Silence fell between them as they finished their first course. Charles remained in his seat, while Fernand dutifully took their plates away and returned with their main course. It looked good and had a nice scent to it, and then Fernand explained what they were having. Charles nodded, “It smells divine.” Charles commented simply, while the other took his seat.

Then Fernand would know how much he owed Charles. And he hadn’t even done anything yet. That was good though, that Fernand would pay before the reading, because people who would wait with paying would sometimes not pay at all, if the reading was not what they hoped for. Then they would call him a swindler and a heretic and worse nicknames and wish he’d burn in hell, for making such wrong and fake words. Even if they were possibly true, but often people didn’t want to hear the truth. Pity for them.

“Whatever you have to spare will be fine with me.” He didn’t have a set price; poor people weren’t able to pay as much as wealthy people and so the price would differ according to who he worked for. He imagined Fernand, as the good and honest man he seemed to be, would pay Charles well enough.

“Do you want to do it here… in the inn? Possibly in a chamber of our own… or do you have somewhere else? We need someplace quiet, where I can focus.” They weren’t alone here, after all, and noise sometimes made it all wrong.

@Elena

Fernand smiled at his new friend’s compliment. He knew how it smelled and how it tasted, as it wasn’t the first time he ate this.

He raised the glass of wine, toasting to his compatriot:

”Welcome to Venice, and may you find everything you are seeking here!”

It can be fame, fortune, love… Charles’ choice. Fernand’s wish was all-encompassing.

As Charles said that whatever he would offer would be good, Fernand thought about a good price. If at a fair he’d give a small silver coin for a reading, the Frenchman seemed to be different. Therefore, he’d seek in his purse for a gold coin and put it on the table, after having finished the second course.

”I’ll go to ask about the desert, be it now or afterwards, how you wish.”

As he wanted someplace quiet for the reading, Fernand nodded:

”Yes, we have a room in the inn, and I guess it’s the quietest we can get. The cabin aboard the ship is farther away, in the harbour, and I can’t guarantee the quiet either, if a neighbouring ship is loading or unloading.”

He was more and more curious about Charles' visions.

@Atrice

Charles was not yet entirely certain what he sought after in Venice, but he knew he’d find out, because he saw more and more signs that he ought to be here. He didn’t care all that much for fame, except that it did often bring some work and thus profit with it, and he did need that to live properly. Love wasn’t really of great importance to him. Perhaps, if he met the right person, like Fernand had obviously done, but he just hadn’t met that person yet.

Fernand had also asked about the price for a ‘reading’, and Charles did not really have any set price, so he tried to explain that. Automatically, he then wondered where they’d do it. Fernand thought about have a dessert, but he also put a gold coin on the table. Charles took it quietly, “I’m not feeling much more hungry right now, so perhaps afterwards.” He suggested then, and Fernand explained they could go to a room in the inn.

“A room in the inn sounds best then. It is also closest. We can go when you’re ready.” Charles was more or less done with his food anyway and he was honest when he said he wasn’t so hungry anymore. He rarely ate three meals. He might be a tall man, but he wasn’t a large man.

@Elena

Fernand was glad that Charles had postponed the dessert for later. He was looking forward to the reading, not as much for being curious what the future had in store for him – even if he was somehow curious – as for wanting to see how it functions differently than he had seen at fairs.

”I am ready. Follow me, please,” he said, showing the way up to the second floor.

The room was obviously meant for ladies to live there. There was nothing manly in the decorations and bed linen. Only a few things belonging to Fernand, put on one of the chairs and on the table, showed that a man was living there too. The bed was big enough that it had hosted all three Zanotta daughters at once, and, in addition to it, the furniture was simple: a table, a nightstand with a mirror, a wardrobe, two chairs.

”Take a seat,” he invited his compatriot, ”and please excuse me that it isn’t as tidy as it should. We weren’t expecting guests here in the room, and my wife is cooking since early in the morning.”

She had to, since the previous helpers were gone. The room wasn’t dirty though. Just not everything neatly at their place.

@Atrice

He’d had plenty of time to watch and study Fernand beforehand – this was half the way to read people anyway, perhaps even more than that. Sometimes Charles would just see flashes or scenes and rarely he’d see… everything. But getting to know a person and watching them could tell a lot about them too, and it made it easier to tell their future if you were going to try. Quietly he followed Fernand upstairs and to a chamber where women lived. Also Fernand’s wife, Charles assumed quietly.

He took a seat by the table when Fernand invited him to, and then the other man excused the slight mess that was there.

