Lilly picked up the cards and began shuffling. Once. Her brow furrowed as she thought. Then twice. And a third time. She sat the deck down in between them.
Madame Merlina nodded. “Well done. You have all the questions, yes?”
“Yes,” Lilly said.
Madame tapped the top of the deck once. “These will read this night’s truth. Your future may be changed, if you wish it. Futures are not set in stone. Prepare to listen, as the cards speak.”
Cutting the deck in half, she placed two sets on the table, and then pulled cards from the top of the bottom half, to lay out a pattern.
“Past,” she said, laying cards down. “Present,” she laid more cards down. “Future,” she laid the last cards down. Then she looked at Lilly. “First we learn from the past.”
Lilly nodded.
She turned the first cards over. Looking at them, she nodded. “Your mother sailed here on a boat, with you in her belly,” she said. “You grew up in a new land. A happy child. Then lost your mother to a sickness.”
Lilly’s jaw dropped.
Even Mia sat stunned.How could Madame Merlina know those details?
Lilly’s mother had come to the United States from Panama, after marrying an American man, and Lilly had been born nine months later. It was a love match. Her mother died from cancer the year Lilly and Mia graduated high school, and Lilly matured fast that year, becoming more serious.
This isn’t like any card reading I’ve ever heard about. Madame Merlina is more than a card reader. Anyone can learn to read cards.
Mia had dabbled in reading cards.
She must also be psychic.
Mia sat up and paid more attention now.
“We do the present next,” Madame Merlina said.
Lilly nodded, still soaking in what the first cards had shown.
“Now, tonight,” Madame Merlina turned the cards over. “You have your eyes on a man.”
Lilly smiled.
I’ll bet Lilly is thinking about the fifth knight, Sir Elias of Sundholm.
“He is steady,” Madame Merlina went on. “Strong. Dependable. But is not easy for him to… open. You want assurances from a man. You must learn patience.” She tapped a card, and then said. “Enough. Now the future. Why you are here.”
Lilly took a deep breath, riveting her eyes on the next cards being turned over.
Mia could tell that Lilly had started to believe.
The cards were telling truths, as Madame Merlina had said.
Madame sat quiet, looking at the cards. “You must be brave,” she finally spoke. “And you will be, when it’s time. You hide disappointment in yourself. You are too hard on yourself. When you find your agency and your dreams again, and believe in yourself, then you will succeed. We are stronger when we don’t go it alone, when we go with true companions. This weekend will have turning points. There is a good future when you choose well.”
Lilly appeared stunned.
Madame Merlina started collecting the cards, without asking if Lilly had questions.
Lilly finally spoke. “I thought a reading would be, you’ll marry, have three kids, and live in a small house.”
“You thought the Tarot card reading would be like playing that children’s game you call ‘Life.’ This one has two kids, that one three. Here is the car, here is the house. That game is only accumulating things and people, it is not real life. Real life is living, vital, vibrant, like you. You have a vibration.” She nodded. “Everything has a vibration.”
She watched Lilly for a moment before she spoke again.
