The
Foretold Fortune
When faced with a
series of difficult circumstances one sometimes almost feels ready to commit
suicide. But if you do kill yourself, those who outlive you will use it as a
motive to criticize you, accusing you for being a dumb person who doesn’t know
how to resolve his own problems. Sometimes, you might be afraid that, after you
committed suicide, you might end up in hell. Also, what would happen to your
surviving family? Who would take care of them? As he kept on thinking, all
Bounleune could do was to rest his chin on his hands and take a deep breath to
alleviate his worries.
That day, Bounleune
got tired of sitting with his hands on his knees and wrestling with those
devil-triggered worries that controlled his head. He grabbed his motor cycle
and drove around Vientiane to get rid of those worries momentarily. He veered
his motor cycle into the That Dam compound and slipped into a house where 5 to
6 of his former schoolmates were staying. All of them had the same problems and
their main interest was to find out how their future would look like and what
to do to avoid misfortunes. The only way to do so was to see a fortune teller
who could predict the future and offer possible solutions to dark predictions.
Bounleune took a deep long breath and told his friends this was the first time
in his life that he was interested in fortune telling.
“Try to see a fortune
teller for me and find out what I need to do to be successful in my job"
“I am tired; and no
matter what I do, I will not get any better. In fact, I will be worse off. I’m
not sure what is cursing me."
“My friend, the
fortune teller knows everything about our life. He can even tell we did in the
past, what we do now, and what we need to do in the future to make things
better. If you do not believe me, tomorrow you should go to see the fortune teller
and follow his instructions. I think your life may be better after that," a
close friend of Bouleune advised him with great confidence.
"I have never
done it before. I am afraid that it will be of no use."
“One important thing,
my dear Bounleune, is that we have to believe in what we do. If we don’t,
fortune-telling will not be accurate for you. You have to believe in
something."
“But I have heard that
fortune telling is just guessing and cannot be taken seriously," said
Bounleune.
"My friend,
that’s exactly how a non-believer thinks."
The open, free-for-all
discussion on how to find ways to address life problems ended without any real
conclusions. Everyone went his own way, which caused headache to Bounleune.
What a dumb life! He sat with his hand on his cheeks and thought back to what
one of his old friends said when they went to school in the former Soviet Union,
"Can you see that
everything is so unpredictable? One day, I was running out of ideas because nothing
worked for me. After I went to see a fortune teller and did what he suggested,
less than half a year later I got promoted to the branch chief’s position!”
Bounleune got up from
the chair and continued thinking. Finally he decided to go and see a fortune
teller to find out for himself what it is all about. for sure. He changed his
dresses, put on his work attires, headed out to the morning market, and sat
down in front of a fortune teller.
"Young man, do
you want to find out about your fortune?"
Bounleune did not waste
any time. He took the cards as instructed by the fortune teller and arranged
them into separated piles. The fortune teller looked at Bounleune and the pile
of cards in front of him, and asked,
“What do you want to
know? In the past, you went to study abroad and you were a good student."
Bouleune’s eyes
immediately opened widely. He thought about his friend telling him that the
fortune teller knows everything. This guy was so accurate like if he had seen
everything with his own eyes.
The fortune teller
slightly moved his seat and asked another question,
“When you studied
abroad, how many girl friends did you have? I see you had two girl friends; one
black and one white! Where do you stand now in your life? I see you have many
problems, and they are mostly work-related. People are trying to give you hard
time. You must be very careful because you still have kharma from your past
life."
“What should I
do?"
“You have to make
merit offering immediately because your fortune is at its lowest point right
now."
Bounleune came home
with some sadness. He had to do merit-making as advised by the fortune teller,
something he had never done before. And, if the fortune teller was just
guessing, how did he know that much about somebody else’s past life? Did he
have magic eyes to speak with so much confidence?
That night, Bounleune could
not sleep. He woke up many times as if he had something stuck in his back. When
he got up the next morning, he saw the bright sun light passing through a small
window opening and landing in his room. He quickly washed his face, and put on a
nice suit with neck-tie like if he was going to attend an international
conference. He used his cell phone to ask his friend to come and pick him up.
He drove to the
morning market with his friend on a Tiger pick-up car and went directly to a fortune
teller’s shop.
“Chief, what do you
want to consult me about?"
"About my
fortune."
He went through the
various steps of card dealing and sorting requested by the fortune teller. The
fortune teller looked squarely at his face, then looked at the cards and slowly
spoke up.
“The chief’s fortune
is very good. It looks like you will be promoted in the near future."
“How about my family
situation right now?” asked Bounleune.
“Right now, you have plenty
of money and you are among the wealthy people.”
Bounleune got and
walked back to the pick-up car. He laughed and laughed loudly and drove away.
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