Rescued

He shrugged. “Fine. The test itself is really no big deal. You just lie still in a machine for a while.”

“Did the technician tell you anything?”

“Nah. Just asked if I’d done it before. I said yeah and that was about it.”

I nodded and we were silent again. His attitude was making me worried. It was true that the really scary part was going to come when we got the results, but it seemed to me like he was pretending the whole thing didn’t even exist.

There wasn’t much I could do, though. I didn’t want to stress him out if it seemed like he was handling it. After a moment, I turned on the radio and found the local pop music station. We sat and listened to the music without saying much.

Soon we came to the town center of Eltingville. It only consisted of a few square blocks, but there were some clothing stores and coffee shops scattered along the sidewalks, along with a few bars, restaurants, and a small town square where there were free concerts in the summer. None of the buildings were more than a couple stories, but it was a nice little town.

As we drove through the downtown area to get to the other side where the grocery store was, I pulled my aunt’s grocery list out of my purse and shut off the radio.

“Wow, you really need to buy a lot of groceries to feed a family,” I said, looking down the list.

“Yeah,” Hunter said absently. He seemed to have his eye on something and began slowing down.

I looked around. “The grocery store is another couple blocks.”

But he was already pulling over and getting ready to parallel park. “I know,” he said as he put the car in reverse.

I looked around, confused at why he was parking. ‘You know they have a lot,” I said, imagining the two of us lugging groceries a couple blocks back to the car.

He pulled forward to adjust and said nothing. It had been a very smooth parking job. “Come on, let’s go.”

He opened his car door. I stayed put. “Go where? I told you, they have a lot. Why are we parked here?”

“I wanna get our fortunes told.”

He motioned with his chin and my eyes followed. Sure enough, a fresh, crisp paper sign was hung in a window on the second floor of the building advertising fortune telling and massage services. Just above that was a sign that said OPEN.

Skeptical, I opened the door and stepped onto the sidewalk. Did he really want to get his fortune told? Now? It seemed kind of morbid, considering the possibilities from the test he had just taken.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Of course I’m sure. I pulled over and parked, didn’t I? Why wouldn’t I be sure?”

I paused a second in panic and then shrugged, hoping he couldn’t read my mind. “It’s kind of a weird mix, isn’t it? Massages and fortune telling?”

“I’ll just tell them I want my fortune told and that’s it.”

“Okay, whatever.”

He walked around the front of the car, then held the door to the building for me. I walked inside and he followed closely after.

The smell of incense assaulted our nostrils before we were halfway up the stairs. By the time we got to the fortune teller’s suite, I was already feeling light-headed.

The glass door to the suite was locked, but there was a sign telling visitors to hit the button to the right of the door to be let in.

“You sure you want to do this?” I asked, my finger hovering over the button.

Hunter nodded from his place on the top step. “Yeah, I’m sure. Now let’s get some f**kin’ fortunes read!”

He laughed. I shook my head, uncertain what to think about Hunter’s sudden enthusiasm for fortune telling. When I pressed the button, a high-pitched bell sounded from inside.

A woman came to the door. Whatever I’d been expecting, it wasn’t this.

She was maybe thirty years old, if that, with long, wavy brown hair and pale skin. Her black drawstring pants were loose-fitting and paired with a white tanktop and a green zip-up hoodie. I was surprised to see she wasn’t wearing any shoes. She didn’t wear any makeup either, though her natural face was still pretty. In general she reminded me of the “hippie chicks” at Arrowhart.

She opened the door. “Come in,” she said, her voice a high squeak. A fresh, pungent wave of incense and scented candles greeted Hunter and I as we trotted in.

I leaned next to him as our fortune teller was closing the door. “I think all these smells are going to make me high,” I whispered.

He shrugged. “Don’t think you’ll be alone. I’m pretty sure I spell pot.”

I giggled and we looked around. A candle burned on every available surface. Across from us, a collection of well-loved books stocked a shelf leaned against the wall. I didn’t recognize any of the titles. In fact, I wasn’t even sure all of them were in English.

The wall was littered with posters containing strange symbols and seemingly symbolic drawings in pen and ink. I recognized one of them as a particularly complicated celtic knot, but that was it. This definitely didn’t feel like Eltingville.

Hunter seemed to be similarly transfixed. I turned to him to make a comment, but he was too engrossed with our surroundings to get his attention.

I heard the door close and the fortune teller scurry behind us. “Can I get you guys anything? Tea?”

We shook our heads. To our right was an old, oak circular table with four cushioned chairs around it. The fortune teller came around it to stand in front of us, putting her hand on Hunter’s arm for balance as she did so. I raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Instead I looked at her eyes. Hunter was right, they were totally bloodshot. The girl was stoned.

“Awesome. Hi guys, I’m Trinity. What can I do for you today? Massage?”

My head snapped over to Hunter, who opened and closed his mouth once before answering. Part of me just wanted to get out of here. Trinity wasn’t exactly filling me with confidence. “We were hoping to have our fortunes read,” he said uncertainly.

She nodded and looked to me, a big smile on her face. I kept my expression blank and deferred to Hunter.

“Okay,” she said. “Great. Have either of you had a reading before?”

I shook my head and she turned to Hunter. He did likewise.

“Cool. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the experience. How about a tarot reading? Is that good?”

I vaguely knew what tarot was, but Hunter was running this show so I again deferred to him.

His eyes narrowed. “Is that the thing with the cards?”

Trinity nodded helpfully.

“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “That sounds great.”

She smiled and quoted us her price, which was charged in half-hour increments. Hunter seemed satisfied, and told me he was paying.

The three of us sat down and got situated, with Hunter and I at one end of the table and Trinity on the other.

“So how long have you been doing this?” I asked, still dubious at her age and demeanor.

Trinity shuffled the deck of cards. “Like since I was born. My aunt did fortune telling here for a long time. She taught me growing up. I added the massage thing since I went to school for that and I’ve been here for a couple years.”

“Wow,” Hunter said. “So you’ve been doing this a long time.”