A Palm Reading

October 2008

Haley tilted the rearview mirror down to apply coral lipstick. The flat tube circled her lips twice to ensure color in every crevice. With her finger, she brushed a minor slip-up from her whitened teeth.

Haley’s sister, Madge, rolled her eyes and swept the glazed donut crumbs from her black sweatpants onto the car mat. “Lipstick is no use when you are over the age of fifty.”

“It’s no use when you are over age fifty and dress like that!” Haley snapped the lipstick closed and fluffed her big hair. “Besides, lipstick makes me feel good about myself.”

Madge opened the car door and climbed out. She leaned down and looked at Haley, who was still fussing with her appearance. “If you knew the palm reader was a female, would you still put on lipstick? No, you wouldn’t. Don’t lie and say you would.”

Finally, Haley emerged from the Altima. She looked over the car’s roof at her sister. “My hairdresser told me her name is Arabella. Everyone swears she is Indiana’s best palm reader. She foretold my hairdresser would come into money. That weekend, she drove to the casino and won five hundred dollars!”

“Coinc…” Madge began.

Haley talked over the skeptical comment she anticipated from her sister. “It is just for fun! You could use some more fun in your life. All you do is sit on the couch and watch TV since Bill died.”

Madge circled round the car and stood at Haley’s side.

“If Arabella starts talking like Bill, I’m gonna slap her. Just warning ya.”

The two walked up the creaky stairs to the small wooden porch--painted purple to match the house. Both tried to peek through the window’s gauzy curtains as they approached the door.

Tink-tank-tink-tink.

Haley jumped--startled by the loud sound. She looked over at Madge, who busily attempted to shush a wind chime with rock-like crystals hanging from it. The door creaked open. A woman introduced herself as Arabella and welcomed them inside.

Madge found it difficult to guess the woman’s age. Her youth seemed evident from the black hair she wore long and straight, hanging like cords down the sides of her face. The taut olive skin also lent to a twenty-something age estimate, but her eyes undermined those clues. They glowed red like those of a white rabbit.

“Are you wearing colored contacts?” Madge blurt out.

Haley, who never wished to be less tactful than Jackie Onassis, called out, “Madge!”

“It is okay. I don’t mind when people ask about my eyes. Sometimes I wish they would ask about something else, like my cute shoes.” Arabella proudly pointed down to her gold ballet flats. “But I don’t mind when they ask about my eyes. Red eyes are a rare genetic variation. I just got lucky… or unlucky. It depends on how you look at it. I consider myself unlucky because my eyesight is very poor as a consquence. In fact, I’m going to have to ask you to put your hand under here while I read your palm.” She pointed to an oversized magnifying glass.

Madge quickly backed away and thrust Haley forward.

“Oh no, I am just here ‘for fun.’ My sister is the one who would like her palm read.”

Arabella studied Haley’s face a moment. Then, she turned to Madge and said, “No, it is you. You are the one who needs to know your destiny. Sit down. I will read your palm for free. Today only, that is.”

Madge sat in the chair and extended her palm for Arabella to analyze. The palm reader adjusted the brass arms of the desk-mounted magnifying glass contraption. While she was tracing the line with her finger and hmmming, Madge shot her sister a dirty look.

“It’s not good. You will die this time next year.”

Arabella folded Madge’s hand back up and pushed it away like an unwanted meal.

Haley looked apologetically at her awestruck sister.

Then, she glared at the palm reader. “How could you say such a thing?”

“Please leave. You smell like death.” Arabella snatched up a nearby fireplace bellow and repeatedly flapped it open and closed in Madge’s direction, blowing stale air gusts and dust particles in her eyes.

Haley followed Madge out the door, down the steps, and into the Altima. They both quickly snapped their seatbelts into place. Haley put the car in reverse and peeled out of the gravel driveway onto a paved road.

The road offered very little to look at besides telephone poles. After some period of silence, Haley said, “I am sorry I dragged you here.”

Madge did not feel the urgency to offer a quick answer. She stared out the car window and thought about the things she had never told Haley, like her doctor’s recommendation to receive bypass surgery and her rejection of his recommendation. She thought about his pleas to change her lifestyle, which currently consisted of eating fruit only when in a double crust pie and eating vegetables only when in a breadcrumb covered casserole.

Even though Madge longed to meet Bill in heaven, she hated to leave her sister all alone. Madge finally replied, “What if the palm reader was right? I think I’ll make some changes. You know, take better care of myself.”

Haley said nothing because she was pleased Madge showed interest in making a positive change, but the expressive and surprised look she gave Madge went unnoticed because Madge fixated on a lone tree’s yolky-yellow autumn leaves.

October 2009

Haley charged up the familiar purple stairs to Arabella’s house. She pounded on the door until it cracked open slightly to reveal Arabella’s red eyes.

“I am not taking appointments today. Call tomorrow.”

Arabella began to shut the door.

Haley stuck her moccasin slipper in the door to prevent it from closing. “Do you remember me? You read my sister’s palm last October. You said she would die in a year.”

Arabella opened the door. She squatted down and leaned uncomfortably close to Haley’s black sweatpants. She remained uncomfortably close as she slowly rose up to her face. Arabella touched Haley’s bare lips and pictured her face as it looked before--with coral colored lips. “Yes, I remember you now. How is your sister?”

“Dead. That’s how she is.” Haley walked across the threshold of the door and instantly smelled something unsavory cooking. She tried not to let her imagination run too wild about what Arabella might be cooking.

Arabella rubbed her arm, but Haley brushed it off and grabbed Arabella’s shoulders. She stared into her glowing red eyes.

“She died—like you said. The thing is, she really tried to change her future. She ate healthy and exercised all year long. Is the future really set in stone? Can it never be changed?”

Arabella pushed Haley’s arms down. “She would have died within the month if she hadn’t changed!”

A teapot whistled.

Arabella said, “Excuse me.” She slipped between hanging bead strands into the kitchen.

Haley did not wait to bid farewell to Arabella. She promptly left. She followed no one out the door, down the steps, and into the Altima. She backed out of the gravel driveway onto a paved road with little more to look at than telephone poles. As she drove, she thought about meeting Madge again in heaven.

After awhile, she fixated on a lone tree’s bare, fingerlike branches--tilting her rearview mirror to keep it in her gaze after she passed it by.