Free The O’Hara Affair by Kate Thompson Page A

boobs were too small. She’d been going to ask her parents if she could have a boob job for her eighteenth birthday, but she knew they would have pooh-poohed the idea. They’d tell her not to be so stupid, that she was beautiful as she was. They didn’t understand what it was like to be a teenager. They didn’t know that it was horrible.
    A gang of girls was coming along the promenade now, a phalanx of linked arms and GHD hair and blinging teeth. Bethany knew that if they saw her vacillating outside the fortune-teller’s, she’d be subjected to their derision. And there was nothing more lacerating than the derision of teenage girls. She’d never forgotten the snorts of mirth that had erupted in the classroom when the careers guidance teacher had announced that Bethany wanted to be an actress (‘Sure after all, girls,’ the teacher had chortled, fanning theflames of her peers’ ridicule, ‘isn’t Bethany O’Brien a fine name for a thespian? With a grand alliterative name like that, you wouldn’t be after needing any talent at all, so you wouldn’t.’) At least today she had somewhere to hide: there’d been nowhere to hide in the classroom that day. Pulling aside the curtain, she ducked into the booth.
    It took a moment or two for her eyes to adjust to the gloom. The tented space was lit by a single, crimson-shaded lamp. At a table covered in a star-spangled chenille cloth, a veiled woman was sitting gazing into a crystal ball in which Bethany could see herself reflected in miniature.
    ‘Erm, hello, Madame Tiresia,’ she said, feeling awkward. ‘My name—’
    ‘Sit down, Bethany,’ said the woman.
    ‘Oh! How did—’
    ‘I know your name? I saw it in the crystal. I’ve been waiting for you.’
    Well, so far, so impressive. What clever trick had Madame used to get her name right? She’d try to work it out later, the way she and her parents did after watching Derren Brown on the telly. Moving towards the table, she sat down opposite Madame Tiresia.
    ‘Before we start, I must ask you to cross my palm with five euros.’
    ‘Oh – of course.’ Bethany pulled out her purse and handed over a five euro note, which Madam Tiresia slid into a manila envelope. The envelope was bulging: business must have been brisk. Bethany wondered how many of Daisy’s Facebook friends had taken her advice and sought a consultation with the fortune-teller. She’d check Facebook out later, and see what the consensus was.
    ‘Let me see what else the crystal has to show,’ said Madame Tiresia. ‘You sat exams recently, Bethany. You think you didquite well, but you’re scared that you may not have done well enough.’
    ‘You’re right.’
    Hmm. Bethany guessed that that could apply to virtually every girl her age who came into the booth, since most teenagers this summer would have taken exams, and most would be feeling insecure about results.
    ‘What else do I see in the crystal?’ continued Madame Tiresia. ‘I see…a fish. Two fishes. What does that signify?’
    ‘Um. I don’t know. Maybe my mum’s going to do some kind of fish for supper.’
    Madame Tiresia gave a low laugh. ‘No. The crystal is telling me that you were born under the sign of Pisces. Is that so?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You are a talented young lady, Bethany. Artistic.’
    Bethany shrugged. ‘I – I suppose I am.’
    ‘I see a keyboard. Do you play the piano?’
    ‘Yes. I do.’
    ‘And you love to act. It is your dream career. Have you applied to theatre school?’
    ‘Not yet.’
    ‘Isn’t it about time you did?’
    ‘I guess so. They’ve actually extended the deadline to the school I want to go to, but I keep putting it off.’
    ‘I see. You’re putting it off because you’re scared of rejection?’
    Bethany nodded.
    ‘The crystal ball is telling me that you shouldn’t procrastinate any longer,’ said Madame Tiresia. ‘If you want this thing badly enough, you must take action now.’
    ‘Oh.’ Bethany looked dubious.