ROSE

Chapter Six - The Fortune Teller

The woman cleared her throat and spoke calmly, “I'm Harriet the fortune-teller. I could not help but sense that you have a future that requires your attention. Have a seat, I will show you your future.”
 
Kimberly was not interested in knowing about her future, especially from someone who looked like a witch.
 
Kimberly replied politely, “I really have to get going, madam. I don’t have time for this right now but I promise that I’ll come back some other time.”
 
“Seat down, seat down.." insisted Harriet. "This will only take a minute or two I promise. Besides, there might be no other time.”
 
Kimberly's eyebrows shot up. She was filled with anger and was almost kicking Harriet. Kimberly thought to herself: "How dare she say something like that?"
 
Kimberly's mind was forcing her to walk away but her heart was troubled. She decided to side with her heart and forced herself to the chair. "You have 1 minute," she said with authority.
 
Delighted to see Kimberly seat, Harriet closed her eyes and began to swirl her hands over the crystal ball like a magician performing a magic trick.
 
Kimberly expected a glow from the crystal ball, she was impatient because nothing was happening according to her expectations. She became more irritated such that she wished she could disappear back to her parents.
 
“Put your right hand on the crystal ball. Do not at any point withdraw your hand from the crystal ball," instructed Harriet as she opened her eyes.
 
Kimberly frowned as she replied, " I agreed to seat down but not touching your toy ball. Why must I touch it?"
 
“To begin with,” Harriet replied, “This is not a toy ball. It's a crystal ball.  And secondly, without you touching this crystal ball, I can’t predict your future. If I had my deck of cards, this wouldn’t have been necessary.”
 
“But, what if my hand gets stuck?”
 
“I wouldn't have instructed you to touch the crystal ball if your hand was going to get stuck,” assured Harriet.
 
Kimberly breathed in deeply for few seconds. She was not comfortable with what she was asked to do because it was her first time. Besides she had a strong fist against divination. Moments later, she slowly put her right hand on the crystal ball and glared at Harriet.
 
Harriet closed her eyes again and swirled her hands over Kimberly’s hand. Apparently nothing happened for several seconds and Kimberly was really getting upset and irritated for wasting her precious time.
 
Abruptly, there was a white smoky glow inside the crystal ball. It was not too bright, it was like a night-light. Seeing the glow made Kimberly to have goose bumps from her hand up to her shoulder, her heart rate increased and her mind blurred.
 
Harriet warned: "Do not withdraw your hand otherwise it will be impossible to do this again. Also do not be scared as this won't burn you or give you any scratch.”
 
Kimberly felt a strange sensation on her body: she was numb, she felt like something was creeping around inside her. She attempted to withdraw her hand from the crystal ball but failed because she was no longer in control of her actions. Her eye-lids felt heavy. She unwillingly closed her eyes.
 
“What do you see?” inquired Harriet.
 
Unable to open her eyes, she heard Harriet's voice inside her head but was unable to recognize it because it was echoing.
 
Weak and confused, Kimberly whispered, “Where am I? Who are you?"
 
“Don’t worry,” assured Harriet. “It's me Harriet. I am still here,” she paused for a while then instructed, “Calm down first. You will see what you are supposed to see only when you calm down.”
 
Kimberly began breathing deeply and calmly. She was relaxed and was slowly gaining control of her body.
 
When Harriet saw that Kimberly was relaxed, she asked, “What do you see?”
 
Several minutes later, Kimberly opened her eyes. She regained full control of her body and stood up roughly as she pulled her hand away from the crystal ball making the glow dim until it was no more.
 
Kimberly demanded: “What evil spirits did you cast upon me you crazy woman?!”
 
“Nothing. I did not cast anything on you. I only opened a portal for you.”
 
Kimberly turned around swiftly and was about to walk away when Harriet spoke:
 
“Red, white, blue, black and purple are the colours of the pebbles you saw lying on the green grass in an open forest. You were impressed by the size of the pebbles such that you desired to see them up close."
 
Kimberly stopped walking and wondered to herself, “How did she know what I saw?”
 
She turned around giving Harriet a strange look as she sat back down on the chair.
 
Harriet continued: “You had stopped when you saw someone carrying a brown coloured basket. You couldn't tell who that person was or what they were doing in the middle of the forest with a basket. The person you saw was a woman and she was wearing a long white long dress. This person stopped by the pebbles and began to pick them one after the other but left one blue pebble and ran into the forest because she saw you. While she was running away she dropped a black pebble."
 
She paused for a while and continued, "Let me be the first one to tell you that the woman you saw is still in that forest watching the blue pebble and she will do whatever it takes to get it."
 
"But why didn't she just walk up to the pebble to pick it up?" Kimberly inquired curiously.
 
