Twisted Tales from a Murderous Mind

by Linda Ungar

  MISS FORTUNE

  The brightly colored flag, buffeted by strong hot gusts that swept the land, snapped violently in the air. Only later would a fresh wind from across the sea arrive to cool the countryside. The flag waved in bold contrast against a blazing sun rising in the pure blue sky. The marching band, that was to lead the parade along the promenade later in the day, was still rehearsing. Shopkeepers, hoping for a profitable start to the summer season, opened early.

  Gretchen Loew excitedly placed her sign in the window, which was easily visible from the beach. But most people had no need of a sign to find THE FORTUNE TELLER. Her family had lived here for generations. The women, renowned for their psychic gifts, were in constant demand. Now it was Gretchen’s turn to continue that tradition. Her mother had assured her from the time she was a child that she had the gift. It had started for Gretchen when she was seven, and only grew stronger over the years. Dreams that came true, knowing what events would happen before they occurred, knowing what was in a letter before it was opened, confirmed that she had inherited second sight. When she turned twenty-one she succeeded her mother, just as her mother had succeeded hers.

  The family took pride in their ability to offer guidance to those who came to them, and were angered by charlatans, claiming to be clairvoyant; charlatans who preyed on the weak and the vulnerable. They considered it blasphemous to pretend to have a God-given gift.

  The knock on the door announced her first client.

  “Come in.”

  The door cracked open, and a cheerful pretty round face, framed by silky blonde hair, peered into the room from the partially opened door. “I wanted to be your first client. Looks like I got my wish.” Ella Becker, giggling, entered and plopped her soft plump body into a soft plump chair facing Gretchen. She couldn’t stop laughing.

  “This is ridiculous, Ella. I know you too well.” But a smiling Gretchen was delighted to have her best friend be the first person to come through her door.

  Ella handed Gretchen a small shopping bag. “For you,” she said, trying to regain her composure.

  Gretchen reached into the bag and retrieved a small beautifully wrapped box of Belgian chocolates.

  Then it was Gretchen who burst out laughing. “I see that this is your favorite brand of chocolate. I also see that you want me to share them with you. How am I doing so far?”

  “Oh, you are good,” Ella quipped, reaching into the opened box Gretchen offered her. “You knew I’d want to eat these. What an amazing gift you have. Since you already know my past, let’s see what you can do with my future.”

  Gretchen became serious. “This isn’t a game, Ella. If you want a reading you have to be prepared to learn things you didn’t expect or even want to know.”

  Her mother and grandmother told her to trust her visions. They taught her the information she received would be true, but that she might not always understand its significance. Often it was like working on a puzzle. Bits and pieces would be revealed, but only later would the whole picture emerge.

  Ella, always the optimist, wanted to continue.

  Gretchen sat quietly for a few moments, head down, eyes closed. Then she looked up at her friend, who was eagerly waiting for the session to begin. “You are very excited about your future.” Ella nodded. “You’re about to make a great change in your life.” Ella smiled happily. “You’re going to take a trip. You’re getting married.”

  Ella rolled her eyes. “Come on, you know Eric and I wanted to get married since we were fifteen. You certainly remember. You told me you had a wild crush on him. It took you a couple of weeks to stop crying when you found out he liked me. So the whole world knows we’re getting married, especially you. You’ve got to do better than that.”

  “Quiet!” a stern voice, one Ella had never heard before, reprimanded her.

  The atmosphere grew tense. Ella struggled to adjust to her best friend’s new demeanor.

  Gretchen continued. “Of course, but you never set a date. You never even got officially engaged. But I see marriage soon, very soon. Oh my God, you’re pregnant!”

  Ella gasped. “I only found out last night. I told Eric this morning. We decided to elope just before I came here. How could you know?”

  Gretchen looked at her.

  “Stupid question.”

  “You’re going to have a boy.”

  “Eric will like that.”

  “Sshh.” Gretchen put her finger to her lips. “Don’t break my concentration.” Gretchen remained silent for a few moments. A worried expression appeared on her face. “There won’t be any more children. Eric is going through a lot of changes. You may not see it right now, but it’s already happening. You’ll be losing weight…..”

  “Now I know this is ridiculous. I’m never going to diet.”

  “This is important. Listen to me. This is not about dieting. There’s a lot more you need to be aware of. If you go through with this marriage you will be bitterly disappointed. Eric will never make you happy. Sometimes I don’t understand the meaning of what I see, other times, like this, it’s crystal clear. I don’t like what I’m seeing.”

  Ella jumped up. “And I don’t like what I’m hearing. You’re my best friend, and this is how you talk to me.”

  “As your best friend, this is exactly how I have talk to you. I’m trying to save you from an unhappy life. Eric is going to be a bitter disappointed man. That’s not going to be good for you or your son.”

