Opening Notes

The working title for this story is "Billy's Suffixes" because each chapter is titled "Billy -" This is something you will understand at a later time. The true title is what it is listed under: "After the Storm" which is another thing you will come to understand later in the story. Please, bear with my strangeness for a chapter or two.

All of the characters, with one exception, are based on real people. I have, to the best of my ability, tried to keep all the interactions between characters as realistic and lifelike as possible. I will be the first to admit that my dialogues tend to get very dry, and keeping to real-person-reactions helps me avoid that. Many of my conversations influence those in the story directly, and I chose to leave them mostly uncensored. This is most of the reason this story is rated as highly as it is. There is no sex, so if that is what you came to see, please return the way you entered.

And now that all of that is out of the way, thank you for reading this far and please continue on to the real prologue.

Billy's Prologue

Kate sat at the kitchen table, her short bob of hair falling into her young face as she shuffled the red and gold cards in front of her. Bob, his round frame standing by the stove as he cooked, was watching from the corner of his eye.

"You've been doing that a lot lately," he said slowly as Kate cut the cards.

The girl at the table was counting through the deck now, picking out cards and placing them in a particular circle. "Yeah, well, I did a few readings a while ago, but I kept getting the same couple of cards, no matter which spread I did or what I was asking about. The only difference was when I asked specifically about Patrick and me."

Bob didn't say anything to that. He was skeptical at best of things like tarot readings, and when you threw in the fact that Kate was using a fictional deck of cards, he found the practice to be incredibly sketchy. But Kate ignored his silence and began to flip over cards now that she had laid them all out.

"Look at this," she was saying as Bob stirred his sauce. "The Twin is upside down in the problem position. This one confuses me, because it's saying that my problem is that I'm not working cooperatively with someone, and that it's bringing me bad luck. The Twin usually represents you or Caryn in a spread. But I wasn't asking anything that should involve the two of you."

Bob mumbled wordlessly as Kate continued. "But the second card, the cause of the problem, is The Dream. This one means that our sixth sense is good, and we can get information from premonitions and dreams. The third card, which represents past problems that relate to the current one, is the Fly. It's upside down, so that means the meaning behind it reversed. Normally it means a chance at growth or glory, but reversed it signifies stagnation and lack of progress. The next card, the Cloud, is surrounding circumstances. But this card means that my ability to make wise decisions is questioned, and that I need to relax. I'm uptight, and as long as I remain optimistic and make the right choices, I'll feel more at ease."

"You know, at risk of sounding rude, I've gotta ask you why you think this interests me." Bob began to drain the water from his spaghetti as he spoke.

"Because it involves you somehow," Kate replied as she studied the cards, "and I think you should know that."

There was no hiding the blatantly skeptical tone. "Really."

"This one, The Little, is the solution to the problem. It's a small but meaningful transformation. Taking small steps will help alleviate the anxiety from The Cloud."

"Okay…."

"The keyword, or the important thing to remember, that's The Glow. It's a symbol of good luck, signs that our fortune is improving. And after that, the obstacle is The Thunder. So you have to be careful of controlling your emotions and making sure you stay true to yourself. The future of the problem is nothing bad, which is good. The Dark means that our energy is running low, so we need to take a break and just let things flow. But it also means we need to save our energy for the next step."

Bob was growing frustrated as he placed the pasta and meatballs on the table with the sauce he had just concocted. "Okay, seriously. Why do you keep dragging me into this reading? I thought you said you hadn't asked anything about me."

"I didn't, and I'm not dragging you in. All of these cards can represent more than just me, especially someone that I'm very close to and work extensively with. I hardly see Caryn any more unless it's with you. Patrick is always represented by The Sweet or The Sand. Corey rarely factors into any of my readings. That leaves you."

"Okay, fine, whatever. But how can you pick out which cards target who specifically?"

"They each have their own connotation. It's hard to describe, and it's not like you'll believe me anyway."

"Continue, then."

"This one here…" Kate forged on without another comment, "The Snow is in the end result position. It's a new beginning, a change in attitude. That's good, it means that we're wrapping up whatever it was and moving on to something different. "

"So what's that last card?" Bob asked, more for Kate's benefit than his own.

"This is what other people see the problem as: The Windy, a time of change and activity. It's a good chance to get information, but be careful we don't hurt anyone."

"And all this has to do with me how?"

"I don't know," Kate said, staring at the cards. "I really don't know. I mean, I could be reading them wrong, it's happened before. But even if I am, and it's something completely other, this is the strangest spread I've ever encountered."

There was silence for a minute as Kate continued to contemplate the cards laid out before her and Bob just watched. "Well," He said suddenly, reaching for the pasta spoon, "I'm hungry and this food won't stay warm forever."