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Touched by an Angel on Sunday nights? That I liked that show was one of my most closely guarded secrets.
    â€œSometimes I can feel my grandmother watching over me,” Cassie said.
    â€œReally?”
    â€œYes, really. She talks to me in my dreams, too.”
    â€œHuh.” I didn’t know quite what to say to that. I turned to the psychological expert. “What do you think, Louise?”
    She shrugged. “If it is comforting and does no harm, there’s no reason a person cannot believe what they wish.”
    â€œI thought counselors referred to that type of thinking as delusional,” I said.
    â€œIn psychology, we say that no personality trait or behavior is a problem unless it causes problems for the client.”
    I chewed that over for a minute. “I guess that makes sense.”
    â€œThen again, some people are just plain nuts.”
    â€œThat’s very helpful, Ms. Counselor.” I turned my attention back to the cards.
    â€œThese here represent the natural course of future events,” Cassie said. “There is friendship and merriment, and learning to feel your emotions. Next are scattered energies, struggles. And here, the final card, the Ace of Swords. Change. Major change.”
    The Ace of Swords was a picture of a fist holding up a silvery-blue blade, with a crown and greenery circling the tip. “What type of change?”
    â€œCould be good or bad. It’s a card of new force, new energy, new direction. It’s something dramatic, either positive or negative, and could be either love or hatred.”
    â€œBut which is it?”
    Cassie just looked at me, letting me flail about, looking for my own interpretation.
    â€œWell, what are these other cards, then?” I asked impatiently, pointing to the three in the upper left-hand corner of the layout.
    â€œThose represent other possible futures.” She described the first two, then stopped at the third and gave me a meaningful look. “The Magician. He brings messages from the realms of the gods, often in the form of synchronicity. Watch for coincidences in your life, for there will be valuable information hidden therein.”
    â€œI don’t know what any of that means,” I said. “None of it sounds like a possible future.” I was still feeling disgruntled about that Ace of Swords, and disinclined to give a generous interpretation to the cards. Hatred or love, change for the positive or change for the negative—huh! Very helpful, thanks so much!
    â€œIt is for you to decide what they mean,” she said.
    I continued to study the cards, unhappy that some of them seemed to fit my situation so well, while others did not. I wanted it all to be garbage, or all to be true. I don’t enjoy ambiguity.
    She let me stare at the cards a little longer, then scooped them up and put them back in the deck, wrapping the deck in a blue silk scarf. “You can make of it what you will,” she said, “but at least look for synchronicities in your life. Whenever I get The Magician, strange things seem to happen, and I usually learn something from them.”
    â€œWhat types of strange things?”
    â€œOh, like maybe I’ve chosen five books at random from the fiction shelves at the library, and when I take them home and read them I discover that they all have a villain who looks and acts like Teddy Roosevelt.”
    â€œWhat on earth could you possibly learn from that?”
    â€œIt’s like the cards. You can find the parallel in your own life, if you look for it. Maybe I’m dating a guy who reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt in some way, and the synchronicity is telling me that he is bad for me, that he’s a villain. I don’t know. It depends.”
    â€œCassie, sometimes you’re a very weird chick, you know that?”
    â€œAm I?” she asked, sounding pleased.
    â€œDefinitely.”
    Louise got up and went to the refrigerator, returning with a