Chapter 10 10. Tobin's Palmistry

Chapter One One day, Tobin and I, we went to Coney Island [note 1] together, because the two of us had a bag full of pockets and scraped together four dollars, and Tobin needed to relax.His lover, Katie from Sligo [note 2]Mahona has been missing since she left home for America, three months ago when she left home with two hundred dollars she had saved and a hundred dollars from the sale of the property Tobin inherited As a result, Tobin lost a beautiful farmhouse and a pig in the Shannon Swamp that he had inherited from his family.He once received a letter from her saying that she had set off to meet him, but since then, she has disappeared into the sea like a mud cow, and there has been no news of her.Tobin published a missing person notice in the newspaper, but there was still no news about the Irish woman.

[Note 1] Coney Island: A small island belonging to New York City, it is a playground. [Note 2] County Sligo: A county in the province of Knott, Ireland. So Tobin and I headed to Coney Island, thinking that maybe the splashing current and the smell of popcorn might lighten him up and cheer him up.But Tobin was stubborn by nature, and the incident made him devastated.Gritting his teeth with hatred at fancy balloons, cursing at movies, and though he must drink, he laughs at the Hunchback and Judy at the Puppet Show, when those tinplate photographers come by for business At that time, he actually advocated beating them up.

So I dragged him onto a trail where the game shows were more or less rough.In front of a small stall that was six feet long and eight feet wide, Tobin stopped, and his eyes became a little more popular. This is here, he said, where I want to relax.Here is a magic fortune teller from the Nile River, who reads palms. I asked her to read my palms and test my future. Tobin believes in good and bad omens, things that don't make sense.He is superstitious about those weird things, such as black cats, lucky numbers, weather forecasts in newspapers and so on. We walked into the enchanted chicken coop, where mysterious red cloths and palmistry pictures were hung in the cage. The lines on the pictures criss-crossed and densely packed, just like a railway junction.There is a sign hanging on the door, and it is written to Ms. Zuo Zuo, an Egyptian palmistry.Inside was a fat woman in a red sleeveless blouse embroidered with crooked strokes and small animals.Tobin paid her ten coppers and held out his hand.The hand seemed kin to the hooves of the wagons, and she lifted Tobin's hand to see if he was looking for a fork or a discarded shoe.

Brother, Ms. Zozo opened her mouth, your fate line says It's not my foot, Tobin interrupted her, of course it's ugly, but it's my palm you're holding. [Note] This is not my foot: the pronunciation of fate (fate) in English is somewhat similar to that of foot (foot).Either Tobin didn't hear clearly here, or Zozo couldn't pronounce correctly.This line shows, Madam Road, that you are not out of your misfortune yet.There will be more bad luck.Mount Venus is either a dark teal crack that means you're in love.You have trouble in your life because of your lover. She was referring to Katie.Mahona.Tobin leaned into one of my ears and whispered loudly.

I see, said the palmistry, that person is in so much grief and suffering that you cannot forget her.I saw the express line pointing to the letter K and the letter M in her name. Hush!Tobin's mouth turned to me: Did you hear that? Beware, the palmistry has a lot to talk about, a dark-skinned man and a light-skinned woman; they're both going to spell trouble for you.You'll be on the water in no time, and you'll be broke.I see a lucky line.You will meet a man in your life who will bring you good luck.He has a crooked nose and you'll recognize him the moment you see him. Was his name ever written down?Tobin asked, wouldn't it be easier to greet him when he came and banged his luck?

His name, said the palmistry man thoughtfully, can't be seen on the hand lines, but it can be seen from the hand lines that this person's name is very long, and there should be the letter O in it.That's all.The secret must not be leaked.Good night.Don't block the door. It's funny how she knows everything.On the way to the pier, Tobin sighed. Just as we were pushing through the crowded gate a nigger poked Tobin in the ear with a lighted cigar and that got us in trouble.Tobin was pounding his neck like a cannonball, and the women around me were screaming, and I was sane enough to drag the little man away before the police arrived.Whenever Tobin is having a good time, you'll see him have a bad temper.

Chapter two On the way back, the man yelled who wants a handsome waiter?Tobin tried to justify his crime, trying to change his face and suppress his anger, but when he reached into his pocket for money, he found it empty and empty.Someone took advantage of the fire to rob, and took advantage of the chaos just now to patronize his pockets.So, we sat on the stools dryly, listening to those southern Europeans playing the violin on the deck dryly.If anything, Tobin is more depressed than when we came out, and more impatient with his misfortune.In a seat under the rail of the ship's gunwale sat a young woman, well dressed for a red sports car, with hair the color of a useless meerschaum pipe.As he passed her, Tobin inadvertently kicked her foot, and Tobin, who was always polite to a lady when he was drunk, turned his hat around as he apologized.But he knocked it off, and the wind blew it overboard.

