Part 1 may be hard to find. Here's a link:
http://www.lcficmbs.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/topics/261122#Post261122“I'm not here to have fun,” Lois grumbled.
The powdered sugar on her face and hands were a testament to the fact that what she was saying wasn't entirely true. Beignets were made fresh and hot, and she'd always had a weakness for French pastries.
“If you're just going to be a buzzkill I don't know why you even bothered to come,” Lucy said irritably. “I want to listen to jazz music and drink Hurricanes and Hand grenades.”
Lois carefully wiped the sugar from her lips. “You aren't old enough to drink legally.”
“I didn't see anybody carding the people walking down the street,” Lucy said sullenly.
They were sitting in a small open air cafe in the French Quarter. A woman with a guitar was playing in the distance, and the sun was setting in the distance. They were near the Mississipi river, although they couldn't see it from here because of a raised levy.
“We should get back to thew hotel,” Lois said.
“We've barely got here!” Lucy said.
“The library is closed,” Jenna said. “What else are you going to do? Go back to the room and stare at the ceiling?”
“Besides,” Lucy said. “If you don't go with me, I'll slip out after you go to sleep.”
Lois scowled. Lucy was just stupid enough to do something like that.
“Fine. But we aren't staying up all night, and we aren't getting hammered.”
**************
Lois was hammered.
Her head spinning, Lois carefully took another step.
She never should have let Lucy talk her into trying the hand grenade. Apparently the drink came in a container shaped like a hand grenade for a reason. It didn't taste that strong at all, just like melon.
Or it could have been the horny alligator drink. The cup had been cute, in the shape of an alligator.
No, it was probably the hand grenades. It hadn't been until after her second one that someone had mentioned that they had two to three times the alcohol of a long island iced tea.
It wasn't like she was a terribly experienced drinker. Growing up as she had, with a mother who lived as much in a bottle as at home with them, she'd always been a little leery of letting go that way.
Yet there was something about this place that made her feel a little wild. It reminded her a little of that one weekend she'd gone across the channel to Paris during her Irish exchange days. She'd always loved the feel of the old European cities.
They had the weight of time, the feeling that all you had to do was turn the right corner and you'd slip backward into another era.
She could feel that here, as she stepped carefully around someone who was sitting against a wall. She couldn't tell if they were homeless or just drunk, but long Metropolis experience kept her carefully out of arm's reach.
“It's getting a little dark,” she mumbled.
Hadn't they been warned not to go into the darker parts of the French Quarter by night? She'd been told that as long as they stayed with the crowd the worst they were likely to deal with were pickpockets.
“Lucy?” she said, glancing back.
Neither her sister nor her friend were behind her. She felt her heart drop.
If it was dangerous for three women together to be alone in the dark, it was even worse for a woman on her own.
It took her a moment to focus, realizing that she could see them half a block back. They'd stopped at a lighted entrance.
Stepping carefully around the person on the ground, Lois made her way back to the others. It worried her to realize that she was the most sober out of the three of them.
“Lois!” her sister said. “Look what we found!”
A woman was sitting on a small bench, her back to the door. The establishment was closed, presumably for the night.
The woman wore a handkerchief on her head and numerous cheap rings on her fingers. She was portly and dark skilled, and she was laying out cards on the table.
“What did I tell you about three card monte?” Lois asked. Metropolis had its share of street hustlers and she'd have thought Lucy would have learned better by now, and if not Lucy, then her friend.
“She's a Tarot reader!”
Lois scowled. In her mind, psychics were even worse than other street hustlers. At least gambling games gave at least the appearance of a chance of winning. Psychics just took money and gave vague predictions.
“What did she tell you?” Lois asked, seeing Lucy forking over thirty dollars.
“She said that I'd meet my prince, but I'd probably kiss a few frogs first.”
Anyone could have made that prediction after talking to Lucy for just a couple of minutes.
“It's a two for one deal,” Lucy said.
Noticing the look Lucy gave her, Lois shook her head. “I'm tired. Why don't you take it, Jenna?”
Jenna grinned. “I already got my palm read.”
Lois swayed for a moment.
As Lucy stood up, Lois realized that the chair she had just vacated looked awfully inviting.
“We don't have time for all the tarot rigamarole,” Lois said. She gingerly settled into the seat; somehow just the act of sitting was much more challenging than she would have expected.
She stuck her hand out, palm up.
The woman looked at her with a jaded expression. Lois wondered how long it was before she tried to get more money out of them.
Before Lois could snatch her hand back, the woman grabbed her hand with a surprisingly strong grip.
She stiffened, and for a moment Lois thought she saw a genuine look of surprise in the other woman's eyes. The other woman quickly schooled her expression into something more neutral as she took Lois's other hand and stared at it for a long moment.
“Your lifeline is interrupted,” she said. “Your right hand shows what you were born with, and your left what you've accumulated throughout your lives. It shows what could be, but not necessarily what will be.”
Always good to insure the rubes didn't blame the psychic if what they foretold didn't come to pass.
“You aren't interested in romance,” the woman said. “But it wasn't always so, and it won't always be so.”
Cryptic...typical, Lois thought.
“You love adventure, and you're willing to risk much...life and limb, but when it comes to matters of the heart you are more cautious. You have been hurt before and you worry that if you give your heart again it will be shattered into a thousand pieces.”
Just how much had Lucy told the woman? Lois scowled and tried to pull her hands back, but the woman held onto her left hand tightly, letting go of the right.
The woman traced a line in her palm. “Not everyone has a destiny line, but you...I've never seen one so deep. It says that your life is deeply controlled by fate.”
Lois pulled her hand away. “I make my own fate.”
The woman leaned forward. “He's been waiting a long time for you, the man in your dreams. The time will be soon, but there will be great danger.”
Lois stood up suddenly and regretted it. Her head spun uneasily.
“I suppose you're going to tell me I'm going to meet Mr tall, dark and handsome, and he'll sweep me off my feet?”
“You mock, but it'll be soon. He'll find you.”
For a moment Lois debated demanding her sister's money back, but she suddenly felt tired. There wasn't any point in arguing with a woman who was either a charlatan or delusional.
“Let's go,” she said, grabbing Jenna and her sister and turning away.
“He'll have a golden touch,” the woman called out after her.
Lois felt a sudden chill as she realized that the woman hadn't said that she'd meet the man of her dreams. She'd said Lois would meet the man IN her dreams.
She'd never told a soul about her dreams of King Midas.
Turning to demand what the woman knew she was shocked to see that the woman, her tiny table and both folding chairs were gone as though they'd never existed.
