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Hope decided to visit some of the offbeat stores in the area. She wouldn’t buy much, needing to save her money, but she wanted to find a little treasure to remind her of this place when she left. She had about an hour to kill before work and was making her way down the crowded street when a woman stepped in front of her. Dressed in layers of gossamer fabric in vibrant colors, her long, dark hair in contrast with those bright colors gleamed in the sun, and the whole look gave her a gypsy feel.
    “Your soul is in turmoil,” she replied looking Hope from top to bottom.
    “Pardon?”
    “I felt you from a block away it pulled me from my shop.”
    “I’m sorry?” Hope replied, thinking the woman was upset but confused by this conversation all the same.
    “Come, I will read you for free,” the gypsy woman continued and then grabbed her hand and pulled her into her store. The store was dark with similar gossamer fabric draped around sectioning off the front from the back and in the center, was a display of crystals and candles with the prices displayed. There were candles lit on mantels and tables scattered throughout the store, and incense burning in dishes; a kinda woodsy smell that made Hope relax. There was nothing much to her store, just a table and chairs in the back with a stack of tarot cards waiting to be shuffled.
    “I really don’t need a reading,” Hope tried to explain to the woman.
    “If anyone ever needed a reading it is you, now sit, I won’t charge you the spirits are yelling at me to read you. Now, what is your name?”
    “Um, Hope, my name is Hope.”
    “I am Madame LeFarr. Sit, sit, I need to stop the shouting in my head.”
    Hope sat abruptly in the chair, forced down by Madame LeFarr. She could feel her heart beating quicker, afraid that the cards, though she didn’t believe they could tell someone their future, would somehow tell her sordid tale.
    Madame LeFarr shuffled the cards while staring at Hope, reading her with her eyes, looking for whatever caused the sadness is this woman. She’d been drawn to the door, almost shoved out of it and into this woman’s path. Very seldom did the spirits push her so hard to read for someone, and her own curiosity as to this woman’s problems, and the need for the spirits to intercede, was making her own heart pound. Cutting the cards in half, she focused her mind on this woman so the cards could answer her questions. After she’d centered her thoughts, she took a deep breath and starting dealing out the cards.
    “The Hierophant, the Fool, the Devil, the Ace of Cups and the Ten of Swords,” Madame LeFarr announced as she placed the card down in front of Hope. “The cards tell me you have met a mentor or teacher of some sort, someone who is showing you the way.” Hope couldn’t help but think of Maman Rose.
    “The Fool card tells me you are starting over, and the Devil card tells you that no one has any power over you if you don’t let them.” Hope’s heartbeat picked up as the cards seemed to be telling her tale, but they were wrong in one aspect, someone could wield power over you whether you wanted them to or not.
    “And the last two? What do they tell you?” Hope found herself asking.
    “The Ace of cups usually stands for love. I would say there is a relationship in your future. One, if given time and attention, could move from a slow moving stream to a river flowing so fast and hard it will take your breath away. But, take heed, the Ten of Swords in my experience signals danger. The cards are telling you something, and you must be vigilant. I get the feeling you’re a magnet for trouble, that an unknown force is tracking you, always in the recesses of your life causing havoc.”
    Hope rose abruptly, shaken by the reading, not wanting to acknowledge there was any truth to the cards. She smiled weakly at the woman saying, “Thank you for your time,” and without a backward glance ran from the store and into Nic Beuve as he walked past