Page 37 of Andalusia Dogs
“You’re not attracted—”
“Oh gods, no. To her talent, sure, and to her energy. But no, she doesn’t speak to my dick, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Alex smiled. “You have a very forthright way of speaking, you know that?”
“And would you prefer I was vague? Spoke in platitudes? The show tonight was crap, and if Si-Man and his orbiting lapdog, Apricot—”
“Peach. Her name was Peach.”
“Whatever. If they’d asked me, I would have told them so. After all his ranting about honesty on stage, we’d see how much honesty he could really take.”
“You’ve got a mean side too.”
Jago’s eyes widened with mock offence. “I just don’t like my time being wasted.”
“Then why go? I mean, you seem to know your shit when it comes to theatre. Surely, you didn’t think it was going to be good?”
“It was not him I came to see.”
Alex paused before taking another drink. “Wait, you don’t mean me?”
“Why not you?”
“How did you even know we’d be there?”
Jago got up, returning to the couch with a small deck of oversized cards. “You’re familiar with the tarot?”
“Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me some cards told you where we’d be?”
“Nothing so specific.” Jago shuffled the cards quickly, held them close to the centre of his chest for a moment, then cut them before drawing the top three and laying them out on the coffee table. Cards called the Tower and Death faced them, with a Four of Wands upside down in between.
“That doesn’t look good.”
“Again, you’re being too literal. The Tower can mean revolution or upheaval, usually painful, yes. But here, it’s in your past. Something you’ve worked through. A shedding of painful family bonds, perhaps?”
Alex bit his lip, not ready to answer that.
Jago shrugged. “It might also be something on a larger scale. Perhaps even the dictatorship, though that seems a lazy reach. As I said, it’s in the past. The card in the middle signifies where you are, while the one on the right—”
“Death? Death’s my future?”
“Death is everybody’s future. But in the tarot, it usually means a transition or evolution, often a positive one. A nice card to get in that slot, if I may say so. But in the middle here…” He tappedthe edge of the Four of Wands. “…this is a more personal source of pain.”
Alex was intrigued. “Personal?”
“Safety? Security? Family? Purpose? Belonging? These are things belonging to the Four of Wands, but in your case, as the card of your present, it’s inverted.”
“Meaning I don’t have those things?”
“Or you feel you don’t, but under all of that… self-doubt, perhaps?”
Alex smiled, shaking his head. “Now you’re just telling me what I already know.”
“That’s the point. The cards are signposts. They help you find the answers you already possess, even if you've dismissed or buried them. They’re not oracles. They might teach you to trust a good feeling as much as a good idea, like your dance show. You understand now?”
“You mean it’s interpretation?”
“It’s a conversation, and the message changes with each person who sees it. I mean, unless you’re someone like Si-Man who wants everyone to share his own vision and experience because it’s so fucking compelling.”
