Divination 1

Deliver me from the mouth of the evil serpent,
Devour me and reduce the gaping one
Alive in hell


Rumors about old fortune teller Tanya were circulating throughout the city. They say, she lives in Zakhonye and guesses very well, takes a ruble and tells the whole truth.

Martha also heard about her, but did not even think that it would ever happen... And happened so that in one of the October days classmates started talking about a fortune teller.

“Ira and I want to visit her today,” - said Yulia. - Only we are afraid to go alone".

Word for word and the company in six girls gathered: two Iras, Julia, Olya, Natasha and Martha.

In the evening, the girls met at the bus stop, as agreed. They came by bus, then walked for a long time across the fields, along a path stuck by an early frost, until, finally, a village appeared in front of them. Very small village, just a couple of streets. Nobody knew the address, but when the girls asked the woman who worked in her garden: "Where does aunt Tanya live?" She immediately pointed the house.

The whole crowd, shyly, they entered the entrance, where a tall, strong old woman gave milk to two peasants. This was same Tanya - not old yet and not at all scary, with white hair covered with a scarf.

- Want to guess? - She asked immediately.

- Yeah.

- Only not with the whole crowd. Two of you, stay, one here, on the stairs, sit still, the other one come with me, and the rest take a walk for now.

- Here you have bread and butter, came itself, - she nodded to the peasants and went to the hut.

The first to go were the bosom friends Julia and Ira, who made the whole mess. Another Ira is behind them. And then Martha's turn came at last.

With curiosity she entered a clean room filled with unfamiliar smells, decorated somehow unusually, in the old fashioned way, and seemed to be in another world: a clock with a pendulum ticked quietly on the wall, the bedside tables were full of white embroidered napkins, a homespun path on the floor and pictures on the walls.