Mrs. Terry laughed a little, giving Dina a tender look. “You know what, my dear? I go and bake him that apple pie.”
Dina smiled. “When did your husband die?”
“Oh, it’s been almost ten years now. He died around Christmas, so it’s going to be the tenth anniversary of his passing on...December 23rd.”
“You must miss him a lot this time of year,” Dina said, thinking of her own parents.
“Oh yes... Yes. Charles Osgood Terry was a fine, good man.”
Mrs. Terry readjusted her mood. “Now, enough about me and my jabbering on. I’m sorry, my dear, what did you say your name is?”
“Dina Lee.”
“Yes, Dina. Okay, now, tell me why you’ve come.”
Dina folded her hands on the table top and began twisting them. “Well, no reason really. Like I said, I just found the gift certificate and I decided to come… I wasn’t going to come but then, I don’t know, an hour or so ago while I was eating breakfast, I suddenly thought, why not?”
“I see. And today is Saturday, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Is that important?” Dina asked.
“No, not really. I just like to make sure I know what day it is.”
Dina liked Mrs. Terry, but she thought she was probably a bit senile. She didn’t expect much from the kind lady, and if she’d known what she was in for, she wouldn’t have come.
“Well then, let us begin, Dina. I need your date of birth, your time of birth and your place of birth; and your time of birth must be within three minutes, otherwise your astrological chart will be wrong. You will be somebody else entirely.”
Mrs. Terry jutted her chin forward, scrutinizing Dina. “I sense you are a Pisces. Were you born between February 19 or 20 to March 20 or 21?”
Dina stared, impressed. “Yes… I was born on February 24th.”
“Ah yes, you are a Pisces, Dina. That means your Sun was in Pisces when you were born.”
“Yes, I’ve read about Pisces,” Dina said, eagerly. “I’m supposed to be dreamy, imaginative and romantic.”
“Yes, yes, all that is true, Dina. But there is more to an astrological chart than just the Sun sign. That’s like saying that Colorado is the United States. It’s a very important part of the United States, but we know there is much more to the country than just one state. Now give me the rest of your information.”
Dina sat up taller with interest and anxiously wrote down the date, time and place of her birth. Mrs. Terry turned to her laptop, and slowly and clumsily, she entered the information into a computer program, correcting her entries several times with hard slaps to the backspace button. Dina waited, her hands folded tightly on the table top.
Minutes later, Dina’s chart shot out from a small laser printer. Mrs. Terry retrieved it, adjusted her glasses and began a close study, making little humming sounds as she worked, her eyes narrowed, her face pinched in thought.
“Yes…” she said, absently. “Yes, indeed.”
Dina waited, shifting in her seat. “Do you see anything… important?” Dina asked.
Mrs. Terry ignored her, using her forefinger to trace the planetary symbols and their mathematical relationships to each other. “Yes, this is very interesting.”
Dina breathed in her impatience.
“What do you do for a living?” Mrs. Terry asked, not looking up from the page.
“I’m a waitress.”
“Hummm… I bet you are a good waitress, Dina. I bet people like you. There is kindness and charm in this horoscope. Yes, indeed. Yes, people like you and I dare say that you like people.”
“I hope they like me.”
“I see talent, fidelity and dependability in your horoscope, Dina. I also see sadness and loss. Have one or both of your parents passed away?”
Shaken and impressed, Dina leaned forward. “They both died in a car accident, two years ago, just before Christmas. They were coming to see me for the holidays.”
Mrs. Terry lifted her head and fixed her now clear, penetrating eyes on Dina. “Yes… Yes, that is sad. I also see here that you’re not married and that you never have been. Is that correct?”
Dina swallowed away a lump. How did this old woman know these things? It was weird and unnerving.
“No, I’m not married. You’re right, I’ve never been married.”
Mrs. Terry nodded, not pulling her keen eyes from Dina’s. Dina lowered hers.
“I see you have a good heart, Dina. A very kind and generous heart.”
Dina shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I see it,” Mrs. Terry said firmly, her voice dropping in pitch and volume, as if she were trying on the voice of a mysterious mystic. “Yes, and you’re scared.”
