Carromancy
::3rd Person Point of View::
"C-Carroomoncy? What's that?" a little girl with long brown hair and even curiouser brown eyes looked to an older girl with curly black hair and eyes the shade of a green forest. Both young girls wore uniforms from different schools, whilst they sat on the floor in the living room of their home, several candles and cardboard surrounding them.
"Caromancy, Mai. It means candle reading." the dark-haired school girl spoke quietly as she held a book in hand and a match box in the others. The little girl, Mai, watched as the other read the book in her hand. It looked like a difficult book to Mai, and she wanted to know what candle reading did. Did it looked pretty? What did it do? How do you do it? Mai wanted to know everything.
"Mei, what is that book?" little Mai asked. The dark-haired school girl looked down at Mai. Mei smiled, "It's a book about how to understand candle reading."
Placing the book down, Mei lit a match and lit the candles on the cardboard along the floor. A bowl full of water sat near the girls, and Mei gently grabbed the bowl after blowing out the match.
"You light a candle, then carefully place it halfway in the bowl full of water. The wax will overflow into the water once I take a toothpick and poke holes around the candle." Mei explained placing the largest, tallest candle into the bowl of water and then pulling out a few toothpicks near her. "Then you watch as the melted candle wax falls into the water, and the wax and water will separate creating shapes and patterns. You can read the shapes and pattern to tell the future or your fortune."
Staring at the candle as it melts slowly, Mai watches transfixed as she spoke quietly, "Are you going to read your future, Mei?"
Shaking her head, "It doesn't work on the person who is doing the reading. I'm going to do your fortune, Little Bird." Mei quirked her lips into a smile as she looked to Mai. Mai returned the same bright smile, happy.
"You're going to read my fortune?" Mai was both happy and awed by how great Mei was. She could do anything, as long as she put her mind to it. Something Mai had difficulty doing, but Mei would always stop and carefully show Mai how to do something.
"Yes. Now, Little Bird, we must sit quietly. You remember this game right? We're going to clear our minds and relax." Mei said instructing Mai how to sit. Mai remembered how to do this, it always helped her when she was frustrated or couldn't think very well or when the bad things made her scared.
Mei had shown her how to clear her mind, and relax. Mei also had shown Mai how to imagine a big, strong, tall and protective wall around Mai. Mai didn't understand, but she followed Mei's instructions and did it anyways. Mai always felt like she couldn't feel any of the bad things anymore when she did it.
Even when Mai got older, she still never understood why she did those relaxing things, but it always made her feel better.
It was quiet for a very long time when Mai had closed her eyes, and start clearing her mind, relaxing. It took a long time for Mai to do that, but once she had done it, it was like she could see herself, but not.
Mai watched Mei as she also sat quietly before opening her eyes and taking a toothpick, gently poking holes in it. Mai watched fascinated by Mei and the wax falling out of the candle.
Shapes and patterns started forming, and Mai watched as Mei picked up another book, a little notepad she always wrote in, and carefully wrote something down, Mai wasn't too sure. Whenever she was curious and tried it was like Mei became blurry and something blocked Mai from trying.
"Mai...Little Bird…You can open your eyes now." Mei spoke to the meditating Mai. Opening her eyes, Mai realized she had done it again, she had watched Mei work from outside of her body, but she didn't know what it was.
"How do you feel?" Mei asked looking over at Mai.
Mai felt oddly relaxed and strongly felt a sense of safety. Something she always felt around Mei, Mai smiled, "A little tired, but I feel better than ever! Mai feels good. Mei what did my future say?" Mai asked a million questions running through her mind.
Blinking, Mei smiled, "You have a wonderful future! You'll do lots of interesting things!" Mei spoke enthusiastically like she was trying to hide something, and she seemed to convince Mai nothing was wrong with her future.
Later that evening when Mai finally went to bed, Mei sat in front of the melted candle board. Looking at the dried patterns and shape in the still water, Mei frowned.
She didn't lie when she said Mai would have an interesting future, but she seemed to leave out the saddest part. The that would leave.
Feeling sadness envelope her mind, Mei began cleaning up the mess, her mind a little blank as she let silent tears fall along her face. Once she had gathered everything and taken care of it, she sat down on a couch in the living, it was late and she worked on her homework.
Hearing a familiar click of the front door, and a clack of it shutting as a quiet noise of movement stepped closer. A woman of dark brown hair with tired eyes stepped into the living room setting her purse down near a little in table.
Looking up, "Oh, Mei, your still up. Don't you have school tomorrow?" the woman spoke. Shaking her head Mei spoke quietly, "I do, but I needed to get some work done. Don't worry, I'll go to bed soon."
Nodding, the woman headed to a room further away from Mei, disappearing into the room waving out a goodnight. Watching the woman disappear behind the door, Mei felt the sadness well up in her all over again.
She would miss her, Aunt Taniyama, she was a great Aunt and would always be a mother in Mei's eyes.