As soon as Stepovich hung up the phone, she said,"Cut the cards, three times."
He sighed and obeyed her. It was awkward, one-handed. They were peculiar cards, even for the kind of deck it was. Thick edges gone soft with age and handling, smelling like some old spicy perfume. Not even their backs matched. She shifted the piles, muttering to herself as she did so. He watched her practiced fingers lay the cards out in a careful pattern on the white hospital sheet beside him. She bent over them, her hair falling forward like a curtain. "Of course," she muttered. "I can see it."
"See what?" Stepovich asked crabbily.
Her fingernail tapped a card, two people exchanging chalices. "I see Durand asking a woman with red hair to join her fortune with his. She hesitates, but not for long."
"Actually, Tiffany Marie asked him," Stepovich pointed out. She ignored his interruption.
Her hands moved again, jabbing at the ornate cards. "This one, the Queen of Stars? She receives gifts soon, gifts due her. A kettle, perhaps, and a new cane. Perhaps a pound of good tea."
Stepovich harrumphed.
Her fingers wandered on. "An older man close to you opens new doors, or finds a new opportunity."It was a hand coming out of a cloud holding a flowering stick. Stepovich noticed that it was a single arm,then threw the thought away.
"You knew Ed got himself a part-time job. Down at the Classic Caddy. Spends all day arguing about cars with a bunch of other old farts." He coughed slightly, winced from the bruises the bullet had made inside him and the pull of the healing wounds. He took a quick breath, reached to tap a Moon card-"What's this?"
She shook her head. "One we don't wish to speak of. She is gone from here, but not so far as to give me any comfort. But there is another," she tapped a card with a guy upside down on a cross. "One who is not far behind her. This, the six of Swords, nearby?He does not travel alone." A card with ten circled stars overlay a man on a horse carrying yet another star. Her fingers stroked the two, then lifted away.
"Here," she said. "This is you. The Fool."
"Oh, thank you."
"No. Trust me. It's the right card for you. The beginning of knowledge, the beginning of a spiritual journey"-Stepovich rolled his eyes-"and someone who can walk through danger and not be harmed."
"Not be harmed?" He gestured at where his arm had been. "What do you call this, a dimple?"
"And this," she continued quickly, "the five of Cups beside it? That's disappointments, but they're past now. This is the future." It was a woman in a garden with a bird on her finger. "She's enjoying the good things in life. Alone, but getting wiser about herself."
He suddenly thought of Marilyn, then chided himself. If he wasn't careful, he could start taking this stuff seriously, and then what? Can't go out on patrol today, the cards say it isn't auspicious. But no, he wasn't going to be going out on anymore patrols. Shit. Aloud, he said skeptically, "You can tell all this from a deck of cards?"
She fixed him with a steady gaze. "The knowing is already within me. The cards are like guideposts for my Seeing." Her gaze went distant. She had aged since he had last seen her, but not in a way that was bad. Almost, he could see as she claimed to. A sadness, a regret in your past, he'd say to her, but something you've learned from.
"I have the gift, you know," she told him, in a voice gone soft with mystery. Then Laurie grinned suddenly, spoiling the effect. "Or so Madam Moria tells me."
"You should stay away from that old witch," Stepovich chided her. "Filling your head full of superstition."
"Daddy!" Laurie objected heatedly. "She does not.And she's going to take me and Jeffrey to the Farmer's Market. That's where she buys the spices to put in her teas."
"That okay with your mom?"Laurie shrugged. "She said she'd think about it."
"I bet. Don't go telling her it was my idea."
"Don't you want to see me in the layout?" Laurie changed the subject.
"Where are you?" Stepovich asked grudgingly.
"Here." She tapped a card of a young man with a fish in his cup. "This is me. Page of Cups. It means a captivating young person, studious and drawn to the arts. And you know what this means, here, in my future?" A man with a crown on his head, holding a wand. Green was the color of his jerkin.
"I'm almost afraid to ask."
"It means like beginning an apprenticeship. Learning something." Laurie gathered up the cards carefully.
"Learning what?" Stepovich asked guardedly.
"Music lessons," she said matter of factly. "That card almost always means music lessons."
And the street lights never waver.
And the red lights never dim.
And the neon always glitters;
And it was better me than him.
"RED LIGHTS AND NEON"
The End
STEVEN KARL ZOLTAN BRUST was born in 1955. His hobbies include arguing and drumming. He plays psychedelic rock n' roll for Cats Laughing, twisted trad and quirky Celtic for Morrigan, and Sufi drumming for Sulliman's Silly Surfing Sufi Circus, as well as doing the occasional solo act with guitar and banjo. He supports his music habit by writing, and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
For information on ordering "Another Way to Travel"by Cats Laughing (tape or CD) or "Queen of Air and Darkness" by Morrigan (tape), send a self-addressed,stamped envelope to:
Steel Dragon Press
Box 7253
Minneapolis, MN 55407
MEGAN LINDHOLM lives on a small farm in rural Roy, Washington with her four children and occasionally her fisherman husband, Fred. Hobbies include cleaning up after the children and intending to have a garden. Her tastes in music include psychedelic rock n' roll, twisted trad and quirky Celtic, and Sufi drumming. She highly recommends the soundtrack from the movie that should have been made,"Another Way to Travel." Said soundtrack can be ordered from:
Steel Dragon Press
Box 7253
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Oh, she also writes.