the cigarettes,
the guides of how to read the cups of tea and coffee and also the hands. She
had everything in that little box and then Melanie realized her aunt’s life was
all inside that small object. It all summed up to that.
- - Aunt?
- - Yeah?
- - Are you ever sorry?
Suzanne looked at her, confused.
- - What do you mean?
- - With people that come here.
- - hat should I feel sorry?
- - You’re not a real seer. You lie to
them.
The woman was frozen right there on her chair.
She had never discussed her business with anyone but Melanie was the person he
loved most and she knew they had to talk about it. So she just answered that
was the way she had found to feel she was receiving what she deserved from
life. The girl then asked if she didn’t feel bad to tell lies to every person
that entered the store. Suzanne took one of her niece’s hands and held it. She
then looked at her in he eye and told her that people chose to believe what she
said and that that was their decision. She knew she was lying to them and she
knew it was wrong but her way of living was honest as she was true to herself.
Then she took everything out of the box and showed the bottom to Melanie.
There were two transparent bags and both had
money inside. Then Suzanne told her she was saving for both of them, so they
could live better and she could put up another kind of store, something better
and that she could be proud of. The girl smiled and right then a bell rang. It
was the next costumer. Suzanne straightened her shawl and went down to her
smoky, cinnamon scented room as Melanie followed her in order to get the door.
