Page 38 of A Brother's Secret

I was genuinely curious as to what the cards would tell me and so I didn’t feel too bad about the slight manipulation to get him to pick them up. He set aside my tired old pocket knife and his tiny whetstone and swept the cards off the edge of the table into his long-fingered hands, shuffling them deftly. He was as light with the cards as he was with his knives, even pulling some dealer’s tricks with them, shuffling them all fancy-like.

I gave a wry smile as he passed them back to me and said, “Going to do a simple three-card spread. Past, present, and future. Cool?”

“Cool,” he agreed and scratched the side of hishead.

I laid out all three cards face down in the proper order, let out a breath and focused inward, opening myself up to that space inside myself that let the energy flow. Opening myself up for interpretation, which I didn’t do often for other people.

Okay, here we go…I thought to myself as I turned the first card like the page of a book, carefully over to see what was on itsface.

“The Knight of Swords in reverse,” I murmured, studying the card and feeling my heart sink a little.

“What’s thatmean?”

“Remember, this is your past. The Knight of Swords traditionally symbolizes intellect and thinking clearly. He is a Knight, so he stands for authority, however, in this case, he is shown reversed or in the negative.”

“Okay, what’s thatmean?”

“Again, remember this is your past, and the interpretation that I get from this card isn’t that it stands for you per se, but rather someone that was close to you. Reversed like this is harsh. I see a tyrant, an abuser. Someone who the very definition of kindness is anathema to him. It’s definitely a ‘him’, too. I think you were raised by or around a man who it was best to get out of his way as much as possible. Does that sound right?”

By the way he was leaning back in his chair and the way his fingers gripped the edge of the table, mottled with the force with which he held on, I’d say I hit the nail on the head. I could sympathize. My dad seriously had his moments, but this? The overwhelming miasma of negativity emanating from that card told me that the depths of pain and brutality that he’d grown up with… well, my dad’s moods didn’t hold a candle by comparison.

“You said the next card is the present?” he asked, jaw tightening and I let the past go. Let it sink back into the dark where it belonged. I nodded and took a deep cleansing breath, shaking off the last card before I turned thenext.

I turned it and blinked, “The Lovers, also reversed,” I said, staring at the couple on the card. While in the negative, the feeling I got from this card wasn’t nearly as ominous.

“Shit, is that bad? That’s bad, isn’t it?” Reaver asked and I smiled.

“Maybe not,” I reassured him. “I get the feeling this one is more of a warning. The Lover’s in negative like this typically means a misalignment with a loved one. Core values or perceptions may be skewed, leading to misunderstandings or unhappiness. A break up may be coming unless corrective action is taken. I’m going to seek clarification.” I set down the deck and arched them in a neat fan in front ofhim.

“Choose acard.”

He slid one from the fan and handed it across to me. I set it down on the corner of The Lovers and turned it over carefully.

“Hm, Ace of Cups, also reversed.”

“Jesus H. Christ, could it get any worse?” he asked, but the laugh he attached was strained and nervous. Trigger had stopped looking over the sketches and was looking at his friend, worry etched in his expression.

“Not if you listen to what the cards have to say and take the corrective actions needed. Anyways, the Ace of Cup reversed typically stands for blocked emotions. One or the both of you are feeling stagnant. That’s not the end of the world, buddy. That’s flowers and a night on the town for most people, although I get a sense of anxietyhere.”

I blinked and sat back and looked up at him sharply saying, “I don’t mean to be indelicate here, but the Ace of Cups reversed also sometimes means something else. Something more physical… are there problems with fertility?”

Reaver let out an explosive breath and even Trigger uttered a surprised, “Whoa.”

“Yeah, I uh, I can get it up just great but my little swimmers… well let’s just say they’re no Michael Phelps…” he said, and I looked back down at the two cards, running my finger lightly across their surface and around their edges.

“It’s you,” I said. “Nother.”

“What do you mean by that?” Trigger demanded, frowning.

“When it comes to the infertility, you need to let that one go,” I said. “It’s not her. It’s you that is making too much of it. I get the feeling she’s upset about something else. Something big, but back here…” I tapped to the left of the cards indicating the past but not nearly as far back in the past as the Knight of Swords… that I distinctly had the feeling was in his childhood. The way, way, back as opposed to just backwhen.

He nodded and let out a harsh sigh, “I know what you’re talking about.” He sounded sure of it. As sure as the knowledge that the sun would rise in the morning, so that meant my work was done with these cards.

“Good, if you know then knowing is half the battle. You can go and fix things. I get the distinct impression that the suit of swords coming up first wasn’t an accident. That even though the Knight of Swords isn’t you; that the suit is… Swords is the suit of intellect and cunning but also action. I’m confident that whatever this card is,” I tapped the final unrevealed card denoting his future, “you already have a handle on it. Are you ready?”

He looked grim but finally nodded. “Doit.”

I turned it over and smiled, “See, that’s not bad. That’s not bad at all. The Empress upright.”

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