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with the knife outstretched before him.

"Well you'd better get on with it, death holds no fears for me, there's other things worse than death." Her voice was conversational which threw him off balance. He didn't know how to reply.

He continued by shouting "I mean it, I'm not afraid of being caught. I'll kill you. And I'll do it really slowly till you tell me where the money is. I'll hurt you first. Ain't you afraid of that?"

She looked at him with a sharp stare that made him want to run as far away from the house as possible. "No" she said. "There's a darkness about you, boy, but you're not going to kill me."

"How can you know that. I'm going to rob you, that's what I came here for and I'm not leaving without money."

"I've got the gift of second sight, that's how I know what will happen here tonight." She moved as if to get out of the chair. "I can tell you your future, if you want to know."

The boy stood fixed to the spot, the knife faltered for a second in his hand. He had never thought about his future before, his only aim was to get through the next few hours or one day at a time before his luck ran out.

She continued to talk in the same tone of voice. "I can see you're troubled now, but you're a quick thinker and I reckon there might be a chance for you - if you can see what roads to take. How about I read your future in the tealeaves before you take the money and run? What could you lose?" She had left the chair and had moved past him towards the kettle and while she had been talking had begun to make the tea.

He stood immobile, watching her every movement, then as if coming out of a trance he sprang towards her and once again raised the knife shouting "Don't try to fool me, this night has only one ending and I already know what that will be!"

"Put the cups on the table. Tea's ready now. You sit down and drink your tea but leave some at the bottom, then I'll see what the future holds."

He did as she said; somehow a faint hope arose in him that maybe he did have a future. He put the knife down where he could easily reach it. She took the almost empty cup from him, turned it upside down on a saucer and turned it clockwise three times, then looked inside the cup at the tealeaves remaining in the bottom.

"What do you see?" he said almost too eagerly. He checked himself - he was getting drawn in again.

"There's pain and suffering. You haven't had an easy start in life but you have choices. You have to decide which way you will go, if you make the right decision

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