The Reading
by D. Gavin Guddi
Nolan and Jenna leaned into each other as they made their way down the desolate boardwalk of Atlantic City. The minarets of the Taj Mahal looming in the distance, they walked past the Steel Pier, a rusted and soundless carnival resembling some post-modern wasteland complete with seagulls circling like wraiths from above.
“Get a life!” Nolan remembered yelling at the hapless barfly who had chatted up Jenna for the better part of the previous evening. Same old Nolan, yelling at perfect strangers like a drunken fool.
Get a life…
“Ah, that smell,” Nolan sighed, the breeze carrying the ocean’s putrid scent. He looked at the gray horizon and imagined barges forming a border of garbage that separated Atlantic City from the rest of the world.
“You,” Jenna squeezed Nolan’s arm, “were my white knight last night.”
“I don’t remember much.” Nolan squinted at the homeless peppered along the boardwalk. “Really?”
“No, not really. You were such an ass,” she laughed. “You told that guy to get a life.”
“Oh yeah…that jerk!” he blurted, the strange man appearing more clearly in his mind. “He kept flirting with you, like he was trying to shine me on.”
“He’s getting married today, Nolan. That’s what he was talking about.”
Nolan pursed his lips. “Well he wasn’t talking about that to me.”
“You’re such an ass when you drink, you know that?” she said smiling.
“Only when I drink?” He raised his eyebrows, looking puzzled.
The wind gusted, trapping husks of abandoned newspapers in its swirl.
“It was good to talk to someone about marriage though.” Jenna tucked stray wisps of blond hair behind her ear.
“He seemed creepy, Jen – and we do talk about marriage. Nolan held up their hands, the diamond winking between the web of their fingers. “I gave you a ring, didn’t I?”
“But we haven’t talked about setting a date. I’m beginning to think it’s not in our future.”
“Here we go,” he muttered, looking down the line of storefronts that melted into the gloom of the morning. “Okay…I’ll prove it.” He stopped and pointed toward the pink neon hand that read, ‘Madame Claudia’s Palm Reading.’
“Oh – my – god…Are you serious?” Jenna stepped in front of him. “You’d do that?”
“What the hell. Last day in paradise and all.” He knew Jenna would be up to it. Novelty shops, she was kooky like that.
“Maybe we’ll find out about our wedding date,” she said excitedly.
“Wait…I was just kidding,” Nolan said quickly. “Okay, I’m going to be rude.”
“No you won’t!”
“Yes I will, Jen!” he threatened as Jenna pulled him by the hand toward the storefront.
“Greetings, I am Madam Claudia,” the exotic looking woman offered in a thick Greek accent.
Cheap tapestries of satyrs and maenads covered the walls, interrupted only by a doorway off to the left. Nolan squinted through the beaded curtain that separated the storefront from the rear of the shop, unable to discern the source of the music that drifted through the darkness.
“One or both?” Madam Claudia flipped her long dark hair over her shoulder and motioned with her cigarette to the empty spot of the floral couch.
“One,” Nolan replied.
“Both,” Jenna interrupted, cocking her head toward the music. “What is that sound?”
“‘Dance of Satyrs.’” Claudia exhaled a line of smoke. “You like?”
“It’s beautiful.” Jenna sat down, seemingly entranced by the song.
“Ten dollars each.” The woman held out her hand to Nolan.
“Oh by all means,” Nolan rifled through his pocket and handed over a twenty, “I didn’t expect it would be free.”
Madame Claudia blew a rail of smoke from her mouth. “Of course not.” She folded the twenty between her fingers and stuffed it into her blouse. “Show me your right hand, dear,” she said to Jenna.
Jenna bent her wrist and held out her hand, palm up.
Nolan sat down in the metal chair opposite the two. Catching his disheveled reflection in the mirror above the couch, he noticed the dark rings that tattooed his eyes, suggesting his entire face was forged from shadow.
“What lovely skin you have.” The fortune-teller smiled, her eyes showing black as night against her olive complexion.
Jenna shrugged playfully. “Why, thank you.”
“Oh God.” Nolan could barely stand it; Jenna was eating it up.
There was a long pause.
“You will have a long life,” Madam Claudia continued, tracing her fingers along Jenna’s palm. “I see marriage in your future.”
Jenna looked at Nolan and crinkled up her nose.
“Wow, that was a tough one,” Nolan heckled, having watched Claudia’s eyes follow Jenna’s engagement ring since they had entered the shop.
“You are on a path with someone, a shadow of a person whose presence in your life is as affecting as one’s own reflection, nothing more.” Claudia nodded, “This you will correct soon.”
The bohemian music increased in tempo, the chorus of haunting voices rising over the strum of a lyre.
Nolan glared at the woman. “Get a life,” he mumbled under his breath.
“You will have three children,” Claudia continued, “two boys and a girl: Nicolaos, Alexander, and Diana.”
“Really,” Nolan grunted, “so specific.”
“Nolan…” Jenna whispered. Images amid the sound of maracas formed in her mind, images of waterway and vineyard, the fragrances of thyme and sage pungent in the room.
