Capítulo 13: Chapter 13: The Fortune
Madam Huldah looked up at Jim. For a moment, he wasn't sure if she was going to talk. For a moment, her gaze was defiant. Then she reached down silently and took the money off the table, folding it neatly and placing it in the pocket of her jeans. "I had seen him walking past here a few times. He walks by at random times. Not every day, but on a lot of days. In the beginning, he walks right past. He walks quickly like he is late for something. But, weeks go by and I notice that he is walking slower." She was staring at the table as she spoke, tapping her long fingernails on the table cloth. "Then, he starts to notice Madam Huldah's." She looked up at Jim and smiled when she said this. "He walks by, looks up at sign and keeps walking but each time, he lingers a little longer. It is not unusual for people to do this. They are skeptical but interested. So, one day I am sitting in the waiting area and he is lingering outside. I have no clients scheduled so I ask him 'Would you like to come in for a reading?' He looks at me. He has cool blue eyes, but they look kind and a little sad. He is hesitating so I tell him that I will give him the first reading free. I know he is not tourist so I hope that I can get him to become a regular. He stands there and thinks about it for a moment. Then he says, 'I guess it can't hurt,' and walks in. Big mistake on my part. I never should have asked him to come inside.
"So we step into the room and I tell him that we will do tarot card reading. I want to impress him so I don't do palm reading and I never do crystal ball for free. So he sits down and I can see that he is nervous. Lots of people are nervous when they first come to Madam Huldah's but not nervous like this. They are nervous excited. He is just, I don't know, just nervous. 'What can you see in the cards?' he asks me. I tell him that the cards tell me who he is, that the cards often know a person better than they know themselves. He asks if I can see a person's future in the cards. I tell him that who a person truly is determines their future. He looks at me and I can't read him. Much of this business," she stopped and looked at Jim. "I'm sorry, I never ask for your name."
"Jim," he replied.
"Much of this business, Jim, is being able to read people. I am very good at reading people. Him, he was like a blank page to me. So I begin to flip cards. I tell him what the cards say. The cards say that he is a lonely man but a good man. The cards say that he is wealthy. I look up at him and he nods as I say these things so I know that I am on the right track. He has no family. He has friends who are willing to help him but these friends are strange people. They are not normal friends. I am not sure what cards are telling me, what this means. Usually people are upset when the cards are unclear, but he just nods so I go on. Then I tell him that the cards say that he has important job to do. I look up at him. He is lost in the cards. His eyes are focused intensely on the pictures on the cards. 'What else does it say?' he asks. He is on edge. I ask him what he wants to know. 'Should I do the job?' he asks. I flip more cards and say to him, 'The cards say that you have no choice.' After I say that, he just gets up and leaves. Like that," she snapped her fingers, he long nails clicking against each other. "He is gone. No thank you, no nothing."
Jim tried to take it all in, tried to piece it together with what he already knew-the job, the gorilla, the woman at the bar. He assumed that the gorilla had something to do with this important job that the man had to do but he couldn't figure out how. None of it made any sense. "But there's more," Jim said to Madam Huldah after a moment's silence. "You didn't say anything about Eve. You said he mentioned something about Eve."
"Yes," Madam Huldah replied. She leaned back in her chair. "He comes back two days later. He asks me if I can tell him his future. I tell him that only the crystal ball can tell future. So he agrees to pay the $50 this time and we come back here to this room again. He is even more nervous this time than last time. I realize that he is nervous because he is afraid of what I might see. He is afraid of his own future." She pauses.
"Were you afraid?" Jim asked.
"I am not afraid of future." Madam Huldah shook her head. "But I am afraid of man who is afraid future. This type of man is a dangerous man."
"So what did you see in your crystal ball?" Jim asked.
"Nothing," she said.
"Nothing?"
"Nothing. I see nothing."
"And that's not normal?" Jim asked. He assumed all fortune tellers were con artists but Madam Huldah seemed to believe in her own abilities.
"First time it ever happened."
"What do you think it meant?" Jim thought about it. If Madam Huldah were telling the truth, what it could mean? "Maybe he was going to die so there was nothing to see?"
"I see death," she said. "Many people come in and I see death. I don't tell them I see death, because they might not pay me, but I see it. For him, there was nothing. It was like something was blocking my vision. Something was stopping me from seeing his future." She sat there, shaking her head in bewilderment.
"So what did you do?"
"I fake it," she replied. "I don't want to tell him that I can't see anything. He is too jittery already. So I tell him about travel, love life. I tell him what people want to hear from fortune teller. I prod him. I ask him if he is taking a trip soon and he says yes. I tell him that he will meet woman on this trip, that he may have a future with this woman. He says to me, 'I'm going to meet my Eve' and he smiles at me but I can tell that he is not trusting that I am telling him what I really see. 'Yes, you will meet your Eve,' I say but I have no idea what he is talking about. He is making me very nervous at this point. 'What else do you see?' he asks me but there is no life in his voice. It is flat like pancake. So I come clean. I tell him that I see nothing and I offer to give him his $50 back but he does not believe me. He thinks I just won't tell him what I see. He starts looking into the ball himself, but it is no good. He can't see anything in ball either. So he begins to shout at me. 'Do you see fire?' he asks me. I tell him again that I see nothing. 'Do you see pain in that crystal ball? Do you see suffering?' I had enough so I ask him to leave. He does not budge. He looks me in the eye. His blue eyes are all bloodshot now, like he hasn't slept in days. They look different to me than they did the last time. I begin to think that maybe he already knows his future. He starts whispering to me now-so much worse than the yelling. 'Do you see death in the crystal ball? Do you see devastation?' He looks like he may begin to cry. I don't know how to respond so I just keep shaking my head 'no'. Then, he slams his fist on the table." Madam Huldah slammed her own fist down on the table as she spoke, mimicking the man's actions. It landed with a loud thud. "The whole table shakes," she continued. "I have to move quickly to catch the crystal ball before if falls off the table and shatters. 'Tell me what you see!' he yells at me. But I have had enough. I stand up. 'Get out' I yell. 'Get out!' I do not sit down again. He looks at me like I have just slapped him in his face. He looks confused, like he surprised himself with his own anger. He stands up to leave. Before he walks out he apologizes."
Jim didn't know what to make of the story. Maybe the guy he was looking for was simply crazy. You'd have to be crazy to steal a gorilla, wouldn't you?
"Does he still walk by here?" Jim asked Madam Huldah.
"Yes. Now he walks on other side of street but I still see him."
"Do you think he'll walk by tomorrow?"
"Probably. I see him most days but no telling what time."
"I want to sit with you tomorrow. I want you to point him out to me."
Madam Huldah scoffed at the idea. "I have business to run."
"I'll pay for the whole day," Jim said. He didn't bother checking with his client first to see if he could expense it. If he had to pay out of his own pocket, he would have.
"The whole day?" Madam Huldah asked and Jim nodded in response. She consented only after they agreed on the price. Then she asked, "What do you want from this man?"
"I think he may have stolen a gorilla," Jim replied. The answer sounded ridiculous to him. He now knew that he wanted something more from this man. He just didn't know what it was.
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