The couple clenched hands and peered at me; him with anticipation, her with derision. I feigned a smile, ignoring the woman’s attempts to direct my gaze to her obnoxious engagement ring. They were drunken post-theater customers; an annoying necessity.
“This is bullshit!” she spouted.
I smiled, obedient, then laid the next tarot when a bewildered teen wandered in front of my window—soul-bonded to a greater wraith! How?! It touched the door, staring at me, before being pulled away by its confused young host.
The woman cleared her throat, impatient for my attention.
“Your families will approve and the marriage will exceed 10 years,” I flatly ordained.
They beamed and awaited more.
Distracted, my focus returned and I added, “May should be the month.”
After a slobbering kiss, she asked him, “Should we buy another?” But not wanting to tempt fate he shook his head.
“You’re right.”
He went for her coat, stumbling, when she coughed into her hand and wiped the sputum on the table shouting, “More chardonnay! On PROPER linens!”
The added sneer made me seethe.
I lit the guar root behind me, held it over the stained spot she’d touched, and blew across it wafts of smoke.
The furls hovered in a serpentine pattern, slithering as I moved my hand above them. The couple stared, re-captivated.
“We paid you 20! We didn’t get that!” She berated.
But I was done with schtick. My hand stilled and the serpent fell to ash upon the table.
“In two years your passion will disappear. You will search for it and never find it again. Dementia will take him before your 10-year anniversary and you will spend it at his bedside. You will have his money and little else.” I paused. “On a Monday you will pass the lesser one whom you chose him over…with a family and a happiness that could have been yours.”
Their mouths were agape.
I slammed my hand on the table and yelled, “Abilato!” and they scrambled out the door.
Now to matters. I lit a mandrake root and called the flames high. Through their fiery plume I peered at the five-finger points the wraith touched and spoke with my deepest power, “Again. Find me again, my son.”