Writer Wednesday #10: Leaves

On my blog, I am doing a new 'event' called Writer Wednesdays. I post a prompt and others(including me) write something based on that prompt.

            Palm reading for leaves.  The idea had come to me while I was twirling a leaf in early Autumn.  I stopped twirling and examined the network of veins in the leaf, the chlorophyll draining away to reveal the leaf’s true beauty.  I had noticed just how much the veins resembled human veins, and from there had thought they actually seemed a little closer to the lines on my palm.  So, palm reading for leaves.  Why not?  We do it for people.

            I had chuckled, thinking about what fortune these leaves could possibly have.  A few days before Halloween, the thought had returned to me.  That day I had been especially absorbed with the supernatural, decorating my house with ghouls.  I was on my roof, positioning a fake ghost, when the thought had returned to me.  I chuckled, reaching above my head and plucking a red leaf from the tree that shaded my house.

            “The Hell with it, why not?”  I’d thought and climbed down the ladder.  I got in my car; just on the outskirts of town was a psychic.  She had not been there long, just basic fortunetelling and palm readings.  I decided to see if she would read the leaf for me, at least for a laugh.  She’d be getting paid after all.

            I pulled into the parking lot and climbed out of my car, my feet crunching on the gravel.  I walked in, immediately greeted by a beaded curtain and the smell of incense.  I passed through the beads to find a woman dressed in gypsy garb sitting at a table.

            “Come here,” she said, her old voice trembling.  “What can I do for you?”

            “Well, I heard you do palm readings,” I said, stifling a laugh.

            “Yes, yes, let me see your hand.”

            “Well, uh, it won’t be my palm.  Can you read this?”  I held out the leaf.

            She stared at it blankly for a moment.  Then she took it and cradled it in her hand, scrutinizing the lines made by the veins.  Her eyes widened suddenly, and she practically threw the leaf back at me.

            “This leaf has nothing but death written in its future,” she said, seeming to be really afraid.  “Put 10 dollars in the dish by the door and take that thing out of here!”

            She seemed so serious, I dropped a 20 in her dish without bothering with change and hurried out the door.  I drove home, wanting to laugh it off, but something about her serious tone had left me with chills.  And I had good reason to feel chills.  Because that night, there was an awful storm and the base of the tree that shaded my house was struck by lightning, causing the tree fell into my house, crashing through the roof.