The Fortune Teller(32)

Semele caught the subtext—and you’re not. She decided to make an exit before she said something she would regret, and headed for the elevator. “Excellent. Ciao, you two.” On her way out she shot Cabe a stern look, which he purposefully ignored.

As the elevator doors closed, she caught a glimpse of Raina and Cabe sharing an intimate kiss. The sight of them felt like a punch in the gut, and it only reinforced the distressing thought that was running through her mind: she was about to lose her friend.





Message to VS—

Manuscript has missing pages.

Reply from VS—

Was it him?

Message to VS—

Unclear. Will dig deeper.

Reply from VS—

Dig quickly. Assemble a team.





All her life Elisa had received premonitions and she believed those visions were gifts from God.

She attended mass every day at the Golden House, a magnificent church that surpassed every building in Antioch. Built in the shape of an octagon, it had a gilded dome roof decorated in gold, brass, and precious stones that towered in the sky like God’s crown.

Elisa’s father was a great physician in Antioch, and last year Elisa had married one of his pupils, an earnest young doctor named Mathai. Mathai had loved Elisa from afar for years before gathering the courage to seek her hand. His mother ordered him more than once to choose a different girl. “She cannot bear a child. Look at her. She will snap in two!” she proclaimed with a grim shake of her head. A woman who had mothered four sons felt entitled to say such things.

Fortunately, as the middle child, Mathai was often overlooked. So when he decided to marry Elisa, his mother finally relented. It was Elisa’s father who took issue: he thought Mathai weak and doomed to mediocrity and had hoped for a better match. There had always been tension between the two men. Only Elisa knew she could convince her father to let them marry.

One day, when she was helping her father clean his medicine box, she confessed she had foreseen her future as Mathai’s bride. Not knowing how her father would react, she rushed to assure him she had also foreseen how, over the years, Mathai would stay dedicated to his studies and rise in prominence. More importantly, she promised that Mathai would treat her like the most priceless treasure in the world.

Her father listened while polishing his medicine vials, never once looking at his daughter. Even if he hadn’t believed in his daughter’s gift—which he did—he had never been able to say no to Elisa, his gentle daughter, whom he adored above all else.

He expelled a soft breath and nodded. “So it will be.”

*

At the end of their first year of marriage, Elisa confided in Mathai about her gift.

“Husband?” she called to him softly as he was leaving to go to her father’s school.

Mathai turned around and smiled at the sight of her sitting at the kitchen stool, her stomach just beginning to show with child.

“On the way to my father’s you might run into your old friend. Do ask him about his leg. It needs mending.”

Mathai was in too much of a hurry to question her strange request. But on the way to his father-in-law’s school he did run into his old childhood friend. Even more astounding, his friend was limping. Mathai never would have asked why if Elisa had not warned him.

His friend showed him a cut across his knee that had festered. Mathai brought him to the clinic, and his morning was spent cleaning the wound, stitching it, and applying salve. When Mathai returned home he found Elisa waiting for him on the same stool.

He stared into her eyes and realized she had just told him her secret.

From then on, every morning before he left, she would tell him something about his day. And it would always come to pass. After a month of being privy to her foresights, Mathai believed that, indeed, she was blessed. So when Elisa came home from the Golden House that day in tears, barely able to speak, Mathai listened with grave attention.

While kneeling in prayer, she had seen the walls of the church crumble around her and the stones turn to sand. Then she saw a great earthquake level Antioch to rubble. A firestorm raged through the city for days and the Golden House was destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people perished and the city was demolished.

Her words sent chills through his body. He was horrified that she had foreseen these catastrophic events with such clarity.

That night the family gathered at Mathai’s insistence and Elisa recounted her vision. When she finished, no one spoke for a long time. Mathai held Elisa’s hand while her mother wept.

Finally her father said, “You must leave Antioch. Right away.”

Mathai frowned. “But the baby.”

Elisa’s hand moved protectively to her stomach. She would give birth soon, but she knew it would not be in Antioch. “Mathai, we must leave. We all must leave.” She pleaded to her parents.

Her mother shook her head. “We are too old, Elisa. Our place is here.”

Elisa’s eyes welled with tears. She would spend the next several days begging and pleading for her parents to come with them. She also knew that, in the end, they would not. Only her desperation to save the child in her womb would make her consider leaving them behind.

Mathai sat brooding. “But where would we go?” he asked helplessly. “Our lives are here. Our family, my work…”

“We must leave. For the baby,” Elisa said with conviction.