  An outraged Ella challenged Gretchen again. “Are you sure this doesn’t have more to do with you than me? Are you jealous because the so-called love of your life doesn’t seem to be making any great effort to be with you? I noticed Hugh’s still in Australia, not here. In spite of the great love affair you had in college in London, I don’t see any ring on YOUR finger, or am I just imagining that?” Ella was shouting now. “I’m not going to listen to any more of this craziness. What should be the happiest time of my life is being ruined by you!” She bolted out of her chair, grabbed money from her wallet and angrily thrust it into a glass jar Gretchen kept on a table. “I have to go. I have a lot to do, as you already know,” she added sarcastically. Her abrupt departure was punctuated by a slamming door. Gretchen called after her, but her voice couldn’t reach Ella through the door that she had shut between them.

  Gretchen was stunned. Her blue eyes filled with tears. Her first reading, and she botched it. A lifelong friendship destroyed in just moments, some gift. This felt more like a curse. She was busy the rest of the day and had no time to think about what to do with Ella, but from that experience she learned to be very careful discussing her visions with her clients. The rest of the day was uneventful. Her clients were impressed with her ability to see what was happening in their lives, and no one was upset by her predictions. Only the last young man troubled her. After his high school graduation, she saw nothing, just, dark, empty space. She didn’t know if this signified the end of his life, or just her inability to see his future. She now knew the truth could be said in many ways. Not wanting to alarm him, she said, “I see you always young and strong.” She suspected the worst, but hoped she was wrong. The young man walked away happy, unaware of his fate.

  Gretchen ended her day completely drained, unable to stop replaying her disastrous encounter with Ella, who was wrong in accusing her of jealousy. Gretchen and Hugh actually were engaged. They were keeping their news secret until Hugh could come here with his parents. It meant a lot to both of them to make their announcement to their families first, before telling friends.

  Hugh had made her laugh the first time they met. Besides his obvious good looks, she loved his humor and even his funny Australian accent, though he insisted it was she who spoke English with a funny accent. When he learned that she was a psychic, he teased her, calling her Miss Fortune. His dark eyes sparkled with mischief and love as he claimed he proposed to her just to save her from that ‘unfortunate’ name.

  “Who wants to hang out wi
th Miss Fortune? You’ll be much better off as Mrs. Michaels.”

  Just thinking about him lifted her spirits, but she wouldn’t be able to see him for several months. His sister was getting married and his mother was happily involved in all the many details of making a big wedding. There wasn’t any way to convince Ella that she hadn’t been acting out of jealousy without betraying her promise to Hugh not to tell anyone about their engagement, even her best friend. Besides, even if she could, she knew they were never going to speak again. What good is second sight when what you see is so devastating?

  She needed to clear her mind before she went home to tell her mother and grandmother what happened. They would be heartbroken. The girls had grown up together, as close as sisters. Gretchen needed to get into the open air. Being outdoors always calmed her. She made her way to the park and walked beneath the ancient trees that flanked the promenade. Years of sea winds had gnarled and bent their branches. Lost in her thoughts, she paid no attention to the twisted shadows they cast over her path, or the blaring trumpets of the marching band.

  Her mother and grandmother listened sympathetically. She couldn’t stop blaming herself for the rupture. “I lost Ella,” she cried. Her mother took her in her arms, “From what you said, it seems Ella was already lost. Ella didn’t like the message, so she blamed the messenger. You were in an impossible situation.” Her grandmother agreed. “I’m afraid life is filled with impossible situations, starting at birth. No one wants to die young and no one wants to grow old. It doesn’t get any more impossible than that.”

  The summer wore on. Gretchen grew increasingly agitated as she continued to see no future for so many of her clients: young men, little children, whole families, healthy people in the prime of life.

  This made no sense. Either she was going mad, losing her gift, or the world was about to become a terrifying place. She struggled to get through her days.

  One hot afternoon brought a gang of boisterous young men, barely out of their teens, already showing the effects of too many beers, too early in the afternoon. As she approached them, she experienced a completely new sensation. Though they remained seated, she felt the floor tremble beneath her, as if being stomped on by heavy boots. When it finally subsided, she remained shaken. In doing their readings, as she had come to expect, most had no future. She saw only a few surviving to middle or old age. One of the young men who had no future, brought his girlfriend back the next day. Gretchen told them their love would always be as strong as it is now. No one ever read between the lines, for that she was thankful. But the emotional toll on her was growing.

