Stories that land

Runner’s High: a visit to the fortune-teller

His mother had taken his name to a fortune-teller. Intrigued by what she reported back, he wanted a consultation of his own.

Before the story

A comedian from Runner’s High (ランナーズ・ハイ) tells this story about his mother and a fortune-teller who gave readings based on people’s names.

Going with Mom

My mom was really into fortune-telling. She loved going to all kinds of fortune-tellers.

If they said something good, she believed it. Anything bad, she didn’t believe a word.

So she took my full name to someone who did name readings. And this person said:

“There’s a shadow over this person’s right hand and right eye.”

That gave me a jolt.

Whoa. That’s right.

I’d been having trouble getting a contact lens into my right eye, just that eye, and my right hand had been going numb.

So now I really wanted to go. I told Mom, “Take me sometime. I want to talk to this person myself. But is a reading expensive?”

“Oh, don’t worry. You give whatever religious offering you feel like giving.”

An offering?

Not a fee—an offering?

Well, I went anyway.

It was a religious meeting place up on a hill in Hachioji, with a big tatami-mat room. There were a hundred, maybe two hundred people waiting for readings—not worshippers. Everyone was kneeling, sitting back on their heels, spreading their arms out or bowing their heads. I waited two hours before my turn came.

The fortune-teller was a frail old woman, her face all wrinkled.

I wrote down my comedy partners’ names too. “We’re comedians. What does our future look like?” She looked over everything, and finally she said:

“This would be a good marriage match.”

We’re not getting married… There are three of us…

I was so annoyed. I went to complain to the person at reception, who was wearing long white clothes. “That can’t be right! I asked about work. Where did marriage come from?” I really went on about it.

And the person at reception said, “Oh—she wasn’t wearing her hearing aid today.”

A person in black clothing and a pearl-like necklace points to the palm of someone wearing glasses, with a large drawing of a hand behind them.

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