Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (19 page)

Delphie pointed to the three women dancing
in the middle of the card. Katy nodded.

“
Who would you like to do
next?”

“
I don’t know,” Katy said.
“Who?”

“
Let’s see how Valerie’s
doing,” Delphie said. “We’ll do a simple one card draw. I shuffled
again so now you split the deck. Remember we have to think about
Valerie while we do this.”

Delphie turned over the top card. The Four
of Swords.

“
Auntie Valerie is dead!”
Katy jumped up and down.

“
No, no, dear,” Delphie put
her arm around Katy. “This guy looks dead but he’s resting. Valerie
is probably asleep. It’s eight hours ahead there. She probably is
asleep. Plus you know how exhausted she gets when she’s
working.”

“
She’s not dead?
Promise?”

“
I promise,” Delphie said.
“Plus, I think Uncle Mike would call us to let us know if anything
was wrong with Valerie. He and your Mommy are very close. He would
call her first. Plus, you’d know inside, here.”

Delphie put her hand over Katy’s heart.

“
Ask inside, ‘Is Valerie
Lipson dead?’ What did you get?”

“
The voice in my head said
she’s asleep,” Katy said.

“
Right,” Delphie said. “Ok,
who’s next?”

“
Mommy!” Katy said. “Why is
Mommy so upset by this stupid stuff?”

“
You mean with that woman?”
Delphie asked. “Let’s check. We’ll do a Shadow Reading.”

Delphie laid out one card. Going
counterclockwise, she set down four cards around each side of the
first card. She picked up the center card, the Queen of
Pentacles.

“
Look, this is your Mommy,”
Delphie said. “She’s kind and loving. She’s a kind of earth mother…
Good cook, gardener, she has a lot of that rare common sense. She
can make something out of nothing. Right?”

Katy nodded.

“
This card is how she
feels. The Two of Pentacles tells us that your Mommy can juggle
everything in her life. She is even a little excited to have so
much going on. She needs to be flexible, but your Mommy feels
capable.”

“
This card is how she’s
changing…”

“
That’s a happy card!” Katy
said of the Ten of Cups. “Look there’s me dancing beside Mommy and
Daddy with my soon to be baby brother!”

Delphie smiled at Katy.

“
What’s that one?” Katy
pointed to the Tower card.

“
That’s a scary one, isn’t
it? All this lightning and destruction. Like an
earthquake.”

Katy gave a solemn nod.

“
That’s how other people
see your Mom,” Delphie said. “And it makes sense. Some people
aren’t being very nice to your Mommy. They think your Mommy’s life
is falling apart. They think her life is in crisis. But remember,
she’s actually moving to a really happy place in her
life.”

“
What’s this one?” Katy
picked up the Three of Swords. “It’s got three swords piercing a
heart.”

“
This is a funny card,”
Delphie said. “In your Mom’s case, I think she hasn’t really gotten
over her broken heart.”

“
From my first
Daddy?”

“
Him,” Delphie said. “And
other things that hurt your Mommy. She feels this stupid stuff as
if it was the same hurt. She’ll have to look at her deepest
sorrow.”

Delphie leaned back to look at the whole
reading.

“
Looking at this, we have a
strong woman who is trying to move to a happier place in her life.
Other people think her world is falling apart, but mostly she’s
just re-experiencing some sadness in her life. How’s
that?”

“
That sounds like my
Mommy,” Katy said. “Do Daddy! Do Daddy!”

“
We’ll do a simple reading
for your Daddy.”

Delphie shuffled and gave the cards to Katy
to cut. Delphie laid out three consecutive cards.

“
This is pretty easy,”
Delphie said. “He was kind of a fat cat.”

“
Fat cat?”

“
Well look at this guy,”
Delphie held up the Nine of Cups. “Your Daddy was really happy.
He’d finally gotten his wish – you and your Mommy. Look at how
happy this guy is. That’s how your Daddy was.”

