Treasures from Grandma's Attic (7 page)

14

The Fortune-Teller

“We have just two more years of school before we’ll have to transfer to the town high school,” Sarah Jane said as we walked past the empty schoolhouse. “I don’t know whether I’m looking forward to it or not.”

“I don’t think I’ll like being away from home all week,” I replied. “I wish there was a high school closer than town.”

“Maybe there will be in two years. That’s a long time.” She thought for a moment. “Wouldn’t it be fun to know what was going to happen two years from now?”

“It might be,” I answered. “But what if it turned out to be something bad? Would you want to know about that?”

“Sure! If I knew something bad would happen in two years, I’d do something to see that it didn’t!”

“I don’t know if it works that way,” I said. “I know I have to help Ma with spring cleaning, and there’s not one thing I can do about it. Except maybe leave home.”

For once Sarah Jane didn’t argue with my reasoning. It was plain to see that she was turning something over in her mind.

“I know one way we can find out what’s going to happen in the future,” she said at last. “There’s a lady in town who looks at your hand and tells you how long you’ll live, and if you’re going on a journey or going to meet a stranger, and all sorts of other things.”

“Sarah Jane,” I exclaimed. “That’s wicked! You know you shouldn’t go to fortune-tellers! Anyway, how do you know about her?”

“My cousin Laura went with a friend to see her,” Sarah Jane replied. “I don’t think she’s really a fortune-teller. She doesn’t have a crystal ball or anything. Everyone has lines in their hands. This lady just tells you what your lines say.”

“What did Laura’s say?” I asked her. “Did the lady tell her something that really happened?”

“Well, one thing did, I guess. She said Laura would meet a dark-haired admirer on the street. Laura thought it would be a young man, but it was a horse! It ate the flowers off her hat. She figured it must have admired them.”

“You’re right.” I laughed. “That lady’s not much of a fortune-teller if that’s the best she could do.” I looked at my hand. “I wonder what my lines say. Do you know which one tells how long you’ll live?”

“Nope,” Sarah Jane replied. “But I hope it’s the longest one. Why don’t we go to see Madame Viola when we go to town Saturday?”

“Madame Viola?”

“That’s her name. Or at least that’s what she calls herself. Do you want to?”

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to go just for fun. We don’t have to believe everything she says. Are you sure all she does is look at your hand?” I asked.

“That’s what Laura said. We won’t have to say anything to our folks, because we always go look around town by ourselves anyway.”

I nodded. Even though I really thought this wasn’t the same as fortune-telling, something said that a discussion with Ma wouldn’t be in our best interests.

“What if she told you that you were going to die at the age of twenty?” Sarah Jane wondered. “Do you suppose you would go ahead and die then because you thought you should?”

“I don’t think anyone knows when we’ll die except God,” I said. “But I’ll admit I might be a little uneasy around my twentieth birthday.”

Later, as we did the dinner dishes, I decided to question Ma. “Do you wish you knew what was going to happen in the future?”

“I do know,” Ma replied. “You’re going to drop that plate if you don’t watch what you’re doing.”

“I mean the future like five or ten years from now,” I said.

“No, I don’t,” Ma said. “I have all I can do to take care of today without worrying about what’s coming in ten years.”

“I think I’d like to know if I’m going to be rich or famous. That would be nice to look forward to.”

“‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,’” Ma quoted. “God has promised us everything we need. I’m sure He would tell us what was going to happen ten years from now if He wanted us to know. Don’t you think so?”

“I guess so,” I said, nodding. “But you can’t help being curious.”

“Curiosity can lead to trouble,” Ma warned. “You might find out something you’d rather not know.”

I should have heeded Ma’s warning and stayed away from Madame Viola, but I was as eager as Sarah Jane was to hear what she would say. We went straight to her little shop as soon as we got to town on Saturday. The sign in the window said: “Palms Read. The Future Revealed. 10 cents.”

As we pushed open the door, a little bell tinkled and an ancient woman appeared from behind a curtain.

“Oh, young ladies,” she greeted us. “Come in, come in. You wish to know what lies ahead, yes? Madame Viola can tell you.”

Sarah Jane shoved me forward. “You go first,” she whispered.

We all sat down at a table behind the curtain, and Madame Viola took my hand. With her long forefinger she traced the lines on my palm.

“Oh, yes,” she murmured. “I see a long life for you, but not all will be happy. There is a move here also, and new friends.”

A move? New friends? I didn’t hear much more Madame
Viola said after that. We had agreed that this was just for fun and we wouldn’t believe what she told us. But what if she were right? I didn’t want to move away or make new friends! I began to wish that we had never come. I didn’t need to know as much as I thought I did.

