Excited Light

Excerpted from the novel by Lynn Voedisch

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“Take care of your mother. She’s really going to need you now,”
Mrs. Wildwood said.

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“Yes, it’s time to begin,” the woman said, sitting at the head of the table and reaching into her pockets. She pulled out a large pack of cards that she began to shuffle. Allegra began to nudge spellbound Alex away from the dining room.

     Mrs. Wildwood never looked up but boomed in a strangely authoritarian voice: “He may stay. He must stay.” Alex stood rooted to the floor next to the door.

     Allegra looked a little frightened but parked herself in a seat next to Mrs. Wildwood and awaited instructions. The heavy woman continued shuffling and humming until she pulled a single card from the deck.

     “This signifies you,” Mrs. Wildwood said, indicating the Queen of Pentacles, a dark-haired, romantic-looking woman who resembled Allegra most uncommonly. The tarot reader placed the card on the table and plopped the deck down next to it.

     “Take the cards and ask your question,” Mrs. Wildwood demanded in that same low voice. “Shuffle them and concentrate.”

     Allegra grabbed the deck, dropped it and fumbled with the oversized cards, trying to manipulate them as best she could. She looked as if she were thinking with desperate determination. Then she placed the cards down on the table as if they would come to life if handled too roughly.

     “Cut the deck into three piles,” Mrs. Wildwood said in her challenging voice. When the deck was divided, she grabbed the cards with lightning movements and began laying out the reading.

     Alex inched forward as he saw the fronts of the cards: beautiful pictures of chivalrous knights, handsome kings, graceful queens, swirling figures of god-like creatures draped in resplendent robes and attended by fantastic animals. And in the middle, right on top of Allegra’s Queen of Pentacles card, was the Devil, an ugly, ogre-eyed monster who held captives in chains.

     Mrs. Wildwood said nothing while she studied the cards. She simply breathed slowly, in and out, her breath sounding like an aged air pump that someone forgot to turn off.

     She frowned at the cards and pushed herself back from the table. She looked at Allegra’s frantic face and let out a long breath.

     “I only use tarot as a point of reference,” Mrs. Wildwood said. “A way of reaffirming what I already feel inside of me. These cards aren’t magic. They are only symbolic of what’s going on here.” Mrs. Wildwood looked back at the cards.

     “It’s worse than I thought,” she said, tapping the Devil card. “I thought he was simply coming. But he’s here now. And this isn’t the traditional Devil; this is the torment of the mind. It’s extreme service to the self, an unending need to be called inward and away from God and the outside world. It’s a card of that gaping empty hole inside of your soul that refuses to be filled. It’s a card of addiction.”

     Allegra looked as if Mrs. Wildwood had pulled a gun on her. Her skin glowed white and heavy with perspiration in the late evening light. Her hands were shaking.

     “This,” Mrs. Wildwood said, “is the conflict.” She indicated a card depicting a young boy who carried a goblet. “The Page of Cups is pulling against this need to serve the self. Someone has to win.”

     Mrs. Wildwood began to relate the cards to each other. She wove a story from the colored pictures, touching on a lonely past full of shattered dreams. The sage talked of a great guide in Allegra’s life, but didn’t say who this could be.

     Then Mrs. Wildwood poked a doughy finger straight at the card of the future: a wild, dark-haired man rushing at the Queen card with a sword.

     “Here’s a catalyst,” Mrs. Wildwood said. “Here’s the one who will shake this pattern up and put new events into motion. The Knight of Swords is a cruel, heedless man who cares nothing for your feelings. He’ll ruin your life if you let him. He has no mercy and nothing to offer but greedy passion. If you let him take you down, there’s a chance you’ll never get up again.”

     Mrs. Wildwood coughed. “And there’s a chance you’ll not only get back up but rise to grace. This is all up to the cosmos. I’d tell you to stay away from him, but maybe he’s what you need to endure to be freed.”

     Alex let out a small breath, not daring to look at his mother. He knew the page was himself, and he knew that the Devil was sitting on top of his mother, just as the cards showed. He felt the truth of the reading shimmering like a bright light on the shiny dining room table. What Mrs. Wildwood talked about wasn’t fortune-telling but deep wisdom. She said the kind of things that Alex felt in his heart but couldn’t explain to his mother.

     “Is Jack in there?” Alex asked, leaning forward to examine the male cards in the reading.

“Honey!” Allegra objected. But Mrs. Wildwood held up her hand for quiet.

     “No other significant people here,” she said with a slow, ponderous cadence to her voice. “Just three: Allegra, a boy who is wise as a man, and a very dangerous man. I don’t believe your Jack is dangerous.”

     “No, he’s not,” Alex whispered, wishing he could hide behind the tarot reader to escape his mother’s fierce gaze.

     “The events are happening rapidly,” the woman continued, wobbling from side to side to readjust her girth in the uncomfortable antique chair. “If this man hasn’t arrived,” she said, indicating the knight rushing toward them with an unsheathed sword. “He’ll be here soon. Prepare yourself for the chaos and disorder he will cause.”

     Allegra sat with her hand shading her eyes throughout the reading, reaching out at one point to pour some port from the decanter. Mrs. Wildwood waved away her proffered glass. Allegra swirled her own drink and Alex watched the way the red liquid sheathed the crystal goblet, coating the etched designs with a shining, blood-red cloak.

     “Do I get to ask any questions?” Allegra asked, her voice husky. She looked at Mrs. Wildwood like a chastised child.

     “Of course,” the large woman said, pressing her palms to the table like a Las Vegas blackjack dealer. Alex thought that Mrs. Wildwood seemed to enjoy the power her tarot readings gave her over mere mortals.

     “I know who this is,” Allegra said, indicating the wild knight with a shaky little finger. “And he’s not at all easy to put off. He’s not going to just let me walk away.”

     Mrs. Wildwood studied the card with a heavy look of recognition. “No. I can’t imagine he would. His kind is never easy to shake off. Besides, he has many, shall we say, charming, spell-like qualities. You won’t want to walk away.”

     Allegra nodded, swallowing her port with a hard gulp.

     “But be reminded that fate put him here,” Mrs. Wildwood said, pointing at the last card, Judgment, which depicted souls rising from their graves on Judgment Day. “He serves a purpose. If you must go along for the ride, keep an eye on what this will teach you. For the cards promise an awakening, if you are up to the challenge. You’re offered a chance instead of just another hellish encounter.”

     With that, she snatched the cards off the table, piled them together, dropped them in her pocket and stood up. Abruptly, the reading had ended.

     “Well, I certainly hope the weather has cooled off now,” she said, resuming her cheery, chirpy, everyday voice. Giggling, she patted Alex on the top of his head. Suddenly, she bent down and drew her full, flowery-smelling lips to Alex’s ear.

     “Take care of your mother. She’s really going to need you now,” Mrs. Wildwood said with firm authority. “You’ll get through this. They will talk to you at night and tell you how.”

     Alex nodded. Mrs. Wildwood straightened and walked out onto the front stoop.

     “Ooh,” she cooed. “Cool and breezy. Just lovely. See you!”

     Alex watched this unsettling person, who blended silly sentiment and sage-like wisdom in one hulking body. He watched as she made her way down the street in her tiny rust-heap of a car, turning the corner to head directly into the strong, heady wind that blew a strange, new, troubling atmosphere up the street and straight into Alex’s front door.

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Excerpted from Excited Light, a novel by Lynn Voedisch. Published by IUniverse, it is available at www.lynnvoedisch.com and at retail and online bookstores. Lynn Voedisch is the former entertainment writer for the Chicago Sun-Times.

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