Thursday, December 02, 2010

Palm of Her Hand

When Lorelei emerged from the Bentley draped in pink silk and pearls, E.B. Whiting’s heart quaked all the way down to his RocketBuster boots. For over a year he had pursued the Geisha, through the cobbled streets of the French Quarter to the high rises of Hong Kong. Rebuffed in every city, he paid for her best courtesans instead. The next morning, he sent her ivory roses, accepted but never acknowledged.

He strode across the foyer, Dom Perignon clutched in his hand. She followed him to the window. Below, the Dallas skyline glittered. American flags and Whiting banners floated ghostlike from dozens of cranes silhouetted in tiny white lights.

“You have built a kingdom,” she said.

“As have you.” They clinked flutes. “Have you considered my proposal?”

She rested the champagne on the table and took his hand. The subtle scent of vanilla wafted from her. He trembled as she splayed open his palm and traced the left side with her finger.

“Long career line. And success, but the two do not intersect.” She pulled his hand closer, her breath warm on his skin. “Love line also long, but see?” She drew quick perpendicular cross-hatches with her nail. He winced.

“Marry me,” he whispered. “Please.”

“Life line starts here.” She slowly trailed her forefinger from the base of the thumb to the middle of his palm, and stopped. A frown creased her forehead, then smoothed.

“Yes,” she said and smiled. “Let us marry.”


***

Inspired by the 52-250 Theme: Palm of Your Hand, as well as by my former graduate student who read my palm during dinner at Emeril's in New Orleans.

Thank goodness my palm has a longer life line!

Peace, Linda

15 comments:

  1. So... you MARRIED your former graduate student?????
    Inquiring minds, Linda!!!!
    Oh but Lorelei is such a gold-digger. Still, I guess I can't blame her. I suspect that's where all her money came from.
    I think we should go into business – palm reading for the very rich and unmarried... you wear the geisha dress, I'll bring the banana peels.

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  2. Oh how sad. Poor guy, but then I guess he was successful in obtaining his obsession so maybe he'll die happy. An entertaining read!

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  3. I guess there are benefits to reading palms - especially where the life line is concerned. lol

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  4. Ha! Yes he was in the palm of her hand...lol. Poor man! Your dinner companion sounds interesting :-)

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  5. Won't she be surprised when she finds out he had plastic surgery to erase the rest of his life line!

    Nice one, Linda.

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  6. For a man who would follow her all over the world, she could have told him he would die tonight and he would have probably still been happy as long as she had also said yes.

    Don't you wish you could put a tape recorder on palm readers? I'm betting many people have the same future. :)

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  7. It irks me a little bit that there's white everywhere and I can't figure out what it means, unless it's just to indicate a white wedding. I don't want to over-think it (but E. B. Whiting?)! I like the conclusion, that the palm reader seems doubtful, or perhaps worried, then sees something promising. It almost seems arbitrary.

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  8. No, no, no... I did NOT marry my former grad student. SHE is now a postdoc and now, a friend, who happens to read palms ;^)

    This is an odd piece and I'm not sure the ending came off quite right. She's a gold-digger, and has established escort services and high-end brothels (hence the Geisha reference) and will never settle down. But when she sees Mr. E.B. Whiting (construction -- all those banners hanging from cranes) with a short life line, she's like, okay, kaching!

    But thanks all of you for reading -- off to read yours (finally have some time... what a week). Peace...

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  9. Interesting story. So many possibilities as to what she really saw in his palm that made her say yes.

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  10. There is more to life than love, eh? Clever woman.
    ~jon

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  11. Good story. Poor guy; all that pursuit, and it won't last long after the capture.

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  12. A win-win situation. He got what he wanted, and she will get hers. I loved the images in this.

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  13. Such gorgeous descriptions in this Linda, and what a fantastic twist! I think the ending came out just right, all of it came out just right.

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  14. Oh, that lady certainly knows where the future is at.

    A nicely written short.

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  15. Hopefully he had a good life - what was left of it! You pack so much detail character and a surprise into such a short story - very impressed.

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