“I’m just saying this is ridiculous,” he shrugged.
“Nolan,” Jenna whispered again, a hint of panic in her voice.
“Of course it is,” Claudia looked at Nolan and smiled.
Jenna stared at her hand. Tingling on her palm, the lines appeared to shift. She looked nervously at Claudia, the woman’s raven hair flowing like the river Styx over her shoulders.
“You will become a nurse.”
A bolt shot up Nolan’s spine. He sat straighter. Jenna’s dream. She was going to school for nursing, had another year until she was certified.
“How do you know that?” Jenna’s words sounded far away. She stared hypnotically into the pools of Claudia’s dark eyes, her hand captive in the woman’s grasp.
The defi erupted, the rapid percussion booming throughout the store as the klarino commanded the melody’s quickening pace.
Nolan stood. Tears trickled down Jenna’s cheeks and she began to shake.
“Jenna,” he said quietly.
“You will come into a large sum of money and live out your days in peace.” The music became maniacal as Madam Claudia clutched Jenna’s hand, not letting go.
“Oh my God.” Jenna looked through a blur of tears to the tapestries, where hoofed satyr embraced maenad in dance. She pointed to the scene of decadence unfolding on the cloth as the room began to spin.
“Jenna…” Nolan said louder.
The bleat of horns sliced through the air with concussive force.
“Your husband awaits,” Claudia said hypnotically.
“Nolan…”
“Let her go!” He reached over and grabbed Jenna’s arm.
“And I wish you well and good day.” Claudia let go as the music abruptly stopped.
Nolan took Jenna’s hand gingerly. “Are you all right?” He looked into her frightened eyes. Strands of hair clung to her face and reminded him of how she looked when they argued.
Jenna stood and looked from the tapestries to Nolan. “That…was spiritual.”
“Jesus Christ,” Nolan sighed. I thought you were wigging out.”
“No,” she laughed, wiping the hair from her face, “actually, I’m fine.”
“Of course you are, dear.” Claudia crossed her legs and took another drag on her cigarette. “Everyone reacts differently to the reading.”
Jenna kissed Nolan on the cheek and whispered in his ear, “Your turn.”
“Yeah, let’s get this over with.” He plopped down on the sofa next to Madam Claudia and held out his hand.
She blew another line of smoke and looked into Nolan’s palm. Jenna settled in across from them and rubbed her hand absent-mindedly, savoring the visions still playing in her mind.
The fortune-teller’s eyes flashed wildly. Her leisurely demeanor all but disappeared as she reared back from Nolan’s outstretched hand. There was a moment where she shivered as if catching her breath and then she glanced from his palm into his eyes.
“I have nothing to tell you,” she said, her voice cold and stoic.
Jenna snapped her head in their direction.
Nolan froze, then shook his head in disbelief. “What…what in the hell did you say?” he said through gritted teeth.
Claudia tapped her cigarette into the ashtray and stared off toward the beaded curtain.
“Nolan, please,” Jenna pleaded, her head still swimming with images of faraway lands. “Please don’t do this!”
“No, I paid my money!” He stood up and flung out his hand. “Tell me what you see!” From the corner of his eye he watched the reflection of his once-haggard face become swollen and red.
Madam Claudia took another drag from the cigarette. “Your lifeline…” She motioned to Nolan’s hand.
“What about it?” Nolan yelled, looking at his hand like a layman, the network of lines indistinguishable to his eye.
Her black eyes met his stare. “You don’t have one.”
Feeling light-headed, Nolan looked at the mirror, his reflection beginning to fade. “What…” Just then something passed through the beaded curtains.
“Perhaps you remember my son, Sebastian,” the woman said. He is getting married today.”
Nolan looked at the mirror in horror as the barfly stepped into the room. “Get a life,” he whispered without thinking.
The man looked at Jenna longingly, the eyes of his mother staring out from under a mop of thick black hair. He held out his hand.
Jenna stood.
“Jenna!” Nolan barked. He watched as she stood there, and then as if moving in a trance, she extended her hand.
“No!” Nolan yelled and spun on his heel. His heart pounded in his chest. He looked to his left, then to his right. Losing all bearings he turned back to the only source of light within the void.
The morbid realization overtook him. Within the mirror…his mind could barely comprehend it. He was inside the mirror!
Like staring through a window he watched the scene play out as Jenna and Claudia’s son embraced. “No!” He pounded on the glass; his voice muffled even as he shouted.
His mind in a fog, Nolan lost all memory of the attractive young woman walking hand in hand with the strange man to the mirror. The exotic looking woman led them, gesturing as the couple approached.
“Get a life,” Nolan whispered, his hands sliding down the mirror and into the darkness. His memories became fragments as the couple began to kiss. Their wedding day…the only thing he knew was that it was their wedding day.
The exotic looking woman took a long drag of her cigarette and winked at the mirror.
Nolan’s body turned to mist as his own name faded from his mind. Then he was without form, his entire existence one with the darkness…and was no more.
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