Finally Friday. This has been a long week, bad sleep odd dreams. Need coffee so jumping into the prompt kinda fast this morning. Timers set and off we go.
Okay I am going to write the 15 Minute novel post, then pour my coffee, put up next weeks prompts and then I am circling back to this one.
Friday, April 5th: The crushed velvet of the pillow was worn thin.
The crushed velvet of the pillow was worn thin. In many places the fuzzy bits were gone completely and the pillow looked as though it had bald spots. I looked at Kyle. He too had a developing bald spot. ‘I wonder if the pillow tries to hide them as well.’ I thought.
“Leave it,” Kyle hissed. I dropped the pillow on the couch. “Sit and at least stay out of the way.”
I tied not to sigh and I sat down on the settee next to the pillow with bald spots. Kyle turned away from me focused on the table in front. I had a clear view of his bald spot. Today he had tried some sort of spray to hide his pink scalp. It was like spray paint, only fuzzy and brown. It reminded me of the cans of spray snow that my grandmother had been so fond of during the holidays when I was little. I was pretty sure the cans of spray snow were no banned because of the chemicals and wondered f someone found a way to just change the color and repurpose the spray.
Kyle was one of those appearances are everything sort of people and I wondered how he came to be here. This place was a little run down, a little shabby. It was a comfortable lived in sort of shabby though. If it weren’t for some of the showier pieces then I would have been quite comfortable here. In fact if you took away the showier pieces, it would look very much like my apartment.
As the thought occurred to me I looked around. That’s when I realized it was only the showier pieces that looked a little down at the heels. Underneath them was a comfortable living space. ‘Like they only take out the worn velvet when someone like Kyle comes here.
It still didn’t explain to me how Kyle found this place or even why he decided to visit a fortune teller in the first place. I wouldn’t have pegged him as the type. Still he was here and so was I. I found the thought amusing, but I kept my amusement inside. I agreed to come because Kyle was told he needed to bring someone and the person he planned to bring backed out at the last moment for a family emergency.
I knew Kyle from work where our shifts over lapped, but I didn’t know him well and in fact rarely worked with him. Still when he asked if anyone was free, Gina volunteered me and I couldn’t find a way to back out so here I was.
‘A fortune teller on my day off,’ I thought. ‘Does it get much worse?’
We had been waiting for just a few minutes, not long enough to get antsy. I could appreciate the drama of the anticipation. Kyle certainly looked eager. I was eager to get this over with. ‘Relax,’ I told myself. ‘She isn’t going to be the real deal. She won’t be able to tell anything about me,’ I reminded myself. ‘I’m not even here for a reading.’
I was clear on that with Kyle. I would g if he needed someone there, but I wasn’t participating. So I was sitting in the back, next to the velvet pillow with bald spots staring at Kyles spray painted bald spot. That is when the fortune teller arrived. She was dressed as expected in pseudo gypsy style with flowing skirts, a peasant blouse and more scarves than I could count. The look on her face was not what I expected. Underneath her turban her face was pale and one of her earrings looked as though it was torn from the lobe, the ear split and bleeding.
She stumbled forward. Her eyes slid past Kyle to lock into mind. “Bourgoin,” she said, her voice harsh and strained. Then she fell forward not the table where Kyle was hoping to learn his fortune. A knife was sticking out of her back.
Ten til Midnight 