rana_thesparklingstar

The Fortuneteller



Is it hard to talk about things you tend to repress? Well, of course, that is why you repress them, but somehow someday they resurface. The way the human mind works is a blessing sometimes. How many days have I stood here in the corner waiting for someone to approach me? Not many people still believe in fortune-telling anymore. As a child I used to watch my father having one curious customer after another, always thirsty to know what the future has in its folds.

I knew that my father couldn’t see into the future but what he foretold came true because he always prayed it would. ‘ You will have nine children all running around you,’ he said while the barren woman opened her eyes with wonder, for she has been trying for years uselessly, ‘and you will have lots of money to spend on them.’ I saw her face lighten. All night I heard my father praying that she would have her nine children. The woman gave my father a magical vase every time she gave birth, and I inherited nine very exquisite vases. However, that’s not the case with me, for I can truly see into the future. Once I look into the person’s eyes I just picture what his life would be like, and I am right every time. Every time. Every time. Every time. I fell asleep thinking about my father.

I had a dream about my father with his kind chubby dark face smiling with his filthy gipsy teeth. He was telling me that I have to believe…’believe in him. ‘Believe in whom?’ I asked but no answer but yet another tormenting command. ‘Believe in him.’

I looked up at the sky once I woke up wondering, ‘Are you really there?’ if you are, show me a sign.’ I looked at my chopped arm and felt the rage gushing through my veins. ‘Of course there is no one up there. What a silly thing to get attach to.’

That young woman across the street winked her eye at me laughing. She has been doing this for over a month. At first I thought that she was making fun of me. But later I grew rather fond of her little walk and her strange hair color. She worked in the bakery. My first costumers for the day approached me interrupting my thoughts. A trendy young woman and a simple looking young man. Same story every time. I saw her with another man and him with another woman, both unhappy. But am I a fool to tell them that and lose my pay? I might not get other costumers for the rest of the day. ‘ I see a bright future for you together, you will live happily forever.’ I caught a glimpse of disbelief in her eyes, but when she’s married to another man and he to another woman who would remember my prophecy?

My father once told me a story about the two lovers who came to him and he knew for sure that they would separate eventually because she had a terminal disease and wouldn’t live to see the next month. But he told them that they are meant to live together a long and joyful life. And that what happened indeed.

A good day this is. Another young man stopped to ask me whether he will get the job he is going to apply for or not? Of course not. ‘Life ain’t that happy, believe me I know.’ I was thinking looking at my lost arm.’ Sure you will. May god help you.’ Said I, laughing.

The girl from the bakery came across the street holding a loaf of bread. A delightful day this is. I thanked her feeling strange for no one had ever thought about me after my father died. He was the only one who ever thought of my hunger or my thirst. I felt awkward accepting the loaf from her. But something about her hair made me unlike myself. She smiled as I took the loaf from her hand, staring still at her hair. Its color reminds me of? I can’t really remember. It’s like the color of flames. Amazing, indeed!

A fortuneteller can’t foretell his own fortune! Too bad. I wanted to see myself, my tired lonely armless self, get married to that girl.

My father came to me that night crying and begging, ‘believe in him.’ I turned and continued my dream about the flame color haired lady.

Next day, the flame color haired lady came to me with her loaf of bread asking for her fortune to be foretold. I looked in her eyes. I couldn’t believe what I saw, flames and fires, a corpse I couldn’t tell the color of its hair because it had the same color of the flame that was all around her. I closed my burning eyes. ‘ You are going to have a long and happy life, a life that all people dream of. ‘Happy, she waved goodbye and went…

I went back home and started praying…