(palmist) (Czech)
He was told at a young age by his gypsy mother that he had the strongest looking moon mount near his wrist that a psychic has ever had, meaning that in terms of a palmist hand his abilities could be quite developed, and at a young age. age, he could read hands and faces and fingers, in an instant,
one dollar and five cents; that was all they had. Everything was in pennies. Pennies saved after paying the heating bill, the gas bill, he sucked up all the money, which meant he was on the brink of bankruptcy, he was going to go buy hotdogs with him; he had a wife and two kids, stuck in Erie, Pennsylvania after visiting his sister, and then he and his family were kicked out of his sister’s house because they were tired of her company, no However, the Minnesota quartet had been invited to Pennsylvania to live. with them, so that Monica would have company. Roman had to find a job fast, and he did, but this week’s check only left a dollar and a nickel, and tomorrow was Thanksgiving.
Clearly, there was nothing he could do but lean back in his living room chair and silently wallow in his misery. Then his wife, Delia, got involved; which might tell the reader that women when wronged seem to take revenge in a subtle way and often in the process can be deadly, in the world of human hearts that is.
His plan didn’t exactly call for an elaborate description, but it certainly had that finger of doom attached to it.
Joy Li, was the landlady, who in the summer had told Roman and his wife to pay an extra $20 a month (it was 1972, twenty dollars was a lot), so that when the winter months came, the heat would be paid for. , and they did so voluntarily without signing an addendum to the rental agreement. And now winter was here, and Roman got the first heating bill from him, inconveniently, and after the rent, there was only that dollar and a nickel left.
Roman had finished crying now, and blew his nose into a tissue, threw it at the cat, who ran into the back kitchen and out the door, which was slightly open, he didn’t care about cats, they were too cunning. , but his wife did it so she put up with them, at fifteen.
Tomorrow was the holiday, ‘Thanks Giving,’ and Delia knew they had to pay the bill today: their gas or heat would have been cut off (in 1972, they weren’t required to provide heat then, if the bill didn’t come). paid), and thus this left her family with only hot dog money for one day, and she knew it should have been a happy day getting ready for tomorrow: and they usually had plans, but none were fixed this season .
Long story short, if Roman had known in advance, the gas bill was about to come; he could have accumulated this in expenses. Although I must add to his he did his fair share of drinking and smoking cigarettes which might have helped save some money but again I stress that would have needed to have been carved out beforehand Joy had surprised them with the extra bill And like many people, Roman and his family lived paycheck to paycheck.
Oh yeah, Joy was cool with her cunning, almost worthy of being completely cunning, especially at someone else’s expense. But little by little Delia who was of Eastern European origin, from the former Czechoslovakia (from a municipality called Visegrad), a gypsy palmist, had married Roman in 1971, he was twenty-seven years old, she was only nineteen, they had two children, twins, now a year and a half old, moved from Minnesota to Erie, Delia had been visiting Minnesota and when they met, they met, they got married and now they are here. She had met Joy, outside of her apartment, a red brick building with four apartments. She insisted that she should read it, pat Joy’s palm: Joy feeling, Delia already knew there was something there, she allowed it, because she was reading not only the palm, but the shape of her hands, fingers and nails, mounts, other formations in the palms, she had read in a glass of moments, her enemies, her strong sexual drive, her ability to think clearly, and that she liked to work alone, maybe that’s why she had apartments, and she had small hands, indicating that she did things at great levels, or tried, and it was difficult for him to forgive injustices, a great vitality and energy level, and told him to immediately call a certain number, he had an inheritance waiting.
Joy to feel that this gypsy had her quirks, but it wouldn’t hurt to investigate, and when she did, it was in a bank, and a large sum of money was waiting for her. Joy was so happy and grateful that she called Delia on the phone, told her about her good luck, and asked if she and her family were going to Thanksgiving dinner. Exactly what Delia expected.
“Here is my humble home,” said Joy Li, with a Thanksgiving Day smile, opening the door to her home, as Delia’s family entered one by one, ushered in and greeted each with a kiss, and the biggest. of hospitality and immediately doled out a reasonable snack. The sum of her inheritance was so great that she later intended to see if she could persuade Delia to give her another reading to see what other riches awaited her, and perhaps even a Tarot reading.
And so dinner was prepared, served with the greatest care by Joy’s cook, and often consolingly. She saw the black wave her hands as she walked beside her, she had two lines of destiny, two runs; from her mount of Jupiter, she was not generous, her thumb told him that she had courage, and fighting spirit. Joy saw Delia reading her hands almost in detail, big hands, doing intricate things, Delia thought, and she knew what they were doing. Here was a person she liked to lead, but she was being led, which she could not, an injustice she would not forgive. That she had a high sex drive, like Joy, she likes to be liked; two lesbians, Delia whispered, two strong sexual drives, two relentless people, and now she knew, what her intuition told her even before she entered the house, something, but not everything, and now she put two and two together. . .
