She lured us over with her mystical promises. The allure of fortunes and world wisdom beckoned us all, and she spread the cards before each of us, one by one, directing us to ask a question and choose a card and then reading its picture, attempting to interpret its application to our lives.

The death card, the queen of love, a card of finance, each of us, listened and smiled as each fortune loosely resembled an aspect of our life.

As I sat opposite this serene middle aged woman at a restaurant in Marin County, I noticed her costume. Her black almost purple long straight hair was adorned by a large black hat. She wore a green shirt covered in part by a black vest and black and green striped pants. Rings and bracelets sparkled and jingled on her fingers and wrists and she spoke in a voice reminiscent of the Addams family’s Morticia. She handed me her business card. “I do weddings,” she said.

An hour or so later, we’d move on and away from this soothsayer and were focusing on buying food for dinner at a nearby grocery store. Near the dairy section, we caught a flash of black and green and at the check out, we faced the witch again. She told the children with a voice smooth and deep, “So nice to see you again.”

Trip taken July 2011.