Fortune Calling

Hunter S.
Jones
Genre: 
Contemporary

Dallas Fortune has reached a pivotal moment in her life.  An extremely talented mandolin player who tours with mega superstars but has musical roots in Nashville, Dallas has come home to nurse her wounds after taking a nasty tumble while onstage.  She feels as if she's at a low point in her life. Between her twenty-year love affair with a man who can't commit to more than the occasional bout of happiness and her inability to indulge in her greatest love...music, Dallas needs some inspiration.  On a whim, she stops at a fortune teller's shop, hoping to get some much needed insight to her destiny.  There she meets a handsome man who reads her future...and quite possibly gives her a new outlook on life.

 

For such a short story, this packs quite the introspective punch. Dallas has led an interesting life and the author is really great at setting a quick scene and engaging emotions with very few words.  Although sometimes the rare dialogue seems a bit stilted, the descriptions and narrative paint the picture of a compelling woman suddenly searching for that elusive meaning of life.  Dallas has experienced so much and lived an exciting life and yet her melancholy is tangible. There is a message of hope and an opportunity for the reader to see beyond what is written to the future fortunes of Dallas. However; extreme brevity keeps this story from feeling complete.  Dallas is such an intriguing and original character, it feels as if she has more story to be told.

 

Nicole Duke