The sun was bright and cheerful when we stepped outside of Madame Viola’s dark little room. It didn’t lift my spirits, though, and I scarcely heard Sarah Jane chattering about what she had been told.

“What’s the matter with you, Mabel?” she asked. “Are you worried about not all your life being happy? Everyone has some trouble sometime.”

I shook my head. “That doesn’t bother me. I just don’t want to go away from here.”

“Is that all?” Sarah Jane scoffed. “You know she only says what she thinks she sees. She can’t make it happen. I don’t think you’re going anyplace any more than I am.” She sighed. “We wouldn’t be that lucky.”

Reluctantly I agreed with her and decided to put the whole thing out of my mind. “Let’s go to the dry goods store and see if they have anything new,” I suggested. We ran toward the store, and by dinnertime I had forgotten about Madame Viola and her predictions. I probably wouldn’t have remembered them again if I hadn’t been looking for our tabby’s newborn kittens a few weeks later.

“I haven’t seen them,” Ma said when I asked her. “She usually hides her kittens pretty well until their eyes open. My guess would be the barn.”

I searched around the lower floor without success. If they were in the barn, they had to be in the loft. I scrambled up the ladder just as Pa came through the door. He was talking to Ma.

“The only thing to do is sell,” he said. “We can’t keep it up any longer.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Ma agreed. “I hate to let it go, though. We’ve had a lot of happy times in it.”

“I know, but it’s old, and we do need more room. Nothing lasts forever.”

There was silence below me. I didn’t mean to be eavesdropping, but it was too late now to let them know I was there. My heart sank as I remembered Madame Viola’s words: “There is a move here also, and new friends.”

“Do you have another one in mind?” Ma was asking.

“Yes, Wesley Blake told me of one for sale near his place. He said it would be just right for our family. I’ll go see about it when I go to town Friday.”

They left the barn, and I sat in the hay with my chin on my knees. The kittens were forgotten. Pa was going to sell our house and buy a bigger one! The Blakes lived at least ten miles on the other side of town. I’d have to go to another school. And I’d be without Sarah Jane. Even though she aggravated me sometimes by being so know-it-all, I couldn’t imagine my life without her. We had been best friends since we were babies. I knew all her secrets, and she knew all mine. Whatever would I do?

I sat for a long time, thinking the situation over. I couldn’t even talk to Ma about it unless I told her that I had overheard. I decided to go and share the news with Sarah Jane.

She gasped when I told her. “Mabel, are you sure?” I nodded miserably.

“I heard it with my own ears. And remember, Madame Viola saw it in my hand.”

“I really didn’t think those things came true,” Sarah Jane moaned. “I’m never going back to see her again. Do you suppose your hand really does say that?”

We both looked at my palm and then compared it with Sarah Jane’s. There was no difference that we could see. The lines appeared to be the same, and they didn’t tell us anything at all.

“This has to be the worst day of my life,” I declared. “Nothing this bad has ever happened before. We’ll have to think of something.”

“You’d better leave the thinking to me. You’re liable to move yourself into the next state by mistake.”

I was too upset to make a smart remark back. Besides, I had to get home to supper.

Ma didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t saying much as I set the table. But when I pushed the food around on my plate without eating, she questioned me.

“Are you sick, Mabel?”

I shook my head.

“Then why aren’t you eating?”

“I don’t want to move!” I blurted. Everyone stared at me in astonishment.

“This time she’s really gone over the edge,” Roy declared. “I knew it would happen.”

“Whatever are you talking about?” Pa asked.

“Madame Viola said I’d be moving, and I heard you say you were selling the house, and I don’t want to go!”

“Maybe we’d better start at the beginning and sort this out,” Ma suggested. “Just who is Madame Viola?”

With tears I told them the whole story, including what I had overheard in the barn.

“We won’t say any more about Madame Viola,” Pa said when I had finished. “I think you’ve learned your lesson about wasting your money on such as that. But as to selling the house, we wouldn’t think of it. You heard us talking about selling the buggy and getting a bigger one.” Pa’s eyes twinkled. “Will that be suitable for you?”

Suddenly the heavy weight left my stomach and I was hungry. Everything was going to be all right again!

“I guess I don’t want to know about the future,” I told Ma after supper. “I’ll just be glad to let the Lord send me whatever He wants me to have.”

“I think that’s wise,” Ma agreed. “Very wise indeed.”

15

Revenge

“Ma, do you know where my cameo pin is? It was in my room this morning, and now it’s gone.”

Ma shook her head. “I haven’t seen it, Mabel. Are you sure you know where you left it?”

