Week 9 Story: Fate Trumps All

Fate Trumps All

There once was a man in his twenties named Thomas. He was very poor and had nothing. His parents had both passed, and so he was all alone in this world. There was really no reason for him to work hard other than for himself, but he had no motivation. Anyways, one day, he was walking down the sandy boardwalk in Atlantic City when he spotted a sign that said, "Fortune Teller: The Future is Now". Thomas thought to himself, "Why not?". Thus, he entered the establishment, awaiting to see what this trickster had up her sleeves.

"Hello, what would you like to know about today?" she asked as he stumbled in.

"Anything, I don't really have anything I need to know," he explained.

"Well, let me see what I can do..." she added.

She rubbed her crystal ball slowly, humming to herself. "Whoa! I see you marrying a girl who is born today. She will, however, die in her middle ages from eating a shoulder of a sheep. You will recognize her due to a scar on her head from the goddesses above marking her fate with you. I wish you good luck, " she said to him, appearing to be hypnotized.

"How PREPOSTEROUS! I am 20! How will I marry a little girl who is 20 years younger than me?!" he exclaimed as he stormed out of the business without paying.

"Mark my words..." the fortune teller reminded him as he slam the door shut.

(Crystal Ball: Public Domain Pictures)

Twenty to thirty years later, Thomas had made a name for himself. It was after his fortune teller visit actually that he thought to himself, "I really need to pull my act together. Even the fortune teller thought my life was going downhill to the fact that I will have to marry a young girl".

Celine, the young girl from the fortune teller's reading, had left her hometown of Atlantic City after her parents passed away. They were both very old when they had her, and so they passed away at old age. Anyways, she traveled to California, the opposite side of the country, where she had just obtained a job at a multinational company that deals with biomedical research and how to combat many of the problems of the century. She had graduated Yale University with a degree in biochemistry and later a PHD from Berkeley. She had always loved the beach and the weather in California when she was doing her doctoral, so she decided to stay.

First day of the job, Celine was walking into the 50 story building, when she stumbled across a step and fell into the arms of some guy. This wasn't just some guy. It was the CEO, Thomas! Of course, Celine didn't know that. She had only known the name and not the face. She got up, brush herself off, and said thank you, continuing to chat along with him as if they were best friends, Celine was just a very friendly girl, always sparking up conversation wherever she went.

Little did Thomas know that this was the exact girl the fortune teller had mentioned thirty years ago. Anyways, Thomas was very hesitant about liking her. She was so young and he was so not. Thomas told the people who saw them together not to tell her that he was the CEO of the company.

Celine thought the guy was cute, He seemed old, but he couldn't have been that much older than her right. Something seemed familiar about him though, but she couldn't put her finger on it. They met each other every day though on the elevator ride up and eventually after some hesitation from Thomas, through dates. They fell in love with each other despite the age difference, and Thomas knew that Celine truly loved him and not his money because she still did not know that he was the CEO of the very company she worked at.

Thomas, of course, finally told Celine that he was her boss or her boss's boss's boss, Celine was shocked and extremely embarrassed that she didn't know that! Despite this small confusion, they got married and lived very happily together. One day, Thomas noticed a scar on her head and so he asked his newly-wed wife what it was. She explained it was a birthmark and joked around about how someone told her it was the goddesses "marking" her. This immediately triggered Thomas to think about the fortune teller from years ago.

"When were you born?" Thomas asked her.

"How do you not know when I was born? We are married!" Celine exclaimed with shock.

"Just answer the question! I need to know!!" urgently asked Thomas.

"I was born April 20, 1970," she said with a sense of annoyance in her voice.

Thomas thought back to the day he met with the fortune teller. It was indeed the day. He remember walking past all the druggies yelling "4/20, blaze it". He can't believe that it has become true. He had to prevent her death. She is the only thing worth living for. His joy and life.

Celine really likes eating sheep, but she was curious why her loving husband never let her eat the shoulder. One day, when he was out of town, she sneaked a piece of the shoulder of the leftover sheep from the night before. It tasted so good, she thought at first, but suddenly, she felt hot and couldn't breathe. She tried to reach for her phone and call 911, but it was too late. Thomas, after a long trip, came back to find his wife on the ground, dead from an allergic reaction. He had tried to escape fate, but it was not possible.

Author's Note: This story is pretty similar to the original in that there was an older man who was very poor (Drashup). He was sitting under a tree when he overheard the goddesses predicting a little girl's fate as today was the day of her birth. I changed this to make it more modern and have a fortune teller tell him. Of course, Drashup (Thomas) could not believe his horrible fortune, and in the original, he tries to kill the girl by smashing her on the head, which leaves a scar on the head. In my retelling, I made it a birth mark because I thought it was too extreme to actually kill someone. Also, in my story, I made it so Thomas just moved as far as he can away from Celine. The rest of the story is pretty much the same. They somehow met and fell in love. Drashup (Thomas) discovers the scar and realizes that this is the girl that the goddesses (fortune teller) were talking about. He tries to prevent her death, but curiosity eventually got the best of her. She eventually eats the shoulder of the futon and falls ill. As in the end of this story, she dies.

Bibliography: Drashup and the Goddesses from Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton (1925)