Looking back over everything, she seemed to have spent her life waiting for something to complete her existence. What she waited for she did not know, but she felt she must wait. There was no place for her in the lives of others, and she had no desire to clutter up her own life with friendships she knew she could not afford.
Why she had bothered to come with Allyson, Elizabeth, and Margaret she didn’t know. It had been a drastic mistake. She should have known better. Whenever she made a spur-of-the-moment decision, it always proved wrong. She was sorry she’d come. She wanted to go back to her little furnished apartment in the city where she could be alone with her troubled thoughts and the unnerving voices that constantly talked to her.
She stood there deep in her own thoughts, oblivious of the three girls who were trying to coax her to join them. Elizabeth gave her arm a hard tug. It brought Julia back to the present. She saw the old gypsy woman looking at her again. She remembered the woman’s first look of astonishment, of recognition. Perhaps the gypsy really did know something about Julia that would benefit her. Despite all her resolve to refuse the others, she found herself giving in. She let Elizabeth pull her inside the tent.
Once inside, Julia saw another expression pass over the gypsy’s face. It was one of disapproval. The old woman looked none too pleased with Julia for having joined the others. Julia found herself tossing back a look of defiance and seated herself with the girls around a draped table, in the center of which sat a crystal ball.
The gypsy did not take her place at the table until the matter of payment was dispensed with. Each girl contributed her share, which the old woman collected. She carried the bills into a deeper recess of the eerily lighted tent. She reappeared a moment later.
“Well,” the old gypsy said with a heavy sigh as she settled herself opposite the girls. She leaned over the crystal ball which glowed with a strange light.
The gypsy looked again from one to the other of the girls, giving Julia only the briefest glance. “I must explain,” the old woman started. “In group readings, it is necessary for me to put myself into a trance from which I cannot emerge until all the readings are completed. After I have passed over into my hypnotic state, each of you will take turns placing your hands, palms down, on the table, extended toward the crystal ball. Above all else, do not touch the crystal ball, just put your hands close enough to it for it to pick up the heat of your body. Whatever I say will be directed to the person whose hands are on the table. Only one pair of hands must be on the table at a time, otherwise the powers of darkness will become confused and the communication muddied and garbled. Do you understand? Good. Then we can begin.” The old woman closed her eyes and tilted her head back. Her lips moved, but emitted no sounds. Slowly her wrinkled and bony hands raised up, as though in supplication, and the woman began to speak.
“Hear me, great powers from beyond this world. Tell me what is in store for this young beauty.”
The tent suddenly dropped into darkness. The girls all tittered and looked around. After a moment they settled themselves and Allyson placed her hands palms down on the table, extending them close to the glowing crystal ball.
The gypsy’s eyes opened wide, but they stared, unseeing, at the darkness around them. “I invoke and command thee, O spirit, by all the resplendent and potent names of the great and unparalleled Azliel, to come here to this place instanter. Come from whichever place thou art and give answers to my questions. Come in visible or invisible form. Come and speak pleasantly in words I may understand.”
Julia, unlike the others, was looking around for signs of trickery. She expected to see a vague shape take form in the sudden blackness, which she was convinced was obtained through the benefit of electric switches located beneath the table. However, no shimmering, unearthly shape appeared. Nothing floated through the space over their heads. No drafts of cold air tickled the backs of their necks. Julia frowned her disappointment.
The tent was deadly quiet for several long, ominous moments. Then the gypsy’s lips moved again but her voice was not her own. She spoke in a man’s voice, a voice so unreal and so unnatural the girls, including Julia, gasped and stared in disbelief.
“What will you have me tell you?” the voice asked.
“This girl. Her name is Alice...no, Allyson. She wishes to know what her future holds in store.” This time the old woman spoke in her own voice.
Another long, eerie silence followed. Then the mysterious man’s voice said, “She will marry soon. She will meet her betrothed on a beach. They will fall in love and will live in happiness forever.”
A little cry of pleasure went out of Allyson. She turned to Margaret, who was seated beside her. They looked at each other, saying nothing, too surprised to speak. After a second or two Allyson turned back and stared at the crystal ball and waited for the voice to continue. When it did not, she took her hands from the table. “The old gypsy knew my name,” Allyson whispered. “How could she know my name?”
Margaret shrugged. “She obviously heard us talking among ourselves. We mentioned each other’s names, I suppose.”
“Oh, it’s kinda exciting,” Allyson gushed. “You can bet your last dollar I’ll be on the beach tomorrow bright and early.”
The girls giggled.
“She didn’t say you’d meet him tomorrow, Ally,” Margaret told her.
Allyson smothered a laugh. “I know, but I intend to start looking as soon as I can.” Between giggles Allyson nudged Margaret. “Go ahead, Maggie. Put your hands on the table. Let’s see what she has to say about you.”
Margaret hesitated, then remembered her two-dollar investment and put her hands palms down in front of her.
Allyson nodded toward the crystal ball and Margaret stretched her hands closer to it.
The old woman was seated, staring upward, seemingly unaware that there were others near her. The moment Margaret’s hands touched the table top the old gypsy’s lips began to quiver.
“Your name...your name...,” the old woman said.
Margaret said nothing.
“Your name is Margaret.” The gypsy paused. “Tell us, O great spirit, what is in store for this girl?”
“Margaret,” the man’s voice droned. “Margaret. Be careful of vehicles. Be careful of your money. Your future is uncertain unless your ways are changed now.”
“Will I marry?” Margaret asked, ignoring the warnings. “That’s all I’m interested in knowing.”
“Love will come easily to you, Margaret,” the man’s voice said. “You will find it too often, and each time it will bring with it great unhappiness. You will marry three times.”
“I hope they’ll all be rich,” Margaret scoffed, pulling her hands back from the table.
“Oh, Maggie, you shouldn’t make light of it. You’ll break the trance and we won’t hear what she has to say about Elizabeth and Julie.”
“Oh, phooey,” Margaret huffed. “You surely don’t believe all this bunk?”
“Hush,” Allyson cautioned, still pleased with her own prediction for the future. “Go ahead, Julie. You go next.”
Julia held back. “N—no,” she stammered, “I don’t think I want
