“Ok,” he said, looking at his tarot cards fanned out before his hands, “tu eres este.”
He put out a card depicting an image of a man standing with a cane beside a bush, watching his harvest of gold stars come to fruition on the bush.
There were seven of them. Gold stars, that is.
“Que significa?” Carlo asked.
“Haci significa que vas a tener una buena cosecha (harvest), de lo que estás haciendo, si continuas trabajando y perseverando sobre todas las cosas malas, tribulaciones.”
“Si, lo voy hacer” Carlo responded with resolve.
Jorge smiled.
“Pero haci,” he turned the card upside down, “Significa que no vas a terminar el trabajo, y tus resultados no van hacer tan buenos.”
Carlo was startled. I’m not going to let that happen to me, he thought.
“Pero no te preocupes, el imagen fue rececho. Vaz hacer lo que te has determinado hacer, y lo vas a lograr.”
Carlo exhaled a sigh of relief. Jorge put the cards down, next to his other magic supplies, and said “Ahora, dejame ver tu palma.”
But before Jorge could get a read of the lines of Carlo’s palms…
Carlo’s parents get home, mom comes to his door.
He hides the cards, says “ella no le gusta que haga esto. Lo piensa brujería.”
“Bueno, lo es, no?”
Jorge shrugged off the question, and responded, “No es si es verdad o no pero si lo crees o no.”
The sound of the garage opening startled the both of them as they were in such deep conversation and thought.
“Tengo que esconder todo esto,” Jorge said, “mi mama me va matar si sabe que lo he traído.”
Carlo watched Jorge put everything away – he was quick about it, too. Though he was crippled, he really knew how to move around when necessary.
Carlo hadn’t asked his uncle how he got to being that way, in a wheelchair – stuck, he had just figured he’d always been that way.
“Jorge, estamos aqui!” His mom yelled as he walked towards their room.
“Aqui estoy mama, como te ha ido?”
Jorge wheeled out of the room.
Carlo was tired and he wanted to go to bed, but before he did he knew there was an important call he had to make.
Ding, ding, ding ding.
“Man, I hope he picks up-“
“Hello, Harry speaking, who’s this?”
Hey, Harry! It’s Carlo, who you met in-“
“Carlo, wassup man?!”
“I’m,”
“First off, why do you want me to be your mentor? HEY, SHUT UP I’M TALKING ON THE PHONE! Sorry Carl, I’m at the bar. Is it alright if I call you Carl? I’m gonna call you Carl, ok? Hold on, shut up! I said I’m on the phone!”
“Yeah, Carl is cool, and I want you to be my mentor because-“
“Don’t even worry about it. Alright. I’ll mentor you. Hey, how old are you, are you at least 21?”
At this point, Carlo could clearly tell that Harry was drunk, at least tipsy.
“No, I’m only 18.”
“That don’t mean nothin. I know the owners here, even sold them some kitchen utensils – I.”
“Wow man, that’s pretty-“
“Hey man, I gotta let you go, I’m up next on the billiards table and the last game just ended.”
“Cool.”
“I have your number now, I’ll call you later.”
What an interesting man, Carlo thought as he then dozed off to sleep.
Carlo was awakened at the sound of his uncle screaming.
“No, no me lo quites!”
Jorge’s mother, in that latin fury that is commonly found in mothers of the Spanish race, shouted:
“Esas cosas son del diablo, hay que quemarlo,” she brought the shoebox out of the closet.
How she found out, Carlo couldn’t guess, and she went out the back door, to the old metal barrel everyone used as a fire pit, and doused it with gasoline.
“No! Mama! No!” Jorge yelled from the back door as he shed tear after tear.
She lit it on fire and walked back into the house.
“Nunca más hagas eso, te lo estoy advirtiendo.”
Jorge watched the fire with deep sadness and lament.
“Mi athame,” he whimpered as he wiped one of his tears.
The next morning, Carlo woke up early, but he felt… weird.
There was something off in his room and in him. He felt more, peculiarly, confident due to the prophecy-of-a-sort that his uncle read in him yesterday.
“Vas a tener una buena cosecha”, or “no vas a terminar el trabajo y tus resultados no van hacer tan buenos.”
He determined in himself that he was going to work for destiny, and not fall into the hands of fate.
Going through the neighborhood in his suit, Carlo felt a new-found confidence as he went door-to-door.
It was his first time wearing a bright red tie, one he was holding on to for a special day. When suddenly, out of nowhere, as he was going down towards someone’s front lawn, he heard a yell, then a scream.
“Aahh!”
“Aah!
He turned around and immediately realized that the yell was coming from a nearby house.
He didn’t know what in him caused him to grab his satchel close to his chest and run towards it, but before he knew it, he was at their front door, ear pressed to the door.
It was the biggest house in the neighborhood.
Suddenly he heard more screams.
“Aaahh! Don’t!”
