Stella was not one who believed in fortune tellers. She always laughed at her friend May, who ran from one fortune teller to another. Anytime May heard about a fortune teller or card reader that she hadn't already seen, she was fast to call her friends, and see which friend wanted to go with her for a reading.

Stella, who was her friend since childhood, was always the first to be called. May would go on at length, repeating all the good things that were going to happen within the near future. It seemed before the year was up, she sat and waited for the next wonderful thing that was going to happen, without realizing that so far, nothing the card readers ever told her came to pass. May continued to seek out new fortune tellers in her surrounding towns. There were always new ones to see.

She lost no time calling up Stella and relating the good news that was bestowed upon her by Bella-Star. She was by far the best card reader May had ever visited. She had already won a tidy sum on a scratch-off lottery ticket she purchased on the way home. She was just told she was going to win some money. Best of all, she was told, her one and only daughter was going to be married in the very near future.

Three months later, when May's daughter called from Louisianna and told her she was getting married, May was finally able to talk Stella into visiting Bella-Star. They were both excited wondering what goodies the future held for them.

Stella was the first to enter the dimly lit room. The brightly dressed Bella-Star motioned her to have a seat. Placing the cards in front of Stella she asked her to shuffle and cut the deck into three piles. Bella-Star picked up the first pile and spread them across the table, she lowered her eyes and said nothing. She did the same with the remaining two piles. Stella was beginning to think " what a waste of time this is", when Bella raised her eyes, looking deep into Stella's and whispered, " Go Home and Look in the Rain Barrel "." Excuse Me ", Stella whispered back, not sure she heard her right. "GO HOME AND LOOK IN THE RAIN BARREL" . She then picked up all the cards and walked out of the room leaving Stella both shaken and scared.

May rushed Stella back to the car, never going into the room for her own reading. She was sure that Stella misunderstood the reading. Her readings usually took a good half hour or more, Stella came out within 10 minutes. They discussed the reading all the way home, May still insisting there must have been a misunderstanding. "Go home and look in the rain barrel, what the hell's that suppose to mean?" May asked.

The ride home was a solemn one. May never had her reading, and Stella was still both scared and confused. "Well she learned her lesson", she thought.

The rain first started as a drizzle, it soon picked up to a torrential level. Pulling into Stella's driveway, they both ran to the back of the house where the huge rain barrel sat at the corner of the house, catching all the run-off from the broken gutter. Stella started to shake as she peered into the barrel, "My God, It's me" she whimpered. She could clearly see the bloated face in the stagnant water was not her own reflection. The cold dead eyes were shimmering with the ripple of the dirty water that was filling the barrel, while the tangled hair floated like a halo around the cold dead face. May looked and insisted she saw ..nothing but a barrel of rain water..

Three months later, Stella started the two hundred mile drive to Louisianna. May had left a few days before to help her daughter with the last minute details for her wedding.