A Star is Discovered

There she is, and right on time—the moment that has become the highlight of my day. Ever since the first time I saw her at university, I’ve been mesmerized and have been looking for a reason, and an opportunity, to talk to her. She was absolutely beautiful and had an air about her as though she didn’t truly realize how captivating she is…and that just added to her attractiveness. Her dark, curly hair, brown eyes, and baby face stood out in a sea of Germanic blondes with blue eyes and sharp cheekbones. To me, she was a rose floating in a sea of white lilies.

Since I was new to the school, I really didn’t know anyone, and my attempts at learning her name were fruitless. I didn’t want to be too inquisitive, because if she heard through the grapevine that I had been asking about her, she might think I was a creep. So for now I just referred to her as “my crush” or “Baby Face,” and started concocting a plan to meet my little cherub.

What I did know was that every day, at the same time, just like clockwork, Baby Face sat at the same table for lunch. There, she faced the window to the garden, ate the lunch she had brought with her, wrote in her notebook, and, on the nicer days, basked in the sunlight until it was time for her to go to her next class.

Hoping that she would follow her regular routine and provide me the opportunity where I could work my charm, I decided to occupy a chair across from her favorite spot today at lunch. Unlike in America, where a person sits at a table and claims ownership of it, in Europe the tables were communal, and as long as a space was open, you had carte blanche to pull up a chair and join whoever was already there. While still not comfortable with this social norm, I now had a reason to go along with this custom!

As I entered the cafeteria, I was surprised to see there was a problem with my plan. Already sitting at the same table was an elderly woman, definitely not a university student, and if I were to guess, not even the mother of one. She had a few shopping bags with her that were spread out on the floor, and the old woman had a look like she was one step away from being homeless. Her dress and coat were threadbare and worn, her head was covered by a scarf, her heavy black shoes looked like they were barely held together, her face was heavily wrinkled and weathered, and when she looked at me, it was through milky white eyes. It was like an old woman from the picture of some far-off farming village in Siberia, stepped out of the pages of a National Geographic magazine and sat at this table.

Fuck! I had finally come up with a plan to meet my Baby Face, worked up enough courage to sit at her regular table where I could have a conversation, but now I have this woman throwing a wrench in my scheme. I paused, thought about it for a few moments, and decided to go forward with my planned course of action regardless of this unexpected obstacle. So I sat down one seat away from where my crush normally sits, which put me across and diagonal from this interloper.

When I sat down, the old woman stared at me with those soulless white eyes and a face devoid of emotion. It was quite offsetting and I smiled, hoping it would lighten the air, but unfortunately I received no reaction from her. She only seemed to stare at me harder and make me feel even more uncomfortable. So I sat my bag on the table, opened up a diet soda, pulled out a sandwich and a bag of chips, and tried to ignore her presence. I sipped on my drink, avoided eye contact with my table-mate, and waited on the object of my affection to show up.

After a few moments, my crush walked into the atrium, and was headed in our direction. She headed this way out of habit, but upon seeing two people sitting at the table where she regularly sat, paused momentarily, and it looked as though she was reconsidering her destination. Despite her initial hesitation, a second later Baby Face continued over to the table and joined us.

Before sitting down, she smiles and looks at each of the table’s occupants before greeting us with a, “Hallo!” The old woman nods to her and never changes her expression, but I return her greetings with a big smile and my own, “Hallo!”

It seemed as though she was taken aback by this old woman’s lack of warmth but she dismissed it, continued smiling, and began to place her lunch on the table. While she was doing this, she took another glance at the old woman and something changed. I was completely surprised when she reached over, gently grabbed the woman’s hand, and, with her other, offered her half of her sandwich. The old woman’s face lit up and her scowl turned into a toothless smile.

What a jackass I was for not thinking of this first. It was such a kind gesture, and although I didn’t think of it, it was something I saw as an opportunity to score some points with Baby Face. I grabbed the unopened bag of potato chips that I had sitting on the table in front of me, motioned to catch the old woman’s attention, and offered her the bag when she noticed. From the previous smile, her face turned, and sensing that she could see through my bull shit, she looked at me with a scowl and said something that sounded like “fuck you” under her breath.

I just smiled, turned to the girl who I had come to pursue this afternoon, and shrugged my shoulders. “I’ve seen you around the campus and was hoping we could meet.”

