همه‌ی اینها چرندیاته!

CHAPTER TWO

It’s all nonsense!

Rachel didn’t need to worry. The idea was successful. It was more successful than the computer horoscopes. A week later they had thousands of photographs of hands. They put the advertisement in more newspapers and magazines.

Mervyn had to buy more computers, and a month later there were thirty people working in the computer room. Mervyn bought a yellow Cadillac, and put pictures of hands all over it. He used to drive the Rolls-Royce during the week, and the Cadillac at weekends. He was a very happy man.

Mervyn gave Rachel a lot more money, but she wasn’t happy. She was embarrassed by her job, ‘Palmistry Consultant’. Three months ago it was funny. Now it was embarrassing. When people said, ‘What do you do?’ she usually said, ‘Oh, I work with computers.’

One day, Rachel was at a party. She was speaking to a woman. They were talking about sport, when the woman asked her name. Rachel told her. Suddenly the woman said, ‘Are you the Rachel Grant? You know, the palmistry consultant?’

‘Er . yes. Yes, I am,’ said Rachel, ‘Why? Have you heard about me?’

‘Oh, yes,’ said the woman, ‘I have. I’ve seen the advertisements in all the newspapers. I used to be very interested in palmistry. I used to read people’s hands.’

‘Used to be?’ said Rachel. ‘Aren’t you interested in it now?’

‘No, I’m not,’ said the woman. ‘I read a lot of books about it, it’s all nonsense. Nonsense.’

Rachel smiled. ‘Why do you think so?’ she asked.

‘Well,’ said the woman, ‘think about it. What does the life line tell you?’

‘It tells you how long people will live,’ she said.

‘Yes,’ said the woman. ‘So, in 1914 and 1939, before the two world wars, were there a lot of people with short life lines?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Rachel. ‘I’ve never thought about it.’

‘Well,’ said the woman, ‘think about it for a minute. Did fortune tellers see a lot of people with short life lines? Millions of people died in the wars.’

‘Maybe. I don’t know.’

‘But no fortune teller wrote about it. Never. I’ve read all the important books. No one wrote about it.’

‘That’s interesting,’ said Rachel, ‘but maybe they didn’t want to tell people about it. And it was a long time ago.’

‘What about the Vietnam war? And Cambodia? What about Ethiopia? I can give you a lot of modern examples, too.’

‘Fortune tellers don’t usually tell bad news,’ said Rachel. ‘People don’t want to know.’

‘Have you read much about palmistry, Miss Grant?’ the woman said.

‘Well, yes, of course. We had to read everything before we wrote the computer program,’ said Rachel.

‘Oh, yes, I’m sorry. I forgot. You are a palmistry consultant, aren’t you?’ The woman smiled. ‘Come on, Miss Grant,’ she said, ‘it’s nonsense. And you know that it’s nonsense don’t you? I can see that!’