“
Right now, he’s in the
middle of a challenging situation. See this sword? He’ll use it to
cut through all these problems. Being Jacob, he has already
embraced the challenge,” Delphie said.

“
What does that
mean?”

“
Embrace the challenge? Oh,
you know your Daddy, if something gets hard he uses reason to make
through it. He’s such an honest man, has such great integrity. He
will get through this. He’s already doing that by stepping back
from the construction company and working in the remodeling
company.”

“
This guy has the same star
thing as on Mommy’s queen,” Katy said.

“
He is the King of
Pentacles to your Mommy’s Queen of Pentacles. This means your Daddy
will be very successful,” Delphie said. “That’s good news, don’t
you think?”

Katy stifled a yawn.

“
Is it time for a nap?”
Delphie asked.

“
I wanted to know about
everybody but I have to nap!” Katy yawned her big Katy yawn. “I’m
so tired!”

“
What if we just do one
card for everyone?” Delphie said. “Do you want to sleep in my
bed?”

Katy shook her head. “I want to sleep with
my fairies.”

“
Ok, we’ll do the rest
really fast and then go up to your fairies. You name the
person?”

“
Uncle Mike! He’s working
away at his painting.”

Delphie turned over the card.

“
Eight of Pentacles. Right,
good job Katy. He’s going to be painting a lot in
Prague.”

“
Noelle! She’s going to be
Teddy’s girlfriend.”

Delphie turned the next card over.

“
Right. The World. She’s
going to get her heart’s desire.”

“
See! Teddy’s going to be
her boyfriend!”

“
Maybe so. Who’s
next?”

“
Aden! He has to change
everything.”

Delphie flipped the next card over.

“
Good. Two of wands. He’s
going to be making a bold change in his life. With a baby on the
way, he better change something,” Delphie laughed. “Who
else?”

“
Nash! I see him looking in
a mirror.”

“
You see
images?”

“
Uh huh,” Katy
said.

“
But not the images on the
cards?”

“
No, just pictures in my
head.”

“
Well, your pictures match
the meaning of the cards,” Delphie pointed to the card she turned
over. “Five of Swords. Nash is being a little
self-involved.”

“
Is that bad?”

“
It’s expected,” Delphie
said. “He’s been driving Sandy crazy, but she knows it’s just his
age. He’ll grow out of it. Anyone else?”

“
Uncle Blane!”

“
What do you
see?”

“
I see him going up on a
stage,” Katy said. “Like when we went to his graduation from
school. Only, this is different.”

Delphie nodded and turned over the next
card.

“
Eight of Wands. You’re
right. It’s time for Blane to step into life. He’ll have a chance
to shine on his own now.”

“
Auntie
Heather!”

Delphie cocked her head.

“
I see something but I’m
not sure what it is.”

“
Let’s look,” Delphie said.
“Knight of Cups. Hmm… I wonder if Heather will meet someone
new.”

“
Besides Uncle
Blane?”

Delphie nodded.

“
That’s what I
see.”

“
In a dream?”

Katy nodded.

“
I have too,” Delphie said.
“Confusing because everyone was happy.”

Katy yawned.

“
Anyone else?”

“
Auntie Tanesha? I see her
all smiley and happy.”

“
Page of Wands. She’s going
to hear some big news soon,” Delphie said. “Good news. That
matches.”

“
Auntie Honey! I think
things are hard for her.”

“
Ten of Wands. Honey has
her work cut out for her,” Delphie shook her head. “When hasn’t
that been true for Honey!”

“
Uncle MJ! I see a picture
of him staring at the stars.”

“
That matches this card,”
Delphie held up a card with a big yellow star and a woman on it.
“The Star. He’s learning to have hope in his life
again.”

“
There you are!” Jill poked
her head into Delphie’s apartment. Delphie nodded and Jill came in.
“I’m sorry to barge in. I’ve been looking all over for you. I
thought you and Sam were down the hall.”

