The Little Box - Part II

[Story starts here]

There was a brightly colored tent with a board on it that read "Psychic Reading". Two women sat at a table right outside the tent, across from each other. One of them was a gypsy woman, her hair covered with a red cloth that was tied to a knot at the back of her head. She had her eyes closed, her palms locked and was muttering something that was too whispery to be comprehensible but yet had a tranquilizing effect. She was clearly the psychic in question. The woman seated across from her was resting her chin on one of her palms, with the little finger between her teeth. Her face was so plain that if you could fashion a face that represented an average over the faces of all the women in the country, you would end up with hers.

Between the two women, at the centre of the table, was the little box. It was a square wooden box with the most splendid lid Sarah had ever seen. Along the four edges of the lid were intricate and colorful drawings of mythical and supernatural beings of all kinds from across cultures - from gargoyles to chinese dragons to cherubs. There was a neat 'Z' shaped crack in the middle that let a hairline-thin streak of sunlight into the box. Something on the inside seemed to reflect the sunlight back through the crack, making the 'Z' look like a strike of lightning. The wood itself had a very dusty look about it, making the box look even more enigmatic.

The psychic opened her eyes slowly and smiled at the other woman. "Place both your palms on the box so your aura seeps in and then ask your questions", she said.

The plain lady did as she was told. "Can you tell me about my previous birth? What was I?"

The psychic placed her palms over the other lady's and again went into her muttering ritual. A few seconds later, she lifted her hands and asked the other lady to do the same. She then tenderly lifted the box's lid and took out an oval shaped mirror. She studied it closely for a few moments and then started talking in a slow, dragging tone. "A Roman woman", she said and paused a few seconds before she continued, "married off into an aristocratic family as a part of a political move. Your husband was a vicious man. You killed him. No one ever knew that it was you. "

"What else? Did I have any children? Did I have a lover? What did I look like?"

The psychic took on the questions, referring to her mirror every few minutes. But Sarah had stopped listening to the conversation. All her senses were focussed on the box. She decided to wait a little longer.

A quarter of an hour passed. The plain lady's psychic reading session came to a close. She seemed visibly happy with what she had learnt of her past life from the psychic. She made her payment and left. The gypsy woman got up from her chair, smiling at Sarah as she went into the tent with her new earnings, leaving the box on the table. Next minute, the box was in Sarah's pocket and a minute after that, Sarah was a long way off from the tent.

As she got close to home, she touched the little box in her pocket and smiled. Then she felt her other pocket and made sure the two wallets and the watch she picked were safe.

[Continued here.]