In the back of a small shop called The Apothecary, a small door led to a little old lady who had seen better years. Her wrinkles were set deep into her cheeks, and her skin was weathered. She sat in her old chair covered in blankets that had been hand-woven by children in her native country. She wasn't American, but she had been in America for two decades. It still wasn't enough time to erase her Slavic accent. She was always cold, even with the small space heater on full-blast. She wrapped one of the multi-colored blankets more tightly around herself as she waited for her last customer of the day.
Amanda Joiner walked slowly through the shop, which contained a wide range of gift items, magazines, and a wide range of herbal medicines that most people had never heard of nor needed. She glanced at rows of candles and large buckets of various crystals, her dark hair in tightly woven braids. Amanda rarely got out of the house these days, so she wasn't used to this part of town. She looked around for the small doors that the lady had described on the phone.
Amanda was desperate. She had never tried a psychic healer before, but she was hoping that maybe this one would be able to help her. It wasn't like she'd done much research. She just called the first number that came up on her internet search of "Cheap Psychic Readings."
The store clerk was an overweight woman with a bit of a mustache and poor fashion sense. She paused to watch Amanda look around before greeting her.
"Hello, can I help you?" the clerk asked, pushing thick glasses up higher onto the bridge of her nose.
"I'm looking for Vesna?" Amanda said with an unintentional lilt of a question.
"Though those old doors in the back," the clerk pointed in a direction and went back to looking down at whatever she had been doing before Amanda arrived.
"Thanks." Amanda walked toward the doors and felt a bit of fear. She probably would have turned back around and walked out of the shop if she hadn't just asked the clerk to direct her to the psychic. She slowly pulled at one of the doors and it opened with a loud creak.
"Good luck in there," the clerk gave a fake smile.
"Thanks?" Amanda called as she walked inside and then gingerly closed the door behind her.
"I've been expecting you," a deep female voice, full of rasp and wear called to her.
"You...you have?" Amanda stared at the woman, shocked to see her wrapped in several blankets. She was a tiny, shrunken, older woman, her hair wispy and gray and her eyes filled with notes of wisdom.
"Yes. Sit down. I have to tell you things about things."
"What things?" Amanda looked confused as she looked at the chair that sat in front of the woman. A thick layer of dust coated the seat of the chair as if it hadn't been cleaned in decades.
"But it's dirty," Amanda tried to explain.
"Just sit down!" the woman's accent was thick, but Amanda understood. She slowly sat down on the edge of the chair, trying her best not to sit on it entirely.
"I know things about you," Vesna stared Amanda down. "You need to pay first, and then I do your reading."
"Fine." Amanda pulled out her credit card and cringed as she looked at the total. She couldn't believe she had come here and that she was spending money on trying to fix an impossible problem in her life. Now that she was here, she was having second thoughts. How could this woman possibly know anything about her life? She almost cringed as she signed her signature on the receipt.
"Now it is time for you to understand something about me," Vesna began. I knew you were coming today because you called me, but I knew you would contact me before you found my phone number. You could say I've known you were going to call me since the day you were born."
"From the day I was born? That doesn't make sense. You couldn't possibly have known me," Amanda was starting to think that the old woman had lost her mind.
"It's been a while since you had sex with your boyfriend. Mitch, right?" Vesna stared Amanda down again, willing her to believe in her abilities.
"How do you know about Mitch?" Amanda thought about what she had posted on social media. Surely that was how the old lady was doing this. She had googled Amanda before the meeting so she would have the advantage.
"I know you don't believe in me or my abilities, so let me prove to you that I know you. I know that you and Mitch have only had sex about twenty-five times since you've been dating, which is about three years. Isn't that right?"
"Yeah," Amanda sighed, unable to process how much this woman knew. Vesna had just proven she knew facts about Amanda's life that she could not have found on the internet. Amanda felt a deep fear inside of her that shook her to her core. Who was this woman, and how did she know so much? "How do you know all this stuff about me?"
"I see past the mind and into the heart and soul. Plus, I sold my soul a long time ago so that I can see into yours. I don't recommend doing it. You get to missing your soul when it isn't there," Vesna's eyebrows raised. "I know just the spell for you. Hold on."
Vesna walked across the room, shucking her blankets onto her empty chair as she hobbled slowly toward a set of shelves. She looked through the items, picking up a candle here, a jar there. She carefully picked some crystals and began to arrange them in front of Amanda on a small table.
"Is this like a Tarot reading?" Amanda asked
"No, Amanda. This is a wet spell. It will bring you plenty of sex with Mitch. Isn't that why you came here today?" Vesna stared her down, pausing with the final crystal in her shriveled hand. It was purple, probably amethyst.
"Um, yes! But how do you know that?"
"I know the things in your soul because they whisper to me. I know the problem, and I have a solution. You paid for it, but you must listen closely. Failure to execute the wet spell properly can have disastrous results."
