“Or like a caterpillar in a cocoon?” Filly asked.
“That’s right. Now one for you. What made you a hippie child?” Sophie asked.
“I was born one,” Filly answered. “Remember that I told you I grew up in a carnival?”
Emma nodded. “I always wondered what it would be like to grow up in one of those. Rebel’s mama lived in one when she was growing up. She told us about it one time when she was at our house. I met her one time when she came to clean our house with Rebel. I thought she was beautiful, and I loved her name. Is a carnival kind of like a commune?”
“If you live in a commune, you pretty much stay in one place. A carnie is someone who travels with the fair. My mama was the fortune teller. Daddy was the lion tamer. I grew up on the move for nine months out of the year,” Filly told her.
“That sounds so exciting.” Emma couldn’t even imagine such a lifestyle, not with her fears and social problems, but to grow up wild and free would be like living in heaven.
“It was life,” Filly said. “We were kind of like a commune when we wintered down around Texas City for three months. That’s when we repaired the equipment and got things ready to go again in the spring. That’s also when I started gathering small rocks and making jewelry. Mama sold it for me in her fortune-telling wagon. She put all the money up for my college.”
“Did you go to college?” Sophie asked.
“Hell, no! I took Mama’s place as a fortune teller when she retired. When I got tired of doing that, I came here and kept on doing what I love, which is designing jewelry.” Filly finished her coffee and went back to the kitchen, where she dished up cinnamon rolls for all three of them. “I’ve always been what you see right here, except that I could read your palm and tell your fortune.”
“For real?” Emma’s heart skipped a beat. “Could you do it right now?”
Sophie moved over to the bar and held out her hands. “Would you read mine right now, too?”
“Be glad to.” Filly moved into the living room and patted the sofa. “Come and sit right here beside me.”
Sophie left the barstool and sat down beside Filly.
“All right, first thing is that you place your hands on this pillow”—Filly laid a throw pillow in Sophie’s lap—“and relax. Then what I’m going to do is take your hands in mine and feel your skin, gently, like this.” Filly held both of her hands and rubbed the tops and then the palms. “You have medium skin, probably coming from the higher aspect of your heart, and that’s what makes you a good artist. Now I’m going to squeeze your hands from side to side. Your hand has bounce to it. That means you have energy.”
“That’s the truth,” Emma said. “She even shares that energy with me when I’m low.”
“She’s a generous person for sure,” Filly said. “Now I’m going to bend her fingers backward just a little, not so much as to hurt, but it will show me if she has flexibility of the mind, which she does. Now that I’ve determined her personality, I will look at the hand. Look at this beautiful padding on the top of her palm, which is the map of Jupiter, and now the padding at the side, which is the map of the moon.”
Emma was totally mesmerized by what Filly was saying. She scooted over closer to her so she could see better.
“See how her pinkie stands off by itself? Sophie doesn’t do that on purpose. That’s the Mercury arc type that means she’s good in business and shows that she’s her own person and likes to act very independent,” Filly said.
“I thought you would just look at the lines and say Sophie would be blessed in love,” Emma said.
“Honey, reading palms is an art,” Filly said. “Now, Sophie has Jupiter for leadership, Saturn for hard work, and Mercury for independence; she’s got the moon for dreaminess, intuition, and imagination. Most people have a flat Jupiter, but Sophie’s is full, which means she is actually a late bloomer. That’s kind of hard for teenagers to accept, but in the thirties, it means that the best is yet to come.”
Emma looked at her own hand as Filly talked. She had pads at the top of her palm, too, so hopefully the best in her life was yet to come, too.
“See these little pads on her fingers?” Filly said. “That means she has wisdom and will keep blooming the older she gets.”
“Me too!” Emma said.
“Hold your hand up beside Sophie’s,” Filly said. “I don’t normally do two at once, but you are right. You have full Jupiter pads and good signs from the moon area, but your Mercury arc isn’t as pronounced as Sophie’s, so that means you aren’t as good in business. It is fuller than normal, which means you are or will be independent.”
“I’ll take that much and be happy,” Emma said.
Filly studied both hands. “You both have a very creative curve to your head line, which means you are alike in your love of art. You don’t just want the facts, but you need time to think and to dream. In a relationship this means you need both togetherness and a little time apart for yourself. You are both seekers after wisdom, and you will get better and better every year of your lives.”
Emma leaned in a little to look at the differences and the similarities in their hands.
“Now see this line?” Filly touched Sophie’s palm with her own and then did the same with Emma. “This is the life line. It’s pinker and deeper than most people’s life lines, which means that each of you will have someone come into your life who will feel your influences, and your relationships will be energized by the whole complex range of emotions and love. You will both have many interesting things unfolding in your lives.”
Filly sighed. “That’s all, girls. You’ve had your palms really read, not just told that you will meet someone tall, dark, and handsome. You have wonderful opportunities ahead of you, but you have to be open to them.”
Emma continued to stare at her hand. “Where were you to give me all this confidence years ago?”
“I wish I had been there for you,” Filly said. “But let’s have our cinnamon rolls and some more coffee and talk about something else now. You both have a bright future if you open up your minds, hearts, and souls, and that’s what I see. Is that your newest work over there, Sophie? I feel like I could walk right into that painting and search for tiny flat rocks.”
Me too, or live right here where I can see the mountains forever, Emma thought as she stared at the painting with the other two. But was it the place that made her feel safe, or was it being with Sophie? Or believing and trusting in what Filly had just said?
She didn’t dread the time she’d spend alone but rather looked forward to it. She’d enjoyed her semester in college until that unfortunate evening.
Until you were raped. Own it and let it make you stronger. Rebel’s voice showed up in her head.
“Yes, ma’am,” she whispered ever so softly.
Loneliness was nothing new to Josh. That feeling had been with him most of his life. According to his mother, kids with a high intelligence like he had often didn’t fit in with their peers. But that morning, the emptiness in his heart and soul was more acute than ever before.