Bella Fortuna

by Rosanna Chiofalo

  Valentina and Rita had noticed one day.

  “Ma, are you getting enough sleep? The bags under your eyes are horrible.”

  Leave it to Rita’s trademark bluntness to cut to the truth.

  “I’m okay. We’ve just been really busy lately.”

  “Ma, why don’t you go home and rest? We can finish up for the day.”

  “Well, I—okay. A nap is probably just what I need. Don’t forget to—”

  “Lock up. We know, Ma. When have we ever forgotten to lock up?”

  Olivia picked up her purse and walked out of the store.

  Making her way very slowly up Ditmars Boulevard, Olivia was certain if she were to stop and retrace her steps, she’d be able to see her daughters staring at her from Sposa Rosa’s storefront window as they debated her welfare. She couldn’t help smiling to herself as she imagined the conversation her daughters must surely be having right now about her.

  “I don’t think she’s okay. She’s not even walking as fast as she normally does.”

  “Well, Vee, she is getting old.”

  “She’s only sixty, Rita. Sixty today is the new fifty, haven’t you heard?”

  “Yeah, maybe if you’re Christie Brinkley or Diane Sawyer, not a seamstress who doesn’t know the meaning of relax and take a vacation.”

  “Maybe we should take her to the doctor.”

  “I think you’re over-worrying, Vee. Like Ma said, we’ve been very busy. We’re all tired. We’re younger, though, and can bounce back quicker than she can.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Let’s get back to work. We have five Bridezillas coming in tonight for fittings.”

  “All brides are Bridezillas.”

  “Are you accusing me of being a Bridezilla, too?”

  “Of course not, Vee.” Rita smirked.

  Olivia sighed. How would she go on without them? Ahhhhh!

  “I’m doing it again,” she muttered aloud to herself.

  At the sound of her voice, a young teenage girl opened the door to the fortune-teller’s shop.

  “I thought I heard someone out here. You didn’t ring the bell, did you?”

  “I forgot. I’m sorry. I have a lot on my mind.”

  “Yes, I can see that.”

  The girl stared into Olivia’s eyes.

  “Come in. Would you like a glass of water?”

  “I don’t want to trouble you.”

  “Trouble? It’s just water. I’ll be right back.”

  Olivia sat down on the black sectional that wrapped around half of the shop. She loved coming here. The fortune-teller had done a wonderful job of creating a welcoming, intimate feel to the shop that also served as her apartment. Lush scarlet wall-to-wall carpeting complemented the black sectional and matching loveseat. Mirrors covered two of the walls from floor to ceiling. A sweet fragrance always lingered in the air—a mix of recently burned candles and incense.

  “Here you are, ma’am.” The girl set the water down on a coaster with a picture of a maple leaf and Canada underneath it. The tacky souvenir coaster seemed out of place on the expensive glass coffee table it rested on. In fact, all of the furnishings looked pricey. Olivia had never noticed that before. The drapes were shantung silk. The chandelier looked very much like a Swarovski crystal chandelier Olivia had seen in a copy of Architectural Digest. She turned her attention back to the girl, who was staring at her with that same intensity again.

  “Where is your mother?”

  “She’s not here.”

  “Oh. Is it okay if I wait for her?”

  “Sure. But you’d be waiting a long time. She’s out of town.”

  “I see.” Olivia’s heart sank.

  “Well, will she be back this weekend?”

  “I doubt it. My grandfather is dying in Romania. My mother flew out right away last night. We have no idea when she’ll be back.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Are you here alone?”

  “My father, brothers, and cousins are at church, praying for my grandfather.”

  Olivia knew that the girl’s mother, Madame Elena, was married, but Olivia had never known that she had children, which she found odd. When the girl had opened the door, there was no mistaking that she was Madame Elena’s daughter. The resemblance was striking.