He dialed 911 on his phone and proceeded to knock loudly.
Because he didn’t know what to do, he decided on-the-fly that he was going to go through his sales skit just as he was trained to, acting like he never heard anything at all. Perhaps that might stop whoever’s inside from hollering.
Curiosity brought Carlo to this doorstep, but what he was in for was a lot more than breaking up an argument or even making a sale.
When you hear screams coming from a house, why would any one run towards it?
The door opened slowly until it was wide open.
“Hello?”
Carlo didn’t see anyone.
But he did smell the scent of cannabis emanating from the inside.
He wielded his phone in his hand like a sword of his own and took one slow step after the other.
The door closed suddenly beside him, but there was no one there.
This is crazy, Carlo thought, then continued in.
“Hi!” Carlo startled.
There was a lady, not too old but not extraordinarily young, right in front of him.
“Sorry, I walked in on my own.”
“It’s ok, I had opened the door for you.”
Carlo didn’t think to ask any more questions, nor talk about the screams he had just heard. “I have a presentation,” he shuffled through his sales prospectus for something to show what he was there for.
“Hush.” The woman said, putting her hand towards the binder.
“What?”
“Shut up. I know what you really came for.”
I have to leave this place immediately, Carlo thought, this woman’s crazy.
“Come in.”
Before he knew it, he was inside the air conditioned house. He was creeped out, because he didn’t know what he came in for, just that he was drawn by some force greater than himself.
“Sit down, shall we?”
There he was, at the kitchen table of this grandiose house. And the inside was decorated remarkably.
Chandeliers in almost every room, art of every sort, mirrors, black draping curtains on every window.
But what Carlo didn’t see was a man, though he thought that he had initially heard one yell.
Carlo was about to open his sales prospectus out, when the woman said, “No, it’s not you who’s going to do a presentation today.”
Carlo looked up at her.
He was confused.
Her eyes were blue, exploding out of her face. A smile persisted on her, she had curly reddish-brown hair. Carlo didn’t know what to do other than just stand still.
“Wait here, I’m just gonna go get something real quick.”
Carlo’s heart started beating faster and faster.
He looked around, imagining where a potential exit might be just in case this woman was a murderer and he didn’t know it.
She came back with an old leather chest, it was small like a briefcase.
She opened it up and Carlo couldn’t really believe it.
Of course, he said in his head.
“You were doing witchcraft with someone last night. What was it, your cousin?”
“My uncle, actually… how do you know that?”
“I saw it”, she took out a small crystal ball out of the briefcase and placed it in front of her.
Carlo leaned back in his chair in surrender.
For some reason, he was supposed to be here.
He didn’t know why, exactly, but he had a sneaking intuition/inclination that the whole event was somehow out of his control, and that he would have to weather out whatever happened after this point, for better or for worse.
“Do you know what’s going to happen today?”
“No…”
“I’m going to tell you your destiny.”
“What made me come over here? I don’t know, after I heard the screams I just found myself at your house.”
“The same force that made the door open, Carlo.”
“How do you know? Are you a witch too, or something? My uncle-“
Suddenly things started falling into place in his mind, but he didn’t know how it was all connected.
His uncle, the “prophecy” by the tarot cards. Getting up this morning full of fervor.
“No, real witches are few and far between in these parts, but I’m something like that. I like to call myself… wiccan. Though, witches might fit better for some of the things I do.”
Carlo looked around. He wondered how a witch could get to living in such a lavish house.
“Shall we commence?”
“With what?”
“With what your uncle from Mexico City couldn’t complete last night.”
She had taken all of the instruments needed for what she was going to be doing. Tarot cards, a crystal ball, a wand, a drape-like blanket, sage, and some candles.
There were plenty of other trinkets in the box but Carlo didn’t bother asking over them.
An awkward comfort came over him that made him feel right at home.
She leaned into the crystal ball and Carlo couldn’t believe it. The glass ball suddenly appeared to be filled with smoke as a dull light emerged from the center. Carlo leaned over to see.
Suddenly, everyone in his family ‘s house started showing one by one.
The wiccan smiled gleefully. Carlo didn’t even know her name, but there she was, seeing all his family members and she really didn’t have to do anything to see it.
What baffled Carlo was the last image that flashed on the crystal ball. It was Harry, with a bale of hay next to him.
“Ok, so when something, a spell, any manifestation, anything that should’ve come to pass down from the heavenly realm for manifestation, if it’s not given, we magick practitioners can see it through various – various tools and spirits, sometimes.”
Carlo nodded. He didn’t understand, but he went along with it.
“So what’s hanging in the air for you, for manifestation, is. A journey. A journey you would never have taken unless I summoned you.”
“You summoned me?”
“Why yes, how else was I supposed to get you here? I oversee this area, this principality to make sure all things are in order. I get blips on my radar, so to speak, from one of the spirits that I use, one of my companions, and later I can go there and check it out for myself by projecting into the astral realm. That’s why I woke you up so early today, and got you to come to this neighborhood. Everything happens for a reason. Even your red tie has significance.”
