In the Stars by Stacia Deutsch

Author:Stacia Deutsch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2007-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

Twelve

You are stuck in the mud. Grab a shovel and start to dig.

www.astrology4stars.com

“Forget about your schedule.” That’s the first thing the psychic says to me when we enter her billowing tent. All right, so it isn’t really a tent. It’s a converted storefront with a whole lot of fabric draped around. From the outside it looks like any other store on Twelfth Avenue. Just like any other store, except for the neon placard reading: MADAME JAKARTA, PSYCHIC and the flashing image of a hand.

On the inside, however, the shop looks nothing like any other store on the street, or anywhere else in America, as far as I know. The place is decorated like an Arabian tent from the classic film, Lawrence of Arabia. There’s so much fabric hanging from the ceiling and tacked up against the walls that Jennifer and Tanisha could have saved themselves the trip to Cleveland to buy material for our costumes if Madame Jakarta would have parted with even an eighth of what she has flung around her shop.

To make a short story long, I’d dropped off my mom’s sewing machine at the Sewing Emporium on the way to school. When I called Wednesday night in a tizzy, just as they were closing, Wanda Feines, store owner and repairwoman, offered to open early to take a look at it for me.

The tuxedo shop does a lot of business with Wanda. We only do rentals, but Wanda makes custom tuxes on the side. Most of her clients are referrals from us. When my mom was alive, Wanda was her closest friend.

Over the phone, Wanda diagnosed the problem. “The 212v belt is busted,” she informed me. She made that assessment without astrology or palm reading. Wanda simply listened to my reenactment of the noise the machine made right before it shut off.

Wanda had to get the part from her second store out in the suburbs. She said I could come pick the machine up after six. They were closing at eight so I had a two-hour window.

Checking my typed schedule, I figured if I dropped off the machine before school, Adam and I could take a brief study break after school, get the machine, and be back before the nightly nine p.m. sew-a-thon. Wanda’s sewing machine repairs would fit smoothly into my schedule. I’d barely notice the blip.

So, after I finished reviewing my English notes for Friday’s quiz and Adam completed his European History reading, we headed out. Once again, Adam was absolutely willing to support my fixation with staying on task: fifteen minutes to go get the sewing machine, ten minutes to return home. That left us with another hour and thirty-five minutes to go over our chem lab results.

Adam really is the ideal boyfriend. His acceptance of me at my nuttiest makes me like him even more than I already do. I’m hoping like mad that sometime soon, he’ll finally ask me to the dance.

It was precisely seven o’clock when Adam and I were on our way to the sewing store.

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