I was having my cards read on a whim; I had just been walking by and saw the sign and felt drawn in.  I knocked and a small dark woman opened the door and looked expectantly at me.

            “Hi, I was just…um…”

            “You want your cards read?”

            “Yes.”

            “Come on in,” she opened the door wider and motioned me to come in.  I shyly entered and looked around.  It was a fairly normal room; the furniture looked secondhand but well taken care of, there were some plants hanging in macramé holders; the room smelled a little musty as though she were afraid to open the windows very far.

            “In here,” she motioned to her dining room where she had the stack of cards sitting on the table.  I sat down and timidly put my purse on the floor.  She smiled knowingly and sat down across from me, “you can take your jacket off if you want.”

            “Ok,” I said and slid my jacket off.  She smiled again and began shuffling the cards.

            “Have you ever had your cards read before?”

            “No.”

            “What brought you in?”

            “Just felt like it, I guess.”

            “Would you please cut the deck?”

I nodded and reached out towards the cards.  As I put my hand on the cards I was immediately struck by how they felt.  They looked old but felt new; the cards were smooth and the corners were un-creased but they also felt old.  More like there was an aura of old-ness but a tactile feeling of new.  She looked at me as though she understood what I was thinking.  I cut the deck and slid it back across the table at her.  She immediately turned over three cards.  They were all the same; an Empress.  I sat there staring at them for a while before I looked up at her; she was staring at them as well.

            “What does that mean?”

            “I’ve never seen that before.”

            “So do you know what it means?”

            “The Empress always represents self; but never in threes,” she looked at me in bewilderment, “in threes, well in threes it represents me.”

            “What?”

            “The three Empresses’ are my personal sign it shouldn’t come up for anyone else.”

            “So what does that mean?”

            “Isn’t it obvious?”

I looked up into her brown-black eyes and realized…

            “You’re me.”

            “Yes, I’m you and you didn’t come here by accident Sandra.  I’ve got something to tell you about yourself, its important so pay attention.”

It was at that precise moment that my alarm went off.  She stopped talking and I looked around in bewilderment.

            “No, what were you going to tell me?”

She began to answer when someone shook me.

            “No,” I groaned.

But the shaking persisted and she faded away like a dream with the important information right on her lips.  She looked saddened.

            “Wake up,” he whispered into my ear as he shook me.

            “Wesley…” I heard her say and I gripped the table determined to hear what she was going to say.  “Too late,” she whispered as she faded away.

            “Wake up sweetie,” he shook me a little harder.

            “I’m up, I’m up Nathan.”

            “Your brother, Wesley called.”

            “I’ll call him back later,” I bunched the pillow up underneath me and stared at the wall.  She was not going to come back and tell me anything.  Damn it.

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