ADAM KNEW HE WOULD BE passing by the Topsail Tavern on his long walk back to the warehouse, so he decided to stop in for a bit to break up the trip.
He was surprised to see Jackson was back working already, considering Valentine had just fired him and wasn’t going to give him his job back until tomorrow.
“Where’s Mama?” Adam asked Valentine, who was lining up recently washed pint glasses on the shelf behind the counter.
“In the kitchen,” Valentine answered, motioning to his left without even turning around.
Just as Adam was about to go in to see her, she came through the heavy wooden door from the kitchen into the dining area, carrying a tray of food.
“Evening, son,” she said as she deftly delivered the plates to her customers while carrying on a conversation with her son. “What are you doing here? I thought you were running around with Martin tonight.”
Adam grimaced as he pressed his hands into the counter. “Hmm… I was, but I got tired of waiting around for him. I’m on my way back to the warehouse. Just wanted to stop by and visit for a minute or two.”
“Did y’all end up going out to Town Creek?” Mary asked excitedly.
Adam rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately. Those gypsies are a bunch of crazy people if you ask me.”
Mary frowned at him. “What an ugly thing for you to say!”
“He’s right, Mary,” said Valentine. “At least he’s got his head on straight.”
“They seemed like very nice people to me,” Mary argued. “I don’t know why you’re so critical, Adam.”
“Good Lord, woman!” Valentine exclaimed. “Sometimes you are sharp as a tack, but some other times you act like you just fell off the turnip truck!” He wiggled his hands up beside his head to illustrate his point. “It boggles the mind.”
“You must have lost some money down there or something,” Mary said. “Earlier today you were saying it sounded like it would be a good diversion if nothing else. So what happened?”
“Oh, I got suckered right into paying to have my fortune read—but at least I didn’t spend much. Only sixpence. Still, it was a waste of time and money.”
Just then Martin entered the tavern and came up and patted Adam on the back. “You disappeared on me, my friend.”
Adam turned around to look at him. “How on earth did you get here so fast?”
“You were walking. I wasn’t.”
Adam shrugged. “True.”
“Anyway, our old friend turned up to see Madame Endora.”
Martin gave Adam a wink so he’d know what he meant.
“Adam was just telling us he didn’t think too much of the gypsies,” said Mary. “Do you share his sentiment?”
Martin twisted up his face. “No. Of course not! I had a good time, even if they are a little bit different.”
“Oh, that’s only because that old gypsy woman told you your future was going to be everything you ever dreamed it could be.”
“Hmph.” Martin tipped his head and looked at Adam like he was challenging him. “Or maybe your opinion of them is colored by the fact you didn’t like the fortune she predicted for you. Maybe you just have bad luck in your future.”
“You hush, Martin,” said Mary. “My son doesn’t have bad luck in his future.” She turned her attention to Adam and worriedly asked, “What did she say?”
“Oh, just a bunch of vague nonsense—like the Fates may be conspiring against me, that my livelihood would suffer, and that this town would experience trials, blah, blah, blah, but of course she’s got amulets and charms that could help protect me.”
Adam waved his hands in front of him in a way that suggested he thought Madame Endora was a lunatic.
“Why would the Fates conspire against you?” asked Mary. “Did she actually say that?”
“See, that’s the thing—at first she said they may be conspiring against me, or maybe they’re not, but then she said the vision in that ball of hers isn’t clear enough to say for sure. But she said there is a curse.”
Mary looked concerned, and apparently Valentine took note of that fact.
“Look at ya, girl!” Valentine said to her. “You’re getting all flustered! Why do you put so much stock in what those kinds of people say? What do they know?”
“They must know a thing or two,” Martin countered. “They have a pretty successful little business, and I reckon when things dry up in one town they can just move on to the next and start all over again.”
“Why do you reckon things dry up?” Adam asked. “Don’t you reckon it’s because folks start to figure out that they’re peddling lies and they get too smart to keep throwing their money away?”
Valentine nodded once and raised up his hand to signal he agreed wholeheartedly with what Adam had just said. “Amen to that.”
Mary said in all seriousness, “Maybe you should go back and get some advice from her on warding off the bad luck. Get one of her protective charms.”
“What?! What in the world?” Adam knew his mother was superstitious, but he’d never seen her like this. “I’m not asking that woman for advice. It’s all just an act anyway.”
“Why are you so stubborn? And angry?” Mary gave him a cross look.
“Stubborn and angry?” Adam said. “I’m out sixpence and the only thing I’ve got to show for it is a bad mood.”
After spending a few more minutes in the tavern talking with Mary, Valentine, and Martin about all that had happened out at the gypsy camp, Martin offered to give Adam a ride back to the warehouse on his way home.
“Tomorrow’s Sunday, Mama, so Lord willing I won’t drop dead tonight from some gypsy curse and I’ll just see you after church.”
He laughed, knowing she would likely be needlessly worrying over him all night. When he saw the look on her face, he felt a little guilty and bowed his head to give her a small kiss on the cheek.