“I’m sure,” I replied. “I was trying to fix the clasp when it was time to leave for school, and I didn’t bother to put it back in the drawer. It was on top of the table.”

Ma looked doubtful. “You’ve misplaced things before,” she said. “I know you think you remember, but perhaps you don’t.”

“But I do!” I insisted. “If that Roy has taken my pin, he’s going to be sorry!”

“Now, don’t accuse your brother without any more evidence than that,” Ma cautioned. “It could have fallen off the table, or you may have slid something on top of it.”

I was sure that wasn’t the case, but I went back to look again. A thorough search of the room revealed no cameo. When Roy came in for dinner, I lost no time approaching him on the subject.

Roy looked surprised; then he grinned. “If I did something like that, do you think I’d tell you about it?” he teased.

“You see, Ma? He doesn’t deny it!”

Ma sighed. “He hasn’t admitted it either,” she replied. “Roy, I’ll be glad when you’re old enough not to torment your sister.”

“He’ll never live that long,” I retorted. “He doesn’t know how to do anything but torment me.”

A few days later, my small comb with shiny stones in the top went missing.

“It’s too bad I can’t leave something on my own table in my own room without Roy meddling with it,” I stormed. “Ma, can’t you do something about him?”

Ma questioned Roy. “How come I get blamed for everything?” he asked. “I’m only one-fifth of the family. And not the most irresponsible fifth at that,” he added, looking at me.

“I’ve never taken anything out of his room just to be mean,” I said to Ma after he had left. “He’s the one who thinks of tricks like that.”

“I don’t like these accusations, Mabel,” Ma interrupted. “You have no proof that Roy has taken any of your things.”

“But he never says he didn’t,” I wailed. “Nobody makes him own up to anything.”

“We’ll not discuss it further,” Ma said firmly. “You put your things where they belong and they’ll not disappear.”

I felt the situation was grossly unfair, but I knew better than to say any more. Instead I glared at Roy when he came back in. If he didn’t know what I was glaring about, he at least had the good sense not to ask.

About a week before Ma’s birthday, Pa gave me a shiny new quarter to add to what I had saved for her gift.

“What are you going to get for her?” Sarah Jane asked me. “How much money do you have?”

“I’m going to open my bank this afternoon and see what I have. I’d like to get that new brush-and-comb set at the general store if I can afford it. Don’t you think she’d like that?”

“I’m sure she would,” Sarah Jane replied. “Will you get the silver or the tortoise shell?”

“They’re both so pretty, I can’t decide,” I answered. “Let’s look at them together on Saturday. You can tell me which you like best.”

After school I went directly to my room and emptied my bank out on the table. One dollar and twenty-eight cents. With the quarter Pa had given me, there would be enough for Ma’s present and three cents left over.

Just then Ma called from the kitchen. “I forgot to bring in the last of the eggs, Mabel. Would you please go out to the barn and get them?”

When I got back, I helped myself to the cookies she was taking from the oven.

“I guess one won’t spoil your supper,” she said. “Sit down and tell me how your history report went today.”

It was soon time to set the table, eat supper, and help with the dishes. I didn’t get back to my room until after family prayer.

As I scooped up my money to put it back in the bank, I saw at once that the quarter was gone. I started to call Ma and then realized that I couldn’t tell her about the quarter. I’d have to take care of this myself.

“I’ll get even with Roy if it’s the last thing I do,” I declared to Sarah Jane the next morning. “He’ll be sorry he ever had me for a sister.”

“I think that’s already the case,” Sarah Jane said. “But what makes you so sure Roy took all those things? I know he can be a pest, but he wouldn’t steal.”

“He wouldn’t call it stealing. He’d call it hiding things someplace else just to make you look for them,” I replied. “He needs a lesson he won’t forget for a while.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet. You’ll have to help me think of something.”

“Me?” Sarah Jane exclaimed. “How did I get in on this?”

“You’re my best friend. As you always say, ‘What are best friends for?’”

The day passed slowly. I found myself reading a page several times before I knew what it said, because my mind wandered to the problem of what I could do to get back at Roy.

“Come and see the new kittens we have,” I said to Sarah Jane on the way home. “Two calicos and a tabby.” As we approached the barn, we could hear Roy sneezing. He met us at the door with tears running down his face.

“You sure got a nose full of something,” Sarah Jane said. “What was it?”

“That patch of weeds beside the barn,” Roy wheezed. “I forgot I was so allergic to them and waded right through it.” He sneezed again. “I’ll get over it if I stay away from there.”

He went over to the pump to splash water on his face, and Sarah Jane pulled me into the barn. “There’s your answer,” she said.

“What’s the question?”

