Fated to End Sometime

After a shower, getting dressed and finishing her first mug of coffee for the day, Yaddo was already on her way out the door before she remembered her dream.

"Why was I dreaming about being in a field?" she wondered to herself. "I've lived in towns and cities my entire life. And what was trying to come after me?" Over and over she replayed the dream in her head, trying to make sense of it.

A blaring car horn shocked her from her reverie and brought her back to her surroundings. Without realizing it she had already reached the outskirts of the French Quarter of New Orleans. She blinked for a moment, then crossed Canal street and made her way into the heart of the Vieux Carré.

Yaddo had a ritual of heading straight down Royal street to get to K's Coffeehouse as quickly as possible, in an attempt to beat the rush of early-rising tourists who would invariably take forever when choosing their coffee. She always had her preferred cup of morning blend, with three spoonfuls of plain sugar and just enough half and half to turn the coffee a nice caramel color. One spill-proof lid would complete her cup, and she would be immediately out the door and making her way to Jackson Square.

This morning K's was fairly empty, and she was in and out in minutes. As she headed out the door she noticed an older gentleman sitting in the corner of the room, wearing threadbare clothing of a style from the early 1900s. He caught her gaze and winked, before looking back down at his newspaper. Yaddo shrugged and continued on her way. Odd people were common in the French Quarter, and this man seemed no stranger than most.

She backtracked to Saint Louis Cathedral, and took a turn down Pirate's Alley, passing the Pirate's Alley Cafe that had not yet opened. It was rare that anyone bothered to open the ancient green wooden doors before eleven o'clock. The place stayed open until four in the morning on most nights, and sometimes later, and tended to serve more as a local bar than a coffee shop. Not that Yaddo was complaining, it was her favorite place to relax whenever she had the opportunity, and she got along well with most of the bartenders who worked there.

Passing the cathedral Yaddo noticed a dark red blotch by the side door, and looking up she caught her breath. A dead pigeon hung from the glass spikes above the door, its eyes and beak open and one wing fully extended. She had always wondered why those spikes were there, and now she knew. Shivering, she focused her eyes back toward the Square and made her way there.

A few steps past the cathedral, and Yaddo looked around, wondering where all the typical readers had gone. On a good weather day like today there should have been at least half a dozen tables for various fortune tellers, palm readers and tarot readers lining the cathedral side of Jackson Square, with a few more on the sides of the square in front of the Pontalba buildings. Today, there was only one. Gale was the last person Yaddo wanted to see, much less talk to, so before the tarot reader had a chance to look away from her client and notice Yaddo, she moved quickly to the right side of the Square and headed for Decatur street.

Yaddo waited for the traffic light to change, then crossed the street next to a pair of police officers who must have been waiting for the Fresh Donuts light to turn on, because they veered off and entered the donut shop as Yaddo followed the sidewalk uphill toward the Mississippi river. She turned left at the parking lot, then followed a narrow sidewalk to a small metal door at the bottom of the observation deck, and using a key that only she and one other possessed, she let herself inside.

It was an odd sort of fortune to have made friends with a city maintenance worker, but Yaddo had been "in the right place at the right time" so to speak. Her friendship with James McKinney had begun when she pulled him out of the street before he was struck by a speeding Mack truck. James was a tough old city worker, and rarely let his emotions show to anyone, but he had been reduced to tears. After much talking and sharing a beer afterward, James had demanded the opportunity to reward Yaddo for her good deed. After he learned that she was a reader in Jackson Square, he had given her the key to this maintenance supply closet, and told her she could store her table, chairs and other paraphernalia inside. As long as Yaddo never revealed to anyone that she had access to this storage, she could use it as long as she wished.

Yaddo grabbed her folding table and chairs, and her knapsack of supplies, then swiftly ducked out of the maintenance closet and headed away from Jackson Square to her preferred place before the old City Hall. It was on a fairly busy stretch of Chartres street, and she tended to get better business opportunities here than when she competed against the numerous fortune tellers in Jackson Square.

Upon arriving at her preferred spot, Yaddo unfolded her chairs and table, covered the table with a cloth decorated by Celtic knot-work patterns woven into the fabric, and lit a large white candle and a cone of jasmine scented incense. She pulled a large tarot deck from its silk bag and began shuffling it, nine times nine as she did every morning. On this morning there were no immediate customers, so Yaddo took a deep breath and began pulling cards out for herself, laying them in the classic cross-spread formation. After they were arranged, lying face down, she began to turn them over.

Her usual identifying card, The Moon, showed itself right from the first. It was then followed by the Two of Swords, making her frown for a moment. She wondered what sort of important decision she faced, but as her days of late had been quiet and without any real excitement, she had no idea what the card might infer. Her head card was Justice, which seemed to refer to the Two of Swords, although without knowing what one referenced required knowledge of the other. She shrugged and continued turning cards.

Her past card was the Nine of Swords. She blinked at the card, carefully regarding the woman sitting upright in bed with her face covered in her hands. Nine swords were behind her, pointing forward. The woman appeared to have woken suddenly from a nightmare. Yaddo's dream came crashing home to her. Clearly it was important, although how she still had no idea.

The path card not particularly encouraging. Yaddo flipped it over to reveal the Eight of Rods in an upside down position, depicting a single man trying to deflect several rods of wood with a rod of his own. She faced opposition that would be difficult to overcome. Her hands shook as she flipped over the last card, and blinked as it revealed a generic Hoyle playing card. The Tarot card was a Nine of Pentacles, which to her always symbolized the rewarding completion of a plan or project. It seemed out of place with the rest of her reading.
She flipped the Hoyle playing card to reveal a Nine of Diamonds. Now she understood. Exactly how the playing card had arrived in her deck she was not entirely sure, but she had an idea. She also knew now why the card had shown up with the Nine of Pentacles. The two cards were linked, for the suits of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs in ordinary playing cards had originally been Cups, Pentacles, Swords and Clubs in Tarot. However, the Nine of Diamonds now represented dissolving illusion and Truth.

Yaddo did not have the slightest idea what her reading was supposed to mean, but she fully expected to find out. Past experience had taught her to trust her readings, and she was not about to stop now. The arrival of her first customer - a young female tourist dressed in a white summer gown with a wide hat - put the strange reading out of her thoughts until later.