The Last Card

Wheel of Fortune

The querent picked up the past card. "Four of Cups. How is this bad? The dude is just chilling next to a tree with a floating hand offering him a cup. You told me cups cards mean everything is awesome."

"Does the guy in the card look like everything is awesome?" I shot back. "He has three cups at his feet and someone is offering him a cup―but he doesn't see it. He doesn't want to see it. He's too busy being emo and missing out on what life is offering him."

"Are you saying I'm emo?"

"Yes―and at thirty it's not cute."

I didn't know what he wanted. We had drifted during the past year―falling into our own private purgatories. I had the feeling that he wanted to leave, but for once he wasn't a Chariot whirling off to his next destination.

He was the Four of Cups.

I tried to reach him, but he wouldn't take the cups that I offered him. Sometimes I wondered if he knew his actions made me feel like the Three of Swords―a heart skewered by his swords.

The worst part was that I didn't know if he was intentionally stabbing my heart. I couldn't ask him―I couldn't even ask the cards.

I didn't want to know.

What I hadn't expected was for him to stroll into the store today and ask for a reading. It was so surreal how we could easily fall back into our old pattern of banter. It was like the years evaporated and nothing changed.

But when I flipped the present card, I was reminded that everything changes.

"Wheel of Fortune." I shifted in my seat, hearing the chair legs creak. "This...this is a happy card. Especially in the upright position. "You've had a hard time, but happiness can return to your life. Our lives are the Wheel of Fortune―always turning, always changing. Downs and ups."

"And this means things will be happy?"

"If that's what you want," I said quietly. "It means that you have the power to change things in your life―if you decide to turn your life in a positive direction. You can turn it away from the negative things."

I was part of that negativity. Sometimes I lay in bed and worried that I made a mistake that day of our wedding. I worried that I tainted everything.

Then I worried it was always tainted. My profession in life would always remind him of his death. I knew that he thought of it sometimes when he looked at me, but he wouldn't say anything.

He just shut me out.

"When it comes to love, it means you might find the one you are looking for," I said flatly. "Your soulmate."

"I don't believe in soulmates."

"Big surprise," I mumbled.

We weren't soulmates. Our problem was that we projected our desires onto each other. I wanted to see him as steady support and he wanted to see me as someone with the answers.

But now we both knew the truth.

"It also could mean that feelings are changing and you are looking at someone differently now."

We were quiet until I moved the chair and it let out a terrible squeak. The noise was so awful that it made me wince.

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?" the querent asked quietly.

"It depends on what you want," I told him.

I always knew I wasn't psychic, but I was shocked when he leaned across the table and kissed me. At first the kiss was soft, then it rapidly grew more intense. When the kiss ended, there was nothing left to be said.

We finally understood each other again. Maybe we would never talk about what went wrong in the past. But he finally took the cup that I offered him before it was too late.

It was a mistake to avoid these readings. We communicated with the cards and when we stopped, it almost sent the Wheel of Fortune the wrong way.