"Because you were there," replied Harriet.
 
"What? Was she afraid of me? I meant no harm."
 
"No. She was afraid of what you had in your hand..." Harriet replied.
 
"But what did I have in my hand?" Kimberly was even more curious.
 
"This..." Harriet pulled out a music box from under the table. It was quite an old wooden music box with a small handle at the side.
 
"What is that?" Kimberly asked.
 
"It's the one thing that will help you," she replied.
 
"I have two questions for you. Number one, what is the meaning of what you just told me? Number two, how will that thing help me?"
 
Harriet replied, “If I tell you the meaning of what you saw, trust me, you will be frightened and you will run away from this place. But I assure you that you shall come to understand everything sooner than you expect.”
 
She continued, “I seldom receive people like you who have such future. You are not the first one to see what you saw. A number of people came to me and at least half of them saw what you saw. The fact is that what you saw will keep repeating itself until it is conquered.”
 
Kimberly retorted, “Liar! Firstly, you couldn’t predict my future and that is why you repeated what I saw. You are a cheat. You really need to be arrested. And secondly, you are trying to trick me into believing you by giving me that object or music box.”
 
“That is exactly what a certain fellow said when he came to me," replied Harriet, "He said that I was a cheat and I keep repeating things. However he did not say anything about arresting me, that's new." She laughed. "What I am trying to say is that you people forget that you do the same things at different times. If I had my way, I would call people cheaters of destiny because they elude what they are supposed to do and do other things just to prove me wrong. They think they are winners, but really they are the losers of themselves. I’ll give you an example of a leak in a roof. When the rains come, one will suffer from endless droplets from the leak. If he doesn’t fix the leak in the roof and decides to move out of the house. Who do you think will complain of the leaks?”
 
Kimberly thought for a while and replied doubtfully, “I guess the other fellow who moves into the house with the hole in the roof.”
 
“Exactly!” exclaimed Harriet. “And if that fellow decides to move out, another fellow will suffer from the same droplets unless he puts a patch on the leak so that if he was to move out eventually, the next person won’t complain of a leaky roof. Do you see the loop in that scenario? The problem will continue repeating itself until it is brought to an end.”
 
“Yes,” replied Kimberly. “I see your point. But how is that related with what I saw?”
 
“As I said earlier that when the time comes, you will learn the meaning. Please keep it safe and it will keep you safe. And by the way... It's a music box not a THING."
 
Kimberly snatched the music box, she didn’t want to continue asking questions as she felt uncomfortable. She shoved the music box in her hand bag as she stood up and walked away.
 
Harriet stared at Kimberly until she was out of sight.
 
Kimberly walked back to the restaurant were she left her parents. She found them having a peaceful conversation. She didn’t want to disturb them but she wanted to go back home.
 
“I want to go back home now.”
 
“Why so soon dear? Don’t you want to spend more time here?” Mrs. Williams inquired.
 
Kimberly replied, “I have had my fun. I really didn’t want to disturb you but I had no other choice.”
 
Mrs. Williams chuckled, “Did you find any boys, dear?”
 
“I wasn’t with any boys, mother,” she replied quickly.
 
Mr. and Mrs. Williams were surprised that Kimberly wanted to go back home.
 
Mrs. Williams glanced at her husband and then Kimberly.
 
“It is alright dear. We could always come back some other time,” assured Mr. Williams.
 
They walked out of Family World Park, stepped inside the car. Mr. Williams drove back to their house.
 
It was already past 8 when the Williams returned home. They were tired, they walked directly to their rooms to get some sleep.
 
Mrs. Williams was going to bed excited because her two favourite people had reconciled.
 
Mr. Williams was reflecting on the day he had spent with his family. He wrote down his thoughts in his journal.
 
Kimberly, on the other hand was seated on a chair in her room. She had called her friends to inform them about the good news.
 
 
"We'll wait for your bus at the bus station. Do not be late" she was instructed by George.
 
 
But now Kimberly was overtaken by thoughts. She had the music box on her lap as she pondered on what Harriet told her. 
 
After perusing the music box she found a handle sticking out from it. She attempted to wind it and observe what would happen. But as soon as she reached out and touched the handle, a strange feeling came upon her. She felt insecure like someone was watching her. She heard strange sounds.
 
 
She tiptoed out of her room, stood by the door. She turned to her left and then her right, rolling her eyes like a predator ready to attack. But nothing was there, the sounds were only in her imagination.  She tiptoed back inside her room and hid the music box in her drawer.

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Authors Note: Cheers for making it to Chapter 6. I hope you are enjoying the story so far. Please don't hesitate to drop a comment and let me know your view, or you can give it a vote; otherwise I appreciate your support.