GYPSY

OUT TODAY!
Born into a family of travelers, Gypsy leaves Ireland to meet her cousin who works in a traveling carnival, 3,000 miles away across the Atlantic.
She has a special gift for healing wounded hearts, and hopes to heal her own.
As she travels through America, she meets people on the journey who need her special help – a lovelorn waitress, a runaway boy, and a brooding mechanic who’s as lost and lonely as Gypsy.
Against the carnival’s backdrop of sawdust and stardust, they travel west, searching for love, and a family that they can build for themselves.
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EXTRACT
A couple of teenaged girls came to my booth to have their fortunes told, each prodding the other to go first. Eventually, the taller one named Shelby went first, and her friend, Annemarie, waited outside.
“What do you want to know, Shelby?”
“Do you have a limit on questions?” she asked anxiously.
“Nope, ask away. You want to know if a certain boy likes you.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Oh, my God, yes! Can you read my mind?”
I smiled at her, “Not in the way you mean.” I took her hands in mine, studying them carefully. “He likes you but he’s not very sure of himself. He’s hoping you’ll make the first move.”
“Wow! Really?”
“Yes, but he’s nervous about what his friends will say.”
“He has sucky friends,” she frowned.
And then I saw with great clarity that the girl she was with was not a true friend, and was after the guy Shelby was interested in. This happened occasionally and was always tricky to deal with.
“There’s someone in your life who isn’t the friend you think they are,” I said delicately. “Stay true to yourself and don’t be swayed by the opinion of others—the truth will come out.”
She leaned forward, her eyes darting to the entrance.
“Can you see who it is?” she whispered.
“Someone close,” I repeated.
She chewed her lip for a while.
“Will I ever live abroad?”
I closed my eyes, following the threads of her life.
“Hmm, I don’t think so, Shelby. But I do see a lot of traveling. Looks fun!”
She smiled brightly. “Am I going to have kids?”
“I see you surrounded by little kids—wow, there’s a lot of them. Maybe you’re thinking about becoming an elementary school teacher?”
Her eyes widened and her mouth made a little O shape of surprise.
“I was going to, but Annemarie said that was lame.”
“I’m sure you can make your own choices,” I smiled at her, pleased when she nodded decisively.
She stood up to leave, then suddenly asked, “Am I going to pass my math test next week.”
I pretended to look into the crystal ball.
“I’m afraid not, Shelby.”
“Oh my God! My mom will kill me!”
“Wait, the mists are clearing! I see you studying very hard, very hard indeed. I think you could pass. You are master of your own destiny, Shelby.”
As she left, I couldn’t resist smiling to myself. I totally made up that part about studying because I had no idea about her test, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. I’d left school at 11 and I’d often wondered if I’d missed out. I was brought up to be a wife and mother—nothing else mattered. But these girls, their futures were very different.
And I couldn’t help thinking that my life had taken a very different turn since I’d arrived in the New World.
Shelby’s friend, Annemarie, asked similar sorts of questions, and I was fairly certain that the boy they were both into wasn’t worth their time, but that was for them to figure out. She certainly didn’t have Shelby’s best interests at heart, but I could see that she was very insecure, so she put down others to make herself feel better. I told her that she was very artistic and that it was something she should pursue.
“You mean like my makeup tips on TikTok?”
“Could be,” I said, and was pleased when she walked out with a smile on her face.

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