The Fortune Teller(77)

With shaky hands, Nettie reached out and took the cards. An immediate feeling of calm washed over her when she held them, as if her grandmother were there, and Nettie felt like she could breathe again. Fighting back the tears pooling in her eyes, she held the cards in her lap like a schoolgirl sitting at attention. She had to figure out how to keep the cards. She couldn’t give them back.

The nurse entered with a tray. Evanoff picked up a large syringe and smiled. “You can keep your gypsy cards. They do not matter to me. What matters is the precious sight they inspire.” He came toward her. “We must find out all about it.”

Nettie quivered with terror. “Please,” she whimpered.

“Hold still or it will hurt worse.”

She watched the needle go into her arm. What scared her most wasn’t the drug, but the fact he looked at her as if she weren’t human.





For more than three years life was hopeless.

Every day the walls closed in tighter and the light grew dimmer. The children who shared the room with Nettie were all test subjects tethered together for the same reason. Like many scientists across Europe, Dr. Evanoff was attempting to grasp the para sciences—telekinesis, telepathy, precognition, and mediumship—in an effort to win the war. They were all mad dogs chasing the scent of something divine, because in this day, it seemed like nothing was.

From that first night on, Nettie shared Liliya’s mattress. The two slept side by side with their backs against each other, as if to protect one another in their sleep.

“Are you awake?” Liliya asked one night. When Nettie answered yes, she asked, “Do you remember Harry Houdini?”

“Of course,” Nettie whispered back. Though the magician had died the year she was born, everyone knew Harry Houdini.

“Don’t you find it odd that he was obsessed with all things mystical, yet he didn’t believe in mysticism? He spent most of his life trying to prove everything was a fraud.”

Nettie waited for Liliya to explain. Liliya rarely spoke of such things—she rarely spoke at all. So Nettie knew whatever was on her mind had to be significant.

“Even though he said he didn’t believe, he had his wife memorize a code with him. He said whoever died first was to communicate the code from the other side, to prove that life after death existed. All he wanted was the proof.” Nettie remembered hearing about this story. Liliya went on. “A year later, a medium said he was in touch with Houdini—that his spirit could not move on and be at rest. Houdini was desperately trying to get the code to his wife. The man presented the code to her and it was correct. ‘Tell all those who lost faith because of my mistake to grab hold of hope again, and to live with the knowledge that life is continuous. There is no death.’” Liliya hesitated. “He supposedly said that from beyond the grave. Houdini’s code was ultimately declared a hoax, even though his wife had written a public letter defending it. People didn’t want to believe. But I do,” she admitted softly.

Nettie lay in the dark, oddly comforted by the story. Nettie didn’t need a code. She didn’t need proof. She could feel her grandmother watching over her now. Kezia had been the first to die. Soon all of her family would be with her. Nettie would be the only one left to carry their memories.

“What is your ability?” Nettie finally asked.

Liliya hesitated. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Try.”

“When I close my eyes and focus, I can move out of the room with my mind’s eye and see other things.”

“What things?” Nettie propped herself up on her elbows, astonished. “You mean you can see through walls?”

“In a way. It’s like I’m traveling without my body. But I can’t go far.” When she saw the look on Nettie’s face she added, “Why are you so amazed? You’re the one who can see the future.”

“I didn’t know that was possible. How far can you go?”

“I’ve never been able to see past the monastery.”

“But you can go anywhere on the grounds?”

Liliya nodded. A dark look came over her eyes. “I’ve found it’s best not to.” They had heard the sounds at night, the screams of other prisoners. Evanoff and his team of scientists were not just experimenting on children. Nettie had caught glimpses of men and women undergoing brutal procedures.

“Will you follow me, when they take me?” Nettie asked. When Liliya hesitated, Nettie said, “It will make me feel better, knowing you’re there.”

“Will you tell me my future then?”

Nettie agreed and a pact was made. She pulled her cards from her pocket. It was her first time using them since arriving at Makaryev. Soon Evanoff would have her use them repeatedly.

Liliya looked on in fascination. “Is that how you do it? With fortune cards?”

“Sometimes,” she said, although she didn’t actually need them.

The future simply came to Nettie as knowledge. But the cards helped her focus her thoughts, and touching them made her feel closer to her grandmother. The parchment felt alive in her hands. Nettie believed that Kezia’s stories about Aishe, Simza, and Dinka lived within the cards, that they carried their spirits. These cards had saved her life.

“They’ve been in my family forever.” She held them out to Liliya.