  How had Madame Elena managed to keep from her that she had children? Olivia had been seeing her for over a year now. Why hadn’t she ever mentioned them? The only reason she knew the fortune-teller was married is that once she saw Madame Elena’s husband walk out from a room in the back and say hello as he was leaving. All Madame Elena said was, “My husband.” She hadn’t even introduced them. Olivia thought Madame was too focused on her reading to distract herself with introductions. Olivia had always been curious about Madame Elena, but the few questions she had asked about her life were always met with vague responses and sometimes they were ignored altogether.

  Olivia took a few sips of water, then got up.

  “I shouldn’t be here at this difficult time for you and your family. Thank you for the water. I’ll come back when your mother is here.”

  “Why? I can give you a reading.”

  “How did you know I wanted a reading? I could just be a friend of your mother’s.”

  “Because I saw it.”

  Olivia frowned. Was this girl playing a joke on her? She might be old and have an accent, but she was no idiot.

  “I’ll have to get going. Thank you again.”

  Olivia made her way toward the door.

  “You don’t believe me.”

  Olivia froze just as she was about to place her hand on the doorknob.

  She turned around. “It’s not that. I’m just used to seeing your mother.”

  She hoped that would be enough, but this girl was even more stubborn than the mule her grandparents had owned on their tiny farm in Sicily.

  “I have the power, too. So do my brothers and father.”

  “The power?”

  “The power to read thoughts, see the future.”

  “Oh.”

  Olivia frowned. She couldn’t help but find it strange that this young girl referred to her psychic ability as a “power.” Did she see herself as some sort of superhero like Spider-Man or Wonder Woman?

  “It runs in the family?” Olivia asked, her curiosity beginning to win over her doubts.

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t we inherit it if our parents have the ability to see the past and future? Come back to the couch and we can begin your reading.”

  “That’s okay. I really need to return to work.”

  “You still don’t believe me. I can feel it. Why don’t you let me prove it to you?”

  Olivia sighed. What did she have to lose? Some money? Lord knows she’d given the girl’s mother quite a bit of money over the past year for her readings. But Madame Elena definitely had the gift of foresight. She had predicted several events for Olivia, including Valentina’s engagement to Michael.

  “All right. You can give me a reading. But first I need to know your name.”

  “Sonia.” She extended her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

  “I’m Olivia. Please stop calling me ‘ma’am.’ I know you’re being polite, but I don’t like it. It makes me feel like I’m from the last century. I’m old but not that old.”

  Sonia looked a little taken aback by Olivia’s forthrightness.

  “Of course. Whatever you like.”

  This girl was odd. Olivia had never heard a kid talk like this before. She sounded old.

  “So would you like a palm or tarot card reading?”

  “I always do tarot cards.”

  Sonia nodded her head, approving Olivia’s choice.

  “Would you like the cross-style reading?”

  “Yes.”

  Olivia didn’t mind paying extra for the full cross-style reading, which showed her past, present, and future. The only way she’d know if Sonia were the real
deal was by seeing how accurately she read Olivia’s past.

  Sonia took out a deck of cards and was about to shuffle them when Olivia held up her hand.

  “Wait. Before you give me my reading, I have a few questions for you.”

  Looking slightly miffed, knowing Olivia was testing her, Sonia shrugged her shoulders in resignation.

  “All right. Go ahead.”

  She placed the cards on the table and folded her hands in her lap, calmly staring back at Olivia. Why didn’t this girl act like the other teenagers Olivia knew? Certainly, her daughters hadn’t acted like this girl when they were her age.

  “How old are you?”

  “I’m fourteen.”

  “I don’t believe it! You look no more than twelve—even ten years old!”

  Sonia knitted her brows and narrowed her eyes, still maintaining her poise, but just barely. “Well, I am fourteen.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s hard to believe because you . . .”

  “Look so young. I know. I get it all the time. It’s okay. I’m used to it.”

