The Last Card

The High Priestess

"I can't believe you're working tonight." The querent shook his head. "Why?"

I sighed. "It's been well over a year since your last consultation and that's what you want to ask?"

He sat down. "Did you hex yourself with your voodoo? Or do you just really want to spend the last night of the century reading cards for schmucks."

"I assume you are including yourself as one of those schmucks―you are getting a reading tonight."

The querent shrugged. "I am off to celebrate in style. You don't think I got all dressed up for you?"

I didn't know if I considered him 'dressed up'. He was wearing a wine colored leather jacket and jeans that cost more than was just. "For your girlfriend, right?"

"Who says I have a girlfriend?"

I hold up his past card. "Ace of Cups. You've begun a relationship full of hope and possibility."

"You get all of that from a hand holding a cup?"

"And I don't even have to look at your present card to know that she is still in your life. The way you're dressed, the way your hair is styled―and the fact that you're eager to leave."

He didn't looked impressed. "Tell me more Madame Psychic...what's her name?"

"Ashley."

That made him sit up straight. "Holy shit! Have you been stalking me?"

I giggled. "You can't be more than a year older than me. So you are twenty-two? Chances are that her name is Jessica, Jennifer or Ashley."

He laughed. "You guys are such bullshitters!"

I laughed harder. "People don't want guidance, they wanted to be wowed. The tricks wow them."

"Wow me some more, Madame Psychic."

I considered teasing him, then glanced at the two concealed cards. "You care about this Ashley. So much that you've come here, on the last day of the millennium, hoping that you'll have a future with her."

His happiness was as easily punctured as one of the silver balloons floating around the store. "I don't...I'm starting to accept I won't have a future. I think...I think I should end it."

A streetlight flickered, dimming everything. There was something eerie about his expressionless face in the dark.

Ending it. I didn't want to think about the implications. I pretended that he was just speaking of his relationship. "If you think you should end it, you would've ended it." I shrugged. "You are here because you want me to tell you that you shouldn't end it. Just like two years ago, you wanted me to tell you that you wouldn't die."

He sighed. "Why don't you just tell me that I won't die? Use your wowing bullshit and make me believe that I'll live. I don't know that an Ace of Cups means the beginning of a relationship. For all I knew it was about needing a drink. You could say anything."

"That would be a lie."

"You bullshit people, but don't lie. You really believe these cards?"

I pushed away a balloon that came floating in front of me. "I believe they can guide us and tell us things we need to know."

A loud commotion broke the silent spell between us. Millennium revelers high on the thrill of the night. They weren't thinking about their inevitable deaths or even the overly hyped Y2K.

"Are you sure you want to do this tonight?" I asked gently.

He nodded vigorously. "Yes. Go for it."