Juliet

It was another okay school day. I placed the spring onions seeds into the small beaker with the damped cotton and brought it over to the window sill. Leaving it in the sun and sprinkling some water into it, our biology teacher said we can leave them there for the weekend and go home. Hearing the school bell ring, everyone got excited because it was a Friday.

Kat walked to me and with a neutral expression and said, “As promised, let’s go to the park.”

I looked at her, seeing her green mystic eyes shining right back at me. “Errr… Why?”

“You don’t remember?” she said, almost giving me a chill down my spine.

“Kat… Are you okay?”

She suddenly froze for a second.

“Kat?” I asked again.

Her eyes stopped glowing green and came back to the normal green eyes she usually has—the gentle nature green eyes. She glanced at me and smiled, “Sorry, what just happened?”

I just looked at her stunned, “You said something about going to the park?” I started to wonder why she couldn’t remember. “Are you okay?” I continued asking her.

“I did? Oh! I did!” she laughed, “Sorry, did I scare you?”

I slightly nodded, “Yeah, a bit.”

Kat just smiled again, “Yeah. Well, sometimes my powers just stir up and take over.”

“Your powers stir up?”

She nodded.

“Sometimes when something that’s really urgent or important, my powers just take over and warns other people. But usually, that rarely happens so don’t worry about it.”

“Okay…”

But then something made me wonder. If she said that her powers only take over when something was really important. Then why did it just happen now?

“Kat…” I asked her. “Is there something important that you want to warn me about?”

She looked at me weirdly, “I don’t think there is.”

“Then why did your powers just took over you?”

Kat just shrugged, “I guess it was just wanted to talk to you, Julie.”

“About what?”

“You said that my powers told you to come to the park right?”

I nodded.

“Then I guess we’ll have to go to the park to find out.”

After walking for about fifteen minutes, with my bike next to me on one side while talking to Kat on the other side, we finally found a place and settled down. Under a particularly large tree, the branches filled with green leaves shaded us from the warm sunlight. Although this summer day was a bit too warm, there was a soft breeze that passed us both.

“Is this place okay?” I asked her.

Kat smiled, “This place is perfect!” She observed the strong tree that embraces us. “It has a beautiful energy too,” she added.

“Energy…” I started to think to myself, I wonder what she meant by that…

“Okay then!” Kat clapped her hands. “It’s time for the cards!” She smiled as she spread the large picnic mat onto the grass.

I walked over to the side of the tree and leant my bike against its trunk. Relaxing my shoulders, I sat down with Kat and observed her.

Kat took out her cards from a long wooden box that had strange symbols. She placed the pile of cards in front of me and I stared at it. I gazed at the wooden box for a while, seeing the lines carved into the wood with symbols and patterns that embraced the box in the same way nature would.

“Do you mind shuffling the cards seventeen times for me?” Kat asked.

“Sure, no problem.”

I reached out to the pile of cards and began shuffling them between my fingers. Kat sat there with her legs crossed, smiling happily at me. She seemed very excited.

I counted my last shuffle and placed the cards down. “There, finished.”

“Perfect! Do you know why I have asked you to shuffle it seventeen times?”

I shook my head. Her eyes glittered back at me as I saw my own reflection in her bottle-green eyes. “It’s really simple,” she continued. “It’s because you’re seventeen years old!”

“Oh! That was obvious.”

She nodded, “And yet you didn’t pick it up.”

I knew that she was joking with me, but I didn’t bother saying anything back.

“Okay then,” Kat pointed, “I want you to pick up the first card and put it on your right, while the second card on your left.”

I did as she had told to me.

She reached for the cards and spread them across the mat. “Now, pick any card in this group,” she pointed.

I glimpsed down for a while, wondering which card to pick. Pulling out one of the long cards, I ended up choosing one randomly. I gave the card to Kat and she flipped it over along with the first two cards. The first card had a picture of the blue sky with white fluffy clouds. But there was a person losing her wings, as though she was an angel.

Kat looked at the card and she began to worry. "Fallen," she said.

I looked at the card again and saw the word at the edge of its border. It was written in cursive golden letters. Something that was elegant, but the word ‘Fallen’ began to make me worry.

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"To be honest," she paused, "these cards can only warn you. They usually don't tell us what they mean exactly. If they did, I would be a famous fortune teller as my full-time job." Kat laughed.

She continued to turn over the second card and there was a picture of a dark shadow figure, along with the word ‘Dark’ underneath the picture. Kat slightly tilted her head trying to make a connection to understand what the cards were saying to her. I waited for her lips to move, but she just kept quiet and moved on to the third card.

