Fleeting glimpses of various worlds

The tellers’ duty is to calm insecurities, not to actually reveal a person’s fate. It’s not what they read in the stars, but how they phrase it that is their gift.

You will be greatly blessed at forty, the tellers say. They mean you may not survive past thirty-nine.

You will rejoice in your child, the tellers say. They mean you will only ever have one, that too with difficulty.

Your husband will shower you with jewellery, the tellers say. They mean when he is sorry for beating you.

For obvious reasons, tellers never have their own stars read.