Rose

** Prologue **

The woman spoke slowly and calmly, “I'm Harriet, the fortune-teller. I could not help but sense that you have a future that requires your attention. Have a seat and look into the crystal ball, I will show you your future.”

Kimberly was not interested in knowing anything about her future, especially if it came from someone who looked like similar to witch. She also had a strong fist against divination. 

Kimberly replied politely, “I really have to get going, madam. I don’t have time for this right now, but I promise I’ll come back some some other time.” 

“Seat down, seat down... This will only take a minute or two I promise. Besides, there might be no other time.”

Kimberly's eyebrow shot up and was almost kicking Harriet. "How dare she say something like that?" Kimberly thought to herself. 

Her mind was forcing her to walk away and not turn around but her heart was troubled. She decided tp side with her heart and forced herelf to the chair. "You have 1 minute," she informed.

Delighted to see Kimberly seat, Harriet closed her eyes and began to swirl her hands over the crystall ball like a magican perfoming a magic trick.

Kimberly expected a glaw from the crystall ball, she was impatient because nothing was happening according to her expectations. She was more irritated and hoped that she would disappear back to her parents.

“Put your right hand on the crystal ball. Do not at any point withdraw your hand from the crystal ball," instructed Harriet as she opened her eyes. 

Kimberly frowned and replied, " I agreed to seat down, not to touching your toy ball. Why must I touch your ball?"

“To begin with,” Harriet replied, “This is not a toy ball. I would appreciate it if you addressed it as it is, a crystal ball. And secondly, without you touching this crystal ball, I can’t predict your future. If I had my cards, this wouldn’t have been necessary.” 

“But, what if my hand gets stuck?”

“I wouldn't have instructed you to touch the crystall ball your hand was going to get stuck,”explained Harriet. 

Kimberly took few breaths, she hesitated to do as she was told becuase she feared things wouldn't turn out as planned. But finally, she slowly laid her right hand on the crystall ball and glared at Harriet. 

Harriet closed her eyes again and swirled her hands over Kimberly’s hand. Apparently nothing happened for several seconds and Kimberly was really getting upset and irritated for wasting her precious time. 

Abruptly, there was a white smocky glow in the crystal ball which shone lightly like a  night-light. Seeing the crystall ball glowing made Kimberly to have goosebumps from her hand up to her shoulder, her heart rate increased spontaneously and her mind became blur.

Harriet warned: "Do not withdraw your hand otherwise it will be impossible to do this again. Also do not worry or scared as this won't burn you or give you a scratch.”

Kimberly felt a strange sensation on her body: like she was numb, again like electricity creeping slowly through her veins. She was not in control of her actions and that includes closing her eyes. Her hand was still touching the crystall ball.

“What do you see?” Harriet inquired slowly.

Unable to open her eyes, she heard Harriet's voice in her head. She coudn't identify the voice in her head.

Weak and confused, Kimberly whispered, “Where am I? Who are you?"

“Don’t worry,” assured Harriet. “It's me Harriet. I am still here,” she paused for a while then instructed, “Calm down. That is when you will see what you are supposed to see.”

Kimberly had no other option beacuse she was weak and barely had control of her body. She stopped talking and began breathing normally like she was meditating.

Harriet saw that Kimberly had calmed down. She inquired, “What do you see now?”

Moments later, Kimberly flinched out of her deep sleep as she regained full control of her body with enthusiasm. She immediately withdrew her hand from the crystall ball which made the white smoky glow slowly dim until it was no more.  She stood up. Taking few steps back she demanded:  “What did you do to me?”

Kimberly yelled, “What evil spirits did you cast upon me you crazy woman?!”

“Nothing. I didn’t do anything. I only helped you by opening a portal in which you saw what you were supposed to see.”

Kimberly turned around swiftly and was about to storm out when Harriet began to explain: 

“Red, white, blue, black and purple are the colours of the pebbles you saw on the green grass in an open beautiful forest. You were impressed by the size of the pebbles such that you desired to see them up close."

Kimberly stopped walking like she had stepped in glue. Turning around slowly she wondered to herself, “How did she know what I saw?” 

She gave Harriet a strange look as she sat back down on the wooden chair. 

Harriet continued: “You had stopped when you saw someone carrying a brown coloured basket. You couldn't tell who that person was or what they were doing in the middle of the forest with a basket. The person you saw was a woman and she was wearing a long white long dress.This person stopped by the pebbles and began to pick them one after the other but left one blue pebble and ran into the forest because she saw you. While she was running away she dropped a black pebble."

She paused for a while and continued, "Let me be the first one to tell you that the woman you saw is still in that forest watching the blue pebble and she will do whatever it takes to get it."

"But why didn't she just walk up to it and picked it up?" kimberly inquired curiously.

"Because you were there," replied Harriet. 

"What? Was she afraid of me?" 

"No. She was afraid of what you had in your hand..." Harriet replied.

"But what did I have in my hand?" Kimberly was even more curious.

"This..."