The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
Chloe peered out the window of the car. She couldn’t believe she had let Lana talk her into going shopping on a perfectly good Saturday. There were so many other things she could be doing. Studying, doing research for the Torch, anything besides shopping.
“Chloe?” Lana questioned.
“Huh?” Chloe asked, snapping out of her daze.
“We’re here,” Lana informed her. She was already out of the car. Chloe quickly removed her seatbelt and got out of the car. She shut the door and followed Lana to the brand new building. It was a new mall that had just been built in a town between Metropolis and Smallville, Venice.
Once inside, Lana immediately dragged Chloe to a clothing store. It contained mostly trendy outfits, fads and preppy clothes, and Chloe pretended to look around while Lana went through the boring “fashions.” Lana spent about fifty dollars there, and Chloe, of course, spent nothing.
They continued to go through the mall, stopping mainly at stores that sold clothes or jewelry. Chloe even surprised herself by buying a pair of jeans. But even with that, she was still very bored.
After they had eaten lunch, they decided to leave. On their way out, Chloe spotted a very small shop that they hadn’t noticed before. It said “The Merchant” on the sign above the door, and they decided to check it out. They walked up to the place, which was in a very dimly lit corner, and read the small paper attached to the window.
“Madam Merchanta, Fortune Teller, Crystal Ball Reader. Palm readings, three dollars. Fortune telling, five dollars,” Lana read. She and Chloe both laughed.
“Let’s get our fortunes told,” Chloe said.
“Are you serious?” Lana asked.
“Why not? It’ll be interesting to see what we’ll be facing later on in life,” Chloe joked. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“Okay,” Lana wagered, and followed Chloe through the door.
“Hello?” Chloe asked, peering around the small room. A small woman hobbled from behind a curtain.
“Sit, sit,” she motioned with her bony hands. She took a seat on the opposite side of a large, round table that took up most of the room. “What do you need?”
“We both want our fortunes told,” Chloe said. She held in her giggles as not to upset the lady. She looked so serious, and she obviously believed she could look into the future.
“Who’s first?” she grunted.
“You go,” Chloe said to Lana.
Lana smiled and scooted in front of the woman. “First we’ll do the basics,” the woman said. Her eyes focused intently on the crystal ball that rested in the center of the table. “Your initials are… L.L.… both of your parents have the same initials… you live in Smallville… next door to somebody you have feelings for…”
“Can we go on to my fortune now?” Lana asked; she was obviously embarrassed.
“It’s your five dollars,” the woman hissed. “Your future holds a jealous male… a boyfriend perhaps, or a close friend. He’s a very athletic youth. He’s jealous because of you and another male…”
“That’s all I need to hear,” Lana said. She was obviously shaken by the prediction.
“Fine. Now you,” the woman pointed at Chloe. Chloe scooted towards the middle of the table. “For your basics I see that… your initials are C.S…. you live with your father in Smallville, but you moved there from Metropolis. You have deep feelings for… what’s this? Yes, yes, for two males… both dark haired… and one of them has extremely deep feelings for you, as well…” Now it was Chloe’s turn to start turning red. But luckily, the woman moved on to her “fortune” anyway.
“Your future holds a large decision… would you like to know between what?” she asked, looking up at Chloe for the first time. Her eyes were an emerald green color, but they were oddly hideous.
“N-no, thanks,” Chloe said nervously. She pulled a crumpled ten-dollar bill out of her pocket and tossed it down onto the table. “Come on,” she said to Lana, and they hurried out to the parking lot.
“That was… odd,” Lana said as she started the car.
“I’ll say,” Chloe said. How could she know that stuff? Chloe was torn between two guys – Clark and Pete.
“Clark and Pete, I presume,” Lana said, as if reading her mind.
“What?” Chloe asked. She hadn’t expected her to say that.
“Your two dark-haired males,” Lana chuckled.
“What do you mean?” Play dumb, Chloe, that always works.
“Don’t play dumb,” Lana said. Okay, maybe it doesn’t. And it seems as if Lana’s starting to be able to read minds.
“Okay, yes, I like Clark and Pete,” Chloe admitted. “But you like Clark, too.”
“Yeah…” Lana said softly.
They didn’t talk for the rest of the ride. When Chloe was dropped off, she ran to the phone first thing. She dialed Pete’s number. By the time the other end of the line was picked up, she realized that she didn’t have anything to say.
“Hello?” Phew, it was Pete’s mom.
“Um, hi Mrs. Ross, is Pete home?”
“No, I think he and Clark went to that new mall,” Mrs. Ross replied.
“Oh, thank you,” Chloe said.
“I’ll have him call you when he gets back,” she informed.
“Thanks,” Chloe said. They both hung up, and Chloe went up to her room. She tossed her bag with her jeans on the floor and fell backwards onto her bed. Soon, she fell asleep. She awoke to the calls of ‘Chloe!’ from her dad.
“Yeah?” she called back sleepily.
“Pete’s on the phone,” he called.
“Coming!” She jumped up and went down to her dad. She took the phone and answered it. “Hello?”
“Hey Chloe, what’s up?”
“Nothing really. So you went to the mall, huh?” she asked.
“Yep. There was this really weird lady that told me and Clark’s fortunes. She said we both had feelings for the same girl,” Pete said. He must have just realized that he was talking to the very girl that the woman was talking about because he got really quiet.
“Pete?”
“Yeah?” he asked, sheepishly.
“You wanna go out sometime?” she asked boldly.
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