hands down, card readers make one of the best storytellers in town. particularly in the downtown district.

for P75, you get to have your life and your future read in less than 15 minutes. right there on the sidewalk. with maybe two or three customers waiting for their turn, card reading must be one lucrative business to go into. all you need are several wood slabs nailed together to form what could pass as a table, a deck of cards, three chairs made out of the extra wood, and voila! you have your “office” ready. rent-free.

truth be told, i don’t really believe in having your future read through cards. no one can predict the future, that much i know. but it sure is fun hearing a complete stranger tell you generally vague predictions of your life you can’t help but go through the hoopla simply for self-entertainment.

although it’s not so entertaining hearing somebody tell you you’re going to become a single mother in the future with two or three kids to take care of. or that your boyfriend is cheating on you with another woman who happens to be his friend.

but for what it’s worth, it was entertaining to listen to her go on and on about the guys in my life. plural form. five, to be exact. that killed me. wala ko kahibaw ingon ana diay kadaghana ang mga lalaki na naghandum nako! lol.

the rest of what she said may have been true, depending on how i want to interpret the vagueness of it all. i still think it’s pure storytelling. semi-fictional tales with you as the protagonist of a story so heartwarmingly blurry you can’t help but wonder if you’re in jumanji. that crazy.

just to be sure, i asked ram if he’s seeing someone else. of course he said no. maybe i’ll ask the card reader again if he was bluffing when he said no. either that, or i’ll buy one of those bottled oils sold in dowtown sidewalks where the vendor swore up and down that if you write your name and your beloved’s name on a piece of paper and put it inside the bottle, he will think of no one else but you. tried and tested by the vendor herself. i know because i irritated her with my endless inquiry as to what each and every oil bottles and barks were for and how effective they really were. “tanan mga produkto dinhi dai epektibo man jud kay gisuwayan man jud ni nako tanan.” wow. now that’s what i call quality control! lol.

can’t afford the bigger bottles? they sell them in sachets too. seriously.