Past & Present Fortunes

“I can tell you have an old soul.” The gypsy noted sagely, sitting behind a Dollar-tree decor table with an ancient fishbowl set on a fancy coaster.

The mark stopped and regarded her for a moment, eyes full of thought. “Oh really? So?”

“If you’d like I can tell you how they lived, your past lives.” She waved a bangled hand to bid him closer. “Would you like to know if you were a king or a soldier?”

He mused. “What if I was a woman?”

“Well, certainly we could see that as well.”

“What if I wasn’t human?”

“Pardon?”

“What if I were a bug - you know, just a little ant that got squished after three months. Could you tell me about that life?”

Shocked, she stared at him under discount pharmacy eyeliner. “Why would you ever want to remember that kind of life?”

Smiling, he tilted his head at her. “But if that life wasn’t worth remembering, why would any of the others be? Surely all of my past lives have made me who I am?”

The gypsy frowned, her financial troubles feeling no less solvent with this line of thinking. “Perhaps they could teach you something valuable for this life?”

“How? They know nothing of my current life - as I know nothing of theirs.” He shrugged. “If my soul is as old as you say, then it must have been around enough to remember what it needs and let the rest go. I’d say I’m doing just fine, thanks.” With a tip of his hat, he continued towards his train.

Blinking blankly for a few moments, the gypsy’s eyes fell upon a girl racing towards the platform, a half-zipped messenger bag jostling next to her. “You girl - you look like an old soul.”

″Sorry! I’m late, can’t stop right now!” She threw a handful of change on the gypsy’s table without stopping to listen or even look at her sign.

The gypsy frowned, but scooped up the free money into a faux leather secondhand purse.

A bug appeared on the table as she cleared it. She raised a hand to smash it, but then reconsidered.

“Damn old souls,” she grumbled, rubbing the back of her neck and taking a sip from her water bottle, before spying out her next mark.