It happened quite some time ago, but there are moments that stay in our minds forever
See it’s a cultural thing that is some how normal among my Dominican people
To visit psychics and have your cards read is a thing of camaraderie almost
And so I remember going with my mom
The first thing I was told was to refrain from letting the brujo know that we lived in the states
The man is supposed to be a good Cuban burro-how does he not know where we live?
I wondered this and as I write it today, I can’t help but laugh–because it’s funny
So there I am in what seems to be a small container with only one room and although it was the early 2000s the man had a this old phone with the curly telephone wire that on top of that seemed so heavy it would make an excellent paper weight
Suddenly the phone rang and he says ‘excuse me’ but I’m not supposed to know any English, dique…
The man lays out the cards and tells me yo veo un viaje- I see a trip in your near future
Um, well yes we were about to go home soon, probably that very week…
Something that I already knew and then apparently he did too
Which has prompted me to wonder what the whole point was of paying someone to tell me things that I already knew
What kind of game is that? Not a good one because I don’t really see the benefit of giving someone else money for what we will now both know
It’s a little annoying and tedious as a I think about it
But for some people it’s the best thing ever
To have someone relay things that you never thought anyone else knew
Could it be that the brujo is a more accepted version of a therapist
To pay someone to tell you things that may or may not be true while you listen intently and aghast because they tell you so much
Kind of sounds like it, at least a little
Oh and there was a doozy!
The man tells me no vas a tener mucha suerte en el amor –you won’t be very lucky in love
Well what is luck is exactly? Because although some people may consider it unlucky to be single, someone in a bad relationship may consider it the best luck ever
This all comes down to your view on the situation and life
It’s that seeing the glass half empty or half full mentality
But to my mother this was not good
She tried to say it wasn’t true because now she was psychic too and decided that she knew more than the handsome Cuban man she just paid to tell her some truths
But you know what would be the even more difficult pill to swallow for her?
The fact that one day I would grow to not care about my relationship status because it meant that being in one is not a priority to me
That is the biggest shock to her
Because although romantic relationships may hold importance to her, it can be rather challenging to understand that they aren’t for her daughter
It was the affirmation of what she already knew
That her daughter’s alien thoughts would never be fully comprehended by her
That her daughter’s radical way of thinking would just be too strange for her
That her daughter could very well belong to someone else because she would never understand her
And to the daughter
Well she just took it all in stride
Knowing well that somethings just weren’t meant to be understood…
Bionica
