Suzie Francis wasn't the type to believe in mystics, fortunes, or fate. It was either logic or faith with her. So when her fortune cookie foretold that she will harm those she cared for, she took it with a grain of salt and continued eating her lo mein. Well, the actual quotation was, "You will hurt those you hold dearest," but it was all the same in retrospect.
Her best friend, Sam, was quite the opposite. A frequent visitor to psychics' shops and a fan of getting her palm read, she believed in all superstition and destiny. She threw salt over her shoulder if she was ever clumsy enough to knock a shaker over, and never, under any circumstances, had she dared to walk under a ladder. Today, sitting across from the lighter brunette, she was wearing her lucky bedazzled belt because her lucky striped socks were in the wash.
"What does yours say?" she inquired, her murky green eyes alight with curiosity as they flicked up from the small slip of paper in her delicate fingers. She had a soft tone, and many mistook her for shy and fragile until she started gushing about the hockey team she was a member of or one of her various hobbies.
Glancing up, Suzie shrugged with a mouth full of noodles. "Something rubbish," she remarked after swallowing.
"It's not rubbish. Give it 'ere."
Handing it over with little reluctance, she couldn't help but try to see what her friend's fortune was, mildly intrigued. "What about you?"
"It says that people are naturally attracted to me. I can't decide exactly what it's implying." Sam paused, the turn of her lip drooping down a bit. "Yours is a bit dark, isn't it? Fortune cookies are supposed to be cheery."
"Rubbish, I told you."
"I would be careful though."
She simply rolled her eyes, and the conversation moved onto other topics. At the end of the night, they parted ways, and Suzie walked to her flat, toeing off her shoes at the entryway. Her phone buzzed, the screen lighting up as she deposited her purse, and she plucked it up, eyes grazing the new message from her brother, Josh.
"Aunt Molly is cross because you forgot to wish Jenny happy birthday. She wouldn't stop crying all night."
Squeezing the bridge of her nose, she dialed her aunt's number, embarrassed that she had forgotten her younger cousin's big day. After being reprimanded for about 10 minutes, she was put on the phone with the girl, still sniffling.
"Look, love, I'm so sorry I forgot to call, but you know what? How about you and I go out for ice cream tomorrow, yeah?" Having cheered up the despondent child, she ended the call a few minutes later and sighed.
As she was getting ready for bed, something fluttered out of her pocket, floating to the ground. She considered leaving it until morning but bent down to pick it up anyways, realizing it to be her fortune.
You will hurt those you hold dearest.
She scowled. "I only forgot her birthday," she commented to no one really, but then she thought back to how disappointed her auntie sounded and the teary words of her cousin. Feeling foolish but cautious, she resolved to make tomorrow the girl's best belated birthday ever. "Take that." With that, she dropped the slip into the rubbish bin.
Suzie picked up little Jenny the next morning, the child chattering excitedly as she climbed into the car's backseat. Even though she had promised only ice cream, she upped the deal by bringing her cousin to the cinema and a waffle house afterward.
They were on their way back, rounding a cliff curve. It was dark, and the girl dozed in the backseat. When her phone chimed with a text, her gaze fell on it momentarily just as a bright light filled the small car. Glancing up into the glaring headlights, she yanked the wheel to avoid the car while simultaneously honking at the other vehicle angrily. To be honest, she didn't know which of them was at fault; it was too dark to see if it was she who crossed over the line, but she was tired and irritated.
Peeking over her shoulder, she couldn't see the taillights of the other car and continued on driving. They reached Aunt Molly's home less than half an hour later, and the door was opened by Josh.
"She went out. Didn't you get me text?" he said in response to her inquiry of the older woman's absence, taking the sleeping girl in his arms.
In all honesty, she had forgotten the reason she had a near collision earlier. Giving her farewell and placing a soft kiss on her cousin's slack cheek, she went home, feeling faintly smug and a tad bit witless for giving in so easily to a fortune cookie of all things.
The day was shaping out to be a good one when she received a frantic call from Josh while on break. She found herself sitting in a stiff-backed chair in the hospital's waiting room, her unusually quiet cousin resting in her lap. Neither Suzie or her brother could get much information out of the doctors. All they knew was that she was in an accident the night before.
The two siblings rose as a woman in a white medical coat approached.
"Are you the family of Molly Smith?"
The somber tone was enough indication of the news they were about to receive. Suzie excused herself to get Jenny something to eat, leaving her brother to hear the bad news as she swiped at her own eyes.
"Where's mummy?" the young orphan asked quietly, picking at her chips.
"She's—um—she's," the woman started, unsure of what to tell the girl. Changing the topic, she asked if she was enjoying her meal, but the Jenny pushed it away with the declaration of not being hungry.
Josh came over a while later, pulling Suzie aside to fill her in as the girl continued to stare dejectedly at the table. She may not know what was going on, but she knew that something wasn't right.
"Apparently, Aunt Molly—um—she was in a car accident. A driver saw her car down a hill off the cliff route. The bonnet hit a tree. They think—they think someone ran her off the road, and she died on impact."
It was as if something hit her in the chest. "Where was she?"
Unsteadily, she grasped the back of a chair and lowered herself into it as he repeated the information, feeling suddenly ill.
"What's wrong?"
She wanted to ask what time, but she had a feeling she already knew. "Josh, I..." she cut herself off, trying to slow her breathing. "What's going to happen to Jenny?"
"Either we adopt her, or she goes into the system." He ran a hand through his wayward curls. "I can't raise a kid, Suz. Not with my hours."
She didn't think she would get the chance to either. Not after Jenny found out she was the one that killed her mum. Her favorite cousin would hate her.
You will hurt those you hold dearest.
