Night Terror (17 page)

“I’ve been disappointed for a long time.”

Babs smiled reassuringly at her and turned over the middle card, underneath. Nodding to herself, she lay it back in place faceup.

“I’ll just do an open-ended reading then and see what pops up.”

The card read
Justice
and showed a hand-painted picture
of a scale. Audrey glanced up, surprised to see Babs frowning again.

“What’s the matter?” said Audrey.

“Nothing,” said Babs, flipping the card around so it was facing her. “If the card faces away from the reader, its meaning is reversed. But usually it’s just a bad shuffle.”

“Does that mean there isn’t any justice for me?” Audrey didn’t believe in the supernatural. But the card falling that way was not a coincidence, because she
believed
that. There hadn’t been any justice for her and Richard. Certainly none for Zach.

“You can’t read anything from just one card,” said Babs. “Two tarot readers might have the same lay and come up with different interpretations altogether of what the
whole
meaning was. We have to wait. That first card is your present situation. But
Justice
can also be read as
balance
or
peace.”

Audrey shrugged. If two people couldn’t agree on the meaning, what good was it? But either way, she figured the card had fallen right to begin with; she didn’t have much balance or peace either.

Babs flipped the second card over and placed it sideways atop the first. It was a picture of a drunken man stumbling down the street and the caption read
The Fool.
Babs glanced at Audrey and Audrey was certain Babs had a question she was afraid to ask.

“What?” said Audrey.

“Does anyone in your family drink?”

Audrey shook her head. “Richard and I have a glass of wine occasionally. Not very often.”

Babs bit her lip.

“Anyone do drugs or is anyone on medication?”

Audrey fought hard not to show her surprise. She shook her head. That wasn’t a lie. She hadn’t told Richard yet. But since this morning, there was no one in her family on medication.

Babs shrugged, turning over the center card nearest Audrey.

“What’s that?” said Audrey, leaning to check out the picture of an old woman sitting in what looked to be the mouth of a cave.

“The Hermit,”
said Babs. “This card represents your goal or destiny. Something you’re either fated to find or want to find. It can also be someone or something to guide you.”

“Guide me where?”

“To a higher plane. Or maybe just to the grocery store.” Babs laughed and Audrey shook her head.

Babs flipped the card in between the two lines of cards. It was a beautiful but somehow menacing woman in long flowing robes.

“The High Priestess,”
said Babs.

“What does she mean?”

“She represents your distant past. She could be the foundation of events that are happening now or in your recent past or in your future. She’s a seeker. That can be good or bad. If she seeks enlightenment, that’s good. If she seeks money or fame or something like that, that’s bad.”

Babs flipped the card nearest to her and frowned. Audrey cocked her head to see the bright red devil with a gleaming pitchfork. She looked Babs in the eye.

“This represents your recent past. I guess we already discussed that, eh?”

Audrey nodded.

Babs flipped the card sitting all alone to Audrey’s right. A man in a peaked cap waved a wand over his head, and stars spun in a circle following its path.

“The Magician,”
said Babs. “This represents future influences.”

“Magic?”

Babs shook her head. “It can mean something like resources. Or a person who magically appears in your life. Or who knows, maybe it
is
magic. You have to stay open.”

One part of Audrey wanted to relax and enjoy the game. Babs was as entertaining as any carnival sideshow. But another part of her warned her to be on guard, that things were not as they seemed. She felt a strange affinity with Babs—though she was sure she’d never met the woman in her life—and an odd attraction for the cards as well. Although the pictures and names were in no way familiar, they stirred something deep in her memory. It seemed to be something about the cards themselves. Something in the
way Babs shuffled them, slipping them in between one another like a riverboat gambler.

There was now only the line of four cards to Audrey’s left. Babs flipped the one nearest herself. The image on the card stunned Audrey, and Babs noticed, cocking her head to look Audrey in the eye.

