Ask The Cards A Question
Rachel dropped by Phoebe's apartment to let her know that she was leaving.
'Are you feeling better, Rach?' Phoebe asked anxiously when she saw her
at the door. She knew perfectly well what kind of turmoil Rachel
was in.
'I'm going to London,' Rachel announced. 'I'm going to tell Ross how I feel.'
'Oh,' Phoebe said, taken aback.
'That's great isn't it? That's what I'm supposed to do.'
'Sure Rach,' Phoebe said, startled by her sudden decisiveness. 'I
mean, you're sure about this?' Encouraging Rachel to own up to the
truth about her feelings had seemed a good idea, when there was no
danger of anything happening, but she realised now that a disaster
loomed. It could all get very ugly very quickly if Rachel turned
up and made her announcement. After all, for one thing, it wasn't
guaranteed that Ross would feel the same way. And what if she
made her announcement in front of Emily? She was going to have to
warn them, or someone, to do something.
'I've never more sure about anything,' Rachel said firmly. 'I've
been deceiving myself all this time. I love Ross, I admit it, and
now it's time to do something about it, before it's too late.'
Rachel bit her lip. It had better not be too late. 'It
won't be too late,' she said.
Rachel was busy packing and there wasn't much that Phoebe could do to help so she sat at home at a table and started arranging cards. She'd had these out the night before and she gathered them up now, shuffled them and started to think what she wanted to know. She could not ask if Ross loved Rachel – she had already asked that question and they had said yes, but that could be friend love, so that answer hadn't helped.
Would Rachel actually break up the wedding?
That seemed to be the key question. If she didn't, Rachel's cause was hopeless – poor thing, and all she would do was cause trouble – trouble that might lose her Ross's friendship. Trouble that might divide Monica's loyalties. Phoebe shuddered. They needed to avoid that kind of ugliness but something had to be done for Rachel, if possible.
Phoebe thought of Rachel's face, shorn of any pretence and vulnerable. It was tragic to discover who your true love was when he was no longer with you. The cynical, streetwise side of herself, the side that had allowed her to survive in the lean years, had something to say at this point, but Phoebe ruthlessly suppressed it, as the cards tumbled out of her hands. She would find out the answer and hope that this would guide her to the correct course of action.
She picked the cards up, and gathered them back into a pile. She would see first if Rachel would stop the wedding. She arranged the cards quickly, put the unused cards to one side and looked at the pattern. Secretly, she had feared an inconclusive answer, one that her imagination would have to supplement, as occurred more times than she would admit to anyone, but here it was plain to see. She'd never had such a direct answer.
The wedding would not take place.
She sat back in her chair. It would all work out for the best, there'd be no wedding, they'd come back home and…
But what if the wedding was stopped because Rachel made a scene and Emily called it off? That wouldn't mean that Ross had acknowledged his feelings towards Rachel - in fact quite the reverse. He might turn on her, see her as his enemy for ruining his wedding.
So Phoebe asked another question.
Ross would not be mad at Rachel.
Phoebe breathed a sigh of relief. She would stop the wedding, her two friends would find happiness in each other, and everyone would be happy. Possibly Emily wouldn't be happy – Phoebe allowed herself to think of Emily's welfare, now that it was confirmed her wedding was doomed. She must have a true love somewhere else, that would be the answer. Everyone had one, somewhere and she needed to be free for him, whether she knew it or not. What was that saying – you had to be cruel to be kind?
She looked at the rest of the pattern to see what it showed, but there was nothing to show the short term and long term consequences of the action. Instead there was just confusion. She had made a note of how the cards had fallen the first time, and she rearranged the cards in that pattern, but here too was confusion, and after about half an hour of trying to puzzle out meaning, she let it alone. The cards had been clear enough, so unusually clear in answering the main message that they must have sacrificed clarity of meaning in the rest of it. You only had so many cards, and it probably violated some universal law to tell a person too much in them.
When Rachel stopped by her door once more, to say goodbye, Phoebe threw her arms around her.
'Good luck!' Rachel's anxious face became surprised. Phoebe realised
that Rachel must have noticed her consternation at the announcement
that Rachel was going to London and be wondering why she was so sure
now.
'Good luck?'
'I've got good feelings about this.' It was the closest Phoebe
would get to telling her what the cards had said. But acting as
though you knew what the future held might cause the fates to be
perverse, and change what the future did hold, so for Rachel's sake,
she would say no more.
'I'm glad you do – I'd better go,' Rachel said, giving her another hug goodbye. 'Take care.' Phoebe smiled.
'I will,' she said.
When Rachel had gone, Phoebe returned to the table to put the cards
back into a pack. She didn't notice that the Queen of Hearts was
missing from the pack, having fallen under the table during her earlier
mishap.