It's a beautiful night, the cool drizzle, low hanging clouds over the sea, the binoculars mounted to the seawall, the forgotten sound of the breaking waves, the cafe's, shops, a seaward line that conceals the labyrinth of lanes and alleyways that wait behind. Along this, glancing in the windows, shops filled with antiques, nautical is largely the theme, windows swaddled in nettings filled with lobster traps and blown-blue glass floats drifted from China, old binnacles and copper diving helmets, ships wheels, brass portholes, wooden model sloops, telescopes, sextants...
Another, this one filled with mechanical antiques, wind-up birdcages, bird boxes, slot machines, vintage and antique amusements, cast-iron piggy banks that do tricks to encourage thrift, a dog jumps through the hoop to grab the penny and deposit it, the monkey wiggles his ears and rolls his eyes as his hand lifts to eat it, a ghoulish laugh, then a skeleton hand reaches out from a blanket to grab it.
Thrift is best served by not going inside.
But in front, beside the door, she is there.
His other girlfriend.
The Oracle.
The Gypsy Fortune-Teller.
She's not for sale, there merely to lure in the tourists, swart dark painted features, a paste ruby in her brow, carved to be both beautiful and vaguely terrifying.
It's dark and she's sat there alone in her window, bowed over her crystal ball.
He checks his pocket, searches for a coin.
There are adjustments to be made first, dials to be turned, switches to be pulled, a host of obscure symbols he must decide upon before, choose: the phase of the moon, the time of day, the position of the stars, the nature of the question...
The coin rattles.
The crystal ball lights up, she lifts her head and stares blindly forward.
She can't see him, the light inside, it must reflect off of the glass...
It doesn't matter.
She looks into the crystal ball, then then after a moment sits up and slowly pantomimes writing upon a slip of paper with her hand.
A typewritten slip of paper is ejected.
The window, now dark, she's again inscrutable, bent over her crystal ball.
He takes the paper and leaves.