The Gypsy

      Yawning as she walked down the street, Silvia stretched her tired muscles in exhaustion. It had been a long day, there had been three major exams that day in addition to needing to run the mile, and she could really use a break. Fortunately, it was Friday, so she had a good two days of rest and relaxation to look forward to before needing to get up again. Shaking her long hair out of her eyes, she pondered for a moment about what to do for dinner that night when she got home. Her parents were out again and wouldn’t be back for the weekend. Just the way she liked it. More sleep that way.
      The day was pleasant; a bright sun warmed the air while a chill breeze kept it from becoming truly hot, the ground was dry without being desert like, and birds were chirping merrily in defiance of the fall. Deciding that she didn’t really wish to get home too quickly today, Silvia turned down a side road to take the long way home. The road was part of an old construction plan that had gone awry, the builders being chased off by a combination of accidents and lobbying by the local residence. This three mile patch of land was the only remaining forest in the city, and the nearby houses wanted to keep it that way.
      Walking beneath the towering trees that surrounded her, Silvia was so completely enjoying herself that she walked right into something. Looking down in surprise, noticed that she had bumped into an A-frame sign. The hand-lettered sign read: "Gypsy reads tea leaves - ONLY $10." Standing in the decaying road, alone amid the freshly fallen leaves of the surrounding maples, the peeled letters declared their faded message proudly to the world. Sporting a small yellow eye, the sign was well worn and seemed to be of great age. No marking adorned the thing to point towards where this mysterious gypsy might be, and no tent or building could be seen. Looking more closely underneath the thing she had just run into, she noticed that a large bucket rested underneath the sign with large black letter saying “Pay here”.
        Laughing as she did so, she opened up her wallet and dropped ten dollars into the bucket. After waiting for a little while in giggly silence, Silvia decided that she really ought to start up her trip home again. As she stood up from her position on the ground however, the air seemed to almost push her down. The once pleasant breeze had changed into an oppressive heat, nearly forcing her back to her knees as she did her best to get up. Forcing her muscles to move through the resistance she felt, she felt something snap as she became fully erect.
        She was no longer in a forest. The bright sky above had been replaced by a sumptuous red cloth, lit by a large blue candle next to the face of a wrinkled old hag. Her oily white hair fell in a tangled mess down her thin face, casting shadows over her chiseled features, and she was clothed in a scandalously skimpy costume that accentuated her protruding bones and showed off her bloated stomach and mottled skin. Cackling as Silvia appeared in her tent, the old crone turned to her and asked “Who are you my little filly?”
         Startled by the sudden appearance of the old woman, Silvia blurted out the only thing that came to mind at the time “S-Silvia”.
         “Well my dear,” the old crone cooed with an unnaturally large smile “welcome to my little tent. I am known as Trila the All Knowing. I understand you have asked for a reading today?”
         “Wah, I never asked for…”
         “Nonsense,” the old woman said with a patient look on her face “you placed your payment in the bucket already. I even have the tea boiling in the back as we speak.”
         And it seemed this was so. As Silvia looked on, the back of the tent opened up into a homely kitchen with a kettle shooting steam on a metal stove. Curious dolls rested on the stands surrounding the room, dressed in all manner of clothing from every era known to modern history, and a few even dressed in outlandish clothing that she had never seen before. Before Silvia could inquire as to these dolls however, the old woman picked up a cup and poured herself some tea. Taking a deep draft of the dark fluid, the old woman stared deeply into the confines of the cup and smiled her broad smile.
         “Well child,” she started “do you want to know the future that is in this cup?”
         Staring confused at her for a moment, Silvia nodded after a long moment of stillness. The old crone smiled broader then, the edges of her smile extending literally from ear to ear, revealing her sharp teeth, her arm extended across the table rapidly and grabbed Silvia by the hair. The old geezer’s grip was like stone, and Silvia struggled in vain to escape. Feeling a strange feeling wash over her, Silvia felt her joints becoming stiffer as she began to shrink. Panicking now, Silvia attempted one final struggle to escape from the old witch’s grasp and fell, sobbing, in a pile on the floor.
         Her skin slowly turned into plastic, her eyes glossed over, her hair turned into a fine polyester, as she shrunk to about five inches tall. Meanwhile, while she watched the old crone became younger and younger, slowly turning into a beautiful young woman of about 24. Laughing in an alluring voice as she moved Silvia to a blank space on the mantle, the woman told her the last words she would ever hear.
         “The leaves told me you would die within a matter of minutes by my hand child, the price had not yet been paid for me to tell you what the leaves said after all.”