A plump woman in her sixties sat at a table for two in a room smaller than a walk-in closet. Doreen had on a bright floral blouse and was sipping a tumbler of iced tea with a big straw. All she was missing was a sun visor and the cruise ship to go with it. She stood up with a warm smile when Semele entered and motioned to the other chair in the tiny space. “Welcome. Please have a seat.”
Semele sat down and watched Doreen dim the lights and light a candle. Soft celestial-sounding music played in the background. She looked at Doreen’s tarot cards with open curiosity and saw they were the same cards the shop clerk had recommended. “What kind of deck is that?”
Doreen seemed surprised by the question. “I use the Rider-Waite Deck.”
“What century is it from?”
Doreen’s eyebrows shot up. “These originated in the early 1900s.”
“In Italy?”
“In England.” Doreen smiled, thinking Semele must be nervous. “May we hold hands?”
The question surprised her, but Semele nodded and Doreen folded her hands into her soft palms. The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she exhaled and took another.
Semele watched her, not sure what was happening. This was not how she thought the reading would go. Wasn’t Doreen supposed to deal out the tarot cards? Semele tried hard to sit still, not wanting to distract her.
The celestial music created a hypnotic calm, and Semele’s eyes settled on the burning candle. The room began to take on a dreamlike quality as she watched the wax melt.
“You’ve lost someone close to you,” Doreen said, her voice sad and distant.
Semele’s chest seized with emotion.
“He died too soon. He’s worried for you. His presence is strong. He wants to tell you he’s sorry.… So sorry.”
Semele’s grief returned with a power that was physically painful. She could feel her father. She could feel him behind the words. She waited breathlessly to hear more.
Instead Doreen opened her eyes and said gently, “I’m sorry, that’s all I see.” She let go of Semele’s hands, then picked up the tarot cards and began to shuffle. “Why don’t we begin?”
Semele wasn’t ready to move on to the cards. In a sharp instant she had felt her father. She wanted to call the moment back, to live there and speak with him.
Doreen held the cards out to her. “Please shuffle the deck,” she instructed. “Think about what you want to know.”
Semele had difficulty focusing on the task. She ended up shuffling the cards, her mind blank, and handed them back.
Doreen laid a series of cards out facedown in a crosslike pattern. She turned over the first card. The Hanged Man.
“You are in a place of great confusion … questioning everything about your life. You’re starting to see the world differently.”
Semele was still in a daze but thought that seemed pretty on the mark.
The next card was The Chariot. “I see a time of fast movement, travel. You will leave your work, your job. This will happen suddenly.”
Semele’s eyes met Doreen’s. “What do you mean ‘leave’?”
Was she getting fired?
Doreen didn’t answer. She was too caught up in the reading. She turned over the next card.
The Devil. This one was upside down.
“Every aspect of your life is challenging you. You must break free from your attachments to discover your true self.”
What attachments? She had just dumped her almost-fiancé at a cáfe. Semele wished Doreen would slow down. The woman was turning over cards with remarkable speed, and Semele was still reeling from being told her father was trying to reach her from the grave.
The Hermit. “You must walk your path alone, but you are afraid of the knowledge that exists inside you. You must leave the world you know to find the one that waits for you.”
Leave the world? Semele frowned. That didn’t sound good.
Doreen studied the next card with thoughtful eyes. The Hierophant. “You have a teacher in your life. A woman. She has been guiding you. She has much to tell you, but you are not yet ready to listen.”
Semele raised her eyebrows. Did she mean Ionna?
“You are tied to one man. The tie is strong. Trust your heart. Together you will grow stronger.” Doreen pointed to The Lovers card.
Semele stared at it, thinking Doreen had made an error. She wasn’t tied to anyone, not anymore. An image of someone did appear in her mind, but Theo was a client and an enigma—
The Tower. “You will lose something precious.” Doreen stared at the cards for a long moment. She looked confounded.
“What?” Semele leaned forward.
“I’m sorry. It’s just you’ve only drawn Major Arcana cards and nothing else.” She studied the spread, bewildered. “The odds of that are highly unlikely.”
Semele wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but she was becoming more unnerved as the minutes passed. She was beginning to question her sanity for even coming here.
Doreen turned over another card, Strength. This one faced upside down too.
“Aren’t upside-down cards bad?” Semele had to ask.
“Not in the way that you think,” Doreen said, trying to continue. “You are full of self-doubt and afraid to embrace your true self. You must have faith. Gather your strength.”
Okay, this woman is going off the grid. This was starting to sound fifty shades of weird. Semele checked her watch, ready for this whole experience to be over with.
Wheel of Fortune. Upside down again. What was it with the upside-down cards?
“There are negative forces surrounding you.…” Doreen trailed off.
Semele watched Doreen turn over the next card.
Death.
Now she began to stress. Could a reading get any worse?
“You are undergoing a transformation,” Doreen said, sounding vague. She pulled another card. Judgement. Doreen stayed silent.
“What is it?” Semele was almost afraid to ask.
“Despair,” Doreen whispered, looking shaken. “I’m sorry. I try not to focus on the negative when I give a reading, but you…”
“Are filled up to the wazoo with it?” Semele tried to joke, but she was starting to panic.
Something was incredibly wrong. It was the same feeling that had gripped her outside the café.
“Pick a card,” Doreen commanded with a sense of urgency, as if trying to gain control of the reading again.
Semele drew one from the deck. The High Priestess—another Major Arcana card.
Doreen stared at it, speechless. She looked at the spread of cards, then at Semele, and then back to the spread.
“What does this one mean?” Semele prompted her.
Doreen held the card up. A bead of sweat had formed on her lip. “What do you see?”
Semele studied the card, not sure what she was supposed to see. It depicted a queenlike woman sitting on a throne between two pillars. She was holding a scroll in her hands.
“This is your card. The High Priestess.” Doreen placed it on top. “She symbolizes our intuition. She guards the Tree of Life at the gate of the conscious mind, wearing the blue robe of knowledge and the crown of Isis.” Her finger tapped the image. “Whatever challenges are ahead, never forget you have an inner strength and your own compass. You drew these cards for a reason. I’ve never seen a spread like it.”
The candle on the table flickered, and Doreen swept all the cards back into one pile. The session was over.