Beneath the arches of the Saint-Michel Bridge, you will find a sight that raises the hair on your arms. According to the older stories, this would be where trolls lived, asking for tolls of blood and bones.
Not so, in Paris.
If you go down the algae-lined stairs to the edge of the river, you will find a boat that should not float, with rotten boards and a rusted roof, where purple smoke plumes through a pipe, turning just like the strings of beads hanging over the cabin door. These twist even harder when the Seer of the Seine exits. The skin around her eyes is scaly and silver—much like a fish belly. The rest is covered in wrinkles, but the lines sit strangely. They do not match her smile as she invites you on board. They do not agree with the way her eyes narrow when she studies your palm, when she places a finger on your life line and lifts it like a string. She takes a small pair of scissors, snips off the end, and adds that future to her own flesh. Such is the price of a platitude: A few days here, a few months there. A firstborn. A second. Can you really miss what will never be? Do you want to know your future badly enough to hand it over to someone else?
The Seer of the Seine knows that you do.
She knows a lot of things.
She knows stars and cards and crystal balls. She knows the river too, understands shit can be read much like tea leaves. This is why she casts her net out into the brown waters every day, pulling in bottles and boots and twisting eels. These make slapping sounds on her splintering deck as she picks through the other offerings: coins, clay pipes, a bloated bird carcass.
The Seer pauses when she sees the opera glove.
There is a red stain on the palm.
She holds it to her nose and sniffs.
She brings it to her mouth and licks.
“Interesting,” she mumbles to herself. “Very interesting.” Most of the eels start to fall still, but one manages to splash back into the Seine, disappearing into the muddy water. The Seer watches her river with careful eyes. She knows an omen when she sees one.
She understands that the currents are shifting.