Drowning Karma

Maryl Martin believes everything the fortune teller says about her three daughters. The oldest child will ruin the family, the middle child will have great power, and the third child will be lost.

Maryl’s husband Jay thinks it all rubbish, but if it is true, he’d give his life to protect his children. Maryl, a great reader of disaster stories where individuals try to change their fate, thinks the best they can do is hurry fate along. She gives all her love and care to the middle child, Claire, who proves the other stories warning of absolute power.

Deva, the oldest, knows about the fortune teller but she claims she doesn’t care. She decides she doesn’t need her family anyway and makes her way on her own. Sylvia, the youngest, knows nothing about the fortune teller or danger, and puts her faith in anyone who shows her a scrap of attention.

Along the way, Deva comes to possess one gift that promises change and a bright future. She is 9 when she receives a box of paints, and whenever she points the paint brush at a scene she doesn’t like, it transforms to fit her imagination. An old lady’s rotting house becomes a warm and welcoming home. A seedy store becomes a sunlit grocery store. A failing gas station explodes.

But it is difficult for a child to foresee the consequences of her imagination and the impact of a fortune teller’s words.

5 Responses leave one →
  1. 2009 February 25
    fairyhedgehogblog permalink

    I’d read this.

  2. 2009 February 25

    fairyhedgehog, hurray. Glad to hear it. Though I’d be happy to hear that about any of them of course.

  3. 2009 February 26

    Since you’re asking, I’d vote for this one too. It sounds very intriguing. I like the idea of playing with the concept of fate, whether “knowing” your fate can or cannot change it. So I think the basis of your plot has a lot of potential.

  4. 2009 February 27

    This sounds great! I like the magic element, and it has a bit of psychological drama in it too.

  5. 2009 February 27

    Yes, Juliet, I am asking. Thanks for believing me and taking the time to read.

    Thanks again to you too Shelli. This seems like the winner–unless someone can convince me otherwise!

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