“Don’t think about it. You didn’t know you’d meet me today, after all.” Charles said with a calm smile, glancing a bit around, but then his eyes fell on Fernand again. Hazel eyes seemed to study him again and he closed his eyes briefly, inhaling a deep breath, holding it a few moments, and then he exhaled. It was a way to calm his body and mind and prepare for the reading.

“Give me your hand.” Charles then said, placing his with the palm facing up on the table – so that Fernand could place his hand on top of that. They shook hands briefly earlier, when they introduced themselves to each other. But this would be different. This time, he’d focus on so many things at the same time. He inhaled another deep breath while waiting for Fernand to give him said hand.

@Elena

Fernand nodded. It was true, this was the best explanation why they hadn’t been expecting any guests.

Charles’ request for his hand didn’t make Fernand wonder at all. Gypsies read the man’s fortune in his palm. Would he do the same? Maybe not exactly, given the example he had set. So, Fernand put his hand on top of Charles’, with a smile. Charles had a warm palm, and so did Fernand. When looking at how pale was Charles’ constitution, one would have expected a cold hand. He didn’t realize that, even if it might have been usually colder (or not), eating hot food was enough reason to have the warmth linger into their hands.

He looked at the other, inquisitively, without daring to speak. What if speaking was wrong now and it might interrupt the… visions?

@Atrice

Fernand said nothing while he gave Charles his hand across the table and Charles took it – but not to read it. Instead he wrapped his hand around it and also moved his other hand to cover the first, as if that would give him a better sense of Fernand. He closed his eyes and saw Fernand. And he saw the wife he hadn’t even met yet, but who cooked wonderful food and loved her husband for supporting her in her time of need. Fernand had been there for her when she needed it the most. And he would continue with that; he’d have to be there for her still, because their life was about to change. To the better or the worse? That would all depend on… so many things…

“A change will come to your life soon. A life-changing kind of change.” Charles said with his eyes still closed, “Your life won’t be what you’ve known it to be so far. And you will have to stay with your wife, because she’s going to need you, as she has always done, for as long as you have known her.” Charles continued and tilted his head, as if he saw something new.

Then he opened his eyes and met Fernand’s with a smile, “Do you want to know the change before it’s coming? Do you want to know what it is… some consider it bad luck to know too much. But it might do you good, to be prepared. Do you want to know?” He asked again, still smiling, and it was a kind and warm smile, as if the change was something very good. At least most considered it to be.

@Elena

Fernand had understood that Charles didn’t want to read the palm the classical way when his position had showed exactly what was expected from him, and he was curious what was to come next. He looked at his compatriot, how he was closing his eyes in order to sharpen his other senses. Fernand felt only warm hands, protective hands around his. For once, he wasn’t the one meant to protect, but to be protected. And he felt well.

Then Charles said what he had seen. That he was to go through a life-changing kind of change, and that he would have to stay with Margareta.

”Yes, I want to know it, if possible. I think I need to be prepared, because I am a worrier by nature,” he said.

He thought first that the change would be the upcoming wedding. But what if…? What could mean that Margareta would be going to need him..? Yes, better to be prepared.

@Atrice

Charles didn’t read Fernand’s hand the classical way at all… it was difficult to do that with closed eyes. Besides, that kind of handreading was either false or it was the seer using the hand as a tool or as a way to make the other person believe what they were saying. It wasn’t everyone who’d believe you could just see something within your mind like that. But that’s what Charles did and after he told Fernand a few things, about changes, he wondered whether Fernand wanted to know what the change would be, or at least, what Charles had seen…

The other said he would like to know and he wanted to be prepared. He called himself a worrier… Charles smiled, finding it kind of amusing. Worrier, warrior, it sounded almost like the same. But the warrior wouldn’t have time to worry. And the worrier would worry first, then fight later, if he thought it right after worrying.

Charles nodded then, “You must remember to act surprised, when your wife tells you. Women like to be the first to tell such things.” He said with a small smile, “Or that is my experience. But I think she will soon tell you great news. That your life will change so much, because two is going to turn into three.” He stopped here and looked at Fernand, wondering if he understood.

@Elena

Fernand raised his eyes in surprise. So… was he going to be a father?

"It will still be a surprise worth celebrating, when she'd tell me. She had told me that she couldn't have children, and this had been the reason her first husband had abused her."

Most men and women had no idea that not having children could be sometimes a man's fault, not always the woman's. Given that the woman was the one actually bearing the child, in all cases she was supposed to have the problem.

"I told her that I don't mind, that she is the most important to me, but of course I am glad to be a father. Thank you very much. Can you see if… ?" his voice broke for a moment, afraid to say the words.

Then he explained his fears in a different way.

"My mother didn't survive giving birth to me," he added in a whisper.

@Atrice