"I see a large-breasted woman in your future."

I huddled closer to her to try to see what she was seeing. Everyone else at the table did the same.

"And I see a… a bunny?"

She was doing a reading of the trails of the Turkish coffee I just drank. In Turkey, she explained, it was popular to read the thick trails after a finished cup was turned upside-down.

"A bunny?" I asked. "Hey, I was born in the year of the bunny, according to the Chinese calendar."

She smiled. "I see this bunny standing next to a large-breasted woman. See?" She gave me the cup and pointed at some dark trails. It was like reading a Rorschach test. Not that I minded her interpretation, of course.

"Yeaaa… I think I see it." I passed the cup around to everyone. "See? A bunny next to a large-breasted woman! All right!"

She took the cup again and looked at some other trails. "You are going to take two trips soon. Only, they won't happen."

"Oh…" I pondered that statement.

"But then you will have a third trip much later this year. And you will go on that one."

She handed me the cup again and pointed at the trails that told her this. Turkish coffee is pretty thick and isn't brewed in the same way American coffee is. The coffee sediment is allowed to sit in the cup and slowly sink to the bottom.

It's the trails the drying sediment makes when the cup is turned upside-down that she was reading.

She took the cup again. "And overall, you…" she paused. "Well, I know this maybe isn't totally true with your work schedule, but this says you are not very burdened with stress. There isn't much anxiety in your life right now."

Everyone at the table laughed. "That means Mike needs more work to do!" someone shouted.

"You are a calm person," she concluded as she put the cup back on my saucer.

"Hmmm. Interesting reading…" I said, peering into the cup again.

"In Turkey, neighbors would get together to drink coffee and read their fortunes," she explained. "There usually would be one person who would be a good reader. That person would go around the table and read everyone's fortunes."

"Kind of like reading Chinese tea leaves huh?" Albert asked.

"Yes, kind of like that. It's a very popular pastime."

"Well, with these large-breasted women, I can see why it's a popular pastime!" Albert chuckled. I laughed and looked back down into my cup again, wondering.

. . .

What is in your future?