Tarot Illuminates the Future
Beneath the dim light of a four-stool Spanish barroom, Miles shuffled and gingerly spread the deck out before him. He chose three cards and flipped each onto its colorful face.
He looked up at the hanging hams behind the bar, counted them. There were eight. That’s two hams per patron. The single beer tap was shaped like a ham too. There was no mistaking it. These people were into ham.
He glanced down at the three cards, turning over a question in his mind.
Each ham sported a small white plastic cone stuck in its chunkiest, meatiest spot. He wanted to ask the bartender why, but his notion of the Spanish word for “cone” was also a word that meant “cunt” and this gave him pause.
He felt a bit like a grandma, sipping his sherry, musing on Tarot cards. Still, he was intrigued that The Magician, notoriously a card of action, had come up first.
Beside it lay the Three of Pentacles, often associated with determination and focus. It had also come up when he read for a brooding, semi-curious pregnant lady back at the hotel and he relayed to her that it usually points to a momentous task ahead.
The third card made Miles a touch wary. The Ten of Wands connotes difficulty, blockage.
Puzzling over the trio, rolling a sip of the dry fino over his tongue, Miles suddenly stood and walked triumphantly toward the loo.
There, he took a great big satisfying dump.
© Annabelle Strand 2020
