Not In The Cards

Not in the Cards

It had been a long day at the call center for me. The queue was at a constant 110 calls waiting in line; One would be answered and several more calls would replace them in the queue for 8 hours straight(or was it 9?). That’s nearly 1000 calls during the shift or more. 

I got up from my non-descript cubicle, with its computer and telephone and made sure that everything was off and ready for the next unlucky soul to find themselves chained to this desk, picked up my backpack and started heading out of the room, hoping that I wouldn’t get stopped by my supervisor of the manager above them. I guess that wasn’t in the cards today.

Just as I was about to push the glass exit door,I was told to report to one of the manager’s offices before I left. I walked towards her office door which she always kept open and I knocked on the door.

“Come in”, she said, looking up at me from her desk. I came in and immediately felt that “principal’s office “ ambience coming at me from beneath that short, blonde bob haircut. Her blue eyes regarded me without moving while her mouth formed that annoying “I gotcha” smirk of a hall monitor in middle school.

I had no idea what she thought she had, but I certainly had the uncomfortable feeling of being inside a spider’s web.

“You called out yesterday”., she said evenly, her hands clasped together underneath her chin, almost covering her mouth.

“Yes Ma’am” I replied. “I had a chest infection”

“Uh huunnhhh”, she said, dragging the syllable out.

I continued to stand there, my brow furrowing, waiting for her to make the next move in this “conversation”.

“You know,” she continued. “When you called in, you sounded drunk!”

Oh brother, I thought. Just what I needed. As if the work itself wasn’t hard enough.

“Oh” I said aloud, still slightly puzzled. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand what she was implying; it was that I had no idea about how I should respond. Was she expecting me to confess that I had been drunk? Maybe she was expecting me to vehemently deny it? I couldn’t tell what her expectation was.

In response, I simply said. “Well, I apologize. I promise that the next time that I call out with a chest infection, I will try my best to not sound drunk when I am so very sick”

At that, she pushed her hands on the desk in a sort of backing away response.

“It was just an observation”

“Oh, I see”. I paused for a moment waiting for her to give me permission to leave her presence so that I could go.

After that encounter, I made it to the parking lot and got into my little red Pinto and shook my head, wondering if there was anything better for me than this mess. I started the 76 Pinto to life and lurched the little red car out of the parking lot and headed to the highway, hoping for something else besides a repeating cycle of constant criticism on the phone and constant vigilance from the management. 

As I continued on my way back home, I stopped at a gas station for fuel and something cold to drink when I looked across the street and saw the sign for psychic readings across the street. Ordinarily, I didn’t put any stock in psychic readings myself. I had seen so many ads for various psychics on tv.. 1 800 numbers all over the place for them and felt that it was just too much of a scam.

Even so, this one did catch my attention because it had been in existence since I was a child. I would often see this place on the way to school and on the way home every day. It was always there calling out like a silent beacon offering…… something.  

It was at that point that I decided that I did in fact need….. Something. I had no idea what, but I needed something.

After I finished at the station, I drove the Pinto to the psychic’s place and parked in the back as the sign instructed, then walked along the cobblestone path to the front door.

“Come inside”, a voice said from an intercom. 

I was puzzled until I saw the camera above the door

I pushed the door open gently and entered into the hallway of the house, I caught the scent of sandalwood in the air after the door closed. I continued following the scent down the hallway which was lined with pictures and paintings from various parts of the world, including some carnivals from centuries ago ... .or so it seemed. I continued walking slowly on the old hardwood floor towards the staircase, when a female voice to my right said “come in, son”.

I turned to my right and saw a sort of parlor that was dimly lit with black cloth covering the windows and a single lit candle sat in the middle of a small round table. The woman at the table, smiled showing some fanged teeth underneath some yellowish eyes, braided red hair. 

“Don’t worry. I don’t bite.”, she half whispered, baring her fangs in a way that indicated the next word should be “much!”

If I were wearing glasses, I would have pulled them down my nose. Somehow, I managed to capture the effect without them anyway.

“You are the skeptical type, aren’t you”, the snake woman said with a teasing smile. “Skeptical or not, you are here and you must be here for a reason.”

Well, she was right for sure. Into the web I went.

“Have a seat across from me. “ she sighed, indicating the padded stool beside the table. I had no idea what to expect at the moment.  

Would she tell my future from my palm? Would she read my horoscope from the newspaper perhaps? I didn’t see a crystal ball anywhere in the room.

“So, what can I do for you today?” she asked pleasantly.  

I stared at her. This was the same sort of line we would use in the call center. It was basic customer service. It felt odd hearing it from the other end.

I shook my head for a moment.

“I … don’t really know.. I feel I need something different….”

She cocked her head to one side as her yellow eyes regarded me. “Different?”

“Yes. My work. It's sort of awful. I get yelled at every day by the customers over the phone and I always feel like I have to look over my shoulder for a supervisor staring over me like some vulture waiting for me to die. I’ve had it today, for sure after one of the managers accused me of being drunk a night ago when I called out. I was sick. I had a chest infection. I even had a doctor’s note.”

“Wow, that really is frustrating. You are doing a thankless job, do it well and you seem to get nothing but grief in return, is that right?”

“Yes”

“Well,” she continued. “I think I can help you.”

“You see, some people come here, thinking of the future; future job, future husband, future wife, future mistress.. Etc.”. She shook her head in a lament. She took her left hand and brought her braid over her left shoulder. “But what people don’ seem to understand is the importance of the present moment.”