“What you can do to get even with Roy,” she explained. “If he spent a night sleeping on those weeds, he’d repent in a hurry.”

“What are you thinking of?” I asked. “How could I get Roy to sleep in a weed patch?”

“Of course you couldn’t, silly. I was thinking of bringing the weed patch to him. Stuff some of them in his pillowcase.”

I stared at Sarah Jane in admiration. “Of course!” I exclaimed. “It would serve him right if he sneezed all night. I’ll do it!”

At suppertime, Pa made an announcement. “I’m going over to the county seat tomorrow to file some papers. How would you all like to go with me?”

Ma’s face brightened. “Why, how nice,” she said. “We can take a picnic lunch and maybe even stop and see Harriet and Wesley Blake on the way home. We haven’t had an outing like that for a long time.”

Roy was excited. “That will be great, Pa. Do you think we’ll have time to visit the horse barns at the fairgrounds?”

“I don’t see why not,” Pa replied. “We’ll start early and make a whole day of it.”

While we cleared away the dishes, Ma and I talked happily about what we would do the next day. “I think I’ll get to bed early so I can get up and help you with the lunch,” I said.

“That would be nice, Mabel,” Ma said, hugging me. “I’m thankful for such a good daughter.”

She might have changed her mind if she had known what her good daughter was up to. I brought in two large handfuls of weeds and pushed them into Roy’s pillowcase.

Several times that night I awoke to hear Roy sneezing. Once, I heard Ma’s voice as she spoke to him.
He had it coming,
I thought with satisfaction.
He’ll learn to keep his hands off my things.

Before daylight I heard Ma stirring, and I hurried to dress so that I could help her. We were putting things into the picnic basket when Roy came into the kitchen.

Ma gasped. “Oh, Roy! Whatever has happened to you?”

Poor Roy was hardly able to get his breath. His face was swollen, and his eyes were practically closed. Between wheezes he managed to tell Ma about the weeds.

“I guess I got more than I thought yesterday. I think they’ve poisoned me.”

“Oh, dear,” Ma said. “You’re in no condition for a trip. I’ll fix you some honeycomb and lemon and see if we can take care of it.”

I was appalled. I had meant to teach Roy a lesson, not kill him. He would be furious when he found out what I had done. I decided not to tell him. I’d shake out his pillow and put a clean case on it. He didn’t have to know I was to blame for his sorry state.

“I can’t leave Roy alone like this,” Ma said as we ate breakfast. “You and Mabel and Reuben go ahead and enjoy the day.”

Needless to say, I didn’t. The look on Roy’s face as we drove off and the knowledge that Ma was missing the fun too canceled any joy I might have had on the trip.

“I suffered as much as Roy did,” I told Sarah Jane the next day. “I guess that will teach me to believe what the Bible says about vengeance belonging to the Lord.”

“Are you going to ask him to forgive you?” Sarah Jane wanted to know.

“Are you out of your mind? He’d clobber me!”

“You know what the Bible says about forgiveness,” Sarah Jane said with a shrug. “I wouldn’t want to live with that on my conscience.”

“It should be on your conscience,” I retorted. “It was your idea. I don’t know why I always end up being the guilty party.”

But in spite of my conscience, I didn’t tell Roy what I had done. I pushed it to the back of my mind, and as the weeks went by, I forgot about it. One morning in the fall, Pa called Roy to the yard.

“There’s a branch right over Mabel’s window that needs cutting off,” he said. “The first big wind could bring it down on the roof.”

Roy got the ladder and the saw and prepared to do the job. A few minutes later, I heard him call.

“Mabel! Come here and see this!” He held out a large bird’s nest. Inside lay my pin, my comb, and a shiny quarter.

“A magpie’s nest,” Roy said. “They’re the worst thieves in the world—grab anything that shines. You must have had your window open.”

“I did,” I said, and I began to cry.

“Girls!” Roy said in disgust. “I thought you’d be glad to see this stuff. I’ll put it back up there if you want me to.”

Between sobs I managed to tell Roy what I had done and asked him to forgive me.

“I ought to smack you good,” he told me. “But I guess you feel bad enough already.”

“Do we have to tell Pa and Ma?” I asked.

“I don’t,” Roy replied. “It’s up to you.”

“Did they punish you?” Sarah Jane asked later, when I told her what had happened.

“Not in the regular way,” I replied. “They felt so bad about it that it made me feel worse. I’m sure Pa’s way of loving people instead of getting even with them is the best.”

“I don’t know why you can’t remember that,” Sarah Jane said with a sigh. “It would certainly save you a lot of heartache.”

“
You
should be pounded,” I told her. “I wonder if anyone else ever had a best friend like you.”