“I’m not scared,” Dina said, defensively.
“Yes, you are, my dear. But then, most of us are scared, aren’t we? You have been asked to marry… I think more than once. You turned down both offers of marriage.”
Dina felt her pulse quicken. It was too much. “I… I never did. I mean, I was almost married once… well twice. But I didn’t love them. Well, I did love one… but he…”
Dina’s voice fell into the silence, not wanting to go on.
“Dina… you fell in love, but one was unfaithful to you and the other… an older man… yes I see him older, maybe in his 40s, was already married. When you found him out, you were, of course, heartbroken.”
Dina shot up, her heart kicking in her chest. “I think I need to go.”
Mrs. Terry waved her down with a trembling, wrinkled hand. “Please, Dina. Sit down. Sit down and take a couple of deep breaths. I have come on too strong and said too much too fast. It’s always been a failing of mine. Here it is your first time, and I should be more careful. New clients don’t expect an old woman to be so direct. But I tell it as I see it, as fast as it comes to me, otherwise it slips away like a dream, and I can’t call it back. Please sit down and relax, Dina. Please.”
Slowly, Dina lowered herself in the chair. “How do you know these things, Mrs. Terry? How?” she asked, anxiety in her voice.
Mrs. Terry smiled, warmly. “I see it, Dina, and I sense it. Some people have a talent for music or art or business. I have a talent for seeing. My mind gets quiet and I see. How?” Mrs. Terry shrugged.
Dina stared at Mrs. Terry with a new respect, and with cautious apprehension. “I don’t think I need to know anything else, Mrs. Terry.”
Mrs. Terry folded her hands and sat back in her chair. “Dina, what are you afraid of?”
Dina shivered. “I don’t know. I mean, what if you see something bad in my chart? What if my planets are all messed up?”
Dina reached into her purse for a plastic bag that held Tums. She slid open the bag, reached for a pink Tums and lobbed it into her mouth.
A slow smile spread across Mrs. Terry’s lips.
To Dina, the woman seemed suddenly younger, wiser, more mysterious and definitely more frightening.
“Take another deep breath, Dina.”
Dina obeyed.
“Do you feel better?”
Dina nodded.
“Dina, you are about to have a life change.”
Dina inhaled another startled breath, and chewed aggressively on the Tums, feeling new tension tighten her throat. “A life change? Well, I mean, what kind of life change?”
“Your Venus is currently transiting through the sign Scorpio. That’s very sexy. It’s in a favorable aspect to Mars, which adds further strength to romantic Venus, and attraction. Your Venus is also making a fortunate aspect to Jupiter, the planet of expansion, good fortune and luck… A lot of luck.”
Dina felt her eyes enlarge. “A fortunate aspect? So that’s good, then?”
“You are about to have an adventure, Dina, because your Jupiter is also in the ninth house of long distance travel.”
Dina flashed back to that sidewalk Santa Claus, and the wish she’d made: she’d wished for adventure. Now, her head became a tangle of thoughts and images. “What kind o
f adventure, Mrs. Terry?”
Mrs. Terry unfolded her hands and lowered her eyes, focusing anew on the planetary symbols in Dina’s astrological chart.
“Interestingly, Dina, the planet Neptune is also involved here. Neptune is the ruler of your Sun sign, Pisces, so it carries more weight in your chart. Neptune is a vague and hazy planet—a mysterious planet—a planet that often hides and obscures things. Because of the influence of Mars, I sense a man is about to enter your life—a mysterious man—who will have some dramatic influence on you in an unusual way.”
“Unusual? How unusual?”
“I can’t see him very well because Neptune veils him from my sight, but I know he’s there, and I know he will soon appear in your life, in some form or the other. Unfortunately, I can’t see in what capacity. If I had to guess, I’d say you will be strongly attracted to him.”
“Really? Does it say what kind of man, I mean besides mysterious?”
Mrs. Terry met Dina’s hopeful gaze. “No, Dina. It’s too cloudy. He’s behind the scenes in some way.”
