Page 37 of Possibly Texas

I stared down at the reddish-orange miniature circus tent. From having seen it on previous days, I knew that the flaps were probably open on the side facing away from us, so I wasn’t able to look inside and see the oddly dressed woman beckoning us. A chill ran up my spine but I did my best to hide its effects from Auguste.

“I don’t know, Auguste. I—”

“Auggie,” he said.

“Huh?”

“Everyone really calls me ‘Auggie’ around here.”

“Oh,” I said, “I don’t really believe in that stuff, Auggie.”

“Why not?”

“Like…witchcraft and hoodoo and Voodoo and stuff?” I shrugged. “It just seems silly, right? Even if it’s free.”

Auggie chuckled.

“You really are kind of a stick in the mud, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Hey.” I nudged him, slightly annoyed, though I covered it with a smile.

“What’s it hurt?” He shrugged. “Let Mystic Molly tell you what your future holds. Even if she’s wrong, it costs you nothing. And you had a new experience.”

“I guess,” I mumbled. “It’s just silly.”

“There’s nothing wrong with silly.” Auggie nudged me and took off, skipping towards the circus tent at the end of the street.

My feet refused to move for several moments, but finally I was able to get them moving in the right direction, and I was following after the boy in the bright orange clam diggers and pearl necklace. I jogged alongside him as he skipped merrily towards the weird woman’s tent, wondering why I was following along on such a weird excursion. It wasn’t that I was scared or anything—or even superstitious—the woman was just…weird. Just like everyone else in town. Honestly, I also didn’t really want to know what my future held.

What if it was bad?

Due to the size of downtown Possibly, I really didn’t have to consider what visiting Mystic Molly could mean, or whether or not I was a nonbeliever or just scared. Within seconds we were skipping and jogging around the perimeter of Mystic Molly’s tent, drawing closer to the opening on the other side. As we drew closer to the open flaps on the other side of the tent, my nose picked up on the smell of an unusual scent in the air. I’d never gotten close enough to the tent to know if the mystic in the tent was burning incense or anything, but it quickly became clear that she did enjoy incense—like most mystics.

When Auggie and I had reached the opening, my eyes immediately landed on the woman sitting behind the table in the dimly lit tent. Once again, she was wearing a heavy dress with long sleeves and a shawl was draped over her shoulders. Long, flowing dark hair cascaded down her shoulders and her eyes sparkled out at us as we crept up to the opening of her business. Auggie approached the open flaps with the confidence of someone without a fear in the world. I, on the other hand, felt overwhelmed by the sight of the woman in her dark tent and the unique smell emanating from within it.

At first, it was as though she only saw Auggie as he ducked into the opening of the tent, her smile just for him as he approached. But then her eyes landed on me, and a look of what seemed like concern clouded her face just long enough for me to catch it. A smile overtook her face, a correction once she realized that her expression was uninviting—and possibly telegraphing how this mystic reading was going to go.

Auggie seemed to be perfectly at ease in Mystic Molly’s tent, as though maybe he had visited her plenty of times before. His friendly, cheerful manner and willingness to talk to anyone aside, it wasn’t hard to imagine that this was the reason for his ease in approaching the woman. He’d lived in Possibly for his whole life. Obviously, he had encountered Mystic Molly at least once over the years, right? Even if we hadn’t been formally introduced, I’d seen the woman twice in less than a week.

“Welcome, gentlemen.” Mystic Molly gestured slowly towards the chairs across the table from her; her arms moved languidly, as though she had taken a muscle relaxer thirty minutes before we had arrived.

“Hello,” Auggie replied and slid into the seat on the left. “How are you?”

Gingerly, I eased into the seat on the right, my eyes staying on the woman across the table from us.

“I’m well, Auggie,” Molly replied. “How are you today?”

“I’m good.” Auggie shifted happily in his seat. The kid was a bundle of energy, which, again, made me wonder about his mood the previous day. “This is Jordan.”

Molly’s eyes shifted over to me, and in the dim light, her dark eyes seemed almost black, though they seemed to sparkle at the same time. As though scanning everything around them, processing what they saw, extracting information to be used in her readings, her eyes were a bit creepy. Sure, she was smiling at me, and she’d been nothing but welcoming from the moment we walked into her tent, but she still creeped me out.

“Hello, Jordan,” Molly said. “Nice to meet you.”

She slid her hand across the table, pointy black tips for nails coming towards me, and I tentatively took it, giving it a quick shake. I’d always been told that handshakes should be firm and confident, but I couldn’t bring myself to hold onto Molly’s hand for long. A cursory shake was all that I could manage with the butterflies I felt in my stomach.

I couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with me. Molly seemed mostly normal. She didn’t have a horn growing out of her head or anything; there weren’t spirits floating around her head, waiting to be summoned for her reading.

Maybe I was more superstitious than I knew?