Free A Cab Called Reliable by Patti Kim

chest. The class laughed out loud. They might as well have been laughing at their own selves because they all believed my stories and came back to me with their lunch and milk money to hear more.
    Yvonne and Keith were the only ones who did not follow me around like beggars with open palms. During lunch, when I saw them sitting alone at the far end of the cafeteria table sharing secrets and Yvonne’s thermos of apple juice, and ignoring me and my beggars, I began loving her again and wanted to play with her new beagle and give her a second reading for free. As I watched them, Lisa sat close to me, holding her palm under my nose. “Here’s a quarter, Palmer. What do you say?”
    Taking the quarter and glancing down at her palm, I told Lisa that she would have a long life—maybe ninety-five years. She was going to have three husbands—an astronaut, a surgeon, and a pastor. She would have two daughters named Kelly and Katie. I saw a lot of money, and she was to stay away from beaches because I saw water, sun, and sand with blood, which was an awful sign. And there was a good chance she would get straight A’s. Then, remembering Lisa had long legs, I told her her mount of Mars was extremely high, which meant she was very athletic.
    Lisa said, “It’s high, huh?”
    â€œVery,” I said.
    â€œAre they cute?” she asked.
    â€œWho?”
    â€œMy husbands.”
    â€œThe astronaut is ugly. The surgeon is all right. The pastor is really good-looking,” I said.
    â€œWhat’s a pastor?” she asked.
    â€œA man of God,” I said.
    Lisa saw Yvonne sitting at the other end of the table, and with her palm open ran to tell her what Palmer had said. Palmer said this, Palmer said that. “Palmer said I was going to marry a good-looking man of God.”
    I saw Yvonne shrug her shoulders, throw away her lunch, and walk out of the cafeteria with her thermos hanging on her pinky. I decided to follow her.
    â€œYvonne, I’ll give you another reading. You don’t have to pay me,” I said, walking quickly to catch up with her. She stopped, turned around, and with tears in her eyes and the beads on her braids hitting against her face, she pushed her open palm against my forehead, watched me fall back, then walked away.
    When I walked home from school that afternoon, I had a headache thinking about poor Yvonne alone with Keith, alone with her beagle, alone with parents who should have belonged to a circus. I was thinking about what fortune I would have told her if she had not pushed me so hard. Yvonne, your luck is changing. It’s changing colors, red, blue, green, yellow.… Why did she hit me? As I turned into our court, I plugged up my ears to keep myself from hearing voices. I wanted to pull out my eyes to keep myself from seeing pictures and cut out my tongue to keep myself from telling tales. I wanted to tell Mr. Greer that my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were not gifted in any way, and my great-great-grandmother farmed pickles in the springtime and milled rice in the winter.
    When I came home, Loo Lah was sleeping on the couch and the stereo was playing a sad Korean love song, which made my eyes tear. I went into my room, removed my white box full of quarters from underneath Min Joo’s bed, and sat with its weight heavy on my lap. How could I pay for each lie I told? How could I pay for each quarter I stole? I picked one up and said to myself that this one belonged to Jaime, who wanted to know if his dead grandfather went to heaven or hell. He had died from smoking too many cigarettes, and Jaime was once told that smokers went to hell. This one belonged to Scott, whom I told to eat a tablespoon of baking soda every morning because his breath stunk. This one belonged to the girl whose lines looked just like mine and whom I told to always always, no matter what, keep her mother in sight.
    I carried my box to my desk, and for each quarter