Baby Face smiles, offers me her hand, and says, “Certainly, It’s nice to meet you, my name is…”

“Excuse me!” The old woman interrupts before Baby Face could reveal her name, and in a deep and heavily Slavic accented voice says, “I want to thank you for your kindness?”

Her attention turns from me and she smiles, reaches across the table, and lays a hand on the old woman’s hand, “You don’t owe me anything. You are absolutely welcome. Is there anything else you would like to eat? I’ll go get it for you.”

“Please, call me Esmarelda.” The old woman says as she reaches into one of her shopping bags with the hand Baby Face wasn’t holding and pulls out a thick deck of large cards. On the outside of each card was the picture of a man with a goat’s head and other beastly features, holding a skull in a manner that suggests he is having a conversation with it, and resting a scepter in the crook of his other arm. The cards were obviously heavily used, as the front picture on many of them was faded, a number had worn edges, and some had bent corners. It was then that it dawned on me that they were Tarot cards.

“But I want to,” the old woman declared, “A gypsy always pays her debts. So I will give you a reading to repay your kindness, and we can learn about your future. I don’t do this often but it is the only thing I have to give.” The old woman pauses, “I hope you will accept?”

At first there was skepticism on my crush’s face like the old woman was trying to con her in some way. That this was all a set up to take advantage of her. After thinking about it for a moment, I could see the guard on her face start to drain away. “Of course I will.” She says with a big smile.

“It is very simple,” Esmarelda said as she shuffled the deck. “Think of a question you want answered, choose three cards, and set them face down in front of you. The cards you choose will tell us about your past, present, and future.” After explaining what she needed to do, the old woman spread the cards out in a crescent in front of her. “It is now up to you,” the old woman tells her. “Think of the question you want to ask the cards, and then choose.”

I found myself drawn in, with my attention going back and forth between my crush and the cards spread out on the table. She, in turn, was patient and studied the deck intensely. There were a few times she reached out, touched a card, and then drew her hand back without choosing it. As she studied the cards, the look on her face alternated between concentration and an excited smile, and many times my crush looked more like a young kid trying to decide which piece of candy to take from her grandmother’s hand rather than someone playing along with an old woman’s superstitious beliefs. After what seemed like a long time, but was really only a few minutes, she chose her first card with a big grin.

With the first one down, she let fingertips of her left hand connect to its counterpart on the other hand, forming a steeple, and using it as a rest for her chin as she continued to study the array of cards. What was once smiles and concentration had now changed to a look of worry as she tried to locate the perfect second card. Finally, Baby Face reached out and touched a card, but decided against it, and, instead, grabbed a different card on the other side of the spread and laid it on the table in front of her beside the first.

Then, with little hesitation, the card she first considered and decided against, was chosen as the third and final card. Having finished her last pick, my crush let out a sigh of relief as she placed the last card beside the first two. Then she looked at Esmarelda with anticipation as she waited for directions on what to do next.

The old woman’s face once again turned into a toothless smile. “Turn over the first card my dear.” My Baby Face smiled, nodded her head, and did as the old woman asked.

The three of us stared at the card she overturned and placed on the table. It sat upside down toward Baby Face, and appeared more worn than many of the others in the deck. It depicted a man lying flat on the ground with his face down in the dirt and covered in a red colored cloth that stretched from his neck all the way down to his legs. There was a score of swords protruding from his back. In half of the background above him there were storm clouds, while the other half was a picture of serenity showing the sun rising. For the most part it was an ominous-looking card and there was a heaviness in the old woman’s face as she looked at what was turned over.

“Tsk tsk, the reversed ten of swords!” Esmarelda said and let it hang in the air. If the picture on the card of a man stabbed multiple times wasn’t scary enough, her heavily accented words added to the eeriness. “This card represents heartbreak, strife, suffering, pain, and grief.” She nods her head slowly from side to side. “But that is if the card is facing upright!” The toothless smile spread across the old woman’s face. “The thing is, your card is reversed!”

Baby Face looked up at the gypsy, still concerned at what this card represented. “It would seem that you have many scars from past wounds. Maybe a bad job, betrayal by a friend...or maybe a failed long distance relationship.” The old woman paused and looked into her eyes. “You had reached a low point, and you were being held back. Notice how the swords are in his back?”

She nodded along with the old woman and I even caught myself nodding as well.

