So Mote it Be (19 page)

Archer reached behind her and took something from a shelf. It was a box wrapped in a scarlet silk scarf. Archer untied the knotted scarf and pulled the top off the box. She turned it upside down and a stack of cards fell into her hand. Kate saw that each one had a different picture on it.

“Have you ever had a Tarot reading before?” Archer asked.

Kate shook her head. “I've seen the cards before,” she said. “At least I've seen them in the boxes. But I never knew exactly how they were used.”

“We use them as a divination tool,” Archer said.

“You mean to see the future?” said Kate.

“Not exactly,” Archer explained. “They show what the circumstances around a situation are and what might happen if the person asking the question acts in certain ways. Would you like me to show you?”

Kate nodded. Archer took the cards and sifted through them. She picked one out and put it in the center of the table. The card depicted a young person holding a sword.

“That's the Page of Swords,” Archer said. “It represents a young woman or man like you. So think of that card as representing you.”

She took the remaining cards and shuffled them several times. Then she divided them into three piles on the table. “Now, choose a pile,” she said to Kate.

Kate picked the middle pile, and Archer put it on top of the other two. Then she picked up the first card and turned it over, laying it over the Page of Swords. The picture on the card showed an angel blowing a trumpet.

“Judgment,” Archer said. “It's a powerful card. It represents a shift in consciousness. Have you been doing a lot of thinking about spiritual things lately?”

Kate nodded. Archer turned over the next card and laid it crosswise over the angel card. This card showed an unhappy-looking man sitting in front of three wooden cups. A hand holding another cup reached out from a cloud over his head, but he didn't seem to see it.

“What does that mean?” Kate asked. For some reason, the image troubled her.

“The Four of Cups,” said Archer. “It suggests that you're bored with things and want them to change, but that perhaps you're hesitant about making the changes you need to.”

Kate didn't say anything. It was strange that Archer could tell so many things about her that were true just from looking at the cards. She
had
been thinking about spiritual things a lot lately, and she was definitely hesitant about making changes in her life. She wondered what would come next.

Archer laid out four more cards, placing them around the center cards. She looked at the arrangement for a moment. “You've had to make some difficult choices lately, haven't you?” she asked. “And some things have been happening that haven't been very easy to deal with, although some of them have been good.”

Kate thought about everything that had been going on. She'd certainly gotten a lot of the things she'd asked for, but they hadn't turned out the way she'd wanted them to. And a lot of good things
had
happened, like meeting Annie and Cooper, but she didn't know how to make them fit into the rest of her life.

“It's been a rough week or so,” she admitted. “All kinds of things have been going on, and I'm not sure what any of it means.”

“You're unsure of what to do,” said Archer. “Part of you wants one thing, but another part is afraid to let go and make the changes that would let you have that thing you want.”

“How do you know all that?” Kate asked, a little freaked out that her life seemed to be such an open book.

Archer pointed to the cards one at a time. “The Ace of Cups,” she said, indicating the card at the top of the arrangement. It showed a sun rising out of a cup. “It suggests that what you really want is to be happy, to experience the joy of living a full life. But then there's the Five of Cups beneath you.” She tapped the card at the bottom of the arrangement, which had an image of a figure looking at three cups that had spilled on the ground. Two other cups sat behind the figure, unnoticed. “That card indicates that you recently got something you thought you wanted, but that you lost something else in the process.”

The spells
, Kate thought to herself. She certainly had gotten something that she'd thought she wanted, but it had caused a lot of problems. And every time she had to make a choice between two things, she seemed to make the wrong one. Looking at the Five of Cups, she suddenly thought that the three spilled cups reminded her of her friendship with Jessica, Tara, and Sherrie, while the two full cups made her think of Annie and Cooper. But what that all meant, she didn't know.

“These other two cards indicate things that have recently happened and things that might happen in the near future,” Archer continued. “This card is the Tower. See how the lightning is hitting the top of it and it seems to be on fire?”

Kate looked at the card. It made her feel nervous. There was something ominous about it. “Is it bad?” she asked.

“None of the cards are necessarily bad,” Archer answered. “They simply represent influences that are affecting a situation. This card tells me that you've probably recently experienced some dramatic change in your life. Something that made you rethink a lot of what you thought was true. And this card,” she said, picking up a card showing two people holding one another, “shows me that whatever happened to you is forcing you to choose between two very powerful things. This is the Lovers. They represent having to decide between opposing forces.”

That was something Kate could definitely relate to. She was feeling pulled in many different directions: between her old friends and her new ones, between fitting in and being different. The card also made her think of Scott, and how she was glad they were together but couldn't help feeling a little guilty about how it had come to be.

“How do I make these decisions?” she asked Archer.

“The cards don't tell you what to do,” Archer said. “They just tell you what might happen if you do certain things or don't do them. Let's look at the last four.”

She took the remaining cards and arranged them in a straight line up one side of the table, almost like a ladder. The bottom one showed a woman tied with ropes and blindfolded. Eight swords surrounded her, stuck into the ground.

“She looks like a prisoner,” Kate said.

“She is,” said Archer. “She can't make up her mind. She feels trapped by her circumstances and doesn't know how to get free.”

“Who is she?” Kate asked. As she looked at the bound woman, she felt really sorry for her.

