Mark My Words

It was a warm September night, probably the last of the Indian summer that we would have before fall came and stole the warmth. Michigan weather was always unpredictable. I strolled the fair grounds with my best friend Carly. The air smelled of cotton candy and caramel corn. We were walking around the fair grounds in a circle, as we passed for the dozenth time the small tent that had the hand painted sigh for Madam Serena, who was supposed to be all knowing. Carly gave me yet another hopeful glance. She had tried to get me to go in there earlier but I didn't like wasting money on foolish things. That was unless it had to do with clothes or books.

"Come on Alex, it will be fun," she had said as we passed by. I am a skeptic in anything that can't be proven. I once got suspended from Sunday school after getting in a lengthy debate with my Sunday school teacher over the existence of God. The poor woman had been so enraged that I thought her head was going to spin around.

Carly didn't say a word as we passed by this time, but I could tell by the look in her baby blue eyes that she still wanted to go in. She also was doing that thing with her hands that only her and my five-year-old cousin Paul do. Where she keeps clasping and unclasping them in front of her. You can never tell if they are just really excited about something or they have to go to the bathroom.

"All right lets see what our future holds in store for us," I said trying to keep the cynicism out of my voice.

I entered the dimly lit tent with caution. There were two chairs in the first section and then a curtain divided the remainder of the tent. What was beyond the curtain we could not tell. There was a small cardboard sign that said a reading was in progress to please have a seat. Several minutes later the tent became very cold as a young girl came out. She was wearing a halter-top made out of bandanas and cut off shorts that were super short. Her hair was straight and brown. She was dressed kind of oddly 70's clothes had been in last year for a brief time but the fad had already past. The girl looked very pale as she exited the tent. I could only guess what bad news she had heard.

A voice from behind the sheet said for the next person to come forward. I went in because Carly was afraid that I would back out if I waited. I rolled my eyes at her one more time before I entered. On the other side of the curtain sat a small elderly woman with a bandana around her head. There was a large candle burning on a small oak table in front on her. The flames cast a frightening glow on her face. There was no crystal ball in sight. She looked like she could have been anyone's grandmother. She was the last person that I had suspected to find in a place like this.

She beckoned for me to sit in the chair that was directly in front of the table. "Don't be afraid, child, I won't harm you. " Madam Serena said in a soothing voice. I gave her a small smile. "Now dear give me your hands and look directly into my eyes." She held my hands for no longer than a minute. Her hands were as cold as a slurpee from Seven Eleven.

"My dear child you have a wonderful future in store for you. However with every blessing comes a little bit of heartache. There will be a number of tragedies in your life. Things will occur that you never could have seen coming. People are brought into our lives for a reason. Some friends and lovers remain for our entire life times others are meant to leave earlier. "

Madam Serena went on to tell me that I would have a successful career in journalism. Marry a man with dark hair and brown eyes who has a small scar shaped like a cross on his left ankle. He is my soul mate that I have been with in many previous lives. She said that I would have three children all boys and I eventually would have seven grandchildren.

Silence filled the tent I thought that she was done but as I stood up she grabbed my arm with her icy fingers. She pulled me closely to her. "Alex you have a gift you need to open yourself to it. Allow it to guide you through life. Death is not the end."

I exited the tent still a skeptic but a little bit shaken. How had she known my name? She hadn't told me anything that couldn't have been made up. I mean come on how many men were out there that had dark hair and brown eyes. And for her information I was going to marry Steve, my current boyfriend, who had blond hair and green eyes.

Carly came out of the tent a few minutes later with a rather strange look on her face. "We'll what did she tell you?" I asked.

"Tell me? She didn't tell me anything. She gave me this envelope and said not to read it till I got home. "

"That's weird," I said. "She held my hands for a few moments and just told me some boring trivial things that anyone could makeup. She knew my name though. That was weird how do you think she knew that? " I made a grab for the envelope in Carly's hand. She stashed it in her purse before I could get my hands on it though.

"I've got to wait till I get home Alex, she made me promise. She probably heard me say your name when we you were going behind the curtain. "

"Come on Alex like its not going to explode if you open it now. "

" No way. I don't mess with forces beyond my control, "she said shaking her head of frosted blond curls vigorously.

We grabbed some elephant ears at one of the greasy stands that all carnivals have and then we decided to wander around a bit more before we went home. We made our way down the midway again, now knowing it like the back of our hands. We passed by the bowling game where you had to try and get the ball to stay in the dip to win a prize. It wasn't the game that I would normally pick but there was a little girl with blond hair and a baby face sitting behind the booth with a microphone. She conned us into spending ten dollars and we left with nothing.

We made our way around to the place where Madam Serena's tent was but when we got to the place where it should have been, it wasn't. "It was right here! " I exclaimed. "This is so weird. We were just here a little while ago there's no way that they could have packed up the entire tent in that short of a time. Let's go ask that carnie over their where she went." I walked up the nearest game where a middle-aged man sat in front of many empty goldfish jars. He had white hair and a dozen tattoos prominently displayed on his bear arms. " Excuse me sir? "

He looked up at me and smiled. " You want to win a fish little lady? " As he spoke I noticed that he had no teeth at all.

"No I was just wondering what happened to the fortune teller that was just over there". I said as I pointed in the direction of the now empty area.

" Fortune teller? We haven't had one of those with this outfit in at least thirty years after Madam Serena's tent caught fire and she died.