  As her day ended she once more sought relief in nature, but the moist hot breath of summer enervated her and forced her indoors out of the glaring sun. Finally, the heat broke under a torrential rain. For three days rains lashed the small town, yet the water in the gutters never ran clear. As if God had tried and failed to cleanse the earth. But at least it was cool enough to sit in her mother’s garden again. The brilliant colors of the flowers were subdued by the cooling twilight mist that settled in from the sea. She sat on a stone bench enjoying the stillness, broken only by a few birds reluctant to end their day. She sat, finally in peace, unaware of the spider silently spinning its web beneath the stone bench.

  Gretchen went back to work with a strengthened resolve to separate her emotions from her readings. She could not change destiny. Maybe someday this would all make sense, but for now she realized her clairvoyance was her gift, her burden, her destiny. But as her days continued in the same unsettling way, her resolve weakened. Her emotions swung between doubting her ability, or being overwhelmed with dread. She desperately needed Hugh to be with her, needed his strong comforting arms, needed his love and protection. Her anxiety was relentless.

  “Concentrate on Hugh,” she told herself. “I’ll get through this as long as I know we’ll be together.” It wasn’t fair to burden her mother and grandmother anymore with her fears. She had to deal with this herself.

  She went to the drawer where she kept one of his old rugby shirts that he’d given her. She smiled, crumpling and pressing the shirt against her heart and burying her face in his scent. She began to relax, feeling a strong presence of love and comfort. She drifted deeper into relaxation, allowing her to be the open channel that enabled her to look into the future. She looked, waiting for a clear picture. Nothing appeared. She waited. Finally, there it was, just what she had seen too many times …..nothing, a dark, emptiness. This couldn’t be happening. She wasn’t concentrating hard enough. She was distracted by her fears. She fought her growing panic, trying to calm herself. “I’ll try again. I need more time with this. I’m putting too much pressure on myself. I’ll take a few hours to relax.” The room darkened as the sun left the sky before she felt able to attempt another reading. She took a few deep breaths and looked again into the future. Again, she waited and waited. Again, nothing, only a dark emptiness.

  “NOOOOO!” A shriek of anguish ripped from her throat. Her world gone, she fainted, crashed to the floor, and lay there splayed, like a broken doll.

  Ella moved awkwardly around the cramped kitchen of her tiny apartment. Her growing belly made it difficult to perform even ordinary chores. Being pregnant wasn’t as much fun as she thought it would be. Actually, nothing was as much fun as she thought it would be. She hadn’t said anything to Eric, it would only cause another argument, but she knew Gretchen had been right. Ella missed her and had already decided to apologize. She was planning to go to Gretchen right after Eric left for work today. She looked at Eric, absorbed as usual in his morning newspaper. “I swear, you’ve turned into your father. A real creature of habit. Same routine every day, coffee, paper. You never pay any attention to me. You don’t do a thing around here to help. You’re just like your father,” she nagged.

  “And what’s wrong with my father?” he asked belligerently, his face still buried in the paper.

  Ella, her once sweet nature soured, was about to tell him. The phone rang. She answered it but never spoke, whoever was on the line did all the talking. She remained silent, looking shocked. She finally mumbled, “Of course.” And hung up. Sobbing, unable to speak, she collapsed into a chair.

  Engulfed by grief and guilt, she howled like a wounded animal. Eric glanced at her momentarily, annoyed that she was ‘getting emotional’ again.

  Struggling to speak, she finally found her voice. “Gretchen. It’s Gretchen.” She shrieked. “She’s dead! They found her this morning, clutching a blood-soaked shirt. She shot herself in the head.”

  “Sounds like she went bonkers.” Eric said, still reading the paper.

  “What the hell are you saying? This is Gretchen you’re talking about,” screamed a grief-stricken Ella.

  “The same Gretchen you wouldn’t speak to anymore because of the crazy fortune she told you.”

  “She wasn’t crazy. I think she was right.” She yelled. “Her funeral is Thursday at noon.”

  “So?”

  “What do you mean, so?”

  “So, means I’m not going.”

  “I can’t believe it. Why?”

  “Because there’s a guy I’ve been hearing about who’s coming to the union hall to speak. He’s supposed to have a lot of new ideas how to make this country great again. We need someone who really wants to shake up the old order and bring in some fresh blood. That’s why! That’s who I was just reading about here.” He waved the paper in her face.

  “Can’t you see him some other time? If he’s as good as you say, he’ll be making speeches all over the country. He’ll be back. You’ll have another chance to hear him.”

  “Maybe, but I’m seeing him Thursday.” Eric threw down the paper and stomped out of the room.

  Ella, still crying, couldn’t believe his reaction. She picked up the paper, curious to see what it said about the man Eric was so enthralled with. There was a long article praising this new dynamic force on the political landscape, urging everyone not
to miss the opportunity to hear the powerful speeches of Adolf Hitler.