“She's you,” said Archer. “This card represents how you feel about your situation.”

Kate stared at the card.
That's me
, she thought sadly.
I do feel trapped by all of this and I don't know how to get free.
She hoped the answer would be found in the rest of the cards.

“And who is that?” she asked, looking at the next card. It depicted a young person holding a cup. A fish was leaping up from the water in the cup. “Is that me, too?”

“The Page of Cups,” Archer told her. “It usually represents an artistic young person who is trying to help you. Does that sound like anyone in your life?”

Annie
, Kate thought instantly,
or maybe even Cooper
. Both of them fit the description, but in different ways. “I think I know who it is,” she told Archer. “Does that mean she's important in all of this?”

“She could be,” Archer said. “It depends on whether or not you let her help you.”

The next card was a picture of a man hanging upside down from a tree. His foot was tied to one of the branches, and his hands were behind his back.

“Is he dead?” Kate asked, hoping the card didn't signify something she didn't want to hear. She was still thinking about how Archer had suggested that she needed the person represented by the Page of Cups to help her. Annie and Cooper had both offered to do that, and she'd turned them down. She hoped she hadn't made a terrible mistake.

“No,” said Archer. “But he symbolizes a kind of death. He's the Hanged Man, and he represents letting go of old ideas and ways of thinking in order to move forward in life. The card appearing here suggests that you want to move forward but are having trouble doing that.”

“And what's this last card?” said Kate. She picked up the final card and looked at it. It was a beautiful picture of three young women holding cups. They seemed to be toasting one another, and they were smiling and happy. Behind them a giant yellow flower was opening up.

“The Three of Cups,” said Archer. “One of my favorite cards. It represents the perfection of friendship and the beginning of something very special.”

“Is that what's going to happen then?” asked Kate hopefully. It didn't seem like a bad card to end with to her.

“It could,” said Archer. “But only if you make it happen. It seems there are some things standing in your way. You're going to have to make some difficult choices if you really want to achieve what the Three of Cups represents.”

Kate looked at all of the cards. She'd never seen any of them before, but as she looked at them all laid out she could almost understand the story they told. She knew it was a story about her and about what she was going through and needed to do. But she didn't know if she'd be able to do it.

“Thanks for doing that,” she said to Archer, who was gathering up the cards and putting them back in their box.

“It's my pleasure,” she said. “I hope it helped some.”

“It did,” Kate said. “I have a lot to think about now.”

Archer sat back in her chair and drank some of her tea. “What was it you wanted to ask Sophia?” she said.

Pouring out the whole, sad story took some time, and when Kate looked up at the wall and noticed the hour on the clock, she realized more time had passed than she had thought. Her mother would be home soon, and she had to go.

“Thanks again for the Tarot card reading,” Kate said as she stood up and put on her jacket.

Archer followed Kate back into the main part of the store. She opened a drawer and pulled something out, then handed it to Kate. It was a card printed with the picture from the Three of Cups.

“Take this with you,” Archer said. “It might help remind you of your reading and of what you need to do.”

Kate took the card and looked at the faces of the three women on it. Their eyes looked into hers. “Thanks,” she said as she slipped the card into her pocket. “And I think I know what my next step has to be.”

CHAPTER 15

The next morning Kate got to school early and went looking for Cooper and Annie. She couldn't find Annie, but she found Cooper in the music room.

“You were right,” she said.

“About what?” Cooper responded.

“About everything,” Kate said. “About my being afraid. About my friends. I am scared.”

“And what are you going to do about that?” asked Cooper.

“I'm not really sure yet,” Kate said. “But I know what I'm going to do first. What
we
are going to do first. A ritual. Tomorrow night. It's the full moon. That's supposed to be good for doing magic, right?”

Cooper shook her head. “You're really something else,” she said. “One minute you pretend you don't know me and let your friend take the blame for something you caused, and the next you come around all filled with plans for doing a ritual. Do you expect me to be all happy about this? And what about Annie? Do you think she's really going to want to do something to help you after everything you've done?”

Kate didn't know what to say. All night she'd been thinking about her plan, and it hadn't gone anything like this. The Tarot cards seemed to be telling her that she needed to get back together with Annie and Cooper.

“I haven't talked to Annie about it yet,” Kate admitted. “I haven't seen her.”

“That's because she's not coming to school,” Cooper said.

“What do you mean?” Kate asked. “Is she sick?”

“She was suspended,” Cooper said. “The school called last night and told her that they'd decided to hold a disciplinary hearing. Apparently Terri's parents decided to make a stink. And until this is settled, Annie's out of here.”

“But she didn't do anything!” Kate protested.

“Try telling that to them,” Cooper said. “Or maybe you'd just rather keep your mouth shut and stay out of trouble yourself.”

Kate started to speak but Cooper was walking away from her down the hall and not looking back.

Kate ran after her. “Come on, Cooper,” she said. “I said I was sorry. I said I wanted to do another ritual. What else do I have to do to convince you that I'm serious?”

Cooper stopped in the middle of the hall and turned to face Kate. “You know what I want you to do?” she said. “I want you to stay away from me. Fix your own problems, and leave me out of it. I don't need your stupid little friends looking down their noses at me. I don't need you talking to me only when it's convenient or when you need something. I don't need any of it.”