On The Edge

Chapter twelve

Jackson Hart

I was speechless. How did she know what I was? I stared at her as she sat down at the table and began to read the leaves in Jeremy's cup. I decided that I must have heard wrong and resumed to look around on the shelves. 

"Your future is steady. You will settle down in your hometown and have the family you've always dreamed of. You will meet your love very young and stay with her until the end," she predicted. Jeremy smiled at Alexa and kissed her. 

Yucks, I wrinkled my nose. That's not fortune telling, that's just saying what the person wants to hear. I snorted and found a dark green stone to inspect. 

"Let me see your cup dear," the old lady said to Alexa. 

"Hmm.. This is interesting... Your future is all laid out for you. You are on your way to a steady life, but you will meet someone, who can change it."

"Who?" Alexa asked intrigued. 

"A wolf." 

A.. a wolf.. Her answer took me by surprise. I laid back the stones and peeked over my shoulder to see Alexa's reaction. She was speechless as well. Jeremy looked rather confused. I was certain Alexa knew what she meant, she had seen the wolf. My wolf. The old woman took both of Alexa's hands in her own.

"Listen to me dear. When you see the wolf you need to follow it. Follow it before it's too late. He will know the answers to your questions and help you find what you seek." 

Alexa nodded slowly at this. 

"A wolf? You must be kidding me," Jeremy laughed, "Come on Alexa let's go". 

He took her hand and directed her out of the tent. I followed behind but turned around as I reached the exit. The old woman looked at me and bowed her head, making the pearl necklaces dingle back and forth. She knew who I was. It was clear she knew more than she was telling. I took her wrinkled soft hand and squished it in farewell. 

"Take care," I said, leaving the tent.

✵

"For a moment I actually believed her, but when she started to talk about wolves she totally lost me. The woman is clearly not well," Jeremy kept talking about as we continued to look for a shooting game. 

Alexa didn't answer, she just nodded when he talked. She was buried in her own thoughts. Anyone who cared to look at her could see it, she furrowed her brows and didn't look at Jeremy raving about the old lady. I wish I knew what was going on inside her head.

"Look!" Jeremy exclaimed and pointed at a stall. The stall was a game of archery. Jeremy went over to the stall and immediately picked up the bow. He hit the targets but not in the middle. Alexa hesitated but slowly picked up a bow and gave it a try. The arrow was nowhere near the target. 

"Well I guess I'm not cut out for this," she giggled and looked up at me. Jeremy was in his own world, too focused on winning a prize to even notice us. 

"Here let me me help you."

I put my arm around her and helped with the bow. She was so close. Her back against my chest, my hands on hers. So close I could smell her hair and her perfume. My head was right beside hers, so close our cheeks was almost touching. So close I could hear her breathing and how I almost didn't breathe. It felt like pure joy ran through my veins. It was overwhelming. 

"You need to steady your grip on the bow," I said in a low voice and moved her hands further down. "And pull the arrow up to your eye instead of chin. You'll get a better aim this way. Now just breathe in and release."