Chapter 4

“So,” I said, aware I was repeating my earlier question, “what does it all mean?”

This time the woman nodded, looking down at the cards. Then she gave me one of her professional smiles.

“May I tell you something of the background for this—as applied to yourself?”

I nodded.

“Well, you are single. Am I right?”

I nodded.

“And you are, as people say, looking for love.”

I nodded again, but felt a slight irritation. Anyone who was single was pretty much looking for love, more or less by definition. It was obvious. The woman might have sensed my cynicism, because she now indicated the card at the top of the cross: the Lovers.

“That,” she said, “is what is sometimes called the desired outcome, or best outcome.”

I looked at the card. “That I find a lover?”

She nodded.

“And,” she continued, “you come from a rational, possibly a non-religious home, with a strong, authoritarian father or mother.”

I considered, and nodded. On balance that was pretty much true.