Seven
STEVIE
“Fools!” Professor Maddox shouts, leaping up on her desk at the front of the classroom. “Damn fools!”
Half the students are out of their seats, including me.
Ani’s standing next to me, Nat on my other side, all three of us pressing our hands to our hearts. Nervous laughter escapes my lips as I realize this is just more of Professor Maddox’s theatrical style. But directly behind us, lazing in his chair like he just woke up from his beauty rest, Baz groans.
“Damn fools is right,” he mutters, propping his sunglasses on top of his head. “She pulls this same dramatic act every year.”
“Yet for some reason,” Ani teases, “you keep coming back for more.”
“What can I say? I’m a sucker for good performance art.” Then, winking at me, “The louder the better, as far as I’m concerned.”
My face flames as I recall our night together, and I sink into my chair, hoping my friends don’t notice.
I’m going to kill that man. Or maybe mount him again. Or maybe both...
At the front of the large, auditorium-style classroom, the professor continues to demonstrate her special brand of crazy. Behind her, William Eastman—the older British guy from APOA—stands like a statue, arms at his sides, scanning the place like he’s the Secret Service looking for terrorists.
It’s unnerving, to say the least, but I guess this is our new normal. Enhanced security. Constant observation. Total discomfort.
“Yes, my magickal mini muffins,” Professor Maddox says, apparently unfazed by the man lurking behind her. “Today we’ll be exploring an explorer. The mostintrepidexplorer, in fact, of the entire Arcana family. That’s right, I’m talking about the one, the only, the amazing, The Fool! So.” She claps once and hops off the desk, nailing the dismount. “Get out your Tarot decks and your journals. Place the Fool card on the desk in front of you. Yes, Miss Amana, that means you, too. Take your time, we’ll wait…” She watches the student in question, then finally turns back to the rest of us. “Now, I want you all to take a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Ground and center, people. Ground and center. Miss Kirkpatrick, playing with your phone is neither grounding nor centering—put it away, please.”
I smile to myself, glad I’m not the one on Maddox’s radar today. She nailed me pretty good the first few classes, but I think she’s starting to come around to my charms.
“For the next ten minutes,” she says, “you will spend time in quiet contemplation with this magnificent card. Feel it’s energy, tap into its messages. Then, when you feel called to do so, write a personal essay from the perspective of any of the figures, objects, or emotional impressions in that card.”
Baz raises his hand behind us.
“Yes, Mr. Redgrave?”
“What if we don’t feel called to do so until next year?”
Ignoring the collective snicker, she says, “I highly suggest you feel called sooner than that, unless you wish to waste yourperfectlygood buns sitting in that chair for the next twelve months. Next question? No? Okay, you may begin.”
There’s a chorus of groans, but it quickly dies down as we get to work contemplating Baz’s perfectly good buns. I mean… Right.
Moving on!
The Fool card in my deck features a young man dressed in a tunic and wrap, carrying a stick and bundle over his shoulder. He’s got his trusty black greyhound for company, and in his free hand, he holds a bouquet of mistletoe. He skips along happily, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he’s about to leap off a cliff.
This Fool, Trump Zero, the first card in the Major Arcana… He looks so different here than he did in my nightmare last night. Then, he was only a baby, caught in a dark and twisted version of the Judgment card.
Staring into the card now, I take another deep breath and try to get a read on its energy. But instead of picking up on a message like I usually do, this time I feel a gentle tugging sensation in my belly, and then it’s like I’m being sucked right into the card itself.
I try not to panic. This is a good thing, right? A sign that my magick is getting stronger?
I steady myself, then look around at my surroundings. I’m sitting in the grass right beside the Fool, right at the cliff’s edge.
No, wait. I’m not sitting. I’m standing. On four legs.
I’m the dog.
Just in case this day isn’t strange enough.
Well, work with what you’ve got, right? I yelp to get the young man’s attention, pawing at his tunic. After staring out across the abyss for a good few minutes, he finally kneels down beside me, patting my head.