“What does that represent?” whispered Audrey, staring at the picture of a woman down on her knees, staring into a pool of water. She seemed to be looking at her own reflection, but the water was disturbed, or the image was untrue, not quite discernible. Though it didn’t seem to match the picture in any way, the caption read
The Hanged Man.

Babs frowned, shaking her head. “This is what we call a New Age deck. As you can see, there isn’t any hanged man. That’s because the card’s meaning and the picture never seemed to go together in the old decks. But they kept the names since it came down from medieval times. This card represents visions, things that are real and unreal to you at this moment. It represents
who you are
right now. What do
you
see in it?”

Audrey shook her head, unable to peel her eyes away from the card. Even the tall grass behind the woman reminded her of her own overgrown lawn. The tiny pool could have been her fountain. The image in the water drew her steadily downward.

“Audrey,” said Babs, reaching across to tap her on the arm.

Audrey shook her head, finally breaking the pull, staring hard at Babs. “I want to ask my question now.”

“That isn’t the way it works. We could start again, if you’d like.”

The way she said it made Audrey certain that Babs would love to reshuffle the cards. The way they had fallen had made her at least as touchy as Audrey. Audrey shook her head.

“No,” she said. “Now. I want to ask my question now.” She stared at the woman on the card again but refused to be drawn into the water.

“All right,” said Babs at last. “Ask.”

Audrey nodded to herself, biting her lip. “Where is my son?”

When Babs didn’t move to flip a card or answer, Audrey looked up at her. Babs’s face had changed. She seemed to be almost in a trance, but Audrey could see her brain working behind her bright eyes. “Audrey, like I told you, the cards aren’t specific. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I’m not upset,” said Audrey, lying. “I want you to answer the question.”

They locked eyes, but Babs turned away first, flipping the next card. It showed a turret, a tall crenellated tower made of stone, and overhead a lightning bolt hung ominously. The card read
The Tower.
Audrey stared at Babs.

“These are things that affect you now. The way your life is running. The tower represents revolution. Drastic change.”

“Where is my son?” whispered Audrey.

Babs sighed, flipping the next card. It showed a Romanesque warrior in a chariot wielding two spears. It was titled
The Chariot.

“These are your inner emotions,” said Babs.

Audrey stared at the card, taking in the wicked-looking spear points, the determined look on the warrior’s face. She nodded, staring her question back into Babs’s eyes.

Babs flipped the last card.

Audrey knew what it represented without being told. The figure was as old as time. Babs glanced away from the faceless monk with the skeletal hands and the scythe, but again, Audrey caught her eye. The air in the room had gone deathly still. Audrey thought she could hear the candles flickering, but they didn’t seem to be giving as much light as before.

“What does this represent?” hissed Audrey, barely able to catch her breath.

Babs shook her head. “You need to let me take in the entire feel of the lay. I have to have time to commune with the cards—”

“What does it represent?”

Babs sighed. “The last card is supposed to symbolize the final result. But you haven’t let me work. You can’t just read one card at a time.”

Audrey stared at Babs, waiting. Babs refused to speak, pretending to study the cards.

“It represents death,” said Audrey.

Babs nodded slowly.

“My son is going to die,” whispered Audrey.

“What?” said Babs.

“I can feel him. So close. I can see his face. Almost touch him. I know he’s alive. All I want to know is where he is.”

“But your son was taken over a year ago.”

Audrey glared at her. “So?”

Babs shook her head. “I only meant—”

“Meant what?”

“I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure he’s okay.”

“I didn’t say he was okay,” said Audrey. “I said he was alive. Now you’re telling me he’s going to die. I don’t believe it.”

“The cards didn’t say your son was going to die.”

“What?” said Audrey, grasping for any other answer.

Babs shook her head. “The card signifies death, it’s true, but it can mean the death of a relationship as well as other things. Or it might be someone else who dies. I need more time with the cards and I need to touch you again.”

“Touch me?”

“I need to sense you in order to find out what the cards are trying to reveal.”

