Seeing the future

“Hey everyone,” Marley said, approaching the microphone tentatively.

Maybe not the most professional way to begin her major announcement, but what did they expect from a teenager? Marley’s eyes were closed tight as she shook the long brown bangs away from her face and took a deep breath. The breath involved her entire body: shoulders rising and falling dramatically, even her knees bending under what looked like a tremendous effort.

Melville was a small town and not many of its residents had gathered in the town square. But Marley was ok with that. Even though she’d forced herself into this, told herself it was time to make this announcement so she could move on with her life, she wasn’t particularly happy about it.

She’d told her closest friends and favorite teacher, Mrs. Engle, her English teacher, that she’d be making an announcement. They all asked what the announcement was, of course, but she’d told no one. No one knew what the news would be except her grandmother who stood at the edge of the small crowd with a proud smile on her face.

Marley opened her eyes now as the microphone produced some terrible feedback. Startled she stepped away and waited for the noise to die down.

She approached the microphone again and it stayed quiet now. “Right,” Marley said with a sigh. “I guess you’re all wondering why I asked you to come here today.”

She paused not for dramatic effect but to gather herself and to try to choose her words carefully. As her pause continued on too long, so chatter started in the crowd.

“I…” she started but quickly realized there was no easy way, no gentle way to break her news. “I can see the future.”

Once the words were out she felt immediate relief. She saw a few shocked faces in the crowd, but most just stared at her dumbly, not understanding, not caring or simply not believing.

“It sounds crazy, I know. But I promise it’s true,” Marley forged ahead, not really sure what else she needed to tell the crowd.

“Prove it!” Billy Ridley shouted from the middle of the crowd where a knot of high school jocks were standing together.

Marley looked to her grandmother who nodded in approval.

“Sure, alright,” Marley said. “Billy, the baseball team is going to lose in the first round of the playoffs this year.”

“No way!” Billy countered. “We have the best record in the region. No way we’re out in the first round.”

Marley stood quietly as chatter rumbled through the crowd again. She knew no one believed her. And though she could see the future, she couldn’t see all of it and she didn’t know what, exactly, would happen next.

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Madison Rae said, her arm looped through Billy’s. “She could have just made that up. We won’t know if that’s true or not for weeks.”

The sound from the around the crowd was one of general consensus.

“Ok, that’s true,” Marley said. She did want to prove herself so she could move on to what was next.

“Declan?” Marley said, looking at the boy just behind Billy and Madison. “Sorry to say it, but you’re going to have an enormous pimple in the middle of your forehead tomorrow when you wake up.”

Declan’s hand reflexively touched his forehead. In front of him, Madison let out a big bark of a laugh.

“That doesn’t prove anything either,” she practically spat the words out through her laughter. “Declan sprouts a new pimple every day!”

Declan looked down at his shoes, rubbing his forehead, thoroughly embarrassed as his so-called friends around him laughed.

“What else you got?” Madison said as she draped herself across Billy in some lame show of superiority.

Marley took a deep breath and scanned the crowd. She searched for a face attached to some good news this time so not to cause more embarrassment.

“Kayleigh?” Marley called out, still looking for her in the crowd but excited at the good news she had to share.

Kayleigh raised her hand nervously. She was right down front with her little sister.

“Your aunt? The one who had some tests on a tumor done recently.” As soon as Marley said it she saw the worry on Kayleigh’s face. Marley got the words out as quickly as she could: “She’s fine. The tumor was benign. She’s going to be ok. Your mom just got a text from her.”

Kayleigh looked hopeful for a moment and scanned the crowd for her mom. When she didn’t see her, she pulled her phone from her back pocket and hit the contact for her mom, holding the phone to her ear in excited anticipation.

“How do we know Mrs. Diller didn’t just tell you that?” Madison mocked, positioning herself as a real villain at this point. What did she have to gain? It was only Marley’s loss if Marley was lying about all this.

“She didn’t,” Marley said as plainly as possibly. “And why would she? I’m not friends with Mrs. Diller or even with Kayleigh, really.”

“It’s true!” Kayleigh shouted. “My mom just got the text a minute ago. She called my dad first and was about to call me with the good news!”

Kayleigh looked at Marley with a huge smile, like Marley was the cause of the good news and not just the messenger.

A different kind of chatter spread through the crowd now.

“Marley!” Someone shouted from the back of the crowd. “Marley! Did I pass the pop quiz in trig today?” Marley saw it was Max Farland calling out to her.

“B+” Marley said from the stage. Max pumped the air with his first.

“Marley!” Another voice called. “Is my baby a girl or a boy?” 

Marley looked at her neighbor Miss Goldwell with a gentle smile. “It’s a little girl.” Miss Godlwell smiled back.

“This is ridiculous!” Madison shouted, hands on hips now. “How do we know any of this is true? And why should we believe her? And why does any of this matter anyway?”

“Right, thanks Madison,” Marley cleared her throat and looked one last time at the crowd, taking in the whole group - which had grown slightly since she first took to the small outdoor stage. “I wanted to tell you all this because I’m going away. I saw that my future is living by myself somewhere not far from here and I’m going to start that life now. I’ve seen that bad things can happen if I tell you all too much about your futures, so I’m hoping I can also change the future and spare you all some misery.”

The crowd was silent for a moment. Marley started to walk away, to make her exit. Then Madison piped up, because of course she did.

“Well, that’s one less weirdo in town,” Madison said with smug satisfaction, like she was the one that drove Marley out of town. Like she was saving the town from something terrible. “You’re a big fake and a liar anyway. There’s no way to prove a single thing you said.”

Kayleigh stared daggers and Madison and Max looked around the crowd for his trig teacher to back up Marley’s prediction of his test score. But before either of them had the chance to say anything, Marley grandmother and gently moved Marley aside and was now center stage in front of the microphone.

“I too see the future,” she said. “And you, young lady, you are the reason the beloved baseball team will lose this year.”

The crowd was silent again. Madison was mid eye-roll when Marley’s grandmother continued, clearly looking to make a strong point about her powers and the powers of her granddaughter.

“You will be driving high and will cause a car crash that kills two members of the team.”

Marley and her grandmother join hands and walk off the stage and away from the town square, followed by shouts from the crowd of who, when, where.