I slowly nodded my head. She wasn’t wrong.

“What you need, my friend is to understand your present”

My brow furrowed. “My present?”

She nodded slowly, smiling then produced a fresh pack of standard playing cards and slowly opened the box and pulled the deck out. The deck itself, although looked pristine, it also looked impossibly old, as if many people had touched it from centuries long past. The backs had pictures of the people riding the old bicycles with one big wheel and wearing top hats.

She began shuffling the deck, her yellow eyes never leaving mine and her smile ever present

“Shuffle and cut the deck” she said calmly.

I looked at the deck on the table and picked it up, cautiously as if this were a museum piece and looked at her. She smiled again and nodded.

I held the deck in my left hand and shuffled the cards, being careful not to bend them or damage them in any way.

“You respect the cards! I approve!"

I felt a warm tingling sensation on the back of my neck slowly climb and reach my face as I continued the shuffle and placed the cards back on the table, cut into two separate piles.

“Now point to one pile”

I pointed to the pile closest to her

She took the pile closest to me and set it aside and then shuffled the remaining deck and then looked at me again.

“Cut the deck”

I took the deck again and cut the deck again, placing two piles on the table. 

“Pick one again.”

I picked the pile closest to me this time.

She took the other pile and set that one aside, then took the spread the cards of the remaining pile face down.

“Pick one card”

I selected one card and touched it.

She looked at me while moving the other cards away from the one I had selected. 

“Turn it over”

Slowly, I turned it over and found the Ace of Diamonds.

I stared at it. In games like spades , this is a good card to have in your hand, but I didn’t understand what this meant in this context.

“The spark”, she said with smile, 

“A spark?”

“Yessss…” she said “A spark! A good spark is all that’s needed to start a good roaring campfire on a cold night in the woods. A spark is what’s needed to start the internal combustion engine in your ‘76 Pinto outside.”

“How did…oh. Never mind”,. I shook my head. Of course she knew. That camera.

She continued giving me the same stare, her yellow eyes seeming to sparkle in the candle flame. “The Ace represents the beginning of something; and the suit of Diamonds, that represents skill. This means that right now, you are at the beginning of your journey and learning new skills and that spark, it’s real. It means that your potential is real and the catalyst for success is real”

“Still, the responsibility of turning that spark into a flame is yours”. 

“A spark.”, I said thoughtfully. “I have to work to make it a fire.”

“Yes, “ she nodded, showing her fangs again.” If you are still a little skeptical, touch the card now that it’s been revealed to you.”

I raised my eyebrows a bit and looked back at the Ace of Diamonds, staring into the center diamond itself, imagining it to be a portal to a faraway place on a distant world. I touched it and the I felt the sudden tingle again and the card glowed faintly for a moment(or was it the flicker of the candlelight?).

The snake woman crossed her legs and leaned back nonchalantly in her chair. “As I said, you respect the cards and this one has… bonded to you.”

I looked back to her and shook my head. 

“Bonded?”

“Yes, Bonded. That card is now your card. It’s your spark. Take it with you. Carry it in your pocket. Lay it on your desk while you work. Touch it and the flame will grow inside of you.”

I took the card from the table and immediately felt that same tingling sensation again and looked back at the snake woman, who smiled back at me as I left the parlor and made my way back home.

*********************************************************************************

The next day, I arrived at work, I set down my backpack by my cubicle and placed my Ace of Diamonds card on the desk and began my work day as usual.

The work was identical to the previous day.

The same 110 calls in the queue

The same irritated customers

But as I progressed through the day I found myself caressing the card during every call. I remembered the first time.

A customer had called in complaining about the work that had been done recently by our company. She went on and on and on and on, and while I was listening, I was caressing the Ace of Diamonds, feeling as if I was slowly absorbing the energy into myself. Then I heard the pain behind the complaint and pattern behind her turmoil and I suddenly felt a way of finding a solution for her. By the end of the call I had not only solved her issue, I had made a sale as well.

The rest of the day was like that. Every call was an issue that I could solve and make a sale. I couldn’t tell if it was luck, magic or what, but the sales numbers just kept going up and up for me as the weeks turned to months. I was making bank as they say. I even started making enough to put into the stock market as well.. I was killing it. No one knew what happened. The managers couldn’t explain and they didn’t want to either because it made them look good.

In another stroke of good fortune, the manager who had said I sounded drunk, had been relocated to another region in the company. I certainly couldn’t complain about that.

Maybe this was just all coincidence, or perhaps, I had just gained a bit of confidence and there really wasn’t any magic to this at all. Even so, I still caressed the card during my work hours.

One day after two months had passed, I passed by that same gas station and looked across the road and saw that the psychic place had been demolished. Frowning, I went inside the gas station and asked the clerk about it

The old clerk shook his head as he gazed out the window at the remains of the old structure. “Psychic place across the street? There ain't no "psychic place” across the street. The old Barnes House that was there had been abandoned for 40 years. Should’a been bulldozed long before now”, 

I looked back across the street again, then back to the clerk and thanked him for the assistance. 

As I walked back to my little red Pinto, I reached into my pocket and retrieved the Ace of Diamonds that she had given me. It still tingled to the touch.

I got back into my car and sat there for a moment, looking at the wreckage and pondered for a moment. People sometimes say that the life they want is usually, “not in the cards”. My fingers brushed the Ace of Diamonds in my pocket for a moment. “I used to think that too”

As I pulled out of the station, I glanced in the rearview mirror and I could've sworn that I saw her standing by a tree...winking at me.