“Yes,” the woman said. “I can’t do that for myself. I’m not good with numbers.”
“What ... kind of baking?” That question came from Soraya, who was almost pressed against the door, like she was afraid Satan himself was going to pop out from behind one of the shelves.
“I’m open. When I find the right baker, I’ll defer to her skill.”
Nora moved over to the tarot cards and touched one of the boxes.
“Do you read tarot?” the woman asked.
“No,” Nora said. “I don’t. I’ve always been interested.”
The woman nodded. “You have to wait until a deck speaks to you.”
“I guess that’s my problem. No deck has spoken to me yet.” Nora released her hold on the box and walked back to the counter.
“Do you have questions?”
Nora looked up at the older woman, at her faded blue eyes surrounded by innumerable wrinkles. She wanted to have questions. She wanted to ask her those questions. Get some of the wisdom of the elders she’d been told existed but had never actually experienced. Her grandmother hadn’t contained wisdom. Only bitterness.
“I don’t,” Nora said.
“I’d like to pull a card for you,” the woman said. “For all of you. Since you’re among my first customers, I can give you an idea of what I do here.”
“Oh.” Soraya looked nervous. “I can’t—”
“You don’t have to receive it,” the woman said.
Receive it.
The words lingered inside Nora like a cloud of mist.
“I’d like a card,” Daisy said, in that calming, peacekeeping way of hers. Obviously trying to undo the rudeness of Soraya’s response.
The woman reached beneath the counter and pulled out a stack of cards. They were gilded on the edges, with midnight blue on the back and large yellow moons. She shuffled them quickly, her crooked hands moving deftly as she did so. She spread the deck out in front of her and looked at Daisy with a steely-eyed gaze. Then she carefully took a card from the deck fanned out before her and turned it over.
The image on the card was a tower, on fire, with people either falling or jumping from the crumbling structure to the ground below.
“Ithoughtthere was big energy here.” She looked at Daisy. “That’s a significant card. It feels like things are falling apart, doesn’t it?”
Daisy stood still, but Nora could see tears gathering in her eyes. She nodded slowly.
“The Tower can feel brutal. It’s destructive, and it’s painful. But the secret of the Tower is that what falls away doesn’t need to be.”
“But those people are going to hit the ground and ... die,” Daisy pointed out.
“They won’t die. That doesn’t mean they won’t behurt. But being down there is better than being where they never belonged.”
Nora’s heart started to beat faster. It was so ... apt. Too spot-on, in fact.
The older woman looked at Soraya next and pulled out a card. She turned it over so its face was showing, but Soraya didn’t move any closer.
“The Hierophant.” The woman pointed at the card, which had an image of a man in robes, who looked like a priest or cardinal or something. “Structures and systems are very important to you. Maybe even religious systems. But sometimes those systems that once served you can hinder your growth.”
Soraya opened the door to the shop and slipped outside without saying a word.
“Sorry about her,” Nora said. “She—”
The woman didn’t seem bothered at all. Instead, she turned her startling eyes to Nora. She flipped a card over, and a soft smile crossed her lips. “The Moon. It’s a complicated card, the Moon. The moon is light, but it’s darkness too. It moves in cycles. It changes the tide. Though it may not seem clear now, it will in time.”
