It Runs in the Family

It Runs in the Family

When I see my mother playing the part of the fortune teller in her room/office in our house, it brings to mind her mother, who would completely charm me with her performance in the same role in the same place. I would sit quietly and motionlessly in the corner of the room, and would watch and listen to her as she did her show for her client/customer/believer. She wore a filmy black dress with long, bulgy sleeves. On her head was an orange wreathlike top that she wore like a crown. Somehow it glowed in the semi-dark of the fortune-telling room. And then there was the ma

My mother took over five years ago, when grandmother died. Although the performance was essentially the same, when I reached the age of 12 years, I viewed what she did with a more critical eye. I lost the belief that what she was doing was ‘for real’. To me it became just a show, like that of a magician on a stage.  She wore the same black dress. On her head was the same orange crown. And, of course, the crystal ball was the same as well. It too glowed. There must be a switch that turns on the light, perhaps with one of her feet.  But now, for me, it was just part of the atmosphere to convince the customers that their money was well-spent.

I began to think that perhaps, the little girl sitting in the corner was also part of the show, that I was being used, just a prop. I have to try very hard these days to not look like I am bored, or just about to say the dreaded word “whatever.”

I don’t want to tell my mother that this is the way I am thinking. Such thoughts along with some scathing commentary were reasons why my unbelieving father and my mother split up and divorced. As I am in my last year of high school, hoping to go to college, and mom is the bread-winner in the family, I dare not offend her. Plus, I respect her outside of her profession. She is a good woman, as was my grandmother before her.

A Quite Scary Request

Then gradually, slowly but surely mom became quite ill. It began with the coughing, which in this time of the Covid pandemic was not something her customers felt too comfortable with. One walked out right away. The coughing increased until she reached the point where she could not work at a fortune teller anymore, at least until her cough went away. Speaking of fortune, no money was coming in. I was accepted at a university, but we had no funds to pay for tuition, residence, books and other important expenses.

Then came the day when mom approached me with a request I never thought that I would hear. “Mandy,” she said. “We are going to need to have you take over the fortune-teller work. I still have some clients who want to be served, and we need the money.”

I first gave her a very stunned look. This came as a complete surprise to me, more of a shock actually.

“But I would not know what to do, what to say. I would look and sound like an idiot. How could you think that I could play the part, talk the talk?”

“Mandy, you have seen your grandmother and I play the part and talk the talk for almost all of your life. How could you not know how to be a fortune-teller? You have been raised with it. Please do this for us, Mandy. I am pleading here. We need this”. She finishes with a short coughing fit.

The tone of her words, her coughing and the worried look in her eyes have won me over against my better judgement. They convinced me that this was something that I should do, even though I believe the whole thing about being a fortune-teller is B.S., with no basis in science.  I am going to be a Science major at university, and this is about as unscientific as anything can be. I will just have to develop an ability to lie and mislead with a straight face. 

“Okay, mom, I will do it for you, for us. I certainly won’t be as good at it as you are or grandma was, but I will try to do my best.”

The Next Day

The next day, early in the morning, mom helped me get dressed in the garb of the fortune teller, complete with the bulgy-sleeved black dress and the orange-circle on the top of my head. The first customer was going to arrive at nine o’clock.  When I looked at her with doubt and worry, she would say to me, over and over, “Mandy, just say the first thing that comes into your head. Fortune-telling comes naturally to the women in our family. It runs in the family.”

I thought, ‘there is another kind of running that I would prefer to do, but won’t. I must keep my promise to my mother, no matter what’.

Mom leads me to the table and chair where I will be performing soon. She pulls out the chair for me. I sit down and look up to her and try not to look as worried as I feel. She then says to me. “I know that you are worried about what is going to happen, but you don’t need to be. Trust me on that. Fortune-telling runs in the family.” I nod my head slowly, tentatively, as her words turn into another coughing session..

Mom places the crystal ball on the table. I notice that it is not glowing. Then she looks away, as she hears a knocking on the front door. Before she goes to let the person in, she tells me to put my hands on the crystal ball, and hold it tight for at least ten seconds. Needing some security at this point, I do what she says. She opens the door, and points the customer to me, not wanting to talk and start coughing again.

The client walks over to me. I stand up and direct her to the chair on the other side of the table. I put my hands on the crystal ball, using it as a kind of crutch to build up my confidence. Then, for no good reason that I can decipher the clear ball becomes filled with a bright light. By the way that the customer looks to the top of my hand, I assume that the crown is glowing too. I begin to sense something like an electrical charge running first through my hands, then throughout my body. Then I look straight into the eyes of the woman in front of me. Before she can say a word, I tell her what I believe strongly that she wants to know. She looks at me with wide eyes, dumbfounded. I am right. She then breathes a sigh of relief, and smiles. The whole session becomes a success.  I shouldn’t have been worried. Fortune telling runs in my family.