“Is there more, Mrs. Terry?”
Mrs. Terry nodded. “Yes, Dina. The planet Uranus is also involved. Uranus is the planet of unpredictability and change. So, again, I cannot see with clarity or certainty how all this is going to play out. I can tell you, however, that some mysterious man will appear in your life, quite suddenly, and your life will change, and it will change dramatically.”
“Then it’s all good?” Dina asked, sitting on the edge of her seat.
“I can’t predict that everything will be good. There are shadows here, and shadows often hold surprises, once the light is shined on them.”
Dina frowned, feeling perspiration pop out on her forehead. “I’ve never liked surprises much.”
“Your horoscope is very active right now, Dina. There is much to consider here.”
“Well, what if I don’t want any of this to happen? What if I don’t accept this adventure, I mean, if it comes?”
Mrs. Terry sighed through her nose, and it made a little whistling sound. “You can choose to do that, Dina, but I don’t think you will. You see, in some way, you have already set the energies into motion.”
“But how? I haven’t done anything.”
“Your chart says different.”
Dina licked her dry lips. “But I could stop it if I wanted to, couldn’t I? I mean, it’s not destined to happen, is it?”
“As I said, Dina, the energies are there. You can’t avoid that. I suppose you could avoid the event. One can always say NO to life. Yes, you can do that.”
Dina paused, suddenly feeling foolish. Why was she getting so worked up over nothing? Mrs. Terry was a nice old lady, who had probably started doing psychic readings to make extra money after her husband died. What if the whole thing was just a show? And it probably was just a show—entertainment. Dina was certain that Mrs. Terry told all her female clients they were going to meet some mystery man and have an adventure. After all, isn’t that what most women wanted to hear?
Dina arose, forcing a tight smile. “Well, thank you, Mrs. Terry. This was…fun.”
Mrs. Terry’s face melted into kindness. “Dina, I can see that you were truly in love with the married man. It hurt you deeply when you discovered he had a wife and two children. With that man, you had envisioned a home and children. You have been very lonely since then, and maybe a little bitter, for almost two years now. And from what I see here, I doubt whether you socialize very much, at least with the opposite sex. You have been a little closed off and protective of yourself.”
Dina’s pulse raced. She blinked fast. “How do you know that? How can you know? How can you possibly know Kevin had two kids and that he broke my heart? And how can anyone possibly know that I’m going to meet some mystery man?” Dina could feel the heat rise to her face. “And anyway, I don’t want to meet anyone, okay? Some mystery man…and go off somewhere. I mean, how do you know these things?”
Mrs. Terry’s soft eyes closed, and she seemed to go into a kind of trance. “Dina, reality is not a static thing; it exists in a fog of active possibilities. Sometimes I can peer into that fog and see with some clarity. That is the best way for me to describe it.”
Dina folded her arms, sighed out frustration, and gazed up at the ceiling, as if some of the answers hovered there.
At the front door, Mrs. Terry studied Dina’s troubled face. “Dina, I hope you’ll come back for a visit, whether you decide to take your adventure or not. I would love to see you again. Will you do that? Will you come back and visit me?”
Dina nodded. “Yes, Mrs. Terry.”
Mrs. Terry patted Dina’s arm. “I promise to make tea next time. Forgive me, I got so involved in your reading that I completely forgot my manners. You take care of yourself, Dina, and let me know what happens.”
Dina descended the front stairs to the sidewalk. When she turned back, Mrs. Terry smiled and waved from behind the front door’s parted, lacy curtains.
Dina strolled away, comforting herself with the thought, “Nice lady, but she’s a little bit crazy.”
CHAPTER 3
On Saturday night, Gallagher’s fell into frantic chaos around 8:30, when the computer system crashed. All bar and dinner orders had to be hand-written and personally delivered to the kitchen by the servers, which added a new layer of stress and caused delays in dispatching food and cocktails to the tables. All checks had to be tabulated by calculator, including the sales tax and, because the computer performed that service automatically, at first, none of the servers even knew what the sales tax was.
