ball that sits before her on a small, oval-shaped table.
“Well, what do you see?” I ask, humoring her as I did to the
magician. This is her act after all, so why not play along?
The fortune teller looks deeply into her crystal ball, and her
eyebrows knit together in concern. “My child, you are in great
danger. I see you running away from someone or something,
but I cannot see what it is. You are wearing that magical bracelet,” she tells me. Then as if the lady merely wants to see my reaction, I give her a somewhat confused and bewildered look. I
nod and thank the lady, and then I walk out of the tent. What
an imagination she has, I think. I find my family, and we walk
on, stopping by other tents occasionally.
As the sky darkens into night, we return home. I feel completely exhausted over today’s events, and for some odd reason, I
cannot stop thinking about what the old woman said to me. It is
probably nothing, I think. I tell my parents goodnight and head
into my room, closing the door behind me. I climb into bed and
turn off my light. As I try to fall asleep, I think about how it was
strange that the fortune teller spoke of my bracelet randomly,
but it was probably only because I was wearing it. She has to act
her part, I reassure myself as I drift into a deep sleep.
***
I am sitting on a tree stump and looking out into the distance at the beautiful pine trees that surround me. Suddenly, I
hear a growling noise behind me. The hair on the back of my
neck stands up, and I shiver, becoming fearful.
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