The White Magic Five & Dime (A Tarot Mystery) (2 page)

Hello, Earth Mother. The only things missing were flowers in her hair and the smell of patchouli.

I waited for her to start belting out “Aquarius.”

She just kept smiling.

Fine.

Maybe my mother wasn’t around to explain her last scam, but she wasn’t the only one running it.

I went inside.

The woman’s
name was Josette, and she was good. She projected all the right vibes—warmth, curiosity, a touch of disarming ditziness—while stifling the sound of gears turning, turning, turning in her head. She kept smiling as she sized me up, no doubt thinking, “Stranger in her mid-thirties, alone, casual clothes, no jewelry, no makeup, no manicure, short Supercuts hair, radiating bemusement and amusement but, underneath, confused.”

I knew that’s how she saw me because that’s how I would’ve seen myself. Every con artist of every kind knows how to cold-read a mark. I’d been doing it since before I could read books, and I was good at it. Mom and Biddle had made sure of that.

Of course, every con artist knows how to hide vulnerability, too. But I wanted mine to show. It’s good bait.

I poked around for a few minutes, answering the woman’s carefully bland questions (“In from out of town? Been out this way before?”) while pretending to take an interest in her rune stones and anointing oils and plastic-wrapped spell kits. It took her five minutes to get to the pitch.

“I have a feeling,” she said, “that you’ve come here with questions.”

“Wow! How did you know?”

I expected to hear that her spirit guides had told her. Or maybe it was my troubled aura.

“You were staring at the store across the street for a long time,” she said instead. “It looked like you were trying to work up the nerve to go in.”

The lady wasn’t just good, she was very good.

Short con or long, it has to start with trust. And what better way to begin building that than with a little dribble of truth? Just enough to clear the way for the snake oil.

“I was,” I said.

“Thought so. I’m afraid the White Magic Five & Dime isn’t open anymore.” Josette’s smile grew a little wider. “But I do readings, too.”

“So the
Five & Dime went out of business?” I said as I shuffled the cards Josette had handed me.

We were at a table in a curtained-off nook at the back of the store. Before sitting down, Josette had locked the front door and hung up a sign saying
back in 15 minutes
. So we wouldn’t be disturbed, she’d said, but I figured it had more to do with sticky-fingered tourists who might wander in and help themselves to handfuls of healing crystals and pentagram pendants.

“Focus on your question,” Josette said. “What is it you’d like to ask the cards?”

What the hell was my mother up to around here?
I thought.

“How do I become a happier, healthier person?” I said.

Josette held out a hand.

“Good. Now give me the deck.”

I handed it over. I’d paid in advance (naturally) for a seven-card reading. I didn’t feel like shelling out thirty bucks for the “standard ten-card spread” when with three cards and five dollars less I could get the same old crock.

Josette laid the cards out like this:

“Looks like an airplane.”

Josette seemed pleased with herself. “It’s a spread of my own. I call it the Weather Vane. It’s good for showing which way the wind’s blowing.”

“You can just make up a ‘spread’ yourself?”

“You can do anything with the tarot.” Josette reached out and touched the card at the center of the crisscrossing rows of three—the middle of the airplane. “Ready?”

I nodded.

“All right, then. Let’s begin.”

“Ahhh,” Josette said as she turned over the first card. “This is your present—your current situation—and we’ve got the Two of Swords. A sword is an instrument of war—of conflict—but it can also bring liberation. It cuts through the things that bind us. The woman here has two swords, but look: She’s not using them. She’s just holding them over her chest, blocking her heart. She thinks she doesn’t need her emotions and her instincts, but that’s blinded her. She can’t truly see herself or her situation, so she’s paralyzed. Stuck.

“Moving up to the next card, we see what’s in the conscious mind.

“More swords! Only the swords on the Six here aren’t being used as weapons. They’re going with someone on a voyage. Does that boat remind you of anything? The boatman? The dead being ferried across the River Styx, maybe? Perhaps someone close to you has died—though it doesn’t have to be that. It could refer to any important life passage. A painful time is being put behind you. You’re continuing on to someplace new, but the pain goes with you.

“Moving down now, we see what’s going on in your subconscious.

“Swords again! The Eight. In this card, the swords form a wall. A pen. A prison. But see that gap? The wall’s incomplete. She could walk away anytime, yet she doesn’t because she can’t see the way out. Swords is the suit of intellect, of the mind. Here that’s a trap, though. This woman—she’s imprisoned by the things she
thinks
she knows.

“Going back now, we look at the past.

“Interesting. The Queen of Wands. Wands is the suit of energy, will, ambition, action. But the Queen’s reversed, so what we have is a strong, intelligent, creative woman who’s turned herself to unproductive pursuits. She’s a powerful influence, but not a good one. Whoever this is, she’s a bit of a…well.

“Moving forward, we step into the future. And what do we have?

“Oh! Lovely! The Two of Cups! (Some people call them Chalices, but I like Cups. More down to earth, don’t you think?) Anywho, Cups is the suit of love. That can be all kinds of love, of course, but would you just look at that couple there? Aren’t they adorable? I think you might have something special to look forward to. Someone special.

“Now, in the last row, hopefully we’ll find a little guidance for you. Going up, we’ve got the energies you should be trying to harness. And what we find is…well, well.

“The Fool. Now don’t get the wrong idea about him! The Fool’s actually someone we should respect. He’s brave. He trusts his impulses enough to take what looks like a dangerous step. He could be going right off that cliff, but at least he’s taking the first step toward something. Don’t give in to fear is the message here. Do something.

“Finally, moving down, we’ll see what energies you should avoid.