A foggy prediction

San Levi’s Beach Boardwalk was unusually foggy that early dawn. The young fortune teller thought the morning mist strange, but in her odd occupation she saw many strange things. Her and her sisters contributed to the particularness of the place, and of all they had seen fog was nothing to worry about.

What La La did worry about was what might be lurking behind the curtain of clouds. She was sixteen years old and small for her age. So worried was she, that La La nearly ran along the length of the beach, and leapt high into the air whenever an unseen gull cawed. When she did see a figure through the fog approach she would cross to the other side and continue her way at an even faster pace, all the while keeping an eye on the stranger.

The Boardwalk was home to many novelty shops and services, but La La and her sister’s wagons were the most eye catching by far. The three Vardo’s took up the length of the alleyway between the florist and curiosity bookstore. The wagons stood front to back, so that one would travel through them like train cars; although the sisters would never allow a customer to do so. La La and her sisters took their guests in at the door facing the ocean, did whatever service they were to perform, and let them out the same way. The other two wagons were storage, with a space in the middle one for changing costumes.

For while there were three wagons, three sisters, and three different ‘gifts’ between them, there was only one ‘Esmeralda, Seer of stars and Reader of Cards’, which was what the girls and their employer preferred. Esmeralda was a persona each of them could play so long as the sisters kept consistent with their costume and character. This meant only one of them had to work at a time, and then only by appointment for the serious paying guest. The walk ins off the street, if whoever played Esmeralda had the time for them, would likely get the ‘fake’ version of the fortune telling experience; unless the sister working felt fresh enough to freely use her gift for them.

La La swung herself up to the wagon’s back door and took the large key from her pocket. She opened the first lock, entered, and bolted the door behind her. She breathed a sigh of relief. She took a second key from her pocket and unlocked and entered the second wagon. La La did not relock these doors. The wagons were so placed that the doors could only be reached from the porches of the other two, and so needed to be locked only when left for the night. La La took her last key from her pocket, and entered the third wagon.

Before her was the circular covered table and old bookshelves of ‘Esmeralda’s Reading Room’, but in the guest’s chair sat a man sitting so still that La La only noticed him when he unfolded his hands and spread them out in front of him. His presence was so unexpected that La La screamed and fell backwards over her feet to flee from him.

“Do not be afraid, young one,” the man said with so much boyish grin in his voice that La la doubted he was much older than her. “I, the great, uh, Esmealdo, am here to read your fortune.”

The intruder flaunted the skewed veil he wore around his face, the same veil the sisters wore for their act, and that La La had neglected to put away the night before. The chains bounced unevenly off his face, but together with the darkness his identity was hidden well.

“Get out,” La La said picking herself off the floor and feeling for the door handle behind her. “You shouldn’t be here. I’ll call the police!”

“I mean no harm,” the man, boy, said sounding worried now. “Please, won’t you take a seat and let me read your fortune? The stars have aligned! The card’s will reveal your… destiny.”

La La saw a deck of cards in his hands. Her heart stopped, then sped up rapidly. Her desire to get her cards back were so strong that she forgot her fear and lunged out towards them; but the boy was quick, and he leapt out of his chair and around the table away from her.

“Give those back! They were my mother’s!”

“Doubt it,” the boy said giving up entirely on the false voice he had been using. “Shall I read your first card? Behold! The first is-” here he had to hold the card close to his face because of the darkness of the room “-the Joker!”

“It’s called the Fool, you fool! Now give it back!”

The two ran around the table once more, circled back around, then spun around once again. La La tried to climb over the table at him, but she was too slow, and the boy only bolted around to the other side again.

“And the second,” he said drawing another card from the deck. “It the two of hearts! I think that means you’ll find your soul mate.”

La La stopped running. The boy stopped opposite the table from her.

“That’s a standard deck,” La La said.

“I knew that,” the boy said. “This deck’s mine. Brought it from home.”

But La La had stopped listening altogether and had turned her attention to the large

bookshelf by the wagon’s back door. On it were vases, decretive scrolls, and of course several old books. She took the largest and oldest looking from it, flipped open the lock hidden behind the pages, and found inside the glued paper her mother’s tarot deck. The cards fell into her waiting hand, and La La knew simply by the weight every card was there.

Their mother’s deck of tarot cards were special to the three sisters, and it was to retrieve them that La La had braved the morning mist. The cards were not overly valuable, but they were worth taking, and it was what La La had feared the trespasser had found.

“The next is the ten of Clubs,” said the boy flicking the next card off the top of his deck.

“I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure how to read these. Maybe three bad things will happen to you for the next ten days?”

“Get. Out!” La La shouted. She stomped her foot for emphasis, madder now at him for making her think he had stolen her mother’s tarot, then for breaking in and scaring her.

The boy stepped back and felt for the wagon’s front door, never taking his eyes off La La as he did so. The door swung open, the lock either undone or broken, and the boy stepped onto the porch.

“Last card, the Black Joker! That probably means death or something, am I right?”

The boy slammed the door shut as La La hurled the false book at him. It fell to the floor, and as fast as she could, La La locked and bolted the front and back door. La La check the front lock again, reassured herself that it would hold, then sat down shaking at the table. She hugged herself and the deck of tarot to her until she gained control of her nerves. She waited a few more nervous minutes before working up the courage to unlock and open the front door. She saw that it was still misty out, but thankfully there were no signs of the boy.

La La had been about to go inside, but there, folded on the ground before her like an apology, was the veil. She picked it up, felt her face grow hot, and slammed the door behind her.