third time's a charm

11

"Madame Sukie.

A local seer at the heart of a suburban village who claimed to see visions and images of events yet to come. Much has been said about the appearance of prophets and their frightening words that often leave us baffled and confused. But what drives a person to assert they have prophetic visions?

Ego...and money. I am always convinced that most TV evangelists are simply marketing themselves and their messages in a cynical way...to enrich themselves.

I suppose I would be a good candidate to answer these questions as you believe I myself receive a reading from this formidable soothsayer "Madame Sukie". Now whether her vision of my future would come true remains to be seen, I'll let you be the judge of her supernatural skill as we follow the life and the beginning of the infamous seer of the modern era..."

Gulf tossed the copy of his revised introduction and only glimpsed at the others. The whole team were huddled around the table but neither one was excited to hear his opinion. In fact, the whole team seemed rather downtrodden.

"Win," he started. "Are you mad?"

Win was taken aback by the accusation. "What? Excuse me but I pour my heart and soul into this job and even took my time to see this self-proclaimed prophet just to convince her to be featured in our paper."

"Have you read what you wrote?" Gulf questioned, "I can't tell whether you admire her talent or you detest it. It sounds like you believe that she could see visions and probably foretell the future, but at the same time, you'd like your readers to hate her too."

Win tightened his lips into a narrow line. "You're the one who wants me to write a story about this psychic!"

"Because you, yourself, experienced the power of this so-called psychic."

"Okay, so what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to be unbiased!" Gulf argued, "Don't color your writing with your personal belief and try and influence your readers to feel the same too."

He looked away and started tapping his foot. Gulf sighed and added, "Look, don't you want to show your readers and yourself that you're not freaked out by her prophecy anymore? If you're going to include your personal feelings in the mix, might as well share your actual experience with this local seer."

Win narrowed his gaze. "I am not including my exes in this project!"

"Come on! It's not that hard. All you need is one person. She said the third person you fall in love with is destined to break your heart and that would kill you. That should get our readers' interest pumping."

"Wait," Gun interrupted. "You want Win to test it with Bright?"

Gulf looked mildly surprised. "You're in love with Bright? Wow...you really know how to choose!"

Win rolled his eyes. "Can we not mention the man? I already broke up with him---"

New gasped. "I knew it! That's why you looked so gloomy this morning. Wait, you broke up with him or he broke up with you?"

"I BROKE UP WITH HIM."

Both Gulf and New looked at him in disbelief. Tay crossed his arms and stared, "Did you break up with him because it hailed yesterday and you concluded that her vision is for real?"

Gulf blinked. "She prophesized yesterday's weather?"

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"What is this all about?" Arnie, the bartender frowned and waved briskly at the servant to bring the patrons to the table their usual order and put it on the madame's tab. Sukie decided to have another drink considering the lateness of the hour and how many she had already partaken in during the day, this was not very wise.