“
We were,” Delphie said.
“Katy and I wanted to look at Tarot cards.”

“
Oooh Tarot cards. How fun.
Did you learn how to play?” Jill asked.

“
Uh huh,” Katy held up her
hands and Jill picked her up.

“
Katy needs to get her
nap.”

“
Or I’ll be very grumpy
tonight,” Katy said.

“
Right,” Jill said. “I bet
you had fun with Delphie.”

Katy nodded.

“
Say good bye and thank you
to Delphie for taking such good care of you.”

“
Thanks Grand-Delphie!”
Katy waved as Jill carried her from the room. “WAIT!”

“
What happened?” Jill
asked.

“
What about Paddie?” Katy
asked.

Delphie turned over the Lovers card.

“
You’ll be friends for a
long time,” Delphie said.

“
Oh good,” Katy said. “Love
you!”

Jill carried Katy from the apartment.
Delphie could hear Katy’s sleepy chatter as Jill carried her down
the hall and down the stairs.

“
I wonder about me,”
Delphie said. “Three of Pentacles. I guess I’m starting a new
business or making new friends.

“
What about Sam?
Temperance. That’s my Sam. He’s going to negotiate this work crisis
just fine.”

Delphie thanked the deck for helping her and
put it away. She wondered what to do next and decided to take
Katy’s cue. Lying down on her bed, she was asleep in moments.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and
ONE

Headlines

Wednesday morning — 8:45 A.M.

“
FOR DENVER HISTORIC
HOME,
REBUILD IS THE ONLY OPTION
.”
–
Denver Post

Honey was wheeling out of her apartment when
she heard:

“
Please,” Delphie said.
“You’re being silly.”

Thinking Delphie was having trouble, Honey
flew to the stairwell. Strapping herself in, she waited impatiently
as the lift crept to the main floor of the Castle. She was halfway
up the basement stairs when a loud boom from the chapel area
buckled the ancient stairwell paneling. Finally at the top, Honey
plopped into the wheelchair waiting for her. She spun in place and
wheeled toward Delphie’s voice.

She stopped short.

Delphie was hugging a small Asian man. The
elderly man bowed to Delphie and left the house.

“
Honey!” Delphie said. “I
didn’t realize you were home.”

“
The state shut my site
down. Bambi sent us all home. The site managers are meeting to
figure out what to do next,” Honey said. “Plus the sentencing is
this afternoon.”

“
That’s right. We’re all
going to the sentencing this afternoon.”

“
Is everything all right?”
Honey asked. “I thought you might be in trouble.”

“
Trouble? Me? No,” Delphie
shook her head.

“
Who was that?” Honey
asked.

“
That was Mr.
Wei.”

Honey nodded.

“
You’ve met Mr.
Wei.”

“
I don’t think so,” Honey
said.

“
You haven’t met Mr. Wei?”
Delphie asked. “He fills our home with fresh vegetables, fruits and
the best cuts of meat.”

“
He what?”

“
Mr. Wei owns a market off
of Federal,” Delphie said. “I’ve shopped there almost as long as
I’ve been in Denver. When he heard I was ill, he continued making
grocery deliveries here.”

“
He did?”

“
His market has the very
best fruits and vegetables in the city. The meat is very fresh and
humanely treated. That’s why it tastes so good. I’ve heard Jill
comment on how fresh everything is.”

“
Jill likes the food that
appears here.” Honey squinted her eyes at Delphie. “What about the
Captain Crunch?”

“
Mr. Wei only supplies
fresh food,” Delphie said. “Rosa takes care of the
rest.”

“
Rosa?”

“
The woman who helps us
with the housekeeping,” Delphie said. “She’s more like a home
nurturer. We don’t need that help right now. When the babies come,
we’d have to kill her to keep her from helping. She likes to care
for us. She feels like it’s her mission in life.”

“
I thought she owned a
cleaning service.”