“The swords represent outside influences that you don’t control but are influences in your life. They have impacted your life negatively, but you have grown. You have taken their shot and, because the card is reversed, it shows you are healing and have moved on from your insecurities, your troubles with your diet, and someone, I believe, named Furry.”

The blood drained from my crush’s baby face and it was evident that the old woman had said something that hit home.

“That’s impossible! How did you…” she started to say before the old gypsy cut her off. “Please...turn over the next card my dear.”

Baby Face pauses, looking as though she was having second thoughts about going forward. She glances at me and I slightly nod my head yes and give her a wink. I’m not sure whether it was my reassuring support that prodded her to continue or her own curiosity, but she picked up the next card and turned it over.

The second card she turned, unlike the first, was facing her, upright, and showed the picture of a young man relaxing in a garden admiring seven branches of fruit. He rests one arm on his shovel, admiring the results of his labor, while the back of his other hand is sitting across his head suggesting that he was taking a rest from work.

“Your present is the seven of pentacles. This is a good omen.” Esmarelda says. “If it were upside down it would represent that you will not get what you expect from your work. It would have you considering making a change in your life because you will be unfulfilled in what you are doing and your progress would be slow.”

“But it isn’t upside down,” Baby Face blurts out, interrupting the old woman, who had now fallen silent and looked at her the way a disappointed teacher looked at a student who didn’t meet expectations.

After a moment of eerie silence we hear, “It’s okay, my dear,” as Esmarelda breaks the stillness.

The old woman reaches over, grabs the card, and studies it before she continues. “This card represents that the work you have done, and are putting in now, is growing the seeds of your success. You can expect to flourish if you continue on this path. You have learned from the lessons and disappointments that the first card represented...now, close friendships with the right person could evolve into a strong romance, money invested could have large returns, the business contacts you made could later provide huge breaks, or the hard work in the studio with your coach could pay off. If you look closely at the card you can see that the farmer is focused on long-term goals—he doesn’t want to touch his harvest right now, and hopes to grow his crop for the long term.”

The old gypsy sets the card down and studies my crush’s face. She was focused on the card, unaware that the old woman was watching her and studying it, as if she was searching for something more that no one else had picked up on.

“Why don’t you turn over the final card and we can see what your future holds?” The old woman quietly tells her in a comforting voice.

Baby Face looks up, smiles, and quietly says, “Okay.” She grabs the corner of the final card, takes a deep breath, and turns it over.

In what I thought would be impossible, the dour look on the old woman’s face disappeared and was replaced by a huge smile and a renewed energy. The old woman excitedly says, “This is big! It is an upright sun and a card from the major arcana.”

The card depicted a picture of the sun emerging at dawn with a naked child riding on a horse in front of it. If energy was contagious, everyone around the table had caught it and could sense this was a big deal and that the old woman’s excitement was a good omen.

Esmarelda began to explain. “The child is a symbol of our innocence. When we look at all of these cards together this tells us that you are experiencing a new dawn and you are emerging from a cocoon of innocence. The child is riding a horse, which is a symbol of strength and nobility. These are the traits you have that have carried you through the low points in your life, provided you the motivation to work hard, and will propel you to success in the future. Most important is that the Sun card is upright, which means success in your endeavors...romantically, financially, spiritually, and to answer the question you were thinking when we started...professionally as a singer. You are going to be a star!”

My crush puts her hand over her mouth, stifling what I assume was a scream of happiness. “Oh my god, oh my god. Thank you so much. Thank you! I need to go.” She gets up, grabs her bag, quickly turns, and starts walking away.

She gets half a dozen steps away, abruptly returns, and walks up to me. “I apologize for leaving without saying goodbye. You were going to ask me something when I first arrived at the table. What was it?”

Now I was on the spot and after all of this, and at a loss as to what to say, so I asked for the first thing that came to my mind. “It seems like you are going to be a star and I want to be your first...can I have your autograph?”

My crush gave me an endearing smile, pulled a pen out of her bag, grabbed my notebook and wrote, “To my first fan. All my best! Lenny Pojarov!” She handed me back my notebook, put her pen back in her bag, placed her hand on my shoulder, and used it to balance herself as she leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Come see me sing this weekend, but I really must go.” And with that she turned and quickly left.

I stood there watching her leave until my attention was broken by Esmarelda’s voice. “Her future isn’t romantically aligned with yours, Henry!” I turned to face the old woman and was about to ask how she knew my name when she said, “Sit down you little shit, and I’ll tell you what your future holds.”