Page 24 of Marcus-stiltskin

“But you don’t know for sure?” the quiet girl asks.

“I know for sure,” Darla interrupts before I can answer. “Your turn,” she tells my interrogator.

“I’m Alyssa. I’m a nature witch. I like butterflies.” Alyssa’s voice is so soft and quiet, I doubt anyone else but Darla and I heard her. She is definitely not part of the cool kids’ club like the rest of these kids are. The clothes she wears are faded, her shirt is way too big. Her long brown hair falls mostly in her face, as ifit’s going to hide her from the world. She balls up the baggie that held her sandwich and pulls out another one.

“Alright, let’s get started. Go ahead and open the box of cards I’ve given each of you. This is the only deck you’ll be given. If you lose it, you’ll need to hunt down someone ahead of you in their apprenticeship and get their deck.” All around me, the crinkle of plastic seems incredibly loud as the kids unwrap their decks and open up the plain, slender box.

“Is this a Tarot deck?” Geneva asks. “I already have my own.” She pulls out a deck from her backpack and holds it up for Darla to see.

“The K-Pop Tarot Deck? What is K-Pop?” Darla turns to me to translate teenager. She’s got the wrong person, but this is one thing I’ve got covered.

“Korean pop music...you know, like boy and girl bands but from Korea,” I answer. “The music might not be your thing, but you really should check out the K-Dramas. You’d love them. The girls and I watch them backst–back in our, uh, living room.”

Darla takes the box from her and studies it. It’s covered in drawings that look like they came from a manga. “Hmmm,” she says finally. “Well if that deck calls to you, you should use it, but we won’t be using the Tarot here. Not yet. If you decide to specialize in divination, you can always come back to me and we can work on your Tarot skills with it, but your apprenticeship is about getting a good general overview of the witch arts in a short amount of time. We’ll be using a deck I created for that called the Choracle.”

Geneva puts the deck back in her bag as everyone dumps out their deck onto the table in front of them.

“Is this that pig over there? The handsome one?” Mackenzie asks, holding up her deck of cards. On the back of each of the cards is an illustration of a pig that looks suspiciously like Chad.

“Yes, of course it is. It’s the Choracle: the Chad Oracle.” Darla tells us, as if it’s obvious.

Skepticism crosses the face of every kid sitting at the table. Mariah goes to open her mouth only to be kicked under the table by Mackenzie. If Darla notices, she completely ignores it.

“Now,” Darla continues, “I’ve included a few cards in the deck that have specific spreads–Chad’s spread and Porshetta’s spread. I expect you to have those memorized by the end of the week.“

“With this deck?” Geneva asks.

Darla nods. “Yep. By the time you leave here, you should be able to pick up any oracle deck and be able to give a decent reading–even if divination isn’t your strong suit. Your first steps right now are to look through each face card and read the information I’ve written on each one. We’ll be looking at how the picture and information are connected later this week and how to use that in your readings. Tonight, when you go home, you’ll need to create a pouch or bag out of natural materials for your deck, then sleep with it under your pillow.”

“Can I use paper?” Adrian asks.

“Will paper survive under your pillow? Will it keep your cards safe?”

He sighs, “No, Darla.”

“Then there’s your answer. Alright, look through the deck. Take a second to see how each picture relates to the words written along the outer edges of the cards.”

Much more dutifully than I remember being at the age, the baby witches all begin looking through their decks. Mackenzie even takes out a notebook and begins to take notes for each card. Everyone seems focused on the task, while I am utterly lost.

“Why aren’t you studying your cards?” Alyssa asks quietly.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking for,” I whisper back.

She sets the cards with the spreads down next to me. “These are the spreads. When you read for someone, you put the cards down in a certain order depending on what you want to know. You see this one? Chad’s spread.”

I nod.

“It’s simple, so it’s like it says on the card, when you’ve got a lot of choices, but you want to narrow it down. So you ask it a question…what should I do with my life, then draw two cards.” She hasn’t mixed up the cards, but she puts the next two cards down, anyway. A picture of Chad standing on a stack of blankets is on a card titled “Acceptance.” Next to it is a card with a picture of Chad approaching a fancy chair with the title “Necessity.” “If this was a real reading, I’d look at these cards and try to interpret what they mean in my life. What would acceptance in my future mean for me?”

This kid is way too smart for me. I nod.

“What would it mean for you?” she asks.

I have to think about that. “I’m not sure. Probably growing up and getting a steady job with insurance and stuff. What about you?”

She sighs. “It would mean this,” she says, motioning around her.

“This?” I ask, not sure what she’s talking about.

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