Carlo sighed. This was almost too much for him, though, he understood what the wiccan was speaking of.
And suddenly, within himself, with a knowing deeper than anything he’d ever encountered before, he knew that there were powers higher than himself.
He also knew that someone, maybe God, and others, were keeping their all-seeing eye on him.
“Ok, what else?”
The woman broke out laughing, “whoa there son, don’t get too far ahead of yourself. I’d be the first to tell you how fascinating this stuff is. But don’t just go venturing into the unknown. This stuff is cosmic.”
They both sat looking at each other for a few seconds. A faint smile never wore off the woman’s face.
“Can you at least tell me what your name is?”
The lady sighed, “you can call me Euridice.”
“I’m Carlo.”
“I know your name, Carlo. C’mon. Have you not been listening to a word I say?”
“Ok, I get it. You know everything, I know nothing. So, what’s my destiny then?”
“That actually depends on you, but the higher powers can at least tell me what’s in store for you.”
“So, what you’re saying is. What’s in store for me is actually lingering in the atmosphere here, just for me?”
“Now you’re getting it! Yes. Something like that. You’re a quick learner!”
“Ok. Let’s get to it, then. I have work to do.”
“Nonsense! Your time working is done. There are far more important things for you to do.”
Once again, there was a tense silence between the two.
The woman pulled out the cards, did some stuff, burned some sage, lit some candles. Her eyes often looked up as she “channeled” the message. She said some weird stuff, all in the matter of about half an hour.
By the end, she surmised as follows:
“You’re going to go on an adventure. Probably soon, and I’m seeing that it will last quite a while and you will learn a lot about this world, and the spirit realm. You will become much wiser than others your age within a short period of time. The meaning of life, truly, will become known to you. It will seek you out. Life has known about you, but now He wants to entrust you with His deeper secrets.”
Carlo didn’t understand everything she was saying, but found it interesting how she channeled the message, her eyes would at times look upward and twitch sporadically, like a message was being transmitted to her as an antenna.
“Unfortunately though,” she continued and time stopped still.
Oh no, Carlo thought, I knew there was going to be some negative in using magik. That’s why Jorge’s mom burned his supplies.
“Are you listening?”
“Yes, but… is it possible you don’t tell me about the bad part, just allow me to experience it myself?”
“No, there’s a reason I was sent to you and vice versa.”
Not knowing doesn’t change anything for the better, it just keeps you in the dark about what’s really happening, and what’s going to happen…”
“Jesus Christ,” Carlo said.
Euridice laughed heinously, witch-like, and continued, “unfortunately, amidst your learning of the wisdom of this world, you will learn about darkness, bad things. Secrets, things hidden to the public which makes our world run as it does. You will eventually use the knowledge of the power of darkness against itself, for within the light, which you’ll eventually obtain, you’ll actively dispel the darkness wherever you go,”
Carlo sat up a little taller. He liked the sound of that, but wondered, “Don’t I already have the light?”
“No, you don’t. The light is gotten through suffering, trial, you haven’t faced anything that would’ve given you the true light yet. Not the true light.”
Carlo shocked.
“I’m a telepath as well as psychic. Thoughts in the spirit realm appear as real substance to me.”
“Huh.”
His mind continued to expand as he listened to the woman.
“You will become rich in your old age. It will take this long because first, you must become rich on the inside before you’re rich on the outside. Amidst your learnings, for this is barely the beginning of what your life will be like, you will have outside interruptions from other influences. Others will steer your path and you will have to rely on outside influences as they steer your path. Your life won’t be in your control, for a season, but you’ll learn to let the chips fall where they may, so to speak, that is-“
“To give up control.”
“Exactly. But then, I’m seeing the power which makes all things be will start to come into you. You won’t even know how tough you are until you get past the point you thought you would break, and truly become stronger through that experience.”
“Wow.”
Carlo couldn’t believe that the woman was talking about him.
He was just a salesman who barely finished high school.
Who was he to undergo tests, trials, adventure, and turn out stronger?
“Lastly, there is a harsh event – no, two harsh events on the horizon. Don’t worry when they happen, simply… Oh God!”
“Simply what?”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but they’re telling me to.”
“What? What is it? You can tell me.”
She still didn’t want to say,
“After everything you said and told me, you can’t tell me a simple thing? (Or !) Aren’t they -” Carlo waved his hands,
She finally spouted off, “They’re telling me to tell you to pray when you can no longer do anything else.”
The doorbell rang and both startled.
“That’s the queue. You have to go.”
Carlo went, perplexed.
He’d never experienced anything quite like that – but hey, keep reading to find out what comes of this experience.
Would you like to buy Carlo’s Gap Year on Amazon?
MARK SOTOMAYOR 