Flipping over the tea cup to read her next clients fortune in the left over tea leaves, Parvati Patil gasped and dropped the cup. The client frowned at her with suspicion written in his sceptical eyes.
"What?" he asked, his voice filled with sarcasm "is it bad? Am I going to die?"
Parvati looked up and her eyes widened, he was a handsome young man, his fiancé had dragged him along to have their fortunes read and he had been cynical about the whole thing.
Beware the Grim echoed through her head, a remnant of a time long since passed.
"This is the omen of death" she told the young man "The Grim is a sign that great suffering is due to you, you must be cautious and aware as you move forward."
The young man blinked at her and scoffed, he threw twenty dollars on the table and got up to leave.
"Of course I'm going to die, it wouldn't be a good fortune telling if you didn't tell me I was going to die."
Parvati didn't laugh, she didn't find it funny, not at all, and it was actually quite an awful thing to bear witness to.
"It doesn't mean death will come directly to you, but it will affect your life in a way that can never be altered, I am so sorry." She felt as if she would cry.
She got up and bustled him out of her little room into the waiting area and hustled he and his fiancé out the door before either could protest. Then she went out the back to her tearoom and she cried, because no one wanted to be touched by the Grim.
Six Months Later
Daniel Bishop did not believe in fortune telling. Not at all. But three months ago, when he watched the casket of his wife being lowered into the newly dug grave, he wondered if perhaps he ought to open his mind to the possibility of more. After being told that death would touch him in a way that would alter his life, he thought perhaps that fortune lady had some merit.
Daniel felt himself hesitate on the doorstep, but he took a deep breath and pushed himself forward, he had to know if this lady was legit or if she was just a quack.
"Hello!" he cried out, "Anyone here?"
"Just a second!" came the voice of the fortune lady from her little room out the back.
She came out wiping her hands on an old rag but as she looked up to greet him the smile died from her eyes, and instead a sense of dread and awareness took its place.
"May I ask who?" she said
"My Wife." He replied.
"I'm terribly sorry." She told him, "Can I give you a free reading?"
"Why not?" he said and followed her into her little room.
"How did you know?" he asked her, wanting more than anything to believe it was just a fluke.
"It was written in your leaves." She replied mysteriously, "Give me your hands."
He held out his hand to let her read his palm, he felt calm as her soft fingers traced the lines of his palm.
"The good news is you will move on and find happiness, but you will be apprehensive about it, understandable really, try to open your heart to new love, it will get better. I have never lost a lover, but I lost many friends and it seems only yesterday that my best friend was beside me laughing as we studied divination together, but she is in the next realm now, I like to think she is still here, often times I'll find that my Lavender plants are in full bloom, I think she makes it happen, your wife is gone, it's been a quarter of a year, so not too long ago, there is a definite break in your heart line, but see how it carries on here, you will find an even greater love, but you won't understand it until later into the relationship, my you have a strong lifeline, you will grow very old before you pass on and I see that you also have a successful money line, so you are not poor. Well I think that's all I can pick up from you right now, but if you want I can read your tea leaves again?"
Daniel stared at her in shock, maybe this wasn't so crazy after all, maybe he could believe.
"No to the reading of the leaves but perhaps you might light to drink tea with me sometime? None of my friends understand my loss, it would be nice to talk about it to someone who understands and doesn't pity me."
"I would love that." Replied Parvati, smiling kindly
The lavender in the garden was in full bloom, despite it being out of season.
Parvati stretched a long wrinkled hand out to pick a sweet smelling flower, bring it to her nose to appreciate the scent. It had been so long since she had seen her friend, but she knew she would be seeing her soon. Daniel came toddling out of their little house, letter in hand, mumbling about one of the great-great-grandkids getting up to no good at school. Parvati sat in a rocker and held her hand out to him when he did the same. It had taken three years for him to pluck up the courage to ask her to be more than a friend, but once he had it had been magical ever since, in more ways than one. She held onto his hand as the wind gently rocked them on their chairs and she closed her eyes, appreciating the world around her, when she opened them her best friend was standing before both her and Daniel, smile on her face, hands held out to them, they took her hands and stood, leaving their earthly bodies behind and they followed Lavender into the next realm, and so the Grim had come and had brought death with it, but in this death, there was nothing grim.