What could be more fun than to have your fortune read at the county fair.
For Jim and Cathy, a brief stop along the midway in a dark and mysterious
tent would make great changes in their lives. The story is part of
Tales Unleashed. Dont' be afraid....after all.... it's just a story.
The Reading
Jim and Cathy hadn’t planned to go
to the county fair that day. Jim’s mom was a bit under the weather, and being
the man of the house, Jim felt he should be nearby if she needed anything. His
dad has passed away several years before. At twenty three and single, his job at
the auto parts store and some other part time work helped to pay the bills and
put some food on the table.
Cathy had graduated with Jim just
six years prior. She didn’t want to go to college and had been Jim’s steady
since the tenth grade. They had often talked about tying the knot but
circumstances seemed to be against them both . . . so they went on day to day,
week to week, trying to look down the road for brighter days.
The county fair was in action, just
five miles to the east, and Cathy had asked for two weeks solid if they could
go on that first Friday night. Jim hesitated, but his mom pushed him into it.
“It’ll do you and Cathy both good,”
she advised. “Go have some fun. I’ll be just fine here.” His mom was confined
to a wheelchair, had breathing difficulties, and suffered from a plethora of
other problems which seem to get worse yearly.
Jim took her advice and picked up
Cathy at 7:00 the night of the fair. They drove in his Chevy pickup,
contemplating what was ahead for them at the fair. It was the event of the year
with lots of food, entertainment, a midway, and just bushels of excitement to
experience. As they walked by the fortune teller’s tent, Cathy grabbed Jim’s
left arm and asked, “Hon, let’s go in. I’ve never had my fortune told. It’ll be
great. it’s only five dollars . . . can we?”
Jim tried to pull away, but Cathy
pushed him into the tent opening which led into a very small enclosed canvass
room, no bigger than ten feet square. Dimly lit, they could see the room was
appointed with wall hangings touting the great mind-reading powers of Belinda,
who they assumed to be an older woman. To their great surprise, a sheet was
swept aside and out walked a very attractive woman, probably in her thirties,
dressed in a white fluffy blouse tucked into a deep purple floor-length skirt.
“Please sit down,” Belinda
commanded, as she pointed to the two chairs in front of the small card table.
On the table were just two items: a six-inch white candle which was lit and
producing just a whisper of smoke, and the crystal ball, approximately ten
inches in diameter and cradled in an ornately carved gold base.
Her eyes met Jim’s and she gave a
smile of approval. “Why haven’t you married this fine-looking man?” she asked
Cathy.
“Well, maybe someday,” Cathy
replied. Before she could say more, Belinda had put a finger to her own lips,
asking for quiet.
After being seated, Belinda
surrounded the crystal with both hands turned up, almost in a position of
accepting a gift. The room was quiet, the only sounds were those of others
passing by on the midway and the carnival music drifting in slightly through
the gaps in the tent.
There was no movement in the closed
room, only the light grey smoke from the candle, which started to envelope the
crystal, making for quite an eerie presentation.
“You two will be married in March
of next year,” Belinda said. Do whatever you have to in order to make that
happen.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and reached for Jim’s hand.
“Soon after you marry, you will be taking your mother for a long ride. It will
be out of state. Now I must go.”
With that, the mysterious woman got
up and quickly departed the same way in which she had appeared.
“That certainly was strange,” Cathy
said.
“Indeed it was,” replied Jim. “But
eight months from now, you and I will be one!”
The pair stood, gave each other a
huge hug and headed for the midway which awaited their discovery.
The courting of the two continued
for the next several months, through the holidays and on into winter. Not
wanting to jinx the reading they had received, Jim and Cathy planned a wedding
in Jim’s house with his mom and a few close friends . . . and their dreams
would soon be true. A March wedding was a bit different, but the two were
deeply in love, and no matter the financial circumstances, they would make it
happen.
Two weeks after the couple
exchanged vows, Jim’s mother took a turn for the worse. With pneumonia
complicated by heart problems, she quietly passed away one evening while
sitting in her favorite chair, doing her entertaining crosswords.
Upon making the final arrangements
for his mom, Jim found out she had already attended to such, and had most of
the expenses in advance. The big surprise was discovering she was to be buried
in her home town of Bethlehem, PA. That was over one hundred miles away. But it
was what she wanted, so Jim was not one to change plans that had been set in
advance.
Jim and Cathy followed the hearse
the day of the funeral. Under some small maple trees on a beautiful mid-April
afternoon, they said goodbye to this sweet lady who had done so much for them.
As they motored their way back home, Jim and Cathy talked about the day they
had been at the county fair—specifically, their encounter with Belinda in the
tent, the marriage in March, and taking his mother for a long ride. A visit to
a county fair fortune teller had produced the two opposite ends of life itself:
a wedding and a funeral. Joy and grief.
As they continued North along the
interstate, Jim pointed at a billboard just before they made their exit. It
advertised the 85th Annual Broome County Fair.
“Maybe we’ll pass the fair up this
year,” Jim chuckled. Within the hour, the pair had arrived home.
Two years passed and Cathy, seven
months pregnant, wanted to go back to talk with the lady at the fair to see if
she could tell them if it were to be a boy or a girl. But Jim would have no
part of it. “One trip in a lifetime to a fortune teller is more than enough,”
he warned. Their daughter was born two months later. They named her Belinda,
after the ravishing black-haired beauty who had foretold their marriage.
And perhaps another trip to the
county fair? Maybe next year.