Audrey held out her hand and Babs gently flipped it, laying her own palm across the back of Audrey’s wrist. Babs closed her eyes and Audrey could have sworn she actually felt something pass between them, like a flittering electrical jolt. When Babs opened her eyes, she studied the cards with a new intensity, but Audrey didn’t like the way she glanced nervously from card to card.

“What is it?” asked Audrey.

Babs shook her head. “Just as I suspected,” she said at last. “You have to take in the fullness of the lay. I see you being reborn, Audrey. You’re going to come out of this terrible time that has held you prisoner for so long and find the power within you to live again.”

“And the death card?”

“We all die.”

“That’s all it means?”

Babs seemed to take longer than she should in answering. “That’s all it means.”

But Audrey knew she was lying. She and Babs had both discovered a deeper truth here today, but both truths might not be the same, and neither wanted to speak about them to the other. Audrey rose slowly to her feet, watching Babs’s face closely. The woman seemed to have an inner pain of her own that she had not sensed before.

Finally Babs came around the table to guide Audrey to the door, but she pointedly never made contact with Audrey again. As Babs stood inside and Audrey outside the house, Audrey turned to look at Babs one last time.

“Do you know anything about the disappearance of my son?” she asked.

Babs stared past Audrey, as though trying to gather the daylight into the darkness behind her eyes. When she shook her head, Audrey knew that she was unsure of her answer.

“Not in the way that you mean. But everything happens for a reason, Audrey. You keep that in mind.”

“What reason could there have been for my son to disappear?”

Babs stared at her with infinite sadness in her eyes. “Try to always remember the good,” she said. “That’s all we can do, really. Remember the good.”

“If you know anything, please tell me.”

“I’m sorry. I just read cards,” said Babs, closing the door in Audrey’s face.

Babs sat back down in front of the lay, her hands resting flat on the table to still their shaking. It wasn’t just the terrible tale the cards had revealed for Audrey that rocked her. It was the strange sensation she had gotten when they had touched. It was as though she had suddenly made contact with a part of her own past. As though Audrey were not a real person standing in her living room, but some specter from Babs’s subconscious, half-dream, half-nightmare.

Ghastly images had assailed her so fast she couldn’t interpret them except as some kind of horrible montage. In a split second it had occurred to her that she was both reading Audrey’s mind and remembering events from her own past. But how could that be? She didn’t have any memory loss and, as far as she knew, she and Audrey had never met.

But how stupid a thought was that? Would she be aware of memory loss?

She stared at the cards, trying to wring more meaning from them. It was a truly terrible lay. Even worse than she had revealed to Audrey, since most of the cards had come up reversed and she had simply turned them over to face her without Audrey noticing. Reversed cards weren’t just opposite in meaning, they were bad. Very bad.

Audrey’s life was a shambles and it was going to get worse. Like everyone else who knew about the tragedy, Babs assumed that Audrey’s son was dead. But whether or not that was true, more disaster and death was heading her way, and since there was nothing that Babs could see in the cards that could be done about it, she had chosen not to tell Audrey. Best to let life come as it would. She prayed that one of the deaths she foresaw at the end of the lay would not be Audrey’s, but there was no way of telling. The lay was filled with horror. Babs had never read one like it.

But it wasn’t even just the cards or the strange sense of kinship with Audrey that had her on edge. Babs’s mind was churning. The more she stared at the picture of the high priestess, the more it seemed to speak to her. Sometimes Babs liked that card. Sometimes she didn’t. The image could conjure pictures of a powerful, righteous Earth Mother. It could also elicit feelings of a conniving, venomous witch. It was the picture of the witch that Babs couldn’t get out of her head now. The more she stared at the card, the more she didn’t see it. Instead, she saw a vague semblance of a real person. Someone she should remember but couldn’t quite.

Maybe she
did
have some memory loss.

She dragged all the cards together, getting a residual sense of gloom just from their touch, and stacked them neatly. She wiped her hands over and over on her skirt. Finally, she flipped the switch by the door, turning on the overhead light for the first time in years. She just couldn’t seem to dispel the darkness.