Good lucky you didn't come yesterday, she says. The planets were all mixed up yesterday.

Yes, it's a good thing, I say.

Baby, I'll look again if you want me to. And she looks again into the cards, palm, water, and says uh-huh.

你感覺到了嗎？感覺到冷了嗎？

好。她說，精靈在裏面。開始了。

That's okay, and she makes the sign of the cross over the water three times and then begins to cut the cards.

有房子嗎？我問，我是因為它才來的。

好吧。她用手在水面上畫了三次十字，開始抽牌。

我為這個付了她五元錢。

看裏面，看到什麼了嗎？

可我還是不明白。

我看到的是的。她說著便站起來，因為孩子們在打架。伊倫妮塔站起來打了他們，然後又抱抱他們。她很愛他們，只是他們有時太野了。

寶貝，如果你想的話，我可以再看一次。於是她又看了一遍牌、手掌、水。啊哈。她說。

Elenita, witch woman, wipes the table with a rag because Ernie who is feeding the baby spilled Kool-Aid. She says：Take that crazy baby out of here and drink your Kool-Aid in the living room. Can't you see I'm busy? Ernie takes the baby into the living room where Bugs Bunny is on T. V.

九-九-藏-書她的電視是彩色的，很大，她所有漂亮的傢具都是用嘉年華會上派送的泰迪熊那樣的紅色毛皮做的。她在上面蒙了一層塑料。我想這都是因為寶寶的緣故。

Good, she says, los espíritus are here. And begins.

她回來，能看出來我有些失望。她是個算命的女人，知道很多事情。如果你頭痛，就把一個冷雞蛋抹在臉上。要忘掉一樁過去的戀情是嗎？拿一隻小雞爪，繫上紅繩子，在你腦袋上旋轉三次，然後燒掉它。惡幽靈讓你睡不著是嗎？靠近一枝聖燭睡七天，到第八天的時候，點燃它。還有好多好多其他的事情。而現在她知道我有點傷心。

伊倫妮塔，算命的女人，用抹布擦桌子，因為喂寶寶的埃妮把酷愛汁灑了。她說，把這蠢寶寶抱出去，到客廳里去喝你的酷愛。你沒看到我在忙嗎？埃妮把寶寶抱去了客廳，那裡的電視上在演《兔八哥》。

去弄點水來。她說。

She comes back and can tell I'm disappointed. She's a witch woman and knows many things. If you got a headache, rub a cold egg across your face. Need to forget an old romance? Take a chicken's foot, tie it with red string, spin it over your head three times, then burn it. Bad spirits keeping you awake? 九九藏書Sleep next to a holy candle for seven days, then on the eighth day, spit. And lots of other stuff. Only now she can tell I'm sad.

Her T. V.is color and big and all her pretty furniture made out of red fur like the teddy bears they give away in carnivals. She has them covered with plastic. I think this is on account of the baby.

這張牌，上面有一個黑人騎黑馬的，代表嫉妒；這張，代表憂傷。這裡有一窩蜜蜂和一張豪華床墊。你馬上要去參加一個婚禮了。你丟失了一雙可以依靠的臂膀是嗎？對，可靠的臂膀？很清楚，這就是它代表的意思。

Only I don't get it.

What about a house, I say, because that's what I came for.

Ah, yes, a home in the heart. I see a home in the heart.

那是房子嗎？

There is a good Bugs Bunny cartoon on T. V. I know, I saw it before and recognize the music and wish I could go sit on the plastic couch with Ernie and the baby, but now my fortune begins. My whole life on that kitchen table：past, present, future. Then she takes my hand and looks into my palm. Closes it. 九九藏書Closes her eyes too.

幸虧你昨天沒來，她說，昨天星星全亂套了。

They're not like ordinary playing cards, these cards. They're strange, with blond men on horses and crazy baseball bats with thorns. Golden goblets, sad-looking women dressed in old-fashioned dresses, and roses that cry.

I go to the sink and pick the only clean glass there, a beer mug that says the beer that made Milwaukee famous, and fill it up with hot water from the tap, then put the glass of water on the center of the table, the way she taught me.

Thank you and goodbye and be careful of the evil eye. Come back again on a Thursday when the stars are stronger. And may the Virgin bless you. And shuts the door.

This card, the one with the dark man on a dark horse, this means jealousy, and this one, sorrow. Here a pillar of bees and this a mattress of luxury. You will go to a wedding soon and did you lose an anchor of arms, yes, 九_九_藏_書an anchor of arms? It's clear that's what that means.

你看到誰的臉了嗎？

是的，我撒謊說，有一點冷。

Yes, I lie, but only a little.

心裏的一所房子，我是對的。

我知道電視上在演一部好玩的《兔八哥》卡通片。我以前看過，聽出了它的音樂，我希望可以走過去和埃妮、寶寶一起坐在塑料沙發上，可我的命運開始顯現了。我的一生都在這廚房桌子上：過去、現在和將來。接著她拿起我的手看手掌。合上它。同時合上的還有她的眼睛。

是的，那是好事情。我說。

You see anybody's face?

我們呆在廚房裡，因為這裡是她工作的地方。冰櫃的頂上擺滿了東西：點著和沒點著的聖燭，有紅有綠有藍；一個石膏聖像和一個灰撲撲的棕櫚主日十字架，一張用膠帶貼在牆上的伏都神手圖。

A new house, a house made of heart. I'll light a candle for you.

這可不是平常玩的牌。這些牌，它們有點奇怪，上面有騎在馬上的金髮白膚的男人、嚇人的長了刺的棒球棒、金色聖杯、穿著舊式服裝的悲傷的女人，還有哭泣的玫瑰。

A home in the heart, I was right九九藏書.

Is that it?

可我看到的只是氣泡。

Look in it, do you see anything?

All this for five dollars I give her.

That's what I see, she says, then gets up because the kids are fighting. Elenita gets up to hit and then hug them. She really does love them, only sometimes they are rude.

我走到水池邊拿起那裡惟一乾淨的杯子，一個大啤酒杯，上面寫著「啤酒使密爾瓦齊聞名於世」。我用它從水龍頭裡接了點熱水，然後把這杯水放到了桌子中央，這是她教我的。

一所新房子，一所心造的房子。我會為你點上一枝燭。

Nope, just bubbles, I say.

But all I see are bubbles.

謝謝，再見。當心罪惡之眼。等星期三星星再強一點的時候再來。聖母保佑你。門關上了。

But we stay in the kitchen because this is where she works. The top of the refrigerator busy with holy candles, some lit, some not, red and green and blue, a plaster saint and a dusty Palm Sunday cross, and a picture of the voodoo hand taped to the wall.

Get the water, she says.

沒有，只有泡泡。我說。

啊，是的，心中有一所房子。我在心中看到一所房子。

Do you feel it, feel the cold?