Tobin came back and sat down, and I started to be extra careful with him, because this guy's catastrophe is going on, and there are more and more disasters.Once bad luck came his way, he was prone to find fault with nothing, kicking the best-dressed man he saw, and insisting on getting a boat to obey his command. Soon, Tobin grabbed my arm tightly and said excitedly: "Jain, do you know what we are doing now?"We are sailing on the water. Well, I replied, play it safe.The boat will dock in ten minutes. Look at that white lady on the bench, his mouth is restless, don't you forget the nigga that burned my ears?Besides, didn't I lose the money? It was one sixty-five cents, right?

I thought he was just talking about the big and small troubles he had encountered, and the ulterior motive was to find a good excuse for his violence. Men are like this, so I had to coax him to understand that these things are all wrong. It's just a trivial matter. Look, said Tobin, you don't know what a prophetic gift is, and you don't know what a miracle a spiritual man can do.What does the palmistry see in the palm of my hand?It becomes a true fact right under your nose.She said: Watch out for a nigga man and another white woman; they're going to make trouble for you, can't you forget the nigger?Of course my fist also made him pay a little price for it.Can you point me to a whiter woman than the blonde who dropped my hat in the water?Where did the one and sixty-five cents in my waistcoat go when we left that great fight scene?

While it seems to me that these misfortunes could have happened to anyone on Coney Island, even without the hints of a palmist, Tobin explains them in such a way that they do seem to confirm that fortune-telling can foretell the future. Tobin stood up, walked on the deck, and carefully looked at the passengers on the ship with his small red eyes.I asked him what he meant by walking around like that.Nobody knows what's going on in Tobin's head, you only find out when he starts to implement his plan. You should understand, he said, from the lines on my hand, I can save myself because I'm trying to save myself.I'm looking for the man with the crooked nose who will bring me luck.He is our lucky star.Jaen, have you ever seen a troublemaker with slightly more correct facial features in your life?