“I’ll give you a little kiss, too, if it’d make you feel better, Miss Mary,” said Martin with a wink.
“Go on, y’all.” Mary pushed them both towards the door.
* * *
WHEN ADAM MADE IT BACK to his own room at the warehouse, he was frustrated to see he’d left the window closed earlier in the day when he’d been cleaning. His room was horribly hot and stuffy. He quickly opened it, then stripped down to his drawers before sitting on the edge of his bed.
What have I gotten myself into? he thought.
He bowed his head and said a quick prayer that bad things wouldn’t happen like the gypsy had warned, just to be on the safe side. He knew his prayer was probably more superstitious than sincere, but nevertheless he still thought it was a good idea to do it. He wasn’t even sure if God would listen to him, since he’d gone and visited that gypsy woman in the first place. Everything about the situation annoyed him.
It annoyed him that in his brain he knew the fortune-telling thing was just entertainment, but in his gut he felt there was more to it than that. It also annoyed him that in spite of intellectually doubting the gypsy’s warnings he was still disturbed by them. And finally, it annoyed him that if his grandfather was able to get inside his head right now, he’d no doubt say to him, “I told you so.”
Adam was also annoyed to suddenly be thinking like his superstitious mother. She had told him he should go back to the gypsy woman and get advice or protection against the bad luck. It annoyed him to even give credence to that advice. He lay down and rested his head on his pillow and stared past his lantern. After thinking about turning it out and going to sleep, he realized he didn’t even feel sleepy. He had too much on his mind, and he knew what would help him let it go—at least for tonight.
He sat back up in his bed. What all did that woman say? Adam tried to remember. He decided that maybe if he just wrote it all down and thought through it logically, he’d be able to see that there was nothing to it. Then maybe he could get some sleep.
Why am I even thinking about this? The more the gypsy’s warnings bounced around in his brain, the more frustrated he became.
He looked over at his dresser and stared at the top drawer. His leather-bound journal and a pencil were inside. The pencil had been imported directly from England. He treasured them both. He had received them as a gift for his last birthday from his grandfather and had taken to writing all sorts of things inside, from recording steps for new tasks he’d learned in the shipping company, to jotting down ideas about places he’d like to go and things he’d like to do, writing stories about funny or interesting things that had happened, scribbling down information about his family as he learned it, and sketching things, like pictures of friends or plans for the home he hoped to build one day.
He opened the journal and flipped to the first empty page. He thought for a moment and then began to write:
The 19th of September 1767 Anno Domini, a Saturday.
This is what the gypsy woman said to me:
Someone from far away with dark features like my own who is no more
Said I have a fear
Says I am skeptical
Past is key to future, hidden darkness
Secret thing from past follows me—said it’s like a rate always chasing me (what is that?)
Warnings of curse—
SIGN - Danger will come from afar
SIGN - My livelihood will suffer
SIGN - The town will begin to experience terrible trials
WARNING - Avoid woman in violet dress
What was that bell on string about? Was it a secret message?
Once he had written all of those things down, he went back through the list and began adding notes, including scratching out things that seemed so vague they could just as well be said to anyone.
The 19th of September 1767 Anno Domini, a Saturday.
This is what the gypsy woman said to me:
Someone from far away with dark features like my own who is no more - could be my father, but how would she know this unless she guessed?
Said I have a fear - Everyone has fears. This is not specific and could be true of anyone—not helpful.
Says I am skeptical—Yes. I am skeptical, but anyone with any sense could have seen that.
Past is key to future, hidden darkness—Vague. This could apply to anybody about anything.
Secret thing from past follows me—said it’s like a rate always chasing me (what is that?)—anyone might have something in their past that stays with them. Everyone has some kind of secret.
Warnings of curse—
SIGN - Danger will come from afar—this could be about that letter I got months ago, or it could be about a message that is still to come, or it could be she just made this up altogether.
SIGN - My livelihood will suffer—??? I don’t think Emmanuel can make me stop being his apprentice, and anyway, I am his grandson. Maybe this is just something she concocted, or maybe this is about something that will affect his business.
SIGN - The town will begin to experience terrible trials. No idea???
WARNING - Avoid woman in violet dress. No idea ???
What was that bell on string about? Was it a secret message?—Her daughter might use that to let her know she has someone else waiting for a reading, or maybe she uses it as some kind of signal or code.
Adam thought about it and thought about it, but as much as he tried to convince himself there was nothing to her warnings, he couldn’t help but worry that there was. He didn’t know if he would talk to his grandfather about it. Right now he just hoped that a good night’s sleep would help him put it all out of his mind. Maybe in the morning he would be able to think more rationally. After all, he’d been tense lately because of the mystery of what was in that letter he’d received. Maybe that was just causing this current issue to seem like more of a problem than it actually was.
Then again, what if Madame Endora had seen a vision of the letter he had received, and she knew it was a foreboding message? Maybe the letter was from someone connected with Eduardo and that was the secret darkness from the past she had mentioned—the one that was following him even now. And maybe now was when the events the letter warned about would start to come true.