Page 21 of Turnabout Is Fair Cosplay
“Yeah, well. You…” Never called me. I flinch. I’m saved by my mom reappearing with her tarot cards.
“Here we are.” Mom spreads the cards out on the table and shuffles them by swirling them around in a messy pile.
“Can I help?” Mike asks.
“Please. It will activate the cards that much faster.” Mom doesn’t look up from her cards. “Have you ever had a reading before?”
“Never.”
“The first step is to pick a significator. Since this is your first time, we’ll do this together.” Mom takes Mike’s hand and hovers it over the cards. “There. Do you feel it?”
“What?” Mike asks.
“Energy. Almost like a cosmic tug…” She flips over the Queen of Swords. “Interesting. This is usually Bea’s significator. A good stand-in for a sharp-witted, feminine intellectual.”
Mike winks at me, and I want to die.
“Let’s pick another card.”
“Absolutely,” Mike says. “May I?” He runs his hands over the cards and pauses on one before flipping it over.
“The Knight of Wands,” Mom says, pursing her lips. “Very interesting.”
“Oh?”
“The card suggests a person who is charismatic, charming, full of life and energy, independent. It can also mean a new adventure is unfolding.”
“Excellent.” Mike pushes the card toward Mom. “I choose him.”
Mom places Mike’s card to the side and shuffles the rest into a neat stack. “Now, the cards do not dictate the future. They present suggestions. We are all of us in control of our own destinies.”
“I understand.”
I snort.
Mom flips over five cards in a cross formation next to Mike’s Knight of Wands card. “The Ace of Cups, Four of Wands, Two of Cups, the Star, and…” Mom hesitates before she flips over the last card. “Bea, would you mind going and putting Eaton’s wet moose and blankie in the wash? I’d hate for the chlorine to permanently damage them.”
“Sure.”
“Now, please?”
“Fine.”
“Be sure to rinse them both first before throwing them in on the delicate cycle.”
I don’t need to hear Mike’s reading. My mom will do what she always does. The cards she flips over will just happen to still say things likeget a haircut,change your major,take up yoga,settle down and have kids.
I’m wringing the moose out from his second cold-water rinse when Mike finds me, a bottle of mineral water in his hand.
“Why are you still here?”
“I wanted to say goodbye.”
Unlike last time. “Bye.”
“And tell you about my reading.”
I roll my eyes. “I can’t believe you sank to her level. Come on. You don’t actually believe any of that is real. What did she say?”