We were on the 9:30 boat, and when the boat landed we jettisoned and disembarked and headed uptown via Twenty-Second Street, Tobin without his hat on. Walking to the corner of a street, I saw a man standing under a gas lamp, raising his eyes across the elevated road, staring blankly at the moon in the sky.This man was tall and well-dressed, with a blood gas [note] dangling from his mouth. I saw his nose crooked twice from the bridge of the nose to the tip of the nose, like a snake twisting and twisting.Tobin also saw the crooked nose, and I heard him breathing heavily like a horse just unsaddled.He walked straight towards the man and I followed him. [Note] blood plus: cigars.Intentional misspelling in the original text. Good evening.Tobin spoke to the man.The man took out a blood tank and returned a greeting with a friendly attitude. What's your name, Tobin demanded, and let's see how long your name is, shall we?Maybe we need to get to know you. No name, the man replied politely, Friedenhausmann, Maximus. G．Frieden Huisman. The length is enough.Tobin said, if the names were written separately, would there be an O? No.the man replied. If you spell it out, can you spell an O? Tobin's tone became anxious. If you have a natural aversion to foreign languages, said the crooked-nose man, you might as well sneak that letter into the penultimate syllable for your own pleasure. great.Tobin said, standing in front of you is Jan.Marlon and Daniel.Tobin. Nice to meet you.The man bowed and said, Well, since I can't imagine you're going to have a spelling bee on this street corner, can you give me a reasonable explanation for why you're hanging out? According to the two signs, Tobin tried to explain, according to the interpretation made by the Egyptian palmistry from the lines of my hands, which of you happened to match these two signs, you are my lucky star, and the bad luck on my hand lines Aside from losing my money and losing a dollar and sixty-five cents, you're my lucky star and destined to come and save me from meeting that nigger and that blond girl sitting there with her legs crossed in the boat Disaster averted, all that Hoyle counted for me came true. The man stopped smoking and looked at me. Do you have any additions or amendments to the statement just now?I see you are one of them too?From your expression, I thought you might be in charge of taking care of him. No, I said to him, just a little, because one horseshoe always resembles another, so you also resemble my friend's fortune-telling fortune-telling.If not, then I don't know if Daniel's handprints might not work. You two are nothing more than equals.The man with the crooked nose said, looking around to see if there are any policemen. It's a pleasure to be with you.Good night. After speaking, he stuffed blood into his mouth vigorously, raised his legs and walked quickly across the road.But Tobin followed closely, clinging to one side of him, with me on the other side. What are you doing!He stopped on the sidewalk across the road and pushed back his hat: Are you following me?Let me tell you, he has a big voice and it was an honor to meet you both.But now I want to stay away from you.Excuse me, I want to go home. go.Tobin leaned on his arm, you must go home.I'm going to sit at your door until you come out in the morning.Because it's up to you to get rid of that nigger and that blond, and get back the $1.65 in property. It was a strange hallucination.The man said, turn your face to me and treat me as a reasonable lunatic, please send him back, please? Listen, man.I said to him, Daniel.Tobin had been a sensible man, and he is a sensible man now.Maybe, now he's a little unhinged because he's had two extra drinks, enough to mess him up but not enough to restore his sanity, but at best he's on an understandably superstitious but difficult path I will explain to you about his superstitious dilemma.Having said that, I related to him what the palm-reader lady had said, how the doubting finger was pointed at him, assuming he would bring good luck, and now, see where I am in the midst of all this confusion.I end my introduction by saying that, in my opinion, I am a good friend of my friend Tobin.It is very easy to be friends with a rich person, because you will get benefits; it is not difficult to be friends with a poor person, because others' gratitude will make you proud, and they will print a large photo of you, Placed in front of tenements, with a picture of you holding a coal scuttle in one hand and an orphan in the other.but.To be a real friend with a born fool is to abuse the art of friendship.This is exactly the situation I am in now, I said, because, in my opinion, no fate can be seen in the lines of the hand, and there is no such thing as a fate line left by the hand used to hold the pick handle.Even though you have the most crooked nose in all of New York City, I doubt all those fortune-telling ladies who make a living will be able to squeeze luck out of you.But Danny's hand prints are clearly pointing at you, so I'm going to help him, try it with you until he's convinced you've got nothing to squeeze. After hearing this, the man suddenly laughed.He leaned against a corner, laughing, and then he patted me and Tobin on the back and grabbed each of us by the arm. I was wrong.He said, I am about to turn around, what could be better and more exciting than this?I was almost on the verge of being considered worthless and worthless.Nearby, he said, was a café, warm and comfortable, for all kinds of people to talk about all kinds of strange things, where we could go for a drink and talk about the unavailability of absolute things while drinking. As he talked, he forced Tobin and me into the middle of a bar, ordered drinks, and pulled out the money, which he put on the table.He looked at me and Tobin as if we were his brothers, and then gave me and Tobin a blood card. As you all know, the lucky star said that my profession is the kind called literature.I wandered about at night, searching the people for strange tales and heavenly truths.When you happened to meet me, I was wrestling with the meaning of the elevated road connected to the moon.Speedy traffic is poetry and art; the moon is but a dull, dry celestial body moving mechanically.However, these are my private opinions, because in the literary industry, the situation is just the opposite.I was hoping to write a book explaining all these strange things that I found in my life. You'll put me in the book too, Tobin said disgustedly, will you put me in the book? I won't, said the man, because there is too much in the book for you.Will not.The most I can do is to taste your story for myself, because the time has not yet come to lift the constraints of print.People like you can give people a whimsical feeling.This cup of happy wine must be drunk and enjoyed by me alone.But I thank you, man; I mean it sincerely. That thing you say, Tobin said, blowing his mustache and slamming his fist on the table as he blew his breath, I was so impatient.Your crooked nose will bring good luck, but you're bearing fruit like a pot-bellied bucket.You and your nagging books are like a gust of wind blowing through a crack, and there will only be strange screams.Now, of course, if it wasn't for the nigger and the white woman, I'd think my fingerprints were lying, and Hush!The tall man opened his mouth again, can't you just let the physiognomy lead you astray?My nose will do its best.Come on, fill up, fill up, it's good to pour a little water on anecdotes, they tend to degenerate in a dry moral atmosphere. In this way, it seemed to me, that the literary man compensated me and Tobin, for he paid for the drinks, he was merry, and we were exhausted by fortune-telling predictions anyway.Yet Tobin remained sullen, drinking in silence, his eyes red. third chapter Soon, we walked out of the bar and stood on the sidewalk for a while, it was already eleven o'clock.Afterwards the man said he had to go home and invited me and Tobin to come with him.We walked two blocks to an alley where there was a row of brick houses, all with tall porches and iron fences.The man stopped in front of one of the houses and looked up at the uppermost window. He found that the window was dark in winter and the lights were not lit. This is the humble house, he said, and by the circumstances, I feel that my wife is already asleep.Therefore, dare to do a little landlord friendship.I want you to go up to the basement, where we'll dine, and have a decent snack and a drink, and some good cold chicken, a little cheese, and a bottle or two of lager.You are welcome to go in and have a rest. I thank you for making me happy tonight. This suggestion suits Tobin and me very well and how we feel at the moment, although the thought of a few cups of yellow soup and a cold meal can actually replace the good luck written on the hand makes Tobin, who is full of superstition, really uncomfortable. Go down the steps, and the man with the crooked nose will show us the way. I will go in through the door above and open it for you.I'll ask our newly hired cook to make you a pot of coffee and drink it before leaving.The coffee is delicious. It's Katie.Mahona cooked it, and the girl was a novice who only came across the ocean three months ago.Come in, said the man, and I asked her to come down and wait on you two.