Ace of Hearts
Marie sighed as she made her way back from school.
Charlie had dumped her. Right in the middle of class, in front of all of her
friends.
"Look, Marie, you just aren’t pretty enough. I got another offer
yesterday, so…"
She had run from the classroom before he could finish his sentence, and the
echoes of raucous laughter followed her down the hall. Tears began falling down
her face, and she angrily swept them away with the sleeve of her favorite blue
cotton sweater. She rushed into the bathroom and locked herself in a stall,
sitting down on the cold dirty toilet seat, and crying, her forehead pressed
against her lap until she had successfully soaked her jeans as well.
"Great. Now my jeans are wet too. What else could go wrong?"
Although she had a vague suspicion that her nightmares would come
true during the rest of the school day, her classes had gone quite well for
the rest of the day. Entering her empty home, she found a note taped to the
door.
"I went to the Gypsy Fair. Come on up here and catch up with me, it'll be
fun! Mom."
Marie groaned, imagining her mother dressed in her retro-hippy clothes and
conversing with palm readers and psychics at some wacko festival. Reluctantly,
she did as her mother told her, and walked up Main Street and turned the corner
onto fifth where the fair was. Gypsy wanna-be's walked around, garnished in
golden rings and silky clothes, and she quickly spotted her mother's almost-afro
hairstyle poking out among the crowd. She ran to catch up with her, and saw that
she was conversing with a card dealer of some kind.
"And so your lucky numbers are: 50, 38, and 32," the dealer
concluded, reshuffling his cards and smiling as her mom handed over five dollars to
the man. She turned as Marie tugged on her outlandishly colored sleeve, and
smiled.
"Hi sweetheart. Want to have your furtone read? It's a lot of fun!"
She finished the sentence without allowing her a chance to answer, and handed
the man another five. He smiled greedily and shuffled his cards, then laid out
five, face down.
"Pick one. It will be the bringer of your fortune today,"
the man said in a fake accent. She pointed at the one off to the side, its edges
bent and torn. He nodded and flipped it over.
"Ah, you are in luck. It is the ace of hearts, a very lucky romance card.
You had a problem with a lover today, perhaps?"
She almost puked at the word lover, but nodded without comment. Her mother
looked at her sideways, an amused look on her face.
"He chose another girl over you, but he will realize his mistake. But he
will not have the time to act on it," the dealer concluded.
The man reshuffled his deck without another word and motioned for the next
customer in line to come forward.
Marie looked at her mom and opened her mouth, pointing her finger down it in the
classic "Gack" face imitation.
After two hours of trying to dance hippy-style with her mom, they returned home,
and Marie was surprised to see a small package waiting on the doorstep with her
name on it.
"What in the blazes…?" While her mom went inside to feed the dog,
she tore open the package, and gasped at the rose nestled neatly inside the
styrofome packaging. Attached to it was a small white note that said:
"I’m Sorry, Marie. I made a BIG mistake. My love is for you, and you
only. Please accept my apology. Love, Charlie."
Marie leaned against the door, clutching the package to her petite stomach.
His love is only for me? Oh gods, the card dealer… if he was right…
Her thoughts trailed off as she ran inside and slammed the package onto the
couch, and then picked up the phone. No dial tone. Her mother walked in and
looked at her holding the phone with a panicked look on her face.
"Oh, they shut down the phone lines for the day. Why don’t you go use the
payphone up the street?"
Marie slammed down the phone, grabbed some change from the table next to the
couch, and raced out of the house without even glancing at her mother. Her feet
had carried her up the street and before she knew it, she was jamming her change
into the tiny slot. She pounded the number to Chuck's house in only to be
reminded by the operator that she was still a penny short.
"A penny!? I don’t have a penny! Come on, I have to talk to him! Where
can I get a penny?"
Marie looked around, and decided on going to a neighbor's house to call. She
pounded on Mr. Wickson's home and ran past him as he opened the door.
"It's urgent, I have to make a phone call."
She called over her shoulder to him as he stood in the doorway, confused. She
dialed the numbers quickly, and was rewarded by the click of the receiver
picking up.
"Hello?" Chuck's father answered, his voice sounding weary and bone
tired.
"Hi, is Chuck home? I really need to talk to him." She said, her voice
wavering in her panicked state. She heard a soft moan and a sigh, and finally a
female voice answered.
"This is Chuck's mom… I’m sorry… we just found out…" the voice
broke into a cry, anguished sobs that touched Marie's heart and made fear arise
within her.
"Chuck is…dead… he… a car accident..." the phone clicked as she
hung up, and Marie slid to the floor of Mr. Wick son’s floor, resting her head
in her hands, sobbing.
The card dealer… he was right... no wonder his face… when I picked out the
ace of hearts… the rose… he sent the rose, but he never got a chance… fate
stopped me from helping him. The penny… her thoughts went on forever, and she
never noticed when Mr. Wickson brought her home, talking to her gently, or as
her mother took her to a therapist to set up appointments.
It wasn't fair… the thought rung throughout her mind, and the experience would
haunt her for the rest of her life.