It had been a normal start to the day. She had gotten up and began preparing for her regular appointments – Ms. Baxter, Mrs. Reed, and Mrs. Crosswire. Prunella had dropped out of school in 4th grade to take over her sister's fortune-telling business after her sudden decline into painkiller addiction following a freak falling piano accident.
She had finished with Mrs. Reed, giving her the usual spiel about her lucky numbers and her Chinese word. Prunella got most of her prophesies from fortune cookies. Mrs. Reed had left in tears, as per usual, and Prunella had just broken her 12th cookie of the day when she heard the phone ring.
"Prunella's House of Oracles, Prunella speaking." "Hi darling, this is Mrs. Crosswire. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cancel today, something has come up. I'll still pay you of course, seeing how it's such short notice – I'll have Bailey send a check." The dial tone droned on for a minute as Prunella struggled to catch up. Even as short an interaction with Mrs. Crosswire as that was had left her feeling drained.
"Well, I guess my afternoon's free," Prunella thought, "I guess I'll get to see Frankie a little earlier today." She smiled at the thought of it, picturing her lover's soft, red sweater, her lank hair, her extreme overbite..."Ooh, I need some air, it's getting hot in here," Prunella blushed.
She made her way over to Francine's apartment, taking out the key she wore as a pendant and turning it in the door. As she stepped inside, she saw a pair of Gucci pumps strewn haphazardly in the living room. Confused, she couldn't quite place where she recognized them from.
"Frankie, are you there?" She heard a rustling from Francine's room down the hall. Moving closer, she called out again. "Francine?" she asked, entering the room.
She was greeted by the sight of her Francine, lying naked in her bed, clutching the sheet to her chest. "Prunella? What are you doing here, you're not supposed to be here for another two hours?" Francine sputtered, nervously.
"The Wicked Witch cancelled, so I came to see you, baby. I love-" Prunella was cut off by the sound of a sneeze that came from Francine's closet.
"Francine? Is someone else here?" Prunella asked, puzzled. "I…I didn't want you to find out this way," Francine said, on the verge of tears. Prunella slowly made her way to the closet, placing one foot in front of the other almost mechanically. Her arm shaking, she moved to open the door.
Mrs. Crosswire stood in front of her, surrounded by coats and shoes, wearing nothing but a smirk. From behind her, she could hear Francine's wrenching sobs as she crumpled in shame.
Prunella blinked. She wasn't quite sure of what she was seeing; she couldn't process this information. It didn't seem real.