  But she wasn’t used to it. Clearly, Olivia could see she had ruffled the girl’s nerve. Maybe that was why she strived so hard to appear older in both her demeanor and voice. Some girls did develop later than others, like Valentina had. Olivia decided to quickly change the subject.

  “So you said everyone in your family has the psychic gift?”

  “Yes, we all do. My grandparents on both sides of my family were also blessed with ‘the power.’ And my maternal great-grandmother and paternal great-grandfather also were psychic.”

  “If you’re all psychic, then why is your family in church praying for your grandfather? Don’t they know already if he’ll live or die?”

  “We’re not praying for God to spare my grandfather’s life. We don’t have the right to ask God that. We’re praying for his soul and that his suffering will be minimal as he goes from this life to the next.”

  “So you do know for certain he’s dying then?”

  “As psychics, we don’t have the ability to predict our own futures. But since my father also has ‘the power,’ he can predict his father-in-law’s death, since he’s not a blood relative. My mother begged my father to tell her. My father couldn’t bear to. So my mother knew he must’ve seen that her father was going to die and she rushed to get to Romania in time.”

  “I see. Okay, you can continue with the reading. Thank you for answering my questions.”

  Sonia picked up the cards once more from the coffee table and shuffled them expertly. This kid could’ve gotten a job as a Vegas casino dealer. After shuffling the deck, she placed the pile of cards back down on the table.

  Instinctively, Olivia reached for them, knowing from all her previous visits that she must cut the deck into three piles. Sonia then began flipping over the cards from each of the three piles.

  “The past,” she announced as she began studying the cards.

  “Your husband passed away many years ago. Devastating illness. Much suffering. You and your daughters were heartbroken. You were terribly afraid—afraid that you were going to lose everything with his death—your home, your tailor shop, and the money for your daughters’ education. But you put your fears aside to survive.”

  So far, so good. Okay, I guess she did have “the power.” But then again, Madame Elena might’ve shared this info with Sonia. As if reading her thoughts, Sonia looked up at Olivia.

  “Yes, yes, please go on.”

  “Wedding dresses, lots of them. Oh, I see. You turned the tailor shop into a bridal store. Your daughters helped you and decided to go to work for you full time once they were done with college.” Sonia looked up and smiled. “That’s not too different from my family.”

  Olivia smiled faintly. She was stunned. All the details Sonia was giving her were accurate. Madame Elena had been more vague when reading Olivia’s past. Hmmm. She couldn’t help wondering now how much of “the power” Sonia’s mother really had in comparison to her daughter.

  “There was another love in your life. Before your husband, but he went off into the navy. He wrote a few letters to you, but then he stopped. You never heard from him again.”

  Olivia’s heart dropped. Her face felt like it had caught fire. Not even Sonia’s mother had been able to see Salvatore. Or maybe she had but knew Olivia would be embarrassed and decided not to mention it?

  “We were very young. He was my first love.”

  “Of course. We never forget our first loves.”

  Olivia frowned. What did this fourteen-year-old girl know about first love?

  “That was a very long time ago. Then I met Nicola, my true love, the one I was destined to be with. He gave me a good, happy life. We were together for twenty-three years.”

  Sonia nodded. “Yes, I can see you both loved each other very much. But there were a few difficulties.”

  “Every marriage has a few difficulties,” Olivia quickly added. Was this girl playing games with her? If she were, she would have Olivia’s malocchio to deal with. Fortune-tellers weren’t the only ones who could cast curses. And no one wanted to experience the wrath of a Sicilian woman and her evil eye.

  Sonia sensed she’d piqued Olivia’s nerves and wisely moved on. She talked about Olivia and Nicola immigrating to America and the birth of their daughters. Then she proceeded to the present and future.

  “Your business has been doing really well. I see another wedding, someone close to you. Oh, it’s your eldest daughter.”

  Sonia paused, her brows joined together now as she squinted her eyes, staring closely at the card before her.