" What in the hell are you talking about? Madam Serena isn't dead, she read my fortune a half hour ago."

"Girly girl she is dead. Dead as this here wood." He pounded his fist on the table in front of him causing the water to splash out of a few of the bowls. "But she has been known to do a few fortune telling still even in the after life. A few years back when we were in Carson City there was a young girl who had a run in with her. Madam Serena had said that she had better watch her back because her past was going to come back and bite her in the ass. She was butchered two weeks later by a boyfriend that she had dumped. Her distraught mother had called the carnival office asking to speak to Madam Serena. Death always follows a reading from her."

"You're a liar!" Carly yelled. She held up the envelope that Madam Serena had given her a short time ago. This is real. And she gave it to me not even an hour ago. I don't know what kind of sick joke you are trying to pull. What kind of scam but I don't buy it!" She spun around on her heel and grabbed my arm with a lot more force than you would think some one who stood barely five foot tall would have.

As we walked away we could hear the carnie laughing and it sounded like he had said " Mark my words but it was hard to hear over the music that had started playing loudly. It was "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor. It was odd to be hearing that song at a carnival it wasn't very upbeat. It was after all about death. The women that the singer had loved had died in a plane crash.

"Carly, I think that I am going to go home tonight. I ate way too much junk food. I have a feeling I'll be praying to the porcelain God in a little while."

She just smiled and put her arm around me. I knew that she would probably end up talking to Pat all night online anyway.

We chatted idly all the way to my house. Neither one of us mentioned the envelope in her purse or the odd conversation with the carnie. I think neither one of us knew what to say. It was very abnormal and it had even cynical me wondering. As we approached my drive way "Fire and Rain" came on the radio. "What is it with this song?" Carly asked as she changed the station to only hear the same song playing again. She turned the radio off with a sigh. After I had gotten out of the car I poked my head back in the window.

"Call me when you read that. Inquiring minds want to know."

She just nodded her head and drove off into the night. As I walked into my house I was overcome with an eerie sensation that I couldn't shake. I couldn't get over what the carnie had said. Just as I had predicted I spent several hours regurgitating all of the carnival food. Grease never sets well with me and yet I always am stupid enough to eat it.

In the morning my mother shaking me vigorously awakened me from a peaceful sleep. "Leave me alone" I mumbled. "Its Saturday there is no school. "

"Alexandria you need to wake up." Her voice was very stern. I sat up in bed and stared at my mother through sleep-crusted eyes. She took my hand in hers and stared at me for a moment. Her own eyes were swollen and I could tell that she had been crying.

"What's wrong Mom?" She stared at me for a moment before she spoke.

" Alex, Carly's dead. After she dropped you off last night she pulled out in front of a semi on Schafer Road. There was nothing that they could do. "

I stared at my mother in shock. I couldn't believe it. Madam Serena had said that tragedy would touch my life but why hadn't she warned Carly? Inside my head I screamed. My lips did not let out a single sound thought. Dead. Carly was dead.

Just then my clock radio went off on my nightstand and James Taylor's voice filled the room. "I've seen lonely days when I could not find a friend," the track seemed to suddenly get stuck there and the word friend began to repeat over and over. It was an eerie sound and I took the radio and threw it across the room. Even unplugged the sound continued. Mom and me both stared at the radio in disbelief. I walked over to the wall and picked it up as if it were a animal ready to attack .I turned it over slowly to find the compartment where the batteries were supposed to be and when I opened it two Energizer batteries fell out. I signed with relief. I had forgotten that I had put batteries in it two months ago when the power kept going out.

I made my mother drive me to the junkyard where they had towed the car the day after the funeral. Maybe this wasn't a wise decision but I felt that I had to do it. I had to prove to myself that she was really dead. There had been no casket at the funeral because of the severity of the accident. There had just been a large picture of Carly that I know she hated. She had been wearing the ugly shirt that her mother had bought for picture day at school.

I had seen her though. After most of the people had left the night of the wake I went back inside and opened the casket. I'll never be able to erase that sight from my mind. Her beautiful face had been shattered. It had looked like my porcelain doll that I had broken when I was five after dad had glued it back together. The top part of her head was missing and they had tried to arrange her hair over it but you could still tell. I had known that she would look bad but even with all the gory movies I had seen nothing had prepared me for this.

My next store neighbor Tom was a policeman and he had been at the accident scene. I had heard him tell my mom that when they had arrived James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" had been playing loudly. The knob from the radio was clutched tightly in Carly's dead fingers when they finally pried her broken body out. The opinion of the police was that she had been messing with the radio and not noticed the semi as she pulled out into the road.

Her car had been completely crushed. There was no way that anyone could have survived that accident. If I had gone home with her that night as I originally was supposed to I would have died too. As I stared at the twisted metal something caught my eye from inside. There wedged between the seat and the stick shift was something white and untouched by the carnage inside the car. I reached inside and grabbed for it. It was the envelope from Madam Serena, still sealed. She had not even opened it yet. True to her word she was waiting till she got home. My mother looked at it curiously but she said nothing.

I waited till we got back home to open it. I sat on my bed staring at it for a few moments. Inside was a small piece of folded paper. As soon as I read the words the paper fluttered from my hands. As I watched it fall to the ground the words began to erase. My breath caught in my throat and I fainted. The words repeated over and over again in my head, Alex Death is not the end!