My heart began to race and I started to panic to see what the last card was.

She flipped the card over and I saw the word ‘Trap’. I raised an eyebrow, That doesn’t sound good. Giving the card a closer look, I saw an image of an elegant girl concealed within a transparent box.

“Fallen. Dark. Trap.” Kat said quietly to herself.

“What do they mean?” I asked again.

Her facial expression began to change. “You will fall from the highest peak and down to a place with no light. You will not be able to escape unless you’re with…”

I didn’t quite understand what she just said. But it felt like she wasn’t herself again. “With what?” I asked.

“You’re once lost and now found.”

A big question mark appeared in my head. What does she mean by that? This entire predicting thing made no sense to me. “Lost and found?” I echoed. I looked up at Kat again and her facial expression was blank.

“Kat?”

There was a long paused and she suddenly snapped out of it. “So, what’s the last card?” she beamed.

“You already flipped it,” I replied. I started to wonder if Kat was really alright when she doesn’t remember anything from the last few minutes. But when I remember her telling me that this was normal for her, I kept quiet.

“Oh,” Kat glanced down at the three cards, “so it’s ‘Trap’.” She looked at me again, “What did the other me say?”

My eyes widened, “You really don’t remember anything?”

She nodded, “Like I said before when it comes, I don’t have a single clue what I just said.” She gave me a reassuring smile.

But then her smile faded when I didn’t reply. “Are you still worried?”

I slightly nodded.

Kat smiled sweetly as she held onto my hands, “It’s okay, Julie. I’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry anything about me because it’s normal for a fortune teller to have this other self.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to accept the reason she just explained to me. “I understand. I’ll try not to get too worried then.”

“Good!” Kat smiled, “You’re such a caring person for a prank master.”

“Me?” I pointed to myself, “Caring?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll try not to be caring then,” I joked.

Kat laughed, “Very funny, Julie.”

Changing the subject, she looked straight into my eyes and said, “So, what did the other me say?”

Trying to remember what she said to me two minutes ago, I repeated the words, “You said that I will fall down from the highest peak and down into a place with no light. And I can only escape,” I continued, “if I was with my ‘once lost and now found’.”

Kat nodded her head, repetitively. “I see.”

“Do you know what that means then?”

“Well, my guess is your ‘once lost and now found’ is related to your past,” she replied, firmly. “Did you lose something important in your past?”

It was quite a shock when she said that. I was shocked because her question triggered something that I didn’t want to remember. To be more precise, I didn’t want to remember because it hurts my head whenever I tried to. But I was sure that I did lose something important, something that was in my childhood memories. “I had an accident when I was eight.”

Kat’s eyes widened, “Was it something that changed your life?”

I nodded, “I guess you can say that.” I paused, “But to be honest, I lost all my memories after that day.”

Kat lowered her eyes and reached for my hand again, “It’s okay, Julie. If it hurts to talk about now, then don’t discuss it with me today. Only tell me when you want to.”

I let out a sigh. “Okay,” I answered. “I’ll tell you when I think I can manage my headaches.”

Kat lets go of my hand and said, “However, I think your ‘once lost and now found’ is probably a special object in your childhood.”

I nodded, “Now that I think of it. I guess you’re right. Although, I don’t know what I lost.”

“I guess that’s all for today,” she stopped to think. “All this predicting and guessing is making me hungry. Do you want to go and buy some cupcakes?”

“Sure.”

When I got home from the park, my parents’ cars were in the driveway. Unusual, my parents rarely come home at this time. I shrugged my shoulders as I got off my bike. Maybe they have guests today?

I took off my helmet and hanged it on my bike. Then chaining my bike to the fence, I couldn’t be bothered getting my keys, so I pressed the doorbell. Ding dong! It went.

“That must be Juliet!” I heard my mum calling.

“Do you mind getting the door for Mrs Hayes, dear?” I heard a lady’s voice, in which sounded like a friend of Mum’s.

Opening the door, I was expecting my mum’s friend to be there because normally when there were guests, Mum would be having busy hands making snacks or something. So usually, the guest would open the door and I’ll greet her with a friendly hello.

The door swung opened, and as planned, I smiled happily waving to the guest, “Hello, Mrs—”

I paused with realisation. This person was not even a Mrs. In fact, this person was definitely not a lady. It was Ice Pack Stealer.

“What are you doing here?” I pointed.