The bar had also fallen into hectic confusion; the long-haired bartender, Matt, was scrambling, while guests shouted out drink orders like stock traders on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Manager Charlie Taylor looked like a deer in headlights as he barked at the servers, worked to console angry guests, and slipped frequently into the bar to toss back a shot of Jack Daniels to help calm his fraying nerves.
Dina managed to hold on to her good humor and her bright smile, despite the complaints that the steaks were under or overcooked, the cocktails watery and the salad wilted. She expressed her regret in a quiet, calm manner, despite the ugly words tossed back at her.
It was her regular guests who remained content and easy, and they were the saving grace. She had currency with them. They recalled past visits when Dina had gone the extra mile for them, fetching more butter, more dinner rolls, or a glass of free wine when dinners were delayed, and singing Happy Birthday in her clear soprano voice. That had always brought enthusiastic applause from the dining room. Her regular guests adored and respected her. Dina was the shining star in the dining room, her manner professional yet friendly, her smile always uplifting and welcoming.
The seemingly never-ending night beat on, unraveling in waves of grumbles, mumbles and outrage, with the occasional sound of smashing plates in the kitchen, squealing cries from the kids, and the ever-present, never-calming sound of Christmas carols struggling to deliver a bit of Christmas joy over the tumult.
When the dining room finally closed, and the last of the guests had slouched away; after the music was shut off; after Charlie collapsed on a barstool, head in his heads; after the candles were snuffed out and an exhausted silence fell over the room, Dina and Patti dropped into chairs at a back table, near a window, with a clear view of the empty parking lot. Their feet throbbed, their heads throbbed, their backs ached and their nerves still burned with stress, hearts still thumping in their chests.
“Just shoot me, okay?” Patti said. “I can’t go through another night like this. It was brutal. It was ugly. It was hell.”
Dina heaved out a sigh, raking a loose strand of hair from over her eye. She was sticky with sweat, and she smelled like French fries and burnt steak.
“I would have given my entire paycheck to get the computer up and going,” Dina said. “Why does that thing always crash on a Saturday night? Remember the last time?”
“Hell yes, I remember the last time,” Patti barked. “It was July 4th, a Saturday night. I wanted to take a baseball bat to the damned thing. Man, could I use a drink.”
“I felt bad for all the guests,” Dina said, sadly.
“For the guests!?” Patti said, lifting her tired head.
“Yeah… How would you feel if you waited an hour for your dinner and when you got it, it wasn’t what you ordered? And you had two screaming kids wanting their spaghetti and meat balls that wound up being dropped in the kitchen before it ever made it to the table?”
“Why didn’t those people just leave and go somewhere else?”
“Because all the good restaurants are booked, and this is Pine Village, where there isn’t a whole lot to choose from, especially after 9 o’clock.”
Charlie wandered over, unsteady on his feet. His eyes were bloodshot and foggy. His tie loose and crooked.
“Hey girls,” he said, his voice cracking from fatigue and booze.
“I hope you’re going to get that computer fixed by tomorrow,” Patti said, her face pale and sagging.
“I called the company three times,” Charlie said in exasperation. “They said they couldn’t get here until morning. I begged them to come, those bastards. Do you know what I told them? I told them I was going to go with another company. I told them they screwed up once too many times. I told them to go to hell.”
Dina stared, alarmed. “Charlie… will they come and fix the thing before tomorrow night?”
“Say yes, Charlie,” Patti pleaded. “Please say yes.”
Charlie rubbed his shadow of a beard, shifting his shaky weight from one foot to the next. “The hell with them. Who needs them?”
“We need them, Charlie,” Patti said. “We can’t go through another night like tonight.”
Charlie lifted his chin, imperiously. “Yes, we can. We can do whatever we should do. Whatever it takes.”
Patti wilted, dropping her face in her hands. “God help me.”
At that moment, Dina turned toward the window and was surprised to see a dark, freshly polished limousine pull into the lot and park near the front door.
“Look at that!” Dina said, straightening.
The Date Before Christmas: A Novel Page 3