And so the dinner continued, a snack and some Serrano ham, a bottle of wine.
“Eat, drink and be merry, I owe you,” he told his guest, having inherited a fortune. One she wouldn’t have known if Delia hadn’t told her, but Joy also wondered if there was something else, more money out there.
Delia knew that any foreign woman who lived in another country needed to be more cunning if she wanted to compete with those around her, and in order not to spoil the dinner, she did not tell Joy everything.
He had taken Joy’s future into his hands: her personality was embedded in those fingers and palm, and he knew what would happen if he responded in a certain way, saw the money stored in a bank vault, and created a long conversation in the middle, called a distraction to correct his senses, and now the invitation, a bazaar situation, from which he got a free meal.
The earth, the solar system, even the universe seemed to flow through her palms, always feeding her, and now she and her family had finished dinner and she wanted to leave quickly. And Joy was a little surprised, not putting two and two together, but feeling that something was wrong.
And so Delia and her family left, and Joy sat at the long dining room table manicuring herself, her hands.
Now, before continuing with this story, it is worth saying a sentence or two that this incident that was about to occur, this scene could not have been witnessed and perhaps for the good of the reader and the characters, only Delia could see. and it’s better to leave it that way, but you’re not insolvent, I’ll rebuild this part for you.
Like I said, the family, Delia’s family was gone, and she, Joy, started getting her manicure, her long dark hair shimmered and reflected in the chandelier, the lights doubled it a hundred times, she must have been thinking that I would. I suppose, from the large sum of money that she had received, or she would receive, it was already proven that she belonged to him, it was just a simple task now to go pick it up. She was, as we all often do, starting to spend the money inside her head before it was in her hands. Her feet even played a happy tune on the floor nervously, automatically. And as she looked across the table at the widow, she noted that night had fallen over the house in a deep, dark silence.
Everything was quiet in the house now, her maid cleaning the kitchen, her thoughts began to wander into a different field, not once did her maid come out after Delia had looked into her eyes, reading her swaying palms. She picked up the phone, his maid, whom he didn’t see, was watching from the crack in the door. Delia answered the phone, surprised to hear Joy’s voice,
“You left so fast,” she began, “I thought of calling you, I could never ask you if there might be bad news in my life, near or far.”
“Well, yes, there was, but everyone has bad news, I try to avoid that area, people panic and don’t enjoy the moment,” said Delia.
“Oh, but you must tell me dear, it’s the most important thing to me, I’ll make it worth your while,” she commented.
Delia said, her voice apprehensive, “I’m not sure if that’s possible.”
“Of course I do, dear,” Joy said, almost giggling like it was silly.
“Well, if you insist, take a piece of paper now and write, you owe me $2000-dollars, and put it under the table runner, so no one can find it.”
“Oh, that’s silly, that must be great news, good or bad,” Joy commented, but she did, and then she said, “Okay, it’s done,” and somehow Delia knew it was done, she said : “Now sit back and listen and don’t get too excited: between the red cabbage and the stuffed green peppers was the article, odorless and tasteless poison was injected into those foods, that’s why your cook only took out enough for you, and from Of course that’s your favorite dish, and the cabbage that was left over, I told the kids and my husband not to eat it before we got to the table, I told them it was too spicy for them, and it would make them nauseous.”
“Oh my God,” he yelled, “what can I do! Who did this?”
“Look through the crack in the kitchen door, you’ll see your servant’s eyes looking at you (and she turned to look, and she was looking, and she was staring at her), oh yes, yes, she is…!”
“I see you dead in the next five or six minutes, she killed you, you know, and she expects the poison to kick in fast, so you can’t retaliate, you’ve wanted her all you know. So I’m sorry. I’ll tell you.” The bad news, you won’t inherit that money, but your maid will.”
“But why didn’t you tell me this before?” Joy asked.
“Simple things to some people are important to others, if he hadn’t billed us for the heating bill, we wouldn’t have needed his dinner, we would have had enough money to buy our own turkey. And he would have been poisoned anyway, and we didn’t.” I would have known, to tell you because I wouldn’t have found the need to read your palm, and feed my family…” and Delia went on to explain how she felt, but Joy never heard the whole of it, she was already dead.
It was a week later, Delia received a phone call from the police, saying that there was an IOU, under the rug, and that the maid would pay her the amount of the IOU, as soon as she collected the money from Joy’s will. .
8-4-2008
