2024-11-22 - Patience and Perseverance: A Reading

Friday nights at the Spider Walk are pretty busy but tonight Lennox is not on duty as a bartender, but instead is seated in the séance room in a Victorian style suit of all black, his makeup causing his already fair complexion look even moreso and the makeup causing his eyes to stand out an almost eerie blue surrounded by shadows. Here, he does readings for the guests with a large wine glass for tips perched to one side. For fellow employees, there's no charge. They just help make it look a little more busy when things get slow.

It's a rare Friday off for this performer, and so while Saint doesn't leave the island, she's out in nice clothes—no glitter. Tonight she wears a black suit, material shiny and tailored, clearly custom cut for her. The jacket's unbuttoned, no shirt—under it she wears that looks like a black leather bikini top. Her shoes are stiletto heels, shiny black, which means she's tall in them, just about six feet. The look's somewhere between rocker and undertaker, which fits pretty well in the surroundings in her estimation. Her destination is the séance room, after a stop by the bar to see if anyone she knows well is here (no), and so it's not long after arrival that she spots Lennox and his cards.

"I hear you give some of the best reads around." Saint Kerekes has only been in the park as a performer since September, but she hears things. Eventually. Her approach to his table is direct, and she asks Lennox, "You booked right now?"

Lennox tilts his head a little to one side and says, "That's a generous review," with the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips. "Why don't you have a seat and find out?" he offers and then shakes his head, "Not booked, no. Make yourself comfortable." His cards are a beautifully illustrated deck with a sort of stained glass motif and shimmery gold leaf. Even the artwork of the cards themselves are done up like fantasy stained glass windows. These, he shuffles slowly with long fingers while he waits to see if Saint will take a seat and join him.

"I have generous friends," Saint says. "Or they're easily impressed when drinky drinking." She drops into the seat at the offer, and turns to face Lennox. "Most interesting invitation I've had today." She takes a moment to roll her suit jacket's sleeves up to her elbows, first one and then the other. Rubbing her hands together, she looks down at the cards, taking in the artwork. "The whole vibe in here is dope af."

"Now that, I'd believe," Lennox says. "This is a good place for alcohol-induced generosity." He places the deck in front of her and says, "Go ahead and cut, shuffle, and think about whatever you might want some input on." He then sits back a little in his chair and says, "I have to say that while I dig the park as a whole, this is my favorite part of it. Definitely makes work a lot less like work." Most of the time, anyway.

"Alcohol's a great way to see humanity through a more generous lens, agree." Saint says, tipping back in her chair to her comfy while she watches the shuffling. When invited to cut the deck, she reaches over to cut the deck three times, stacking up the mini decks made from cutting. And then she cuts it three more, repeating the semi-shuffle. She pulls out a couple cards and tucks them on the bottom of the deck without revealing their faces, and tucks the deck neatly in front of Lennox again. It's pretty clear who probably played a lot of poker in high school.

"Chill vibes. Sometimes I walk though some of the children's areas, and I don't know how they do it with the cheery music all day. On repeat. All day." Allll day.

"After a while you kind of tune it out because you're focused on what you're doing and not on what's playing, but when it gets quiet and slow it must get mind-numbing," Lennox says as he reaches over and takes the cards and then begins to lay them out. It's a simple three card spread. The first card that he lays down is the Nine of Swords. "Hmm," he says and then studies her for a moment, "Has there been something that's been worrying you lately? Something you've perhaps been dwelling on for a while, and thinking around it in circles hasn't really alleviated it at all?"

"I don't know if I could, but I'm glad they have a mechanism for survival," Saint says, tipping forward a bit in her chair. She watches the card sorting with a careful eye, and the way they're laid out in a three card spread. It's like she's maybe never had a reading before—could just be the observant type who's attentive, though. "Hmm." She agrees with a card full of swords is flipped.

"Yeah, kinda," Saint says of his question. "I left New York to come here, hang with my brothers, you know. Get in some job experience before I make my next moves." She glances up and looks at Lennox. "I didn't leave the city on great terms."

Fortunately in the bar, Lennox can change the music if he gets tired of hearing the same thing over and over again, not quite so for the ride operators. He nods as she mentions leaving New York to come here but not leaving on good terms, giving a sympathetic smile. "Me either. Except, Detroit." And so he reaches for the next card and turns it over to set next to the first. Three of Wands: Reversed. "So, this one's all about delayed gratification and patience. You're going somewhere in the future, but it's going to take you a little bit of time to get there. Just be patient and persistent. You're not stuck. But you are in a little bit of a holding pattern as you sort things out."

"I drove by, grabbed some gas in Detroit, but didn't stop. Worth a visit?" Saint makes easy small talk, tipped back in her Victorian chair, her legs crossed. One foot kicks lightly as she watches the shuffling, never quite sitting still completely. She snorts softly at the mention of delayed gratification, and patience. Her blue eyed gaze flicks up and she looks across the table at Lennox. "I'm not a very patient person," she says, considering that. She doesn't say anything about low impulse control, but she tips her head slightly to one side, a lock of hair falling across her cheek. "As long as it's not too delayed." She glances back at the other card, then again to the new one.

"It'll be ok with my brothers here. It's been years since we've been in one place for more than a handful of days, week tops." She reaches up to idly drag her nails over the side of her throat a couple of times, scratching something, perhaps a little residual glitter from earlier in the day.

Lennox shakes his head and says, "Nope," as far as whether or not Detroit is worth a visit with a crooked smile which turns into a chuckle at the admission that she is not a very patient person. "It just advises patience. It does not mean that you are patient. Hence the challenge." He then turns over the last card and sets it down: The Sun.

"Yeah, I get the feeling that this start of something new is gonna be good. Spending time with people you love is a good thing. And it means whatever you've got to wait for, at least you've got them there with you to look forward to it. You've got the power to shape your own reality and this is definitely a place where that seems to be a little more literal than others. Lots of possibilities out there for you. I've got a feeling you're going to be just fine," Lennox says.

Saint listens to the reading of the third card, and nods. "Good," she says, like the cards were on thin ice. "Generally speaking, where ever I go, I have a good time, even if the circumstances are..." She squints a little, glancing at the second card. "Challenging. Helps to have my best friends around." She smiles a little after that, the uptick at the corner of her mouth a little crooked. "Mostly because they'll go above and beyond to improve the situation." She finally glances up from the cards and looks right at Lennox.

"I get that feeling about you too. Just a feeling, no cards." She glances around the place, then back to Nox. "Probably the mastery of eyeliner and the whole vibe. You been here a while, right?"

"You ever get the urge to leave?"

Lennox laughs when Saint seems to let the cards off the hook after their dubious start. He gathers them up again and shuffles once more before setting the deck down in front of him and glancing around. There are no others coming in for a reading at the moment so he settles back in his chair, folding his hands lightly in front of him.

"Yeah?" he asks with a chuckle when she says she has that feeling about him too. "Yeah, since the park opened. So about a year and a half now." Though when she asks if he ever has the urge to leave he shakes his head. "Nah. Why would I want to go back to Detroit when here I have real magic?"