Lara Tupper: Swift Ink Stories

Fortune Telling

As a girl, I played with twin sisters who remain dear friends. We liked to sketch and sing and eat Fig Newtons. We imagined elaborate worlds in which we could playact. We understood one another in this way.

But the twins had a way of communicating that I wasn’t privy to. One could guess numbers and words in the other’s head. (They wrote these down on slips of paper as proof.) They retrieved the Ouija board and, guided by twin power, they spelled out directives. Then we ran outside to swing, before we got too spooked. I marveled at their connection to some esoteric force.

I’ve been intrigued by fortune telling ever since, but I assumed the practice wasn’t for me. Astrology charts or tarot readings required a heightened communicative ability, I believed, one I didn’t possess.

But in graduate school, I received a present from my writing mentor: a tiny deck of tarot cards, each the size of a quarter. Have faith in your instincts, she meant. I didn’t know how to read the deck p…