Tobin's Palm (Henry)
from the Collection «The Four Million»
Two friends, the narrator and Daniel Tobin, decided to visit Coney Island to distract Tobin from his missing sweetheart, Katie Mahorner.
She had left County Sligo, Ireland, three months prior with her own savings and money from the sale of Tobin's inherited estate, but had not been heard from since. Despite their efforts to find her through newspaper advertisements, they had no luck.
At Coney Island, Tobin's sadness persisted, and he became increasingly irritable. They stumbled upon a small stall where Madame Zozo, an Egyptian palmist, offered to read Tobin's palm. She predicted bad luck involving a dark man and a light woman, a financial loss, and a voyage on water. However, she also foresaw good luck coming from a man with a crooked nose. Tobin, being superstitious, took the predictions seriously.
As the day went on, the predictions began to come true. Tobin encountered a dark man who burned his ear with a cigar and a light woman who caused his hat to fall into the water. He also lost a dollar sixty-five. Eventually, they met a man with a crooked nose named Maximus G. Friedenhausman, who turned out to be a writer.
He invited them to his home for food and drinks, and they discovered that his new kitchen maid was none other than Katie Mahorner.
The friends were surprised by the accuracy of the palmist's predictions, and Tobin was reunited with his lost sweetheart. The events of the day served as a reminder of the power of superstition and the mysterious ways in which life can unfold.