When I was very young my grandmother Nina took me to a woman with special powers.

According to her, Fanny, which was her name, could read cards and sense people like nobody else and
Nina wasn’t exactly an easy customer to please.  Fanny was always very accurate in her predictions
like she could really read the future with ease.

Me, a seven-year-old girl without any experience in those kinds of arts, was fascinated to learn something new.

We went into Fanny’s home, she was a sweet blond old lady, with something special in her eyes.
No costumes, no special candles, no sceneries. Just good energy in the air.

We sat down in front of her table and there were the cards; and just without really realizing what I was doing,
I suddenly started dreaming about my future. Then, Fanny started doing her thing, it was almost like magic.

-Travels, I see a lot of travels.

That was a good start. Traveling is the best thing you can ever foretell a little girl (or any girl) who dreams of discovering the world.

She continued talking about some key aspects of my life, but suddenly something grabbed my attention and made me feel scared:
The Death Card. Am I going to die young or what? It was a skull with a sickle.

Somehow I was fascinated by those cards and yet terrified, how could an apparently simple object ever have that much power?
How could those drawings mean so many things?

-So you will go through a lot of huge changes in your life. You will come to life once and again, like a phoenix a lot of times.
A phoenix is a beautiful bird that is reborn from its own ashes and so will you.

Fanny kept talking but the only thing I could do was just keep looking at the beautiful images on the cards. Those traces,
those colors and the stories they could tell. Time went by without me noticing it.

Suddenly my grandmother knocked at the door and entered the room. That’s when I took my chance. I couldn’t believe what was
I doing but I did it. I sneaked my little hand on the table when Fanny turned her head towards my grannie and grabbed the card.
I squeezed it into my pant pocket and took a nervous deep breath. Mission accomplished.

-Darling, it’s time to go. Let’s give Fanny a break-grandma said-

Fanny looked at me with a bright understanding smile on her face, without saying a word and I started walking restlessly.
When we were hitting the door her voice made me stop:

-Please, take good care of it. I am sure it will be with you forever.
She came to me, gave me the sweetest hug and said goodbye.

I never saw her again but her card has kept close to me until now, as Fanny once predicted.