The Oracle of Echo Park

The sign above the faded purple tent read "Madame Zora — Palm Reader & Spiritual Guide" but Elena knew the truth. Zora was just another middle-aged woman paying rent in gentrified Los Angeles, reading desperate people for eighty dollars a session.

"You're holding back," Zora said, her weathered palm pressing against Elena's outstretched hand. "There's something you're not letting yourself feel."

Elena's phone vibrated against the folding table. James's name lit up the screen. Again. Her best friend of seven years, the man she'd been secretly in love with for five of them, calling for the third time that day.

"Don't answer it," Zora said, not a question but a command. "Whatever he's selling, you're not buying today."

"He's my friend."

"Friends don't call you at 2 AM with emergencies that only you can solve. Friends don't make you question your worth every time you see their name on your iPhone." Zora's eyes, magnified by thick glasses, pinned Elena. "You know what you are to him? You're a sphinx. A riddle he keeps coming back to because he's too cowardly to solve what's right in front of him."

The phone stopped vibrating.

Outside, carnival rides spun against the sunset. The palm trees lining Echo Park swayed like drunk dancers at a wedding they'd crashed. Elena had been coming to Zora for months, hoping someone would tell her to wait, that James would finally see her.

"What did the cards say last time?" Zora asked.

"That I needed to choose myself."

"And what did you do instead?"

Elena's throat tightened. "I drove to his apartment at midnight because he said he was lonely."

"And what did he want?"

"Just to talk. To complain about his girlfriend."

"You see?" Zora released Elena's hand. "You keep letting him treat you like an emotional vending machine. Every time he puts in a little attention, you give him everything he needs, and you're left empty."

Elena looked at her phone. The missed call notification glowed like an accusation.

"What should I do?"

"That's the thing about oracles," Zora smiled, showing a gold tooth. "We don't tell you the future. We tell you what you already know but won't admit to yourself."

The next time James called, Elena let it ring through to voicemail. Then she blocked his number. It took three days of withdrawal before she stopped reaching for her phone, before she stopped waiting for him to finally see what had been in her palm all along.

Some riddles solve themselves when you stop trying to answer them.