He looked at me and smiled, “Hi!” He grinned, “I’m your guest today.”

I glared at Ice Pack Stealer and walked in. “Okay…” I replied, “That doesn’t make any sense.” Still holding onto my bag, I closed the door behind me and saw Mum’s friend. Sitting there was the lady I saw last time, the one who lent me an ice pack, “Hi, Mrs Jones.” I greeted her.

“Oh, hi dear!” she smiled happily. “We meet again!” she gave me a hug. I awkwardly hugged back and weakly smiled.

“And this is my son,” she dragged him over, “Romeo.”

“Hi,” he said again. “Nice to meet you.” He held his hand out.

Trying to keep with the flow, I just shook his hand. “Nice to meet you too!” I beamed back, but my handshake wasn’t normal. I gave him a slight squeeze to tell him not to do anything weird at my house.

He tried not to react and just smiled back. Releasing his hand, he hid it behind him. I assumed that he was shaking it to ease his blood flow.

Mrs Jones smiled, “Now that the introductions are done. Maybe you guys want to hang out sometime since we’re neighbours and are also close friends and all.”

I smiled at her and nodded. Mrs Jones then headed to the kitchen. I glared back at him, in which he glared back at me. “That’s never going to happen,” we whispered at the same time.

I glared at him again with fire in my eyes.

“Stop copying me,” he said, trying not to raise his voice.

“No.” I pointed at him, “You, stop copying me!”

He was about to say something back, but then his mum called him. “Romeo, I think your dad and Mr Hayes needs your help with the barbeque.”

We’re having a barbeque? With Ice Pack Stealer?

To be honest, I didn’t hate having barbeques with neighbours. In fact, every time my parents moved houses, they always managed to find some friends and invite them over for a barbeque. I glimpsed over to Ice Pack Stealer’s parents, Mr and Mrs Jones. They seem like really nice people. But just seeing this person, the one in front of me, is already making me lose my appetite.

“Sure, Mum,” he replied and walked away from me.

I gave him the death stare and he just glared back at me. Sliding the backyard door, he gave me a slight smirk and left. Good grief, today’s going to be one of my worst days of my life. I rolled my eyes as I saw him helping out our dads with the barbeque in the backyard.

Then I looked over to Mum and Mrs Jones. Remembering how Mrs Jones asked me to call her Stephanie, made me feel a little weird. I never called an adult, especially my parents’ friends, by their first names. It just made me sound like I didn’t respect them. So I just call them by their last name—even if they did tell me to call them by their first names. But then again, how did my parents meet Mr and Mrs Jones? Wondering a little longer, I heard my mum calling for me.

“Juliet,” Mum looked over to my direction, “do you mind getting three more aprons from the basement downstairs?”

“Oh okay,” I answered, “I’ll be right back.”

Holding onto my bag, I went upstairs and placed my school bag in my bedroom. Quickly changing into a pair of jeans and a shirt that wouldn’t mind me spilling some barbeque sauce on it later (just in case it happens); I opened the door to the basement. It was surely dark in there.

Blindly walking into the pitch black room, I started to touch the wall to find the light switch. Tripping over some tennis rackets and fishing rods, I fell over a box filled with Christmas lights. I reached my fingers up the wall and flicked the light switch on. I sighed in relief, finally being able to see the basement. What a mess!

Practically, everything over the last week that hadn’t been unpacked from the day we moved here, now lives in this basement. Okay then, I wonder where the aprons are. Scanning around the basement, I tried to spot a box with extra kitchen utensils. Maybe it would be in here? I stepped over a few boxes and dragged myself to the rectangular container. Looking for fabric-like material, I searched through the box of plastic plates, spoons and knives. There were also a few tongs and sharp knives, but luckily the stainless steel knives have a protector around it so I didn’t cut myself. 

Damn it, it’s not here. I searched through the box of kitchen utensils again. Where is it? I looked up and walked around the basement. Seriously, most of the stuff here was junk. I shifted my body and squeezed my legs through the stacks of boxes at every corner I went. Literally, there wasn’t even space for me to breathe properly.

Then as I was stumbling through the tight basement, I saw a few cloth-looking materials peeking out of a box at the corner of my eye. Wriggling my body into the small space, where the fabric materials were, I finally found them! Lifting the aprons from the box, I spread the apron in the air and smiled to myself. This should do it. I counted for three aprons before I stood up again.

I dusted the aprons a bit, trying to straighten the folded lines. But then, I saw two words that captured my attention.