"Um . I . I just . . ."
"You look upset," she said. "Please," she added pointing to the seat by the table. "Rest a moment and tell me what troubles you."
"I'm lost," 1 said. "I'm new here and I don't remember how to get back to my apartment complex."
"Which complex, my dear?" she asked, her smile soft and friendly. She looked to be about fifty and not much more than five feet tall.
"The Egyptian Gardens," I said.
"You're not very lost. Just go down two streets, make a left and you'll run into it after about ten minutes. I think there's more troubling you though, isn't there?"
I nodded and gazed around her shop.
"I have a friend in New York City who has a crystal shop and who does astrological readings for people. Her name's Holly."
"That's interesting," Madam Marlene said, and a knowing twinkle came into her eyes. "You really came in here because you wanted to know something, yes?" she pursued, her head tilted slightly and her eyes even more luminous as the dim overhead light caught them in its warm glow.
I thought a moment and then nodded.
"I wanted to know if someone I loved would ever return to me," I said.
She nodded as if she had always known I would show up on her doorstep.
"Sit down. Please," she said.
"I just left my apartment quickly," I said. "I don't have any money on me."
"Oh, that's all right," she said. "You can send me something later." She sat at her table, motioning for me to sit down across from her. She reached out immediately and took my right hand into her hands and held it, closing her eyes. Then she nodded to herself and looked down at my open palm.
"You have already been on quite a rugged road," she said, "with many twists and turns. Your life has more valleys than most, but I see some very high places too. I see you have lost loved ones, yes?"
"Yes."
"Yet you have strong energy. What is your name?"
"Melody."
"I see music in you, yes. This person, this loved one who is lost has been lost for a while."
"Yes," I said.
She looked at my hand again and then she reached out to touch the locket Billy Maxwell had given me. She turned it in her fingers a moment.
"Lapis lazuli. Someone you like very much and someone who likes you very much gave it to you." "That's right," I said.
"You are like a comet, something beautiful and full of energy floating through space, searching . . . searching for a home, your real home."
"I am," I said, excited that she seemed to know so much about me.
"Someone you're searching for is coming," she said, closing her eyes again. Seconds later she opened them, and this time there was no smile on her lips. "Where you are looking for love, there is no love. You will have to change direction. But don't worry. Your energy is too strong to be defeated. Do not be afraid to turn toward the darkness, for often what we think is sunlight is merely the reflection coming from our own glow. Do not look for love in the usual places," she concluded and sat back as if reading my palm, feeling my energy and predicting my life had exhausted her.
"Thank you," I said standing, uncertain if I'd be able to follow her advice.
"Oh, it's my pleasure. It's always a pleasure to read a heart as big as yours. Here," she said opening a drawer in the desk to pluck out a business card. "This has my address. I usually get twenty dollars, but you can send me fifteen."
"Thank you," I said, taking the card from her wrinkled hand.
"Your locket will bring you much luck on your journey. Keep it with you always," she called as I went to the door.