  “What is it?”

  “I can’t be sure at this time.”

  “It’s about Valentina, isn’t it?”

  Sonia didn’t say anything but continued scrutinizing the card intensely, much the way she had scrutinized Olivia earlier.

  “Dio mio! What is it? Tell me!”

  Olivia pulled out from underneath her blouse the ruby-red-colored rosary made out of rose petals, which she’d bought when she had visited the Vatican a few years back. Making the sign of the cross three times, she kissed the crucifix each time. The blend of the scents coming from the burning candles in the shop and the sweet rose fragrance from Olivia’s rosary was making her feel woozy.

  “Calm down. I do see a very tough road ahead, but I’m not sure which daughter, or if all of them, will be facing this obstacle.”

  Olivia knew right away what her daughters’ crosses to bear would be. As if picking up immediately on her thoughts, Sonia looked up and said, “No, it’s not your health. That’s not the only difficulty I see.”

  “You know? Ahhh! Of course you know.”

  “I can see there is some problem with health, but I cannot see specifically what the problem is. May I ask what is the matter?”

  Olivia told Sonia about the cyst in her breast and how the doctor told her it was questionable and about her imminent surgery. Tears ran down her face. Sonia placed her hand on top of Olivia’s.

  “That must be very scary. I will pray for you that it is not cancer.”

  “I haven’t even told my daughters yet. How can I tell them I might have cancer and that they’ll have to go through again what they went through with my husband? I need to know now if I have cancer, and if I do, will I die? I need to know before I can tell my children.”

  “I don’t have the answer as to whether or not you have cancer, Olivia. I can’t see everything. And death. Well, death is very complex—even for psychics. We can’t always predict it. I’m sorry.”

  “But your father was able to see that your grandfather is going to die. So why can’t you?”

  “I don’t see it. I just see that there is something concerning your health, something to be concerned about and that needs to be taken care of. But that doesn’t mean it is cancer. The doctor did say it was questionable and for you to avoid jumping to the conclusion that it was cancer. Again, I’m sorry I’m no
t getting anything else. Sometimes we see death, and sometimes we don’t. It’s whatever God wants us to see.”

  “You just don’t want to tell me, or is it you really have no idea because you’re a fake?”

  “Olivia, I know you’re mad at me. I know you’re probably also mad that you are sick, and you feel helpless. You have to trust God that He is doing what is right for you. I might get more clarity as time goes by. Focus on getting well and living for now rather than the end result.”

  Olivia sighed. “You sound like one of those, what do they call them? Self-help books?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make what you’re going through sound so general.”

  “It’s okay. I know what you were trying to say. You’re a good girl, just trying to help me. What has this world come to? I can’t believe I’m taking advice from a teenage girl and a psychic one! Are you sure you’re only fourteen years old?”

  Sonia laughed. “Yes, I’m sure.”

  Olivia got up and walked to the door.

  “My family and I will pray for you and burn our special candles. I’ll tell my mother when she gets back from Romania that you were here.”

  “I almost forgot to pay you.”

  “No, no. That’s okay. This one is free.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, please. You’ve been coming to see my mother for a while now. Your loyalty is my payment for today.”

  “Thank you.”

  Olivia carefully made her way down the long flight of steps. She thought she would have walked out of there with answers. Instead, she felt more afraid and desperate. Well, at least the girl hadn’t charged her. She didn’t need to blow $40 on having someone tell her about her past and present—teen psychic or not. She already knew those chapters of her life. She needed to know about her future. The best the girl could predict was her health problem and the overwhelming obstacle one or all of her daughters would face. Ha! She could’ve predicted that herself. Life is always filled with roadblocks. The girl was sweet, though.

  Olivia’s mind drifted back to what Sonia had said about Salvatore. Guilt washed over her. She must remain faithful to Nicola’s memory. She shook her head, attempting to physically erase all thoughts of her first love before she’d met her husband.